The debate on whether to use long copy as opposed to short copy has been ongoing for a few years now, and still there isn’t a concrete answer.  There will be no right answer ever because it ultimately depends on your product, target market and the role of each page of your site.  There isn’t a “one size fits all” rule about anything within the realm of conversion optimization, and that definitely applies to long copy as well. The more important question to consider is how do I decide, based on my target market and product, when to use long and when to use short copy.

Step 1: Know your target –

The best way  to create copy is to start with developing personas for your website.  Once you know who you’re talking to, you can implement changes to current copy/create new copy to appeal to that person.  So although you may have 3 or 4 personas that you writing to attract, you can still accommodate both personas. For instance, a more logical person would like to know details about the product or services you offer. For them, long copy would do, but someone more impulsive wants to get in and out as quickly as possible. So who can you balance the two? Your copy needs to be designed in a way that the impulsive person can see the information they are looking for instantly yet still maintain the long copy format in order for the more logical person to continue investigating the product or service.

Step 2: Categorize your product –

Are you in the business of selling paper or providing information on complex medical procedures? I think we can all agree that you can’t have short copy when trying to get someone to submit their info for a free plastic surgery consultation.  And the customer looking to buy some office supplies isn’t going to be interested in scrolling through pages of copy to know what type of paper he wants to buy.  It’s not always black and white, so spend some time thinking about what your product is, and how much information is really needed. A recent client who offers a fax service did not feel the need for long copy since it was a pretty self-explantory service. Yet, since it still required some type of an investment from their B2B customers, we decided to go with a long copy version of the page. 80% of the customers who went through the long copy were likely to convert, although only 10% of the traffic did indeed go through the long copy. What does that mean for you? If you have long copy, you are more likely to get the customer who actually will read through it to convert, if the copy is optimized correctly. But depending on the product, you want to see what percentage of traffic is actually “logical” and feels the need to investigate the product you offer.

Step 3: TEST –

It might still be tricky to see which copy would be more suitable for your site, so invest some time and resources in creating trial pages on your site of both long and short copy to use in step 4.  If you really know your market well, you can start testing with the length of copy that you’ve chosen to be more successful and see if you’re right before creating the opposing copy to test.  However, it’s still a good idea to at least test some pages using the opposite type of copy because to your surprise you might be wrong.

Step 4: Revisit your copy –

Regardless if your copy is long or short, as your product develops and your business grows make sure to revisit your copy and update it accordingly.  I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve been to that clearly are using outdated copy on their sites and to put it mildly, it’s just a turnoff. And more importantly, writing can always be “tweaked” in some way or another. A work of writing is never perfect and it can always use some type of revision. So it is crucial to always review your copy and see what can spice it up in order to attract your personas.

Many companies tested the long copy vs. short copy websites and have found that websites with average longer copy have outperformed those websites with more short copy on their sites.  This may be true for some sites, but not for all of them.  Like I said in the beginning, there isn’t a “one size fits all” answer out there, and it depends on your company, product and target market in the end.

Which form of copy have you been successful with? Have you considered trying the opposite copy version?

Tags: Conversion Optimization, Long copy vs. short copy, sales copy
Posted in Copy Writing

“Nice site”, said my15 year-old son as he passed and caught a glimpse of Media Temple site, upon which I had just landed.  I agreed because, after all, the boy had inherited his keen powers of web observation from me.  So, putting on my critic’s cap, I set forth to prove us right.

My web mantra is quickly becoming “all is not as it appears”.  I had clicked on the Media Temple link thinking the site had to do with media – social, digital, new, whatever prefix you choose, but media none-the-less.  Silly me.

I quickly realized my mistake when, from the Media Temple logo, my eye traveled to the image of what looks like a CPU with a healthy gob of magma where the motherboard should be.  “All hardware is not created equal” reads the text – ahhh, so Media Temple is a hardware manufacturer.  OK, I can deal with that.  The elastic bands that keep my hard drive spinning are almost worn through, so I’ve been on the lookout for a new machine.  With a name like “(dpv) Nitro” (wonder what dpv stands for?), I clicked on the link looking forward to the hot specs on this slick looking cpu.  Silly me.

The Nitro isn’t a cpu, it’s a Dedicated Physical Virtual Server (dpv!!) – excuse me, but what the heck is that?!  Reading the remainder of the opening Nitro paragraph gave me very few clues.  If anything, with a confusing mix of adjectives (physical virtual – isn’t that a contradiction?) and a steadfast refusal to get to the point, I was in a thicker haze.

It was then I realized (remember my keen sense of web observation) the confusion wasn’t because of silly me, it was the silly site.  Confusion runs rampant throughout.

On the “About Us” page, I had to wade through “industry-leading”, “privately held” and “profitable” before learning that Media Temple is a web hosting company!

Back to the homepage.  Let’s talk about the good bits – it won’t take long.

• Excellent design, clean with lots of white space.  The links are clearly marked, specific about where they lead and not too numerous.
• Flash testimonials – regardless of how confusing their site is, I would still consider using a company with accolades from Nike, Starbucks, Sony, etc..  That’s the power of testimonials and Media temple is very wise to put them up front.

The clean design holds throughout the site.  The site architecture is good, handling a lot of technical information in an uncluttered way.  But, like a chain, a web site is only as strong as its weakest element.  mediatemple.org’s Achilles heel is the confusing copy.   It’s the reason why I went through three lines of business to learn what Media Temple did.

I would need to book space on one of their “dedicated physical machines” to cover all the issues - so I’ll cover just the ones I find most confusing:

Plain Language – This site could be the final exam for plain language 101.  Feast on these:

A next generation Dedicated Physical Virtual Server, with proven reliability, is only the start. Add industry-new features including Portable OS, Backdoor Power-Panel and more to insure your projects with ample horsepower.

…industry-new?

Start using your (gs) Grid-Service immediately after your order has been provisioned with your own unique GridServer.com access domain included free!

…provisioned?

(bu) Bracket Usage- the Media Temple logo uses a bracketed acronym as a very effective design device.  But it should remain just that.  Perhaps through some form of corporate or brand identity initiative, someone made the decision to use the brackets prior to every mention of (mt) Media Temple or one of its (p) products, like (gs) Grid-Service or (dv) Dedicated Virtual Server.  Brackets should always be used sparingly, even when used properly.  But, when brackets add nothing, useless except for fulfilling some misguided effort in logo consistency, they are destabilizing to your train of thought.  In other words, they are irritating – and add to the readers confusion.

Get to the Point – I don’t understand.  After realizing the site was more or less devoted to Media Temple’s technology, with lots of references to new and higher-speed technologies, I thought I would click on their “Technology” link for some edification.  Instead, I get the square footage of their office and learn that their “personnel require authorized escorted visitations.”, whatever that means.  The one place where there is very little mention of technology is under the “Technology” link.

Confusion creates friction, FUDs and anxiety that cannot be overcome by any design.  The result is a beautiful site, with clean design, inventive graphics and convincing testimonials, yet it fails to communicate and deliver its purpose.

Note from Khalid: we recently moved our hosting to Media Temple. Although we are very pleased with the service, the site copy leaves a lot to be desired!

Tags: conversion, Friction, media temple, web copy
Posted in Conversion Optimization, Copy Writing

Has this ever happened to you? You come to a site and click on their articles only to find that it’s a bunch words put together creating mumbo jumbo?  Yeah…too many times! What’s up with that? Why are these articles so poorly written? Well, in efforts of trying to rank well for certain keywords, sites publish articles that are keyword rich.  These sites forget the online reader and how this will completely turn them away from coming back to their site again.  And they assume that search engine spiders haven’t caught on to this reality as well!  Most search engines are well aware that sites try to keyword stuff content to rank well; and they aren’t thrilled about it. And I wonder why since offering great content, while still hitting your keywords, is extremely possible.

So how can you write a great SEO article, and still rank well with specific keywords?  You need to have a search engine friendly platform before getting started, and the rest is simple:

1.    Firs off, you need to start by creating a list of keywords

Sit down with your team and brain storm a list of possible keywords you would like to hit and rank well with. This is marketing 101. The list of keywords must revolve around words your customers use when describing your business. What words will web users use to search for your business in a search engine. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to use actual words your customers will use. Too many businesses describe themselves in words which their customers never use. For example, many secretarial type businesses use words such as, “helping you focus on your core competency.” Yes, a secretary helps me do that but I will never use those terms when searching for a secretary online. Finally, you can examine your server access logs to come up with keywords. Most of these logs will tell you what words people use in a search engine before they land on your site.

