Posts Tagged ‘Copywriting’

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Yesterday I started a new series on Destination Search Engine Marketing, discussing the first of the seven building blocks in creating a Destination Website: Expert Information. Before I move on to the second building block I wanted to discuss the different types of expert information which can be added to your website.

There are a number of different types of expert information that can be developed for your website as a means of providing your visitors with additional, quality content. Depending on your site, some types of types of expert information are more applicable than others and not all will be a good fit for you. Each site must be evaluated to determine what kind of expert information will best serve the audience’s needs and expectations. By finding ways to add additional expert information to your site you’ll begin to build a site that can stand up above the competition.

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While back I wrote an article about how having a search engine friendly website does not make it search engine optimized. The article discussed how many web developers promise to “search engine optimize” the websites they develop. While I don’t mean to discount the value of a good web developer (I rely on them heavily) many developers really know no more about SEO than than they do about pluming. Sure, they can plunge a blocked toilet, or write some decent titles and meta descriptions, but there is so much more to SEO (and plumbing) than that.

A good web developer will undoubtedly build a very search engine friendly website. But it takes someone steeped in SEO to truly optimize it. Very few web developers study search engine marketing they way an SEO dedicates their time to learning, studying and practicing the art of on- and off-page optimization.

One of the comments I received from that article really struck home to me and did a great job of fleshing out what I have always believed about SEO:

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• The Harpoon or the Net: What’s the Right Copy Approach for Your Prospects?
• 5 Blogging Goals Worth Chasing After
• The art of teaching copywriting
• 5 Tips for Generating Fresh SEO Content
• How To Use Your Words Online
• Three Questions Your Copy Must Answer to Succeed

• Web Copywriting Tips - Write Sales Letters Which Convert
• When Should I Put Advertising on My Blog?
• Predictive Copywriting - Fight Big Publishers and Win in 2009
• What SEO Copywriting Is and Isn’t

• How to Increase Your Blog Subscription Rate by 254%
• 5 Remarkable Things You Should Learn From Music (And How You Can Apply Them To Your Blog)
• Improve Your Writing: Get Feedback
• How to Be an Interesting Blogger
• Getting Noticed by Google
• Benefits of consistent SEO copywriting
• 3 Benefits of Consistent SEO Copywriting

• Copywriting - Write Ads That Get Customers and Cash Fast
• Are You Familiar with HTML and CSS? Six Reasons Why You Should Invest the Time to Learn
• What’s the ROI on SEO? (Hint: SEO Experts Are Underpaid, Opportunity Abounds !)
• How To Achieve Nothing (SEO How To)
• Your Contact Form Might Be Hurting Your PPC Campaign
• Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You

• What Romance Novels Can Teach You About Powerful Copywriting
• A Remedy for Blogger Inferiority Complex
• Make Your Website Content Explode
• Persuasive Web Design
• B2B Analytics: What Should Be Measured

It is often said that it is important to write for your audience. But what does that really mean? How do you determine who your audience is?

If you write for whom you think your audience is, you might be missing out on a completely different crowd.

Consider Your Audience - Three Major Members

1. Write for the researchers. The people in the beginning phases of purchasing are researching to learn more about the products or services that they’re looking for. They may not even really know what they’re looking for at all, so it’s crucial to be very general and to refrain from using jargon or other industry-specific terminology.

   Someone well-versed in internet marketing is very familiar with search engine optimization (SEO), but for a small business owner who just started a website, they need more broad references that make sense to them. Explain everything in layman’s terms, and you’re likely to get a repeat visitor when they move to the next phase of audience participation.

2. Write for the shoppers. The next member of your reading audience is the shopper. This is the person who has done the research on the topics and has a pretty good understanding of what it is they’re looking for. Now that they know enough about the product or service, they’re ready to do some comparison shopping.

   Target your shopping readers by including more industry-specific terms and arm them with information that will make them want to pick your product or services over your competitors. You can include side-by-side comparison charts that show the benefits so that they want to come to you when they’re ultimately ready to buy.

3. Write for the buyers. After they have done the research and have made comparisons between competitors, the buyers are ready to convert. They know enough about what they’re looking for, so your writing can be very specific and can include a lot of terminology and facts that will make them want to buy your product or service.

   Your buyers want quick information that makes them want to convert, so give them the info they want quickly. When writing for your buyers, consider giving them links to any customer service, warranty, shipping, or refund information as applicable.

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Although I only post to this blog once a week on writing-related topics, I was baffled on what I was going to write about today.

I figured that I couldn’t be the only person who has had problems coming up with a topic to write about, so this post is dedicated to helping others find inspiration.

Four Ways to Get Inspired to Write

1. Read about what you want to write about. One of the easiest ways to get inspired to write is to read what others have written on the topic. If you’re writing about writing, read blogs/articles/books about writing. Do a Google Blog Search to see what’s been written, and sort your details for relevance or when it was posted.
2. Find pictures then write to match the image. I stumbled upon a cool site, a Flickr Related Tag Browser, that searches Flickr’s database and offers suggestions for related images based on tags. I found the image above by searching for “books.” Although my post isn’t about books or reading, it is what I used to get inspired to write.
3. Don’t write. If you don’t quite know where to start your writing, get inspired by not writing at all. Watch television, take a walk outside, play a video game, or just clear your mind by meditating. Some of the greatest ideas for writing come when you’re not writing.
4. Ask friends for input. On my Twitter account, I asked my followers to tell me what they do to get inspired. A big thank you to Patricia Mayo, Jttaylor, David Rosam, Melanie Nathan, and Adam Snider for providing me with their inspirational tips.

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Copywriting

• Copywriting: What to include? What to leave out?
• Improve Your Blogging by Understanding Copywriting
• Web Copywriting Fundamentals
• Search Engine Optimisation Copywriting - the Top Ten Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
• Website Copywriting That Works

Social Media

• What Can Bloggers Learn From The Diamond Empire?

PPC

• Convert Your Clicks