Posts Tagged ‘copywriting tips’

Fantastic, benefits heavy copywriting is great, but it is better when coupled with a powerful call to action. And yet, you'd be amazed at how many people completely forget to add one. For hours, they slave over their copy, analysing every word until it is as strong as possible only to forget the call to action. The result? The reader is convinced by your copy, is ready to buy, but then reaches the end and wanders off - all because you didn't tell them what to do next. If you don't have a call to action, your conversion rate will take a nose dive. Many would argue that you should give your customers some credit and they'll know what you want them to do. Well, if that was the case, why is your conversion rate so low? And besides, what ...

Have you ever had someone turn round to you and exclude you from a conversation with the missive - "It's OK, you wouldn't understand."? OK, there would be occasions where it is quite possible you wouldn't have a clue what they were talking about, but that doesn't make their assumption any less irritating. After all, surely it's their job to explain the topic clearly and in such a way that anyone could understand it. It's a bit like copywriting - everyone can write, but writing persuasively and clearly isn't something everyone finds easy. That doesn't mean to say they can't, it just means they are not practiced in doing it, which is why many companies hire in the expertise of a copywriter. The value of a copywriter What's the difference between a copywriter and ...

When SEO (search engine optimised) copywriting is done well, it will boost your search rankings, attract targeted traffic to your website and convert those visitors into sales. Done badly, it could harm your rankings, keep people away and it won't sell anything. So how do you make sure you get it right? 5 signs of good SEO copwriting 1. Written for your reader When people think of SEO copy, they instantly start stuffing keywords into places they really shouldn't go. This is probably because they've heard the term 'keyword density'. If you have heard of it, forget it NOW. It's a complete myth. If you want copy that helps your rankings and attracts customers (and makes them buy), it needs to be written naturally and for the reader. Concentrate on selling the benefits, writing in ...

In an ideal world, when selling to your customers, the process would go something this this: You – This stereo is the latest thing onth market. It blows its competition out of the water. Every house in the UK will own one soon so make sure you’re the innovator in your street and buy yours today. Prospect – Fantastic, I’ll have one! The problem is, life just isn't like that. No one can be sold to that easily (well, very few people). Normally, you'll experience something more like  this: You - This stereo is the latest thing onth market. It blows its competition out of the water. Every house in the UK will own one soon so make sure you’re the innovator in your street and buy yours today. Prospect – It’s quite expensive. You – But it’s the latest technology. Prospect – Hmmm, not sure I really need all those features. You – But it’s cutting-edge. Prospect – ...

A newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with your customers and add value to your relationship with them. But what on earth do you put in them? How do you keep your subscribers engaged? Here are a few pointers: 1. Timely Tying your newsletter content in with topical events is always a great way to get your new to resonate with your readers. Make sure your content is relevant to the audience you are writing for, your industry and what's happening around you. 2. Problem solving Every issue should offer some sort of help and advice. 'How to' articles, top tips and general advice will add value to your relationship with your readers. Because you are not using your newsletter as a pure sales tool, your readers are far more likely to remain subscribed if they know you will continue to provide them with valuable information ...

One of your most powerful marketing tools are testimonials. They show your credibility, level of service and boost that all important trust factor that's needed to make someone buy from you. The problem it, usually, when you ask for a testimonial, you end up with a rather wishy-washy "thank you, we were happy with the service you gave", which tells the reader absolutely nothing. So, how do you make sure you get what you need? How to get a great testimonial The only way to get the information you want, is to ask specific questions. Tell your client that their feedback is important to help you and your company improve its products and service. Oh, and don't forget to let them know that what they say will be used as a testimonial on your website and other marketing materials. Here are a few ideas about ...

Content marketing - it's what makes the internet go round. Everyone knows that, as an online marketer, you have to 'own' as much of the web as possible to make sure your customers find you online. And that generally means a lot of blogging and article marketing. But because you are reliant on your SEO to get found, an alarming number of people out there are still writing for the search engines rather than their living and breathing human audience. To illustrate my point, here's a short question and answer exercise: So there you have it - you dabble in article marketing and content generation to get more people to visit your website. If it's people you're after, why are you still writing for the search engines? Stuffing your article with keywords may (you ...

