Entries from June 2010 ↓

Today’s buyer has more choice than ever. The market place is saturated with companies vying for their attention.

So, if people aren’t buying from you it is down to one reason alone:

You haven’t given them sufficient reason to choose you above your competitors.

That might leave you scratching your head – you have a website, you have brochures, you’ve dabbled in email marketing, so what else do you have to do?

Just because you have an internet presence doesn’t automatically mean people will buy from you. You have to give browsers a golden reason why they should buy from you.

This is George. He runs a small business that makes curtains to order for his clients. He’s invested in a website but didn’t want to pay for a copywriter to produce the content (he can write as well as anyone – can’t he?) so he wrote it. It tells people all about his company:

• We’ve been making curtains for 10 years
• We have an extensive range of fabrics
• We can make them to any size
• We can make blinds, curtains, Austrian blinds etc.

So, where’s he gone wrong?

Let’s look at it from a customers point of view:

• We’ve been making curtains for 10 years – so what?
• We have an extensive range of fabrics – define extensive.
• We can make them to any size – can’t everyone?
• We can make blinds, curtains, Austrian blinds etc. – so do all the other companies.

He hasn’t told them anything that makes him stand out from the crowd.

The browsing public have a short attention span and even shorter memories. If you want them to pick you as their chosen supplier, you must tell them what makes you stand out immediately.

How to make your mark

To find out what makes your business unique, write down every reason you can think of, why someone should buy from you. Ask all your staff members for their input and create as comprehensive a list as possible.

Next, go back over that list and cross off anything that your competitors do.

Once you have your list of things that are unique about your brand you then have to work out which ones are likely to be most important to your customers and, more importantly, which they are most likely to understand. Remember – you must think from your customers’ shoes here; your opinions don’t count.

By now, you should have some good information you can use on your Home Page, in your brochures and in your email marketing.

Make your unique value proposition strong, clear and easy to understand. With your message centred on your customer rather than on you, you should avoid the ‘so what?’ response.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

If you look back through this blog, you’ll find a number of posts about search engine optimisation.

I’ve tried to dispel the many myths that surround this concept – a concept many consider as mysterious.

Well, it’s not.

The SEO industry doesn’t have a great reputation. That is mainly due to the vast number of SEO Cowboys out there who love to take businesses for a ride by employing ‘black hat’ SEO practices. Investing in the services of a reputable SEO company and SEO copywriter will pay dividends.

So how do you know whether you are being taken for a ride?

• Keyword density
• Guaranteed front page listing
• META tags have no relevance
• Link out to relevant sites to boost SEO
• SEO is a short term solution

If a SEO company uses any of these phrase, run for the hills and don’t look back.

Plus, SEO is something that you can maintain once you have a strategy in place. The processes of link building, keyword research and keeping an eye on your analytics are all things that you can do.

To help ensure you don’t get lassoed by a cowboy outfit, check out these 10 SEO myths debunked by SEO Works – The Blog

Don’t forget the copy

I mentioned earlier about investing in great SEO copywriting. Even if your SEO strategy is working like a dream and you’re getting shed loads of visitors, if your website copy isn’t converting you are walking away from open wallets.

SEO copywriting is an art in its own right. Not only do you have to create informative, benefits driven, customer-orientated copy, it also has to be search engine friendly. That doesn’t mean cramming it with your keywords, but rather knowing where the optimum places are for those keywords.

So if you are serious about getting your website working for you, make sure you also find yourself a great SEO copywriter – one that really knows what they’re doing.

Sally Ormond is a leading SEO Copywriter – get in touch now and make sure your website copy carries clout.

The best way to get your name known (and in turn boost your business) is to position yourself as an expert in your field.

“That’s easy for your say, but how on earth do I make that happen?”

Well, I’m glad you asked me that because that’s what this post is all about.

Boost your knowledge

If you want people to see you as an expert, you have to know what you’re talking about. That sounds fairly obvious, but how many people do you know who think they’re experts but really know nothing?

Becoming an expert isn’t something that’ll happen overnight. It only comes to those who work hard to achieve it.

You’ll need to keep up with the latest thinking in your industry so that means reading – a lot! Be a regular to other leading blogs in your industry, read reports and the latest news. Books are another great source of information. As a freelance copywriter I read a lot of blogs, copywriting and marketing books and marketing materials.

Don’t forget other people in your industry. Seek them out and chat with them – you can learn a lot from their experiences and different takes on life.

You can also learn from your customers. Talk to them, find out what they really want. And finally, experiment. No one ever got anywhere by doing the same thing over and over. Everything evolves so why not be the one that experimented and came up with the next big thing?

All of this might sound a lot of hard work, but it doesn’t have to be. Reading can be fitted in as and when you have time. You’ll come across other people in your industry through your normal networking and you talk to your customers all the time (I hope).

Use that knowledge to become an expert

So, step two is learning how to use your knowledge to become considered an expert.

This can be done in 3 simple ways:

1. Blog

Using a blog is a great way to get your information out there. Make sure each post is informative, factual and interesting. Before long you will have a dedicated readership. Of course, the better your information the more likely you are to attract one way links which will give your search engine optimisation a boost too.

You should also consider guest blogging to widen your audience and produce short videos which you can include in your posts. While you’re at it, set up your own YouTube channel to gather even more followers.

If you are going to set up a blog, make sure you post to it regularly. Your readers will learn when to expect new information from you, so don’t disappoint them.

2. Articles

Submitting informative articles to sites such as ezinearticles is a great way to boost your expert status. Again they can also be used to help your SEO. Make sure they are informative and interesting. Also create an interesting author biography that will make readers want to click through to your site to learn more about you.

3. Be social

One of the best ways to get your name known is through the power of social media. If you use Twitter, Facebook or any of the other outlets, use it well and use it often. When someone asks a question about your field be ready to help. Sharing great information will get you noticed.

If all of this sounds like hard work – perhaps being an expert isn’t for you. But if you are prepared to work, increase your knowledge and share it with others, you will be propelled to expert status.

Why not  give it a go? Get your name recognised.

As a copywriter I have a lot of people coming to me for SEO copywriting.

More and more people are beginning to appreciate the power of the internet as a marketing tool. They also realise that if they are to be found, they have to get to get to grips with search engine optimisation.

For many, that still seems to mean stuffing as many keywords as possible into their copy. Please, please don’t do that.

SEO copy is not about how many times you can fit a word or phrase onto a page. If you do, you’ll end up with something that is unreadable, unattractive and  that won’t convert your visitors into customers.

SEO copywriting is about understanding where your keywords and phrases need to go to have the most effect. How to layout your text to make it readable. And how to position your writing so it’s informative, benefits driven and so it talks to your reader.

All of that takes some doing so if you need help, get in touch and I’ll be happy to provide you with a quote to take your business forward.

Anyway, enough of that – this blog post is about a different form of SEO.

If you look back through this blog, and indeed any other that you follow, you’ll notice I use images a lot.

There are several reasons for this:

• They make the page look nice
• They can pique your readers’ curiosity
• They help with SEO

That final point is one that is often overlooked. After all they are only images and the search engine spiders don’t have eyes.

That may be true, but there are a number of ways your images can help your blog posts and website copy in terms of search engine optimisation.

Are you using your images to the max?

I stumbled across a blog post by the Top Rank online marketing blog the others day that goes into this exact subject.

Their post 6 Tips on Image SEO gives valuable information on how to make the most out of using images in your website.

In an increasingly competitive online world, every ounce of SEO power you can utilise for your website is worth its weight in gold.

Are you using your images to their full potential?

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

SEO copywriter

Search engine optimisation is everywhere you look these days. There are companies all over the world promising to keep you on the front page of Google.

But if you don’t have the budget for that type of service there are a few things you can do to improve your website’s SEO.

First off, I want to remind you that SEO isn’t a one off activity. If you want your website to work hard for you, you must constantly work on your SEO strategy.

Yes, strategy. You do have one don’t you? If not, you’d better devise one if you don’t want to get left behind.

5 ways to improve your website’s SEO

If you are serious about optimising your chances of online marketing success, here are 5 simple techniques you can employ. Remember, if you’re going to do this, it has to be a long term strategy. If you play at SEO you won’t succeed. SEO is a long game that requires dedication.

So, here goes. Here are 5 ways you can improve your website’s SEO.

1. Schedule new content

Creating a weekly schedule is the best way to ensure you keep on top of your SEO strategy. Decide how many blog posts you’ll write each week and set aside time to produce them. If you have a news section on your website, diarise to regularly up date it to keep the content fresh and current. If you are using social media, keep those regularly updated.

By scheduling each of these tasks, you will keep on top of your SEO strategy.

2. Link build

One of the most effective ways to gain great search engine rankings is by link building. Especially one way anchor text links. Diarise every few days to create a new blog post and articles (which will contain hypertext links back to your main site), write guest blogs, submit your website to directories and create content for your website that will attract links from other sites (especially information that is topical and current).

3. Keywords

Although you would have spent a lot of time doing your initial keyword research, review it regularly. Watch what your competitors are doing. Look at which keywords are driving the most traffic and concentrate on them.

4. Analytics

Make sure you utilise the data from Google Analytics. It’s easy to set up and provides valuable information such as where your traffic comes from, and how visitors view your website. This is especially useful in determining the user friendliness of your website and will help you enhance its usability.

5. Optimise your content

Every 3 to 6 months check your content. Is it still relevant? Can it be updated to bring more value to your readers? Check for broken links and new opportunities to add fresh content. Also look at your anchor text links within your copy – are they varied? Do they utilise all your keywords?

As you can see, SEO is a process of evolution. It is driven by your company’s direction and your customers. To keep ahead of the game, you must constantly tweak your strategy.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter