Entries Tagged 'copywriting tips' ↓

The written word is a powerful tool when used correctly.

The effectiveness of all your written marketing communications, whether they are web pages, blog posts, white papers, case studies or brochures, relies entirely on engagement.

If they don’t strike a chord with the reader they will have little or no effect.

Writing marketing materials within your organisation can often lead to text that is full of jargon, unclear and downright boring, which will reflect the reader’s perception of your company. And that’s not good.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking – you’re a copywriter, you’re going to say that aren’t you.

Yes I am, and I make no apology for it. And that’s because over the years I’ve seen a lot of marketing materials produced in-house and, pretty much all of it (with the odd exception), is like that.

The problem is, when you are part of a company, you are usually too close to your product or service to see it objectively. It’s almost impossible to mentally remove yourself from what you know and write about it from your customers’ perspective.

That’s why writing with a copywriter can really help – because they are trained to write compelling copy that will engage your readers.

Different writing tasks

When writing something, do you actively think about what you need to produce and tailor your writing style accordingly?

Probably not.

You see, every type of writing demands different disciplines:

Working with a copywriter

First off, let’s get one thing straight – it’s not the copywriter’s job to know everything about your company.

You’re hiring them because they are professional writers and can put across your ideas and information in an interesting, engaging and compelling way.

Therefore, you will need to help them by providing them with background information and other materials to help them get to grips with your business and brand (including your style and tone of voice).

Plus, make sure you give them time to absorb all the information.

The copywriter/subject matter expert relationship

If this is going to be successful, it’s essential everyone knows where they stand from the outset and what they are to bring to the table:

Only by working together can they really do justice to your products and services by shaping and developing great copy.

So next time you engage a copywriter to help you with your marketing materials, remember they can’t produce miracles alone.

This article was supplied by Printed.com, suppliers of unbeatable quality digital leaflet printing, and a shortlisted company for this year’s industry leading Print Week Environmental Company of the Year 2011 award.

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.

Anyone can throw together a business leaflet, but putting together something strong and compelling is a little harder. Here are some top tips for writing something that shines a little brighter than the average leaflet.

Business leaflets are easy to produce and cheap to print, but therein lies their problem. Whilst the best ones catch the eye and can bring a fantastic return on investment, the majority of leaflets are mediocre – poorly designed and written slips of paper that may not even be read before they go in the recycling bin. Given the sheer volume of leaflets that paper the walls of the typical library or get pushed through doors to carpet the average porch, it pays to think a little longer and harder about it than the competition.

Get a sense of what works
Before you write anything, gather a bunch of other companies’ leaflets together and go through them. Give each of them just a few seconds at most – that’s how long people look at a leaflet before passing judgement. Decide on instinct whether you like them or not, and put them into two piles. When you’ve finished, go through the piles again and this time try to work out why some leaflets worked and others didn’t. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a good idea of what to aim for and what mistakes to avoid.

Meet a need
Whilst good design is a big part of getting people to read your leaflet in the first place, that won’t lead to any conversions unless you’re telling the audience something they want to hear. One of the most common mistakes leaflets make is trying to tell potential customers all about the company in question. The problem is that readers don’t want to know any more than they have to. In fact, in this respect your leaflet isn’t about your company at all: it’s about the reader’s needs and problems. Your company is only important in as much as it can answer those needs. Make sure that the information you state on your leaflet looks at things from the customer’s point of view, not yours.

Keep it short
On a similar theme, customers don’t want to read any more than they have to. Because leaflets are typically only two sides of A4, the temptation is often to cram them as full of information as possible so as not to waste any of your precious space. This is a mistake: solid text is unappealing, no matter how interesting – and it’s unnecessary. Part of the skill of leaflet writing is being able to condense what your business can offer into a few short words and phrases that will leave the reader wanting more – and therefore to contact you. Think of a leaflet a little like a trailer for a film. Images are great for this, because they can say so much more than the words you can fit in the same space. Two caveats are to make sure that the images are relevant and meaningful, rather than just pretty, and to make sure that any pictures do not detract from your text. You don’t need to give people any more reasons not to read your leaflet.

How to start a leaflet
The beginning of your leaflet is the most important part. The first few words or pictures have to be eye-catching and engaging, otherwise the rest of the leaflet is unlikely to be read at all. You should bear in mind that if your leaflet is going to be displayed in a rack along with perhaps dozens of others, the top third is all that anyone will see to begin with. If they don’t like what they see, they will simply move on to another one. Therefore that small area has to give potential customers something to pique their curiosity and read on. Choose your content carefully and for maximum effect.