If you run a business, marketing is a necessary evil. For larger organisations, their dedicated marketing department will take care of everything for them, leaving the boss to concentrate on the more important things such as lunches, golf days and seeing how many tickets to the major sporting events he can get his hands on. What happens when you work alone? Like many entrepreneurs you have to do everything. You have to be the Operations Director, Financial Director, Marketing Director, Office Junior and tea boy/girl. It is highly unlikely that you'll be an expert in all these areas, so how do you cope? Marketing madness Promoting your business can take on a number of forms, such as: Brochures Website Emails and newsletters Case studies Press releases Blogs and articles Direct marketing But do you really understand each of these fully? Your marketing materials are vital for the survival of ...

If you automatically answer to the question - why do you have a website? - is... Because everyone else has got one ...you could be in trouble. Yes, being in business today means you are expected to have a website, but that shouldn't be the only reason for its existence. Your website must have a purpose; one that will be of benefit to you and to your customers. The benefits for you Being on the web with an effective website (that means one that actually works rather than one that just looks nice) means you can: Save time because it should provide the answers to most of your customers' questions therefore freeing up staff Be a source of information 24/7 Be optimised so people can find you online Use it to publicise your latest news and events Show off your products and service to one and all sell online That's just off the top of my head - your website should make ...

This post originally appeared on my other blog freelancecopywritersblog. For any of you considering entering the world of copywriting, it is something you have to read: If you’re thinking about becoming a copywriter, there’s one thing you must get – a very thick skin. Over the years mine has thickened to rival any Rhino – that doesn’t conjure a particularly attractive image, but it is a necessity when you write for a living. I’ve been in business as a freelance copywriter since 2007. I’m pretty good at what I do, in fact I would go so far as to say I’m an expert in my field – that’s why companies from all over the world come to me when they need help with their marketing copy. The process is fairly simple: The client makes contact I ask for a full brief on which to base a quote They say ‘yes please’ I ...

How far can your marketing budget stretch? You have to keep your website updated, brochures current, email marketing, article writing...the list is endless. All these things take time and money, but what if there was something you could do that would provide you with a load of free publicity? What about your PR? Even though print marketing is being to die a death, don't ignore the power of the press. I'm not talking about advertising space though. Just think of the publicity you would get through an interview, quote, editorial piece or a feature in the 'right' magazine. This type of content can be very powerful and here's why... 1. Low cost Getting a press release professionally written for you is a lot cheaper than paying for advertising space. Plus, if accepted, you could end up with a feature about you with a web link. That's ...

Hands up if you've "we'd" all over your website. There are oodles of websites out there suffering from this very embarrassing condition, simply because it's full of "we" and not enough "you": We've been in business 20 years We won the Award for best customer service We made awesome chairs Who cares? Certainly not your customers. The only thing your customer wants to know is what will your product/service do for them? You've got to make them see how much better their lives will be with your product, how much money they'll save, how much more successful they'll be... But to make that happen you have to ditch the "we" in favour of "you". To make your website copy achieve this, it should be written in the second person so it addresses your reader directly - like this: Make your marketing materials work harder and ...

When it comes to search engine optimisation strategies, there are a number of elements that must be addressed: Keywords Well designed website Title tags and META Descriptions SEO copywriting Links The first 4 are all vital to your SEO success, but number 5 is possibly even more important. Your link building strategy is the engine that will keep your SEO campaign going. Harness some Google love Building links is, quite possibly, the most important on-going SEO element. Each link to your website acts like a vote to its authenticity and relevance. Therefore, the more you have, the more Google will love you. That doesn't mean you can rush out and get any old links - the process has to be done consistently, over time. Short cuts (such as link farms and paid linking) will be frowned upon. Every link must be genuine and relevant to your website. By the way, if you think Google won't bother checking ...

We all want happy customers that return to us time and again. As, for many customers, your website will be their first contact with you, it must give them the experience they want - speed, simplicity and a warm and fuzzy feeling. So, how can you make sure your website delivers on all fronts? Well, here are a few tips you can use to improve customer experience: Speed From the minute they land on your website, they want things to happen quickly. 1. Loading A fast loading website is a must because your customers aren't going to hang around waiting for you. If you have images on your site, make sure they are compressed otherwise they may adversely effect your loading time. 2. Payment process Again this will need to be fast and simple to follow. Plus, it's always an idea to offer a range of payment ...

