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Three more uses for a tame copywriter

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

A good web copywriter can be a rare and elusive beast, scurrying furtively through the darkened corridors of the Internet, pausing only to tweak a piece of web copy here or tighten up a phrase or two there.

Like any rare creature, often the only evidence of their existence are the footprints they leave behind – a killer article on a website, a thought-provoking blog post or some irresistible web content that draws in readers like iron filings to a magnet. (On occasion you might be able to track a copywriter by following a trail of Doritos crumbs or discovering a coffee stained mug and a pad with keywords and search terms scrawled across it like mystical www hieroglyphs.) If you do manage to snare a decent copywriter though, you’ll find them reasonably easy to tame and eager to do your bidding (just keep the caffeinated beverages and potato-based snacks flowing).

But once they’ve given your web content a good onceover, and perhaps created a blog for your site, what further use can they be? Here are three reasons to delay releasing your web copywriter back into the wild…

Press Releases

Though press releases are often thought of as more of an offline ‘real world’ activity they can, in fact, do a lot of good for your online presence. An SEO copywriter can craft an attention-grabbing and keyword-enriched press release that spreads across relevant websites like wildfire. The benefits of this are legion, and include increased exposure for your website, high-quality backlinks, and the chance of ranking in Google News and other news aggregators. If it’s interesting enough, your story might even catch the eye of the mainstream media.

Getting your Email marketing crafted by a web copywriter

When done well, email marketing can be a powerful and effective way of reaching your customers and enhancing your relationship with them. Email newsletters can be used to keep your customers informed of upcoming offers and product launches, or to solicit feedback on your services. When crafted by an expert web copywriter, personalised ‘follow-up’ emails can also provide a massive boost in up-selling and cross-selling.

Guest posts and article marketing

Online article marketing has got a bad reputation in recent years due to the proliferation of certain types of spammy, low-value, re-spun articles. But when original articles are carefully crafted for a specific audience and for single use on a specific external website, they can be highly effective. Entertaining and informative guest posts on respected blogs that are relevant to your own website and business can provide some great publicity for your site, and help to increase your credibility in the eyes of web users.

So if you are lucky enough to come across a copywriter in the wild, tempt them in with promises of Gold Blend coffee and Nacho Cheese Doritos, set them to work on your web content, email marketing and guest blogs, and then watch your PageRanking and your reputation climb.

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The secret to better press releases

Monday, July 25th, 2011

by Steve Kellas

Have you wondered why your press releases aren’t really getting any attention? Why you put them out there and nothing happens? The press don’t notice and the traffic to your site doesn’t increase.

Did you know there’s a PR copywriting secret?

Derryck spent the first 3 years of his copywriting career writing press releases for the music industry. When we first met, we chatted about this part of his career and it sounded like a real trial-by-fire!

But he did tell me the secret.

The difference between 99.9% of boring press releases out there and ones that are ‘great’ press releases that actually get reprinted or reported on is this:

The closer your press release is to an interesting news article, the better it will do.

Overworked, underpaid journalists aside, this just makes sense because a great story is a great story no matter who writes it.

So what does ‘interesting news’ look like and how can you find the best story?

Pretend you’re the reporter.

Seriously.

Put your mind into the role of reporter and find the story angle that is most interesting about your business win, product or new service. This role-playing is a part of all great copywriting.

Get the structure right

Believe it or not, there is a structure to a persuasive news story. Just peruse a reputable newspaper and you’ll see that there is an elegant underlying structure. It’s called the inverted pyramid style of writing.

Interestingly, this is the same style of writing that web readers prefer. Lucky you.

Make it personal

Great press releases don’t just rattle on about how great the product is, or how wonderful the company is. They present a balanced story that is interesting, and they make it personal by adding quotations.

A quote is the opportunity to give insight into the compelling reasons for the story in the first place.

For example if you have a new product, the quotes are a great place to share why you wanted to make the new product and what problem it solves.

This absolves you from making those conclusions yourself (since you are playing the reporter and being neutral) and it allows your audience to relate to your company on a human level; to ‘hear’ the real reasons from the source.

That’s compelling reading. Now all you need to do is distribute your press release.

Of course, we’re always here to lend a hand with writing your press release and distribution too.

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Introducing ‘website copywriting dissected’ – a new blog series

Friday, March 18th, 2011

by Steve Kellas

A couple of weeks ago, we Stumbled Formstack’s Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page. We’re quite taken with it, and it inspired an idea: what if we could write about the perfect page of copywriting?

