Tag Archives: information marketing

Web Copywriting – What to Be Very Careful About

Web copywriting is the most important thing that a business owner or CEO can do for his website.

There are a number of critical factors to take under consideration when you create a homepage. Communication reduces the buying cycle at an accelerated pace, therefore it is vitally important for a company to establish trust.

Web CopywritingA visitor to your website has no desire to work and figure out what you’re all about. If you do not quickly establish your identity as who you are, what you’re offering and your reputation,  your prospects will abandoned your site to find your competitor.

Just like in land, you can describe your website in terms of real estate. There are areas in your site that are more important than others. Good web copywriting will emphasis those areas. One of them is your Homepage. It has to effectively communicate your unique story through copy and images. This sets your Unique Selling Proposition.

The easiest way is not necessarily the best path

The larger majority of people begin their websites with a web designer who plans the site and creates it. At that point it doesn’t have anything in it. Then, the owner of the site seeks a copywriter to fill up the blanks in the site by putting words.

Many of these web designers are in love with certain aspects of technology. For instance, some like flash in the header, lots of pictures, big pictures. Somewhere along the line, the copywriter is expected to put content in this empty container.

This is going the wrong way. There is a reason why in Internet Marketing, content is king. This is not a cutesy statement. Instead it describes a reality. Your visitor will not be driven by web design or by pictures. Words will drive your prospects to the desired action.

From an architectural perspective, the web copywriting should be the first involved into the process of ideation.  You will need to develop the message and copy before starting any web design.

This is the opposite direction that most people take. One ofhomepage the misleading strategies is to buy a pre-built website. This is a very attractive idea. One can get a whole site for a couple of hundred dollars. That option seems to solve the problem of web site creation. The challenge with this, is that the themes forces you to write to an audience that exists in the mind of someone else.

Your homepage is like your business card, it reflects who you are

When you get a pre-built theme, both the homepage and all the other pages are really boxes joined together. They limit the amount of words that you can write. Meaning, it does not allow you to have useful, long copy which is very important for the reader to get value and for Google’s semantic search.

You will be better off getting the service of a custom designed website. Yes, far more expensive than a pre-built site but more effective. Your strategy, your message and your marketing objective will drive the design of your website.

In fact, I would begin by doing a lot of research, which is the most important part of writing a copy. You need to know what is the intention of the site. Is it to give information, to sell a service or product? What kind of information or products are being sold? Who is the audience. Are you selling locally, nationwide, or internationally?

Creating a homepage is the most important part of your website. Good copywriting should allow you to give care and attention to your visitors who will love you, trust you, and buy from you.

 

What is Content Marketing?

We hear the expression content marketing everywhere on the Internet. But it’s like a store of goodies. There is a world of divisions in there.  It encompasses social media, blog posts, newsletters, informational emails, articles, case study, etc. In fact, if you want to reach customers, you need content marketing.

The world is changing at an accelerated rate. What was true just a couple oWhat is Content Marketingf years ago, is no longer valid. According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

For some people, writing is fun. They sit in front of a computer and pound at the keyboard. They had written a fantastic article by the time they finished.

For others, writing is a drag, ideas come slowly, laboriously, and by the time they finished, they stare at the word count. They are observing that what they really wrote was so little.  They’ve been told that a blog post should be 800 to 1,000 words.

Clean writing solves this issue

Professional copywriters face this issue all the time in their writing. The question is, how long should their sales letter be? Usually, sales letters are long, very long. However, observe the great masterpiece of writing made by David Ogilvy about the Rolls-Royce. The copy was written on only half a page. Very few words, yet extremely powerful sales.

The fact is that your sales letter, like your blog post, should be long enough to say the essentials, but short enough to be interesting. This answer doesn’t seem profound on the surface, yet it encapsulates a world of wisdom. It all has to do with the intent of your piece.

One piece of writing would be need-to-know products, which would include information about the niche of your blog, such as food, auto parts, coffee, clothing, alternative medicine, etc.

