In my last post I explained why you should get your business blogging.

“That’s great Sally. But what the hell am I supposed to write about?”

Trust me, you’d be amazed at the wealth of material available to you.

By blogging you are going to really help your search engine optimisation, customer communication, online reputation as an expert and really boost your web presence. So it is really worth digging deep to find some great topics to write about.

Look beyond your writers’ block

Everyone has something to write about:

• your businesses background
• top tips
• ‘how to’ articles
• customer case studies

In your daily work situation subjects are likely to crop up. Keep a pad next to you to jot down ideas as they come to you. That way you’ll begin to build a list of potential blog posts for future use.

I stumbled across a great post on Problogger tackling this subject. In his post, Mark Hayward gives 9 tips for creating more small business blogging ideas. Building these suggestions into your everyday working life will generate you a constant stream of ideas.

Therefore writers’ block and the excuse that you can’t think of anything to write about will be banished forever.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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If you are a regular reader to this blog, you’ll know I’m passionate about blogging for business.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now and it has proven to be an excellent way to build my business. Plus it is a fabulous vehicle to help other people with tips and advice.

But, if it is new to you, it can be daunting. Where do you start?

I’ve put together 10 tips to help you get the most out of blogging for your business.

10 tips to get you blogging

1. What is your blog for?

Before you dive into blogging you need to be clear about why you are doing it. What is your aim?

• to build credibility?
• use it as a search marketing tool?
• will it be your main company site too?
• are you going to use it as a tool to communicate with your customers?

You may want to use it for all of these purposes. But it is essential to get this clear in your mind before you start.

2. Decide on your URL

If your blog is to be part of your main site, your URL will be incorporated into your main sites name e.g. www.companyname.com/blog. However if it is to be a separate site try to pick a URL that incorporates your keywords/topic name.

An example of this is this blog. I’m a freelance copywriter therefore the name of my blog is www.freelancecopywritersblog.com.

3. Software

The next stage is to decide on which platform you are going to blog. You can use a free blog such as through WordPress but if you do that you must remember that you will not get any benefit from inward links. All the links you get will be building WordPress’s site not yours. Therefore I would strongly recommend you get your own blog on your own URL.

4. Customise it

Create a blog that will perform as you want it to. Blogging platforms have various plug-ins you can use to enhance your posts. Through WordPress there are plug-ins such as All in One SEO, Google XML Sitemap and Tweet This to name but a few.

Your choice of plug-ins will be determined by your goals.

You can also customise templates to create an image that coordinates with your company.

5. Content

When starting out it is very important you decide what kind of topics you are going to blog about. Try and keep within your specific field. After all people will subscribe to your blog because they are interested in what you are talking about.

On this blog I discuss various copywriting and marketing subjects. People subscribe because they want to learn about those fields and know that each post will be relevant to them.

It is also a good idea to use your keywords as categories on your blog – that makes it easier for people to find information they are interested in.

6. Easy to share

If one person is interested in what you have to say, there is a good chance that other people will be too. Use a plug-in that makes it easy for your readers to share your post with others through social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Delicious.

7. Keep it social

Spread the word of your blog through RSS feeds into your Twitter account and Facebook. List your blog on directories and publish your URL.

8. Monitor

To keep up to date with what’s going and to find out what people are saying about you, your blog and your company use tools such as Google Alerts and Social Mention.

9. Blog regularly

The more often you blog the more people you will reach. Try to blog at least 3 times a week –if you can post daily.

10. Link

One of the most powerful benefits of blogging is that it creates back links to your main site. In every post make sure you add in textual hyperlinks to your main site utilising your main keywords.

I hope those 10 tips will help you set on the right foot. Blogging really is a powerful tool that every business should utilise. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, blogging can and will help you reach a wider audience.

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If there was a magic formula to guarantee that everyone who came into contact with your copy would read it, I’d be out of a job.

Luckily for me there isn’t one.

There is one aspect of the human race that makes the life of a copywriter rather difficult – we are all different.

What makes one person jump for joy will have another heading for the hills. So when you’re faced with writing some web copy, email content or sales letter, how on earth do you get everyone to read it?

Don’t write for the masses

When writing some sales material you have to bear in mind that not everyone is going to want to read it. So if you try and pitch your writing for everyone you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot.

If you are writing about fishing rods the likelihood is that only a certain percentage of male readers will be interested in it. If you are writing about the latest make-up product, only a certain percentage of women are going to want to read about it.

