SEO website copywriting continues to develop each and every day.  As more people turn to the internet to find local services, more and more companies are relying on their organic search engine results for a higher percentage of sales. This will ensure that search engine copywriting will continue to be in demand.

Why?

The number of searches done on the Internet is in the hundreds of billions annually and it is much harder for your website to be ranked highly without being optimised for the search engines.

The number of pages on the Internet has grown to over 4 billion so increasing importance has been placed upon the fact that your web page is easy to search and is indexed by search engines.  Of course, you can buy traffic to come to your website but you’ll be missing out on an important piece of the sales ‘pie’ by not focusing on organic traffic.

How?

To get your website indexed within the search engines, you must have original content that is in high demand.  The search engine spiders are looking for many different factors but the key is your website’s content. The information must be valuable both to the search bots so they index you as well as to your readers.

This post has given you an overview of why SEO copywriting for your website is so important. For more information about SEO, take a look at SEO, Keywords and Stuff – 3 Golden Rules.

Sally Ormond, freelance copywriter and internet marketer.

Guess what? People don’t like sales letters and mail shots. They see them as an intrusion and believe that their only benefit is that they can be recycled and made into something more useful.

 

It doesn’t matter how long you spend writing that letter, if it is unsolicited it is unlikely to be read. So what have you got to do to grab your reader’s attention? Well that’s simple, write the best sales letter known to man.

 

The quality of your letter begins even before you have opened a new blank document. Let me ask you a question; before you write do you sit down and work out a plan? You would be surprised at the number of people who don’t. Think back to your school days, I bet your teacher always told you to plan your essays and when you finally took that advice your grades began to rise. So why not do the same for your sales writing? Let’s face it writing without a plan is rather like wading through treacle.

 

Remember, whatever you write must evolve around your reader. Think about who they are, what makes them tick, where they shop, what is their lifestyle like in fact create a picture of them in your mind.

 

Now think about this:

 

• Who am I writing to? – this is your ideal reader, you know, the image that is now in your head
• What do I want to say? – focus on your reader’s needs not yours
• How much space do I have? – know your word count before you start
• How do I want to come across? – friendly, approachable, authoritative, unbiased…
• What’s my deadline? – always important to know
• What do I want to achieve?

The last one is the holy grail of your letter. Is your letter designed to make your reader change their mind about something? Do you want to motivate them into an action? Do you want them to buy something?

 

Your plan is taking shape. You know who they are, you know what you want them to do, now you can tell them why your product/service is right for them and what it will do for them (the benefits) and you know how to tell them what to do next (call to action).

 

There, that wasn’t so hard after all. Planning is important. If you are time-limited it is tempting to skip it and dive in – be warned, you will do so at your peril and your letter will be turned into a paper cup.

 

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

If you have been involved in the making of a product or service, the chances are you think it is the best thing since sliced bread. You have nurtured it from the initial brain storming sessions and through its infancy. You were there smoothing out the troublesome teenage problems until a fully matured product emerged. In fact you are so close to it, all you can see are its features and that will be all you want to talk about.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing because we all want to know what something can do. But if you want to be a great sales writer you must understand that what the potential reader/buyer wants to know is how it is going to benefit them. What is it going to do for them? Why should they spend their hard earned cash on your particular product or service?

 

For example, you have made a pair of football boots, your sales copy reads like this:

 

• They are made from a unique leather 
• They have titanium tipped studs
• They come in a range of colours
• They mould to your foot

What is your reader going to think? Shall I tell you? They’ll say ‘so what?’ turn over the page and start reading the latest celebrity gossip.

 

Now if you sold them on the basis that by wearing your football boots your customer would become a better football player, that is a benefit. The features will help your buyer rationalise their buying decision but it is the benefit that will get him to pull his wallet out.

 

People want to know WHY they should buy something, not WHAT they are buying.

 

 

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

I have often been mocked for my view that B2B (business to business) sales writing should be treated in the same was as B2C (business to customer). But I laugh in the face of mockery – why should it be different?

 

• Can a company physically buy something?
• Can a company actually meet you at the coffee shop round the corner?
• Can a company sit down at a table and sign a contract?

Of course not therefore you are writing to individuals, normal human beings within a company. No matter how high up the ladder they are, they are normal, walking, talking and breathing people. So why treat them differently?

 

There are 4 golden rules to follow in B2B sales writing, stick to these and you’ll be worshiped the world over.

 

1. Keep it brief – you are writing to people at work so they will be time limited.
2. Business people are human – they also make decisions partially for personal reasons (more profits equal bigger salaries etc). Tap into reason and emotion for the best results.
3. You are writing to sell, so sell benefits – buy this and you’ll save money, save time, make bigger profits, reduce staff turnover, and improve productivity.
4. There is no language called B2Bish – keep it plain and simple; steer clear of cliché and jargon.

Follow these simple guidelines and it will be you who has the last laugh.

 

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

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

You could be forgiven for thinking you have stumbled into a Yul Brynner fan site or the bizarre world of a The King and I obsessive. But fear not, this is neither.

What I want to talk about is the all important aspect of any sales writing – getting to know your reader. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, The 7 Deadly Sins – a Copywriter’s Best Friend, I am not condoning any method that could be construed as stalking. Rather, what I am talking about is getting inside your reader’s head. Find out what makes them tick; what drives and motivates them. If you can understand the inner foibles of your readers mind, you will find it a lot easier to sell to them.

Attention to detail

If you are sending out newsletters to your customers at least have the good grace to master the intricacies of mail merge and address it to the person to whom it is being sent, not just to ‘Dear Customer’. Rather than getting that warm and fuzzy feeling when you think the sending company cares about you, your readers’ reaction will be ‘oh great, another mail shot’ and it will be confined to the recycling bin.

People are real

So when you are trying to get to know your reader, don’t rely on market reports and data, go out there and actually talk to people. The betting is that no matter what your target audience, you will know some people who are in it. Be it friends, neighbours, people at the gym or at your local corner shop. Talk to them, find out their concerns and you’ll be able to write from their heart.

Multiple readers

You will be writing for multiple readers 99% of the time. This makes your life slightly more difficult but not impossible. Here you need to think about your typical reader – the person who embodies the traits shared by your readership. Ignore this and you’ll end up writing bland and tedious copy as you attempt to write for every personality known to man.

The main thing to remember when involved with sales writing is get to know your audience; you are writing for them. After all they are the ones who will be doing the buying.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

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