Your prospects don’t need a long copy in this case because they need the products. To sell this kind of product, you’ll have to establish the product’s Unique Selling Proposition and make an irresistible offer.

How long should a blog post be?

Therefore the length of your blog has to do with what it is you want to accomplish. This was pointed out so eloquently in the Copyblogger, when the author says that “Good writers know how to craft long and short content, and they’ve mastered the art of knowing which one to use in every writing circumstance.”

There is no amount of words that should be assigned to a good blog post. The length of your article has to do with your reader and the intention behind your communication. The audience is crucial. David Ogilvy in his sales letter was trying to communicate with people who did not want economical cars. A Rolls-Royce is a car for those who are wealthy and have other cars, as well.

When dealing with readers interested in “how to” information, you may have to stir up a desire for the product. So your copy might need to be a little longer. This is where the intention behind your communication comes in.

If you’re writing a highly technical blog post, then it could be more than 1000 words. As Copyblogger rightly pointed out  “many long posts do very well online.”

Great content increase traffic

You can observe that companies who substantially invest in great content – like videos, blog posts, or case studies – experience 8 times more site traffic than companies who don’t. According to Forbes, the trends for success is up for content marketing in 2018.

It is not surprising to know that 4,500 B2B and B2C companies shared with HubSpot that the growth of their content was the number 1 priority. According to a study done by Forrester Research by 2019 digital marketing will spend a $103 Billion.

The well known and respected Content Marketing Institute points out that prominent organizations in the world like P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and John Deere use content marketing. There is no better way to attract the attention of prospects and generate leads, as well as expand the customer base.

 

Website Copywriting

Having content is a necessity in order to succeed therefore you need to do website copywriting.  Many people have the tendencies to talk about the features of their products. That is alright. Features are an important aspects of the product or service you’re providing. Describing features in your website copywriting means presenting to your audience the characteristics of that product.

When you prospect for a product and you look at the specs, what you are doing is looking at the features of this product. In website copywriting, you certainly want to include these since it will describe your product to your reader. However, you will want also to include the benefits of the product. What the benefits means are the things that the product can do for you.

Website copywriting that sells

In your website copywriting, you have to tell your buyer what’s in it for him. A good example of benefits would be in the case of weight lost products. Talk about how it will allow someone to lose with in just a short amount of time. Often this is a bit strange to talk about because we are so used to just talk about features. If you know next-to-nothing about website copywriting, you will need a learning curve.

With some patience you can accomplish a tremendous work. Website copywriting is very different for other forms of writing. This is why in this article I am providing you with a good starting point to turn things around.  Doing website copywriting requires special skills that will make your web pages compelling to the reader. When you use powerful search engine optimization (SEO), then you can have a tremendous impact on your marketing.

Doing powerful website copywriting will be helped if you do a keyword research. This is an important step in your writing.  Whether or not you want to become an expert, it is a matter of personal choice. But you need to acquire a minimum amount of skills to be successful.

Copywriters

Copywriters generally work in two basic industries, either for agencies or businesses.  Many people in this field begin with agencies. Some move away and venture as freelance copywriters. In large corporations you may find copywriters in the marketing department. Often these companies hire also freelancers. This happens specially in the B2B copywriting.

There are different goals that copywriters may follow. In the offline direct response copywriting, there is the tradition of beating the control. What does that mean? Let’s say that a company is selling a particular product, and has a very well performing sales letter. The challenge would be if there is a copywriter out there that can write a copy that exceed the convergence of the current letter.

Copywriters have to know the market

The fact is that copywriters do not know if a sales letter will sell the product or not. Copywriting is in that sense a very scientific specialization. Copywriters perform sometimes complicated mathematics to know if their copy sells the product or not. This mathematics  is called split-testing and is based on probability. Result is the final determining judge.

In the history of copywriting, there are many cases where copywriters have written sales letters that might not be clever at all, yet these have been extremely successful. It is indispensable for the copywriter to know who he is writing to.  There are some copywriters who just sit and write and write without knowing who they’re writing to. They don’t know the target market.

There are certain things that copywriters need to do to accomplish a great job. First, they need to know the product. Spending time with the product in indispensable. They need to have the product in their hand, to task, smell it, hear it, feel it. They have to understand the product. What does it do? How does it work? Copywriters have to understand the market and what problems the product solves.

Web Copywriting – It’s Place in Your Site

Ever since the search engines have made content a requirement for successful traffic in the Internet, web copywriting has become popular. Even brick and mortar businesses need a website. This has become a necessity. For most businesses, in order to promote their products or services, they would have a website and content will be essential.

There are certain characteristics that a good website will have. Generally, most website begins with the design, the graphics and then as an afterthought, the content. This approach is completely wrong. And therefore the cause of many frustrations. In fact, the site must be designed around the web copywriting.

Web copywriting a tool of communication

When you have a business and you put it in the Internet, you don’t put your website for the sake of having an interesting design. Who cares about your design beside your graphic designer? The intention of your site is to communicate which is done through web copywriting. Placing effective and professionally written content on your website can keep your existing and potential customers interested in your business and services. This is what gives value to your site and will attract traffic.

An effective website is necessarily who that’s built to communicate with your visitors. And so the design, the graphics have to be built around the web copywriting. What is your message to your audience? What are you communicating to them? A site like amazon.com doesn’t have any bells and whistles, but as soon as you go there you know you are in a bookstore.

You have about three seconds for your visitor to decide if he or she is in the right place. Your prospect has come to visit your site because they looking for something, they have a problem. Your web copywriting needs to tell them if they are in the right place. Does your site answers their problems?

Lead Generation – Understanding this approach

From the beginning of history one of the challenge that always took place, has been to attract potential customers. Lead generation is a technique that will help us to achieve this. In the old days, business people would get the name of prospects from friends and then contact them. Eventually there was the door-to-door salesman who went everywhere offering their products.

Now a days companies turn traffic into huge revenues. The Internet is a world in which market provider can meet in a very efficient way, customers. Cultivating the relationship between merchants and prospects can be done through lead generation. This marketing strategy can help them reach hundreds, or even thousands of potential customers all over the world.

Lead generation can improve your market reach

The internet can reach every part of the globe to people you have never even heard of and this becomes key when it comes to your business. Although we should keep in mind that lead generation can be done both online and offline. You present your product or service to a very specific market target in your industry and develop that relationship. Lead generation is usually done by offering something of value to your prospect.

When you start an effective lead generation strategy, your intention would be to help your  company be in contact with more potential customers to which the product can be sold. It is absolutely necessary to keep in mind that lead generation should be focused not just on getting a big number of leads or potential clients. This marketing strategy must also put emphasis on the quality of each lead. A business with a thousand generated leads might look really promising.

The ability to develop a comprehensive lead generation campaign requires a free offer whether it’s a report or a white paper or a newsletter series. Copywriters can be valuable assets to this strategy.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing has become a very efficient method of advertisement. Two decades ago, before the age of the web, one of the principle mode of advertisement was through the post office. Marketers would be sending sales letters through the mail and expect a returned reply. This is still true, even today. In fact the Internet has not brought direct mail into obsolescence.

Print direct response is still very big. But in addition to this tool, the web has brought another tool, email marketing. For anyone who is on the web and who have mail account can see in their inbox a great number of messages. Beside the personal ones, there will be a wide range of advertisements from your favorite retailers or service providers. This is a way for marketers to keep in touch with you, the customers.

Email marketing strategies

Email marketing has become very popular specially with some small business owners. But the big ones are also using email marketing to promote their products. One can thing of Amazon.com or Staples. The fact is, that such kind of advertisement can be very targeted and can be done at a low cost. Very efficient split testing can be run to see what trigger prospect.

In the course of an email marketing, you need to keep in mind that people do not want to read long emails. We are in a world of rush, few people have time to read even long articles. Therefore, you have to choose your topic carefully. Your subject must be meaningful to your audience. Then write your topic as concisely as possible.

In writing your email marketing campaign,  make sure your come across your point quickly and keep the attention of your audience on your topic. Meaning, don’t be boring.  Give value to your prospect. And he will not delete your email.

