Three Reasons Why You Need the Bredemarket 404 Web/Social Media Checkup

I haven’t mentioned my “Bredemarket 404 Web/Social Media Checkup” in years, but we need the service more than ever. In fact, as I mention below, I should probably buy the service for myself.

What is the Bredemarket 404 Web/Social Media Checkup?

Why do I offer the Bredemarket 404 Web/Social Media Checkup? To ensure that your web and social properties are correctly communicating your business benefits and values to prospects and customers.

How do I provide the service? I not only analyze every page on your business website, but also analyze every social media account associated with your business (and, if you choose, your personal social media accounts also).

What do I do? For each social media account and page within each account, Bredemarket checks for these and other items:

  • Broken links
  • Outdated information
  • Other text and image errors
  • Synchronization between the web page and the social media accounts
  • Content synchronization between the web page and the social media accounts
  • Hidden web pages that still exist

Bredemarket then reports the results to you with recommended actions.

Redacted example of one page of a multi-page Bredemarket 404 report.

If requested, Bredemarket prepares a simple social media communications process for you.

Three reasons why you need a web/social media check

If you’re wondering why your business may need such a check, here are three things that I’ve observed over the years that adversely impact your marketing (and, um, my marketing).

Stale, dated material

Designed by Freepik.

Perhaps you wrote the text for your website or your social media page several years ago. And it was great…at the time. But as the months and years pass, the text becomes outdated.

I’ve discussed the problem of non-current content before, giving examples such as sites that mention Windows 7 support long after Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7. But sadly, I recently ran across another offender, and this time I’m going to name names.

The company who kept stale content online was…Bredemarket.

As some of you know, last week I announced changes in Bredemarket’s scope and business hours. This necessitated some changes on my website.

Then I had to return to this website to make some hurried updates, since my April 2022 prohibition on taking certain types of work is no longer in effect as of June 2023. Hence, my home page, my “What I Do” page, and (obviously) my identity page are all corrected.

From https://bredemarket.com/2023/06/01/updates-updates-updates/

But earlier this week when I was cruising around the site, I noticed a page that I had missed:

From https://bredemarket.com/biometric-content-marketing-expert/ as of the morning of June 8, 2023.

“Biometric content marketing expert” my…(you know what). By the time you read this post, I will hopefully have fixed this. You can check for yourself to make sure I did fix it, and call me out if I didn’t. (Pressure’s on, Johnny.)

Oh, and there are three other pages that mention the words “Saturday morning” (as in booking a Saturday morning meeting with me). I have to fix those also.

WordPress listing of Bredemarket pages that include(d) the words “Saturday morning.”

Heroic sprints, only partially executed

Designed by Freepik.

In addition to stale, dated, material, sometimes the material on your online properties is only partially complete.

Perhaps you’ve worked with organizations that have sudden inspirations and want to implement them NOW.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rziG2gn-eQ0

So you’re going to mount a heroic sprint to just do it, process be damned. You’re going to steamroll ahead, working nights and weekends, and get the thing done.

And then, bleary-eyed, you get it done.

But you didn’t get all the other stuff done that needed to be completed along with the heroic sprint.

Maybe you completed a heroic sprint to document something on one of your properties…but you completely forgot to document that same thing on another of your properties. So one property mentions six items, while the other one only mentions five. Hopefully your prospect will go to the property that mentions the correct number of items.

If you’re lucky. Authentically lucky.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38mE6ba3qj8

(As an aside, a company that relies on heroic sprints is only hurting itself and its employees. See this Moira Lethbridge & Toni Collis LinkedIn article, “Why Having Superhuman Expectations Is Killing Your Career.“)

Forgotten online properties

Designed by Freepik.

A third common problem that your company may face is the existence of old online properties that you may have forgotten about.

  • Maybe you established an online property and completely forgot about it. So as you update all of your other online properties, you neglect to update that one. What happens if the only online property your prospect sees is the one you never bother to update?
  • Maybe you established an online property, then established a second one on the same platform. I previously cited an example in which a company established a Twitter account, then established a second one later without letting followers of the first account know. Guess which Twitter account had fewer followers? The new one.

Forgotten online properties result in disjointed views of your firm, and a confusing online presence.

Here’s how to obtain a web/social media check for yourself

Do your website and social media accounts suffer from these inconsistencies and errors?

Would you like an independent person to analyze your online properties and report the issues so you can fix them?

If you need Bredemarket’s services:

How Can Your Identity Business Create the RIGHT Written Content?

Does your identity business provide biometric or non-biometric products and services that use finger, face, iris, DNA, voice, government documents, geolocation, or other factors or modalities?

Does your identity business need written content, such as blog posts (from the identity/biometric blog expert), case studies, data sheets, proposal text, social media posts, or white papers?

How can your identity business (with the help of an identity content marketing expert) create the right written content?

For the answer, click here.

Qualitative Benefits and Inland Empire Marketing

Are you an Inland Empire business who wants to promote the benefits of your products and services to your clients? If so, don’t assume that these benefits must be quantitative. You can use qualitative benefits also.

Benefits

Before we talk about quantative vs. qualitative benefits, let’s talk about benefits themselves, and how they differ from features.

As Kayla Carmichael has noted, features answer the “what” question, while benefits answer the “why” question.

She explains that your clients don’t care if your meal kit arrives ready to heat (a feature). Your clients care about saving time preparing meals (a benefit).

Quantitative benefits

In certain cases, the client may be even more impressed if the benefits can be expressed in a quantitative way. For example, if you know that your meal kit saves people an average of 37 minutes and 42.634 seconds preparing meals, let your client know this.

Am I the only one mouthing the words “these are the days of our lives” to myself? CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2949924

But maybe you don’t know this.

  • You haven’t paid for a survey of your existing customers to see how much time they’ve saved preparing meals.
  • Or maybe the data just isn’t available at all.

The power of qualitative benefits

A lack of quantifiable data won’t stop your marketing efforts, though, since qualitative benefits can be just as powerful as quantative ones.

I’m going to take the marketer’s easy way out and just cite something that Apple did.

I’ll admit that Apple sometimes has some pretty stupid marketing statements (“It’s black!“). But sometimes the company grabs people’s attention with its messaging.

Take this July 2022 article, “How Apple is empowering people with their health information.”

You probably already saw the words “empowering people” in the title. Sure, people like health information…but they really like power.

By Andreas Bohnenstengel, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61536009

Later in the article, Apple’s chief operating officer (Jeff Williams) emphasizes the power theme: “…they’re no longer passengers on their own health journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver’s seat.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Apple has referred to empowering the individual. The company has done this for decades. Remember (then) Apple Computer’s slogan, “The Power to Be Your Best”? If you missed that particular slogan, here’s a commercial.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5S9VvMMxhU

There are zero statistics in that commercial. It doesn’t say that the Macintosh computer would equip you to jump 5% higher, or sing on key 99.9% of the time. And Apple Computer didn’t claim that the Macintosh would equip you to draw bridge images 35.2% faster.

But the viewer could see that a Macintosh computer, with its graphical user interface, its support of then-new graphic programs, and (not shown in the ad) the ability to distribute the output of these graphic programs via laser printers, gave Macintosh users the power to…well, the power to be their best.

And some potential computer buyers perceived that this power provided infinite value.

As you work out your benefit statements, don’t give up if the benefits cannot be quantified. As long as the benefits resonate with the customer, qualitative benefits are just fine.

What are your benefits?

Let’s return to you and your Ontario, California area business that needs content marketing promotion. Before you draft your compay’s marketing material, or ask someone to draft it for you, you need to decide what your benefits are.

I’ve written a book about identifying benefits, and five other questions that you need to answer before creating marketing content.

