We all take our expertise for granted. We think that because we know something, everyone else does, too.

When you think this way, you start to believe your brilliance really isn’t that brilliant, so you hide it. As Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, “Big Mistake! Huge!”

It’s a mistake because your customers and prospects are HUNGRY for information from people who *really* know what they’re talking about (that would be you).

When I had my VW Bug in college, I used to do my own tune-ups. In those days, I relied on this awesome book, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual for the Complete Idiot. (People in the know simply referred to it as the “Idiot’s Book.”)

What I loved about the Idiot’s Book is that John Muir, the author, would walk you through step-by-step procedures for keeping your VW running. Each procedure included his own hard-learned lessons, like this (I paraphrase): “Loosening that nut is a real mother that will make your knuckles bleed; once you’re done, take a break and go smoke a joint.”

And, he was right — that nut was hard to loosen. (I plead the Fifth on whether I followed ALL of his instructions. )

The point of this story is that he created a book, and a huge following, by simply sharing his personal expertise — expertise you couldn’t find in other repair manuals.

As a small business owner, freelancer or marketer, you can use this strategy to create interesting, original — and dare I say it — brilliant e-newsletter or blog content. And one way to do this is to pay attention to the “little” things you see on a day-to-day basis.

For example, just yesterday I needed to call the company that comes out and shreds my documents. I did a Google search for them to get their phone number (because I’ve been too lazy to add them to my address book) and noticed right away that the company’s phone number read this way:

Now, I know that using a vanity number like this makes it easier for people to remember (except I didn’t remember it, so there you go).

But, the problem with vanity numbers, when used on your Website, is that they don’t work on smart phones.

On a smart phone, if a phone number on the Website is configured correctly (i.e. as text versus a .jpg or vanity number), it appears as a clickable link. You simply touch it and the phone makes the call. It’s a very cool feature.

Because of this feature, I now make sure that every small business Website overhaul I manage includes a correctly configured phone number in the top right corner of every page so that it’s easy to find. I also make sure it works by personally testing it with my own iPhone.

Because I’m passionate about this, I’ve written about it, and I always mention it in interviews with journalists who interview me about Web marketing. (Just yesterday one said, “OMG! That’s brilliant!” Thank you, thank you very much — said in my best Elvis voice.)

So, begin paying attention to what you see, hear and read as it pertains to what you do for a living, and then incorporate your personal expertise into your blog posts and e-newsletters.

Once you do, your brilliance will shine and prospects will begin to call you to say, “I read your article. You obviously know what you’re talking about.” It’s those kinds of calls that ultimately lead to sales.

For months now I’ve been watching how I and others use mobile devices. I see iPads everywhere I go: one mom I know, for example, answers her email and reads online magazines while at our kids’ fencing lessons. One of my clients is now using hers for mobile banking. I even heard one story of a symphony conductor who put his sheet music on his iPad!

And, as I’ve posted before, I use my iPhone for everything but a phone.

When I read Christina “CK” Kerley’s report about the Mobile Revolution and B2B, and then heard Pauline Jakober of Group Twenty Seven say that she’s now targeting PPC campaigns for mobile, everything “clicked.” (It was one of those “goosebumps” kind of moments when you know you’ve hit a good story.)

Despite the proliferation of mobile, too often content is very un-mobile friendly. A site either doesn’t lend itself to the small screen and the content is very hard to read, the clueless company is still using Flash (rolling my eyes), or I can’t “expand” the page in order to view the copy in a larger font.

For these reasons and more, I installed the nifty WPTouch Plugin for WordPress. This plugin makes your WordPress site and/or blog mobile friendly. I love it!

This is what my home page looks like on the iPhone using the plugin. (The plugin allows users to turn the mobile theme off — you just scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the option.)

But after hearing Pauline talk about mobile, I realized I needed to go one step further: I added a “mobile friendly version” link to my e-newsletter which went out July 1. I placed it at the top of the newsletter so that those people reading it on a smart phone would see it first thing. Here’s how it looked on the iPhone:

If you click the link, you get this nice mobile-friendly version:

When I checked my e-newsletter stats, I was pleasantly surprised to see that of the people who opened my e-newsletter, 28.6% clicked through to the mobile-friendly version. This made me go “hmmmmmm.”