2.    Use a keyword research tool

Any of the keyword tools out there will do the job. However if you do not feel like paying for keyword research tool, there are free and good tools available as well. I know many businesses try to save money by cutting corners, but my experience has proven to me that at the end, hiring someone to conduct keyword research will save you time and money. There is a lot to say about keyword research but this is not our topic here. Your goal from using the research tools is to validate the list of keywords you came up. The tool will tell you which one of the keywords on your list is popular and which ones are not. Ultimately you need to come up with a list of 200 words that you can use.

3.    Create your list of topics

Use the final list of keywords to choose topics that will appeal to your target audience. We try to brainstorm a list of at least 50 different topics when creating a list for a new site. Most of the time we might even end up with a list of 100 different topics. I know this might sound a little hard but take all the time you need to come up with that list. This is going to be the cornerstone of your site. Not only will these topics attract regular readership but they will also help you rank well with search engines. Online forums are another source for good topics. Look for questions people ask about regularly in these forums. Linked-in and yahoo answers are gold mine for choosing topics that will appeal to certain groups of readership.

4.    Consider the length

There’s no right answer. Your articles can range from 1 page +. Some topics only require 1 – 3 page coverage, and you should not bore your reader with uninteresting details.  However, if a topic needs more, consider investing more time in it and giving it all it needs. Article syndication sites encourage users to create short articles. To be honest, I find very little value in a 200 words article. If you are going to write something that short, then consider posting it as a blog entry instead!

5.    Are you writing a whitepaper or an article?

Whitepapers are very popular amongst online readers.  Some people mistakenly think that whitepapers are just lengthy form of articles.  They are not. Whitepapers tend to be more technical in nature. Readers expect whitepapers to present some research results. Additionally, whitepapers are expected to present an objective view.

6.    Write your entry

Bunker down and start writing your articles. Of course, if writing is not your thing, then consider hiring a professional to help you write these articles. Here is something else you will notice as you are writing these articles: new topics will start coming to you. And all you have to do is add them to the list of topics!

7.    Don’t forget your keyword list

The goal of the article is to give your readers good and solid information. If you are the expert in your field, then share your knowledge with your visitors. You should also make sure that you use your keyword list when writing your article and try to incorporate any relevant terms from that list.  Most importantly, consider using your keyword(s) in the title and headlines of the article.  By no means do I advocate creating content for search engines. But utilizing simple techniques will help these articles rank well. Remember that search engine spiders give more weight to headlines! An article should have one H1, 2-3 H2 headers, and few H3. The number of headlines depends on the length of the article.

8.    Review your entry

Take a good look at your entry but not from your perspective; consider your reader.  Will it appeal to them?  Is the language appropriate (not too technical in nature etc.)? Does it offer new and solid information?  If so, you’re on the right track.  Remember, you’re not writing for a spider, you’re writing for a human.

9.    Review again

Make sure your document flows nicely; that it does not have any spelling or grammar mistakes. Circulate to some of your colleagues and get their feedback on it.

10.    How to release the articles on your site?

Well should you publish everything at once? Or should you consider publishing 5 articles during each interval? The most crucial thing is that you want to make a splash and impact, immediately. With new sites, we usually do not start an article section until we have few lengthy articles ready.  This doesn’t mean publish everything at once.  However, consider publishing a lengthy article and a couple shorter ones to start with. Then every couple of weeks publish a new a new article on your site.

11.    Finally, consider Using hittail to see what traffic the articles are generating

Hittail (hittail.com) “reveals the least utilized, most promising” in demand keywords for your site. This is a great way to expand on the articles and start considering new and better series to introduce to readers.

And there you have it, a great technique to great, authentic, and rich SEO articles that your readers will actually ENJOY for a change!  Do you have any other suggestions for people who want to publish SEO articles on their site?

Tags: content, keyword-research, seo-articles
Posted in Copy Writing, Sales & Marketing

One of the terrors of written words is that once words are published, you can’t hide. Published words can haunt you FOREVER.

Even if you pull your copy, someone will have read your words and doubtlessly have made decisions in relation to what he or she read. This person may have decided that your website, had interesting information, continued to read and perhaps, recommended your product or service to a friend. However, the reader may have come to the conclusion that you are a complete idiot and that your website is doomed to a long lasting lack of readership, starting with said reader.

No one wants to be called a complete idiot.

And, none of us want to chase away visitors from our websites.

The power of words is truly terrifying.

