This was my challenge a few weeks ago when I was hired by a reptile, amphibian, and dinosaur sculptor, Liz Beavers.

Liz, a working artist for over a decade, never had a website. Here’s a peek into a portion of the strategic web communication process we developed, and the immediate results.

Challenges

• Another “Liz Beavers” is a prolific writer, a byline which could squeeze our sculptor out of first-page name search results.
• Although a sales site, Liz needed to be respectful of her existing retail outlets (galleries, stores) so not to undercut them.
• Liz also needed to leverage her existing social circles, many of whom are just joining social media such as Facebook.

Content and Marketing Strategies

Strategy 1: Blogging Filled with Keywords & Phrases.
We first focused on creating content that references ten highly targeted, and competitive, keywords and phrases relating to the kind of sculpture produced by Liz Beavers.

Content Strategy response: Since my client is a good writer and understood the challenge we made her blog the central feature of her website. Her posts contain reference to her work and to the key words/phrases she wants to “own”. Frequent updates make the blog relevant to search results, pushing down competing “Liz Beavers”.

Content Marketing response: Liz’s blog allows her audience to get to know her personally and connect with the thought and process behind making her sculpture. This, in turn, underscores the unique character behind every clay dinosaur, frog, or other highly personalized creature.

Strategy 2: Simple User Interface.
Visitors to Liz’s site should be able to find the information they seek in two clicks or less. We mapped out paths for the top three audiences: those seeking artist biography and background; those browsing available sculpture inventory; and those interested in purchasing off-line in galleries and stores.

Content Strategy response. Content is clearly communicated so navigation is a snap.

Content Marketing response. Liz can effectively speak to all three audiences while maintaining positive relations with her gallery representatives.

Strategy 3: Establish Professional Facebook Profile
Most of Liz’s current patrons tend to be older – which is fine, because this represents the fastest-growing demographic of Facebook adopters. Her Facebook profile automatically updates with the latest entries in her “Studio Journal” blog.

Content Strategy response. Integrating a professional social media profile allows patrons and collectors to connect with Liz on a daily basis via Facebook.

Content Marketing response. By being active on Facebook Liz provides social proof that her work is appreciated, and collected, by others.

Results

• We “soft launched” the website to coincide with local newspaper coverage – resulting in first sale traced to website.
• Liz now has first page Google search results in half of our highly targeted key phrases in less than four weeks. Additionally, she has also pushed down competing “Liz Beavers” entries.
• She now has a 24/7, strategic marketing piece.
• Most importantly, Liz has online sales capability for the first time.

My only regret? That Liz charges so little for her unique clay sculpture. I’ve recommended she raise the prices in 2011.

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My friends at Deena Warner Design have hired me for an interesting, albeit, “odd” project: being the voice of their pet project, “Odd Staunton” – the “Officially Unofficial Guide to Staunton, Virginia.”

Matt and Deena started the blog as a hobby when they moved to Staunton from Northern Virginia in 2005. They are quirky, creative types and their view on the city reflects that. In fact, finding the “Odd Staunton” blog is how we met.

I’ll be writing a regular feature for “Odd Staunton” that highlights weird and wonderful things in the area. (I mean, what other cities greet you with a large watering can sculpture, seen here?) The first is a profile on Montgomery Hall Park.

Strategy-wise, this project has several objectives:

• showcasing the city’s unique personality
• using seo techniques to build on existing web traffic
• highlighting cool things, people, and events around the city

I think the Warners’ project provides a great community service, and, has already resulted in convincing another set of friends to relocate to the area.

I’m happy to be a part of it.

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Confession time: earthworms gross me out.

I mean, worms really make my skin crawl….I totally respect what the humble earthworm does, but still… ick!

So, it’s rather amusing that I’ve written a few articles on the topic. It began with an aol article about earthworms last year and, more recently, for this month’s Flavor Magazine.

The weird thing? I’m actually considering  buying a vermicomposter…so long as I don’t have to touch them.

