Entries Tagged 'freelance copywriter' ↓

Social media is the new black—everyone’s doing it (apparently), even the Queen’s now on Facebook.

But just because you’ve set up a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account doesn’t mean you’ll automatically attract followers and fans.

How you use social media tools will determine how effective they are. As a freelance copywriter I use social media a lot (especially Twitter – @sallyormond) which also means I come across a lot of people who are ‘using’ the tools albeit not very effectively.

In this post I want to run through 5 elements that may be causing you to repel more people than you attract.

1. Social Media

Social media is about conversations—2 way conversations. You are supposed to be communicating with people rather than broadcasting to them.

Remember, Twitter isn’t radio. You haven’t booked an air slot for your advertisements. If you constantly tweet about your products, services and offers people won’t want to follow you. Why should they?

2. Self promotion

On all forms of social media you have the option to put together a short biography. The purpose of this is so that potential fans or followers can find out who you are and whether they think you’ll be an interest person to engage with.

If your profile is blatant promotion and quite robotic it won’t inspire them to want to get to know you better. Write it from the heart and inject your personality—be human.

3. ‘Social’

It is called ‘social media’ for a reason—because it’s meant to be social. If you use Twitter for pure business how will people get to know you? They certainly won’t want to start a conversation with you.

By all means tweet about your business but intersperse them with chatty updates and engage others in conversation.

4. Follow me!

On Twitter don’t try and grow too quickly. If you suddenly amass 1000 people you’re following and you only have 46 followers, you’re just playing the numbers game.

Follow people you want to follow.  Don’t be seduced into believing you have to have thousands of followers. It’s more important to have quality followers who are actually interested in you.

5. Don’t be a wallflower

Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, don’t just sit back and wait for someone to say hello.

Find people you want to follow and then engage them in conversation. Gradually you’ll gather more followers, have more conversations, gather more followers, have more conversations….

If you want to be part of the party you have to participate.

Social media is a great tool for business but it can also be fun. In fact it should be fun. It gives you the opportunity to chat and interact with people you would never normally meet. So give it a go.

As a copywriter I am frequently asked by people how to write effective copy.

Creating something that is interesting, relevant and that sells isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

There are a number of factors that have to be taken into consideration when creating copy for your website, brochure, newsletter, email campaign etc.

You must think about your audience, why you’re writing, what you want to achieve from it and that’s before you start looking at it from your customers perspective.

The easiest way to explain effective copy is to look at it from a ‘questions point of view’—put on your journalist’s hat and follow me…

W-W-W-W-W-H

Who?

Who is your product going to help? This will identify your target market and help you develop the right tone and voice through which you’ll convey your message.

What?

What am I writing about? What will it mean to my customers? This will help you identify the main benefits of your product or service. After all it’s the benefits that will persuade your reader to buy. It’s all about what it will do for them.

When?

Will your product help them now or in the future? How long will your offer last? Timing is crucial, especially with your offer.

Where?

Where can they order or buy your product? If they don’t know how they can get hold of it, how can they buy it? This might sound obvious but you’d be amazed at how many people forget this simple detail.

Why?

Why should they buy it? Yes we’re back to those benefits again. Why is it going to make their life better?

How?

Make sure you let them know how it works, how much it costs, how they can buy it etc.

Once you’ve covered all of those points you must also:

• Keep it simple – write in simple language, with simple sentences. Don’t use jargon as that is a real turn-off.
• Call to action – remember to always tell your reader what you want them to do (call now, buy now, sign up now etc.) otherwise they’ll just walk away.
• Honesty – it really is the best policy. If you make claims about your offerings make sure they are genuine. You want to build a relationship of trust.
• Offer – if you want your offer to appeal to your market make sure it fulfils their needs. To add extra impact make it time limited or limit it by number.

The main thing to remember when writing copy is always have your reader in mind, tell  them what they want to know, make an offer that will appeal to them and leave them in no doubt as to why their lives will be enhanced by it.

Regular contact with your customers (and prospective customers) is vital, which is why many businesses now produce a monthly (or at least regular) newsletter.

It is a great way to nurture relationships.

They can be used to convey great information, industry updates, special offers, announcements, helpful hints—anything that will add value to your customers.

By maintaining regular contact in this way you are ensuring your business name remains firmly lodged in their mind so when they are in need, it is you they will turn to.

The best way to develop your mailing list is to grow it organically—home grown will always bring in better results than a bought in list.

So how do you ensure you and your customers get the most out of your business relationship?

Well, here are 3 ways to ensure your newsletter works:

1. Opt-in

If you want someone to opt into your mailing list, you have to make it easy for them.

There’s no point in hiding your opt-in form so your reader has to search your entire website for it—because they won’t bother.

Make sure your sign-up box is highly visible, preferably on every page and simple to complete.

It would also be a good idea to quickly tell them what they can expect to receive from you, the frequency of your mailings, oh, and reassure them that you won’t share their details with anyone else.

2. Content

What you send out each month is critical.

Don’t make your content overly promotional and certainly don’t start with a sales pitch.

Kick off with a recommendation, article, or comment on industry news. Then enhance your relationship further by offering a hint or tip that your reader will find useful. Once you’ve given them something you can then bring in your offer or a case study to promote your products/services.

If you are unsure about how or what to write, it may be an idea to enlist the help of a freelance copywriter to write the content for you.

Just remember always give first and ask second.

3. Two way traffic

If you want your newsletter to enhance your relationship make sure it is easy for your reader to interact with you.

After reading your news they may want to get in touch so don’t use a “no-reply” email address. Make it simple for them.

The main thing to remember about using a regular newsletter to keep in touch with your customers is that it shouldn’t all be about selling.

Your newsletter should be used to add value to your relationship. Be generous with your information as this will develop trust and with trust comes sales.

Email marketing can be an incredibly effective way of communicating with your customers and prospective customers.

When someone initially opts-in to your marketing list they wait in eager anticipation for your first email to land in their inbox. They continue to welcome your communications with open arms until, one day, the honeymoon period is over.

As time progresses you realise that 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?

Nope. When this happens it’s time to take action.

What to do when you get email marketing list fatigue

1. Look at your frequency

When they originally opted-in, you would have made it clear how often they would hear from you.  Are you now sending emails more frequently?

If so, begin to scale back. There are only so many times people will want to see you in their inbox. Don’t be that nosy neighbour who’s always popping in – you know, the one you hide from under the kitchen table so they think you’re out.

2. Gone stale

Take a look at your past few emails. Are you covering the same type of information? Is their layout and content becoming too predictable? If so you may find that the perceived value of your emails has dwindled so it could be time to rethink your strategy.

3. Incoming!

Don’t bombard your readers. If you are launching new products or offers, stagger them. It’s never a good idea to announce 4 or 5 within the same month. Firstly people won’t want that number of emails from you and secondly, they’ll get confused.

4. What’s your subject line?

Have you gotten sloppy with your subject lines?

These hold the key to people opening your emails so if they are no longer appealing, your emails won’t get opened. Perhaps it’s time to have a rethink about your subject line approach (or call in a copywriter to help you generate fresh and appealing content).

5. No one’s home

We all, from time to time, change our email addresses.

If one of your recipients hasn’t engaged with your mailings (i.e. they haven’t opened it) for 6 months or more, send out a ‘reengagement’ email – something that forces an action if they want to remain on your list.

If you don’t hear anything it’s safe to say that either:

• The email address is no longer active, or
• They no longer want to receive your emails

So it may be time to remove them from your list.

6. Spam

When was the last time you checked your emails against spam filters?

It could well be that something is triggering your recipients spam filters so your emails aren’t even reaching their in box.

If you want your email marketing to continue to be successful, regular list maintenance is essential to ensure that:

• Your readers are happy with their content
• All email addresses are active
• You are avoiding spam triggers
• Your subject lines are being effective

Article marketing remains one of the most effective ways of boosting your search engine presence. Not only do you begin to ‘own more of the web’ you also generate those oh so important back links to your website.

But it is only effective if you produce quality content that:

• Is well written
• Addresses the needs of your readers
• Gives value

Many companies are more hung up on quantity rather than quality. They’d rather pay a few pounds per article from writers (who are frequently based abroad and for whom English is not their first language) who churn out dozens of articles, than pay a decent fee and hire a professional copywriter.

It’s not a numbers game

Yes you need a lot of articles to build links. But submitting quality articles that are well written over a period of time is far more effective than bulk submitting sub-standard ones.

Many companies out there do value good quality writing (and are prepared to pay for it) but too many don’t.

Putting a good article together isn’t about scanning the internet and cutting and pasting bits from other articles.

It’s about taking time to discover:

• What topic is to be discussed
• The focus of the discussion
• Who your audience is
• What they are looking for
• What tone should be used
• What do you want to achieve with the article

It’s a pretty safe bet that writers willing to create your articles for a couple of quid a throw won’t ask any of that.

It’s your neck on the line

You might think that it’s only article marketing so it doesn’t matter what you submit.

Wrong. It matters a lot.

If you are putting your name to it, it’s your reputation on the line. You are using these articles as a way of establishing yourself as an expert in your field. If you submit poor quality articles you’ll come across as a cowboy and not someone people want to deal with.

Articles are not just about link building—people do read them—can you really afford to be that careless with your brand?

SEO nightmare

You will need an element of SEO within your articles so they are found by your target audience.

But cheap articles often lead to shoddy SEO resulting in complete nonsense that’s unreadable. Many of the cheap outlets will just stuff your article with your keyword. The result is gibberish.

A professional copywriter understands SEO and knows how to craft your article so it is search engine friendly and reader friendly. In fact, done well, you’d be hard pushed to spot the keywords.

You get what you pay for

As with all things in life, you get what you pay for.

If you want high quantity you’ll get poor quality.

But if you are more interested in your reputation, traffic and quality you’ll pay more but the end result will be far superior.

Every company wants to get the most out of its marketing budget, it’s only natural. But investing in quality copywriting will pay dividends in the long run—to your bottom line and your reputation.