The Confident Copywriter

Archive for the ‘Copywriter’ Category

To survive in today’s highly competitive copywriting environment, you’ve got to stand out.

To stand out, you must do things differently from your competitors.

To do things differently, you must first know what they are doing.

Many businesses will be all too happy to tell you how they are different. Websites shout about their great customer service, low prices, fast shipping, and friendly staff.

These are not the things that make you different. These are things customers expect, and you better deliver if you hope to do any business at all.

To answer the question foremost in your prospect’s mind, “Why should I do business with you?”, you must know yourself, your market, your competition, and what each of these currently thinks of you. (Yes, feedback is just as important, maybe more so, than what you are putting out there.)

If you want to do better, you must make changes.

• Are you engaged in marketing yourself?
• Are you marketing yourself differently from the industry norm? (I didn’t say crazily.)
• Are new leads, comments, suggestions, conversations, questions coming your way more regularly? If not, why not?
• Do prospects have a reason to pick up the phone and call you, or open their email and write to you, or take any kind of action to contact you?
• Do clients tell me why they like my work, why they chose me over another, why they keep coming back for more? If not, begin soliciting feedback to fine tune your offer.

Imagine if your market message was something like, “We help B2B companies sell more with smart marketing strategies that bring measurable results.”

If you were a company looking for more sales, would this interest you? It would me. I would want to know how much more I could sell, what those smart strategies are, how I can get better results, how are those results measured? This simple sentence – often called a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or Unique Value Proposition (UVP) – drives clients who are looking for your services. In essence, the reader asks, “You can? How do you do it?”

Bingo! Your phone is ringing.

When you fail to establish why the customer should do business with you instead of your competition, you are left to fight over pricing. Competing on fees alone destroys value. If this is what you are doing right now, you know exactly what I mean.

Don’t you want to find a better way? Wouldn’t you love for customers to knock on your door, instead of the other way around?

Then tell customers why they should do business with you. Determine what makes your services distinctive and say it loud and proud!

                      As freelance writers and copywriters, we read tons of information about how to go after ‘higher quality’ clients — in other words, the client with deeper pockets who has a better grasp of what it means to work within the freelance environment. It’s the Holy Grail, isn’t it? Having access to a wellspring of loyal, Fortune 500 clients who regularly come back for more? And yet so many of us seem to struggle to achieve this goal. It’s the #2 concern of freelance writers, according to my informal February survey.

I know this is nearly a blasphemous thought but…maybe we’re worrying about attracting the wrong companies.

According to the 2010 Content Marketing Spending Survey conducted by Junta42*, and disseminated by HubSpot, the use of content marketing is growing. But not in the way you think.

33% of the total marketing budget among all companies goes to content marketing. This is up by 11% from 2009. (Is the economy recovering, or are companies risking spending more to create greater balance?)

More interestingly, companies with 99 employees or less spent 40% of their marketing budget on content marketing compared with 18% spending for companies with more than 99 employees.

Wait. What? Small companies are spending more than large companies?

Perhaps we copywriters are having a positive effect on the market after all.

Or perhaps smaller businesses are simply catching up and wising up to the fact that content is and always has been king. Engaging, relevant content in the form of website pages, blog posts, social media marketing, case studies, white papers, reports, newsletters…are now required to magnetize, build and preserve customer and prospect relationships. The client can go ahead and bang his head against the marketing wall as much as he likes…in the end, he’s got to have great content. That’s good news for writers! (And also a lesson to those of us struggling to market ourselves. It works both ways.)

Quality content gives birth to new thought leaders, raises online and offline visibility, improves search engine rankings, builds brands and positions products and services in front of the ready-to-buy B2B or B2C consumer. Small businesses no longer need deep pockets to play on the same field with the big boys. They simply need time, patience, a willingness to listen and learn… and stellar talent. (Translation: a wonderful writer like you.)

I say, go get ‘em. What’s your take?

* More than 250 marketing professionals responded to the survey.

Last week, we talked about finding time in your day to begin marketing yourself online using social media. Many of you commented, and rightly so, “it ain’t easy.”

So I thought I’d point out a few useful, free social media marketing tools to help you be more productive and efficient as you access the power of the Internet.

Free Twitter Tools

Your Twitter account is ready to go. You’re mentally ready to deal with a flood of customers…after all, stats show your Twitter followers are about 80% more likely to buy from you. So the question is: how can you keep up with your tweets and retweets?

How about Twitter.search? Just like a Google search, Twitter.search will let you search for hot topics in real time. Search by keyword, search your name or company name…filter any type of search at all, and ‘spy’ on what’s hot and what’s not.

Want to filter your Twitter searches in real time and geographically? Try Monitter to target a specific geographic radius, using sets of three keywords.

Want to keep your finger on the pulse of what people are saying about your company…or any company or topic? Then you want Trakur, a comprehensive social media monitoring tool that monitors any topic, sends alerts via RSS or email, allows custom filtering of results, tracks sentiments and trends, automates monitoring of your online reputation, gathers insights into customer behavior, tracks the effectiveness of your marketing campaign…

WHEW! Trakur is truly the Mac Daddy of free social monitoring tools.

Remember the Milk is a time management tool that helps you stay organized…not so easy when you’re managing a busy business and playing a daily round of social media marketing.

Remember the Milk helps you manage daily tasks, create reminders, share those reminders with your team and access reminders from your smart phone. You can integrate your schedule with Google Calendar, add tasks from iGoogle, plot your to-do list on a map, organize lists and notes, and then easily search anything you’ve stored to quickly refresh your memory. Awesome.

And lest we forget that what happens after you capture the lead is also important, there’s MailChimp, a nifty web-based mailing list manager that offers tracking and analyzing of email campaigns along with customized HTML templates. If you send less than 3,000 emails each month to 500 or less subscribers, MailChimp is free. But that’s not even the best part!

MailChimp can be upgraded and integrated with Twitter, Wordpress and other sites. Free training is available too. MailChimp allows you to share your email campaign across multiple networking channels via auto tweets and includes retweet analysis to determine effectiveness of your campaign. Even your clients can share your email campaign across their own social networks. How’s that for cool features?

What other social media marketing tools do you use and like?

RainToday’s 2009 Benchmark Report, How Clients Buy, is full of great statistics, data and reliable information. HubSpot just published a chart excerpted from this report, “Top 10 Ways Buyers Find Service Providers.”

I thought it was important to share it with you.

Why? Well…because you’re a service provider. And because you’ve told me marketing, or the lack thereof, is #4 on your list of top 5 copywriter challenges…which makes it important to all of us.

In our quest to find more work, find better quality work, set pricing, and manage our time (the other 4 top challenges) it makes sense to understand how people seek products and services, and how these patterns affect your own marketing plans.

You do have a plan, right?

Here’s the chart:

I’m surprised that ‘website’ and ‘Internet search’ nearly fell into the bottom half. Does that surprise you too?

But wait! Check out #1: “Referrals from colleagues.”

Wow. The more things change, the more they stay the same!

Just one more reason why ‘staying connected’, be it thru social media networks, in-person meetings, phone calls, or the good ol’ postal mail, is more important than ever.

Of course, social networks are all the rage…including the network I founded exclusively for copywriters, The Copywriters Business Network. More pop up every day.

Regardless, it pays to stay in touch.

What surprises you about these findings? How will you integrate these findings into your own marketing? Does it seem websites are becoming less important as a marketing tool, or is it just that there are so many other choices these day?

You are in the midst of purchasing an item online. Before you hit submit, a box pops up…“Buying ABC today? Get XYZ at a huge discount!”

You are buying athletic shoes at a department store. The salesperson suggests a cleaner “made especially for this type of shoe.”

You are ordering a meal at a restaurant. The waitress asks, “How about a soup or salad with your meal?”

You’re at a fast food counter. The kid with yellow arches on his hat says, “You want fries with that?’

These are examples of ‘upselling’, a soft approach to helping clients enjoy greater value from your products and services, while increasing the dollar amount of each purchase.

Have you ever considered applying upselling techniques to your own freelance writing business? If not, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to serve your customers well and increase your revenue…all without even breaking a sweat.

Here are a few ways to incorporate upselling:

Sell your client on a new product or service. People want to buy…you just have to give them a reason. Your client asks for articles? Tell him you can help put some sizzle in his website copy too.

Sell an enhanced version of a product or service. “Mr. Client, after I create your new content, I’ll edit it to perfection. It will be all ready for you to use. And the additional cost is nominal…”

Sell the same service, but in a different area. Normally, your client orders website copy. Then you discover another department handles the web copy for a different website the company owns. You’ve just uncovered a whole new department to sell to!

Bundle your services with discounted pricing. Sell similar services together…articles and website copy, for example; or a sales letter and a ‘free’ report. Then discount the total cost slightly. Everyone loves a deal!

BOGO. Choose several key times during the year to put your services “On Sale”. The “BOGO” concept (Buy One Get One Free) or the “Half Off” concept (Buy One, Get the 2nd Half Off) both work well. I’ve used them; my coaching students have used them…clients begin to save up projects, so when the deal comes around, they’ve got lots for you to do!

Meet your clients in person. As copywriters, we work in virtual worlds. Occasionally, though, a client is in your own backyard. So take him to lunch! Meet her for coffee! Face to face meetings are as valuable for copywriters as the golf course is for CEOs.