Click on the image below, find the e-book at the bottom of the page, and skip to page 11 to read about benefits.

Feel free to read the rest of the book also.

My…Umm..Opportunity is YOUR Opportunity

A little over a year ago, Bredemarket announced two changes in my business scope and business hours. I stopped accepting work from clients who marketed systems to identify individuals, and I reduced my business hours to Saturday mornings only.

Generated at craiyon.com.

I had to change my business scope and business hours. On May 9, 2022, I started a full-time position with a company in the identity industry, which meant that I couldn’t consult on weekdays and couldn’t consult on identity projects.

But things change.

As of May 31, 2023, I will no longer be employed at my day job.

Which is my misfortune…um…opportunity.

Generated at craiyon.com.

Has Bredemarket changed its business scope and business hours a second time?

Yes.

As of June 1, 2023:

  • If you need a consultant for marketing or proposal work, and your company is involved in the identification of individuals, Bredemarket can accept the work.
  • If you need a consultant who can meet with you during normal business hours, Bredemarket can accept the work.

So what?

My…um…opportunity is your opportunity.

Now that I can expand my business scope and business hours again, you can take advantage of my extensive marketing expertise, including deep experience in the identity industry.

This means you can obtain quickly-generated and expert content with an agreed-upon focus.

This means you can get content that increases your revenue.

What kind of content?

Blog posts, case studies and testimonials, proposals and proposal text, white papers, and many other types of content.

How about e-books?

Yes I also write e-books.

These two e-books explain (a) how Bredemarket starts a project with you, and (b) how Bredemarket has helped other businesses over the years.

(UPDATE OCTOBER 22, 2023: “SIX QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU IS SO 2022. DOWNLOAD THE NEWER “SEVEN QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU” HERE.)

How can I find out more information about Bredemarket?

Contact me.

But wait…what if Bredemarket changes its business hours and business scope a THIRD time?

I very well could change Bredemarket’s business hours/scope again.

Maybe I’ll find a new full-time position in a couple of weeks, and I’ll again have to reduce hours and scope.

Which basically means that you have to ACT QUICKLY to ensure you can reserve my services.

(See “how to create a sense of urgency.”)

Generated at craiyon.com.

Four Mini-Case Studies for One Inland Empire Business—My Own

I guess I can be persuasive. I just persuaded myself to do something.

On Saturday, I wrote the post “Six Benefits for Inland Empire Businesses from Case Studies.

Then I asked myself, why not write a case study for my own Inland Empire business, Bredemarket?

If I could demonstrate that Bredemarket benefited a firm via a case study, that could help Bredemarket get business from other firms. I said so myself:

A well-crafted case study can be the first step in convincing a potential customer to become a paying customer.

From https://bredemarket.com/2023/04/15/six-benefits-for-inland-empire-businesses-from-case-studies/

Achieving 400% of My Goal

But once I started writing the document, I decided that one case study wasn’t enough.

So I wrote four mini-case studies in the same document, briefly describing how I helped four Bredemarket clients create different types of content so that they could win more business.

  • I helped one client to quickly generate consistent proposals. One of the client’s salespeople even provided me with a testimonial. (You may have seen it before.)
  • I helped another client share persuasive case studies. The client kept on coming back to me for more case studies—a dozen in all—and other work.
  • I helped a third client position via blogs and a white paper.
  • Finally, I helped position a sole proprietor.

After the four mini-case studies, I briefly described how Bredemarket works with clients. (Sleep is involved.)

By Ilya Repin – Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60387757

I didn’t get into my six questions, since I already wrote an e-book on that topic, but I did provide an overview of the initial meeting, the content iteration process, and my work for hire policy (which explains why I didn’t name the four clients listed above).

So would you like to read my four mini-case studies?

Here is my latest e-book, “How Bredemarket Can Help You Win Business.”

And if I can help you win business, let me know. I have Saturday morning office hours.

