Freelance Copywriting, marketing and social media tips

We all know blogging is good for business

Just about every business owner out there understands that blogging is good for their business. It will:

• show them as an expert in their field
• add value to their client relationships
• drive traffic to their main website
• raise their profile

As a freelance copywriter I use blogging a lot because it helps me reach out to a wider audience (especially when I couple my blogging with Twitter), I can demonstrate that I do know what I’m talking about and (more importantly) that I can write.

My whole blog is centered around eveything copywriting and marketing. This focus is essential because it’s relevant to my work and, when people subscribe to my RSS feed, they know each post I make will be of use to them – after all they subscribed because I give them copywriting and marketing tips. If I suddenly started posting stuff about recipies and knitting I would loose the relevance and a lot of subscribers.

I don’t know what to write

If I was given a pound everytime someone said that to me, I would have retired a long time ago.

All you have to do is take a look at what your business does – there’s your subject matter. Throw into the mix comments on industry news, debates about new ideas and you’ve got yourself an interesting and relevant library to write about.

Follow other blogs within your industry. What are they talking about? Expand on their ideas (but always link back to the original source of inspiration). You can even get inspiration from print media too – the opportunities are endless.

Do I have to do it myself?

My personal opinion on this is yes.

I know there are many people out there who’ll write and post blog posts for you (for a fee) but, for me, that defeats the whole object of having a blog.

Your blog should be a means of communicating your thoughts and personality to your readers. With each post you are building a relationship. Your readers are getting to know you. If you are using your blog to drive traffic to your main website, your readers are going to feel as though they know you before they do business with you.

If you’re not the one doing the writing, how can they forge a relationship with you? It’s a bit like when, back in the 1980s, Milli Vanilly was found to be a complete fraud and their Grammy was revoked after it was revealed that the lead vocals on the record were not the actual voices of Morvan and Pilatus.

Yes, blogging takes time but isn’t it worth it?

The whole stimulus for this post was actually another blog post written by Chris Brogan called Write Better Blog Posts Today. Chris talks about being focused on your end result. Why are your writing your blog? What do you want your post to achieve? If you have these ideas straight in your mind before you start, you’ll become blogging dynamite.

Producing a regular newsletter for your business is a great marketing tool.

Whether you write the content yourself or you hire a freelance copywriter, you must ensure the content is something your reader will want to read. If not, you’ll be buried under an avalanche of unsubscribers.

What makes a good newsletter?

This might sound obvious, but the clue is in the name – newsletter.

Yes, you’ve got it – news.

Tell them something they’ll be interesting in such as the latest industry news, tips that will be of use in their work, articles that are relevant to their industry etc.

This will help strengthen your relationship with your customers.

What makes a bad newsletter?

A newsletter that bangs on constantly about your achievements, your products and your services.

You walk a fine line because you’ll want your newsletter to generate business for you but you also want to build strong relationships.

How do I achieve the ultimate balance?

You provide information that is useful and relevant and within that copy you weave references to your products and services. Within this context they will appear as being of service to your reader rather than self-serving.

What kind of articles can I lead with?

It’s always a good idea to have a lead article for your newsletter. If you have too many subjects within one issue you’re reader may be left confused. Some great ideas for this are:

• Latest industry news
• Advice
• Analysis on a new topic or product
• How-to article
• Case studies because people love to read real life stories

Your additional material could be things like – product updates, news about upcoming events, general information or reminders and teasers for the next issue

Of course – the final thing to remember (as with all email communication) is to include an opt-out option.

“Anyone can write – this copywriting malarky is money for old rope!”

Is that right?

Many people believe they can write sales copy. Others appreciate how difficult it can be to produce something that:

1. sells
2. is interesting
3. appeals to the reader and resounds with them
4. appeals to the search engine spiders

I’ve been a freelance copywriter for about 2 ½ years and I learn something new on every project I work on. There is so much you have to take into consideration when writing:

• what format will your copy take?
• what media will you be using?
• what message do you need to get across?
• who is your audience?
• what problem do they have that your copy will solve?
• what tone should I take?
• is there a ‘house style’ I have to stick to?

…and that’s just for starters.

SEO Website Copywriting

This is a biggy – everyone is beginning to realise their website has to work for them rather than just look pretty.

But if you want targeted traffic you have to appear in the search engine results.

In the past (and sadly it still happens today), some copywriters felt the way to achieve this was to stuff their copy full of keywords.

Wrong!