Regularly ask for referrals; then upsell the new client. Make a habit of asking clients for referrals. If they truly like your work, it’s no problem. A client who regularly orders case studies will probably refer you to new clients who want case studies. First, thank your client with a special offer; perhaps buy one free case study with the next one he orders. Upsell the new client too. “Sue, Joe thought you could use my services. You’re looking for case studies? Great! Did you know I also offer…”

Don’t fall into the trap of believing you have nothing left to sell your client. What you’re really saying is:

• You haven’t established a sufficient connection with the customer
• You’ve failed on the follow up…the client has forgotten you
• You know your customer is somehow irritated – you don’t want to ‘start something’

These statements simply mean you’ve failed to establish a bond with your customer that brings obvious value to the relationship.

Here’s the takeaway: Selling your services to your customers goes far beyond getting a project, completing it and moving on. When you treat your customers like wallets, you fail to establish yourself as a trusted advisor. You’re simply ‘a writer’. There are a million of those.

Have you taken advantage of upselling? Why or why not?

Copywriting has been around as long as anyone you know can remember. But copywriting is no longer simply a catch-all phrase for clever advertising phrases. Given the Internet, organic search, keywords, page rank, algorithms…copywriting in 2010 is so much more. Today, writers who know how to create fresh content over and over, while using the latest basis SEO strategies as enhancement, will never find themselves out of work. The economy may stink, but the Internet continues to boom.

If you’re considering working as a copywriter, or are just beginning to get paid for your work, there is no better time than right now to make your move to full-time copywriting. The sooner you do it, the more quickly you’ll begin to develop a portfolio of projects, a group of loyal clients, and a great reputation for solid, reliable work. And the sooner you do these things, the more money you can command for the work you do.

Look at it this way: As our economy continues to morph, more and more people turn to the ‘net as a way to make money. Nothing gets done on the Internet without words. All those words have to come from somewhere. Savvy Internet marketers know those words can’t be about just anything…and that means they will come looking for you…the sharp, clever, experienced and knowledgeable copywriter who knows how to write compelling, engaging words that drive traffic and, ultimately, make money for the client.

As an expert copywriter, will enjoy working from home, with flexible hours, no overhead, and making good money for writing content that helps your clients reach their goals.

What could be better than that?

Statement: The best ‘SEO copywriters’ develop fresh, original website content.

What’s wrong with this sentence? It’s that term I can’t stand: ‘SEO copywriters’.

Why does it bug me so much? Because it’s a made-up term.

That’s right. If SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, (and it does), does this mean an ‘SEO Copywriter’ is a ‘Search Engine Optimization Copywriter’? How does that even make sense?

We’re writers, people. Have to use the language properly. Have to think about how we phrase things.

What people are trying to say when using this term – and it’s used a lot – is ‘a copywriter trained in SEO.”

Now that makes a lot more sense. The copywriter trained in innovative SEO techniques is of great value to companies and individuals concerned with making money online. There is a common axiom used in the SEO industry which says something like, “An ugly website is worth ten times more than a beautiful one”…meaning people will buy from an ugly website as long as the site sells something they want. People won’t buy from a pretty website just because it’s pretty.

Copywriters trained in SEO techniques help customers gain improved visibility via higher organic search rankings and a more successful overall customer experience. High visibility leads to increased sales. Increased sales lead to happy customers who come back to you again and again with new projects.

Bingo. Your success as a copywriter is closely tied to your SEO training and understanding.

Did you know this? I didn’t, when I first started calling myself a ‘copywriter.” I was stuck in some Mad Men fantasy, where ‘copy’ referred to a good advertising campaign. Today, if you’re going to call yourself a copywriter, as opposed to a novel writer, manual writer, technical writer or thesis writer, you must educate yourself to all the tricks of the trade, so you can write engaging words that sell whatever your target audience is buying.

If the idea of learning SEO scares you, contact me. The basics are fairly easy to learn and implement.

A recent article at SmartMoney.com highlights an interesting line of thought – some products are becoming obsolete! The home phone line, renting movies at a video store, subscribing to the newspaper, and even storing data on an external hard drive will soon be things of the past.

Because we’re here to help you make the most of every minute, every day, every dollar, and we want to help you spend your money wisely and effectively for the growth and health of your business, let’s briefly discuss the information in this article:

“DVDs, books, newspapers and magazines will continue to lose ground to services like in-home movie rentals and gadgets like the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle. In big-ticket items, the push for energy efficiency will continue to influence consumer decisions on cars and home upgrades.”

“The days of going to a video shop to rent a movie are at an end. In September, Blockbuster (BBI) said it plans to close roughly 22% of its stores by the end of 2010; meanwhile, third-quarter revenue was down 21% from the year-ago period.”

