The issue won't be released until January, but you get an advanced peek.  The article gives you some specific wording that works to capture the attention of an audience or individual.  They're really simple and really effective.  Please let me know if you enjoy this type of content: michael@aboutpeople.com

Here is the link:   Mental Marketing Jan 2013

A few years ago, I started noticing the term "content marketing" and thought, "What's the big deal?  We've been doing that for 20 years!"

Stop Reading!  Today's content is judged by a very different standard.  That's because (in a business context) people no longer read.  They skim.  If your content cannot be skimmed, it most likely won't reach the target.  Additionally, a world of other content is just a click away.

The Points! 

1. You need quality content to attract your target market.
2. You need new content to keep people coming back to your site.
3. You need to format the content for easy skimming.
4. You need to edit to add active verbs.
5. You need to imbed the target's values.
6. You need to identify points of relevance before starting.

If you can't do that, you need to get help. 

For example… In the financial industry, the sellers always want to sell a product.  "Do you have LTC coverage?"  That's insane.  The target market doesn't care about the products. They have concerns or problems.  If the firms can't talk to the target about those concerns and problems, they're demonstrating irrelevance.  When you talk about products, you're essentially approaching the world backwards.

Turn that around.  All the company has to do is re-frame the content and approach it from the target's perspective.  Then, follow the other points in that list above.

- Mike Lovas

1. Getting patients to confirm their appointment by verbally repeating the details to the receptionist. 
2. Getting patients to write the appointment down themselves (rather than the receptionist doing it for them).
3. Placing positive messages around the GP practices confirming that attending appointments is the "social norm".

In the case of the Bedfordshire research, the techniques lead to a reduction of 30% in the number of no-shows for NHS appointments. Organizers estimated that if the interventions were replicated nationally, they could deliver savings of up to 250 million pounds annually.

1. That is where most people go to check you out and determine if they want to contact you.
2. That's where you can show them your professionalism and humanity.
3. It's safe for visitors.  They don't have to worry about getting a sales pitch.

The point is, if you do not already have a dynamic and psychologically-effective website, your business is going to suffer.

I've already written several articles on how to capture people's attention on your home page.  So, today, we're going to look at how to get people to keep coming back to your site.  The more often they return, the higher your chances of getting a new client.  Here are some guidelines:
 

1. People do not return to see the same stuff.  Meaning, if you don't up-date your content on a regular (weekly) basis, why would anyone go back there?  Most sites have a little line near the bottom of the page that says, "Last updated" and the date.  You would be amazed at how many financial sites have not been updated in years – or, at all, ever. 
    
2. People do not place value in duplication.  Meaning, they don't want to see a site that is a duplicate of other sites, with the same tools, same calculators, and same generic content.  If you have not toured other advisor sites, you owe it to your firm to do so.  What you'll see is that nearly every one is basically the same.  If you follow that model, you'll be showing that you have nothing fresh to provide. 
    
3. People look for relevant information.  What's relevant to them?  Well, it's not your products.  It's solutions to their problems.  Meaning, they don't go to your website when everything is going great. They go when they have a question or puzzle that needs to be solved.  You can probably name of six to ten topics most of your clients ask you about:  retirement income, taxes, long term care, estate planning, investing, etc.  In other words, you need to provide them with guidance in those topics.  The guidance cannot be generic!  People see through the generic for what it is. 

Advice.  If you do not already have a blog on your website.  Get one.  Start writing blog comments.  They should be only about 100 words long.  Each one should focus on one aspect of those topics above.  Start by explaining what the problem is, then begin to solve the problem.  Do not offer investment advice or name specific products.  Simply explain the steps that consumers can take on their own to start to solve their problem.  In this way, you become a resource. 

For example, one of the blogs I recently wrote for a client explains estate planning in consumer-friendly language.  I explained what it is and why a middle-class consumer might need to get one.  Another focused on long term care and women.  Others look at elder fraud, social security maximization, and what to do if you don't have enough money to retire.  The point is, make your content relevant to the people you want to do business with.

SIDEBAR:  After reviewing hundreds of financial sites, I can safely say that most are absolutely terrible.  Amazingly, nearly every one of them makes the same mistakes.  In September, my good friends at Advisor's Assistant asked me to deliver a webinar on "Little Disasters – the accidental blunders that keep people from trusting your website."  In the program, I showed about two dozen financial web pages.  All but two or three of those pages chased people away and made the same mistakes.  They were examples of what NOT to do in a website. 

If you want help with your website, just give us a call: 509.465.5599.

We use 44 points in our "Psycho-Social Marketing Analysis."  One of the points deals with videos.  Beware…

In the sites we've analyzed one of the truly most annoying elements is the video that automatically launches.  This might be interesting to first-time visitors, but don't you want people to keep coming back?  So, everyone who returns to your site is forced to deal with that same video.  Trust me, they quickly learn to loath it.

There is another amazingly annoying aspect of website videos – the ones that take too long to load.  How long is too long?  About one second, or the point that the3 visitor aborts.  There is some recent research on this topic.  I'm quoting from Jakob Nielsen's "Alerbox." And, as you can see, I've included a couple of links:

Professor Ramesh Sitaraman analyzed 23 million cases of users trying to watch online videos and calculated the bounce rate depending on the delay in having the video start playing.

The main finding is that 6% more users abandon the video for every 1 second extra delay.

Does your site annoy your target market?  Give us a call, and we'll help you figure it out.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) modeled the science behind mindfulness and published their results in the October 25, 2012 issue of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 

The researchers highlight six neuropsychological processes that are active mechanisms in the brain during mindfulness: 1) intention and motivation, 2) attention regulation, 3) emotion regulation, 4) extinction and reconsolidation, 5) pro-social behavior, and 6) non-attachment and de-centering.

In other words, these processes begin with an intention and motivation to want to attain mindfulness, followed by an awareness of one's bad habits. Once these are set, a person can begin taming him or herself to be less emotionally reactive and to recover faster from upsetting emotions. "Through continued practice, the person can develop a psychological distance from any negative thoughts and can inhibit natural impulses that constantly fuel bad habits," said David Vago, PhD, BWH Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, and lead study author.

Vago also states that continued practice can also increase empathy and eliminate our attachments to things we like and aversions to things we don't like. The result of practice is a new You with a new multidimensional skill set for reducing biases in one's internal and external experience and sustaining a healthy mind," said Vago.

Here’s an example.  I have a subscription to a neuroscience magazine.  One of the headlines referred to an “invisibility cloak.”  That absolutely nothing to do with my business.  But, it was so intriguing that it sparked a flood of ideas.  So, one of my next articles will address how sales people become invisible. 

Do you know how?

The research was conducted at Purdue University and discovered that sensory language is far more effective at engaging the reader.  They compared the writing of popular authors from older times and modern times.  Same result:  the researchers conclude that adjectives that are sensory in nature are more impactful and memorable.