Entries categorized as ‘The Copywriter Online Blog’
A couple of times recently I’ve been on the verge of buying something. Actually ready to hand over cash or credit card when the seller has said or done something to change my mind at the last minute. I was wondering how often this happens? Probably more times than we, as business owners, realise.
How to recognise the signs of “buy out”
There has been a lot of talk about getting “buy in” but it seems to me that we are often more concerned with this than recognising the tell-tale signs of what I’ll call “buy out”. So what are the signs? I think there are two main categories of signs. There are the ones that you must recognise in yourself that are going to prompt the action in the buyer and then there are the ones in the buyer that are telling you they’re about to change their minds.
Our actions that put off buyers
- talking too much after the buyer has offered to buy (what used car dealers used to call “buying the car back”)
- not knowing the product well enough, being unsure of what exactly it can and can’t do
- vacillation – whether in possible appointment times, availability of product or delivery dates
- using the wrong tone of voice or turn of phrase ( usually related to stating something from our point of view rather than being customer centred)
Signs the buyer is cooling off
- no longer making eye contact
- use of phrases like – “perhaps I’ll think about it”; “don’t bother now, just let me know when you can get it”; “I want to discuss it with my spouse”
- you are doing all the talking, the questions have stopped.
There are many more and perhaps you have some you’d like to share. Feel free to comment.
What to do about it?
- know your product inside out
- listen to the customer
- be aware of the non-verbal cues customers give you
- be customer-centred
- if you can’t avoid some vacillation then preface it with a phrase that shows you understand their position e.g. “I realise this isn’t ideal and you need to know when we can deliver so you can organise your day but I’ll find out as soon as I can and let you know at the earliest opportunity.”
Most of all we need to be aware that it is possible to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Be aware that we can successfully sell our product or services and then scuttle the deal by failing to notice the signs in our actions or those of our customers.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog
Tagged: blogs, marketing, musings, thinking out loud, useful tips
“10 good reasons why your product or user manual should not be written by you!”
Many people think that because they know their product inside out that they, or one of their employees, are the best person to write the user manual. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Here are 10 good reasons why you should not write your own product or user manual:
- You know your product too well. This causes you to assume a certain base line knowledge which others may not have.
- You tend to think in terms of features not benefits and although this is not a sales pitch you need to come from the same headspace as your customer and they want to implement the benefits your product offers.
- You see the bigger picture and not the smaller steps that may be needed.
- It’s difficult for you to be objective about your product the way your customer will be.
- A professionally written manual will save you money due to a reduction in customer help enquiries
- A well-written, easy to understand manual can reduce warranty claims due to the fact that your customers, use, store and maintain the product correctly.
- Great product manuals yield satisfied customers because they don’t get frustrated trying to use the product…
- … and that leads to valuable word-of-mouth product endorsements and the likelihood of increased sales.
- A well-written, authoritative manual adds to the status of your product as a professionally produced product that can be trusted.
- A well-written manual enhances customer satisfaction and promotes brand loyalty.
Save money on reduced enquiries and warranty claims and let The Copywriter Online write your next product or user manual.
Contact us for a quote.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting
Tagged: copywriting, guides, marketing, useful tips
Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your customers and stay “top-of-mind”.
All savvy marketers use newsletters. Why? Because they can help to build relationships with customers and potential customers. A regular newsletter from you will keep your business in the mind of the customer so that when they come to the part of the buying cycle where they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you.
What’s more, because all newsletter lists have to be “opt-in” lists, all of your subscribers are qualified leads so you can target your message more easily.
The down side
There is a down side to sending regular newsletters. In fact there are two. The first is that they are labour intensive. Someone has to spend the time thinking of something to write and then they have to write it.
The second is that if the content is not relevant, clearly written and interesting, it won’t get read. It’s a real challenge to send a regular newsletter with fresh, interesting content.
The solution
The solution is to engage a professional copywriter to write the copy and to advise on new and interesting topics to include in the newsletter. Newsletters are wonderful marketing tools so don’t throw away your investment in managing your list by sending out a humdrum publication that no one is going to read. Make the most of this opportunity to speak to your target audience. Contact The Copywriter Online to talk about your newsletter today.
Paper vs email newsletters
There are pros and cons to both. On the pro side, e-newsletters are cheap to send and cheap to put together; the major con being that they won’t reach customers who don’t have email.
The pro side of paper newsletters is that you can reach people who don’t use the internet and paper is easier to read than a computer screen. The major con here is cost. They can be very costly to produce and also to send.
A few e-newsletter tips
Make sure you have a great phrase for the subject line. “My company newsletter Issue No 4” just won’t cut it. Take the lead story and use that in your subject line. If you don’t, your newsletter may just go straight to the recycle bin!
Don’t make your newsletter too long. People don’t mind scrolling a bit but don’t make it longer than a full screen page and a half and don’t send it too often. We’ve received many interesting newsletters. Some which we really like to read but they come everyday or every week and we don’t have the time. In our view once every 3-4 weeks is an ideal frequency.