Therefore it is vital that you write for your ideal reader – the person who is likely to be interested in your product.

This is where the cat comes in

Your headline is the crux of your writing – it is what will either hook your reader or send them running.

There are a number of ways you can write strong headlines but for the purpose of this post I want to look at just one – curiosity.

Most people don’t read adverts. It’s like a newspaper – how many of you actually sit down and read every word printed? You are more likely to skim the headlines and hone in on the ones that look interesting or, more likely, pique your curiosity.

For example if I were to tell you that I knew how to write sales letters that convert at 15% and sales letters were a big part of your business, you’d want to know more – right?

How to introduce curiosity

The best way to get curiosity into your copy is by hinting at a secret – human nature will make us want to know more:

• What everyone one should know about the stock market
• The top ten reasons why you won’t get that job
• How I went from broke to earning 8 figures a year in 6 months

But it’s not just about sales or secrets.

Take George here. He’s running an exhibition and wants to promote it to boost his visitors. One of his exhibits is a painting. It’s nothing particularly famous or anything but the owner paid a small fortune for it – which heading would have the biggest draw?:

• Exhibiting the “Cat and goldfish” by P Brush

or

• Exhibiting the “Cat and goldfish” by P Brush which was recently sold for £850,000

It would be the second one. Because by mentioning the price it immediately makes us curious. We want to see this amazing picture that someone paid a small fortune for.

Curiosity is an itch

It is the itch that you have to scratch.

If you don’t discover the secret you’re going to miss out on something. Everyone else will know something you don’t.

Using curiosity in your headline you’ll make people want to learn more. They’ll be drawn to your copy like a magnet. So next time you are writing a piece of sales copy try it out.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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If you’ve been copywriting for a while you should already be well aware of these secrets.

Every industry has best practices within it that everyone should know and abide by. Of course, if that were true there would be no cowboys out there.

The following 10 secrets are things that every copywriter – whether freelance, in-house or just a dabbler should know and live by.

1. Keep it simple

This is one I have to remind clients of constantly. Once I had a client who insisted my job was to make them sound “more intelligent”. I had to put them right.

The job of a copywriter is to convey a client’s sales message clearly, persuasively and above all, simply.

Yes your readers will be educated but they are also time limited. If you keep your language and structure simple, they will be able to quickly and easily read and absorb your sales message.

Make it complex and full of big words – they won’t bother to read it.

2. Be personal

Whilst we’re on the subject of your audience, make sure your copy is always personal. You are writing and selling to a person. They have feelings so use emotive language to drive your message home.

Some people writing for the B2B market will claim their audience are businesses therefore writing in a personal style won’t work. So how many businesses have you seen wandering down the street or picking up the phone to order something? None – companies can’t buy, people can.

3. Don’t lie

Whatever you do, don’t lie – your copy must be factual if you and your client are to retain your credibility.

4. Selling

When you are copywriting, selling is the name of the game. It doesn’t matter how great and creative your English language skills are – if you can’t sell you’re going to be out of a job pretty quickly.

5. Don’t cause confusion

When you have got people to your order page, don’t confuse them. Keep the process of parting with their cash as simple as possible.

If they are faced with a complex order form they won’t bother and you’d have lost a sale.

6. Don’t be bullied

Bearing in mind that as a copywriter you understand what sells – not only words but also their appearance and that of a web page or brochure – don’t be railroaded by designers.

If you know a font or text size they’ve picked will damage the impact of your sales message, tell them. If their graphics and images don’t gel with the sales message, tell them. It is the whole package that needs to work.

7. Be the headline act

Did you know that four times more people will read your headline than the body of your text?

If your headline doesn’t grab them nothing will. Therefore it makes sense to spend a lot of time crafting your headline.

8. Length really doesn’t matter

There are a lot of debates raging about whether long copy or short copy is better.

Stick your fingers in your ears and don’t listen. Your copy should be as long as it needs to be. So long as its relevant and interesting it will keep your reader interested.

9. Customers only care about themselves

Harsh but true. Customers couldn’t give a toss about the company you are writing for, their product or, for that matter, you.

If a customers reads your copy and thinks “wow, what a great writer this person is”, you’ve failed miserably.

Great sales copy should go unnoticed. There is only one thing your reader wants to know about – what’s in it for them?

