Freelance Copywriting, marketing and social media tips

Blogging is great for your online presence, but you don’t need me to tell you that.

It helps you share your knowledge,  drive traffic to your website and rank highly in the search results.

You already know about the basic SEO stuff to do with on-page factors and link building, but there are loads of other factors that get overlooked.

Granted, you’ll never smash them all, but it’s worth spending some time on the easy ones to make sure your blogs have a bigger impact.

Here are 5 simple but effective tactics you should be using.

Stunning headlines

Yes, headlines help your rankings.

They attract click-throughs, which will give your search rankings a boost.

Why?

Because the algorithm will attach more value to your blog.

If your blog has a fairly low rank, but gets lost of clicks your ranking will rise. However, if you rank highly and you don’t get click throughs, your blog will be deemed irrelevant to that search term and your rankings will fall.

Therefore, eye-catching headlines improve your rankings.

Use images to boost your rankings

Using images to link to your blog will boost your rankings and provide some diversity to your backlinks.

The Alt tag tells the search engines about the content of your image. When using an image to link to your blog post, the Alt tag serves as a keyword.

The best way to get these link-based backlinks is to create an infographic for others to use – just ask for an image backlink to your original post.

Dofollow vs nofollow

Your aim is to get dofollow links because they show your blog is of high quality and a trusted source of information.

The problem is a lot of profile sites and blogs only provide nofollow links. An excessive amount of these will make your blog appear untrusted – not good.

Buying in links (please say you don’t do that) is the quickest way to ruin your rankings. Instead concentrate on guest blogging for high quality blogs.

Linking to trusted blogs

Outbound links are just as important as inbound ones.

As a trusted and high quality blog, you’ll be expected to link to other high quality blogs if you want to raise the value of your blog in the eyes of the search engines.

Short or long blogs? 

OK, yes you could probably write a useful and informative high quality blog post that’s short, but the search engines love long content.

But not only should your content be lengthy (but still high quality, relevant and informative), you also need to work on getting comments. This will help boost the length of the unique content of each post.

Although none of these ideas are revolutionary, they often overlooked. Simple and easy to implement, these tips will help you get more out of your blogging.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any further ideas on how to get the best rankings from your blogging, or if you have any questions.

Does this sound familiar?

“Through our organisational changes we’ll strategically transition towards a more customer centric approach. Going forward, by leveraging KPIs this paradigm shift will cultivate a results orientated environment cultivating workable growth strategies.”

Eh?

This is the kind of wording corporates love. Their marketers think it makes them sound impressive and worth every penny of their excessive fees.

They’re wrong.

All they’re doing is using a lot of words to say absolutely nothing.

It doesn’t tell their reader anything about them, how they are going to help them or what benefits they will bring.

They will even go to far as to say their clients expect them to write that way.

Really?

Do you think anyone wants to read that stuff?

Presenting your marketing in that style makes me (the reader) think that actually you have no idea what you’re talking about. Especially when I ask for clarification and your response is a barrage of alternative marketing terms that also mean nothing.

The problem is that because it’s become so ingrained in the corporate world if you don’t speak it you’re seen as an outsider.

So what happens if you run a small business and have to sell to corporates?

Dare to be different

Most companies try to emulate this incomprehensible style of writing because they think it’s the only way they’ll be taken seriously by their target audience.

Well, I think it’s down to the smaller business to show these behemoths how it should be done.

• Don’t tell them permanent recruitment is your core competency; tell them you know a lot about permanent recruitment.
• Don’t start a dialogue with them; talk to them.
• Don’t tell them how you utilise your resources; show them how you use them.
• Don’t tell them you have multiple strengths you can leverage; tell them you have lots of great resources that will help them.

Keep it simple

Yes, your marketing must be targeted to your audience, but in relation to the benefits you offer them.

When it comes to language, keeping it simple and conversational will win every time.

