Hands up anyone out there who actually knows what a copywriter does? Go on, be honest.

If you are a little unsure then allow me to enlighten you. A copywriter is a business sales writer. Basically what they do is produce persuasive copy for all those brochures, leaflets, sales letters and websites that you see.

You could really call them the Uzi submachine gun of the marketer’s arsenal. It is through their mastery of the writen word that new customers are brought into the fold.

Do you write your own sales copy? A lot of businesses out there do. There is nothing wrong with that if it is working for you. But are your marketing materials really performing as you would want them to? Is the copy on your website drawing traffic to it and the right kind of traffic? Basically what I am asking is are you frustrated by the lack of success of your marketing efforts?

If the answer is ‘yes’ then you need to find yourself a good freelance copywriter. What they will do is produce a portfolio of effective copy (emails, newsletters, web copy, brochure copy etc.) that will increase your sales, create continuity in your marketing and therefore create an image of trust and credibility in the eyes of your customers.

Perhaps you haven’t gone down this route because you think it is too expensive. But just think for a moment. How much of your time have you spent trying to write good copy? How much is your time worth? Surely it would be better spent doing what you do best?

Good marketing writing will pay dividends. The initial outlay will be recouped by the increase in sales. Just think about that for a second…makes sense, doesn’t it?

By using the services of a copywriter you will give yourself the edge over your competitors. Remember, if you don’t use one, they will.

Sally Ormond is a professional website copywriter, SEO copywriter and advertising copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C copywriting markets. She can be contacted at +44(0)1449 779605 or sally@briarcopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have or for a complimentary webcopy analysis.

Well this one came completely unannounced. The power of Google is such that they no longer need to build up hype, it just spreads around like wildfire. I present to you. SearchWiki.

If you are a logged in google user (either of Gmail, documents, calendar or one of their zillion other services) you now alter the search results. If a site isn’t coming up which should, you can use a link at the bottom to add it directly to page 1… instantly. If a link isn’t relevant, you can use the arrows next to it to drop it down or remove it and keep the good content up top… instantly.

Now don’t get too excited, before the click wars begin, this isn’t a Google-wide change… that would be anarchy… in fact only you can see those changes, and only when logged in to your google account, but from any computer.

Why is this useful?

As Google’s search results change on a second by second basis, it can be hard to keep track on every useful site and page. Our bookmarks are filling up with sites we forget exist and things are becoming harder to find.

Now rather than bookmark it, move the link higher in the results so that the next time you look, it’s right there.

Business uses? practically none, but the next bit really caught my attention…

As well as moving Google search results, SearchWiki allows you to add notes and comments to the results. The last link underneath the site address drops down a little textbox. Again everytime this result appears in your search, you’ll get instant access to your own notes. This is useful as above but with one difference… everyone can see them… They have to click a link to, but they are visible. This means you can start adding notes not only to other’s sites but to your own. An extra few lines to promote your business and show people why your link is much better than anyone elses.

It does mean you can also comment on your competitors… This approach is not recommended as Slander and Libel cases are on the increase against digital bloggers and public internet authors.

Keep an eye on this one, perhaps with user generated results, Google may wish to start allowing the data to influence overall results… What better relevancy test than through the masses. There have already been numerous picture games associated with Google played around the world by millions of people. Only a percentage knew that they were actually describing image content for google’s image search. Google’s wonderful viral allowed it to index billions of images accross the globe in a matter of weeks.

Watch this space. In the meantime, here’s Google’s Lead Designer talking about SearchWiki:

Before you start shouting at the screen, I’m not being rude or trying to teach you to suck eggs. Just think about it for a second. A copywriter writes to sell a product or service – that’s about as glamorous as it gets. But you have to understand your product or service before you can sell it.

All too often you see writing about a particular product that is focused on what it is rather than what it does. But that is only natural, after all if you work with washing machines all the time you will end up thinking about them a lot. If you make high-end market shoes, you’ll tend to think about them a lot too.

The problem is that this leads to descriptive writing not powerful sales writing. You’ll be so in love with what you do it will be the only thing you will be able to talk about. So with our washing machine example all you’ll be able to write about is how they wash clothes – great, but a sales writer would see them as a specifically designed labour saving device.