What are the key take-aways?

You must seriously consider how your content looks on mobile devices — My bank, for example, doesn’t have a mobile friendly site, and when I lost my debit card, I had to wait over an hour until I was back at home as I couldn’t access their site or phone numbers from my phone. Grrrrrrrr.

Building your site in Flash is totally stupid and a complete waste of money — I had a small business call with the typical, “I’m not getting any leads from my site” complaint. Well, duh. One of your problems is that it’s in Flash. You can’t view it on Apple mobile devices nor can you optimize it.

Tablet use is soaring — You can track which mobile devices people are using via Google Analytics. Click the “Visitors” report, then Mobile, then Mobile Devices. For my site, iPad use outstrips smart phone use. That makes me go “hmmmmmmm,” too.

What’s your experience with mobile-friendly — or not so mobile-friendly — content? What are you doing to ensure people can access and read your content?

(iPhone images courtesy of my Geek Son. He has the iPhone 4 while I’m still stuck with the lowly 3GS. )

One of the big mistakes I see companies make with Web content is using the wrong font size and color.

I’m referring specifically to fonts that are small, a very light color, reversed out, or placed on a tinted background — as these screen shots show. (Note: I randomly chose these examples by doing a search for “mission statement customer service.”)

An example of small, gray type

An example of colored type on a tinted background

An example of reversed out type

What’s the problem with using these types of font sizes and colors?

They lower reader comprehension. In plain English, it means that people have a hard time reading your message.

The late Colin Wheildon did groundbreaking research into which typefaces and page layouts reduce or improve reader comprehension with regard to print. This research, which you can find in the book, Type and Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes, also applies to the Web.

Wheildon proved, for example, that text printed in black received a 70% level of comprehension and that a muted color (such as grey) received only a 10% level of comprehension.

Wheildon also tested comprehension with regard to printing text on colored backgrounds. He ran a number of tests using different colors and tints, but generally, results proved that the lighter the background tint and the darker the type (e.g. black), the higher the level of comprehension.

As stated in the book, “designers often claim that reversed out type . . . grabs readers’ attention and forces them to read the text.” Wheildon’s research showed the exact opposite. “When type was reversed, comprehension levels plummeted.”

Text printed black on white had a 70% comprehension level. White text printed on black had a zero level of comprehension. In fact, 80% of study participants said that reversed out type “vibrated . . . which made the lines of type seem to move and merge into one another.” (Reminds me of motion sickness — ugh!)

What does all this research mean? It means that if people can’t read or comprehend your message, they won’t understand what you’re offering. In effect, you’re making it twice as hard for people to take the next step in the buying process.

I’m not saying that your Web pages should be devoid of graphical elements or that you should never use color or reversed out text. What I am saying is that you should consider formatting your pages to make them easy to read:

• Use white backgrounds and black text to significantly improve reader comprehension.
• Use a font size of 9 or above — Remember, not everyone knows how to adjust font size using browser tools.
• Increase “leading” — Leading refers to the space between lines of type. A little more leading makes things easier to read. As you can see right here, the leading in these bullet points is less than the leading in the paragraphs above. Which is a little easier to read?
• Avoid large blocks of text — Reading text online is exhausting and hard on the eyes. Make it easy for people to skim by breaking up large blocks of text into smaller chunks. Sub-heads, bullets, bolding and smaller paragraphs improve readability.

Edmond Arnold, the father of newspaper design, said to “start with good typography — the kind that best suits the reader.” What works best for print also works best for the Web.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree and why?

I’ve spent a lot of time of late adding followers to clients’ Twitter accounts and RSS feeds to Google Reader. (Be sure to read my post about why Google Reader should be your BFF in terms of managing the content tsunami we’re all dealing with.)

Here’s what I’ve learned from doing this somewhat tedious but important work: For companies actively participating on social media platforms and who want to help people follow their brands, social icon placement needs to be standardized much the same way Website navigation is now standard.

(I’m purposely not covering those companies who lack a social presence but place icons in the hope that people will tweet / Like their content. That’s a whole other article.)

In short, social media icons need to be part of a site’s universal navigational structure AND they need to be placed at the top of each page on the site.

