Posts Tagged ‘copywriting’

Do you have a great looking website and an offer that you believe has some real value but is still not getting the sales you are after? If so, then surely you are beginning to discover that it is not pictures that sell but words. So how can you create copy which will truly compel and which gets your prospects to take action to buy? If this is your goal and you are looking for some practical tips, then here are five things which can get you on the right track.

First of all, try to think as your prospect does. This means you want your copy to clearly outline what is in it for a client. People are more interested in what this product is going to do for them, than in how you are going to deliver it, and if you understand this you are already close to success.

Then you want to tell your prospect customers which benefits they are going to get on an emotional level. In other words, people do not purchase products, they purchase emotional values, and if you communicate them to your audience, you arouse their curiosity, motivate to take action lead them to the next step.

After that you need to make them experience the emotional benefit. How? You just need to paint the picture with your words and offer people to share in the experience. If people will like what they feel, they will definitely want to continue feeling this way, so make sure you describe the emotional benefit really good, as this is your chance to persuade them to become your clients.

Finally, make sure that your call to action is directive and that there is no way for them to misread what it is that you want them to do. People do not mind being told what to do as long as you position yourself as the expert. If you are able to do this effectively they will not only welcome you telling them what to do, they will prefer it. This means that your call to action has a step by step instruction both for what you want them to do and for what is going to happen when they do it.

After you have created your copy, you should review it from time to time and edit where necessary. Copywriting is a process involving changes and adjustments, and as you will keep doing it, it will finally become perfect and generate great results for you in converting your readers into customers.

Well written web content is a crucial factor for attracting and keeping web site readers. One of the most important (but often overlooked) features of a good Web site is the quality of its written content. Many Web designers spend hours coding the Web site and ignore the need to produce readable content that meets the needs of the Web site’s visitors. In other words, no matter how good your Web site looks, if its content isn’t well written, visitors will not come to it and they won’t stay.

Keep it short and simple

The key to writing good Web content is to keep your text short so that it can be easily digested by your visitors. Most people don’t read Web pages in the same way that they read text on the printed page. They don’t even read every word; instead, they skim the page and look for words and phrases that are relevant to them and to their interests.

Breaking the content into short paragraphs allows the visitor to read or skim a paragraph quickly to see if it contains something of interest. If you can manage it, break the text into bullet points, as these are easier to read and digest ” use bullets where order isn’t important and use numbers where it is.

When choosing your words, lean on the side of simplicity and words that are in common use. A Web site isn’t the place to use big words that require your reader to pick up a dictionary to understand what you mean.

Get the main points down first When ordering your content, place the most important and relevant content at the top of the page, so it is there where your visitor can see it the second your page loads. When you are telling your story, tell it in the first sentence or paragraph and then expand on this in a similar way to how you might write a newspaper story. In a good newspaper story, you should be able to split the article in the middle; discard the bottom half, and the top half should still contain all the salient points of the story, albeit in a shorter format and with much less detail.

Write descriptive headings

Headings are a vital part of your Web page or blog and they’re important for search engines, too. While you might be tempted to use puns and smart headlines in your text and blog posts and while these look great in print, they are much less effective on the Internet. The reason is that your pages are indexed for display in search engine results, and headings that are a pun or a play on words aren’t indicative of the page’s true content. You’re likely to have your page miss out on being in results that it should appear in, and instead have it appearing as a result in searches that it doesn’t relate to.

Even if your pages do show up in relevant search results, the absence of the text that makes the pun heading understandable will make it difficult for a reader to assess the relevance of your page, so they are likely to bypass it in favour of a more obviously relevant page. Instead, keep your headlines simple and explanatory of the page or blog post content.

Write as you speak

Most of us can explain what our interests are and what our businesses do when we speak about them. However, place a computer in front of many people and it all gets too hard and formal. On the Web, in most cases, we’d do better if we wrote pretty much the way we speak.

So, write in a style that is chatty yet informative, using words like ‘you’ and ‘they’ rather than ‘one’ or other stuffy forms of address. Write in the active voice rather than the passive voice”when you write in the active voice, your writing has more punch and it is generally shorter and more concise, too.

What to write about

Write content that will appeal to your audience. Your Web site should be designed from your visitor’s point of view and provide them with what they want to read and learn about. So, make sure your writing focuses on what your visitor wants to read, not what you want to tell them ” there is a big difference.

WIIFM (or what’s in it for me?), is the subconscious question a reader asks when they are reading your web page or blog content ” they want to know how it affects them and what they have to gain from it. For your content to work, you need to answer this question and do so early in your page or blog post to make sure they read on. You have to entice them into the copy with an offer they can’t refuse.