The same goes for the shoes. If you are too close you’ll sell them as high quality, stylish shoes (which I am sure they are). But your sales writer will bill them as the must-have for the woman-about-town that will make her irresistible to all men.

I hate to say it but no matter how much blood, sweat and tears went into producing your product, your customer won’t give two hoots. All they want to know is what it will do for them – will it save time? Save them money? Make them look successful? Make them irresistible to the opposite sex? 

Knowing all the facts about your product is vital but what is probably more important is the ability to dramatise them in terms of their benefits. Make your reader believe they couldn’t possibly live without it and they’ll reach for their credit cards.

Whatever form of business you are in, the effectiveness of your marketing strategy is the key to success. If you are a high street store you would utilise your window display to draw the public in. Once inside the door it is then up to your staff to convert their interest in to sales.

 

This is true for online businesses too albeit in a virtual way. Your website needs to draw visitors to browse before they start to buy.

 

The online version of the shop window is effective website copywriting. Obviously having a bricks and mortar shop, if sales begin to diminish you can always resort to loitering in the shop doorway, leaping on unsuspecting passing trade, dragging them into your shop and forcing them to buy. Obviously I am not condoning such a strategy but that is not something that is available to the online trader. Copywriters are unable to bodily drag in clients or herd them through your website using a cattle prod. But written correctly, their copy will increase the flow of traffic to your site and encourage them to browse and ultimately buy by being persuasive.

 

Persuasive copywriting is a skill that requires the use for four techniques.

 

• Evoking an emotional response – emotion is the most powerful tool available to the copywriter as it is the most important factor in the decision making process.
• Don’t be pushy – the customer is a canny animal and if they get even the slightest whiff of coercion they’ll be off and running as far away from you as possible. The key is to persuade them to make the decision you want them to make.
• Be familiar with the website – sounds obvious doesn’t it but it is vital that the copywriter is familiar with your site as this will impart a confident tone in their writing. Buyers need to be directed so they know what they need to do therefore the writing must be clear and precise.
•  Know the products – the copywriter must understand the product thoroughly so they can convey specific instructions and descriptions.

Therefore a great copywriter not only produces copy that will attract visitors to your website, they will also attempt to convert them into potential customers. Persuasive copywriting is effective copywriting and therefore will be the hallmark of a professional.

Well Goohoo has been and gone. Google stepped out of the deal due to the restrictions Yahoo! were trying to apply. Yahoo! understandably doesn’t want to lose out to it’s biggest (winning) rival after all.

Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo! seems to have re-offered Yahoo! to Microsoft. For those not in the know, Microsoft attempted to purchase Yahoo! earlier this year. They couldn’t agree on figures and Microsoft eventually slammed the door. Now Yahoo! has gone back with the lost puppy look and is waiting for Microsoft (or another bidder) to throw them a bone.

The current search share of the engines looks something like below:

Over the past two years, Google has gone from strength to strength, Yahoo! is it’s next biggest competitor closely followed by Microsoft and Ask. If Microsoft did acquire Yahoo!, it would significantly increase the muscle behind the defence against Google but would still have to claim around 20% more of the market share to rival Google.

Microsoft have the advantage of being able to set live search to default on their own software, however their street cred isn’t great and users are converting to Mozilla Firefox (which defaults to Google) and Google’s own browser, Chrome (never guess which search engine they favour)

So how can Microsoft gain it’s software advantage? They need to fix Internet Explorer, make it follow the same web standards as Firefox. They may have another plan up their sleeves however…

Hotmail users on Chrome will be familiar with the message ‘We don’t support your browser upgrade to IE’ Everything worked regardless so it was just an annoyance. Microsoft have just upgraded Hotmail and low and behold removed the annoying message! However Google Chrome users are now unable to send/reply to messages due to a faulty Javascript editor… Even despite Wikipedia reporting the roll-out to Chrome on the 4th November 2008. Is this a simple oversight or was there some Malice in the decision to not support Chrome? Some Firefox 3 users have also reported problems.

I don’t like the idea of Microsoft buying Yahoo! however I think Google needs some decent competition! Their staff live in cushy offices with massage chairs, slides, poles and all sorts of games! It employs 20,123 members of staff and pays for them to relax! They need to be put to work to stay ahead of the possible Microhoo! conglomeration!