A Conversation with Kate Toon

A chortle-inducing conversation with the queen of SEO, Kate Toon, on good karma marketing and being a misfit entrepreneur.

Kate is an award-winning SEO copywriter and SEO consultant with almost two decades of experience in all things advertising, digital and writing.

Originally from the UK but now based just outside Sydney. Kate has worked with big brands such as eHarmony, Curash and Kmart and she’s helped countless small businesses produce great content and improve their copywriting and SEO.

Kate is also the founder of The Clever Copywriting School and The Recipe for SEO Success eCourse, the co-host on the Hot Copy Podcast and the host of The Recipe for SEO Success podcast. Kate recently published her popular business book, The Confessions of a Misfit Entrepreneur - which also has its own podcast. She presents the Write for Business show for the Dale Beaumont’s Brin.ai app and is the founder of The Copywriting Conference – Australia’s first dedicated Copywriting Conference (which, apparently, I am attending in Melbourne next year!).

From my perspective, I have had a copygirl crush on Kate since I began my own entrepreneurial journey in 2009 as Kate was one of the few non-agency copywriters I knew in the wide world. A shining light in my freelance existence back when I was a newbie.

You can find out more about Kate Toon on her website.

Listen to the Podcast:

11 Tips to Overcome Self-Sabotage

11 Tips to Overcome Self Sabotage

One of the issues I work through with clients on a regular basis is their showing up but not really showing up. Although often overlooked, mindset plays a huge role in business. The right mindset can make or break your business and set you up for success or failure.

What are you on about, Jane? I hear you ask.

Well, say we start a project and you're full of beans, excitement and enthusiasm for your new "baby". You can see the end-goal and it's going to be AWESOME!

But then the hard work starts, the obstacles, the actual doing part of achieving the goal... And it all gets a bit too real and a bit too hard.

So you give up.

You will possibly think I don't know you've given up and are doing a cunning job of avoiding me talking to you about your goal.

But this ain't my first time at the rodeo, lady.

There are some common symptoms to this self-sabotaging behaviour which usually manifest themselves as failing to send me content so I can build your website, resistance when I suggest different pathways to your goal, trying to downplay your goal or re-jig it so it's not so scary or such a stretch, avoidance of even talking about the goal i.e. not answering emails, and eventual resentment of your goal and even me in some cases because I remind you of the goal that you failed to reach.

Let's not forget that you are making a decision when you choose not to reach a goal. You choose not to take the actions that will result in the goal being achieved.

I'm not ever one for laying blame, pointing fingers or making people feel bad about themselves but I am big on taking responsibility for our actions and being accountable.

I am working on my new signature system for my VIP clients and a big part of the work we do together is ensure that there is accountability with my clients to ensure they're staying on track, working at small chunks of their goal and not getting overwhelmed. I like to break down goals into small, bite-sized pieces (as my own coach would say, you eat an elephant one bite at a time) and assist my clients to just focus on the next step of their big goal.

So, in your own world how can you overcome this self-sabotaging behaviour?

1. Allow yourself to be scared

Self-sabotage kicks in when we are afraid of disappointment therefore we shut our project down before it reaches the point of no return: when failure becomes a possibility.

2. Identify your self-limiting beliefs

What is it you are believing of yourself when you tell yourself "I can't, I won't, I don't". You are telling yourself that you are going to fail before you've even started. I have a life-long love/hate relationship with maths beyond basic arithmetic. I was once head-hunted to a role that was a stretch for me, I said to the CEO from the outset, "I don't do maths". Cue the $500,000 budget. Ooooookaaaaayyy... I soon learned that I do do maths just fine. I had been avoiding it because I had a lack of confidence. Acknowledge your own self-limiting beliefs and make progress. Unless it's rocket science or brain surgery, you can do it, I promise.

3. What are your barriers to the goal?

This is a biggie. Oftentimes I have seen people with conscious and unconscious barriers to a long-held goal that can completely knock them sideways. "Why are you resisting this goal?" can be a tough question to answer especially when you are on the path to what you think is a life-long dream. These rational and irrational barriers are generally fear-based; i.e. if I set up my business and become a success I am scared I will have less time for my children, or, if I set up my business and I am a success I am worried my family will ask me for money. The way I work through this with clients is to do the "best case/worst case" scenarios.

4. Stop making excuses

There is no such thing as an excuse, only a reason. Be real with yourself. What's the reason you are not pushing ahead and achieving your goal?

You don't have time? Uh-uh. You are choosing not to make time. This applies to all areas of life, exercise is a big one! Even if you are making slooooow progress it's better than no progress.

You don't have the resources? We rarely do, so make do and just make progress where you can.

5. Replace the negative with positive

There is great truth in the adage, you can do anything you put your mind to. Just keep telling yourself, I can and I will. Watch me.

6. Re-frame failure

We all make mistakes, every single one of us. You need to simply embrace it as part of the process. Re-frame failure from a negative into a positive by seeing it as a learning experience. Pick yourself up and carry on but don't make the same mistake twice. You won't achieve your stretch goals without making mistakes but you will learn so much about your goal and yourself.

7. Think big

By thinking beyond the problem of the here and now and the morsel of our goal that we are currently munching on and taking a step back to see our BIG goal we put ourselves into a much more expansive and positive mindset.

8. Focus on solutions

Being solution-focused allows you to see the positive in situations rather than the negative. Adapt and adjust to your circumstances, be flexible and if you need to tack your course in a different direction, as long as you're moving forward, it's still progress!

9. Done is better than perfect

Giving up on a goal because it will never be perfect isn't hurting anyone but yourself. It can be very difficult to acknowledge that what we do will never be perfect with the time and resources that we have at our disposal.

10. What's your why?

Always remember the why of a goal. Why are you trying to achieve this goal? This helps you put it in perspective. There are bigger things at play here than this one portion of a goal.

11. Write it down

Here's a game-changer for you: thoughts aren't real. Some people journal daily, I have a (sparkly) notebook where I jot down all the things that are swimming around in my head. Write down all your barriers, your fears, your frustrations, your areas of resistance. By writing them down you make them real and you can actively acknowledge them... and move on.

By addressing your own fears, barriers and resistance you will be more aware of your self-sabotaging habits and, most importantly, be able to overcome them.

Is Your Brand Evocative?

I spend a disproportionate amount of my time thinking, dreaming, talking and designing branding.

Honestly, I could talk all day about the design aspects of branding: colours, typefaces, negative space, the golden ratio, but branding is about so much more. While many people think a brand is simply a logo and that's it, in marketing, branding goes so much deeper than graphic design.

I once read a quote that said, branding is what people say about you when you're not in the room. Branding is the essence of you as a business person, your business and the products and services you offer. It's about the holistic, cohesive experience of your customer when they interact with your brand.

The one thing I say to clients: branding isn't just about looks, it's about how your brand makes your customers feel and that goes way deeper than aesthetics.

Branding is, ultimately, about a feeling. Branding is about evoking an emotion for your target audience. And remember, it comes back to your target audience and their experience, not yours.

I've worked on countless branding projects over the years, and from a design point of view, some I love, some I never want to see again. It's interesting the feedback I've received on particular projects. In the creative field, opinions... Well, everyone has one!

I've met people who have outright said “oh I HATE that logo”, and I've said, “fair enough but the target audience for that project was primary school age children and you're a middle-aged man” (OK, so I might not have been that blunt but you get my meaning).

In every aspect of your branding you need to constantly bear your customer in mind. Leave your ego at the door - there is no you (or me) in branding. It is not about what you want, it's about what will attract and engage your ideal customer.

A brand is, in fact, very specific. It is, essentially a promise made to your customers about what you will deliver to them, how you will solve their problem and how it will make them feel, communicated through multiple channels including visual, verbal and perception.

A strong brand gives a customer confidence to move forward with a purchase decision. And when you're in business, everything comes down to the purchasing decision!

Have you ever sat down and undergone an intensive brand analysis?

Answer these questions, honestly:

Does your brand, your logo, your messaging, your website, your collateral, your social media represent the core of you, your business and your why?
Does it take your customers on a cohesive brand journey or is it a mish-mash of hastily posted Facebook posts, confused messaging and a logo designed by your cousin's son four years ago that you've never really loved but haven't had the heart to change?
Does your brand attract and engage your ideal customer?

What do your answers say about your business and what it means to you and your customers?

Every interaction you have with a customer is influenced in some way by how they perceive your brand and its position in the market, what has been communicated to them about your brand before they have made contact with you, walked into your shop or looked at your Facebook page or your website.

