Don't say everything at once!

I've read some dodgy copy in my time, but this one takes the biscuit! Check this out - a statement from the Association of Chief Police Officers, in response to the UK Government's Green Paper on Policing:

“The promise of reform which the Green Paper heralds holds much for the public and Service alike; local policing, customised to local need with authentic answerability, strengthened accountabilities at force level through reforms to police authorities and HMIC, performance management at the service of localities with targets and plans tailored to local needs, the end of centrally-engineered one size fits all initiatives, an intelligent approach to cutting red tape through redesign of processes and cultures, a renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities.”

What????

They're trying to say everything at once here, and the sentence runs to 102 words!! As a result, the Plain English Campaign has shortlisted them for their Golden Bull Awards - and fingers crossed they'll sweep the board!

After reading the sentence several times over, I've had a bash at rewriting it. Like this:

The Government’s plans will help the Police as well as the general public. In the future, we’ll be able to:

• Serve the needs of local communities
• Plan and manage staff locally
• Make sure everyone is held to account
• Accept that every challenge is different, and scrap ‘one-size-fits-all’ ideas
• Change anything that gets in the way of progress – from processes to attitudes
• Deal with all types of risks and opportunities

Of course that leaves out some of the methodology that's hinted at in the original - but that can follow later. This is an introductory statement, and each of the bullets can form its own detailed section.

I know that's not rocket science, but clearly it's a point that has to be made!!

What is a rebrand anyway?

'The Apprentice' continues to amaze and dumfound! This week the muppets and muppetesses were off to Margate, trying to reshape the old cockney jellied eels hotspot as a haven for the pink pound!

The thing is, rebranding isn't so much about changing (and reducing) your market, but more about challenging the market to think again: and Ignite's idea of seeing the place through the eyes of a child wasn't too far off the mark...carefully executed, it's a way of exciting the child market and pulling in grown-ups with a throwback to simpler times.

Even if their creative sucked, they had the bones of an idea...

Anyway, the whole episode's been pulled apart by a group of independent consultants: we call it 'Apprentice Space' and you can hear the podcast here. Agree, disagree, that's up to you...

But Margate will never be Brighton! Just ask Chas n Dave...

Keyword trends are shifting

The time was that you could choose your keywords and stay with them for the long term - at least with a few minor adjustments, if only for seasonality. As the theory went, if 100 people search for "bargain holiday discount" this month, about the same number of new searchers will look for it next month. And in solid economic times, it's a useful benchmark - but these are not solid times, and the search landscape is changing quickly.

Here's an example: 6 months ago I researched keywords for a Virtual Assistant and found the main keyword scored a few dozen hits in Wordtracker. 3 months later I looked again, and the same keyword had rocketed to well over 100 hits - even though there was no increase in the competition!

The reason? Well, in the recession people are laying off their admin staff and looking to outsource support on a convenient 'as and when' basis. And the same ripples are happening in every type of industy. As the economy crumbles, the domino effect is reflected in keyword trends, so political, social and economic factors have joined seasonality as a major variable force.

So, the lesson is: check your keywords at least once a month and ask a few important questions:

1. Is it still sending you traffic? Or has demand slipped away?

2. Is it converting visitors into buyers? (If it was before and isn't now, how have consumer expectations changed?)

3. Are you still ranking? (If demand for a keyword has surged, your competitors are more likely to go after it themselves - so it's time to ramp up your SEO to pull back your advantage)

4. Can you predict the next search trend? You know when Christmas is coming so you can legislate in advance...so in the same way, consider how each economic shift will influence keywords in your sector.

One final note: if you're reacting to changes in keyword trends, don't get sucked into the "cheap" and "free" stuff! In hard times, more people are searching for freebies and deals that kill your margin, and these searches might be a good way to bring in some extra traffic - but you'll be saddled with customers who are overly price-conscious and when the sun comes out again you'll be stuck with these guys and justifying every price increase!

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