Off-topic but on target

This week I chaired a Q&A session at Onepost’s Ask the Expert event. During the session, in a segment about social media, one of the delegates asked whether it was “acceptable” to blog about his personal hobbies and interests—such as posting poems, or favourite recipes—on his company’s blog. The consensus at the table was that he should steer clear of off-topic posts. After all, the amount of information all of us have to consume on a daily basis is so vast (according to one speaker, a week’s worth of New York Times content is more information than a person living in the 18th century would consume in his lifetime), that it is probably best to stick to what your audience, or rather potential audience, is expecting from you.

Nigel Cliffe of Cliffe Associates said potential customers could find it a turn off to read more personal blog posts. As the delegate was a director of a business-to-business company selling niche educational supplies, his customers were buying for business, rather than pleasure. Blogging about the founder’s daily life, therefore, may not be of interest to readers. If there are too many posts that appear irrelevant, Cliffe warned that readers eventually will tune out. They will miss the posts that are of interest; those that drive brand awareness and ultimately, sales.

On the train home (which was running late, so I had plenty of time to think it through) I began to wonder whether off-topic blog posts could work for that delegate’s business. Take Hush for example. The loungewear cataloguer has built its brand on recommending books, hotels, and even chocolate brownies in its enewsletter, catalogue, and customer magazine. According to founder Mandy Watkins, this tactic works. She sees an uplift in sales after each email broadcast and at the trade fairs she exhibits, customer feedback usually centres on how much they love Hush’s newsletter because it offers them something different.

Another business is Joules. This cataloguer/retailer, which has its roots in the equestrian market, has built its brand around the strapline “Living the good life”. Its blog is full of stories of pancake races and updates from the Joules vegetable patch. These editorial features have seemingly little to do with selling clothes, but here and there you’ll find news of store openings, and dates for upcoming shows where customers can meet the Joules team face-to-face.

Then of course, there’s Boden. A brand built around the founder’s personality. But all of these examples are from consumer catalogues, not business-to-business merchants. The trick, as always, is knowing your audience. For the delegate at yesterday’s event a more personal approach could work, if done right. He is a former teacher and now sells supplies to special-needs teachers; posting a poem that is a play on words for example, could then be used as a classroom teaching aid. Or posting a recipe, provided that it is child-friendly, could be used by a teacher overseeing an after-school club. In short, off-topic posts may not be as random as they first appear.

In order to get the balance right between off-topic and more directly sales-oriented, all the experts recommend testing. If you are a b-to-b cataloguer, your customers probably signed up to receive your enewsletters or RSS feeds of your blog posts because what you are saying is directly relevant to their businesses. They want good deals, latest product news, and updates about the sector they are working in. They might not want to hear about your daughter’s recent violin recital, or your son’s winning goal at the weekend’s under-11s football match. Check your stats to see which posts or enewsletters are getting the most visitors, or what your customers are searching for on your website and provide more of what they are looking for. If you are still not fulfilled by only writing a personal blog once in a blue moon, perhaps you should set up a personal account and say whatever you like.—MT

Catalogue copy we love

Many things about the Niton Equipment catalogue make it less than easy to shop from: tiny type fonts, too many type fonts, nearly illegible reverse type against images, page layouts that defy eye flow, the lack of an index. Which is a shame, because the seller of equipment for law-enforcement and security professionals knows how to write copy that sells.

When selling gear that can literally save the customer's life, emphasising benefit is key. And Niton does just that, for virtually every one of its 3,500-plus products and all of its merchandise categories and subcategories. A few examples:

"Searching is an emotive task which requires tact and diplomacy. The use of a hand-held detector as part of your operational tasks can help to reduce the risks of confrontation. Hand-held detectors enable you to search quickly, thoroughly and professionally, thereby allowing you to concentrate on positive targeting for more in-depth searching, as required. Hand-held detectors have no gender factor; customers of both sexes can be searched by the operator." You can't spell out the benefits of this type of detector any more plainly.

The Pol-i-Veil "protects the identity of the prisoner, inmate or underage offender during transfers and protects the officer from being spat on"--certainly not something I'd have ever even thought about, and proof that Niton really knows its market. "...There is also the elimination of the trip-and-fall-in-police-custody hazard because the prisoner has 30% visibility out. It can also be used for full witness protection in and out of court rooms..."

"Niton wanted to test this new product [the Cooldanna, designed to keep users cool in hot weather] in the extreme, so we called upon a friend in the Household Cavalry, who was due for a trip to Iraq. In temperatures of 40 degrees-plus, it helped to keep him cool, and comfortable, and now he wouldn't be without it!"

Even something as seemingly simple as a dispenser for barricade tape gets the full treatment: "Dispense tape easily with one hand. Serrated edge cuts tape quickly. Notch secures loose end. No loose parts when reloading..."

If you're seeking an example of marketing copy that hits its target every time, you could do a lot worse than that of Niton.--SC

Call, don't click

Conventional wisdom states that anyone selling a product or service should make it as easy as possible for the customer to purchase, from as many media and channels as possible. EMC Advertising Gifts is gambling that the conventional wisdom is wrong, at least for its business.

In a press release for the latest version of its website, the promotional-products cataloguer enthuses about its improved search engine, more user-friendly navigation, and cleaner design--the usual fare. Then it mentions that customers can no longer order directly from the site.

“We have decided to drop online ordering for the moment in favour of encouraging our customers to get in touch with us by phone, email and through our online quote and sample request form," the release states. "This way we can offer our promotional gifts expertise to ensure the customer is getting the best deal available and the most suitable product for their budget and their promotion."

Customers can order by phone, fax, or email, as well as request a quote via a button on each product page. What they cannot do is order 25 pens or keychains by clicking a button, dropping an item into the shopping basket, filling out a form that includes name, address, payment details, and the verbiage they want engraved or embossed on the product, hit "send", and wait for an acknowledgement.

Perhaps EMC didn't receive many orders online anyway, so it figured it could safely remove the option. Or perhaps every order it received direct from the site was problematic, requiring its customer service reps to phone back anyway. If that's the case, though, might EMC not have been better off simplifying its order process? Or maybe strongly encourage customers to phone, fax, or email but nonetheless retain the ecommerce option for those with simple orders, repeat customers, and people who really, really, really prefer to order online, to the point that they'll seek out another vendor that allows them to do so.

Then again, a visit to a half-dozen or so of EMC's competitors showed that online ordering is the exception rather than the rule in this market sector. So perhaps the personalisation involved makes ecommerce impractical. All the same, I can't help but feel that if EMC had managed to make it work, rather than giving up the ecommerce ghost, it could have used the online-ordering option as a way of setting itself apart from its myriad competitors.

If I may add one more carp: The EMC logo across the top of the site's web pages is not clickable. Selecting it will not take you back to the home page, as is the standard for websites these days. It's one thing to buck convention for a reason; it's another thing to simply be contrarian or decide that best practice doesn't apply to you.--SC

Thanks, but no thanks

We like to think we know a good deal when we see one, and so does Dell, it seems. Instead of offering customers a saving of £50 or £50 off their next order, as you can see from the recent mailing received at Catablogue e-business’s headquarters, Dell was fighting the crunch and beefing up the customer’s shopping basket by advertising “UP TO £50 ON YOUR FIRST PURCHASE”. —MT