Why?

1. Due to search, people don’t always come to a site via the home page. If your icons are placed only on the home page (or worse, on your PR page or “Contact Us” page or some other obscure place), no one will find them.

2. If I’m a prospect, I may want to learn more about a company by passively following via Facebook or Twitter. Making it so that social icons are easily found makes it easier for people to follow you and begin the engagement process.

3. For people like me who are helping clients build their online brand / presence, following industry influencers, players, journalists, etc. is important. I want to be able to go to a site, find those icons and get back out. I don’t want to have to scroll up and down a page hunting for tiny icons.

Once I realized the importance of where social icons are placed on a page, I moved mine from the middle of my site’s sidebar to the header.

(Also note that my phone number is at the top of every page. This makes it easy for people using smart phones to call me — all they have to do is touch my phone number, which appears as a link on a smart phone. No searching around my site for a “Contact Me” page. It’s little things like this that make your brand / Website “people friendly.” Trust me.)

You can also do a “Social” tab the way Food Processing does. I like how this organization created a drop down menu that shows links to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Click on each link and you get taken directly to the social page. Easy!

What do you think? Take my Twtpoll or leave your comments below.

Is your company website not doing its job — i.e. generating leads and sales? I asked some of the best minds in the business for their tips on what you can do RIGHT NOW to improve your website. Below you’ll find their tips and as well as mine.

Design

1. Check to see if your site is easy to see via the iPhone or iPad. If it’s designed in Flash, your customers can’t view it using these devices.

2. If you’re using social media, add social media icons to each page of your site to make it easy for people to follow you.

3. If you’ve been quoted in the media, add media logos to your home page to boost your brand and image.

4. Check your site speed. Enter your URL here and on the results page, scroll down to the “Download times” section. Check that the time to load your site isn’t too big! If it is, the rest of the page gives tips as to why. A common problem is that images haven’t been optimized properly.

5. Add your phone number on all of your web pages, in text, not an image. This way people can click it using a smartphone and can easily call you. Images aren’t clickable.

6. Add your phone number to the top of your home page so that people don’t have to search for it when using a smart phone or e-tablet device.

7. Add an email link to the top of each of your pages so that people can easily email you.

8. Get rid of stock images and use photos of real people — preferably from your company.

9. Include “breadcrumbs” in your navigation so visitors can easily determine where they are on your site.

Navigation

10. Too few pages and too much information crammed on those pages — but your budget won’t allow for a complete redesign? Consider having your web designer create new navigation for you that includes drop down menus — making it easier to find information.

11. Ensure your site has a “main” or universal navigation structure and use it on all pages of your site to make it easier to navigate your site.

12. Make your logo a clickable link to your home page.

13. If your site has drop down menus, ensure people can use them via smart phone or e-tablet.

SEO

14. Register and verify your site with Google Webmaster Central.

15. Get your local listing(s) verified in Google Places (Maps) — do this even if you do business nationally.

16. Use ONE URL and drive all traffic to it. Directing people to more than one URL lowers your link juice, plus it’s just plain confusing.

17. Go open your website. Look at the top of the browser bar. If it says, “Welcome to ‘company name,’” your site probably isn’t optimized (what you’re seeing is your Title tag). Ditto for internal pages that have Title tags that read, “Products” or “Services.” Fix this, pronto.

18. Know who your target audience is and figure out the keyword phrases they might be using to find the types of products or services you offer on your website, through keyword research tools.

19. Take a pad of paper and create a list of keywords, as well as two and three and four-word keyword phrases, that you believe are related to your business, products and services. Don’t forget geographic keywords!

20. Rank each keyword/phase in order of importance: A, B, or C (A being keywords you absolutely MUST show up for on a Google search engine results page, B are keywords/phrases you should show up for, C would be nice to show up for and generally less competitive and have fewer searches (sometimes called the “long tail”).

21. After you create your list, go to the Google Keyword Tool to find anything you might have missed or other search phrases you probably didn’t even think of. Do this after your initial brainstorming!

22. Optimize your site for keywords people actually use in their searches — meaning, those keywords that have traffic volume according to the keyword tool.