Here’s an excerpt:

Compost is considered “black gold” and any gardener will attest that happy soil makes for happy, healthy, and beautiful, plants. The secret? The ultimate “black gold” compost made in partnership with humble, wriggly worms. The vermicomposting process starts in your kitchen and comes back full-circle to your kitchen when you enjoy the bounty of your vegetable garden.

For anyone unfamiliar with worms – in the kitchen, no less! – consider the benefits. First, you’ll take stewardship of the land by reducing landfill waste. Secondly, you’ll enhance your soil’s fertility lost from years of pesticides and mismanagement. Thirdly, you’ll enjoy more flavorful homegrown food, too.

Here’s how you can start creating this “black gold” right in your kitchen. Don’t worry: it won’t smell, and, the worms won’t make a great escape!

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Curious about building your own rain barrel? I built one and  wrote an article inspired by the process. It appears in the June/July issue of Flavor Magazine, a magazine dedicated to “Cultivating the Capital Foodshed” in the D.C./Virginia region.

Rain, Rain, Go This Way

An excerpt:

A rain barrel has many practical uses, whether you’re an urbanite, a serious gardener, or somewhere in-between. A rain barrel can service a small, urban herb garden, for example, or maintain stretches of suburban lawn. Gardeners in particular appreciate water from rain barrels because harvested rainfall does not have the additives or chemicals some municipalities add to the water supply. Plants respond better to water that hasn’t been softened.

Read it all here.

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Hey, Rich Women!

Thanks for dropping in. I’m pleased to be the latest woman profiled on Kim Kiyosaki’s site “Rich Woman“. (Thanks, Sara Korn!)

If you are curious about real estate, you can see my Victorian restoration project for sale here.

Questions? Happy to discuss my content marketing and commercial writing business (this website). Or, if you want to discuss the challenges and joy of running a business with your life partner, I’m happy to do that, too. As the profile mentions, my husband and I jointly own and operate George Bowers Grocery, an independent specialty grocery based in Staunton, Virginia.

Thanks for stopping by – hope to hear from you about your creative projects, too.

Sincerely,

Katie
@KatieMcCaskey

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Excerpt from the article “Contain Yourself: The Simple Art of Growing Edible Plants in Pots” for Edible Blue Ridge:

For apartment dwellers, those with small yards, or even newbie gardeners who want to start slow, edible container gardens are a wondrous solution.

Their modular nature gives you the freedom to move them around, depending on where they seem to be thriving. Container gardening also can be easier to tend. Pots that are tall or set on a step can eliminate bending and straining. Plus, potted plants are less prone to weeds, which, when they do pop up, are easier to pull out.

Click here to read the rest, or browse the latest issue of Edible Blue Ridge.

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It’s easy to overlook how content development and management supports the work done by non-profit organizations.

Earlier in the year I volunteered to write and design an informational brochure (embedded below) for the Shenandoah Valley’s Resource Conservation and Development Council (Shenandoah RC&D).

This lead to an interesting three year contract to organize and collect written materials for the “flex fencing stream exclusion” watershed program. The program provides financial assistance to farmers willing to erect fencing to keep animals from polluting the watershed. The fencing is typically accompanied by erosion-prevention planting techniques, too.

The program is privately funded through the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network.

From a content management standpoint the flex fencing project demands keeping track of, and documenting, numerous pieces of varied content (written materials – such as contracts and transcribed farmer interviews – to digital content, such as before/after photos).

Content is pretty essential when you think about its role securing funding for a non-profit. The content collected and managed tells the story of what’s been accomplished.

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How do you define your content strategy? My content philosophy is neatly expressed as “G.I.V.E.:”

G – Great content; defined by giving your audience useful, relevant, and thought-provoking information that directly speaks to their interests and needs

I – Influence; content that demonstrates your leadership, while also directing your audience to a certain behavioral outcome (permission marketing conversion, direct sale, etc.)

