Freelance Copywriting, marketing and social media tips

Although an avid user of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, Pinterest is a social media platform that I’ve not yet dabbled in.

Perhaps it’s the image-based content that doesn’t seem to sit well with the work of a copywriter that’s holding me back?

But whatever is it, even though I’ve not yet dabbled, there are many businesses out there embracing the world of pinning.

Due to my lack of experience, I hunted round the internet to find a great resource to help you get the most of this unique social media platform.

My search led me to a post on Social Media Examiner that looks at 3 unique ways you can use Pinterest to promote your business.

The article looks at:

• Using it to increase your brand authority by creating boards that offer useful and educational information. These can be top tips, recommendations and a mixture of video and images.

• Expanding your reach through group boards (engaging with the Pinterest community), collaborating with popular pinners with a large following.

• Driving traffic to your site by providing re-pinnable content – great images combined with content that inspires, solves problems or appeals to hobbyists.

To give your Pinterest activities a boost, head over to the article now and discover how you can use Pinterest to boost your business.

Sally Ormond – copywriter – find her on Twitter and Google+

Image courtesy of Boyhung/FreeDigitalPhotos

Is there such as thing as a bad sale?

You would have thought the answer to that was ‘no’. After all, any money coming in to your business in the current economic climate’s got to be good – right?

That’s the train of thought that’s led many companies down the coupon or voucher route.

Offering blistering deals to get people through the door appears to be a great idea. But think about that for a moment. Who are you trying to attract?

The science behind sales

Offering a voucher or coupon will, in all likelihood, bring buyers to your door.

But what kind of buyers are they?

Are they the ones that came to you because they love what you do, want to build a relationship with you and will continue to buy from you in the future?

No.

They are the ones that can’t resist a bargain, dash in, buy cheaply and then head for the door, never to be seen again.

Your marketing must build trust if you want lasting results. Yes, that will take time, a huge amount of great content and a lot of patience, but it will retain new customers.

A voucher or coupon will generate a one off visit to your website and/or purchase, but that’s pretty much it.

In other words, they’ll bring in the wrong kind of customer.

Getting your marketing right

If you want to attract customers who will come back again and again, you must produce marketing content that will:

• Engage
• Inform
• Build trust

Long-term customers only come along when they feel valued. By offering them information that will be beneficial to them, they’ll grow to trust you and with that trust comes their custom.

The important thing to remember is that your marketing can’t just be a one off. To get results it must be sustained.

If you’re unsure where to start, chatting with a professional marketer will help. They’ve been where you are now and have avoided the hurdles along the way (or at least learnt from them).

Sally Ormond – copywriter – find her on Twitter and Google+

There are a lot of adverts out there, but there’s one that makes me cringe every time I see it.

Sure, there are plenty of cheesey ads that make you groan, or boring ones that bring on a sudden urge for a cuppa, but this one drives me mad.

All adverts must highlight the benefits of the product or service they’re trying to sell, it’s what makes us buy. But what about when the ‘benefit’ they come up with is so daft it beggars belief that anyone could have come up with it in the first place.

What advert am I talking about?

This one.

Apparently, according to the advertisers, eating any other yoghurt will make you dreary and dull (with a tendency to wear your hair all over your face in a ‘just got out of bed and can’t be bothered’ look).

But one pot of their elixir will make you into a vibrant person who feels great about themselves, is able to find a hair brush in the morning and who giggles inanely at the slightest thing.

Really?

Has it made me want to rush out and try the product?

Nope.

FAIL.

Over to you

Which adverts really got your goat?

Leave a comment below and let’s compile a list of the worst adverts.

It’s every blogger’s and content writer’s worst nightmare.

It’s something that happens far more frequently that they would like.

What is it?

A blank mind.

They know they have to generate great content quickly to satisfy the insatiable appetite of their readers, but sometimes, just sometimes, the ideas simply won’t come.

Why does this happen?

Probably because of poor writing techniques:

• Sitting in front of a blank screen in the hope that inspiration will strike
• Writing well to start with and then heading off in a long-winded tangent that ends up being deleted, returning them to the blank screen stage
• Constantly distracted by their Twitter feed, Facebook and emails
• Editing and formatting as they write

This doesn’t make them bad writers, far from it, but they are distractions that can seriously block creative flow.

Here’s how you can get around the problem.

1. Ideas

Most writers are at their height of creativity first thing in the morning, before their brains get clogged with client work.

