Category Archives: Copy & Content Creation

Defeating Creative Block

Every hero has a villain. A protagonist doesn’t exist without an antagonist. Spider-Man needs Doctor Octopus. Luke Skywalker is nothing without Darth Vader. Otherwise, there’s no story and no drama. The creative field is no exception. We face our own nemesis – creative block.

This sinister force has been known in many forms and under various aliases, and it doesn’t only plague those of us who work in the creative arts. Anyone whose profession involves problem-solving and inventiveness has to grapple with this mental adversary, which boils down to an inability to continue a train of thought. Barriers are constructed in our minds, keeping us from moving forward with an idea. Stress and emotions build walls that we are unable to move around. Rather than keeping out the wildlings, these walls are separating you from your next great idea.

Want to break through the wall quickly and recharge your creativity? Here are a few ways to battle your nemesis and achieve heroic victory.

Defeating Creative Block

Switch gears. Step away and work on something else. It doesn’t even have to be a creative project, just occupy your mind with something else for the moment. Setting aside a project and coming back with fresh eyes sometimes allows you to see things more clearly. The allowed time you can keep the game on pause is always a factor, but even a short break can help you win.

Learn a new trick. Sometimes we are so stuck in our old habits that we run out of ideas. While writing lyrics for his solo album Binaural, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder suffered from writer’s block. To bring in a new perspective and better focus to song writing, he banned himself from playing the guitar and switched to a ukulele. Try learning a new way of doing something, be it stylistic or in method.

Clear your plate. All of us are constantly juggling various concerns, big and small. Multiple minor projects get in the way of the big project and vice versa. Go ahead and finish the work you know you can easily knock out, which allows you to bring more focus on what is the most creatively demanding. Just remember, it’s much easier to defeat Goldfinger once all his pesky henchmen are out of the way.

Stop Thinking. That’s right, turn your rational brain off. Following the standard rules and regulations is usually required, but strict adherence to the “don’ts” is kryptonite to your creativity. Thinking outside the box starts by breaking a few rules. Don’t worry about staying inside the lines. In the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, let go of your conscious self and act on instinct.

Be Batman. If all else fails, reach into your utility belt and pull out a trick you haven’t used in awhile. We all have go-to solutions that we’ve recycled a few times, so don’t be afraid to employ one now and then. Who knows, you may stumble onto something new in the process.

At the point you see your enemy’s lair in the distance – or you are surprised by ninja attack – consult the above list. Over time you will figure out other strategies and will discover what works best for you to beat your creative nemesis. Last of all, good luck – you’re going to need it out there.

Landing Page Testing: 10 Tips to Get Started

With the cost of digital marketing tactics like PPC and SEO on the rise, companies are looking for ways to make their budgets stretch further. A weak landing page can lead to money down the drain. In many cases, a few simple tests can uncover opportunities to increase conversion rates. Even the smallest percentage increase will add up over time.

The truth is there are actually very few “best practices” for landing pages that work across the board. That’s why you test. Sure, you want to write persuasive copy. You want to match the messaging in your ad text with that copy. And you don’t want anything extra that could distract visitors from your main purpose. But ultimately, there’s no way to say for sure what will drive conversions with your audience until you test it.

Here are a few simple tips to consider:



1)  Landing pages should be source-specific. Just as a targeted ad for one demographic might show poor results when displayed to another demographic, variations on your landing page will have a different effect depending on the source of your visits. But don’t let this overwhelm you; test broadly at first, then narrow down to optimize on your initial findings. The goal is to find the right combination of ad, demographic or source, and landing page.

2)  Be sure you’re working with a flexible landing page template from the start. This will allow you to test anything you can think of without having to make major adjustments on the backend. Optimizing your template for mobile devices will also help boost conversions.

3)  Remember to consider foreign audiences. This can involve more than just ensuring it’s correct linguistically. Is it designed with the target culture in mind? What variations need to be considered for payment options or form fields? Planning for these requirements from the start will help simplify and reduce costs down the road.

4)  Keep in mind your landing page may be part of a conversion funnel or a series of landing pages. By letting your visitors segment themselves, you can display the most relevant content possible depending on the path they choose. This will allow you to keep your landing pages simple, focused and highly relevant to the user.

5)  Remember, testing happens in cycles. There are many ways to test landing pages. Test every page element possible.

6)  Determine how large your test slice should be. The more data you have, the more confident you can be in the results.

7)  Collect enough data to be confident before you select a winner.

8)  Avoid inconsistencies in testing. Be sure to only change one element at time. For example, you can’t test two different calls-to-action if you’re using a different offer on each page.

9)  There are a lot of tools out there to help with landing page testing and website optimization. Google Content Experiments, Optimizely, Experiment.ly and Unbounce are just a few. What’s best for your project will likely depend on how much traffic you get and how extensive your landing page program will be.

10)  Keep testing!

 

Once Upon a Sale: The Power of Storytelling

Did you notice that for this summer’s Olympic coverage, probably half of the content was backstory on the athletes? I’m sure there were plenty of events to fill up NBC’s programming schedule, but NBC understands the power of a story. They understand how knowing an individual’s background, especially if it’s an against-all-odds rise to glory, will help us root harder for our athletes.
Frog and Toad
Stories are probably one of the most elemental facets of life. We read stories in school, hear parables in church, and watch hours of stories on TV and at the movies. Whether it’s fantasy or reality, we’re hooked. My earliest childhood memory is being rocked in a chair and told a story.

So with all of the power of a story, why aren’t more companies acting as storytellers?

