Entries Tagged 'copywriting' ↓

For any business, social media should be as important as face to face networking, cold calling and lead chasing. In fact, once you get the hang of it you could kiss goodbye to cold calling forever.

Ever since starting out as a freelance copywriter I have harnessed the power of social media. Today I don’t have to do any cold calling and only minimal face to face networking giving me more time to get on with the important stuff – helping my clients.

It can be time consuming but no more than other methods of business generation. And yes, unless you have a plan, you can waste valuable time ‘playing’ rather than achieving great results.

This excellent post from Chris Garrett on Social Media Examiner gives 5 tips for finding time for social media. It shows you how useful it can be and how it can easily be worked into your normal working day.

If you haven’t already dipped your toes into the warm waters of social media, give it a try – you might just amaze yourself at the results you get.

High quality editing is at the heart of successful copywriting. Composing the copy for an article, like this one, is only the first step. Once it’s taken shape the experienced copywriter will, like any other artist, step back and judge their work with a critical eye.

Does it deliver the right message clearly and simply? Is the composition correct? Is the balance right? When you’re working on the detail, building sentence by sentence, it’s easy to lose track of the bigger picture. Often it’s only when you stand back to review the completed whole that you spot the flaws and the gaps. Then it’s time to do some touching up.

The obvious problems are spelling or typing errors or rogue words left behind in the editing process. Your editing software might highlight these with warning symbols, but spelling-checkers can’t tell whether you meant to say ‘stationary’ or ‘stationery’.

But beware of focusing on these relatively easy problems. There are bigger issues to consider, such as whether the article achieves the objectives you had for it. Does it convey a consistent message in a consistent way?

One of the pleasures of writing is the constant flow of ideas. As you write you think. Let’s say you’re putting together a 500 word piece about buying an inexpensive laptop computer for use at home. This sets you thinking about the issues of which operating system to use or the practicality of a smaller notebook computer. These thoughts start flowing into your copy.

Before you know it your article has started to address multiple subjects. The main message is no longer clear. Choice of operating systems and the style of laptop might be related but they’ve changed the focus of the article, which was meant to be about buying a cheap computer.

The ideas spawned in the writing process could become new articles in their own right, so make a note of them. But don’t get distracted from your main message.

Editing also addresses other questions. How well does the text flow? Can the punctuation be improved? There are broader issues as well, such as the value of working with an editor, and indeed who might make a good editor. These can be picked up at another time.

Today’s message is, I hope, a clear and simple one. Make sure your copy is exactly that – clear, simple in order to communicate the message you want your readers to hear.

This post was written by guest blogger Andrew Knowles, a freelance copywriter who also runs a blog for small businesses.

The inbox is a harsh and unforgiving environment. For an email to survive it has to be strong, clear and concise otherwise it could end up in the pit of doom – also knows as the deleted items folder (or worse still, the junk mail).

Subject lines that won’t get ‘junked’

The subject line of your message is its ‘do or die’. If it doesn’t catch the recipient’s eye the email will go straight to the delete box.

So how do you make sure your email survives this particular hurdle?

• Keep it short – no more than 60 characters (including spaces)
• Personalise it – if possible add the recipient’s name
• Identify your company – get your company name in there
• Tell them what your e-mail’s about (e.g. new ideas for home makeovers)
• State a benefit – this will act as an enticement

Don’t go too salesy

If you have a hard salesy subject line your email will probably be deleted. Your recipient will know in an instant you just want to sell them something and the barriers will go up.

You also have to be careful about what words you use. Tripping a spam filter can be all too easy so you have to choose your words very cautiously. Therefore words you would normally use in headlines should be avoided in subject lines, such as:

• You – almost always shows the email is coming from a stranger
• Exclamation marks – I’m not a fan of these little fella’s anyway and they certainly are not welcome in subject lines.
• Buzz words such as – free, sale, only, urgent, information, limited-time, opportunity… By all means use these in your email body, but not the subject line.

By following this advice your email marketing should run a bit smoother. Your subject line should come across as unthreatening and hopefully, interesting enough for the recipient to open and read on…

Further reading:

Is Email Marketing Right For You?

Work Your Way Towards The Perfect Email Body

Sally Ormond – Freelance copywriting services

You might think, because direct mail letters come from a wide range of different companies and industries, they have little in common. Well, you’d be wrong.

There are certain characteristics that make up successful sales letters. Of course, your offer and list will have a lot to do with your success rate, but the following factors will contribute to an engaging and powerful letter.

Time to get personal

Your first task is to build rapport. Talk directly to your reader and empathise with them. A sales letter is not the place to shout about your company.

Your letter is intruding into someone’s life. They didn’t ask you to write to them. So you must demonstrate to them you understand their problem and you can help by building trust and credibility.

How?

Quite simply by:

• Using “you” engages them in conversation. You’re not lecturing them, you’re confiding in them – you’re building rapport.

• Telling them what’s in it for them – tell them how your product or service will benefit them; what they’re going to get out of this.

• Speak normally – now is not the time to show off your impressive vocabulary. Every day language will communicate your message far better.

• Mirror them – your readers need to see themselves when they read your letter. It should reflect their needs, desires, hopes etc.

Once upon a time…

A good letter will follow the same pattern as a fairy tale:

Once upon a time your washing was always dull, your whites never shone. But then one day your neighbour introduced you to a new wonderful detergent. Now your clothes are brilliantly clean. You are noticed by the handsome prince who sweeps you off your feet and you live happily ever after.

OK, a bit tongue in cheek, but you get the idea. Just remember, in your sales letter the hero of the story is your reader and there can’t be a happy ending until your reader takes action.

Be precise

Your sales message must be precise. If you want to build credibility, you must use facts and figures, testimonials and case studies. Simply by saying your washing powder is the best on the market isn’t going to convince anyone to buy it. But say that independent tests have proven your washing powder to remove 99.9% of all stains – now you’re talking.

Tell them what to do

If you have followed all the other steps and produced a strong letter that talks to your reader, builds rapport, empathises with them and gives evidence that your product works, but you fail to tell them what to do next – you’ve just wasted everyone’s time.

Your call to action must be strong and commanding. Tell them what they must do – call now, complete the order form and return it today etc.

Leave them in doubt as to what to do and what will happen next – i.e. goods will arrive in 28 days, one of our representatives will call you in 10 days etc.

Sally Ormond is a freelance copywriter who works with companies all over the world. Her copywriting services have helped numerous companies increase their sales and enjoy greater visibility within their market place.

Direct mail is a very effective sales weapon, if you get it right.

There are 3 elements to direct response advertising that make it so successful:

• Appeals to a specifically targeted audience
• Written to inspire an action or response
• It can be measured to assess it effectiveness

Target your audience

Some methods of marketing involve sending out generic advertising to the general populous. This may achieve a wide distribution but much of the information will be wasted.

Why?

Because your sales pitch won’t be targeted at your ideal market.

The beauty of direct mail is that it is targeted to a specific audience. Your mailing list is the single most important aspect of your whole campaign. In fact, in order of importance, your direct mail campaign top 4 elements are:

1. List – you can either buy this in or use your own which would have been built over time from past customers, newsletter sign ups etc.
2. Offer – this will depend on what the desired response to your mailing is. It could be a free report, free shipping, BOGOF etc.
3. Format – email, letter, gift, radio ad, TV ad etc.
4. Copy – this must be customer orientated with a strong call to action

Get them to take action

The whole reason behind your direct mail campaign is to get a desired response from your prospects.

Whether that is to buy, sign up or make an appointment, your mailing should be designed to get the reader to make that response immediately.

Therefore you need to make it as easy as possible for them – provide a free phone number, enclose an SAE for their completed order form, give them a web address etc.

Always provide them with everything they need.

How did you do?

The only way to discover how effective your campaign has been is by measuring it.

If you are doing an electronic campaign your analytics will show you how successful your marketing drive was. But if you are sending a physical mailing you will need other methods of monitoring it.

Try a 0800 number specific to each campaign. If you are driving traffic to your website provide an offer code that has to be keyed in so you can track your website visitors. If you have sent SAEs mark the envelope with a code so their source can easily be identified.

If you make sure your direct response advertising covers all the elements shown above you should be well on your way to a successful marketing campaign.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter