Entries Tagged 'copywriter' ↓

Email marketing can be an incredibly effective way of communicating with your customers and prospective customers.

When someone initially opts-in to your marketing list they wait in eager anticipation for your first email to land in their inbox. They continue to welcome your communications with open arms until, one day, the honeymoon period is over.

As time progresses you realise that your emails aren’t being opened as often (or at all); your messages are now unloved, unopened and unwanted.

What do you do?

Panic?

Send flowers?

Nope. When this happens it’s time to take action.

What to do when you get email marketing list fatigue

1. Look at your frequency

When they originally opted-in, you would have made it clear how often they would hear from you.  Are you now sending emails more frequently?

If so, begin to scale back. There are only so many times people will want to see you in their inbox. Don’t be that nosy neighbour who’s always popping in – you know, the one you hide from under the kitchen table so they think you’re out.

2. Gone stale

Take a look at your past few emails. Are you covering the same type of information? Is their layout and content becoming too predictable? If so you may find that the perceived value of your emails has dwindled so it could be time to rethink your strategy.

3. Incoming!

Don’t bombard your readers. If you are launching new products or offers, stagger them. It’s never a good idea to announce 4 or 5 within the same month. Firstly people won’t want that number of emails from you and secondly, they’ll get confused.

4. What’s your subject line?

Have you gotten sloppy with your subject lines?

These hold the key to people opening your emails so if they are no longer appealing, your emails won’t get opened. Perhaps it’s time to have a rethink about your subject line approach (or call in a copywriter to help you generate fresh and appealing content).

5. No one’s home

We all, from time to time, change our email addresses.

If one of your recipients hasn’t engaged with your mailings (i.e. they haven’t opened it) for 6 months or more, send out a ‘reengagement’ email – something that forces an action if they want to remain on your list.

If you don’t hear anything it’s safe to say that either:

• The email address is no longer active, or
• They no longer want to receive your emails

So it may be time to remove them from your list.

6. Spam

When was the last time you checked your emails against spam filters?

It could well be that something is triggering your recipients spam filters so your emails aren’t even reaching their in box.

If you want your email marketing to continue to be successful, regular list maintenance is essential to ensure that:

• Your readers are happy with their content
• All email addresses are active
• You are avoiding spam triggers
• Your subject lines are being effective

If you use WordPress as your blogging platform you probably are already familiar with the All In One SEO Pack Plugin.

It’s a handy little tool to help you boost your blog posts’ SEO capabilities.

The only problem with it is that, although you may have already downloaded it into your blog, you probably haven’t really got to grips with using it.

It’s a bit like paying for yoru gym membership but never going – you’re not going to get fit. If you have it but don’t use it, your posts and blog may not be optimised to their maximum potential.

To help you out I found this post on seohosting.com which looks at What you can do with the all in one SEO pack plugin for WordPress?

It’s well worth a read and could help you blog better and smarter.

Article marketing remains one of the most effective ways of boosting your search engine presence. Not only do you begin to ‘own more of the web’ you also generate those oh so important back links to your website.

But it is only effective if you produce quality content that:

• Is well written
• Addresses the needs of your readers
• Gives value

Many companies are more hung up on quantity rather than quality. They’d rather pay a few pounds per article from writers (who are frequently based abroad and for whom English is not their first language) who churn out dozens of articles, than pay a decent fee and hire a professional copywriter.

It’s not a numbers game

Yes you need a lot of articles to build links. But submitting quality articles that are well written over a period of time is far more effective than bulk submitting sub-standard ones.

Many companies out there do value good quality writing (and are prepared to pay for it) but too many don’t.

Putting a good article together isn’t about scanning the internet and cutting and pasting bits from other articles.

It’s about taking time to discover:

• What topic is to be discussed
• The focus of the discussion
• Who your audience is
• What they are looking for
• What tone should be used
• What do you want to achieve with the article

It’s a pretty safe bet that writers willing to create your articles for a couple of quid a throw won’t ask any of that.

It’s your neck on the line

You might think that it’s only article marketing so it doesn’t matter what you submit.

Wrong. It matters a lot.

If you are putting your name to it, it’s your reputation on the line. You are using these articles as a way of establishing yourself as an expert in your field. If you submit poor quality articles you’ll come across as a cowboy and not someone people want to deal with.

Articles are not just about link building—people do read them—can you really afford to be that careless with your brand?

SEO nightmare

You will need an element of SEO within your articles so they are found by your target audience.

But cheap articles often lead to shoddy SEO resulting in complete nonsense that’s unreadable. Many of the cheap outlets will just stuff your article with your keyword. The result is gibberish.

A professional copywriter understands SEO and knows how to craft your article so it is search engine friendly and reader friendly. In fact, done well, you’d be hard pushed to spot the keywords.

You get what you pay for

As with all things in life, you get what you pay for.

If you want high quantity you’ll get poor quality.

But if you are more interested in your reputation, traffic and quality you’ll pay more but the end result will be far superior.

Every company wants to get the most out of its marketing budget, it’s only natural. But investing in quality copywriting will pay dividends in the long run—to your bottom line and your reputation.

The purpose behind blogging is to create a readership, give value to those readers and position yourself as an expert in your particular field.

But if you have excellent content, if your blogging package isn’t right your posts won’t get read.

Many people will write hundreds of blogs, one or two of which might go down a storm and generate a lot of interest. But the rest fall by the wayside. Yet there are people out there who score time after time after time.

So how do they do that?

What makes their posts so readable?

Well, it all comes down to how you package your blog posts.

Where’s your focus

When writing about a personal interest, many people write in the first person – “I think the only way to generate great quality traffic to my site is through professional SEO copywriting”.

So what?

But if you change your focus to the second person and actually address your reader directly – “Your website needs traffic to feed your sales. You can either pay through the nose with PPC or you can make the smart move and invest in professional SEO copywriting.”

Just a small change—going from ‘I’ to ‘you’—instantly makes your post more relevant to the reader.

Can I help?

Most people read blogs because they’re searching for a solution to a problem. So make sure your post doesn’t disappoint. No matter what you’re writing about, make sure you relate your content to a common problem that you then solve.

Whether you are talking about reducing a marketing budget, how to whiten your clothes first time every time, or how to reduce wrinkles, providing a solution is vital if you want your post to resonate with your reader.

Don’t over stuff

Just like you would never try to sell multiple products with one sales letter, keep your blog post to one idea.

If you try to incorporate several ideas your post will lose its focus and leave the reader somewhat bewildered.

One idea covered in detail with a great solution will pull in readers.

Easy on the eye

Writing a winning blog post is one thing, but if it doesn’t look good people aren’t going to bother reading it.

Keep your paragraphs short so the page doesn’t look ‘stuffed’ with text. Use headings and sub headings to break things up and show your reader what you’re covering within your post.

Also get a few well chosen images in there too.

Write for your reader not for you

The art to achieving a good and regular readership is to write about things your audience cares about.

Research is vital if you are going to provide your readers with what they want. Just because you find a particular subject really interesting doesn’t mean your audience will.

It’s supply and demand; give them what they want.

Be natural

Many people think if they are writing about a subject in a blog they have to be very business-like and stiff.

Think again.

The best blogs are those written in a natural, conversation style that resonates with the reader.

As you write, imagine yourself sat in your local coffee shop with your best mate. Think about how you would speak to them and then replicate that style within your blog post.

Reading your blog should be like slipping on your favourite slippers. Your reader should get that warm and fuzzy feeling—returning to you blog will be like meeting up with an old friend again.

And that really is all there is to it. Of course, you’ll also need to come up with some great ideas.

At the end of the day write naturally, write to your reader and make it attractive on the eye.

After my last post about networking, I thought it was about time I ‘got out there’ again and met some local business people.

So off I went, out into a snow covered Suffolk to a local event – the main attraction being the fact it was billed as a ‘coffee morning’ rather than a formal networking event. I duly arrived, grabbed a coffee and then looked round the room.

I soon met up with a young lady who’d just started a new business. We got chatting and discovered that my old house was fairly close to where she lives now. We both had kids and talked about schools and the great fun we have as working mums. As we chatted I discovered she was facing various hurdles and dilemmas I’d already crossed when I started out so I was glad to be able to provide her with loads of tips and  information.

After a while we decided that we really ought to ‘work  the room’ – I hate that phrase, it sounds so calculating.

Across the room I spotted someone I’d not met before so I went over to say hello.

Did they ask about me, what I did, did I have a family?

Oh no, after my initial ‘Hello, isn’t the weather bad?’ (I’m so British) they immediately launched into their sales pitch.

I stood agog as they dove straight in telling me what they did, how long they’d been in business, how they could help my business (even though they hadn’t bothered to ask what I did)… this went on and on and on.

Eek – this is the reason I don’t like going to networking events. And to top it all, after exchanging business cards I seem to have ended up on their mailing list. As far as I’m aware, the acceptance of a business card doesn’t give an implicit consent to being added to a mailing list.

How to be an effective networker

In my book, to be an effective networker you should:

• Greet with a smile and a warm hand shake
• Make small talk
• Ask about the other person, don’t launch into a full-on sales pitch
• Give useful information if you can that might be helpful
• Listen and take an interest in what they have to say
• Introduce them to other people you know if you think  they may be able to help each other
• Keep and maintain eye contact

But whatever you do, don’t:

• Launch into your sales pitch
• Dominate the conversation
• Surreptitiously look around the room for someone more interesting to talk to
• Thrust your card at the other person
• Take the acceptance of your card as a right to add the person to your mailing list

I know men and women network very differently but taking the time to greet and get to know someone is common courtesy.

I like to meet people and find out about them. To me that is far more important than walking up to someone and saying:

“Hello, I’m Sally. I’m a freelance copywriter who can make a real difference to your business…”

Make a joke to break the ice and get to know the person behind the business.

Yes we are all time-limited these days but let’s not forsake the art of great conversation just to make a few more pounds. Talking, engaging and enjoying the company of others is not only more appealing but it will also ensure you are remembered.

So next time you’re at a networking event be more than just your business card.