Part of a professional copywriter's job is keeping up with the other pieces of marketing, not just the copywriting. That means delving into information like MarketingSherpa's new Wisdom 2010 report, 34 pages of stories from the marketing trenches on everything from social media to email marketing to search to...you get the idea.

The words I write as a freelance copywriter don't stand alone. They have a context, whether in a website or an email or a brochure or a press release. And they might not even work if they're not targeted to the right audience and delivered in the right way.

So all of us freelance copywriters have an obligation to stay current, not just catchy. For me, I'm paying more attention to social media. I've been working as a blog copywriter for almost two years now, but there's more to adjusting to social media. I'm looking at how I can provide content as a copywriter that fits this new paradigm of Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. Or if I even do! Does socia media require a professional copywriter to be effective? I don't know yet! I know it takes a blog copywriter to create quality blog content at the right frequency. :-) But as far as the rest of it, I do not know yet.

It's also interesting to see an increase in requests for script writing. Video is definitely on the rise! And kudos to the companies that realize a good video still requires a good, professionally written, script! 

Even if you're not a freelance copywriter or professional copywriter, take a look at the Wisdom 2010 report. We can get too isolated sometimes, too caught up in the marketing efforts we're embroiled in at our own companies. It's good to get a fresh perspective and start taking a new approach to marketing, including copywriting. :-) 

 

Revising my own keywords as a professional copywriter who writes a blog, I was struck by how easy it might be to use keywords that don't attract your target audience...quite the opposite.

As I revised my freelance copywriter blog keywords this past week, there were several suggested to me that I knew wouldn't work. Anything with "wanted" in the term was another freelance copywriter looking for work, not a potential client. And search terms that used simply "writer" and not "copywriter" meant people with smaller budgets. (Clients that can afford to hire a professional copywriter will search using the term copywriter, not writer. Anyone who found my blog and therefore Website using the search term "writer" is therefore not a good lead for me, in my experience.) 

Better yet are specific terms like web copywriters, blog copywriter, content copywriter, email copywriting...even if those are competitive search terms that I'll have trouble winning through blogging for SEO, I'd rather fight harder for search terms that I know will help qualified copywriting prospects to find me, rather than use search terms that I could easily win...but then instead of making money as a professional copywriter, I'd be spending time trying to explain to someone why I'm not the kind of writer they are trying to hire. And I definitely don't want to spend time fielding emails and phone calls from freelance writers looking for work, those using words like "wanted" in their searches.

Just because a search term uses a word you want to be found for doesn't mean it's a search term you should focus on in your blog. Be clear who is using those terms and why, rather than investing precious time in blogging using keywords that might generate traffic but won't generate clients or sales! 

Fridays are a fast day for me. Not all day, just until dinner. But I just made this Friday harder buying salivating over the toasts and bagels pictured at the Global Toaster blog.

It's not that I'm obsessed with toasters. I'm obsessed with blogs as marketing tools. And by that I mean blogging for SEO.

The Global Toaster blog is the best blog I know of for showing how quick and targeted blog posts can be.

For me as a copywriter, it's kind of funny, because I love words and I love to write and I love to market...and that all adds up to wanting to write longer blog copywriting blog posts. Even the ghost blogs I write for clients tend to be longer. I rationalize that I get to be more verbose because it gives me more room for the SEO keywords too.

But Jane Toast, the clever and witty author of the Global Toaster blog, puts this SEO copywriter to shame. Her posts are short and to the point, but still entertaining and keyword rich.

I check out her blog on a regular basis to inspire me as the SEO copywriter to do a better job with my own blogging.

But I just learned not to do that on Fridays. Because now my stomach is grumbling and I have about 8 more hours of fasting to go.

It was really the egg and muffin toaster that did it...man, that makes me hungry! 

If you're using blogs as marketing tools and SEO is a big part of it, definitely check out the toaster blog for inspiration. Just make sure to do it on a full stomach, OK?