Keyword density isn’t important – what is important is writing in a natural style which your reader can understand and finds interesting. If you can achieve this, you’ll automatically include the optimium number of keywords in your copy.

To be a great SEO website copywriter you also need to know where the keywords should go, how to structure your pages, you need to understand internal linking structure….

See, it’s not as easy as you thought is it?

So I guess you’re wondering why the ‘Yoda-like’ title for this blog – well, after sitting through the recent re-runs of the Star Wars saga I came across a recent post on Copyblogger which made me smile.

In The Force is Strong With This One: 10 Ways to be a Copywriting Jedi, David Wright and Sean Platt take a Jedi look at Direct Response copywriting. Having gone through the stages of deciding to embark on a career as a freelance copywriter and building up my business to the success that it is today, their words of wisdom resounded with me and I thought you might get a lot from it too.

Copywriting is the key to a successful blog. Stale, insipid and repetitive content will kill business. Fresh, insightful, path-breaking and paradigm defining content will attract traffic to a blog like nothing else. Fortunately there are enough high quality freelance content creators whose services can be utilized.

Blogs are critical tools used by websites. These can be written on a regular and consistent basis to help promote a business or a personal message. Blogging in fact is the most important SEO tool. The addition of fresh original content indicates to the search engines that a site is contemporary and evolving. Sites that lag on this front are relegated to the back of the queue.

The importance of SEO to the process of content creation is crucial, especially for new sites because this is the only way that search engines get to know about the thrust of the site till the time there are enough back-links in place. Using the services of a good copywriter is the best way to have your site filled with SEO content, that not only provides for a good search position, but also satisfiers the visitor compelling him or her to go for the product or service being promoted by the site.

The demand for copywriting is tremendous and there is not a better way than blogging to propagate one’s cause. A blog can help one showcase one’s content creation ability on a regular basis and have direct interaction with one’s clients. Typically a copywriter will write on what he or she is most conversant with. But it is good to focus on a few core areas, so that the blogging establishes the person’s credentials in those particular areas.

Blogging today is easily amongst the most powerful media today. It can reach out to one’s target audiences in ways not possible with conventional media. It can establish a blogger as an industry authority or thought leader and have traffic queuing up to the site. The most important part of a blog is how unique and original it can be. It has to be distinct and distinguishable from the others.

Moreover search engines have an affinity to blogs. This is because of the freshness and large size of the content; the fact that there are regular additions and feedback often accompanied by links to their favorite post on your blog. The advantages of hiring professional copywriters are many. One can have amazing content up on one’s site without ever having to write a word. Professional blog writers understand the world of blogs and are up to date with latest styles and trends. What they provide is complete blog management, rather than plain blog writing.

Moreover blog copywriters do thorough research on every blog post, so as to come up with content of the top drawer. There is a degree of consistency in their writing, and there is no possibility of a slip up by them, and therefore one will never have an adverse impact on one’s blog. Blog copywriters have the advantage of being able to come up with high quality writing on a range of subjects. To top it all blog copywriters have a strategy and their writing is always focused and target audience oriented.

If the intention of any business enterprise is to send targeted traffic to one’s website, so as to showcase its industry website, get the search engines interested and have excited customers queuing up for its products or services, it makes eminent sense to hire professional copywriters or content creators. Any company which is not blogging in this day and age does not belong in this day and age. Blogs are a tremendous medium for establishing one’s credentials, informing the customers about the latest product or service offerings, sharing tips, and old fashioned bonding with people to let them know what an authority one is in a particular field. All in all a win win situation for everyone concerned.

This is a guest post written by the webmaster of the freelance blog www.freelancer-online.com

Search engine optimisation is the new black – well, OK it’s not exactly new but it is vital for any business with a website today.

When consumers type their search terms into Google’s search box, its many thousands of spiders zip around the web finding websites with relevant content. So if your website isn’t SEO friendly, it won’t get found and therefore won’t be listed in the organic search results.

OK so you could do an Adwords campaign, but that’s going to cost you – organic results are a much better way to go, but they take time to achieve.

So how do you know the best way to optimise your website?

Well there are plenty of SEO guys and gals out there that will take care of that for you for a handsome sum – but does it really have to cost you a fortune?

Nope – not if you know where to look

Tom Picks,  TheWebMarketCental Blog, has some great links to take you to practically any piece of information you want to know about SEO guidance (and more – just take a look) in his post Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 2

Great post Tom, thanks for sharing it with us.