Great Freelance Copywriting isn’t just about putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. It involves far more skill than that – in fact you could call it an art. There may not be any paint involved but words are intricately woven together into something powerful and compelling. There is no magic formula as it isn’t an exact science.

Before you can even start writing you have to have ideas. Whether you are writing a sales letter, brochure or webcopy, what you produce has to break through all the other sales messages out there, grab your reader’s attention and cling on to them until they have got out their credit card and bought your product.

It sounds so simple, but creativity can be elusive. Everyone has their own way of stimulating their creative flow and here are a few of mine:

• Walking the dog
• Going to the gym
• Read a book, magazine or newspaper
• Write down anything and everything that comes into your head
• Read some websites
• Imagine yourself as the buyer
• Work somewhere else other than your usual place
• Brainstorm keywords

What are your favourite ways of stimulating creativity? Do you use the same methods as me or do you have some far more interesting ways? Come on, don’t be shy share them with us.

The author, Sally Ormond (Briar Copywriting), is a freelance copywriter who specialises in website copywriting

For your copywriting to be successful, you must make a connection with your reader. To do that you have to build rapport – create an emotional bond by tuning into their very thoughts and desires.

Sound scary?

Just think about it for a second. You would have come across numerous sales people over the years. Of all the sales people you have bought from, where they caring, thoughtful, did they take an interest in you? Or were they stand-offish, self-centred and uncaring? I think I can guess what your answer is.

If you can show your reader that you understand their concerns and fears they are far more likely to buy from you.

But for this approach to work, you have to know what your reader is concerned about. For example, if you are selling toys or games you can tune into parental concerns.

A quick tip to build rapport immediately is to use three small but powerful words “As you know” when mentioning a fact about their job or interests such as:

‘Dear Mr James,

As you know it takes more than just a good grasp of English to become a great sales writer.’

Admittedly this method takes a bit of practice. To get a similar effect you can always adopt the easier option of flattering your reader. Let’s face it, everyone likes to be flattered and made to feel more important than they actually are. Show your reader how clever, important or beautiful they are and they’ll listen to you until the cows come home.

The author, Sally Ormond provides seo website copywriting services to businesses looking to make the most out of their online presence.

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.

When beginning a new project, one of the most crucial aspects you will ever face as a freelance copywriter is the defining and setting out of your goals.

Ask yourself what is the purpose of the document you are about to write. It is important to remember that your document will replace a personal visit or conversation with the reader therefore it must achieve what you would achieve face to face – or at least what the most successful sales executive known to man would achieve.

Your goal could be any number of things including:

• Make a sale
• Get opt-ins for your email list
• Open an account with you
• Increase spending with you
• Renew a contract
• Agree to a meeting

Whatever it is you must ensure that it is the goal that drives your writing and not your creativity.

Writers are creative by nature and therefore it can be all too easy to let your alter ego get the better of you. The first sign that you should ditch your copy is if, when you read it, it makes you smile; you want to show it to everyone with a big grin on your face shouting from the roof tops ‘look how clever I am’.

Ask yourself if it will persuade the reader to buy. If your answer is ‘no’, scrap it. You are not up for the ‘Most humorous and creative sales letter’ Oscar, you are trying to achieve the goal you have been given. Your long suppressed novel is the place for your creativity – make sure that is where it stays.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

Let me take your business to new heights by making every word count.

I have enjoyed writing ever since I can remember. My mother still has exercise books full of stories that I wrote in my youth – many of them should really have been consigned to the bin but, thanks to her, shall remain in all their juvenile glory to haunt me for ever more.

Throughout my school years, I covered countless rain forests in ink with essays on all manner of academic subjects. Stories would flow freely from my aching hand (yes you spotted it, I was at school pre-computers) – they may not have been Booker Prize Winners but they were coherent, flowing and above all written in grammatically correct English.

I count myself among those fortunate few who have turned their hobby into their profession. I now spend my days writing and creating. There is nothing more relaxing or satisfying than carefully crafting a small army of words into an absorbing article, successful sales letter or piece of web copy.

Much of my work comes from a regular bank of clients; however I occasionally look at websites that post requests for work. You can imagine my horror and despair as I noticed a worrying trend beginning to emerge. It would appear that some of today’s University students are incapable of producing an essay.

For example, I received these requests a few days ago:

“I need an essay on modernism (using no more than two artworks and one theoretical text, give an account of one post-war artist who refutes Greenberg’s theory of modernist ‘flat’ painting).”

This one on Ophelia’s death takes the biscuit; I quote “Hey I need a paper about Ophelia’s death, what drove her mad and who caused it before Thursday. If you can do it, it needs to include the nunnery scene and closet scene show Ophelia’s negative qualities”

One may be forgiven for feeling an amount of sympathy for today’s students who are forced to work all hours to pay their way through University so that they are not saddled by huge debts when they graduate. However it is not just confined to Universities. This one was the most worrying that I came across.  It was posted by a GCSE student who says:

 “I’ve  got an American West essay to do, i’m at GCSE level. About 2000 words for the essay.Looking for a essay writer do this for me and tell me the price i would have to pay i haven’t got that much money because im only a school student so im looking for a decent price. Can you message me back as soon as possible please.”

(Please note I have not corrected the punctuation or format of the posting.)

What is the world coming too? Is the art of good writing being lost forever? I hope not. But then again, it will at least ensure that I shall be kept very busy for a very long time.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Business Copywriter

Helping SME’s cast off their marketing frustrations