Copywriting Tips

There are many people who want to learn about copywriting and others who want to launch into this career. I will be giving here some copywriting tips. First of all, I want to say that writing copy can be a lot of fun. Many of us may have experience writing in school as a “drag” and feel discourage of doing so either for themselves or professionally.

But among all the copywriting tips that I can give you, I will also say that writing copy can be very lucrative. The most important part of doing copywriting is surprisingly about knowing your product. When you write a sales letter for a product, you’re trying to convince someone to buy that item. So you need to do some research on it. You have to known the product in order to write about.

Copywriting Tips and Techniques

Knowing about the product is not sufficient, you need to know the market. All of these are important copywriting tips. Who are the people using this product? The answer of that question will tell you who you audience is. For instance, if your product reduces blood pressure, who will be using it? Obviously, people who have high blood pressure.

Another word used for copywriting, is direct response writing. There are many authors who will give you significant copywriting tips to write persuasively. The first part of your writing will have to be the headline. It is the sentence or phrase that will draw your reader to reader the rest of your letter. In fact your header should be unique.

Your header has to be unique otherwise it’ll be something that people see all the time and they will not be interested. The kind of copywriting tips that many professionals give, is the need to market yourself all the time. If people don’t know that you exist, they can’t hire you.

Copywriter job description

Today we will explore the subject of copywriter job description. Obviously we all know that there are people out there who are copywriters. But what do they do? First of all, I want to say that people making a living out of that have fun. Sometimes we think that writing is hard. We all confronted the situation when we are assigned, perhaps in school, to write. And the first thing in our mind is, “What am I going to write?”

Well, copywriter job description can be said to be exiting. Really, there are many types of jobs that copywriters can do. And they can make a handsome living at it. You will need to think about what you like to do. For instance, what industry would you like to be involved with. Many copywriters specialize in industries. And often they may work for an agency.

Copywriter job description is often misunderstood

When we talk about copywriter job description, we need to keep in mind that many times people doing writing are not in fact copywriters. In this case, it’s just a job description that has to do with writing. A writer can for example write books or instructional manuals. Actually a copywriter is specifically someone who writes sales letters offline or online.

Copywriter job description is often vague. Since writing is a function that has many, many branches, often a company may think that looking for a copywriter whereas in reality they looking for a writer. Two different things. In offline marketing, you receive mail envelops containing letters, brochures, presenting a product. There is an order form.

This material would have been writing by a copywriter. That’s a very good example of copywriter job description. The writer communicates to a specific market the existence of a product or service that would solve their problems. The letter is written persuasively and invite the prospect to make an order.

What is Copywriting – The function of Copywrite

Increasingly there are many people wanting to know what is copywriting. It is the art of selling through print. It has nothing to do with just putting content into your website or blog. This article is not copywriting. First of all, your starting point is having a product of service that you offer to a particular market.

Hopefully that market has a particular need or they have a problem. And your product or service fulfills that need. Communicating to that market is what copywriting will be about. You will try to sell that product to your market. There are many people who are involved in the noble profession of selling, as salesperson. This is one way to reach to your customers.

For those who are good at selling, there is certain the possibility of making a tremendous amount of money . But selling is a tough activity. You have to work long hours and face the possibility of rejection. This is why people want to know what is copywriting. Because it’s an activity that allows to sell without necessarily the drawback of live selling.

Many people want to know what is copywriting

To find out what is copywriting, you need to start by the beginning which is your headline. It should reach out to your prospect. The headline is the first sentence of your copy and it should grab your reader and bring him to continue to read. This is why selling with the written word is something entirely different from live salesman.

In finding out what is copywriting, you learn that fact that your headline should have four critical rules called the 4 U’s. Use them, and you will write a great headline. Don’t use them, and your headline will problematic. However, keep in mind that practice makes perfect and so you will get better over time.

One of the U’s that your headline should have as an expression of your desire to know what is copywriting is, usefulness. Your headline needs to give a reason to your prospect to keep on reading.