Copywriting - Archive

How to be bold, confident and the best

It is often difficult to say exactly the right thing. When closing a sale with a client face to face, you need to demonstrate confidence in your services and explain in tangible terms why your company is the best.

Website copy needs to be strong. More so than your face to face conversations – the written word is not backed up with expression or body language. Your words need to be really persuasive.

Imagine this extract of home page copy for an Estate Agent:

“We are one of the only local estate agents that will come to your house for viewings over weekends and evenings. We aim to provide you with a professional service from start to finish. Most of our customers come back to us when they move house. We like to think of ourselves as the most friendly estate agents.”

Pretty boring isn’t? It really does not do much to convince the me to pick up the phone and call them for their prices. So let’s give this copy a confidence injection!

“Providing the most professional and stress free service in town.

Your home will be marketed day and night, including accompanied viewings at evenings and weekends.

So friendly and approachable that you’ll want to come back to us for your next house sale.

Call today and start selling your house with the best Estate Agent in town.”

As you can see, this copy is confident and talks directly to the prospective client. The wishy washy claims like “we aim to be” or “most of our customers” have been replaced with bold statements that include a proper tangible benefit to the client and take away any doubt.

So why not make some time this bank holiday weekend to review your website copy? Start with your home page and then gradually work through the website.

Be bold, be confident, be the best.

Copywriting | 28.05.2010 9:14 | No Comments

Keeping your copy strong

Writing copy for you own websites is often more of a challenge than you may expect. The words on your website need to quickly catch the attention of the visitor, engage and encourage your readers to become paying customers. And let’s not forget that keywords also need to be incorporated for Google!

Also website layouts aren’t fixed like print: different monitor sizes, mobile devices (iPods, BlackBerry’s etc) and individual setting will all affect the positioning and display of your words.

I’d say that writing strong and effective copy is easily as challenging as the website design and build. Here are some brilliant tips for spicing up your website copy!

1) Focus on one topic per page.
This is probably one of the single most important tip. By using a single page for each service or topic you will avoid confusing visitors with lots of extra information. Your devoted pages will also be naturally keyword rich for Google – who also prefer pages with focus.

2) Include clear calls to action on each page.
This may be as simple as encouraging visitors to contact you for more information or to drive them to a particular information rich page with another strong call to action. The simplest way to include a call to action is to use a nice graphic and some text to make it very clear to the visitor what they need to do next.

3) Don’t just talk about yourself.
So many website are filled with reams and reams of text about how long the company has been established, the company goals, the team and lots of “we do this” and “we do that”. This needs to be completely turned on it’s head. Instead of thinking about what your business does, think about the problems and needs of your clients.

4) Use links.
It is a website after all! Don’t go crazy – but using internal links to pages from your own website can help visitor find relevant information and is also great for Google.

5) Break up long text with catchy headlines.
Lots of text can be very hard to read, especially on websites. Breaking up your text with headlines will make it much easier for your visitors to find the information they need. Headlines (if coded correctly) are considered important by Google – so use a keyword in the headline too.

Finally, I would like to add that, if people are not responding to your copy or Google is not finding you – then tweak it! Strong copy will help you to win more clients and make it easier for Google to find you. It’s tricky and time consuming to get right but well worth the effort.

Copywriting | 10.05.2010 12:40 | No Comments

How Bad Sales Calls Can Improve Your Web Content

“In one day Samson killed one thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass. Each day ten thousand sales are killed with the very same weapon.”

I’m sure you agree that’s a pretty clever quote. Here’s another quote…

“We have a vertically integrated solution. We’re able to reach a large number of potential key decision-makers in your target markets”.

Not so clever.

But the amazing thing here is the second is an actual transcript of a young, eager, cold-caller trying to persuade me to buy a mailing list. Speaking like that is never going to persuade me to do anything.

How Can This Improve Your Web Content?

If your website is speaking to your customers using the same language as a bad cold-caller, it’s going to get the same bad result.

Here are three tips to improve your web content (and if you have a call centre, your sales calls).

Speak to people like people.
Do you know what a ‘vertically integrated solution’ is? I’m not really sure I do. Your website should use simple language. Make it easy to read. Use short sentences. Long unbroken paragraphs filled with confusing corporate jargon are scary.