Write benefits driven copy. Not sure if you’ve hit it right? Test your benefits by asking “so what?”

10. Read

The only way to improve your copy is to read. Look to your industry experts and read their work. Look at letters than land on your desk or on your doormat – the ones that appear consistently are the ones that work and generate huge amounts of money.

So, there you go. Ten things every copywriter should know. Life by them, work by them and you shall succeed.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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Last week I was asked to make a presentation on Social Media Marketing and how it can help your online business.

Amongst the various issues I talked about, one stood out as far as my audience was concerned – the power of blogging.

I’ve been blogging for quite a while now, normally on the subject of copywriting and marketing. The effect this has had on my business as a freelance copywriter and Google rankings is phenomenal.

Are you sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin

I started out with a homemade website that didn’t really feature on Google. To get my name out there and in front of the right people I used the power of social media marketing – online networking, profile sites, directories etc.

Work began to arrive and I started blogging. I invested in a new website and started getting serious about SEO and driving traffic to my site. Initially my blog was a free one on WordPress. That was all well and good but I realised I wasn’t getting any benefit from the people linking to me. All their link juice (see fig. 1) was being poured into WordPress and not my site.

So, I got my own domain name and set up the blog you are now reading. Low and behold within about 5 or 6 months I was listed by oDesk as one of the top 100 freelance blogs and other listings soon followed.

But because this was now my blog on my domain, I got the benefit of the link juice which was fed directly to my website:

Fig.1 The link juice concept

People linked to my blog – my blog links to my website – the result is greatly improved Google rankings!

It was this simplified explanation of how blogging can positively effect your Google rankings that saw so many jaws drop in the room.

Most of the people present had some idea that blogging would help their rankings but didn’t really understand how.

It’s not all about rankings

By starting up your own blog you will be promoting yourself as a real expert in your field. Giving great information in your posts will help you build relationships with perspective clients. They will grow to trust you and see you as an authority in your field.

So you see, blogging can help any business. If you are not already doing it, give it a go – you will be surprised at the results.

But if you are going to blog make sure you do it regularly.

Good luck with it.

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As a copywriter I am normally involved in writing copy for printed or online media. However I and currently working on project that involves creating scripts for podcasts. The series is designed to teach staff how to effectively use an internal piece of software.

I’m writing this post to highlight the differences between writing for spoken word and the written word.

If you are creating a piece of copywriting that is designed to be read (such as website copy, brochure, email etc.) you will write in a completely different style than if you were writing a script.

So why are these two techniques so different?

Written copywriting

Written copy is something physical. It appears before your reader and can be read and re-read as many times as they want. If you have a complex sentence within  the copy and the reader loses their way, they can go back over it again to make sense of it.

Although your written copy should be simple, it has the luxury of being there to be read again and again. It can be passed on to others and referred back to when necessary. It is a form of reference material that is ever present.

Written copy tends to use full words rather than contractions. You tend to see “you will” rather than “you’ll” so it takes one a slightly more formal tone than spoken language.

Spoken copywriting

In contrast, copy for the spoken word utilises contractions, simple words and sentence structures.

The spoken word is transient – once it’s been spoken it’s gone. If you use complex sentences within your copy not only does it make it difficult for the voice-over artist, but if your listener also loses their way, they have no way of returning to the copy to work out what you were trying to say.

Frequently when writing scripts, the script will go before several people before being finally agreed. This can cause a “Chinese Whispers” effect as more and more people have input. Different voices begin to appear; people lose sight of the fact that this is supposed to be spoken and not read.

Therefore it is vital to always ensure everyone involved with the process understands the aim of the script, who will be listening and that they are constantly reminded that this is spoken language.

You should actively use informal language (within reason so it fits within the company’s brand and image) – write as you would speak. When you’ve completed an initial draft of your script read it out loud. Are there any sections that sound ungainly? Is it easy to follow? Do you run our of breath reading long sentences? These are all questions that should be constantly in your mind as you review your work.

Golden rules to remember

So next time you are involved in script writing remember:

1. Keep your sentence form simple
2. Use simple language
3. Use contractions as you would when speaking naturally
4. Make sure the information is imparted simply
5. Read it out loud – if you run out of breath or lose your way, so will your listener

If you bear these 5 points in mind when you write the spoken word, your copywriting will flow, be easy to understand and accessible to your listeners.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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Social media is for the younger generation.

Hogwash!