So, how can we harness words to our advantage?

1. TREAT YOUR READERS AS IF THEY ARE STUPID.

Wow.

I am going to suffer for this one. It reads worse than it sounds when spoken, which leads to another good point: Written copy can have a bigger impact than the spoken word

It did catch your attention though, didn’t it?

I use the “readers aren’t bright” line when I tutor and work with college students on their essays. I love to watch their jaws drop.

The point of this is not that readers are stupid. The point is that readers cannot read minds. Readers can only read copy. If your website does not adequately explain your business in terms that your visitors can understand easily, you will loose $$$. Visitors should not have to “read between the lines” in order to figure out the benefits of your products or services. If you think that your visitors will “understand what you are trying to say,” your visitors probably won’t,

This is not to say that you should leave out technical jargon that is specific to your industry or insult your readers…

2. KEEP IT SIMPLE

This is closely related to “treat your readers as if they are stupid.” Keep it simple means that you should use simple sentences and simple words in these sentences. Simple does not mean boring and, as I said above, does not mean that you should exclude jargon related to industry.

People want to read materials that are easy to understand. Many make the mistake of thinking that using unusual words will make copy more interesting. However, instead of having interesting copy that entices readers, you have copy that leaves visitors scratching their heads. So, instead of reading “the buff canine worried the orb,” your copy should be “the brown dog chewed the ball.”

Remember that you are not writing poetry or descriptive essays.

3. AVOID EMPTY WORDS

The English language contains useless words that are commonly used in copy, such as “very,” “much,” “really,” and “things.” Your copy should be precise.

Consider this: “There are many exciting things about our service…”

Boring ! (Snore…) What THINGS?

“Our service’s exciting benefits include:” is much more involving, precise, and to the point.

And consider this: “We really think that you will enjoy our product very much”

It’s okay, but isn’t “We know our product will entertain you for years to come” more enticing?

4. STAY IN THE ACTIVE VOICE

The Passive Voice=Reader Boredom.

Copy with active verbs excites readers. “The boyfriend called the woman twenty times” is much more involving than “the woman was called twenty times by her boyfriend.

While the difference between “Our service is used by hundreds of people daily” and “Hundreds of people use our service daily,” might seem insignificant, if your copy is riddled with sentences in the passive voice, your copy is not as interesting as it could be.

Compare, for example:

Our service is used by hundreds of people daily. We are told by our users that our service helps to reduce costs. We are pleased with such positive feedback.

to:

Hundreds of people use our service daily. Our users tell us that our service helps to reduce costs. Positive feedback like this pleases us.

Your copy should include sentences in the active voice more frequently than sentences in the passive voice in order to maintain reader interest..

5. USE EXCITING WORDS

Keeping it simple does not mean encouraging your readers to fall asleep. Words have synonyms. Use synonyms for variety and to spike interest. For example, “the dog ran after the cat” could be replaced by “the Labrador chased the cat,” or “the Labrador galloped after the Persian cat.”

Which one of the following two sentences is more likely to catch a visitor’s eye?

“If you call us today, we will not only give you a rebate, we will give you our service at the same cost for an additional month.”

or

“If you call us right now, we will not only award you a rebate, we will honor the same low price for this amazing service for an additional thirty days.”

Just remember that you are not writing for a scholarly journal when you pick your synonyms, unless, of course, you are selling scholarly journals

This is the deal. Your website is the portal into the soul of your business. Written words are the only method that you have to lead visitors into becoming customers. Respect the power of words and use them to your advantage. The extra care in making sure that your ideas can not be only understood, but are also exciting, can have an impact on your bottom line. And remember, keeping it simple is not the same as keeping it boring.

Tags: persuasion, Webcopy
Posted in Copy Writing

One of the common mistakes of many websites is placing an emphasis on the product or service features as opposed to benefits. Laura’s blog about the differences between copy focused benefits and copy focused features is an excellent introduction on how to evaluate your site to make sure it is benefit focused. I’ve said it many times, clients do not care about the features of your product; they want to know what benefits they will get from using it. Clients don’t care about you or your company, they want to see what the products or services you offer can do for them.

This is by no means a new problem nor is it particular to online copy. A great example is sent the promotional materials sent to you frequently from banks or credit cards? The financial industry has been doing this for so long, that it got the consumers very used to reading their features and translating those into benefits.

