Entries Tagged 'copywriting tips' ↓

Because copywriting is sales writing it is designed to be read, persuade and sell.

Your writing has to emit a magnetic force that is so powerful it draws your reader in and holds their attention.

This isn’t a God given gift that only freelance copywriters have; it is something that anyone can achieve if they follow a few simple rules.

Want to know what they are?

Be direct

That doesn’t mean “Buy it!” will work.

People have a tendency to ‘over write’ because they think it sounds better – it doesn’t.

For example: “Most primary school children almost certain believe that Father Christmas still exists.”

Long winded or what?

“Most primary school children believe in Santa.” – Much better.

Repetition

This can be done in a good way to create a rhythm that’ll draw your reader in. Repetition can be good when done well. Repetition can be annoying when over used.

Active

If you use the passive voice in your writing you’ll use more words, appear lazy and produce something that’s not engaging. A passive sentence would be “the cat was stroked by the girl” but by swapping round the subject and object of the sentence you will make it active – “the girl stroked the cat”

Being active is much better.

Brief

When it comes to writing, less is most definitely more. When people read, they usually manage the first few sentences and then start scanning. Get your important information in early and don’t waffle.

Short sentences

Short sentences are easy to read. They are easy to understand. When you start getting complicated, and I think we can all be guilty of that at times, people begin to get bored and you run the risk of them deciding it’s not worth persevering with your overly long sentences especially as by the time they’ve reached the full stop they can’t remember what they were reading about anyway. (Gasp for breath!)

Debate

Don’t answer all their questions. Leave them wanting more.

No adjectives

Adjectives are nasty little suckers that sneak into your writing and dull your message. During your first editing read through be ruthless and banish them.

Story

Tell them a story about how your product solved someone’s problem. Understand what your product can do in a real life situation is very powerful.

Informal

Be conversational in your writing. Resist the temptation to write in a regional dialect – that really won’t work. Talk to your reader and they’ll respond; talk at them and they’ll walk away.

By putting these simple ideas into effect you’ll produce sales writing that’s readable and engaging.

Good luck.

We all know blogging is good for business

Just about every business owner out there understands that blogging is good for their business. It will:

• show them as an expert in their field
• add value to their client relationships
• drive traffic to their main website
• raise their profile

As a freelance copywriter I use blogging a lot because it helps me reach out to a wider audience (especially when I couple my blogging with Twitter), I can demonstrate that I do know what I’m talking about and (more importantly) that I can write.

My whole blog is centered around eveything copywriting and marketing. This focus is essential because it’s relevant to my work and, when people subscribe to my RSS feed, they know each post I make will be of use to them – after all they subscribed because I give them copywriting and marketing tips. If I suddenly started posting stuff about recipies and knitting I would loose the relevance and a lot of subscribers.

I don’t know what to write

If I was given a pound everytime someone said that to me, I would have retired a long time ago.

All you have to do is take a look at what your business does – there’s your subject matter. Throw into the mix comments on industry news, debates about new ideas and you’ve got yourself an interesting and relevant library to write about.

Follow other blogs within your industry. What are they talking about? Expand on their ideas (but always link back to the original source of inspiration). You can even get inspiration from print media too – the opportunities are endless.

Do I have to do it myself?

My personal opinion on this is yes.

I know there are many people out there who’ll write and post blog posts for you (for a fee) but, for me, that defeats the whole object of having a blog.

Your blog should be a means of communicating your thoughts and personality to your readers. With each post you are building a relationship. Your readers are getting to know you. If you are using your blog to drive traffic to your main website, your readers are going to feel as though they know you before they do business with you.

If you’re not the one doing the writing, how can they forge a relationship with you? It’s a bit like when, back in the 1980s, Milli Vanilly was found to be a complete fraud and their Grammy was revoked after it was revealed that the lead vocals on the record were not the actual voices of Morvan and Pilatus.

Yes, blogging takes time but isn’t it worth it?

The whole stimulus for this post was actually another blog post written by Chris Brogan called Write Better Blog Posts Today. Chris talks about being focused on your end result. Why are your writing your blog? What do you want your post to achieve? If you have these ideas straight in your mind before you start, you’ll become blogging dynamite.

Search engine optimisation is the new black – well, OK it’s not exactly new but it is vital for any business with a website today.

When consumers type their search terms into Google’s search box, its many thousands of spiders zip around the web finding websites with relevant content. So if your website isn’t SEO friendly, it won’t get found and therefore won’t be listed in the organic search results.

OK so you could do an Adwords campaign, but that’s going to cost you – organic results are a much better way to go, but they take time to achieve.

So how do you know the best way to optimise your website?

Well there are plenty of SEO guys and gals out there that will take care of that for you for a handsome sum – but does it really have to cost you a fortune?

Nope – not if you know where to look

Tom Picks,  TheWebMarketCental Blog, has some great links to take you to practically any piece of information you want to know about SEO guidance (and more – just take a look) in his post Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 2

Great post Tom, thanks for sharing it with us.

You might think that a heading such as ‘Tips for writing for web readers’ is a bit odd – after all, who else would you be writing for?

Well with everyone concerned about search engine optimisation (and quite rightly so), some companies fall into the trap of writing for the search engine spiders rather than their readers.

Looking back through this blog you’ll find a few posts relating to this exact topic but I find it’s always useful to get someone else’s opinion on something.

Keyword stuffing is a prime example of people getting their website copywriting wrong. The only thing this achieves is filling your web pages with a load of nonsense that people won’t want to read and Google will pick up as stuffing and walk on by.

One of the key factors when writing your web copy is to write naturally to your reader. I came across a post on dailyblogtips by Debbie Dragon who expands this point further by giving 6 Tips for Writing for Web Readers.

Check it out and see where you can improve your web copy.

Further reading:

8 Tips for Great Web Copy

7 Basics to Make Your Website Readable

The Ego Website

Website Copywriting – 6 Steps to a Sticky Website

If you have been following my blog, you’ll recall the last few posts dealt with the issue of email marketing.

Email remains one of the most cost effective methods for today’s small businesses to market to their customers. With a single click your offer or news item can be distributed to thousands of in boxes anywhere in the world. We have already looked at the structure and content of a great email campaign – now it’s time to take it to another level.

I came across this great post on eMarketer which gives you a further trick you can try to boost your email open rate. This is an excellent piece of advice for all business owners and definitley worth a try because Coupons Boost E-Mail Open Rate ( eMarketer).

This is such a simple idea and so easy to implement. So why not give it a go?

Next time you send out an email campaign or newsletter, try adding a coupon and see what effect it has on your open rate.

Associated posts:

Is Email Marketing Right For You?

Email Marketing – It’s All In The Subject Line

Work Your Way Towards The Perfect Email Body