A few paper newsletter tips
Don’t make it too thick. People don’t have time to read another magazine. Many businesses think they are “adding value” by putting irrelevant, general interest items in their newsletters. They’re not. What are they are doing is making the relevant information harder to find and increasing the likelihood that it won’t be read.
Put an easy-to-follow table of contents on the right of the first page. Put some advertisements in for your own products or services as well as the articles and include response devices in them.
Take the pain out of your next newsletter and improve its response rate by letting The Copywriter Online write it for you. Contact us today!
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: copywriting, guides, marketing, useful tips
Bring your website “alive” with a blog
Blogs are great for keeping your site up-to-date and as a tool for regularly communicating with your target audience. They don’t have to be lengthy, even a couple of paragraphs once a week is sufficient to maintain the relationship with your customers and potential customers.
What is a blog anyway? OK, I know by now most people know but just in case you don’t…
A blog is an online journal. It’s what you’re reading now. The name derived from web log. Blogs make your website interactive and interesting instead of just a series of electronic brochures. You get to hear what your customers like and dislike. You get to respond and you get sales leads. Technorati – a site devoted to publishing the latest blog contents as they hit cyber space – currently tracks 112.8 million blogs! So you can see that if you’re not blogging then you’re conceding the ground to your competitors.
The pros and cons of blogs
As with anything there are pros and cons to incorporating a blog onto your site. Here is a list to help you evaluate their usefulness to your business:
Pros
- they make your site more interesting
- they allow you to interact with your customers
- they let you react to things quickly
- they have an immediacy that a static site doesn’t have
- they provide you with sales leads
- they let you see into the minds of your customers allowing to you develop products and services that they really want
Cons
The Copywriter Online can blog for you
Most business people are time poor and a blog comes a long way down their priority list. We like to make life easy for our customers and that’s why we offer a blogging service. We can write – and research too, if required – your blog for you. Call us today for a quote on your blog and bring your website up-to-date.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting
Tagged: blogs, guides, web culture
or you can choose one that ranks well with search engines…
or one that sells…
If you want all three we can help you, but it’s your choice.
There are several factors that decide how well your site ranks with the search engines. One of them is search engine optimised (seo) copy. So, if you’re looking for well-written copy that assists with search engine ranking AND that sells, then we can help.
1. Don’t sacrifice effective selling copy in order to rank well – you need both!
Some seo copywriters sacrifice the selling effectiveness and communication component of their copy just to get a good search engine ranking. Don’t do it! It’s a waste of time and money. There’s no point having thousands of visitors to your site if you can’t convert any of them into customers. Make sure you hire an seo copywriter who can write to sell as well.
2. Get ahead of your competition
With professional seo copywriting your website can be an effective tool for gaining more business; for communicating with your existing and potential customers; and for selling more of your products and services.
3. Ask us about other seo strategies…
At The Copywriter Online we can advise you on other techniques and strategies that you can employ to legitimately raise your search engine profile. Contact us today and ask us for a quote to write seo copy and web content for your website. Read our testimonials to see what our customers think of us.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · seo copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: copywriting, seo copywriting, useful tips
The content of your website is more important than the way it looks!
Don’t get me wrong! It is important that your website looks professional and attracts your target audience. However, it’s even more important that your message is clear, interesting and persuasive. The New Year is a great time to take a look at your site and see if it’s really performing the way you would like it to.
Many businesses spend thousands of dollars on fancy looking sites that don’t sell well. Why? Because the content is poor. It doesn’t engage with the website visitor. It doesn’t interest them, it doesn’t tell them what they want to know and it doesn’t encourage them to stay.
Amateur vs Professional
No company would pay thousands of dollars for a double page spread in a glossy magazine and then let an amateur come up with the concept, the copy and the design. So why do they do that very same thing with their websites? Writing copy for the web is an art and a science. I have done a lot of research into what works and what doesn’t and I can help you to make the most of your investment in your site.
Your website is a promotional tool
A website is a promotional tool. It shouldn’t just be a “presence”. Most businesses invest large sums of money in their sites and they don’t see a return on that investment. Let me help you to communicate with your customers by writing web content that is clear, easy-to-read and relevant.
Don’t throw thousands of dollars of web investment away for the want of a few hundred dollars worth of professionally written content.
Know when and where to spend your business dollars
There are places where you can save money by doing things yourself and there are others where you need to call in the professionals. Make sure you know which is which. If dollars are tight but you know that you need professional copywriting then do some of the legwork yourself to reduce your costs. If the copywriter has to do a lot of research then the job is obviously going to be more expensive than if you give them a full, properly written brief. (If you don’t know how to brief a copywriter click here for details.)
Happy New Year! Make it prosperous with a website that really works!
