17 August 2009

CopyWriting: What To Know

By Kathleen Diaz

Successful advertising is all about communication; verbal communication in particular. Whether you're advertising in print, on radio or television or on the web, copywriting is at the core of your marketing efforts. The way that you get your message across is just as important as the message itself.

As an internet marketer, you're using the written word almost exclusively to get your message out. Even if you're using online video ads, podcasts or other multimedia formats in as part of your marketing strategy, you still need to carefully craft your message to have the maximum impact on your audience.

Having this influence is important for a website owner. They want their customers, visitors or prospects to buy from their site, advertise it to their friends and visit again. For this cycle to continue the reader must feel that they are benefiting from the product or site. Having the appropriate content that has this positive influence will lead the visitors to loyal customers that develop a lasting relationship with the company.

It also means however that you have to make your content extremely easy to scan. The use of subtitles can also help this and you should also keep your paragraphs short and easy to skim. Consider using numbered lists and bullet points as well. Basically the more ways you can break up big chunks of text to make it more inviting to browsers and to make it easier to scan the more success you'll see.

Let's go these questions one by one to give a clearer understanding of what they mean for your marketing message. First of all, is your copy compelling? This is something of a subjective standard, but you (and your readers) know compelling when they see it. Does it draw you in right from the headline and make you want to read further and keep you wanting to read to the very end? This is important; especially your headline and first sentence. People have very short attention spans when it comes to reading a webpage; you have 30 seconds or less to grab them, so make the most of it or they'll leave, likely never to return.

Instead of hiring a marketing company to run a ten thousand dollar campaign you can purchase an SEO marketing package for just a couple of hundred dollars. The best option in terms of affordability is not to work with a publicity firm but to hire a reliable ghostwriting company. In fact, you may get a discount by working with a ghostwriting service, along with extra niceties, than by hiring an individual SEO copywriter. Ghostwriting services usually charge by the project; an experienced the copywriter will charge a high hourly rate depending on experience. You're basically paying for a consultant in this scenario, and that can be pricey.

Finally, always remember that when you're copywriting for the web you have to keep your target audience in mind at all times. Different groups of people will react to things in different ways. A group of scientists handing out awards may be very interested in the mechanical and technological workings of your product. But consumers looking for a bargain on a service they need instead want to see clear benefits that they receive. So remember your audience and target your message to them accordingly.

Remember that in copywriting, you have to Keep it short and to the point, make it clear and outline the benefits of your product and make sure to get your reader's attention immediately; once you've captured their interest, half the battle of making a sale has been won.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment