Entries from October 2012 ↓

We all know that our marketing content has to be interesting, compelling and focused on the needs of our marketplace.

But that’s only part of it.

If your content doesn’t contain powerful and commanding calls to action, it’s essentially dead in the water.

A call to action is a critical part of your marketing. It signifies the next step you want the reader to take along the relationship-building road.

But contrary to popular belief, a call to action (CTA) isn’t simply ‘Buy Now’; the type of call to action you use will depend on what you’re trying to achieve.

The different types of calls to action

 There are 3 main types of call to action:

1. Getting a sale

 This is the simplest form and is the archetypal ‘Buy Now’.

Once your prospect has read your website, brochure, newsletter etc., it is designed to get them to take the next step in your business relationship: to buy from you.

Frequently, this call to action will be a button, which should standout and be obvious.

2. Building your list

 If your customer isn’t in a buying position just yet, you can still use a call to action.

In this case it’s more likely to be a request for them to download an eBook, white paper or sign up for your newsletter. Capturing their email address in this way will enable you to start building a strong relationship with them.

3. Displaying your expertise

 In the very early days, potential customers want to be reassured that you’re an expert in what you do so they can trust you.

That’s where the third type of CTA comes into play.

When writing blogs and articles make sure you add in hyperlinks to take your readers to other related content that they might find useful. This cross-referencing will enhance their experience and display your depth of knowledge.

The result? They’ll get the information they need and you’ll show off your expert credentials.

So as you can see, calls to action are a major part of your marketing writing and can take on various forms.

Any writing where you don’t include a form of CTA is wasted writing.

The following guest post was written by Joshua Danton Boyd. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of FreelanceCopywritersBlog.com. If you are interested in producing a Guest Post for this blog, please get in touch with your ideas.

It’s a tough market out there. A mixture of an increase in freelancers and a terrible economy mean it’s harder than ever to find work. It makes it doubly hard if you’re taking your first step into working for yourself. Without an established reputation it maybe hard to seek out and attract those much-needed clients. You need to make yourself stand out in a sea of people offering the same services as you otherwise you’ll be doomed to endlessly trawling job sites trying to pick up some scraps. So what can you do to make yourself seem a much more favourable option?

As a freelancer, your website will most likely act as a portfolio to clients. Clearly you need to make your site as memorable as possible. Try to be original in its design and make something that will stick in the mind of prospective clients. Humour is of course a great way to do this. Beware though, because there are many pitfalls to avoid. Original does not necessarily mean good and a website can easily be memorable because of its faults. The wrong type of humour can also give the wrong impression and make people think you are unprofessional. It really is a fine line between genius and horror. If in doubt, be simple, succinct and concise. Clarity is key.

Try to sell yourself. As a freelancer, you are your business and therefore the face of it. It might not be necessary to have a huge picture of your face pop up on the homepage, but there’s nothing wrong in dedicating a section of your site to yourself. Write up a little bio, list your achievements and even mention your interests. This a great place to be a little less serious too. Clients want to know exactly who they are working with so let them know sooner than later what you’re all about.

Surely by now you’ll know that social media is an important part of business. No doubt you already have a Facebook page set-up and maybe even one on Google+. The question is though, are you using it properly and to its full effect. It’s all well and good to have a page, but if you’re not using it, there’s no point. Be as active as possible on it and engage with people all you can. People increasingly look up businesses on Facebook and if they find a page that hasn’t been updated since it was first created they might be a bit put off. These pages are also a good way to communicate with prospective clients. It comes across as much more personal, so make sure you don’t neglect your page and, in addition, any messages that might have led to work.

It’s going to be an uphill battle to get noticed out there, but once you start to pull in a few jobs, word of mouth will also start to work its magic. Break through that first barrier and you’ll find things will start to get easier. Aim to be the one wearing a disco ball suit in a sea of grey jackets.

Joshua Danton Boyd is a Brighton based copywriter. He currently works for the cloud accounting firm Crunch and contributes to Freelance Advisor.

Everyone is blogging these days, so how do you make sure your blog posts stand out from everyone else’s?

With the average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period being 900,000 making sure yours gets found and read is quite a tall order.

We’ve put together 8 tips to help you make your posts stand out.

Creating blog posts

Is there really such as thing as a perfect blog post? Probably not, after all, you’re writing for a diverse readership so what you write isn’t going to appeal to everyone.

But there are certain things you can do to increase your chances of getting your stuff read.

1. Headline

The beginning is always the best place to start.

Your headline is the make or break of your post. After all, if it’s a bit drab and lame, no one is going to take the time to read it.

Make sure it uses your keywords (but that doesn’t mean stuff it with them), it’s catchy, shareable and, above all, reflects what’s in the body of your post.

2. Sub headings

These are vitally important.

If you write a long post and its just reams of text, it’s not going to look very inviting.

But, if you divide up with meaningful sub headings, your reader will be able to easily navigate through the text. It will also have the effect of making it look easier to read because it will be broken down into bite-sized chunks.

3. Optimised, natural copy

That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but it really is possible to write natural content that is optimised. If you think about it, if you’re writing about a topic (such as gardening), your main keywords will naturally occur within your writing, so there is no need to try and shoe horn them in to every sentence.

4. Visuals

Visuals (so long as they’re relevant) can only enhance your blog post.

Graphics, images and videos will add a new dimension to what you’re talking about and add extra value for the reader.

5. Call to action

Even though you’re not directly selling through your blog post, you should still include a call to action.

It could be asking them to subscribe to your newsletter, your blog’s RSS feed or visit your website for more information.

After all, if you’re going to take the time to generate great content, you may as well get something out of it.

6. Social sharing

Adding tools to share your content on social media will help boost your readership and visibility in the search engines.

Twitter, Facebook etc., are everyday tools people use to communicate with each other and share ideas and information. Making it easy for people to share your content has to be a good thing – doesn’t it?

7. You may also like…

At the end of your post it’s always a good idea to add links to related content that your reader may also find useful.

8. Comments

There’s often a great deal of debate about whether you should allow people to comment on your blogs or not.

As far as we’re concerned, blogging is a way of communicating with people and allowing others to have their say and expand on your ideas enriches it.

Over to you

What’s your take on this?

Are there are any other elements you would expect to see in the ‘perfect’ blog post? Leave a comment below.

The following guest post was written by Joshua Danton Boyd. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of FreelanceCopywritersBlog.com. If you are interested in producing a Guest Post for this blog, please get in touch with your ideas.

Your eyes bulge, you grit your teeth and suddenly you’re smashing up the town in a pair of ripped purple trousers. People flee in fear as you shout something near unintelligible about “clients”, “cascading sheets” and “Internet Explorer compatibility”. Before long the entire area is rubble and you collapse to the floor murmuring, “What does make it pop more even mean?”.

Well this is what happened in your dream last night anyway. The stress of your latest project has flowed over into somewhere usually dedicated to non-sensical dreams about the death of your first goldfish and that time you were cruelly dumped by your first girlfriend in front of everyone. You have decided that enough is enough. Your work will never again infringe on the territory usually infested by your inner mental turmoil. Here’s a few tips on preventing this all happening again.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of your stress will stem from your client who, despite knowing exactly what they want, seem to have more trouble conveying their ideas than Washoe the signing chimpanzee. It’s up to you to guide your client through the strenuous purpose of communicating clearly and effectively. Try to meet with them in person to discuss ideas if this is possible. It’s a lot easier to bash ideas out like this, especially if you’re doing something visual as you can start sketching and get a better idea of exactly what your client wants.

You’ll want to keep in lots of regular contact with them too. Each time you do may cause a little bit of extra stress, but it is much better in comparison to doing a load of work only to discover the client wants an entire overhaul of everything you’ve done because they realise they now hate it. Despite the fact that you’ll often want to strangle your boss or put polonium in their tea, you need to stay on as good terms as possible with your client. The better the relationship the easier the process will be. This doesn’t mean you can’t still be a bit forceful. Remember you’re the one with the expertise, the client needs to be told when something just simply won’t work.

As soon as you’ve managed to remove a semblance of an idea from the mind of your client don’t just start straight away. Plan every tiny, little detail out first. See exactly what you need to do and prioritise everything. Give yourself some time limits to get certain tasks done. The whole project will become much clearer once you’ve got a decent plan in place and it’ll help you focus too.

Finally, don’t go around getting advice from friends, family and that dodgy guy down the pub who sells knock-off DVDs. It isn’t going to help and it’ll just muddy your vision. If you do show your mates what you’ve got so far, you’ll find yourself getting frustrated at their suggestions because they don’t know what the client wants. You’re the only one that does and so if you want some critique, ask your boss and not your friend whose entire set of expertise lie within the field of FIFA 2012.

Joshua Danton Boyd is a Brighton based copywriter. He currently works for the cloud accounting firm Crunch and contributes to Freelance Advisor.