“According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than one in five U.S. homes (22.7%) had cellphones — and no landlines — during the first half of 2009, up from 10.5% during the same period in 2006.”

“External hard drives are one option, but an up-and-coming alternative might be simpler and save you another transition down the road. Online backup services, like Carbonite.com or Mozy.com, allow users to back up data over the Internet.”

“The morning newspaper has been replaced by a growing online media presence — much of which is accessible for free. The Amazon Kindle — even with its price tag of around $250 — and other eBook readers could increasingly become one-stop sources to access newspapers, magazines and books.”

While these predictions may sound dire, they are a normal part of a world that rises and sets on technology. While you don’t have to follow any of the trends discussed here – after all, if you want a landline, keep it! – it doesn’t hurt to stay on your technological toes and understand where various industries are heading. The most confident copywriters are the most knowledgeable copywriters!

Let’s say you want to take a trip. You begin an Internet search to uncover your options. Getting to your destination by airplane is certainly an option. You’ll get there quickly, but the cost is a bit high. So, you check out trains. You’re surprised to learn that train travel is very economical, but you’ll be on the road quite a bit longer.

Hmmm…which do you choose? That depends on your goals for this trip. Do you want to spend as much time at your destination as possible, or are you ok with devoting twice as much time or more to getting there and getting back?
To ensure a successful trip, you need a plan. In this scenario, carefully thinking through each option will help you decide if the benefits of plane travel outweigh the risks to your wallet.

Unfortunately, not every decision is so simple. The path to success in life, and in your copywriting business, hangs heavily on the strength of your planning skills. The more skilled you are in thinking, assessing, deciding, and putting a plan into action, the greater your chances for success.

Strategic planning skills are not genetic. They are learned, and you too can learn how to act and think in a way that systematically helps you achieve your goals.

You see, many people wake up one day and say, “Eureka! I’m going to be a copywriter!” They don’t know what that really means, but they read somewhere that they could be rich by next Tuesday by choosing this career.

Ain’t gonna happen. Copywriting is serious business, and only the best and brightest enjoy the kind of success the rest of us dream about. Strategic planning is a huge part of achieving that success.

So how can you improve your skills in strategic planning? Begin with an Internet search. There is a wealth of coywriting resources available. Also, check out books available on the topic. A quick Amazon search reveals a wide selection of materials to help you improve in this crucial business-building ability.

Are you familiar with the “call to action”? Simply put, a call to action is a request for a prospect or customer to move on to the next step. What the next step is…well, that’s determined by you.

Let’s say you’re writing web site copy. You’ve got the home page completed, but you’ve forgotten the call to action! How will the reader know what to do when they reach the end of the page? That may sound silly, but the truth is that web visitors want to be told what to do next. They want you to make it easy for them to take the next logical step, without having to think about it too deeply. So then, it’s your job as the writer to create a compelling reason for the visitor to move deeper into the website, to sign up for the newsletter, to register for a free gift…and that’s where the call to action is invaluable.

If you’re creating your own website, the call to action is important. If you’re writing website copy for a client, however, it’s crucial. This single, simple sentence can help your client sell more products and services. When you understand the call to action and how to use it, you can achieve the ultimate copywriting goal: Helping your clients make more money. In other words, when the client’s phone stops ringing, you’re out of work. When it rings off the hook, everyone is happy. So it pays to master this technique.

The most effective call to action compels the reader to stop everything he or she is doing to take action or buy something from your client right now.

There are various strategies for accomplishing this:

Place a deadline on ordering: “Order by the 22nd and receive…”

Warn of an increase in cost: No one wants to be left behind. Let your readers know your price will soon increase, and this will stimulate people to buy now.

Offer a trial period: when people sign up for a trial, they feel like they’re getting something for nothing. Help customers feel good about their decision to try your client’s product or service by adding additional bonus materials that can be theirs to keep, simply for “trying” the product or service for a limited time.

Add incentives: Everyone loves a free gift. Say something like, “The first 100 people who respond to this order will receive a valuable free gift…”

Remove the risk: Tell people they can cancel before the trial period expires if they aren’t satisfied.

Offer a long term guarantee: As much as a year to look over the product or try the service. Sounds risky for the client, but it’s really not at all. (We’ll discuss this in another post.)

Regardless of the call to action you choose, don’t forget to use appropriate action phrases, such as “Call now!”, “Mail this card today for faster response”, “Follow this link to receive your private bonus,” and so forth.

These phrases tell the reader what to do next, so they can effortlessly do it.

Whatever you do, don’t say, “You can reach us at your convenience at 555-1212.”

Can you see the difference? If so, then get started right now on improving the value of your copywriting with high-impact call to action phrases.