I received an email yesterday of what I would consider the worst example to date of feature based copy. The company is trying to sell me a technology outsourcing solution. I will let the copy do the talking:

We motivate. We empower. We lead. We follow. We laugh. We succeed.

ACS offers innovative and effective outsourcing solutions for clients around the world. We deliver higher quality, increased productivity, and lower costs. Can we do that for you? Sure we can.

For business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology outsourcing (ITO), ACS is not a product, we’re services. We’re people making technology work.

We’d be glad to demonstrate the ACS advantage. Let us tell you about our world-class people, our company, and the “can-do” attitude that motivates us to deliver nothing less than the very best.

I am not sure if I can eve call this feature based copy. In a paragraph of 97 words, there were 17 mentions of the company (We, ACS, us). That means 25% of the copy talked about the company. The problem is the number of clients that click away after reading the first two phrases because the copy is so focused on the company, and not the client.

This example was very funny, and I wanted to share it. Not only is this company doing a bad job promoting, selling, and persuading customer to buy their services, but a lot of businesses fall into the same mistake. Maybe not as dramatic, but it’s a common mistake that we must be weary of.

How about you, do you have any examples you would like to share?

Tags: Benefits-vs-features, we-we, Webcopy
Posted in Copy Writing

When I work with students on writing their personal statements for colleges, nine times out of ten their statements will consist of a series of facts. If the prompt is “What can you contribute to our campus?” students will typically reply along the lines of “I want to join the XYZ Club and help other students.” While this is a factual statement and does answer the question, it really doesn’t get to the meat of what the student can offer the school, particularly since the readers of these statements go through thousands of similar responses.

I try to push students towards the second level of self-analysis. The second round usually ends up with something along the lines of “I want to use my leadership capabilities when I join XYZ Club.” This is better, but not the best.

Then comes the third level of analysis. “I want to use the difficulties that I had adjusting to living in a different culture to help international students adjust to the complexities of life in the United States when I join XYZ club.

This is much better. It shows gives a specific experieince that the student can use to differentiate this student from other applicants.

What does my student example have to do with features and benefits? Features and benefits can be looked at as three different levels of attracting a buyer. Yes, three!

Features

The first level of attracting customers is features. Features are the facts about a given product. Features of an outdoor grill might include:

• Electric
• Grease tray
• Non-stick cooking surface
• Temperature control
• 300 square inches of cooking space
• Attached working surface

Features in and of themselves do not sell a product. Features do not give the “what is in this for me?” answers, although features do give useful information. Features alone are not exciting enough to sell a product.

Benefits

Benefits start you on the road to closing a sale. The benefits of the above outdoor grill include:

• Convenience
  • Electric
  • Non-stick cooking surface
  • Attached working surface

• Easy to Use:
  • Electric
  • Non-stick cooking surface
  • Temperature control
  • Attached working surface

• Saves Money
  • Electric
  • Temperature control.

But will convenient, easy to use, and saves money be enough to close the sale?

Probably not. Why? Because you have still not addressed your customer’s needs. You are giving them generalities instead of specific results that they will enjoy when they use your barbeque.

A variation of superficial benefits is restating the features as benefits using slightly different wording. For example, a feature of a cell phone is caller I.D. You might list a benefit of your cell phone as the convenience of knowing who is calling before you answer the phone. However, this benefit as stated really isn’t much more than the feature statement. A better benefit would list the results of having this feature:

• Never miss an important call again.
• Avoid your mother-in-law every time.

Results

What results do your customers want from your barbeque?  They want a grill that offers

• Tasty, Healthy Food Every time
  • Temperature control
  • Grease tray 

• Perfect for Easy Entertaining
  • 300 square inches of cooking space
  • Attached working area
  • Easy to clean

• A Double Bonus: Environmentally Friendly While Saving You Money!
  • Electric versus charcoal emissions
  • Do not have to buy charcoal for the life of the grill

How can you determine the results that your customers want?  By knowing your customers. You need to know who your customer base is and why they are buying your products. In addition, you need to know why other people prefer your competitors’ products.

Then, go back to the question “what is in it for me?” Tell your potential customers exactly what the results of using your product or service will be. Don’t be shy. This is a case where tooting your own horn is the right thing to do.

Do you know your customer’s needs and what results they want?

Tags: Benefits, Benefits-vs-features, features, Webcopy
Posted in Copy Writing

We live in a world that offers a tremendous amount of information. The online world is even more intense, as readers often have the attention span of a gnat. The first, and sometimes only, chance that you have to catch a reader on your first screen is through your headline. A headline’s job is to literally make a reader stop…and then read more.

1. Pleasing or Painful Headlines

A headline should include a benefit that will appeal to your readers, whether that benefit is a positive or a negative. Positive headlines might be geared around:

• Saving
• Profiting
• Gaining
• Winning
• Rewarding

Positive headlines focus in on the “goodies” that your readership will have if they only continue to read your copy. Examples:

• Win your Boyfriend Back
• Reward Yourself with a 20% Savings
• Gain an Edge  Against the Competition

Negative headlines are written to avoid:

• Loss
• Embarrassment
• Mistakes
• Uneasiness
• Pain

Negative headlines are written to help readers from making any unnecessary “boo-boos” that will make their lives miserable. Examples:

• Have You Even Been Embarrassed at an Expensive Restaurant?
• Avoid the Pain of Foreclosure
• Do You Ache at the End of the Day?

2. Appealing Headlines

Everyone loves to be part of the “in” crowd.  Headlines that can hook with the “in” crowd in mind include words such as “secret” or “little known ways.” Some examples are:

• The Secrets of Beauty Supply Management
• Little Known Ways to Improve Your Bottom Line

On the flip side of the coin, no one wants to be left out. “What Everyone Should Know About Growing Azaleas” screams at the reader that he or she may not have the complete story and really needs to check the content out to make sure that the reader “knows it all.”

3. Easy and Time Saving Headlines

Most people hate wasting time, particularly on solving problems.  Many men and women would sincerely like to ignore their problems or hope that the problems just go away.  Consequently, headlines that emphasize speed in solving a problem can be real winners. Examples include:

• Five Quick Ways to Fix a Drain
• A Quick Way to Train Your Dog

No one likes to do “hard” things.  Therefore, “easy” is another great hook word. Examples of headlines:

• Five Easy Ways to Study More Effectively
• One Easy Way to Pick Up Incremental Sales

“Easy” can also be combined with “quick” for a “double whammy” headline.

• Five Quick and Easy Steps to Program Your CD

If your target markets includes people who are challenged by issues such as technology or home repairs, “easy” is a nice word to have in your arsenal.

A variation of “Easy” is the “Lazy” approach:

• A Lazy Mom’s Way of Doing Laundry

Lazy implies that the content will give information about how to do laundry quickly and easily.

4. Curiosity Headlines

Curiosity killed the cat, but not an internet reader. In fact, curiosity is a strong motivation to lean more. A headline that appeal to curiosity would be:

• Ways to Entice Your Wife or Girlfriend
• Interested in Getting the Goods?
• The Alluring World of Insects

5. “Just the Facts” Headlines

Sometimes simply stating the facts is a good way to go.

• Learn How John Doe Made Millions Selling Securities
• Ten Time Management Techniques
• Buy a $100 Vacuum Cleaner with a Money Back Guarantee

6. Writing Headlines

Many people look at headlines as an afterthought.

This is a mistake.

When you consider that a headline’s job is to literally stop a reader from moving on to the next website, this makes sense.  Experts suggest that you write up to fifty headlines or more before you choose the best one for your content. 

Headline Writing Tips

• Treat your headlines like the rest of your writing. You would not turn in copy without letting it brew for a period of time. Let your headlines sit a day before you chose the perfect one.
• Questions are traditional hooks in writing. Turn your headline into a question.
• “How to….” is another eye-catching format.
• Use the imperative or “command” voice when writing headlines. Imperative headlines start with an active verb and an implied “you” as the subject.
  • Enjoy the High Life Now
  • Stop Hiding Today
  • Create Your Own Position
• “Put Your Headline in Quotation Marks.” Quotes are often used in writing because the person who spoke or wrote the quote originally was an expert, famous, or otherwise important. This will lead your readers to think that your headline is important, too.

What headlines have worked for you?

What are the best headlines that you have seen?

Tags: headline-tips, headlines, hooking-the-online-reader
Posted in Copy Writing

Among the many hats that I wear these days is that I am a tutor at a local college in Southern California. I work with students on their writing skills, with English as a second language students on their grammar and speaking skills, and with students who just need a little nudge in the self-confidence area. I am often amazed at the instructions that instructors give their students. .  With all of my education and experience, sometimes I can’t make head or tails of what the assignment is.

These professors use language in their instructions that is so thick and obtuse that it literally leaves me scratching my head. 

Why do they do this?

Product Training

I ran into the same kind of thing when I was in outside sales.  Mind you, I wasn’t in a real technical type of sales for much of my career. I sold packaging to packaging distributors for a good portion of it. And, while packaging can get very technical, most of the people I worked with were not engineers. These sales reps wanted information such as:

• How does your product work?
• How does your product compare with the competition?
• How can using your product help my customer?
• How can using your product make me more money?

In other words, what is in your product for my customers, and ultimately, “me?”

The product training sessions that I held addressed these issues with a little humor thrown in.  After all, bubble wrap can be a little dry until you talk about putting a small roll behind a rear tire of a car and waiting for the driver to pop over the roll or letting kids run over sheets of the wrap at birthday parties. I had the technical information available if needed, but was rarely asked.

I had the misfortune of attending meetings where the technical information was the focus of the gathering. The presenters, because the they had a personal stake in being seen as an “expert,” lost their audiences in a very short period of time, sometimes oblivious that no one understood or valued what they were saying. 

Why do they do this?

What is an Expert?

An expert is a person that knows a whole lot of stuff about a given widget.  In my opinion, it is part of the expert’s responsibility to explain his or her widget in terms that an audience will understand.

Any given industry has its own peculiar jargon that sets it apart from other industries.  The jargon of a given industry is important method of communication. I am not talking about jargon here. 

I think that some individuals feel that if they explain ideas and concepts in clear, understandable terms, it somehow denigrates them and, perhaps, their products. So, they use terms that sound important, which actually confuse, if not alienate, the very people that they are supposed to be either selling or helping.

Online Content

How does this apply to online writing?  You have to have content on your website that your potential clientele will easily understand.

Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

You do not have just one type of client. If you are selling to the general public a technical widget, you may have techies that love the technical terms.  If you fill your website with those technical terms, techies will get it and buy.

But, what about the non-techies who are just interested in an easy to use widget? You will loose these potential clients because you are talking over their heads. We are not talking about scratch feed here. Incremental sales can contribute heavily to the bottom line.

Writing for websites becomes much more complex when you start to realize that you have more than one type of clientele.

Even worse, what if you are just compelled to talk over your potential clienteles’ heads because you think that this will make your website look more “professional” or “important?”

You may be shooting yourself in the foot.

Your website is “talking” to people for you. The people you are talking to need to get your message before they will buy.

Be an expert, but one who communicates clearly and effectively, with your content.

Tags: online-content, online-experts, Personas
Posted in Business, Copy Writing

How long has it been since you added content to your website? A month? Two months? 6 months? A year? Wow. Are you kidding? Small business owners and managers commonly create websites and proceed to do absolutely nothing more with them. By not updating and adding to your website on a regular basis you are missing opportunities to improve your online offers, attract more visitors from search engines, and generate additional sales leads.

Updating Offerings

Your website should always stay updated, especially if you list “Upcoming Events” or “Recent Projects.” This seems obvious and redundant but I commonly see event notices starting with dates from last year and recent projects that were completed 3 years ago. In the very least, keep your website up to date with actual upcoming events, recent projects, and your newest products and services. If you are prone to forget about updating then at least design your site’s copy so it will not appear outdated. For example, use just “Projects” instead of “Recent Projects.” If part of your site is out of date, I am going to assume your services are out of date.

Updating your website is often unappreciated because you should be doing it anyway. It is like being in a grocery store where the shelves have not been “faced.” You might notice when they are messy but pay no attention when they are straight and tidy.

Additional benefit: Updating your site should also attract more attention from search engines, too.

Attract More Visitors

Adding content to your website increases the size of your online footprint and will bring your more visitors over time. You have probably heard about search engine optimization and how important it is but it seems too complex and tricky and you might be skeptical of hiring someone to do it for you.

Well, you should know that content is king in SEO (this is basically a cliche now) and you might be the very best person to add that content to your site. After all, you know your products and customers best and should be able to easily create new content on a variety of subjects that will directly add value for your customers.

There a variety of ways to add content to your site on a regular basis. Writing content under the headings of how-to, comparisons, or specifications are usually easy to write and use as value-adding embedded links (links in the text) in your existing pages. Adding a blog to your site makes it very easy to immediately publish each article without knowledge of html or other online coding.

