A trend that has been going on for more than 5 years now is that consumer copy is getting longer, while business-to-business copy is getting shorter. Why?

1-Business prospects are busier than ever and have less time to read.

Good copy gives readers plenty of chances to buy

Perhaps you don’t write copy, but…you probably could use some useful tips on how to evaluate copy. If you are going to pay someone to write copy for your website, advertising or marketing materials, how can you tell if it’s any good? So begins a [...]]]>

Good copy gives readers plenty of chances to buy

Perhaps you don’t write copy, but…you probably could use some useful tips on how to evaluate copy. If you are going to pay someone to write copy for your website, advertising or marketing materials, how can you tell if it’s any good? So begins a series of posts on how business owners, marketing directors and anyone dealing with freelance commercial writers can recognize and evaluate the quality of your copy.

If you find it valuable, please pass these on to others who might benefit. All I ask is that you include the blurb at the end so people know where to find me.

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I just can’t help it. My default position when writing marketing copy is Selling Mode. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, the only reason for a business to exist is to create customers. Marketing copy exists for the same reason – to move the reader closer to becoming a customer. Anything less is a waste of time, space and money.

I have an advantage in that arena over some other copywriters. After all, I got my start in business by selling educational books door-to-door during the summer to earn money for college. I spent many years selling and training salespeople in the basics of retail selling. For about 7 years I dealt directly with business owners and managers selling professional development workshops. By now, it’s hard not to think and speak in terms of features and benefits. I’ve learned to word things in ways that decrease resistance, win people over and communicate value.

That selling experience transfers into writing.

So take a look at the copy on your website and in your other marketing materials. What do you look for to insure that it has a selling orientation? There are four basic qualities to look for.

Attention

Does each page or section have a headline? Does it make them want to read more? Is it unambiguous and direct? Does it state some benefit, offer some news or provide some compelling reason to read further.

Clarity

Is your copy organized so that it is easy to follow? Do section headings allow for quick scanning of the content? Does each section and paragraph include a compelling lead that sums up and drives the reader deeper into the content?

Beware of being clever or funny at the expense of clarity. A direct statement that is clear is far more preferable than a genius play on words that will be obscure to any part of your audience.

If anything about the copy is confusing, that creates a barrier. As the saying goes, “eschew obfuscation.”

Benefits

Your readers really want to know just one thing – “what is in it for me?” So give real benefits attached to the features of your product or service.

For instance, you may offer a free consultation. Be sure to explain that this allows your customer to evaluate your services without fear of losing money if it isn’t right. Don’t leave it up to your reader to figure out the benefit. Put it on paper for them.

Ask

Just as in selling, you can give a fantastic presentation, but if you never ask for the sale you leave money on the table.

In copywriting, that means telling people in clear and direct terms exactly what you want them to do. It may mean a huge button that says “Click here to place this in your shopping cart.” It may mean writing “Call this number now to set up your free consultation.” Leave nothing in your instructions to chance — the more painfully ridiculously clear, the better.

Place action opportunities everywhere and feature them prominently. Don’t make readers hunt for your phone number or for the response form. Make action easy. Remove obstacles and see better results.

That’s the basics elements of selling-oriented copy. Make sure to create every marketing piece with this in mind and you will be creating much greater return on your marketing dollar investment.

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This article is written by David Denis owner of Rock Solid Writing. Visit the website at http://www.rocksolidwriting.com
David is a freelance writer for hire offering powerful web content, marketing copy, sales letters, white papers, case studies, newsletters, sales scripts, and more.
To learn more, or request a free consultation click here or visit http://www.rocksolidwriting.com/schedule-your-free-copy-consultation/

I believe bad writing sucks your soul out through your eyeballs, but good writing is the million volts of liquid lightning [...]]]> I believe in writing, the word, the page, the well crafted sentence, the well formed phrase. I believe that strong design makes anything look good but it’s the writing that gets the job done.

I believe bad writing sucks your soul out through your eyeballs, but good writing is the million volts of liquid lightning that you need to inject pulsating life into the corpse of your marketing project.

