Once you have grabbed your readers’ attention with you stunning headling, you have to arouse their interest in what you’re selling.

How do you do that?

Well, let’s suppose your reader has a problem – they could be feeling stressed, bored or unfulfilled. What you hve to do is find a way to tie your product to their problem as the solution.

A metaphorical arm around their shoulder

Freelance copywriters could be seen as counsellors. We have to show our readers that we understand how they feel and then promise to take the problem away. What do they have to do? Simply buy your product.

The golden rule here is to ensure you write about the solution not the problem – negativity will result in your letter being folded into an aeroplane.

Try to answer this:

‘How will my reader’s life be improved if they do what I want them to do?’

Answer it in the first sentence or paragraph – they’ll want the answer immediately. If you’re not sure what your reader really wants bring in as many benefits as possible and be specific.

Sell the benefits

Remember benefits are anything your reader perceives as valuable or worthwhile – something that will help them make/save money, save time, get them promoted, make friends etc.

Make sure it is the benefits that you are selling and not the features – yes, the product might be recyclable but that is a feature. The benefit would be that it helps preserve natural resources. Get the idea?

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, it will take practice to master this but it will be worth it. So now you can get your reader interested in your product because you have identified why your product will be of benefit to them. Brilliant!

But it doesn’t stop there. Just because they are interested doesn’t mean they’ll simply hand their credit card over. You still have a bit more work to do before that happens.

The next stage is to learn how to create a desire for your product. See you in a day or so.

The author, Sally Ormond (Briar Copywriting) provides expert copywriting services for businesses locally, nationall and internationally.

I’m constantly asked by people all over ‘How do I get to the top of Google’, ‘Company X promises a front page listing’ and the likes. What are the google tricks to get you to the top? Hopefully I’m going to dispel a few tricks with business logic.

Google is a search engine, they want to make money from advertising but for this to happen, they NEED the masses to use it for searches.

What would make you choose or stop using a given search engine? The results. To maintain your loyalty, Google works hard to make sure it understands what you’ve typed into the search box, and gives you a good answer on page 1 with x million not so good ones following. (just in case) Google is a computer program and so doesn’t understand human speech as well as we, or Google execs would like, but it’s slowly getting there.

So
Fact #1: It is in Google’s best interests to produce reliable results to keep it’s audience.

If you search now for ‘Plumber in Watford’, Google will show plumbers and directories in Watford. Sometimes you’ll see other things there, these websites are strategically incorrect. This could be them trying to cheat the system or just not optimised correctly where Google thinks it’s about plumbers.

Back to fact 1, we lead on to:
Fact #2: Google continuously monitor results to create rules to filter out non-relevant results thus satisfying number 1.

Assuming you run a legitimate business, for argument’s sake and accountant in Hemel Hempstead, and I am looking for an accountant in Hemel Hempstead, it is in Google’s best interest to show your site to me. Google doesn’t care about how it looks, or how much money you spent on it, it only cares about me and satifying my needs. If it works, I will come back and become a loyal searcher, which is exactly what Google wants.

Fact #3: Google isn’t there to penalise people not able or willing to spend money on SEO, it’s best interests are with the searcher.

Some sites appear higher in Google than others, this is because Google believes that they are more helpful. Old sites designed and forgotten in 1995 are unlikely to be in the top 10 so it needs to know that you’re still in business and that you can help me. Don’t be clever and skirt around the issue of what you do. I am a web designer, fact. I could call myself a ‘brand archetect’ or a ‘e-makeover expert’ to differentiate myself, but that’s not what my prospects will be searching for. It is getting better and understanding, but it’s not quite there. For example if I add ‘That let the cat out of the bag’, Google would have to understand that I am talking about trouble, I am not a vet, I don’t agree with animal cruelty, I do not rescue kittens from bags (although have been known to.)

Fact #4: Google makes no assumptions, it only knows what you tell it, word for word.

I will expand on that last one, Google also knows what other people say about you, but that’s for another blog.

So forget Google as the enemy, it isn’t. It wants to help searchers find what they are looking for so they come back time and time again and hopefully click on a few adverts making Google a small profit for it’s efforts. Google is a business and while there are ways of ‘tricking’ it or tweaking things, if Google doesn’t believe you can help solve a given problem, you won’t be shown in the golden position 1.

Fact #5: Google are constantly improving, there are ways to slip through the net, but these will be quickly filtered out and you could be penalised.

So don’t try fooling Google by adding 100 links to the bottom of the page going to the same place, or 15 identical pages with the place names replaced unless there is a genuine reason for doing so. Continue to write copy for your readers, not Google, but just dumb it down a little so it all makes sense to a robot. Tricks like these will only work for a short time, once Google find a way to filter it out, you’ll be dropped like a hot potato.

Likewise if you do operate in several areas, by all means do have separate pages for each area, but don’t over-link them, stay logical. Remember that EVERY page is your home page. When someone clicks through, they won’t necessarily go to page 1, they could land anywhere and need to know in an instant that they’re in the right place.

Google isn’t your enemy, it is a money making business. If you understand business, think like them and you’ll already understand.

Sometimes there’s a better way to communicate certain information than text and pictures. Video has been creeping online since flash first reared it’s head but unless you’re a professional (or pay lots of money to a professional), the results have always looked very amateur. Youtube arrived and gave people the chance to upload… anything… and they did. (The Onion reported a youtube contest for people to upload something which was actually ‘good’)

Well now, a website landed on my desk which could change everything, at least for a small proportion of users and businesses; Animoto. Animoto is a video generator, and it’s free to use for short clips with small charges for upgrades. It allows you to upload images, add a little text and music either by uploading or selecting from their library. Once you hit the generate button, it gets to work.

It’s uses are limited but at the same time can be used for a wide variety of presentations and video shorts. These can include holiday snaps, graphic portfolios, photography, illustrations etc etc… 

Zakomedia portfolio made with Animoto:

Now I think that’s pretty impressive for a freebie. I didn’t have to fiddle about with transitions or other effects… it did everything for me!

Go try Animoto now, upload a few pictures and see if it can help you.

First things first, if you are writing a sales letter, your attention grabber is an effective headline. If you are writing an email then it is the subject line.

For the purpose of this article I shall be looking at writing a sales letter. Your headline will be at the top of your letter but, to create instant impact, it can also be on your envelope as this will be your first opportunity to grab the attention of your reader.

So what type of headline works best?

• One giving news?
• One promising a benefit?
• One that arouses curiosity?

One that sells or promises benefit will always be a winner, but the most powerful one is the one that is a combination of all three.

If you are stuck for ideas try starting it with ‘How’ or ‘Now’:

‘How this copywriter will increase your sales conversion rate’

‘Now, even better quality, even lower prices’

One tip is to come up with several headlines and then pick the best one. You may find that different ideas occur to you at different times in the writing process.

Forget the full stop

Never, never, never end your headline with a full stop.

Why? Well, what does a full stop tell your reader to do? That’s right, stop reading – that is last thing that you want to happen.

How long should it be?

Quite simply, as long as is necessary to get your message across. But be sensible. A headline that goes on forever will be a complete turn-off.

So that about wraps up how to grab your readers’ attention. If you have any other ideas why not post a comment? It would be great to hear someone else’s take on this.

Sally Ormond

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