Your brand is the foundation upon which we lay every other element in a marketing strategy; a weak foundation means shaky messaging, cracks in your visuals and can, ultimately, mean failure for your marketing and your business.

Your brand needs to deliver a cohesive, consistent message in everything that you do.

Branding is the core of your business' marketing, it is the first impression, the messaging, the values, the purpose, the mission and the vision. At its heart, it is the essence of your business and why you do what you do and every element of your brand needs to communicate this.

If you want to talk more about your branding book a 15 minute clarity call.

3 Ways to Overcome "Impostor Syndrome"

3 Ways to Overcome "Impostor Syndrome

As the clever and witty Tash Corbin once said, think of your competitors as your peers.

I'm not a naturally competitive person (I actually failed high school phys ed, true story), I have better ways to spend my time - like working on my own business - to worry too much about what my competitors are doing!

I'm very much a person who is following their own path, confident in my work and my abilities to attract beautiful clients to me who I can help generously and with a smile on my face.

But I don't live in a bubble, I know I have competitors in my local area and at a national and international level; that is simply a fact of life in business. If you don't have competitors you don't have a market. I've had my fair share of competition over the years some who have played fair, some who have not but as a business owner, you need to find your "competitive edge", your unique selling proposition (in marketing speak) or simply your point of difference.

There are so many factors that can differentiate you from your competitors: your experience, your personality, your prices, your qualifications. Rarely are you comparing apples with apples.

There is not a person on this earth who has had exactly the same shared experience as you, has the same skills, the same viewpoint or the same creativity as you, so here's the big question you need to answer: what makes you different from your competitors? You can go really deep on this, research your competitors and do some soul-searching, self-examination and navel gazing about why you are so brilliant at serving your clients.

Or, more to the point: what makes you particularly awesome in your business? And the way you do what you do? There is not one individual who can do all the things in your market so there is simply always something about you that makes you different to your competitors! (And if you don't know what it is, book a free clarity call with me and we can work through it).

So many gorgeous people I know (including myself at times) are plagued by feeling "not as good as...". There is the saying don't compare your chapter one with someone else's chapter 5 and it goes both ways. I've been in marketing 10+ years and yet I found myself comparing myself to people who were just starting up. Why?

Some of the wisest businesswomen I know admit to still suffering from Impostor Syndrome despite having achieved the magical “six figure income mark” many times over.

Insecurity is simply a sign of striving for improvement at every stage of your career and an acknowledgement that no matter how good you are you admit you will never be the very best in your field, no one will for that matter. The best doesn't exist in a constantly evolving business landscape.

What does investing energy in your competitors do other than fuel your comparisonitis (also known as Impostor Syndrome)? It fuels insecurity, the feeling of not being good enough (when you are, really, you are) and you stray from your own path, your own vision, your own purpose to "keep up with the Joneses”.

Do your SWOT analysis, sure, but don't get fixated on what your competitors are doing. Your target audiences are different, even if only marginally. Find your uniqueness, find your voice and find your path.

So what are some good tactics to keep comparisonits at bay?

Stop stalking your competitors.
Sure it's tempting to subscribe to their newsletter, follow their Facebook page and ogle their Instagram feed to keep up with what they're doing but you need to stop comparing yourself! Imagine if they did that to you? Weirdly stalkerish, yes?
Remind yourself of all the amazing work you do for your wonderful clients!
You do good. Every day. Be present in the work that you do and stop being impatient that somehow you are going to "catch up"? It's not going to happen. You are on different paths!
Keep learning!
I am always doing courses, watching webinars, listening to podcasts and reading books to keep up with everything that is going on and that I find interesting. Play, learn, experiment! It helps keep your brain ticking over and creative time helps you think more expansively.

Really, it comes down to your mindset and your self-confidence. If you are confident in your own skin, comfortable with the idea that you are on your own path, in pursuit of your own goals, then comparisons can't possibly be made because your reality isn't actually comparable to anyone else's.

You don't need to be better than anyone else, you just need to be different so stop worrying about what they are doing and concentrate on helping your clients. Consistent, high quality work and customer service will help you get further than chopping and changing your activities in response to what your competitors are doing.

Celebrate your competitors as your peers, they are making your marketplace a livelier one and in their own individual ways they are actually helping you to stand out from the crowd.