Cutting it short

When you’re writing content for your Web site, do so in a simple text editor. That way, you focus on the content and not on the coding or how it looks. Print a copy of your text and read through it carefully. Then remove extra adjectives and adverbs to tighten up your text and give it a punchier reading style. Well-written Web content will make your site approachable for your visitors and help you get your message across to them, whatever it might be.

Well written web copy is a crucial factor for attracting and keeping web site visitors. One of the most important (but often forgotten) features of a great Web site is the quality of its written content. Many Web designers spend hours designing the Web site and ignore the need to produce readable content that meets the needs of the Web site’s visitors. Quite simply, no matter how good your Web site looks, if its content isn’t well written, visitors wont come to it and they won’t stay.

Keep it simple

The trick to writing good Web copy is to keep your text short so that it can be easily digested by your visitors. Most people don’t read Web pages in the same way that they read words on the printed page. They don’t even read every word; instead, they skim the page and look for words and phrases that are relevant to them and to their interests.

Breaking the content into short paragraphs allows the visitor to read or skim a paragraph quickly to see if it contains something of interest. Where you can, break the text into bullet points, as these are easier to read and digest ” use bullets where order isn’t important and use numbers or letters where it is.

When choosing your words, err on the side of simplicity and words that are in common use. A Web site isn’t the place to use 5 dollar words that require your reader to head to the dictionary to understand what you mean.

Get the main points down first When ordering your content, place the most important and relevant content at the top of the page, so it is there where your visitor can see it the second your page loads. When you are telling your story, tell it in the first sentence or paragraph and then expand on this in a similar way to how you might write a newspaper story. In a good newspaper story, you should be able to split the article in the middle; discard the bottom half, and the top half should still contain all the salient points of the story, albeit in a shorter format and with much less detail.

Write descriptive headings

Headings are a vital part of your Web page or blog and they’re important for search engines, too. While you might be tempted to use puns and smart headlines in your text and blog posts and while these look great in print, they are much less effective on the Web. The reason is that your pages are indexed for display in search engine results, and headings that are a pun or a play on words aren’t indicative of the page’s true content. You’re likely to have your page miss out on being in results that it should appear in, and instead have it appearing as a result in searches that it doesn’t relate to.

Even if your pages do show up in relevant search results, the absence of the text that makes the pun heading understandable will make it difficult for a reader to assess the relevance of your page, so they are likely to bypass it in favour of a more obviously relevant page. Instead, keep your headlines simple and explanatory of the page or blog post content.

Write the way you talk

Most of us can explain what our interests are and what our businesses do when we talk about them. However, place a computer monitor in front of many people and it all gets too hard and formal. On the Web, in most cases, we’d do better if we wrote pretty much the way we speak.

So, write in a style that is chatty yet informative, using words like ‘you’ and ‘they’ rather than ‘one’ or other stuffy forms of address. Write in the active voice rather than the passive voice”when you write in the active voice, your writing has more punch and it is generally shorter and more concise, too.

What to write about

Write content that will appeal to your audience. Your Web site should be designed from your visitor’s point of view and provide them with what they want to read and learn about. So, make sure your writing focuses on what your visitor wants to read, not what you want to tell them ” there is a big difference.

WIIFM (or what’s in it for me?), is the subconscious question a reader asks when they are reading your web site or blog content ” they want to know how it affects them and what they have to gain from it. For your copy to work, you need to answer this question and do so early in your page or blog post to make sure they read on. You have to entice them into the copy with an offer they can’t refuse.

Cutting to the chase

When you’re writing content for your Web site, do so in a simple text editor. That way, you focus on the content and not on the coding or how it looks. Print a copy of your text and read through it carefully. Then remove extra adjectives and adverbs to tighten up your text and give it a punchier reading style. Well-written Web content will make your site approachable for your visitors and help you get your message across to them, whatever it might be.

Well written web content is a crucial tool for attracting and keeping web site readers. One of the key (but often overlooked) features of a good Web site is the quality of its copy. Many Web designers spend hours designing the Web site and ignore the need to produce readable content that meets the needs of the Web site’s visitors. Quite simply, no matter how good your Web site looks, if its content is bad, visitors will not come to it and they won’t stay.

Keep it short and simple

The key to writing good Web copy is to keep your text short so that it can be easily read by your visitors. Most people don’t read Web pages in the same way that they read words on the printed page. They don’t even read every word; instead, they browse the page and look for words and phrases that are relevant to them and to their interests.

Breaking the content into short chunks allows the visitor to read or skim a paragraph quickly to see if it contains something of interest. Where you can, break the text into bullet points, as these are easier to read and digest ” use bullets where order isn’t important and use numbers where it is.

When choosing your words, err on the side of simplicity and words that are in common use. A Web site isn’t the place to use big words that require your reader to pick up a dictionary to understand what you mean.