Talk about benefits not features.
Using the mailing list example; instead of saying, “reach a large number of potential key-decision makers”. Try, “I can help you sell more products by giving you the contact details of 500 people who buy your product on a regular basis”.

Keep it relevant.
The cold caller knew my name and what business I’m in. So why say, “Your target markets”. You know your customers and what they are interested in. Your website should talk about this specifically. If you sell flowers and your customers buy flowers, your website should be talking about flowers!

Using the tips above, here’s what the call should have sounded like…

“I can help you find more small business owners looking to build a website in the next couple of months. We’ve got a list of 500 names. And because we personally keep our lists up to date, you won’t be wasting your time on people who don’t want to hear from you.”

So What Does Your Website Sound like?

Are you talking to your customers in the right way? Is your website helping you to find more customers? Or is it a good looking but bad cold-caller?

We can help you find out. Contact us and ask for a free content critique.

We’ll show you how to improve your website’s content for better online results. And of course, there is no cost for the initial critique. You can book your website content critique by clicking here.

Or call me on 0845 625 0175

Copywriting, Digital Marketing | 11.07.2008 17:33 | No Comments

Explore The Wonders Of A Copy Writing Makeover

The power of the ‘before and after’ makeover is amazing: The startling differences, the strong contrasts. Seeing the transformation happen before your eyes can be wonderful.

Just wait until you see what happens to your website when you give your copy a makeover. Here’s an example for you.

Before – Bloated text, poor search engine results, and hard to read. On the web, this is destined for failure.

“JOE BLOGGS HOMES
A COMPANY COMMITTED TO QUALITY – THE QUALITY OF CONSTRUCTION, THE QUALITY IN THE ENVIRONMENT, AND THE QUALITY OF SERVICE PROVIDED TO ITS CUSTOMERS. JOE BLOGGS HOMES HAS DEVELOPED A PARTICULAR EXPERTISE IN PROVIDING GOOD QUALITY, ATTRACTIVE AND AFFORDABLE HOMES IN SURREY, PARTICULARLY IN THE WOKING AREA. ATTENTION TO DETAIL IS AT THE HEART OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF JOE BLOGGS HOMES. WHETHER IT IS A 2 BEDROOM APARTMENT OR A 4 BEDROOM SEMI DETACHED HOME, THE COMPANY TAKES PRIDE IN THE CAREFUL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF ALL ITS HOMES. WHATEVER THE SIZE AND VALUE – LUXURIOUS IN STYLE: AFFORDABLE IN PRICE!”

After – Easy to skim, strong focus on the reader, and a focus on keyword rich text. This is much more like the copy your readers want to read.

Find Your New Home in Surrey

Are you looking for a new 2 bedroom apartment? Or a new semi detached 4 bedroom home for your family?

There are 3 key factors when buying a new home.

Quality construction. Your new home will be in safe hands. We have 20 years experience and have an A1 (the best) rating with the National House Building Council.

Quality Environment. You and your home will be safe, settled nicely into the surrounding community we’ve built.

Quality Service. You can relax. Spend your time enjoying your new home. We work with local suppliers, local tradesmen and the local council to ensure you are looked after.

See How Easily You Can Own A New Joe Bloggs’ Home

If you want a well designed, carefully built home in Woking, and you want excellent value, we’d love to hear from you. Take a look round our current developments and see what our customers think of their homes in our existing developments.

Does Your Copy Need A Professional’s Touch?

Looking back at the example, it’s hard to believe they both have the same message. Not that anyone would actually read the ‘before’.

Remember, professional copy can:

Make more of your website visitors subscribe to your newsletter.
Convert more of your visitors into profitable customers.
Turn your customers into ‘fans’ who’ll tell their friends and colleagues about you.

Here’s A Quick Way To Get The Copy Your Website Needs

Creating powerful copy takes time. More than most appreciate. Professional copywriters can spend hours crafting the perfect headline, or researching the best call to action for a particular type of customer.
Would you rather spend that time working with your customers?

Please give us a call now to talk about how we can makeover your website’s copy. Phone 0845 625 5075

This article has been written by Gary Elliot – one of the copy writers for Budget Websites

Copywriting | 29.05.2008 20:03 | No Comments