No one is too old for social media so there is absolutely no excuse for you not using it to further your business (or to make new contacts).

There is no unwritten law that states you are not allowed to participate in social medial if you are over the age of, say, 35.

If there were, my business shouldn’t exist. Why? Because as a copywriter I have utilised social media to build my business.

There is no mystery

To many people even the name social media marketing send a shudder down their spine. It sounds technical and scary – well, it’s not. If I can do it, anyone can.

Blogging, article writing, Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook they are all simple to use and fun.

“I’m too old for it…I prefer talking to real people…I wasn’t brought with computers so I don’t understand it.”

Can you think of any more excuses?

You’re never too old to learn

I came across a great post the other day by Beth Dunn on Hubspot that addressed this issue. It’s called “Are you too old for social media?”

In it she shows how many ‘older’ people are utilising this highly effective way of marketing. As she points out, all you need is practice – as with everything in life.

None of us are born able to run, talk or write – we only learn those skills through practice and social media marketing is exactly the same.

So banish your hang ups about age or ability – dip your toes in the water and see what happens. I think you’ll be surprised at the results.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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As a copywriter, when I talk about sales copy I tell people to concentrate on the benefits.

After all, it is the benefits of your product or service that prospects want to know about as they will have a direct influence on their lives.

But if you’ve ever done any face to face selling you’ll also be aware of the other factors that you need to overcome – their reasons for not buying.

Sales literature is there to sell (no, really?), what’s more everyone knows that. Many people don’t like being sold to and so their guard is instantly raised when they read your letter, web page, brochure or other sales material.

Therefore you have to work out how to get round their objections.

Objection 1: “Too expensive”

Quite often this isn’t a genuine reason – it’s more of an excuse. A quick response that is supposed to get you running for the hills.

The best way round this objection is to show your product or service as an investment. The use of that word suggests there is a future pay back somewhere along the line.

You can do this by highlighting its benefits – how much money they’ll save or how much they’ll make.

Objection 2: “I don’t really need it”

Oh boy, now you’ve got some work to do.

If this objection is thrown at you it means one thing – you haven’t sold the benefits of your product well enough.

Go back over your website copy – have you told them what’s in it for them? Have you shown all the benefits. Make sure you haven’t confused your features with your benefits.

Is the copy talking to them? Does it evoke an emotional response? Have used a story to illustrate how it will benefit them in real life?

If your copy is benefits lead it should blow this objection clean out of the water because it will show them exactly why they need it.

Objection 3: “Hmmm, not sure. I need to talk to someone about it.”

Ah, the delaying tactic.

The best way to get round this one is by having a limited offer – it could be time limited (i.e. the special price is only available for the next 14 days), limited in number (i.e. only 5 left) etc.

No one likes to think they are missing out.

Of course the other way round this is by providing testimonials or case studies. By having real life examples of how your product has helped people will strengthen your sales message. They won’t need to talk to someone else when they have testimonials in front of them.

Being prepared is always having an answer

These three objections are the main ones you’ll come across. Head them off by ensuring your copy answers each of them.

The more objections you can satisfy the better. Utilise your experience – make a note of objections you come across and work solutions to these into your copy.

Sometimes, even though you’ve countered every argument someone can come up with, they still won’t buy. Sadly there is no known cure for stubbornness (yet).

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Those immortal words were famously uttered by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in the 1976 classic, “Taxi Driver”.

This post isn’t about that particular iconic film though. Rather, I want to  talk about your website copywriting and how it should be written to gain the greatest effect.

Who do you want to read your website?

This is a topic that I have touched on in the past but it is so important, I’m going to talk about it again.

You might think it an odd question – “who do you want to read your website?” – but it isn’t really.

Look at it another way – what do you want your website to do?

Hopefully you answered “sell” or perhaps “generate enquiries”. But you will only do that if your website copy talks to your reader. Think back to the last networking event you went to. No doubt someone came up and introduced themselves to you and launched into their elevator pitch. What would you find most interesting? Someone who says:

“I’m John, I sell websites. My websites have state of the art features and they look great. They are really eye catching and I work with clients all over the country. I can create ecommerce sites, flash sites and just about anything else you can think of. My company is called Websitearama, this is my card, look me up.”

Lost the will to live yet? I’m guessing that you have now made your excuses and left John to find another victim to bore.

But what if John had said this?