By showing empathy and how you’re going to make their life better will be understood no matter how educated your reader is or how high up the ladder they are in their organisation.

They just want to know you understand their problem and have the solution to make it go away.

Just tell them how it is in plain English.

Marketing is a necessary evil when it comes to running a business. It’s one of those things that most people hate, mainly because it takes time. Th problem is, without it you won’t have any customers so it’s a bit of a catch 22.

If you are one of those rare creatures that enjoys it – whether you’re a social media fanatic, blogging hero, content writer extraordinaire, or a wizard at email marketing – there’s one thing you must do in order to get your customers to buy.

Want to know what it is?

Finding out what interests your customers.

That’s it.

You have to know what keeps them awake at night, what pushes their buttons, what they really, really want.

There are probably several things, but in the main their main interest is themselves.

They don’t care about your business, where your premises are, whether you’re the market leader (everyone says that), or a great innovator (yawn), all they want to know is how you are going to help them.

How selfish!

Even though you’ve spent years building up your business, you’ve weathered economic downturns, fluctuations in your market place and umpteen rows at home because of the number of hours you spend at the office, your customers don’t care.

But why should they?

None of that’s going to help them, is it?

The only way they’re going to spend their hard earned cash with you is if you can convince them that their lives will be greatly improved by your product or service.

It’s the exact same reason why you buy things and yet it’s easy to forget that when you’re putting your own marketing materials together.

If you want to sell, forget about your business

When crafting your message, put yourself and your business to the back of your mind.

Every thought you have must centre on your customer.

• Who are they?
• What problem do they have?
• How can you help them?
• What can you offer them that will solve their problem?

There’s no room for a tempting “we’re the best at what we do” spiel.

The cold hard fact about marketing is that there’s no room for your ego. The only thing that matters is what you can do for your customer. Keep everything you write focused on them and you’ll see your sales increase.

Oh, for the life of a freelancer.

No more 9 to 5, no demanding boss, no more commuting, no more pointless meetings…

But hang on, freelancing means no more regular pay cheques, no paid holiday or sick leave… what about my pension? Where’s my security gone?

On the face of it being a freelancer appears to be the first step to the utopian lifestyle you’ve always dreamt of.  But once the rose tint has worn off your glasses, you’ll begin to see that it’s not as cushy as you first thought.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t dive in and give it a go (it’s worked very well for me for the past 7 years), but if you do, make sure you have realistic expectations.

The life of a freelancer

Starting out on your own can be a scary business. There are lots of things to consider and if I covered them all this would turn into a novel rather than a blog post. So for now I’m just going to look at two aspects – finding clients and growing a thick skin.

Hello? Clients? Where Are You?

To be a freelancer you need clients, so where are you going to look for them?

In your previous life it was never an issue. The marketing department took care of the ‘finding customers’ malarkey leaving you to get on with your work. But now the responsibility is all yours – you lucky thing.

A website, Facebook page, Twitter account and blog are not going to bring the constant stream of clients you need, at least not without your input. Marketing yourself online is only one piece of the puzzle; the other is getting out there and meeting people.

If that fills you with dread, don’t worry you’re not alone.  Networking isn’t for everyone, I should know. It has to be one of the worst aspects of the job for me. Walking into a room full of strangers makes my blood run cold. But it is a necessary evil if you are to get your name known.

Another way of finding new clients is to actively build relationships with local design agencies – web designers are always on the look out for good copywriters to work with.

To widen your net further and target your dream clients, why not try a mail shot?

Create a list of companies you would like to work with. Then find the name of the person you need to contact (usually the Marketing Manager/Director depending on the size of the company) and create the best sales letter you’ve ever written. Send them a little freebie to make your letter stand out and follow up with a phone call – you never know what doors that might open.

Rhino hide

Once you have your clients and work starts to trickle in, another challenge arises.