V – Value; expressed by your audience’s willingness to share content and make referrals on your behalf

E – Economy; content that conveys critical information clearly and quickly, understanding short attention spans and the requirement to stand apart from a crowd.

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If you want to improve your online content strategy, here’s the first tip: embrace conflict.

Safe content is boring content.

Conflict is beneficial. It engages your customer and firmly establishes your point of view.

As the saying goes, “you can’t please everyone, so why try?”

Inserting conflict into your content isn’t a free pass to be nasty. Rather, adding conflict is an opportunity to rise above the slush of the quickly forgotten, and painfully predictable, content found practically everywhere online.

One of the best examples I’ve found on the topic of using conflict in business writing is by David Meerman Scott. He tells the (humorous) story of working as a male model in Japan in the 1980s. Read it yourself here.

Choose a side. If you have the stamina, and the nerve, avoid being boring — it’s a life lesson as well as content strategy.

This scares a lot of people because choosing a side means you’ll inevitably find those that disagree.

Here’s a perfect example: an excerpt of a love letter Jerri (jerrieee@aol.com) sent me for Valentine’s Day regarding an article I wrote for AOL. It left me tickled pink:

“KATIE MC CASKEY, author of this crap, seriously needs a ARROGANCE EXTRACTION. This is the most effin’ snobby article I’ve ever read. [...] Her comments [...] are outrageous, and I’d suggest her bosses give her some time off for the attitude check. [...] Perhaps her focus is usually “hauteur,” but she doesn’t belong in a publication that the “unwashed masses” will read. I’m going to remember this author’s name and deliberately NEVER read anything by her again. [...] Was she born to royalty? I’m not a big Hoff fan, but right now, I like him much better than Katie McCaskey. Send her to Snob Rehab. [...] P.S. I wonder if McCaskey’s store, George Bowers Grocery , which she’s evidently a co-owner of, sells only “hauteur groceries?”

Clearly, Jerri — in all seriousness — was mighty p-o’d that I dared to criticize the interior design choices of actor David Hasselhoff.

I’d like to thank Jerri for such a colorful description and coveted search engine optimization for both my businesses. What a doll.

I don’t have an ax to grind with David Hasselhoff. He is about as relevant to my life as I am to his — with one exception.

I would be genuinely surprised if he were anything less than happy about the debate my article stirred. Had I written something bland and boring who would have cared? Why would anyone have wanted to look at his home for themselves and state their opinion on it, unless there was conflict from the get go? (David: You’re welcome. Hope the house sells quickly.)

Embrace this kind of reaction to any of your content, too. It means they’re paying attention.

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Challenge:
Inform the public about the products, services, and philosophy of one of the Mid-Atlantic’s few remaining independently-owned, USDA-inspected meat processing facilities.

Solution:
Develop content strategy and related copy for a social media presence and new, CMS-driven website.

Client:
T&E Meats, Harrisonburg, Virginia
—

Excerpt:

Why T&E Meats
In 2007 Joe Cloud joined forces with farmer, author, and activist Joel Salatin to save one of the few remaining independent, USDA-inspected abbatoirs in the Mid-Atlantic.

The existing butcher shop had been named “T&E Meat Market” after Tommy and Erma May, the previous owners. Cloud and Salatin renamed it “T&E: True and Essential” to highlight the crucial role meat processing plays in the local food ecosystem and to mark the difference between sustainabily-produced local meats and the industrial system.

T&E enables farmers in Virginia to raise and direct market quality livestock by providing excellent processing services under USDA inspection.

A small-scale facility like T&E Meats skillfully and respectfully butchers its livestock compared to the mechanised and inhumane systems common to most large commercial meat processing plants.

We are the only remaining full-service butcher shop and abbatoir in the Shenandoah Valley.

##

See: T&E Meats website and T&E Meats Facebook page

Related articles

• The ‘lunatic’ singlehandedly taking on the US agricultural system (telegraph.co.uk)
• Joel Salatin on Big Organic and the Future of Food (thekitchn.com)

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