Nobody is perfect - nope, not even you. We all make mistakes, some large, some small, and some we'd rather not think about. So what happens when you've finally finished your latest marketing email (that you've spent many painful hours working on), hit send and then spot a terrible typo, experience that sinking feeling when you realise you've just sent it to the wrong list, or you've got the decimal point in the wrong place in your offer and are now giving away a free gift worth £100 with every £30 flower arrangement? The overwhelming urge could probably be to go and hide somewhere or perhaps leave the country. But, as already mentioned, no one is perfect (not even your boss, no matter what they say), we've all made cock-ups, but it's how you deal with them that matters. Coping with mistakes What ...

Social media is a powerful marketing force. Most companies today realise this and have embraced it with open arms. But others are still needing a bit of encouragement. There are a number of big bosses out there who are yet to be convinced by its potential. They seem blind to the potential market it could open up for them sinply because: It's too much like hard work They don't have the time to 'play' with it They don't believe their customers are using social media so why should they? They think they can't monitor its effectiveness But many of their employees can see the benefits. So if that's you and you have a particularly archaic boss who needs a nudge to move out of the Stone Age and into the Social Media age, read on. Making you boss see the benefits of social media The ...

Quite often, landing pages stand out like a sore thumb when you land on them. Normally, this is because they scream BY ME NOW in very large, colourful print. So how do they make you feel when you land on one? That you're about to be sold something so you just want to get out of there as fast as possible? You don't mind being overtly sold to, so you'll hang around for a read? Click away and head off in search of a real website? If you want to create a landing page, how do you go about it so it encourages people to stay? How can you convince people you're genuine? Generating trust Let's face it, if there's no trust, there are no sales. People hate being sold to, so if your landing page looks like one big sales spiel, it's probably not going to ...

Search engine optimisation doesn't have to be scary. Despite the claims of some, anyone can make simple SEO checks on their website that will make a difference to their rankings. Of course, you must have a strategy in place (and stick to it) if you want to be really successful. So, if you're ready, let's get to it with check number 1. 1. Design For most companies (yes, you too), the look of their site is everything. They invest vast amounts of money on the design of their site because they want it to look 'nice'. Well looking nice is all well and good, but if it doesn't appear in the search results no one is going to see it. Custom built websites are great if you work with a team that are as good with SEO as they are with their creativity (a rare combination). Whether you like them or not, template websites tend ...

    Content, content, content - you know the search engines love it, but writing it without a purpose will have little or not effect to your online marketing strategy. You already know that the regular addition of new content will have a positive effect on your search engine  strategy. It will generate more traffic to your website and more business. That's because you understand that:   Articles/Blogs + SEO = Rankings   But if you just publish any old thing, you could end up doing more harm than good. Think about this for a moment, if you merrily churn out (or pay a copywriter to create) vast swathes of keyword rich articles to your website, are you really adding value? I'm driving traffic!     True, you probably are, but... If you are publishing content that doesn't give your reader anything or ask anything of them, what's ...

  How do you know if you have a piece of good copy or not? Can you tell, just by looking at it? Annoyingly, the answer is yes and no because it depends on: What the copy is What’s its purpose is What form it takes As an example, take a look at this piece of SEO copywriting: As you read through it, you are constantly tripping over the phrase ‘search engine optimization’. That’s not good. A well written piece of SEO copy should not make its keywords obvious. It should be written in a natural way – and if you think about it, naturally, you wouldn’t constantly repeat a phrase over and over, would you? OK, that was quite an obvious example, but let’s think about a general piece of text that is being used to sell a product. It can written grammatically correctly without ...

  Why is it that so many corporate and professional business services websites are written in a stiff and formal tone? Granted, they are serious businesses, but that doesn’t mean that to portray a sense of professionalism you have to use intensely complex language. The result is generally, an underperforming website that no one wants to read because it’s too boring and the language completely unfathomable. If you want to make someone think… “Yes, this is great. They sound just like the company I need” …you have got to write in an approachable, accessible and friendly manner. Making friends Writing in a conversational tone is the best way to get readers on your side. That doesn’t mean you have to ‘dumb-down’ your language, it just means creating something your readers can relate to. Your website will be instantly more accessible. I know what you’re saying, most of your ...

