Day 3 of my MarketingSherpa “Marketing Wisdom for 2010” freelance copywriter insights...

Ah, content. What a lovely word. :-) Today's favorite topic from the Marketing Wisdom report is about budgeting for content creation. I didn't pick it because I'm a content copywriter. I picked it because content often gets the short end of the marketing stick. All kinds of attention goes to design, but quite often not enough to the copywriting.

John Miller of Marketo gets it. He understands the importance of content, especially in the age of social media. He even says, in this report, "...marketers should take some of the budget that you would normally allocate to trade shows and list purchases and allocate it to writers that can generate great content and the efforts to promote it." 

Thank you, John Miller! 

Content will always be king. Therefore, a content copywriter will always be needed.

Have you made your investment in the best copywriter possible? 

Day 2 of my MarketingSherpa “Marketing Wisdom for 2010” freelance copywriter insights...

Here's a great example of talking to the customer, not at them, this professional copywriter's mantra: Tyler Garns of InfusionSoft submitted a great example of simplifying the marketing message. His company went from a big promise to a small one, from promising an all-in-one solution to promising an email marketing solution. They found the all-in-one message didn't resonate with their small business audience. Turned out, the small businesses were only looking for email marketing.

I've used this example before, but it is worth repeating because this comes up so often in my work as a professional copywriter: Are you selling new mattresses or a good night's sleep? If your prospect views their problem as poor sleep, and they don't know a new mattress will help, do not sell them the new mattress. Do sell them the good night's sleep.

I guarantee if you take a hard look at your current copywriting and messaging, you'll find you tend to talk at customers. You tend to assume they know they need whatever you're selling. And chances are, they don't.

Take one piece of existing marketing collateral and force yourself to reframe it in customer-centric terms. How different is it? 

MarketingSherpa just rocks. They put out great reports and summaries in addition to their weekly wisdom. And speaking of wisdom, reading through their recent “Marketing Wisdom for 2010” report prompted quite a few insights for this freelance copywriter. This week, we’ll delve into one per day (since there were a total of five, I figure it was meant to be!)

 

Today, I gush over what Dean Rieck of Direct Creative had to say. Any comment that starts with "Content is king" is going to speak straight to a freelance copywriter's heart. But he gives proof, talking about a client that created more than 7,000 pages of blog posts and pages. And got results. As he says, it boosted the website in search engine rankings and it created a large pool of keywords.

Although I'm "just" a copywriter, I keep up with all things marketing...or at least as many as I can. How to increase your search engine rankings via organic SEO is one of those things. It's not rocket science, but it does take work. As this guy says, in this case, thousands of pages of work. But that's not hard! 

Over and over I am approached by company's that want to improve their SEO and over and over I tell them to consider blogging...and they do not listen. It's like me saying I want to lose weight while chowing down on chocolate chip cookies. I have a choice to make. So do they. But blogging takes commitment and they must want a magic bullet instead (which is, I think, why so many companies turn to pay per click instead).
If you want to improve your search engine rankings, add blogging to your marketing mix. Blogging is not hard, nor is it time-consuming! In addition to blogging, your company has ample opportunities to be creating content that can go on your website: press releases, tip sheets, whitepapers, how to guides, FAQs...

Content is king, especially in the world of search. The way to win search is to have great, keyword rich, relevant content. It's that simple. Hire the best copywriter you can find, and let her get to work creating your content so you can get the rankings you want.

It's not rocket science, but great content might take your SEO to the moon.

Because I am a mother, I tend to click on those links promising "entry-level jobs that pay" or "best degrees to get now," that kind of thing. I skim them and send some on to my teenager, hoping to spark an interest in something. Anything! 

Because I am a professional copywriter, I was annoyed at the last such article. It suggested English majors get jobs as copywriters.

Ouch.

I've been a copywriter for 10 years. Although I've always enjoyed writing, I do not have a degree in English. I have a degree in Cultural Anthropology. And a Master's Degree in Art History. But back when I was putting all that knowledge to work publishing my little art magazine, I fell in love with marketing.

And that's why an English major can't cut it as a copywriter. At least not straight out of college, and definitely not in my experience.

Being a freelance copywriter, or an in-house professional copywriter, requires a way with words, yes, but more important, knowledge about marketing. In fact, I consider myself a marketer first, a writer second. My business card gives my job title as Marketing Maven.

I've had the English majors and the journalists work for me. It took me three years with one very talented writer to get her to where she was writing marketing copy without my help. She wrote wonderful copy! But it didn't DO anything but read well. It didn't market. It didn't sell.

The others I didn't waste my time with. Once I realized their gift was for writing but they were complete marketing neophytes, I'd give up. I don't have time to teach them about marketing.

I'm not advocating copywriters who don't get English, who can't punctuate or write with correct grammar. But I am advocating marketing before copywriting. If you don't know how to sell something, how are you going to write about it in a way that works? 

Do I sound grumpy? Sorry. I'm just so tired of bad copy. And articles like this likely contribute to bad copy by perpetuating the myth that as long as you can write, you can write copy! 

One of my favorite sayings is: "Write to sell, not to tell." The English majors might be able to sell eventually. But please don't encourage them to go out and sell themselves as copywriters until they get marketing down!

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. :-) 

 

Seems like being a web site copywriter means working in a time warp sometimes. I get my part done, but then development still takes a while. I guess that means being a freelance copywriter makes me good at delayed gratification! Since I have to wait to see the fruits of my labors! 

Today a website copywriting project when live, and it's once again for me a delight to see my words at work. The K & H Print website was a great copywriting project for several reasons. Jay, the CEO, really pushed me in a way most clients don't. :-) For which I am grateful because I had to dig a little deeper and it was character building! My suggestion that they use video to tell their wonderful story was not only accepted, but embraced, and my colleague Mavis Lamb made that all come together for them. I got to work with Adhost, a favorite company of mine. And I got to really delve into this 101 year old company and what makes them tick.

This was a somewhat intensive website copywriting project, even though SEO wasn't part of it. And I enjoyed every minute of it, and I'm very proud of the results.

Take a look, click through, enjoy. Especially the home page. That's where the CEO really pushed me and I'm glad. I'm proud of the result.

Everyone's inbox is full of emails, much of it poorly written email marketing. That's why I enjoy the emails I get from ServiceMagic. They have attention-getting subject lines, and copywriting that's fun to read but helpful too.

Their most recent email to me had the subject line "All parties end up in the kitchen somehow..." and then the header text when you open the email said "Unless your sink is smelling up the place." The rest of the email newsletter gives advice on getting rid of a stinky sink odor, then offers a link to look for home cleaning pros to help.

I'm a freelance copywriter. I read pretty much everything with a critical eye. And this email newsletter passes the test every time because it does what I encourage my copywriting clients to do:
 

• It provides useful information, without a catch.
• It builds trust.
• It has a call to action, so when the recipient is ready to look for a service, she can.
• It's fun.

People are bombarded with emails. It's hard to stand out. The words can help. So put some effort into your email marketing by hiring the best copywriter for the job, one who gets email and how to engage your audience, not just sell your stuff.

I am slowly, ever so slowly, pulling together my "marketing is like dating book." The irony of being a freelance copywriter is you spend all your time writing for other people and don't seem to find time to do your own writing! 

But I've said enough in this copywriter blog about marketing is like dating to have, of all things, dating websites find it and post comments to it trying to get links back to their own sites. OK, this makes me laugh, but also draw two lessons from it:

My freelance work often involves website copywriting using keywords for SEO, but I know that's only one part of getting your website indexed and ranked by search engines. Links into your site are the other. So going out looking for blogs to post comments on to link back to your website is one way to do that. But, and this is a big but, you have to make sure you're posting in an appropriate place! 

Obviously anyone who things a link to a dating website is appropriate for this professional copywriter's blog didn't read the blog. Dumb.

The other lesson, well, it's not really a lesson, is something I hadn't considered: Here I've come up with 9 ways to improve your copywriting based on the idea that marketing is like dating, and people are coming to me via my freelance copywriter blog saying dating is like marketing. LOL! Yep. It sure is! 

I'll make sure to make that part of the book...when I get enough free time away from web copywriting and email copywriting to work on it...

As a copy writer, I try to be and push authentic. By push, I mean encouraging those clients hiring me as their content copywriter to tell a true story. I also try to push delivering the message the right way. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you say as a freelance copywriter if you say it via a channel or at a time unappealing to your audience.

So Pepsi just got kudos from me on two counts by announcing they're skipping the Super Bowl ad frenzy this year. And they give two reasons that make perfect sense to me as a professional copywriter who preaches talk to your customer not at them: 

1) They are spending $20M on social causes. They would be hypocrites to spend another $12M on Super Bowl ads. That is authentic.

2) They recognize what they would be marketing, this from-the-ground-up campaign of Pepsi Refresh, wouldn't fit with the spirit of the typical Super Bowl ad. (And they could fall flat on their face as a result.) That is about delivering the message the right way...and the Super Bowl ain't it, not for this message.

I'm just a lowly freelance copy writer trying to stay true to her principles as I do my work. How validating to have a company like Pepsi validate two of those principles in such a public way! 

Three days ago, a dog named Bear joined our family. Animals now outnumber people by 5 to 1 (not counting squirrels).

Being a professional copywriter who wants to relate everything back to marketing and copywriting, I was thinking about Bear, and how he sleeps on my daughter's bed and is so protective of us. And boy, does he look protective when he's laying there sleeping next to her! They're the same size! 

Thinking how to relate this to my job as a freelance copywriter, I kept coming back to the idea of peace of mind and security. Having Bear around means feeling safer, even if he might turn out to be a big huge chicken, more than a big huge dog.

But it's the idea of security that matters here, the comfort my daughter feels with that big lug sleeping next to her, and the peace of mind I feel when he raises his head and gives a soft bark just in case. It feels good in a world that quite often doesn't.

Does your marketing offer a feeling of security? Does your web site copywriting make people feel safe buying from you? How about your printed collateral, has your freelance copywriter conveyed your marketing message in a believable way? 

I think about Bear, and even the warm fuzzies I feel as he dozes at my feet while I type, and I think, "This feels good. I want to feel more of this."

I'm not alone. Your prospects and customers want to feel more of that too. Work with your best copywriter and make that happen, make those words on the page or the screen convey that you can be trusted, buying from you is safe, that you really do have that customer's best interests at heart, as Bear does mine.

Be like the big dog.

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! 

I just met with the founder of PureAyre to coach him on blogging. We met at the Kona Kai coffee shop where I often run into people know, because that's this copywriter's home away from home. This morning as I ran into people, I introduced James and literally gushed about their product, an odor eliminator...not because I was trying to impress James, but because I am a true believer in their product.

I'm a freelance copywriter. I get paid to say good things about clients' products and services. My copywriter services exist solely to get prospects interested in what my clients have to sell. When it comes to a product that really works, like PureAyre, my job is easy on the one hand: The stuff is awesome! And hard on the other: People don't believe it, they think it's too good to be true. Even the people I talked to at the coffee shop, you could tell they were dubious. "Why is this Seattle copywriter going on and on about this stuff?" they were wondering.

So it was interesting to get my GiveMore quote of the day:

"Don't be consistent, but be simply true." Oliver Wendell Holmes

When your product is truly as good as you say it is, your copywriter can be true to your prospect, to your product and to herself.

Is your product or service so good your copywriter can simply sell by telling the truth? If not, make it so. If so, you rock.

As a freelance copywriter who helps out clients with small business marketing, I am constantly on the lookout for new information to pass along to copywriting clients, especially as social media takes center stage.

I'm already pushing blogs as marketing tools, but these days I'm looking out for nuggets on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, trying to wrap my head around how these tools can be put to use for small business marketing.

So this article of using Facebook for your small business caught my eye when someone retweeted it, but it's more of the same: talking about the how, but not the why, and definitely not about the "how to make money" part of the how.

I'm a copywriter, yes. Words are my business. Web writing is my business. Email copywriting is my business. But I also owe it to my copywriting clients to be up to speed on other marketing channels, so I can make sure my work as freelance copywriter fits with their other marketing efforts.

What small business folks lack more than anything are time and money. What they need more than anything is sound advice.

And that doesn't mean telling them how to set up a Facebook page, and to make sure they have lots of friends and family to get to follow them. That means telling them how to make money, how to market their business and convert prospects to customers using Facebook.

But sadly that means looking beneath the surface of the shiny new thing that is Facebook. And articles like this only encourage more small business folks to jump on the Facebook bandwagon, wasting precious time on a tool they don't know how to use let alone necessarily need.

Am I simply grumpy because I didn't get to ride my horse today? Or am I grumpy because I too am a small business owner and I wants facts, not Facebook.
 

Yesterday I sat through another disappointing SEO webinar. It was "sold" to me as a copywriter as SEO copywriting tips for 2010, implying it would offer new information. But it was simply a rehash of old information I as an experienced copywriter already knew.

Seriously, maybe I do know everything there is to know about SEO copywriting for now, including optimizing press releases. This webinar talked about how to build an online press room, a topic the We Know Words copywriting staff presented on two years ago!

I realize not everyone knows as much as I do about search engine optimization and Web writing. That's because not everyone works as a website copywriter. I get that. But please do not sell me on a webinar by promising that it will be new information! If it's the same old, same old in 2010, fine. Tell me that and I'll know I'm still in a position to do well by my clients. But don't pretend it's more than it is.

I don't SEO staying the same for a while! That gives me time to ramp up on my role as a freelance copywriter in the age of social media...

Yesterday I started on a new website copywriting project and it struck me how important it is to know what your prospects know when determining what your website should say. In this case, the people come to the website already know they have a need (the patient is aware of the disease).