Inbound Marketing for Tech

As a business owner or marketer, you are always looking for ways to increase visibility and attract new customers. In today’s digital age, inbound marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy for achieving these goals. Inbound marketing is all about creating content that is tailored to the needs and interests of your target audience, and using that content to attract potential customers to your website.

At its core, inbound marketing is about helping clients make money. By creating content that is specifically designed to appeal to your target audience, you can increase your visibility and attract more potential customers to your business. This is why inbound marketing has become such an important part of the marketing mix for many businesses today.

One of the key components of inbound marketing is blogging. Writing blog posts that are specifically designed to attract potential customers is an incredibly effective way to increase your visibility and attract new business. By writing blog posts that address the needs and interests of your target audience, you can create content that is both informative and engaging, which can help to establish your business as a thought leader in your industry.

The goal of inbound marketing is to increase your visibility and attract more potential customers to your business. By creating content that is tailored to the needs and interests of your target audience, you can increase your chances of being found by potential customers who are actively searching for the products or services that you offer. This can help to increase your website traffic, generate more leads, and ultimately increase your revenue.

One of the key benefits of inbound marketing is that it is customer-focused. By creating content that is specifically designed to address the needs and interests of your target audience, you can establish a strong connection with potential customers, which can help to build trust and establish your business as a trusted partner in their success.

If you are a technology firm in the Inland Empire, inbound marketing can be an incredibly effective way to increase your visibility and attract new business. By working with a team of inbound marketing experts, you can create a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy that is specifically designed to address the unique needs and interests of your target audience. This can help to establish your business as a thought leader in your industry, increase your website traffic, generate more leads, and ultimately increase your revenue.

In conclusion, inbound marketing is a powerful strategy for helping clients make money. By creating content that is specifically designed to appeal to your target audience, you can increase your visibility and attract more potential customers to your business. If you are a technology firm in the Inland Empire, inbound marketing can be an incredibly effective way to increase your visibility and attract new business. By working with a team of inbound marketing experts, you can create a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy that is tailored to the unique needs and interests of your target audience.

(More information)

Am I about to put myself out of business?

If you’ve read the Bredemarket blog over the last few months, you know that I’ve talked about several topics ad nauseum:

  • Attracting business to your firm via content marketing.
  • Six questions to ask before launching a writing project.
  • Maintaining a customer focus in your written content.

When I meet with a client, I ask my six questions (actually more) and then create marketing content with a customer focus…for a fee.

But now some alternative, no-cost methods for content creation are available. But are they any good? Let’s test one of them.

Feeding the six questions to ChatGPT as a prompt

If any of you have used generative artificial intelligence, you know that you feed a “prompt” to your generative AI engine of choice, and the engine then returns a result.

Here’s a prompt that I recently fed to OpenAI’s ChatGPT:

Write a blog post based on these six inputs: (1) Why: help clients make money (2) How: offer inbound marketing services to clients (3) What: write client blog post to attract business (4) Goal: increase client visibility (5) Benefits: increase business via customer focus (6) Target audience: Inland Empire technology firms

I’ve reproduced the response verbatim in the following post, including the title that ChatGPT supplied. I could probably play around with the prompt and get a response that is more on target; the prompt that I fed to ChatGPT ended up with a huge emphasis on inbound marketing.

What do you think? Is generative AI “good enough” to put Bredemarket and other content marketers out of business? Or do experienced and talented human writers provide enough added value so that their content stands out from the crowd? Personally, I think I could have written something much better…but I could be wrong.

If nothing else, I wrote my post (and this one) in less than 15 minutes, versus the 2+ hours I spend on my previous post and the underlying web page. So if I’m primarily interested in churning out quantity rather than quality, ChatGPT is my friend. And if my post receives incredible traction, ChatGPT is really my friend.

By the way, I’ve done this before, but this time I’m posting the generative AI post with no modifications.