That’s the time to sit down with pen and paper and brainstorm ideas. Think about what’s happened that week, conversations you’ve had with clients, articles you’ve read in the papers or news stories you’ve seen on the TV. Draw from everything you can think of and come up with a list of title/outlines for your articles.

2. Choose and plan

Once you have your list, pick the one that really jumps out at you.

But, before you start hammering the keyboard, take 10 minutes or so to write a plan. Whether it’s a list of points you want to cover, a mind map to help you visualise the way the piece will be structured or a general outline, this will help you keep focused and your writing on track.

3. Silence

Once you have your plan, you’re almost ready to get started.

Before you start typing though, switch off Twitter, log out of Facebook and close down your mail client.

It’s essential nothing distracts you so you ideas can flow freely.

4. Check

Once you have your first draft, read through it, refine it and check it for typos and grammatical errors.

But only when you have a first draft – checking as you write will stifle your workflow and clog up your creativity.

Plus, make sure you set the first draft aside for a while before you edit it.

5. Format

Now your article is written and you’re happy that it’s error free, you can go back and format it. Add in any bold headings you want, italics and hyperlinks. And make sure your paragraphs are flowing, short and easy to read.

These 5 simple steps will help you avoid wasting hours sat in front of a blank screen.

Keeping a pen and paper with you at all times will help you record ideas as they come to you (you can also record voice memos on your phone), so you’ll always have a supply of great content ideas.

Give it a try and see how you get on.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd. Follow her on Twitter and Google+

Is that the decision your company’s come to?

Why do you think that?

Are you not getting the results you think you should be getting?

That’s probably because you’re not going about it the right way.

You see, content marketing is not about churning out loads of articles, sticking them on various websites in the vain hope of receiving a shed-load of valuable back links.

But don’t worry; you’re not the only one that feels like that because lots of companies are getting it wrong.

Why content marketing isn’t working

These are the main reasons why your content isn’t working.

1. Keywords

These little suckers count for 2 of the mistakes you may be making.

The first is that you’re focusing on high value keywords. If you’re trying to compete for a term such as ‘writing skills’, it’s unlikely your content will be found because it is highly competitive. It’s best to concentrate on something more specific, such as ‘website writing for the fashion industry’ or something along those lines. The more niche your term is, the less competition there is likely to be.

The second is that you’re using your keyword too often in your content. Do yourself a favour, stop counting the number you have in your text and just write naturally.

2. Going for quantity rather than quality

Many companies believe that more is, well more. Well, they’re wrong, because less is most definitely more.

Churning out loads of poor quality content will damage your business – fact.

But, investing in a smaller number of high quality articles will elevate your business to the heights you want to reach.

It’s far more important to produce high quality writing that adds value to your readers.

3. Over optimisation

For this one, less is definitely more.

Stuffing your keywords into your tags, descriptions and text will make the search engines groan and, in all probability, ignore your page.

Don’t try to play the system, because you will get found out and your rankings will suffer.

4. Be blinkered by rankings

Rankings used to be the be all and end all when it came to working out how successful your content strategy was.

Not any more.

Now, the search results you see depend on whether you’re logged into your Google account or not and your location. So, if you do a Google search on one of your keywords and see your content, there’s no guarantee they are the same set of results someone 100 miles away will be seeing.

It’s far more important to look at other metrics when gauging the success of your campaigns.

5. Social media fail

Using social media to boost your content marketing doesn’t equate to sending out a link and then forgetting about it. Instead you must use it in different ways, such as tweeting the link, running an opinion poll about it on Facebook, asking for feedback etc.

How to put your content marketing right

The main thing to remember is that you’re not writing to get links or rankings, you’re writing to benefit your readers.

Here are our top 8 tips to help you get on the right tracks:

1. Content calendar – this will make sure you have a constant stream of quality content
2. Add value – make sure everything you publish adds value to your readers
3. Practical – offering practical advice and tips will help your readers and make them more likely to come back again (think about also adding videos and images)
4. Optimise – not to excess, just make sure your title tags and meta descriptions are written to market your writing (i.e. write them to make the searcher want to visit your website)
5. SEO – always check your SEO, for example for instances of duplicate content that will damage your rankings
6. Images – not only is it important to use great images, it’s also essential you optimise their ALT tags
7. Quality over quantity – rather than churning out loads of poor articles for links, publish a smaller number of high quality articles that will earn you genuine links
8. Social – use social media A LOT

Try them out and see the positive effect these simple techniques will have in the success of your content marketing strategy.

Author: Sally Ormond, copywriter. Connect with her on Twitter and Google+