Today we’re going to go beyond web copywriting, and move into the realm of super-charged content marketing.
Guides are just one type of value-added content you can provide your customers. There are many options for your copywriting, and you can re-purpose content over and over in other ways to get maximum use from it.
What can a guide do for you?
It’s a fact. Whitepapers and guides are the most widely read marketing material. I think the reason is what they do for the customer.
Say, for instance, you are a plumber. You could create a guide to the newest boilers, or a guide on fixing a leaky tap. These guides would give your prospect a chance to see how you think, and by giving the guide away, you get your marketing into the hands (or screens) of your prospect.
What you get out of it is tangible. By giving this information away, you:
- establish credibility – you must know a lot about plumbing, because you wrote a guide about it (or had a copywriting service do it for you).
- demonstrate leadership – your competitors will either need to follow your lead, or ignore what you are doing, making you a leader in your market.
- provide something of value – there’s nothing wrong with making your prospects and customers feel like they’re getting a great deal.
- improve SEO – more content on your site means more opportunities for the search engines to crawl your website, and more keywords to rank for in the search results.
- market your service – a guide is another piece of marketing collateral, and because it’s online, it’s pretty much free to distribute.
- grow your market share – as people share (and they will) your content with friends, family and neighbours, you are increasing awareness of your services, and gaining potential new customers.
- create feelings of reciprocity – by giving away something to your prospects, you set up a situation where the prospect feels as if they ‘owe you one’
What should you write about?
You need to decide on your topic before you start writing a guide.
Think about your customer and choose topics that would interest them, and be of value to them. Here’s a few I just brainstormed (feel free to borrow):
- creating your own home network
- how to save money with a combi-boiler
- guide to personal investment
- how to choose the right guitar for your child
- guide to growing your own salad in your kitchen window
Once you have your topic you can start copywriting.
Coming next in the series – Beyond copywriting web pages Part 2 – How to write a good guide
