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Meager response rates are tempting an ever-increasing number of marketers—even B2B ones—to resort to using "clickbait" headlines, those sensational promises that dupe you into reading thinly related content.
You know the kind:
What this customer said was so insane it will make your jaw drop...
But the more sensational the headline, the greater the risk of disappointing prospects once you lure them to read nothing more than your usual sales pitch.
Disappointment never does your brand credit.
Repeated disappointments will ultimately damage it.
Worried friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter might think you're ill bred?
Your social media reputation is safe with a subscription to ThinkUp, according to Farhad Manjoo, columnist for The New York Times.
ThinkUp keeps tabs on your graceless behavior on those networks and points out, among other things, how often you refer to yourself, use profanities and ignore others.
The tracking service is designed "to make you act like less of a jerk online," says ThinkUp co-founder Gina Trapani.
Cleveland headhunter Kelly Blazek made national headlines last week for flaming a jobseeker who contacted her through a LinkedIn group.
Blazek's victim didn't sit still for the abuse. She posted the headhunter's put-downs verbatim on several other Websites and they quickly went viral.
Blazek apologized for the breach of trust in a letter to The Plain Dealer. “In my harsh reply notes," she wrote, "I lost my perspective about how to help, and I also lost sight of kindness."
Blazek subsequently deleted all online traces of herself.
Ironically, only last year the headhunter was named "Communicator of the Year" by the Cleveland Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.
We all can benefit from the advice of Florence Hartley, author of The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, published in Boston in 1860:
"Never write a letter carelessly. It may be addressed to your most intimate friend, or your nearest relative, but you can never be sure that the eye for which it is intended, will be the only one that sees it. I do not mean by this, that the epistle should be in a formal, studied style, but that it must be correct in its grammatical construction, properly punctuated, with every word spelt according to rule. Even in the most familiar epistles, observe the proper rules for composition; you would not in conversing, even with your own family, use incorrect grammar, or impertinent language; therefore avoid saying upon paper what you would not say with your tongue."
According to this year's AP-GfK's General Social Survey, Americans don't trust each other.
The 2013 poll shows only one-third of Americans think they can trust their fellow citizens, down from one-half in 1972.
A record high of two-thirds of Americans are suspicious of others.
That's bad news for marketers, who rely on customers' trust to offset their uncertainties.
The AP-GfK poll results come on top of more bad news from the CMO Council, whose 2013 B2B Content Survey shows buyers are largely skeptical about marketers' content.
Trust will be the hot issue for 2014.
Trust me.
In Eight B2B Companies That Deliver Delightful Copywriting, Hubspot's Corey Eridon recommends these rules for better writing:
- Choose the right words. Precision turns the most complex ideas into simple ones.
- Be concise. Omit everything that's inessential.
- Empathize. Find common ground with your customers and avoid "business babble."
- Don't be afraid to have fun. Infuse a little humor in your copy and you'll charm your audience.