  If you could write any old thing to get people to buy, us copywriters would very soon be out of a job. But it’s very rare for someone to read web copy, an email or brochure and say “I want one of those now!” Making a buying decision is not that straight forward. The voice of reason is always lurking, ready to stop you from reaching for your wallet:     Can you really justify the cost? Do you really need one? Don’t you already have something similar? A professional copywriter will be able to overcome these objections within their copy – even before you’ve thought of them. So how do they do that? Copywriting that overcomes objections When you’re on the verge of buying something, all sorts of niggling objections will pop into your head. It’s the job of the copywriter to pre-empt them. Why? Because

  Your headline is the make or break of your article. If it doesn’t immediately grab attention, a reader is unlikely to read your article  - regardless of how many hours you slaved over it. Many online marketers write articles because they know they are a great way to build backlinks which are vital to any SEO strategy. So a steady stream of them (written either in-house or by using a professional copywriter) will boost your visibility on line and position you as an expert in your field. But because it’s such a popular marketing tool, there are an awful lot of articles out there. That means, if you ...

  If I asked you to give me an example of powerful copywriting what you say? Something that catches your attention immediately A headline which draws you in Simple to read copy with lots of headings Hopefully your answer was something along those lines. Powerful copywriting is all of those things. The problem is when some people try to write strong copy they get it all wrong. Bear with me and I’ll explain. Shouting copy A few days ago, I was writing some web copy for a client and my husband was working from home. He works for a German company and deals with a lot of customers located around Europe. That particular day he was engaged on a phone call to one such customer. Instead of his usual voice, I heard a rather strained conversation being conducted in very slow, broken English. He, like many of us, is guilty of adopting the technique of speaking very s-l-o-w-l-y ...

  This is amazing. Your search engine optimisation strategy is working. Targeted traffic is flooding to your website and your professional copywriting is converting them because they are going straight to your contact form. Fantastic. So what happens next? Getting traffic that converts is one thing but does your customer service match their expectations or is it letting you down? There are a number of ways your customers will be able to get in touch with you so you must ensure the service they receive via their preferred method is first class. 1. Email Although your customers won’t expect an immediate response via email, they don’t to be left hanging around for weeks either. When you get an email send an acknowledgement so they know you are aware of their ...

  Website copywriting is just one of the services I offer my clients. Creating copy that is effective is essential if you want your website visitor to become a paying customer. Generating copy that is interesting, relevant and that sells isn’t as easy as it sounds and there are a number of factors that you must consider when creating your website copy. In fact, these factors are equally relevant when writing copy for all your marketing materials such as brochures, case studies, newsletters, emails etc. Even though you are writing about your products and services, it is your reader who must be at the forefront ...

  Keeping in touch with your customers will set you apart from your competition. All too often businesses take your money and wave goodbye. But they’re missing a trick. Regular contact with your customers (and prospective customers) is vital because it keeps you in their mind when they’re in need of your products or services. An effective way of doing that is by producing a monthly newsletter. Newsletter content Many businesses stumble at the first hurdle because they don’t know what to include. Your newsletter can be used to convey great information, industry updates, special offers, announcements, helpful hints—anything that will add value to your customers. Of ...

  Regular communication with  your customers is a great way to keep them informed and to keep your name firmly etched in their minds. One of the most effective ways of doing this is through email marketing.  New subscribers will eagerly await your first email to land in their inbox. They will probably continue to welcome them until, one day, the honeymoon period is over. You will begin to realise your emails aren’t being opened as often (or at all); your messages are now unloved, unopened and unwanted. What do you do? Panic? Send flowers? It’s time to take action. Fighting email marketing ...

  In any business relationship, trust is probably the most important factor. After all, if someone doesn’t trust you they’re not going to buy from you. So, when you’re creating your marketing materials, your copy has to convince your readers that you are trustworthy. Before I go on to explain how this can be achieved, I want to look at how you can build trust through blogging. The posts on your blog are very personal to you so your reader instantly connects with you because they feel they know you through your words. This is the exact type of connection your sales writing has to replicate.  The problem is ...

  As a website copywriter, I have been know to harp on about your website copy should address the needs of your reader. What do I mean? Basically, your content must focus on the benefits of your product/service to the reader rather than focusing on your company and its accomplishments. That may sound easy but it isn’t. To create great copy that’s compelling, you have to distance yourself from your business which is why many companies opt for the services of a professional copywriter. Writing for your reader is the way to go but that doesn’t mean you have to totally forget about yourself. You still need an outlet on ...