I believe that too many websites read as if they were written by zombies, and too few give you a reason to live. I believe in language that roars, hammers, explodes and pierces. I also believe in words that whisper, shimmer, dance, and tingle. I believe in bold clarity, subtle nuance, transitive verbs, the active voice, the power of Anglo-Saxon words, and the fact that the best writing is wicked hard but looks easy. Writing is not for sissies.

I believe in writing to sell and not merely to describe. I believe that features have benefits, and that your customers need what you have, and that it’s my job to tell them so.

I believe in delivering more than my clients want, and making it better than they thought it could be, in less time than they thought it would take.

I believe in writing.

This was a fun project because we really turned up the juice on the original concept.

The [...]]]> Marijane Shufro over at Fletcher and Wilder Communications just posted a very nice recommendation of my recent work on a website they are creating for Pinnacle Rock Mechanical Services. You can see it on my LinkedIn profile.

This was a fun project because we really turned up the juice on the original concept.

The first thought was a simple 6 page site describing the services Pinnacle Rock offers.  Not that there is anything WRONG with that kind of approach, but…*snore*

Upon reflection, we decided to scrap the whole idea of having one page on ventilation, another on air conditioning, and so on. Instead, let’s tell visitors to the site (owners and managers in charge of facilities management) what they really want to know.

Will Pinnacle Rock reduce my expenses and make managing my business easier?

Writing to Create Buyers

So I wrote a mini-white paper on how your business could save tens of thousands of dollars through regular maintenance. It seems that equipment and repair expenses typically increase by a factor of 15 or more if regular service is delayed. That’s a huge number that most budget planners don’t account for when they look to reduce budgets by deferring maintenance.

Then we connected with some clients and wrote three absolute killer mini-case studies to DEMONSTRATE how Pinnacle Rock solves real problems for real clients.  It makes Pinnacle Rock look like rock stars of the HVAC universe. Of course, it helps that they play like rock stars, and their fans adore them.

That’s what I mean by copy that sells – creating a message that is so clear and so compelling that readers can’t wait to pick up the phone and do business with you. I can’t wait to see how this new site helps Pinnacle Rock grow the business in the coming months and years.

Marijane and the team over at F&W were great to work with. I haven’t seen the design but I expect the finished website should be up soon. I’ll post the link as soon as I get it.

It’s not necessarily because it makes sense — although that is important.

The point of decision (buying) is motivated more by emotion than logic. If not skillfully targeted at the right kind of emotion, most appeals will fail to convert into [...]]]> What causes people to shell out good money to buy something, even something expensive?

It’s not necessarily because it makes sense — although that is important.

The point of decision (buying) is motivated more by emotion than logic. If not skillfully targeted at the right kind of emotion, most appeals will fail to convert into action.

So if you rely solely on overwhelming logic to close sales, you may find that your revenue is not keeping up with your vision. If you keep waiting for people to see the light of your unassailable logic,  you will still be waiting long after the cold dead corpse of your business has been picked clean by the buzzards of the auction. What you need to do is light the fire.

Dan Heath of FastCompany explains that emotion, not logic, facts or statistics, is the key to moving people to change. He uses examples of helping people change direction and adopt new habits such as healthy eating or saving money. Imagine, on the other hand, what this means applied to selling YOUR product or service.

Simply put, you cannot merely list features or facts and expect people to make the connections. You must connect those facts to the strong emotions that motivate people to take action. The formula is simple: First people see what they want. Then they feel the need. Then they change.

Applied to writing copy, that formula can be translated as Read-Feel-Act.

That’s the signature quality of truly effective copy.

If your copy needs to create action, rather than simply inform, you must write to touch the heart as well as provide  necessary information. One of my mentors put it this way, “People buy (act) based on emotion, and then they justify their action with logic and facts.” Humans act because they want something (love) or wish to avoid something (fear). If your writing taps into either of those primal emotions, you have a much better chance of getting the result you want.