Get the main points down first When ordering your content, place the most important and relevant content at the top of the page, so it is there where your visitor can see it the second your web page loads. When you are telling your story, tell it in the first sentence or paragraph and then expand on this in a similar way to how you might write a newspaper story. In a good newspaper story, you should be able to split the article in the middle; discard the bottom half, and the top half should still contain all the salient points of the story, albeit in a shorter format and with much less detail.

Write descriptive headings

Headings are a vital part of your Web page or blog and they’re important for search engines, too. While you might be tempted to use puns and smart headlines in your text and blog posts and while these look great in print, they are much less effective on the Web. The reason is that your pages are indexed for display in search engine results, and headings that are a pun or a play on words aren’t indicative of the page’s true content. You’re likely to have your page miss out on being in results that it should appear in, and instead have it appearing as a result in searches that it doesn’t relate to.

Even if your pages do show up in relevant search results, the absence of the text that makes the pun heading understandable will make it difficult for a reader to assess the relevance of your page, so they are likely to bypass it in favour of a more obviously relevant page. Instead, keep your headlines simple and explanatory of the page or blog post content.

Write as you speak

Most of us can explain what our interests are and what our businesses do when we speak about them. However, place a computer monitor in front of many people and it all gets too hard and formal. On the Web, in most cases, we’d do better if we wrote pretty much the way we speak.

So, write in a style that is chatty yet informative, using words like ‘you’ and ‘they’ rather than ‘one’ or other stuffy forms of address. Write in the active voice rather than the passive voice”when you write in the active voice, your writing has more punch and it is generally shorter and more concise, too.

What to write about

Write content that will appeal to your audience. Your Web site should be designed from your visitor’s point of view and provide them with what they want to read and learn about. So, make sure your writing focuses on what your visitor wants to read, not what you want to tell them ” there is a big difference.

WIIFM (or what’s in it for me?), is the subconscious question a reader asks when they are reading your web page or blog content ” they want to know how it affects them and what they have to gain from it. For your copy to work, you need to answer this question and do so early in your page or blog post to make sure they read on. You have to entice them into the copy with an offer they can’t refuse.

Cutting to the chase

When you’re writing content for your Web site, do so in a word processor. That way, you focus on the content and not on the coding or how it looks. Print a copy of your text and read through it carefully. Then remove extra adjectives and adverbs to tighten up your text and give it a punchier reading style. Well-written Web content will make your site approachable for your visitors and help you get your message across to them, whatever it might be.

In developing your Adwords ppc campaigns, it’s very helpful to develop a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. The USP may be used repetitively in your Adwords ads to help improve click through rates.

Your first step is to answer these four questions:

1. Why I ought to read or take note of you? 2. Why must I believe what you have to say? 3. Why should I take action about what youre offering? 4. Why should I act immediately?

As you may notice, these are powerful standards for what to incorporate in your Google ad and on your web site when visitors stop by. Find the correct answers, and you’ve taken your marketing and made it that much more powerful.

We’ve all crashed on our faces trying to be everything to everyone. You can’t make everyone happy. If your purpose is shadowy and your good judgment of individuality ambiguous, it confuses your regulars and robs you of time and vigor.

You cannot discuss USP without mentioning the Domino’s Pizza USP:

This isn’t exclusive now, but in the early days of Domino’s, it most definitely was. A multibillion dollar company was born from this extreme unique, simple proclamation of value.

Just look at what a focused USP does in the rearrangement of everyday Domino’s staff:

Fresh. They don’t have to keep coolers full of stock. They keep all of the needed ingredients on hand, along with ample staff to set up the order-taking. And the pizza doesn’t even have to ooze quality.

Hot. They keep a logical timed schedule, putting the ladened pizzas into the oven in time with orders that enter. They keep the suited containers on hand and the delivery guys make sure the hot freshly made pizzas are well packed.

Pizza. No spaghetti. No lasagna. No fine wines. Nothing else.

Delivered. This isn’t a dine in setting. No wait-staff or extra busboys, no added tables or chairs.

In thirty minutes or less. Everyone pushes against the clock.

Guaranteed. When the buyer hears this, he sits up and takes notice. And the manager has monetarist inducement to keep to keep the operation stirring.

When you have this communication defined and focused, it will unshackle you. You become the consultant. People ask to you solve difficulties that you’re not geared to deal with, and you simply refer them elsewhere. Nobody expects you to be skillful on anything more than your one function.

You can possibly expand into extra areas, and many businesses have many USPs. Every item in a business should have a separate USP. But in each case, it needs to be common, and it requirements be very clear.

A beneficial USP will correspond in a Google ad or at least the most crucial part of it will.