Marketing Ontario, California businesses through blog posts

I just added a page to the Bredemarket website entitled “Blog posts for your Ontario, California business.”

Now that’s Ontario California, not Ontario Canada.

Let me quote a little bit from the page I just created.

For example, let’s say that an Ontario, California content marketing expert wants to target businesses who need blog post writing services. This expert will then create a web page, and possibly a companion blog post, to attract those businesses.

From https://bredemarket.com/iew-ontario-blog/

You’re now reading the “companion blog post.”

Why did I write the companion blog post?

If I’m going to talk about blogging, I need a blog post to go with it, right?

The other purpose of this blog post is to direct you to the web page. I don’t want to repeat the exact same copy from the web page on the blog post, or the search engines will not like me. And you may not like me either.

If you’re an Ontario, California business who is looking for an effective method to promote your firm, and a description of how to move forward, go to the Bredemarket web page “Blog posts for your Ontario, California business.”

Why should I read the web page?

Needless to say, you only need to read the web page if you’re an Ontario, California business. Well, I guess Fontana businesses can read it also; just ignore the video with Mayor Leon and substitute a video with Mayor Warrent instead.

The web page addresses the following topics, among others:

  • Why do you want to use content marketing to promote your Ontario business? (The web page also addresses inbound marketing.)
  • Why do you want to use blog posts to promote your Ontario business?
  • How can an Ontario business create a blog post?
  • How can an Ontario business find a blog post writer?
  • What should you do next?

If you’re asking yourself these questions, go here to find the answers.

And what about social media?

Perhaps you’re reading this blog post because you learned about it on social media.

The web page includes a paragraph on promoting blog posts via social media, if that interests you.

Yes, that’s an old picture. Although some websites still reference Google+ today.

Technology firms and qualitative benefits

If you are a technology business who is communicating the benefits of your products or services, don’t assume that these benefits have to be quantified. Qualitative benefits can work just as well.

But what are benefits?

As Kayla Carmichael has noted, features answer the “what” question, while benefits answer the “why” question.

She notes that a company’s clients don’t care if your vacuum cleaner has a washable lifetime filter. That’s just a feature, or what the product does.

Your clients care about eliminating extra costs, which is the benefit that the washable lifetime filter provides, and why the client should care.

How do you discover benefits?

Let’s say your boss tells you to write about the washable lifetime filter. Imagine that you’re conversing with one of your clients, and you tell them that your vacuum cleaner has a washable lifetime filter.

Now imagine that your client responds…

…”So what?

You respond that the client only has to buy one filter, rather than buying a new one every few months.

“So what?”

(Yes, your client may ask the “so what” question several times, like a small child. And you should do the same, to dive down into the true benefits of a particular feature.)

By Mindaugas Danys from Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania – scream and shout, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44907034

To the client’s last “so what” question, you respond that the client will save money!

Now the client is impressed and knows why they should care about your washable lifetime filter.

Quantitative benefits are great

In certain cases, the client may be even more impressed if the benefits can be expressed in numeric form.

For example, let’s say that a disposable vacuum cleaner filter costs $35 and lasts for 6 months. I have no idea whether these numbers are accurate; my last name isn’t Hoover, after all.

Whoops, not those Hoovers. I couldn’t find a picture of William Henry “Boss” Hoover or son Herbert William Hoover Sr.

Back to my guesses about disposable vacuum cleaner filters. If my numbers are correct, you can tell your client that your washable lifetime filter can save the client $700 over a ten-year period. Depending on your price points, the savings may be more than the cost of the vacuum cleaner itself. (Again, I’m not Hoover, so don’t quote me.)

With a couple of fancy leaps of logic, you could then say to the client:

“Would you like to MAKE money by buying this vacuum cleaner?”

Hey, whatever works. I’m a marketer, not a salesperson.

But qualitative benefits can be just as great

You can’t always quantify benefits, because to quantify benefits you need data, and you may not have the data close at hand. The data may not even exist.