Not only that, they've heard of the company. (Which is why this is not an SEO copywriter project in this case.) And they've had contact with a sales rep from the company already.

What does that mean to me as the copywriter? It means there's a heck of a lot of stuff I do NOT need to say. These prospects are already interested. They are in the research phase. They have questions, like "Why should I choose you?" 

As the website copywriter, I don't have to sell them on the whole idea of what this client is selling. Nor do I have to introduce them to this company.

Instead I as the client's freelance copywriter get to delve into the competitive differences of this company. Plus I can streamline the sales process by answering the questions prospects typically ask right there on the website. Finally, I have room for "proof points" in the form of real-life stories that prove my client's claims.

Knowing where in the sales cycle or research cycle the prospect is helps me as the online copywriter to provide the information they are really looking for, not fill the website with fluff they already know...and that will make them just click away with a yawn.

Last night we went bowling, something we rarely do so I'm not very good at it. I'm definitely a better freelance copywriter than bowler! In the middle of the second game, my friend said "Hang on to the ball a little longer." I did...and bowled two strikes in a row.

That one little split second change improved this copywriter's bowling game dramatically. Which got me thinking about tweaks, and how one little tweak can make a big difference in copywriting, whether it's web writing or small business marketing or blogs as marketing tools.

What can you have your freelance copywriter tweak to improve your company's marketing? How about email subject lines? The heading on your website's home page? The cover of that postcard? Maybe it's even your staff's signature block in their emails, or the title of your next blog post. Or your call to action? How you word your registration form on your landing page? Your banner ad, the executive summary for your next whitepaper, the CEO quote in your next press release...the possibilities are endless.

Copywriters work with words. But not just any words. The right words used in the right way. Tweaking those words can make a big difference. Never stop looking for places to tweak! 

You might end up bowling a strike instead of a spare.

Last night I watched "Seabiscuit" again. Thank you to my daughter for picking that out at the movie place! It was timely given we'd been showing my racehorse (pictured here) to potential buyers over the weekend.

But as a copywriter, not horse lover, that movie is a wonderful reminder of the power of stories. Seabiscuit came along when the people needed something to believe in, a success story of an underdog winning against all odds. It was the depression. It was a horrible, scary time. And here was this scrappy little horse who paddled out with one leg (like mine!) but whose heart was bigger than War Admiral's, the 18 hand powerhouse rival.

As so often happens, the timing was right for this story...which made it an even better story. But Seabiscuit had a storyteller too. And this is the tie in to copywriting. Charles Howard was a salesman and success. And he knew how to tell the story to the press, to work this situation to get the most out of it. If it wasn't for Howard seeing and seizing the opportunity, would Seabiscuit have had more newspaper column inches than FDR and Hitler? He did. Without Howard, he likely wouldn't have.

You have a story. Every business has a story. You need to discover your story, yes. But then you need to tell it. That's where your copywriter comes into play. Your story is told by your website, your brochure, your PowerPoint, your email marketing. These are your story tellers. Make sure your copywriter is telling your story in a compelling and powerful way, whether it's an in-house or freelance copywriter.

Seabiscuit's story could be told by facts and numbers. And how dry that would be. It's more fun to hear about the drama, the second chances, his rough start in life, the men who came together and overcame their own demons to give him the chance to win...that's the story. And Howard made sure it got told.

What is your story? Is it really great customer service? Or is it that time that your entire staff worked at 20-hour shift to get something done for a client? Is it that you've been around since 1950? Or that your family still owns and runs the business, despite wars and economic ups and downs? 

Is your copywriter telling your story? Are your salespeople? 

Copywriters must do more than regurgitate facts. They must tell stories that intrigue, interest and inspire prospects to do business with you, no matter where they read about you, website, email, blogs, press releases, wherever and whatever.

I just got off a conference call for a new website copywriter project. I call these kickoff calls, and I warn my new copywriting clients that they will be answering a lot of questions during such a call. That's because of my mantra about talking to customers, not at them. The only way I as the freelance copywriter can truly write to the customer is by understanding where the customer is coming from, his pain points and challenges, her worldview.

During the past hour, I didn't ask a single question about the services provided by my web writing client. I only asked about their customers. And in doing so, I learned about the services offered...from the customer's point of view. That's exactly what I want, as the copywriter, to tell my client's story from the point of the customer.

And it was a great call because more than once I'd ask a question and the client would pause, say, "That's a great question!" then give me a very thoughtful and insightful answer...because they had to think about it! That tells me it's good info for me, as the copywriter!

Talking to your customers, not at them. It's not hard. It's just different. And effective.