So when it comes to creating your marketing materials or your website, find a copy writer that understands how to really sell you, your company and your products. The best writers get inside the head of the prospect and write copy that throws gasoline on their personal emotional woodpile and tosses on the match. It’s touching that emotional flashpoint that gets things jumping when it comes to your prospects deciding to buy.

That’s why buzzards hate bonfires.

Google has published this really nifty, absolutely free e-book called Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Stop spending hours trying to guess what secrets are hidden deep within the inner sanctum of the Google algorithm. This easy to read guidebook spells it all out for you.

Of course, it [...]]]> I am not making this up. Honest!

Google has published this really nifty, absolutely free e-book called Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Stop spending hours trying to guess what secrets are hidden deep within the inner sanctum of the Google algorithm. This easy to read guidebook spells it all out for you.

Of course, it doesn’t hack the algorithm itself, but the way I see it Google is spelling it out for you step by step. Here is what you need to do if you want high search ranking results.

It covers all the basics like page titles, meta tags, urls, navigation in the first 10 pages. Then the next 20 pages are about…content.

That’s right. Content!!!

They lead that section off with this little hand grenade:

Interesting sites will increase their recognition on their own

Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means.

Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site’s reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.

Shazam! If Google says it, it must be gospel

The publication goes on to explain how to optimize your text by properly using anchor texts, heading tags, specialized keywords, and so on. The fundamental principle, however, is that if you want to make the most of your website, your content must be useful and accurate at the very least. Unique and timely are even better. Better still, start providing fresh new content on a regular basis.

So download and reading the Google SEO Starter Guide. Save it to your hard drive for future reference. Post it to your blog and send the link out to all your clients. It can provide a powerful resource to help you explain one of the key building blocks of any kind of integrated marketing strategy.

And of course, if you need help generating all that content…you can always outsource it. Just ask me. I know a guy…

That’s about as good a definition of copywriting as you will find anywhere. We will come back to it in future posts.

A more pedestrian, but quite workable attempt might say [...]]]> “Copywriting is a job.
A skilled craft.
Verbal carpentry.
Words on paper.
Scripts to time.
And one more thing.
Salesmanship.”*

That’s about as good a definition of copywriting as you will find anywhere. We will come back to it in future posts.

A more pedestrian, but quite workable attempt might say that

Copywriting is the skillful and creative use of written language to promote a product, service, organization or concept.

Now, put the question, “What is copywriting?” to a typical business middle manager – probably an MBA – trained in B-school methods and thought patters. Here’s what you might get:

Copywriting is the synergistic utilization of impactful linguistic structures, leveraging outside of the box thinking to communicate maximum value solutions for customers in a relationship based business model.

I call this Zombie Copy. Ugly, isn’t it?

This is what happens when the writer mistakes writing for a pile of buzzwords. Left to run amok, buzzwords will rip the heart out of your copy. What could have been a vibrant piece of selling will turn into a pile of zombie words. It will look a lot like copy writing, but it will be unable to inject any life into your marketing. In the end it just stumbles around like a zombie, smelling bad, grunting inarticulately, and gnawing the life out of your business.

Buzzwords begin as useful shorthand terms that provide quick simple ways to convey complex meanings. Precisely because they are so useful, they tend to quickly spread like a virus from person to person and office to office and pretty soon the whole culture is infected by them.**

At a certain point, however, their use is so prevalent, and so dense that they begin to lose their power. They become cliché. In spite of this, business writers like to use them for two reasons:

• They don’t require thinking.
• They imply that you are knowledgeable of the latest trends in business.

It is easier to string together buzzword clichés than to actually think about how to craft a message properly so that it speaks in clear useful language. Unfortunately, only the gullible and thoughtless are actually impressed by such language.

The biggest problem is that clots of buzzwords pass through the brain without making any real impression. Since you want your copy to stick in the minds of the readers, you must put a stake through the heart of zombie copy. Use actual thoughtful, home made sentences and see what breathing a little life into your words can do.

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* Bruce Bendinger in his book The Copy Workshop Workbook
** or if your prefer the cliché term – “go viral.”