Once we started talking about all the aspects of copywriting that would go into a perfect page, we realised quite quickly that when it comes to writing copy for a website, the answer to what is ‘perfect’ depends on what kind of page – or even what kind of element on the page – you’re copywriting.

More value, more hands-on

So, instead of trying to cram a bunch of thoughts into a post or two, we have decided to publish an entire series on web copywriting, right here on our blog. Oh yeah, and we’re doing this for free.

Why would we do this? Because we think it has value – not just for those who might want to be (or already are) copywriters, but also for anyone who would like to understand what makes website copywriting such a skilled discipline, quite different from other forms of copywriting.

What will we cover in the website copywriting dissected series?

To give you some idea as to the depth we’re going into, our first 6 posts in the series are dedicated to home pages: headlines, sub-heads, calls to action, email sign ups, testimonials, and body copy. Later, we’ll cover:

  • About us pages
  • Team pages
  • Case studies
  • Testimonials
  • FAQs
  • Guides and other information pages
  • Product and service pages
  • Contact pages

In each post we’ll talk about how to write each component, and how it fits into the overall picture of the purpose and goals of the page.

How to keep up with the series

If you haven’t done so already, add our RSS feed to your favourite reader, or subscribe to the Big Star Copywriting Blog by Email.

This way you’ll get the next part of the series each week, and be able to comment, ask questions and talk about the content in real-time.

Would you be interested in this series as an e-book? Let us know in the comments below.

Coming next week: Copywriting home pages Part 1 – The perfect headline

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Web copywriting matters after 50 milliseconds

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Steve Kellas

Steve Kellas is the Content Director for Big Star Content

In our web copywriting training courses, we discuss making an impression on your audience. Invariably, we talk a little about design. Canadian research conducted in 2006 tells us that first impressions of a website are made in the first 50 milliseconds of visiting the page. That’s not a lot of time to read, so your first impression is really a visual thing.

What happens after that?

That’s where your website copywriting starts to matter. Your site might look good enough to get visitors stick around, but if you don’t continue that impression through your words, you are letting your reader down. There really is nothing more off-putting that looking dapper and well-groomed, but speaking like a robot. At best you come across as dull. At worst, lifeless or brainless.

Here are some copywriting tips that we discuss in our training courses about how to keep that first impression going and keep those customer brains liking what they’re reading (and seeing).

Write from the start
A lot of website marketing puts copywriting at the wrong end of the development lifecycle…the end. This isn’t the place to get the best out of your copy. Too often the deadlines are short, the design is set, the info architecture is final, so anyone tasked with writing the copy (often someone saddled with it, rather than a pro copywriter) ends up just ‘filling in the blanks’.

Do you want fill-in-the-blank words on your website, or do you want copy that engages your visitors, convinces them to trust your brand, and converts them to customers?

I think I know the answer.

To get that kind of writing, you need to think about where your content comes in your website and communications lifecycle.

Quality copywriting is best done from the beginning, not tacked on the end of a website project. It needs to be updated frequently, and consistently to keep your visitors (and those search engines) happy.

Write copy from the heart
You like what you do, right? (Right?!) Or at least, you’re interested in what your company does. Well, it turns out that the customers you want – who want to buy from you – they like what you do too. The best copy captures this enthusiasm and translates the energy to the page. Copy can literally make people feel compelled to take action. (Insert your favourite quote about pens and swords here.)

Is your copy merely information or is it passionate copy written from the heart? Does it capture your excitement about your company or product? Do your content writers or copywriters convey the passion you have for your business? If not, your audience isn’t going to find you very exciting either.

Copy the copywriting masters
By ‘copy’, I mean ‘learn’. There have been – and continue to be – many great copywriters that we can learn from. Study how they engage, entice and entertain their readers.

There are the classics like Ogilvy and Caple who showed us the way, and are as relevant today as they were in their own day. There are also plenty of modern masters too: Copyblogger, Problogger, and Nick Usborne are some of my favourites.

Now you know what to do with your website copy to take of your customers after that first 50 milliseconds.

Go, learn and do.

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How to write a killer blog post in 15 minutes. Ten pro copywriter secrets for INSTANT content generation (PART ONE)

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Derryck Strachan is the Managing Director of Big Star Content

01. Use a punchy headline that works and promises content in a list format.

Also, make sure your headline includes a promise or a series of promises that the reader will receive information that will be of benefit to them. You wanted to read this article because I promised you several things:

  • That I would show you how to do something you don’t already know how to do but that would be useful to you if you learned it
  • That you would be able to learn this thing in a very short space of time
  • That, on finishing the article, you wouldn’t just be able to do it in an average way, you would be able to excel at it
  • That I would impart some secret information that you don’t already possess
  • That I am an expert, so increasing your desire to read what I have to say because what I say must therefore have more value than if written by some average Joe
  • That the content would not be challenging but easy to read because it’s a list

02. Provide your content in a list format.

People love lists. They’re easily digestible with information in bite-sized chunks. They’re also easy to write because your content is clearly defined by the topic of the list. For example, if I told you to write a blog about why Twin Peaks is one of the greatest TV shows of the last thirty years you may struggle. If I asked you to list the five greatest things about Twin Peaks you would be able to rattle them off (provided you’re aged at least 30 or a serious TV nerd)

There are endless types of list you can create. Here are a few

  • Reasons why each of your USPs is so important (for example, “Seven reasons why you need to focus on consistency in your [insert business] service,” “The top 10 reasons why reliability is important to [insert product]”)
  • Top ten things about your sector (with one being directly related to your product or service)
  • Top ten mistakes people make when shopping for your product or service
  • Ten best, ten worst
  • Ten most influential people in your sector (in your city, in your country, in the world)

03. Act like a good SEO copywriter and get your keywords in there

As Robert McKee is so fond of pointing out story is structure – use your keywords to provide the structure for your article, the scaffolding around which you build your content. You already have the list to work with, so when you create the headline for each point, use your keywords as a starting point.

Like here – I wrote down “SEO copywriter” as the title for point 4 then fleshed it out. Get your main keyword in the title and your main and secondary keywords scattered around the blog or article, especially in places like sub-headers.

If it’s a blog post then you can use these keywords as the anchor text for links back to the relevant pages on your main site. If it’s an article, don’t go overboard on the keywords – some article sites reject article with too many keywords. They will also reject article that are overtly promotional or with too many links to your site. Check each article site’s guidelines for their submission criteria.

04. Make sure you give out at least one genuinely useful thing

Even if your content is largely off the top of your head, make sure you give out at least one genuine insight that you know as an expert in your field. Readers want valuable information that they can take with them although in my experience, blogs have a cumulative effect on both readers and search engines. Success is about the consistent delivery of relevant content over time PLUS dogged promotion of that content through social media, commenting, guest blogs, email marketing and other channels. An individual blog post has to give just enough to get each reader to sign up and stay with you.

05. Split your blog post into two parts

Ten points are an awful lot to do in one go – how about making a two-parter or even a series of blogs on the same topic? Make sure that you make some big promises in the first part to get people coming back for more.

End of part one. Next time:

  • One major tip on how you can create a never-ending stream of content,
  • A template for INSTANT article generation,
  • Why controversy works
  • Why TV advertising is a total waste of time and money.
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Posted in Blog Copywriting, Copywriting Articles, Copywriting Tips | 1 Comment »

The lost art of storytelling – Why every brand needs to tell a tale

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

What is a brand? Why do we all want one so badly?

Essentially, when we look at ‘brand’ we are looking at a set of consumer value judgments against a given product or service. Driven by both emotion and function, these value judgments create an overall impression of ‘brand’ in the consumer’s mind. As marketers we hope that the impression we create will generate more value than the sum of the parts.

In a nutshell, we all want ‘brand’ because it allows us to sell to our consumers in a more profitable and more sustainable way.

So where to begin on a journey in branding? Well, it’s always been about story-telling, creating emotional and functional differentiators that a consumer latches on to. Each time they come to purchase we hope the little story we have created about our product/service will replay in their minds.

In earlier times pre-advertising, the vehicle for story-telling was the packaging. Think about all those complex, multi-layered elements and messages on 19th Century packaging. They told the consumer the story of what they were buying, shouted out all the key things they should know:  awards, medals, royal approval, product differences etc. This was the very early form of brand marketing which then gravitated to poster advertising.

Over time, TV advertising became king and the art of the brand story was lost. It was simply too expensive to buy the amount of time required to give consumers any more than a quick fix, jolt in the arm ‘buzz’ about brands. Packaging became about super slick design. The functional disappeared and we were left with pure emotion and the well worn, now rather tired, FMCG model of securing widespread distribution combined with a big ad campaign, job done.

The media landscape is now changed; digital advertising expenditure has outstripped its small screen cousin. To the next generations the TV will soon sound as old-fashioned as the ‘wireless’ did to our own ears.

We have a major change in approach to contend with. The online space demands content. It feeds on words. Consumers are reading, texting, tweeting, blogging, exchanging opinions every day. In the second phase of the web the lost art of story-telling will be reborn.

You have time, you have space and you have new opportunity.

The challenge that lies ahead is to create or re-create a new brand story that supports and nurtures your product or service. It will be shared, discussed and debated. It will engage, and it will connect if written well.