On the whole there are 3 types of client:

• Those who hire you because they need your expertise and trust your judgement
• Those who hire you, tell you what they want and then change their minds after you’ve written it
• Those who brief you and then re-write everything because they believe they are far superior writers

The first type is a gift and usually a joy to work with.

The second can be annoying, but a well-written proposal stipulating exactly what your fee covers and the hourly rate that will be charged for any extra work not originally briefed, usually solves any issues.

But the third will make your life hell.

Despite the fact your client has actively sought your professional writing services, they will believe they know better than you.

So what do you do when your first draft comes back with a scathing email?

1. Take a deep breath
2. Go outside and scream at a tree
3. Return to your desk and think about your response rationally

Sitting down with them is the best way to sort this out. You can then calmly discuss the original brief and show how you fulfilled it and ask them what it is they don’t like and work with them to resolve it.

This ‘working together’ approach is usually best as it makes them feel more involved in the process and makes them feel valued.

Should you give it a go?

Absolutely.

What have you got to lose?

Despite the ups and downs (let’s face it, every type of work as plenty of those), freelancing is a rewarding and enjoyable way to earn a living.

The freedom and potential financial rewards it offers far outweigh any of the downsides. If you’re prepared to work at it and never give up you will succeed.

What are you waiting for?

Sally Ormond is copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd. Quite possibly the country’s only cycling copywriter, she’s currently training for an epic bike ride from Newcastle to London – that’s 300 miles in 24 hours! – raising funds for the Make A Wish Foundation.

http://www.briarcopywriting.com

The entertainment world is a buzz with the term “triple threat”. It relates to performers that excel in acting, singing and dancing – a very rare breed.

You’re probably wondering what that has to do with copywriting.

Well, if you want to be a great copywriter, you must be able to create content that:

• Engages
• Educates
• Persuades

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Creating interesting copy that people actually want to read that also ticks those three boxes is quite an art.

Engage

Writing in an engaging way is tough.

If you think that people will read anything you put out there, you’re in for a nasty shock.

It’s your job to write about the product or service you’re promoting in a way that makes the reader think “Wow, I need that. How have I managed without it all these years?”

A mere description is not going to be enough. You have to create a story around it, showing off its benefits.

OK, yes, this is marketing copy and no one is going to read everything you write word for word, but if you hit the right tone, it will resonate with them and make them stop and think about what you’re selling.

Earlier I mentioned creating a story. Storytelling is one of the most powerful sales tools out there. The story format is used because it engages and draws your reader in. Written in this style it takes on a more interesting light and by adopting a friendly tone of voice your reader will be helpless as they become immersed in what you’re telling them.

Educate

There is a big difference between educating and lecturing.

Marketing copy that educates shows the reader how great their life will be if they had the product or service. That means focusing on the benefits not the features.

The colour, shape and size of the product (its features) are not going to make someone buy.

However, show the reader how it will make their life easier, make them richer for more successful, and they’ll buy, buy, buy.

This is where storytelling comes into its own again. Just like fables are told to young children to persuade them about the benefits of good behaviour, storytelling in marketing illustrates what could happen if a buyer acts in a certain way.

Persuasion

Even the strongest stories need a helping hand, which is where persuasion comes in.

Creating writing that persuades is quite an art. You need to employ several techniques to make your writing as powerful as possible, such as:

• Rhetorical questions
• Repetition
• Emotive language
• Facts and statistics
• Alliteration

And of course, it should always be written in the second person – i.e. “you” not “we”.

Life would be a whole lot easier it you could just tell someone your widget is the best ever to make him or her buy it, but it doesn’t work that way.

Before you can get your reader to part with their hard earned cash, you have to persuade them that not only is your product or service right for them, but that you are a reputable company they should be doing business with.

On top of the devices listed above, your copy should also include testimonials, evidence of your facts and figures and a guarantee to give extra peace of mind.

Only when you offer all three – engagement, education and persuasion – will your copywriting bring in the sales.