23. Target the content and tags of each product/service page of your site to a specific set of related keyword phrases–pay special attention to Title tags as Google and Bing/Yahoo display the Title tags in the search engine results pages.

24. Use Google Adwords combined with Google Analytics to see which keyword phrases convert into leads or sales and feature them and other related ones more prominently within the content of your website.

25. Don’t put your company name first in the Title tag of the home page — put your number one keyword phrase here instead. This tells the search engines it’s important.

26. Use your list of search phrases as a guide when creating new web pages, blog posts, and even social media posts.

27. Instead of grouping all of your Services or Products on one page, create a page for each of your services or products — and then optimize each page.

28. Start commenting productively on industry related blogs and make sure to include the hyperlink to your website in the comment fields.

29. Start using a web reporting tool (i.e. Google Analytics).

30. Review your Web analytics each month. Go beyond the “top 10″ keywords or pages viewed and really dig deep into what people are doing when they get to your site.

31. Tweak your site content or add new content based on what types of information people are looking for (hint: view the long-tail keywords on your Google Analytics keyword report).

32. See how search engines see your website by looking at it in text format. Does the order of the content reflect the importance you intended things to have? What text content is missing that you should have? You can use Yellowpipe or Google’s “Cached” tool: Enter your business name in the Google search box, and when your listing appears, click “Cached” and then “Text only version.”

33. Make it a habit to check the number of links back to your site each month. One good tool is Yahoo’s Site Explorer. Note how many sites are linking to yours and make it a goal to increase this number each month.

34. If you have a blog, use a plugin, such as the All in One SEO Pack, to optimize your blog posts and the blog home page.

35. Fire your SEO firm if you have no clue what they’re doing for you or if your website isn’t generating leads via search.

36. Fire your web design firm if they have no clue what SEO is or they’re trying to sell you a Flash website.

37. Don’t hire any SEO firm that promises you “#1 rankings for hundreds of keywords.” You get what you pay for — if an SEO promise sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Content

38. Focus your site copy on how you can help your prospects and customers — not on how wonderful you are (no one cares).

39. Highlight informative content, such as eBooks, guides, and tip sheets, on your home page and throughout your site where relevant.

40. Include calls to action on all pages.

41. Make a list of three pieces of content you can create in the next 90 days — then get them done.

42. When you create a piece of content, write a press release about it and submit to one of the online wire services, such as PRWeb.

43. Do a search for all the content, articles, blog mentions, etc. about your company. Create a Press Room page and add this information to it. Keep it updated.

44. Create a Client List page if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, make sure it’s up-to-date.

45. Create a Testimonials page if you don’t already have one. if you do have one, update it with Testimonials from current happy customers.

46. Ask three customers if they’re willing to be the subject of case studies. Hire an outside writer to conduct interviews and write the case studies; add them to your site.

47. Publicize your content via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (and YouTube, if video). Ask your friends to help publicize it, too.

48. If you have a professionally done video about your company, add it to your home page.

49. Create a landing page for each of your white papers. Create content that *sells* each white paper rather than leaving people to wonder why they should hand over their contact info.

50. Add webinar transcripts, downloadable slides, and Q&A from your webinars on the page where you offer your on-demand webinars.

51. Consider adding a blog to spur discussions and give site visitors a reason to frequent your site.

52. If you have a blog on a separate URL, consider moving it to your domain — i.e. www.companyname.com/blog. This way you have all that nice blog traffic coming to one domain versus two.

53. Include a link to your blog in your main navigation.

54. Add your newsletter subscription form to every page of your site — not just the home page or buried deep on some other page.

55. Add an end user sitemap page.

56. Use contact forms for tracking lead information.

57. Add FAQ pages to help answer people’s questions.

Contributors

Thank you to the following Web design, SEO and content marketing experts for sharing their expertise.

Rachel Cunliffe, President, Cre8d Designs — Rachel and her team provide WordPress and Drupal sites to companies around the world. Follow her on Twitter at @Cre8d.

Derek Edmond, KoMarketing Associates — The managing partner, Derek and his team provide B2B companies with SEO, PPC and social media services. Follow him on Twitter at @derekedmond.

Chris Jaeger, Chris Jaeger Consulting — Chris helps his clients generate more leads through Website design and SEO. Follow him on Twitter at @imchrisjaeger.

Stephanie Tilton, TenTon Marketing — Stephanie helps B2B companies advance prospects through the buying cycle with white papers, case studies, and e-books. Follow her on Twitter at @StephanieTilton.

Jill Whalen, High Rankings — The founder of High Rankings and SEMNE, Jill is one of top SEO experts in the world and is a frequent speaker at SEO conferences. Follow her on Twitter at @jillwhalen.

In the B2B Content Marketing 2010: Manufacturing / Process Industry Report that I produced in partnership with the Content Marketing Institute, 84% of B2B manufacturing marketers surveyed indicated they use content marketing — in fact, manufacturing firms have some of the highest adoption rates for new marketing tactics, including articles (80%), social media (73%) and video (48%).

As someone who does a lot of work with B2B manufacturing companies, I found this statistic quite heartening, especially given the fact that manufacturing is up across the U.S. and it outproduces China by 40%.

In the blog post I wrote for CMI about this report, “How to Resolve a Key Disconnect for Manufacturing Marketers,” I talk at length about the “disconnect” between manufacturing marketers’ number one goal, building brand awareness, and how they measure this goal via Web traffic.

Another piece of data that I found interesting in this report is the chart showing how marketers rated the effectiveness of their content marketing. What’s really interesting is that “while companies may be invested in a number of content marketing tactics, they don’t feel confident in how they’re using these tactics.”

So, while 80% of manufacturing marketers indicated they use articles, only 43% believed this tactic to be effective. (I’m not sure why or how marketers are using articles, but as Jill Whalen points out in her High Rankings newsletter article, “Just Say No to SEO Articles!” it’s a crappy SEO tactic.)

Here’s what I found really interesting about what manufacturing marketers find effective: it’s the tried and true content marketing tactics: In-person events (71%), Webinars (64%), e-newsletters (63%) and white papers (62%).

If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that manufacturing marketers figured out how to measure the effectiveness of these more “traditional” content tactics but haven’t yet figured out how to do so for things like articles, social media, and video (is a “view” really a measurable tactic — and what does a “view” get you?).

Which brings me back to the original point of my CMI blog post: manufacturing marketers need to 1) develop content that helps drive the conversions that move prospects along the sales cycle versus building brand awareness and 2) they need to learn how to measure this behavior versus “clicks” or “hits.” (I positively *hate* the term “hits” as it says absolutely nothing.)

A prospect may come to a B2B Website because of a piece of content found elsewhere. However, that initial visit may be the first in a series of visits that take place over days, weeks or even months. Measuring this behavior is what will end the disconnect and confidence gap regarding content marketing and its effectiveness.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Be sure to download the report — you’ll find lots of great data!

Here’s a safe exercise you can try at home: pretend you’re a B2B prospect looking for a company who can help you solve a business problem. Choose any B2B vertical / industry, a professional service or a product and then do an online search. Once you’re on the search engine results page, click through to those listings that look like company Websites (stay away from article spam and the like).

If possible, visit seven to ten sites. Quickly scan the home page of each one to see if you can figure out what the company offers. Don’t take notes — just run through each one.

Now, which company stood out in terms of content? Do you remember any of the company names? No? Congratulations, you just encountered what your prospects go through when they’re searching for providers / solutions.

The Problem? Poor Messaging

Poor messaging happens when companies use the same staged, corporate-y images purchased from stock photography sites and content written in jargon-y unreadable gobbledygook. After viewing a few sites, everything starts to look and sound the same.

The result is that prospects come to your Website . . . and click right back out.

How do you prevent this problem? Create fresh, original content that explains what your company does and why your company is different — in plain English.

Marketers usually refer to this process as “developing your message” or “determining your position.” It’s the first step you need to take when redesigning your Website. To develop your message, consider the following strategies:

1. Conduct competitive research
Most small and mid-sized business owners often know exactly who their competitors are and what they offer. Get this information out of people’s heads and onto paper (or an Excel spreadsheet or white board) by holding a strategy meeting with all parties. Also include any “scuttlebutt” you’ve picked up in your travels and from reading the news media.

Analyze your competitors’ Websites to see how they position themselves. What words and images do they use? How are their offerings similar or different from what you offer / provide?