Generating Sales Leads

Your additional content will attract more visitors from search engines and your updated site will invite people to stay who might have left your outdated one. The combination will bring your more sales leads.

Start a program of updating your site and generating new content on a regular basis and you will see an increase in traffic and sales leads. First start with one new article per week. Do this for at least eight weeks. By the end of the eight weeks you will probably start seeing a small increase in your traffic. I am confident you will want to continue adding new pages after that.

Tags: Copy Writing, increase-sales, online-marketing, online-sales
Posted in Business, Copy Writing, Sales & Marketing

Price is a funny thing. Charge a client too much and they think you are ripping them off; charge them too little and they think you are not providing the value they deserve. I have discovered that it is much easier to give clients an overall price per project as opposed to trying to break some of the fees down. But clients always want to understand how we come up with our pricing. Of course pricing depends on how much we pay our team members. So every few months, I have to evaluate our pay structure to make sure that we remain competitive within the market place. Trying to gather information about appropriate rates normally involves visiting several industry web sites, looking at trade magazines and evaluating our current project load. Since I am an advocate of publishing prices for B2B companies, I wanted to answer the question of how much should you expect to pay for a web copy project?

I did a little search and discovered that some of my friends at webmaster world don’t mind paying $5 per hour for a copy writer. As a matter of fact, there is an Indian company that is relentless in sending emails about the quality of their writers and how fast they can turn the material in. I do not know about you, but to write for an American audience, I am a firm believer that the writer must be a native speaker and lives in North America. No matter how much an Indian writer may think he/she understands the culture, watching American movies is not the same as living in this country. I wonder if that Indian company would actually quit emailing me if they read this blog.

Some of the big names in the field of copy writing charge close to $15,000 for creating a sales letter. The logic they follow is simple. A well written sales letter can generate hundreds of thousands in sales. Of course the idea of copy writers getting paid on performance, while popular amongst writers, is not very popular with their clients.

Math is the secret behind paying a copywriter

Before you determine a “correct” rate for web copy services, you need to determine the revenue generated as result of the project. If all you expect from a landing page to generate 10k, I would not think you want to pay more than $500 for it. On the other hand, some of our ecommerce clients can generate tens of thousands of dollars from a well optimized landing page. A well designed and written landing page can easily double if not triple the conversion rate for the client. The moral of the story is “do the math.”

What is involved in creating successful web copy project?

Keep in mind, completing a meaningful web copy project involves a lot more than hiring a copywriter and telling them to write. Completing the copy is normally one of the last steps in creating a website that will actually generate revenue. We usually ask our clients to provide us with a marketing assessment, online visitor persona development, site story boarding, and general wire-framing before we start doing any copy work. Only when all of these elements are provided, is it meaningful to discuss the rates per project.

Rates vary based on the type of the project and the experience the company brings to the table. Here is a quick survey of the on going rates for two large categories of copywriting  projects we have been involved with.

Rates for web copy for a single page (landing page):

Assuming the client developed all the elements required to create a successful a single landing page, these project are small in nature. Rates for a single landing page project can vary from $350 on the low end to $5,000 on the high end. Sean Carton gave a nice break down of the fees associated with creating a single landing page. Although Sean’s breakdown contains cost for other team members besides copy writers, I think it gives a good idea of what is involved in full landing page implementation. With our own projects, the client is responsible for supplying us with site personas, information architecture design and page layout. These projects involve usually a single copy writer who will work for about 2 to three days on completing the copy for that one particular page. At a rate of $125 per hour, the total cost for these projects starts at around $2,000.

Rates for web copy projects for a whole site:

True web copy projects normally involve staffing between 2 to 3 copy writers on the project. Similar to single page project, I am assuming that the client will do most of the marketing analysis required prior to creating the copy. Rates for a full site web copy creation range from around $1,200 on the low end to upwards of tens of thousands of dollars. For our own projects, we assume the client will be provide us with marketing assessment, persona development and information architecture elements.  These projects do not involve developing story boarding or any wire-framing for the site. Projects as such start at around $10,000. 

To recap, the following are the factors that impact the price you might pay for web copy project:

• Size & Complexity of project/Website
• Size of Organization
• Reputation & Demand for the copy Firm
• Amount of work supplied by client

Tell me what do you think?

Tags: B2B-fees, Copy Writing, online-marketing
Posted in Business, Copy Writing