Are You Speaking in the Voice of Your Customer?
Everyone has a favorite topic, it’s called "All about ME!." But if you’re in the business of marketing and connecting with customers, you need to remember that "It’s all about YOU."
Just the other day, I heard about this new little web tool that analyzes your web site for customer-centered copy.
The assumption is that web sites need to have customer-centered copy and not "me, me we, we – all about me" copy. And, as a rule that’s true for most marketing copy.
When I tested my original Third Force web site, I got a nice score of 87% which they said was excellent. But when I tested my NEW Third Force blog site, my rating was a paltry, 25%!
But I expected that, because my Third Force blog is extremely personal. It’s basically a site for clients and referrers to reference and see what’s going on behind the scenes. This blog "strategy stew" did almost twice as well with a rating of nearly 50%.
I thought that was an interesting concept, so I decided to test my favorite blogs and see how they scored:
- Copyblogger – 66%
- Lonely Marketer – 35%
- The Marketing Minute – 65%
- Duct Tape Marketing – 69%
- Small Business Trends – 42%
- Church of the Customer – 30%
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Small Business Trends – 42%
So what’s your score?
Interesting tool – I hadn’t seen that before. Looks like I’m a little too me, me, me!
I wouldn’t be so hard on yourself. While I think that web sites definately need to be more customer-focused and use more reader-oriented language, I’m not so sure about blogs. The jury is still out on that for me.
I think blogs need to have personality and some of the “me, me” language is exactly the charm and the reason I come back, because I feel like I’m communicating with that person.
Dying to see what others say.
Ivana,
What a great tool. I do agree with Patrick in that blogs and websites should be measured separately. One of the reasons people return to the blog is because of the relationship thread – the continuing saga of the writer. The more personal, within reason, the blog – as long as it is providing value to the reader – the better. For example a self focused post might be a lesson you’ve learned in business. It isn’t customer focused and yet the customer learned from your mistake.
Thanks for sharing the tool!
Deborah