“Hi, I’m John and I can help your website attract targeted traffic that will generate a constant stream of sales. With our software you’ll never lose a sale because it will automatically follow up every lead. You will no longer be walking away from business because you don’t have time to keep in touch with all your prospects – your website software will do it for you.”

In the first scenario John bangs on about his company. At no point does he even attempt to say how he can help his clients. His websites have state of the art features – so what? The are really eye-catching – so what?

But the second attempt starts to address his audience. His website attracts targeted traffic – so what? – so it generates a constant stream of leads. It follows up every lead automatically – so what? – so you’ll never lose another sale.

This time John has qualified the benefits of his product by illustrating what that will mean to his clients.

So what’s all that got to do with websites?

When someone lands on your website they are there for a reason – they want to buy what you are selling.

To make yourself stand out from all the other websites, you have to make sure you give them what they want. If they land on your site only to read all about your company (an Ego website) they’ll get bored and move on.

But if your website copy addresses them directly and tells them what you will do for them, you’ll get their attention.

You

That is a word that should be littered throughout your web copy. By using “you” and “your” you are directly addressing your reader. You are involving them in your website and showing them precisely why they’ll benefit from your product/service.

Stating what your benefits are and what they’ll do for your reader will prevent them from saying those dreaded words:

“What’s in it for me?”

If they have to say that you’ve failed to get your message across clearly.

So next time you are writing your web copy make sure you banish “we” and replace it with “you”. By writing directly to your reader you’ll begin to write benefits driven copy that will sell. It may take a bit of practice but stick with it as it will pay off.

By the way, this is also true for your other sales materials.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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Direct mail has been around for many years. Long before the internet was thought of letters would come crashing through your letter box promising all sorts of wonderful things.

It is one of those things you either love or hate. Personally I’m not a great fan but that is probably because I have seen so much bad direct mail.

Buy! Buy! Buy!

That is what immediately springs to mind whenever someone mentions direct mail.

There is so much today – on and off line – that shouts at you. Know what I mean? All those letters and landing pages that are a mix of fonts, font sizes, colours, bold text, underlining.

Why do it? Surely if your product is great and stands up on its own merits it doesn’t need all that fluff and decoration.

Surely concentrating on the benefits is the key. Tell me what it will do for me, how it will make my life better. Convince me of that and I’ll probably buy – if the price is right.

That’s another thing – the price.

Is the price right?

Only you know if the price you are asking is fair or not. When I say ‘is the price right’ I’m thinking more of where you’ve put it in your sales letter/landing page.

Often you’ll see it in the headline.

Only £5.99!

Great, but because you haven’t put forward your offer yet, what’s the point in thrusting the price at me? It is meaningless on its own.

It’s the same when the price precedes the benefits. You have to convince me that the benefits of your product are so strong I’ll want to buy it whatever the price.

Convince first, tell them the price later.

Forget the hype

Great swathes of writing going on and on and on about features, exaggerated claims and long winded testimonials can be a real turn off.

Yes, testimonials are strong but do you really need twenty of them?One or two persuasively written case studies would be far more powerful.

People today are very time limited. They don’t have hours or even minutes to waste wading through your longwinded letter or landing page.

If your offer demands longer copy, fine – so long as it is all relevant to your product. Long copy can be very effective when written well.

It’s very easy to write long copy badly – it’s not so easy to write good long copy.

Know who you are writing to

Another pet hate of mine is receiving direct mail that is of no interest to me whatsoever.

If you are sending off line direct mail make sure you do your market research well. There are three elements that make up a successful campaign:

1. A great offer
2. A great sales letter
3. The right audience

Get any of those wrong and you’ll be doomed.

Even if you’ve slaved hours over your letter and written the strongest offer known to man, if you send it to a bad list you won’t get the return you are looking for.

There is money to be made

You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m not a great fan of this particular sales format. However as a copywriter it is something I am called on to do frequently for my clients.

Learning how to write it has been a long journey (it isn’t something you can pick up over night) and a tortuous one considering my feelings towards it.

But I quickly learnt that direct mail could be written without excessive hype, bold colours, odd fonts and flashing boxes (or those annoying pop-ups on landing pages that chase you round the screen asking if you are sure you want to leave the page).

So don’t be put off by my rant. Direct mail can and does work. There are many big corporations out there using is well. Its just a shame there are so many bad examples out there too. 

What are your thoughts on it? Do you love it or hate it? It would be great to hear from you.

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