And to get all woo woo on you... If you cannot celebrate your competitors' successes you are not living a truly abundant life. There is more than enough work, money and clients to go around.

Top 10 web design trends for 2016 (and whether I'll be using them on my own site)

I'm currently re-designing my website which, in the flurry of activity over the last few years including (but not limited to) having a baby, undertaking massive projects, starting another business, volunteering at community events, etc. has been pushed back as a project for “when I have time”.

Designing and developing my new website has now become more of a necessity than a “nice to have” and so I embark on this huge task this week.

As a web designer, I spend a disproportionate amount of time looking at other people’s websites and saying “oooh”, “aaaah” and "shiny", so now the time has come to decide which of the top ten 2016 web design trends I will/will not integrate into my new site (which is coming soon, I promise - I mean it this time!).

Responsive
I don’t think this one can be called a “trend” any more, it’s a necessity! With more than 25% of browsing conducted on a phone or other device your site must be responsive, end of story. This is a no-brainer: IN!

Single page sites
In some cases "single page sites" work amazingly; I know of some retail and product pages that work beautifully as single page, especially when the site takes you on a “journey” as you scroll. Don’t forget the “scroll to top” button! However if you require a lot of data from your Google Analytics, I'd avoid unless you have another tactic in place to capture data (there are some great plug-ins for us WordPress users). I’ll be including a lot of projects in my portfolio so a single page site simply won’t work for me. Here is a recent project that implements single page, and another.

Parallax
Parallax design is when you scroll but the image doesn't and it looks pretty cool. Although it’s been around for a while, it can be tricky to use unless you know how to minimise image size without sacrificing image quality. This is definitely an “in” on my new site where appropriate.

Video
Video backgrounds look absolutely sensational in some instances but have a tendency to make me motion sick in others…. Not “in” for me at this stage but go for it if you have relevant videos to use.

Full-screen backgrounds
Full screen “hero” image backgrounds look amazing if you have beautiful, crisp, clear images. I am currently working on creating some beautiful images of my own to use on my site. Full screen backgrounds are definitely in for my new website.

Minimal
You know when you visit a website and it just feels… “nice”? It’s probably a minimally designed site. It doesn't have to be white and austere, pops of colour with simple typography give a fresh, clean feel to a site. I'm hoping to strike a good balance of "minimally content-rich" on my new site.

Vertical menus
As users become more experienced with the web, it’s given designers more leeway to be a bit braver with our navigation. In the “olden” days of web design everything had to be very clear about navigation. The user always had to know what to do and it had to be OBVIOUS! Now users are used to using the internet over multiple devices, we can trick things up a bit. Although I LOVE vertical menus, especially when paired with a great full screen background, I'm not 100% I’ll be using one on my new site…. Here is a recent project I completed that utilises a vertical menu beautifully.

“Ghost” buttons
I don’t want to clutter my beautiful full screen images with big, opaque buttons. Minimal, transparent buttons can be utilised to assist navigation without interfering with beautiful imagery. Definitely in for me.

Sticky headers
Another design element that’s come along as a consequence of responsive design is sticky headers or menus. Basically the menu stays “stuck” to the top of the screen no matter how far the user scrolls which, for mobile/tablet users is essential. Another in for me.

Card layouts
I'm blaming Windows 8 for this one (am I the only person who actually enjoys the Windows 8 UI?)! In the world of web design we are always trying to simplify the user’s experience so that they know where to go and what they need to do there at all times. Grid layouts based on square “cards” are clean, clear and work especially well for sites with a lot of images or require a gallery or portfolio. Definitely an in for me!

Reprieve in sight for Spearmint Leaves?

Photo credit: larrykauffman23 via Compfight cc

Reprieve in sight for Spearmint Leaves?

I've heard it more than once.

Client: "Create a campaign that will go viral."

Marketer (witheringly): "It doesn't just happen like that."

Client: "Make it happen."

Meanwhile... in the meeting room of Allen's creative marketing agency a plan was hatched.

A plan so sinister that it would see the public up in arms.

A plan so shocking that it would garner national media coverage.

A plan that would see the ever-professional morning news teams falling over themselves to come up with most ridiculous lolly-related stunts.

A plan that would, most importantly, mobilise the lolly-eating public to lament and share their lolly woes on their social media profiles while rushing out to their local supermarket to stock up on their lolly favourites.

