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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

What SEO can’t do

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

SEO in its simplest, purest and most wholesome sense is a wonderful thing. A website optimised for search engines is lovely. All tagged up, with your page titles succinct yet informative,  weighing in at a feather light 65 characters. Page descriptions honed to a super relevant, not toooooo salesy 140ish characters. Then there are your H1s and H2s, your anchor text, delightfully rapid load times and not a hint of floppy flabby code to confuse the bots. Your graphics are nice and compressed, your keyword density is nestling somewhere just under the 3% mark. Files are named and the navigation is a dream.

Excellent. Everything but everything SEOwise is A1, ship shape and Bristol fashion.  And after a while here comes all that lovely traffic. Lots and lots of visitors eager to spend their time mooching around your website finding out all about you and what you do and what you offer before wending their way to your checkouts, arms loaded with products. Maybe you’re not actually selling, maybe your visitors are subscribing to your publication or voting or downloading. Hey! It’s your business objective after all.

But hang on? All these first time visitors. Well, it’s a bit much isn’t it to expect them to do the do on their very first visit? And you find that many don’t. They hardly know you for heaven’s sake. Would you go all the way at the first time of asking? Probably not. Never mind. There’s always next time.

Except. There isn’t a next time. And there won’t ever be another time. You’ve gone to all that trouble attracting, enticing your prospects and well…. you’ve blown it. The came, they saw, they bounced.

Why? Because your content doesn’t cut it. All that investment in SEO to attract visitors but when it comes to engagement, entertainment, value, the close, you goofed. Maybe they were bored, or patronised or just saw that there was nothing in it for them. Maybe they just didn’t quite trust you enough.

Think about it. All you can realistically hope to achieve on a first visit is to start to nurture a relationship, to build trust. It’s only on the second, the fifth, the fifteen visit that your call might be actioned and the sale made or the email submitted or whatever. When your content offers a compelling reason for someone to revisit your site then you stand a chance of building build the necessary trust that will eventually lead to your objectives being fulfilled.

What can’t SEO do?

SEO can’t convert.

If your content fails – you fail. No matter how.

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Conversion Optimisation or How to win customers and influence people

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

There’s a new buzz phrase doing the round in SEO copywriting circles -Conversion Optimisation.

Conversion optimisation is the means by which your website is structured to convert visitors into customers. It’s critical that your navigation and message inspire every site visitor to become a client – all they need is a little guidance.

Whilst the main thrust of an online marketing campaign is to inspire traffic to a website through organic search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC), these traffic building strategies are pointless unless the increase in traffic can be turned into conversions. SEO and PPC experts work to define and attract the appropriate audience to your website. Once there, they still need to be convinced that its product or service is the right one for them.

Of course defined business objectives, a clear audience analysis and clean site navigation are all crucial. It’s your message, however, and the way in which it’s presented that is of particular importance. It’s the copywriting on your site – especially on your home and landing pages that will turn visitors into customers.

What are the motivations of your website and your target audience? What is trying to be achieved? Do you want to generate leads, convert visitors into subscribers, gain votes, encourage downloads or sell a product?

A professional copywriter can fashion your call to action clearly, concisely and effectively. Using a voice and tone that your audience will respond positively to they will draw attention to the benefits of your products and services, turning visitors into customers.

Customer needs are constantly evolving. The copy that worked for your website today might not be working tomorrow and may fail to inspire action in the future. It’s important to monitor pages and adjust or even completely re-write copy where it’s failing to convert. Again, an experienced copywriter will be best placed to deliver the most effective results.

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Copywriters: what’s the worst thing you can do to your readers?

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Whether you write the copy yourself or employ the services of a UK copywriter there’s a fantastic piece of wisdom that could help you improve your web presence: if you want to be useful, sought after, command authority, to scale the heights of the search engines, then don’t be shy, share your tricks, offer tips, advice, and knowledge, share your experience to build a readership, to create a following, to evolve your internet presence as a resource.

Be proud. Show the world in your copywriting that you know what you’re talking about and that you have the confidence that comes with being a leader in your field.

Even if you’re not a world authority it’s likely you can find plenty to say about the market place you’re in, the latest innovations, how you apply technology, your methods and means of success. Dare to be controversial, informative, and knowledgeable. Allow yourself to talk in a language your audience can relate to, in a tone they can empathise with. Fear not the cynics, those frightened of ‘giving the shop away’, or letting hard won ‘cats out of bags’.

These days, people want more. They want it now and they want to know where to get it from. Make sure that it’s your organisation and your website that they turn to first.

The worst thing you can do in the eyes of your customers is to waste their time, How can anyone take you seriously if all you do is get them clicking round your website looking for meaningful information that either isn’t there or else is concealed by irrelevance?

Actually, there’s something even worse than that. The very worst thing you can do is to promise them some form of secret or ‘inside information’ and then not deliver it at all. That’s a waste of time AND it shows a lack of respect.

Promising to reveal information in an ad increases readership. Delivering content of value takes you an important stage nearer the business objective (be it a sale or even if it’s simply a brand building exercise). That’s why using a professional copywriter can help you win the respect and admiration of your audience with copy that delivers both information and value. Copy that wins business.

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