Check again
Lastly, check and double-check your leaflet before it goes to print. Spelling and grammatical errors look unprofessional and careless: not the impression you want to leave with the reader. Make sure the customer has all the details they need to take things further, and give them a ‘call to action’ or reminder to contact you at the end of the leaflet – the information alone isn’t enough.

In A Copywriter Gives Power to the Words we looked at the power words that can help convey your message clearly and concisely to your reader.

But there is one very important word that I omitted to mention – “you”.

Why? Well believe it or not, freelance copywriters are actually human beings. We may well be shut away in our offices, sat in front of our computers being creative but we do also have lives and get to go out now and again.

Therefore it is important that copywriters use words to convey their humanness and the best one do that is you.

Writing using those three letters isn’t always easy though. If you have an academic background of any type (we all have) you would have been told time and time again not to address your reader directly.

Well, now you are writing sales material which is completely different and it is obligatory to use “you”, “yours” and “your”.

Everyone wants to be seen as an individual – and who is the person that people find more fascinating than anyone else? Themselves! Therefore always use “you” instead of “I”. So for example, instead of saying:

“Order now and I will send you a free gift”

Say

“Order now and you will receive a free gift.”

If you do have to write about yourself then “I” and “we” are better than your company name as it keeps it more personal and involving.

So remember – you are human, you exist, so talk to your reader conversationally – don’t talk at them from a distance.

Sally Ormond

This is going to be short and sweet, but what do you reckon?

Should your copy be humorous?

Is there a place for it?

Well, before you can answer that you really need to think about your brand.

You’ve worked long and hard to create a particular image, so before you decide to use a touch of humour in your next marketing campaign, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is it really funny?

Perfecting a humorous campaign takes time. But you do have to remember that not everyone finds the same stuff funny.

Just because you’re humour makes you roll on the floor laughing, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will have that effect on everyone.

2. Oops

Not only do you run the risk of creating something that, for many, is not funny, but you could also end up causing offence.

Poking fun at certain people could land you in an awful lot of hot water.

3. Kill not cure

As I mentioned earlier, you have taken a lot of time and energy getting your brand’s image just right. If you’ve spent time and money creating something that’s renowned for its quality, seriousness and soberness and then put out an ‘amusing’ marketing campaign, you could turn off a lot of people very quickly.

The moral is…

At the end of the day, it’s a brave marketer that goes for the humour angle on a whim.

Make sure you look at your brand, your product and your audience before you start thinking comedy. After all, you want your customers to be laughing with you, not at you.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

When companies write their own copy, they tend to fall at a couple of hurdles when it comes to its effectiveness:

• It’s full of we
• It’s a blatant sales pitch

The first point is covered in this very sanitary blog post, so this post will concentrate on the second.

How do you convince your reader to buy something without being blatant about it?

Before I answer that, let’s take a look at the problem itself. When you’re writing about your own business, you’re keen to get across every last detail to your reader.

You want to tell them all about the features (sadly forgetting the crucial benefits) and then you’ll proceed to tell them it’s amazing, brilliant, superb and fantastic in varying font sizes, colours and turns of phrase.

The problem with that is the reader will instantly recognise your sales pitch and if there’s one thing people don’t like, it’s being sold to.

So if you want to get them to buy from you, you’ve got to be a bit more cunning than that.

How to sell without selling

As a copywriter, I use 3 techniques to get around this particular problem. Each one will help you sell your products or services without the reader recognising an in-your-face sales pitch.

Let’s take a look at the first…

1. Storytelling

As kids, we’ve all grown up listening to stories. We naturally warm to them, listen to them and learn from them, which is why it’s such a powerful way to communicate the benefits of your products or services to your readers.

By reading about a situation and how your product helped someone, will sell the benefits to your reader without them realising they’ve just been sold to.

That’s because they have seen how your product/service works within a given scenario and how it benefits the user.

Placing it within a content they can relate to, is a powerful way of selling without obviously selling.

2. Testimonials and case studies

Whether you use a testimonial from a client, or use their story as part of a case study, because it is a real life story, your reader will read it and take more notice of it than anything you write.

After all, the authors of the testimonials have no incentive to lie about your service, so they are seen as trustworthy insights into your business.

Another powerful way to use testimonials is by video. There are a few people who take the view that testimonials can be written by anyone and where’s the proof that the person sighted is the person who wrote it. But if you have a video testimonial, it will tend to blow the sceptics out of the water.

3. Teaching

Does teaching really work?

Of course it does.

Whether you offer a free sample, video ‘how to’, or an offer, these all act as bait to get your reader hooked.

People love something for nothing, and if it means they get to see how great your product or service is first hand, they are more likely to buy from you.

Over to you

Do you use any other techniques to avoid the ‘hard sell’ approach?

Perhaps you’ve had particular success with one of the above. If so, leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.