But... before you go and spend your hard-earned lolly, think about this: do you believe everything you read?

While I think Allen's do have every intention of downsizing some of its products including Killer Pythons, Violet Crumbles and Red Skins; this bad news was overshadowed by what was perceived as far worse news: the killing off of the not-so-popular Green Frogs and the old favourite, Spearmint Leaves.

Spearmint Leaves: the staple of Australian Women's Weekly birthday cake decorating. Who will think of the children?

Hands will be wrung, breath will not be freshened and jungle cakes will not be decorated; creating mass public- and social-media-hysteria.

Call me a marketing cynic but I see the possibility of a reprieve in the future of spearmint leaves. Is the axing of spearmint leaves merely a marketing stunt by Allen's Australia?

Perhaps Allen's will play knight-in-shining-armour to their beloved (and newly-engaged) public, laughingly saying they felt compelled to act under the mounting public pressure and that our beloved Spearmint Leaves have earned a reprieve from the lolly chopping block. The Australian lolly-eating public will feel triumphant in their lolly-saving social media engagement.

Perhaps Allen's care not and this truly is the death knell for our beloved Spearmint Leaves (as it does say on their social media page the products were discontinued in 2014?!).

Regardless Allen's have achieved thousands of dollars of free media coverage: a win for Allen's social media and sales teams.

The most important branding question

I love meeting new small business owners. They're wrapped up in the excitement of their new business idea. It's thrilling, I know, I've been there (and am quite often "there" actually with all the ideas buzzing around in my head).

New business owners have grand plans for their fledgling business; they've registered an ABN and their business name and they come to me full of beans to get going on their logo, business stationery and website. I'm excited, they're excited. We go through the usual questions about colours, websites and USPs.

Then comes the question: How do your Google results look?

It's a question I ask all of my new branding clients. Most have a simple answer: great, I checked! And we move on.

For others, however, it's more complicated.

Either through a lack of research, a change in the business' reach or simply poor luck, I know of more than one small business who has had to undergo a complete re-brand due to stiff competition for Google rankings from big business. Be it for their name, an acronym or a "did you mean" result.

It can be absolutely crushing to start up a business and then realise the potential of the Google-disaster.

It's all very well to say it doesn't matter; I have a great business model and a fantastic product but let's face facts: it's 2015, without Google your website isn't going anywhere. Which is fine if you plan to operate solely off-line but that's going to seriously limit your business.

I assisted a client to undergo a re-brand when her business name was automatically switched to a "did you mean" result by Google bringing up an overseas competitor's business!

The client had researched local businesses in her area when she started her business but through her success her brand had gone global and now she was competing on a world stage. Her local business research was rendered moot: she was playing with the big guns and by big guns we mean BIG guns.

So what to do? Erode the brand loyalty she had already gained through her successful business and start again? Not entirely but the original brand was sacrificed for the sake of the Google result - her business simply couldn't operate without website traffic derived from Google search. It was as simple as that.

At the time this client had established a side business in the same sector but with a slightly different target audience; by funnelling her current audience to the "new" business before her "old" business reached the point of no return we salvaged what we could and moved on with the new brand. Obviously not ideal but it was picked up early and minimal damage was done (and the business is still thriving today, phew!).

Imagine if your business name (or the way it's represented by your logo or branding suite) was abbreviated to "BHP"? Sorry but no matter how good your SEO, as a small business you don't have a hope of competing against guns that big!

Another mistake is choosing a word, term or acronym that is commonly used in the English language. People are lazy, especially when Google does a lot of auto-completing on our behalf.

So, when you're thinking of branding (or re-branding) your business, here are five steps you need to take to avoid Google-related injuries:

Do a simple Google search on your complete business name; i.e. Jane McKay Communications.
Do a Google search on any abbreviations of your business name, i.e. JMC.
Check Google auto-complete results for your business name by typing in the first few letters and seeing what is "suggested".
Check misspellings of your business name in Google and see if your business name comes up as a "did you mean" result.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 in Bing and Yahoo search.

Step 6? Do some keyword research while you're there!

If you're in the clear get excited! If not, don't despair, branding is meant to be fun! Start afresh. Enjoy the journey of building your new business.

Happy New Year!