This won’t stop your marketing efforts, though, since qualitative benefits can be just as powerful as quantative ones.

I’m going to take the marketer’s easy way out and just cite something that Apple did. I’ll admit that Apple sometimes has some pretty stupid statements (“It’s black!“).

But sometimes the company grabs people’s attention with its messaging.

Take this July 2022 article, “How Apple is empowering people with their health information.”

You probably already saw the words “empowering people” in the title. Sure, people like health information…but they really like power.

By Andreas Bohnenstengel, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61536009

There are more examples within the article:

  • Referring to an underlying report, the article states that “The first section describes Apple’s focus on personal health and fitness features on Apple Watch and iPhone that offer actionable, science-based insights.” So what? It turns out these actionable, science-based insights “help protect users’ health and safety.”
  • Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, is quoted as saying “We believe passionately that technology can play a role in improving health outcomes.” Nice, but Williams subsequently returns to the power theme: “…they’re no longer passengers on their own health journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver’s seat.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Apple has referred to empowering the individual. The company has done this for decades. Remember (then) Apple Computer’s slogan, “The Power to Be Your Best”? If you missed that particular slogan, here’s a commercial.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5S9VvMMxhU

There’s not one statistic in that commercial. It doesn’t say that the Macintosh computer would equip you to jump 5% higher, or sing on key 99.9% of the time. And Apple Computer didn’t claim that the Macintosh would equip you to draw bridge images 35.2% faster.

But the viewer could see that a Macintosh computer, with its graphical user interface, its support of then-new graphic programs, and (not shown in the ad) the ability to distribute the output of these graphic programs via laser printers, gave Macintosh users the power to…well, the power to be their best.

And some potential computer buyers perceived that this power provided infinite value.

As you work out your benefit statements, don’t give up if the benefits cannot be quantified. As long as the benefits resonate with the customer, qualitative benefits are just fine.

What are your benefits?

Before you draft your marketing material, or ask someone to draft it for you, you need to decide what your benefits are.

I’ve written a book about benefits, and five other things that you need to settle before creating marketing content.

Click on the image below, find the e-book at the bottom of the page, and skip to page 11 to read about benefits.

Feel free to read the rest of the book also.

What Technologists Should Do Before Commissioning Thought Leadership Pieces

“Thought leadership” is the rage in all sorts of enterprises, including technology companies.

By CrisNYCa – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94532194

But should you hop on the bandwagon? And if you do, how should you proceed?

Why technology thought leadership is important

Should you hop on the thought leadership bandwagon? I suggest that you should.

Why? Michael Brenner’s “The Smart CIO’s Guide to Thought Leadership in Tech” explains.

Tech is the fastest-changing industry in the world. New innovations, tools, and capabilities are continuously reshaping the way every company does business….

Companies of all types, then, turn to tech thought leadership to understand emerging trends and potential disruptions.

For CIOs and other tech thought leaders, this presents a huge opportunity. Establishing yourself as a tech thought leader gives you a wide audience and a platform for increasing your brand’s (and your own) visibility.

From https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/thought-leadership-in-tech/

Benefits for your business and yourself? Sounds like a win-win to me. Be sure to read Brenner’s article for more of his thoughts.

Who should write the thought leadership piece?

Ready to be a thought leader? You need to get someone to write the thought leadership piece.

  • You could write it yourself.
  • You could have someone write it for you.
  • You could work with a writer and collaboratively create the piece.

How you work is up to you. Perhaps you have communication experience and know how to convey technical thoughts to non-technical audiences. Or perhaps you dread writing and would love to pass that task to someone else.

Now what?

Once you’ve decided who will write your thought leadership piece, you don’t want to just start typing. You need to prepare.

Whether you’re writing the first draft, or someone else is writing the first draft, you need to specify your needs for the piece.

And ask some questions before you start writing.

Click on the image below to find out what questions you need to ask.