In a recent e-book called Story Juice, authors Julie Fuoti and Lisa Johnson put forward several key considerations. Consider the following…

  1. The average adult’s undivided attention span is 15 to 30 seconds
  2. Stories are 22 times more memorable than straight facts
  3. Stories stir emotion, and you’re more likely to inspire action when you evoke emotion

And yet, I see countless presentations, pitches and marketing materials that simply list facts and figures, features and benefits. They inform, and sometimes they differentiate, but they fall short of making me take action.

One of my clients is BRAX Fundraising. They are in a $2 billion industry that any parent has most likely helped fuel – think cookie dough, wrapping paper and chocolate bars. Nearly all of the competition in this space is touting the nuts and bolts of their respective programs (profit margin, ease of program, quality of product). BRAX’s program has some great features and benefits, including the fact that they’re the only fundraising company licensed to sell NFL products.

The crucial element behind all of these facts, though, is the stories. How are the fundraisers helping the children? How is the money making a difference in their lives at their school? Will it help them take a trip to D.C., will it equip a school with a new playground? Signal is helping BRAX push their success stories to the very front of their messaging. We’re helping them evoke the emotion that is going to inspire action.

Otherwise, it’s just like watching our Olympians compete without knowing the compelling backstories.

Download the full e-book Story Juice.

Challenge the Creativity Gap

Global Creativity Gap by Adobe State of Create StudyAdobe recently released a study that shed light on a “Creativity Gap” that we face globally. According to the findings gathered from respondents in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan:

  • 80% of people think creativity is critical to economic growth,
  • but only 25% of people believe they are living up to their creative potential
  • and only 39% of people consider themselves creative

For close to 10 years, Signal’s tag line has been Creative Power. It’s a pretty reasonable moniker for describing who we are as a company. After all, we’re made up of strategic thinkers, graphic artists and technologists, who create communications programs for our clients day after day.

However, I’ll be honest. There are days I wonder how Creative Power translates to my Account Services team and to me personally. We joke internally that our group are “the suits” that take people to lunch, shake hands, close deals (think the smarmy Pete Campbell from Mad Men). Well, we joke, but I’ll admit that sometimes I feel like I’m just the sales guy…the delivery boy for Signal’s good work.

So I get it when they talk about “The Creativity Gap.”

But you know what? Whether it’s working with my clients to figure out the best solution to a problem, working internally with my production teams to juggle multiple projects, or even connecting clients who wouldn’t have otherwise met for a common goal, I am being creative every single day too. We “suits” shouldn’t feel ashamed or unworthy of owning up to that.

It’s also important to value our personal creative outlets. Beyond my work at Signal, I unleash my creativity through my songwriting. My little black songbook is one of my most treasured possessions.

The truth is, every single person on the planet is creative, and I believe “The Gap” is just a reflection of our current lack of creative self-esteem.

Please understand this distinction. You can choose to take the Creativity Gap as an unchanging fact of life, or you can choose to look at it like I do…as our collective wake-up call to realize our own creativity and do something about it.

Whether you’re one of “the suits” in an agency, or a banker, or a pizza delivery guy (I’ve been all three), you have creative power. So, I challenge all of you to work on your own creativity, and let’s close “The Gap!”

Here are some quick things you can do right now:

  • Do something differently today. Take the long way home. Change the order of how you put on your clothes. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand.
  • Do the most important thing first thing in the morning…don’t check email first!
  • Focus. It’s proven that your brain can’t multitask, and yet we all try.
  • Try some of these exercises.

New Translator Gadget Offers "Quick Gist" of Your Content in Other Languages

Google has a new website translator gadget that makes it quick and easy to make your site’s content available in 51 different languages. It’s easy to implement – just copy and paste a few lines of code into your webpage. After that, if the language specified in your visitors’ browser settings is different from the language of your page a translation banner will appear prompting your visitor to translate the page.

gadget1 copy

After clicking the Translate button, visitors see the translations directly on the page.

gadget2 copy

This can be a great addition to pretty much any site, but particularly useful for site owners who know they have potential with international audiences and may not have the budget to pay professional (human) translators to do a thorough job. Keep in mind Google states that “Automatic translation is convenient and helps people get a quick gist of the page. However, its not a perfect substitute for the art of professional translation.”

If you’re worried Google’s “gist” may do more harm than help, test it! The gadget is powered by Google Translate – test your content here and get an opinion on the quality of the translation. You can also use the Google Translator Toolkit to edit weak areas in the translation of your web pages and set that version as a preferred, global translation.

Site owners should also keep in mind that although this gadget will help make their content more accessible, it will not help them increase visibility in international search engines. And the gadget can’t translate everything. If you’re using elements like text in images or Flash, it’s important to note they will remain in their original language.

On a related note, another new offering from Google Translate is 1-click translations from your browser’s toolbar! Just drag and drop your language from this page (scroll to the bottom) into your browser’s toolbar. Then whenever you want to translate a webpage, just click the new button on your toolbar.

Signal Wins Top Honors at Triangle Ad Club ADDY® Awards

Signal was honored at this year’s Triangle Ad Club ADDY® Awards with one Gold ADDY for self-promotion collateral along with two judge’s choice awards for individual favorite and for copy.  The winning collateral piece was a poster created for Classic Graphics, a Research Triangle printing company, to promote its annual barbecue event. Signal was given full creative carte blanche and chose to spotlight traditional North Carolina barbecue side dishes on this year’s poster.

Award Winning Poster Designed By Signal

Signal’s Award Winning Poster

Signal’s Gold-winning entry now moves to the District ADDY Awards competitions by virtue of taking top honors in its category. District winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the national ADDY® Awards competition. The ADDY Awards is the largest creative competition in the country with over 60,000 local entries competing in nearly 200 cities.

Check out Signal’s Facebook page for more photos of the event.