Hello you gorgeous people. Welcome to what will be a spectacular 2015!

Things are already busy for me and I hope they are in your business too.

Here at JMC HQ we (I use that term loosely) are in the midst of planning for what we hope will be our biggest year ever.

We'll celebrate six years in business in 2015 so I think we're due for a shake up! New projects, new strategies and new channels are all in my marketing mix. What's in yours? Do you have a defined marketing element in your strategic plan this year?

When I'm working on planning with my clients I naturally approach their business from the perspective of my business: marketing.

Always consider how to get the most mileage from any change, event, new product or announcement. Be that media (free or paid), website traffic, promotions or simply an email campaign. Flag each milestone in your strategic plan with a marketing idea.

Communication is at the heart of all marketing; this year take every opportunity to talk to your customers and clients.

Happy new year!

- Jane

Celebrating 5 years with a facelift

So, it's been five years since I started Jane McKay Communications and one year since I left the "security" of the salaried workforce and went out on my own.

What a journey it has been! So many clients; some weird, mostly wonderful. So many words written, logos devised, layouts drafted, media releases published and skills evolved to bring us to this point.

A bit weary, a bit haggard, a bit bored: Jane McKay Communications needed a facelift. Not of the logo, no, that's too entrenched and I didn't want to erode the brand recognition I had developed. Just the website. So here it is. Simple, straightforward and quite colourful. A bit like me. 🙂

Enjoy!

- JM

Top Marketing Trends for 2014

I spend a large amount of my time indulging my inner geek and examining, pondering and questioning the latest marketing, web, search, design and social media trends.

So here you have my top 14 marketing trends for 2014.

Marketing

Good customer service is, and always will be, your most powerful marketing tool

Word of mouth still remains the most powerful influencer on purchasing decisions made by consumers; be that in person or via the internet, social media or even your local media.

Customer service that goes above and beyond (or is even just plain old basic “good” these days) speaks volumes for your organisation.

Content marketing

What’s content marketing I hear you ask? At its core, content marketing is creating content that users want or need. It’s not shoving a flyer under their windscreen wiper or spamming their inbox, it’s creating a blog post, an image or a video that users actually want, that they will enjoy and, most importantly, share.

Content marketing has its origins in the need of the customer, it’s about attracting customers, not paying to reach them.

Video

Despite what you’re thinking, video is cheap and easy to do and it can add another dimension to your content marketing efforts. Video marketing builds brand personality, improves customer engagement and boosts your search engine ranking.

With as little as the camera on your mobile phone you can create, edit and share a video. It doesn’t have to be slick but it does have to be informative.

Video ideas include information highlighting the features and benefits of your latest product, webinars and simple how-tos. With the focus on content and the enhancements of Google’s latest update, videos are amazingly searchable content.

Want to see some of the most successful video marketing? Go to Blendtec’s channel on YouTube.

Value never goes out of style

Give your customers something in your marketing and I don’t just mean a groovy promotional item.

Whether it’s an informative “how-to” demonstration, a step-by-step tutorial or simply beautiful images that bring people joy; for your audience to be engaged with your brand, they need to perceive value in your marketing offerings. It’s the notion of “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) marketing.

Web

Responsive design is the only way

Responsive web design is basically optimising your website to be viewed on all manner of devices and screen sizes: smartphones, tablets, etc.

If your website isn’t responsive, you’re annoying a quarter of your target audience as, globally, 19.1% of all global web usage is now done using a mobile phone while tablet usage is 4.8% and on the rise. Smartphone penetration reached 65 percent in 2013, up from 44 percent in 2011 and is expected to continue climbing in 2014; some analysts predict that reach could be as high as 75 percent by the end of the year.

Flash is dead, people

Sorry but Steve Jobs killed it.

If you’re not into web development you would still “know” Flash developed sites if you saw them, they were those jaw-droppingly beautiful sites created in the early-mid noughties that had animated home pages and other visual trickery. I loved Flash, I thought it was stunning but also annoying and invasive as it interfered with the native digital experience.

Basically, they’re the reason the “Skip Intro” button was invented.

When Apple made the decision to ship its iPhones without Flash Player in 2010 it sounded the death knell for Flash.

In this world where search engine rankings are critical to getting your business seen Flash is a massive no-no as Flash content cannot be crawled i.e. “seen” by search engine bots.