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: blogs, copywriting, marketing, useful tips, web culture
If you export or import into English speaking countries and the written material supporting your product or services is written by non-native English speakers, then chances are that you are not realising the full potential of your business. If the quality of the written English is poor then your products or services are perceived as being inferior even though they may not be.
Increase the price potential of your product
If you want to increase your sales and the price you can ask for your products then you need good quality, English written materials. A good quality product with a poorly written English manual will never achieve its price potential.
Cost/benefit analysis
It’s tempting to say that price is king and that by employing a copywriter you’ll be increasing your overheads. That’s not the whole truth though. A poorly written manual can result in many more support calls and product returns than a clearly written one with easy-to-follow instructions. A copywriting fee is a one-off investment; support calls and product returns are ongoing burdens on your business.
This article was written by Munaiba Khan of The Copywriter Online, an online business that offers professional copywriting by native English speakers.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: copywriting, guides, marketing, useful tips
Product creators love features – consumers buy benefits!
How many times have you heard or read an ad that was a list of features? Heaps of times probably, especially in the car industry. You know the stuff… ABS, dual airbags, leading edge technology, multiplex electrics and the like.
So why are benefits better selling points that features?
Benefits tell the potential customer the answer to the question that all consumers want answered – “What’s in it for me?”. So instead of listing features a better advertisement would translate those features into benefits. For example: … comes with the protection of dual air bags and an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) that improves road holding and steering by regulating the braking pressure to avoid wheel lock.
How to turn a feature into a benefit
The clue was in the last paragraph. We need to answer the question “What’s in it for me?”. So next time you’re trying to work out what benefits your product offers you can use the following formula - this feature means that… = benefit
I’ll give you some examples:
- multiplex electrics means that there are fewer wires and connections so it’s easier to service and maintain
- leading edge technology means the best, most up-to-date, most efficient technology
- 6 bedroom house means this is a family home with plenty of room for all the kids and then some
- dual processor means it will process information faster allowing you to work more efficiently
Do you get the picture?
So next time you hire an ad writer, or write one yourself, make sure talk about benefits not features.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: advertising, copywriting, marketing, useful tips
This is a perennial question and one I wrote one of my free articles on. I think it ‘s a message that bears repeating so here goes…
Do “clever” advertisements really sell? Can you remember what the ad was for, or which brand? The answer is often “No!”.
Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness
It’s good if an advertisement can make you laugh but that shouldn’t be it’s main purpose. Certainly ads that make people laugh have engaged their audience but if they don’t follow through strongly enough then people don’t remember which brand or, sometimes, even what type of product the ad was selling!
So whether you’re engaging a copywriter or an ad agency, or you’re going to write your ads yourself don’t be tricked into thinking that “clever is best”; it isn’t, “clear is best”.
Cleverness wins awards for agencies
Ad agencies love “clever”, quirky ads because they are good contenders for creative awards but how successfully do they sell? Sometimes, spectacularly well, but many times poorly. Make sure your promotional dollars are targeted at selling your product or service and not at enhancing your agency’s PR efforts.
What makes a successful campaign?
We have more than 20 years experience in the advertising, marketing and PR business and can write clear, attractive copy that will sell your product or service. But if you want to do it yourself then you need some rules to follow:
- Know who your audience is
- Understand what pushes their buttons
- See your product or service through their eyes
- List the features and turn them into benefits (for more on this look out for my next post)
- Write clear copy that catches their interest and explains the benefits
Ads are just one step in the selling process
A successful ad campaign is the result of preparation, research and testing and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Contact The Copywriter Online to discuss your advertising needs or read our article “How to improve your advertising, save money and get better results”.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: advertising, copywriting, marketing, useful tips
Are you a small business with limited funds? Yet you need a website that has static pages and a blog? Then I’d really recommend WordPress.com. I got sick of shelling out fees for hosting and was finding it difficult to change things on my site easily so I took a look around at what was on offer. That’s when I found WordPress.
Free hosting and great features
It’s an impressive platform, that’s easy to use, easy to modify and best of all it’s FREE! They have numerous themes which you can make your own by adding photos etc. For a small fee there are upgrades you can have like pointing your own domain to your blog, or adding mp3 and video files.
All in all I found the the experience pleasantly straight forward. Once you’ve mapped your domain to your blog you can use a free Google service that allows you to have your own email addresses like me@mydomain.com etc. This too was easy and the Google instructions were great as were the WordPress ones.
Support
WordPress support is really fantastic, heaps of easy-to-read articles and very responsive, actually helpful (I know this is sort of unheard of these days but it’s true) email support.
Need a website?
If you need a website with some static pages and a blog then I’d recommend you checkout WordPress. (And no they didn’t pay me to say that.) If you find even that too daunting then contact me and, for a surprisingly low fee, I can set it all up for you and write your pages too if you need copywriting help. Contact me today.
Categories: The Copywriter Online Blog · copywriting · useful tips
Tagged: copywriting, great ideas, useful tips, web culture
