Lots to Celebrate - Shawenon Communications Newsletter

SHAWENON COMMUNICATIONS

Effective Messaging

No. 37
April, 2009

Greetings!

This issue marks Web Word's third birthday. Hard to believe. I started this e-zine to get some personal experience before helping others with their online communications. Now, 37 issues later, I'm a veteran.

And while we're celebrating, the first article in this issue announces the launch of a client's new Web site. Lots of web words about a local financial planner. The second article suggests that email information works on weekends, too. In it, I chronicle a whole weekend full of activates I learned about from my inbox. The piece has suggestions for making sure your own weekends are full of fun events, too.

Loyal readers will notice a new photo in honor of the season. Comments? Be honest.

And speaking of words, I'm back on the speaking circuit. I presented "The Business Side of Social Networking" at SCORE in Albany in March. At the end of this month, I'll discuss Web sites at the Tri-Town Rotary in Lenox. And on May 1, I'll join a host of colleagues at the first-ever Berkshire Bar Camp at MASSMoCA. Topic: "Creating a Buzz." If you're in the area, you should check this out.

In This Issue

Birth Announcement

Weekend Wanderer

Web Tips

You Tell Me

Birth Announcement

The launch of a new site is the high point of my work as a Web site midwife. So it is with great pleasure that I introduce Berkshire Hills Financial.

Actually, I was a consulting midwife in this case. Bobby Flower of Prospect Marketing did the design and development of the site. I was called in to craft the 11 pages of text.

Say it More than Once

Tom Sirois, principal of the firm, wanted to get one main message across to his readers. I won't reveal it here, but when you visit the site, it won't take you long to find it.

When I came on the scene, the design already called for a split page. I liked the concept, but not the generic quotes that were planned for the left column. I figured prospective clients would want to know what Tom had to say on the matter. So we crafted a series of quotes from Tom that got to the essence of his message on each page. Visitors might not venture into the more detailed text, but they would almost certainly read the quote. For example, "Debt isn't necessarily a bad thing. But bad debt is." This is the message on the Debt Strategies page.

The quotes also solved another problem with the site--voice. On the one hand, we wanted it to sound "professional," which would indicate writing in the third person. But Tom is a local financial advisor. Along with the Berkshire "look and feel," the quotes add the desired personal touch.

Be Specific

We did some writing from scratch for the site, but mostly it was rewriting and editing. For example, the original copy for the "About" page included this sentence: "...worked at several banks, small and large in a variety of capacities."

It now reads "...20 years of bank management experience with local branches of Fleet and Banknorth Massachusetts. He served as a mortgage loan officer and managed personal and small business loans as well as customer service." Fewer words are generally better, but in this case, if you're about to get financial advice, detail about your advisor's background is desirable.

Shawenon Communications' tagline is "Our distinction is communicating your distinction." We specialize in online messaging including newsletters, articles and Web sites. As a Web site mid-wife, I can join an existing team, as in the case of Berkshire Hills Financial. I can also take the project from conception to birth, bringing in designers, developers and others, as needed, to fill all the roles. We also consult on revising and upgrading existing sites.

Weekend Wanderer

Email informs my weekdays, as it probably does yours. Along with project-related communications there are business networking meetings, announcements and general information. But increasingly, my weekends are built on email as well. Take last weekend as an example.

The Events

Friday night I attended a bottle signing at Domaney's, our local libation emporium. Joseph Carr, well-known California vintner who The New York Times called "a producer to watch," came to Great Barrington. The notice of the event arrived via Constant Contact, which I helped Domaney's launch a few years ago. I took my fee out in bottles. The wine tasting was a lot of fun, and yes, I did go for the signed Merlot--at twice what I normally pay for a bottle of wine.

Saturday my email-created agenda offered a two-hour session with local arborist Tom Ingersoll on pruning. If you have trees, you know that their health and well being impacts yours. A sick, sad or dying tree can be unattractive and sometimes dangerous. And removing it can be very expensive. But how much do you understand about why trees need pruning in the first place?

I'm a laissez-faire gardener. I figure things should be left alone. But this session at Berkshire South Regional Community Center started with the basics, and Tom explained how the trees in our backyard have a different life style than the ones in the forest, so they do need attention. I'm not ready to climb up one with my very own saw, but I was proud to pick the correct branch to prune when Tom started working on a real tree.

That night my husband Will and I traveled to Albany. Though it's less than an hour away, we don't often go to Albany at night on a weekend. But the fund raiser was for the American Diabetes Association in conjunction with art from the Colonie Art League. In addition to auctioning the art for the cause, the event promised food, wine and entertainment, all for a modest admission fee. Since Will speaks about diabetes and writes about ways to manage the disease in his blog The Joyful Diabetic, the gala won the nod for Saturday night.

Action Plan

So what has all this to do with you? Several things. First, be sure you're on all the right mailing lists to learn about free or low-cost events in your locale. One of my favorites is Rural Intelligence. If you live in Dutchess or Columbia counties in New York, Litchfield in Connecticut or the Berkshires and don't subscribe, there's your first step.

Next, consider the organizations you support. How are they using email to promote the cause? If the group is not-for-profit, Constant Contact offers special discounts. Check with me for more information.

Finally, for your own enterprise, consider how you can use email marketing to further your efforts. We talk a lot here about e-zines and regular publications that are the online equivalent of print. There are many other ways to use this media. Think of an e-follow-up card or an e-flyer or an e-announcement. Stay tuned for more about these additional uses of email in future issues.

Web Tips

Reader's Choice

Thanks to Amy Chin of Q&A Technology Solutions for this tip about time tracking software, which we covered last May.

"I recommend Paymo Timetracker," she writes. "The web-based program is free, very flexible and works on both Mac and PC. You get your own Web space to set up clients, projects and tasks. The timer feature is on the client software that resides in your computer and on your tool tray (lower right hand corner of task bar).

To start a task, you simply select the project and the task and start the timer. There's also an edit feature for putting in time manually. The report feature keeps track of billable and non-billable time as a percentage of the whole job. There's even an invoice printing capability. Paymo knows when I step away from my computer and forget to stop the timer. When I get back to the computer, it asks if I want to subtract the time away from the computer or keep it in. I love Paymo and use it all the time."

And Finally . . .

Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.

We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, and Web site content. We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a business partner, we resell Constant Contact's email marketing service.

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