If your site is Flash-based, you really should look at redeveloping it. Now!

Visual is king

Sites with crazy mixed-up fonts, mish-mashed, non-intuitive layouts and skewed images make users (especially me) cranky. With larger screens and HTML5, web developers everywhere are developing more and more beautiful sites and if your site isn’t beautiful, your designer isn’t trying hard enough.

Now we’re all a bit more familiar with the interwebs, users are coming to expect stunningly-designed websites.

While it’s not always relevant to create an amazingly-visual site for every brand, it can still be attractive. If you don’t like your site, talk to a designer (and not your friend’s boyfriend who builds sites as a side gig) but an actual website designer.

This doesn’t just apply to websites but all media; advertising, packaging, apps, etc.

Media

Google+

We resisted, we really did, but as a social network Google+ is simply too important to ignore.

With the added search benefits of being attached to Google, many people will be making the move from Facebook to G+ over the coming years and no doubt members of your target audience will be amongst those making the migration. This ship is sailing very soon so get on board.

Paid organic social amplification or “you have to pay to play”

I often cite the statistic of Facebook posts having a reach of 17% to clients embarking on the social media journey. Recently however the team at Ignite Social Media found reach could be as low as 2.5%. Ouch!

Admittedly I have noticed my Facebook site stats have been taking a hammering lately and have been wondering whether it’s actually worth my time and it seems that to make headway as a brand on all social networks, this year marketers are going to have to cough up on these previously “free” networks.

I still think it’s valuable to have a Facebook presence but you have to put in more effort to get noticed if you’re not prepared to pay for advertising.

Niche media

Looking for a place to call your own and where you feel at home with like-minded individuals on the internet? Niche social sites have the answer. Whether you’re into music, are of a “senior” age, love books, design, sewing, zombies or cats, there is a niche social network for you!

What does this mean for marketers? Cheaper, more targeted advertising than larger, generic social media networks (see point 9). No matter what your business does, there’s more than likely a relevant niche social network out there.

Search

Deep, fresh content

The latest Google Hummingbird update means that semantic search as opposed to keyword search is the in thing right now. Search engines can now grasp the meaning of a search query in context, i.e. users can search “how does a cake rise”, “what makes a cake rise”, etc.

Keywords used to be the only focus for websites, leaving us copywriters very frustrated by having to focus on keyword density that yielded poor-quality content just to up Google rankings.

Google have designed their last three updates, Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird to stamp out SEO techniques that resulted in poor quality content climbing the ranks.

While I could go into the technicalities but I won’t, basically this opens up the web content space dramatically especially to those of us who love to write (or pay someone who does)!

Longer, more detailed and enriched content is the answer to this so get your content planning hat on!

Online audience optimization (OAO)

If there’s one thing us marketers love it’s a jargonistic acronym.

OAO is the new SEO. It’s is already here and happening!

OAO is basically creating content with the user in mind instead of just search engine rankings. Sounds basic enough? Create high quality, more detailed, enriched content and you’re on your way (see point 11).

Design

Celebrate colour

In case you missed it Radiant Orchid is the Pantone Colour of the Year. What does this mean for you?

Do you recall that scene in “The Devil Wears Prada” where Miranda (played by Meryl Streep) dresses down Andy (played by Anne Hathaway) for not appreciating that her sweater is cerulean (you can read the transcript here)? Well, that’s the importance of the Colour of the Year.

Pantone are the authority on colour and if they say a colour is hot, then it’s hot.

Expect to see a lot more purple across all design in 2014; fashion, interiors, websites, logos, etc.

Other colours that I’m picking to trend (if they aren’t already)? Navy (although Pantone selected Dazzling Blue as part of the Spring colour palette I think navy is easier to use), yellow, grey and lime green.

Ultra brights will be huge too, not fluoros which have been trending in recent years but big, bright, bold colours.

Halftones

Not familiar with half tone? Think Andy Warhol, Pop Art-esque dot images or old school newspaper images that were printed with dots.

I saw a fair amount of half tone design in 2013 and expect it to a lot more of it in 2014 along with any designs that sees cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) (CMYK) layered to dramatic effect. While we’re talking retro, expect to see a lot more geometric design to go along with the half tones.

Well, they’re my top marketing trends for 2014! What are your favourite predicted and emerging marketing trends for 2014?