The brand story was and still is the heart of the brand, carrying those emotional and functional differences that form the value judgements of consumers. The digital space will allow it to be heard once again.

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Well, I thought it was funny…

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Article writing is a serious business. No, really. It is. Good articles contain facts, opinions and engaging copy that stirs up the interest of both human and mechanised visitors to your site, giving them content that’s fresh, original and…funny?

Ah. Here we run into a slight problem. ‘Funny’ isn’t always good. ‘Funny’ can instantly devalue the professionalism and therefore the relevance of your content. ‘Funny’ can push visitors away. Sometimes, a joke that you think is hilarious will fall on stony ground and you’ll die quicker than a first-timer on open mike night at the local comedy club. ‘Funny’ does not work for professional SEO copywriting.

Keep ‘em…not laughing

While it may be tempting to lighten things up with an ‘off the cuff’ remark or quip about your rivals, think very carefully before you commit that side splitting comment to your article. Language is a complicated beasty, and online the saying ‘lost in translation’ really does apply. Don’t forget that when you’re writing articles, your content isn’t just restricted to UK access. It’s worldwide. Which means a joke that’s funny in the UK may not travel well. The last thing you want to do is leave your reader scratching his or her head and going, “I don’t get it…”

Language – a visual concept

There’s another problem with ‘funny’. We discern as much from facial expressions, tone, emphasis on particular words and body language as we do from the actual words being said. Language isn’t just a written or spoken concept; it’s visual too. And that essential language component is completely negated when you’re writing articles. Your reader can’t see your sardonic smile, your ironic lift of an eyebrow or your surreptitious wink to let them know they’re in on the joke. And let’s face it, no-one wants endless inverted commas, smilies or italics to make sure that, you know, you get it.

Lock the jokes away

So when you’re writing articles for the web, it’s advisable to lock the jokes away. Keep it professional, factual, engaging and unique. Unless you’re writing for a comedy website, in which case have at it.

After all, you don’t want to be portrayed as an organisation that, thanks to your ‘funny’ copy, is seen as a bit of a joke. You want to be seen as knowledgeable, expert in your field and dependable. Do yourself justice and leave the jokes, the ‘funnies’ and the quips out of your article writing.

By Kes Cross

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Are you interested in saving money? Er… no, not really

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

“Are you interested in saving money?” It’s a question that I’ve asked many times as an SEO copywriter. In my professional capacity I’ve always assumed that the answer is, “of course, everyone’s interested in saving money.” It’s a given, a major benefit, a no brainer isn’t it?

However, watching one of those TV money comparison site ads I stopped in my tracks. “Are you interested in saving money?” they said rhetorically. Without thinking I blurted, loud enough to spray Tangy Cheese Doritos all over the sofa, “no, not really”.

Now, I’m not some Warren Buffett or Ziggy from The Wire Season 2 with money to burn. I’d like a few extra quid in my hand to spend on musical equipment I won’t use or on self-help books I won’t read but the process of budgeting, deal finding or comparing prices seems like too much hard work. Too boring. Basically not interesting.

Quite frankly, I’d rather be outside watching my kids scooting up and down the street, digging the garden or falling asleep in front of reruns of Zulu. In fact I’d rather be doing anything than comparing stationery quotes, car insurance or tins of baked beans.

The money I lose by NOT looking for a better deal is far less precious to me than the time I would lose if I did.

I know that not everyone is like me – there are people out there who diligently compare all the different insurance policies before they make their informed decision, religiously collect and share money off coupons and queue up for hours when their favourite store announces a sale.

However, I don’t think the question “are you interested in saving money?” is effective on its own because, when it comes to copywriting, saving money is not a benefit it is a feature. Benefits relate to the emotions, they answer the question “what’s in it for me” or perhaps more specifically “how does this make me feel better?”

Saving money on its own is a difficult sell – it’s not sexy, or inspiring or fun – it’s drudgery, diligence and hard work. It’s all those worthy things that usually we have to be paid to do. Even thinking about price comparison websites is enough to produce Sartrean levels of ennui in most people.

However, people are interested in feeling smart because they’ve somehow put one over on the man; they’re interested in doing all the other things that they can do because they’re not comparing deals and they may even be interested in stuff to buy with the money they saved (although I think that “saved money” as a concept is a little nebulous.)

It’s the job of the copywriter to identify the real benefits and communicate these to the customer in a compelling way.

So:

Are you interested in feeling smarter?

Are you interested in having more fun?

Are you interested in an easier life?

The answer is, of course, yes.

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