My client, Greenway Golf, for example, differentiates itself from other golf course maintenance companies by stating that they help golf course owners and managers significantly lower costs while vastly improving playing surfaces.

2. Analyze your strengths
Look at how you’ve solved your customers’ challenges in the last few years: what value did you bring to the table? What was your expertise and how were you able to use it to solve the problem?

Ask your customers why they hired you and why they continue to do business with you. (Conversely, go over recent deals that fell through and ask why you didn’t get the deal — this knowledge will help you craft messages that resonate with future prospects).

Ask sales people for feedback they get from customers — this is all valuable information that you can use in your content and to help better define your position.

Also look at the awards you’ve won, industry certifications, and any data you have that shows how your customers are better off since implementing your solution. Veterans Development Corporation, for example, has earned a highly coveted 94% DECAM rating from the State of Massachusetts (a rating providing by the state based on past performance), a fact they point out on their Website in various places.

3. Tell some stories
Do you have great success stories — stories that really show your expertise, strengths and can-do attitude? Showcase them on your Website! While formatted PDF case studies that people can download are always wonderful, you can include vignettes and what I call “mini case-studies” within the content on your site.

These stories don’t have to be text-based or follow the traditional “problem, solution, result” format. I like how Macro-Air Technologies, for example, uses a video to show how their HVLS Six-Blade Fans beat out their competition. I also like how Greenway links to industry articles about their clients via their blog posts.

The goal of implementing these simple strategies is to create fresh, original content that reflects your company’s values and expertise . . . and that gets potential customers to call or email you.

I know lots of other strategies exist for developing great messaging — feel free to list yours below.

Are you a business owner or marketer who relies on local or regional business? If so, you may be frustrated that business has fallen off and that traditional marketing efforts no longer seem to work.

Added to that, your business is buried in the Google, Yahoo, and Bing search results — meaning few people are visiting your Website.

You may not know, however, that you can propel your business to the top of the search results . . . through Local Search. With the right tactics, your business can be listed — sometimes ahead of your competitors — in the coveted Google Maps listings.

I’ve been doing local search for a couple of years now — first for myself and then as a “value add” for my clients who needed it. I now make my expertise available to small and growing businesses.

With my new Local Search Pack, you get the following:

1. Complete listings in all three search engine Business Centers that adheres to your branding.

2. Submission to the major directories that Google, Yahoo and Bing use to pull in their local search results.

3. Recommendations for getting online reviews as well as tactics to help improve your local search results over time.

This is a great “baby” step for those of you whose head is swimming from trying to figure out SEO, social media marketing and everything else.

To learn more:

Web: www.dhcommunications.com/local-search-services
Phone: 603-382-8093
Email: info@dhcommunications.com

(Want to see your product or service in this space? See my Blog Sponsorship page for more details.)

I watched the Old Spice campaign go viral and while my one Tweet sums up my initial response to it (“The Old Spice brand may now be ‘trendy’ due to social media + hottie Isaiah Mustafa, but it still smells icky to me”), technology writer Robert X. Cringely of InfoWorld’s take on it made me stop and think.

The result is my guest post, “Don’t Copycat the Old Spice YouTube Campaign!” for the BlogNotions Marketers blog.

Yes, it’s applicable to B2B marketers.

Enjoy!

I repeatedly hear horror stories from small business owners of how they hired someone to oversee / manage their Website or social media profiles, and then find out after the person flakes out that they don’t have access to their accounts.

This is because the vendor opened accounts using their own name rather than the business owner’s name. Or, the vendor didn’t send the business owner the login and password information and then skipped town.

Here’s how to easily prevent this from happening to you:

1. Open accounts or set up social media profiles yourself and then send the login information to your vendor.

2. If you agree to let your vendor open accounts for you, stipulate in the contract that accounts must be opened using your name / business name and that all login information must be sent to you within eight hours of the accounts being opened.

Being in control of your own Web hosting, WordPress login, social media profiles, and other account information ensures that you own and control your content / marketing assets. If something terrible should happen, you’re not left scrambling for login information — something that happens more frequently than most people realize.

Do you have a horror story of how someone you know — or perhaps you — lost access to your Website or social media accounts? Post it here!