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...

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! 

Here’s another analogy for proving marketing is like dating: Think of personal ads. Why? Because words can woo.

 

Even with online dating sites like Match.com, you don’t rely solely on the photos. Heck, plenty of people (mostly men for some reason) don’t even put up photos. The words still matter. You read someone’s profile and decide if it resonates with you or not.

 

Let’s take search engines and search results as an example…

 

Like your personal ad, you can write these to say anything you want, as long as they also have the search terms you want to get found for. The goal of this search result is first, to get found, and second, to get someone to click through and go to your site, for this copy to resonate with the prospect. You don’t get to use any pictures, so it’s like the personal ads of old, when people put their ads in newspapers.

 

Now think of the search result someone gets when searching on Google, using the We Know Words copywriting Website as our example. Type Seattle copywriter into Google and sure enough, We Know Words is on the first page (under that horrid local search map, gads I hate those things!).

 

What people get for a search result is the title tag and description I’ve written for a particular page on the We Know Words Website. In my case, this is really bad, I don’t know that it would resonate with anyone, honestly…  

 

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But besides the fact that this Seattle copywriter is maybe acting like the cobbler whose children have no shoes, my advice is still sound. J Have your copywriter, whether freelance or in-house, write your website copy, brochure copy, email copywriting, whatever it is, as if she were copywriting a personal ad.

 

If I were to rewrite my title tag and description as a personal ad, keeping in mind that I have to achieve both search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion (getting people to click on the link and go to my site), I could do it as:

 

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I want to keep marketing writer in the Title tag, because it ranks well in Google, but I’m pushing Seattle copywriter as a keyword a bit more so it’s in there twice now. That’s my SEO. But I also made it more action oriented.

 

OK, maybe not the best example of having your copywriter write marketing ads, but like the cobbler, this copywriter has to get some client work done! No more indulging in blogging for now!

Michael has been cutting my hair for over 22 years. My relationship with my hairdresser outlasted my marriage. Seriously, I met Michael when I was just newly dating my ex. My ex is, well, now my ex, but Michael is still around.

 

I’m not Michael’s only loyal customer. Heck, I’m not even the most loyal! When two of his clients moved to San Francisco, they flew him down to do their hair still. And I’ve had my hair affairs, trying a salon closer to home or less expensive. But I always go back to Michael for one simple reason: He’s the best. (No one else can make my gnarly hair look the one it does in this photo!)

 

He’s also busy. He hasn’t taken on any new clients in years because he doesn’t have time.

 

Now, this is a copywriter's marketing blog, you’re probably wondering what kind of kick ass marketing Michael does to guarantee he’s always busy. The answer? None. No Web site, no email marketing, no small business blogging, no nothing. He doesn’t even have a nice salon!

 

Michael only has to do one thing to keep his schedule full: Stay the best. Michael’s marketing is all those gorgeous heads of hair walking around downtown Seattle. His clients tell their friends how great he is, but they have proof too.

 

How I wish every copywriting project were like that, but sometimes my copywriting is “me too” copywriting because the clients are “me too” companies. As a Seattle copywriter, I strive to write Web copywriting, email marketing, brochures, whitepapers, etc. as different, to help these clients stand out. But in truth the differentiators between my clients and their competitors is sometimes miniscule, irrelevant or non-existent.

 

Why don’t we try harder to be different instead of trying harder to out market or out sell the other guy?

 

The clients who are really are unique? That help their customers solve real-world problems? They’re a copywriter’s dream job. Just as wonderful as one of Michael’s haircuts. And just as likely to establish a loyal customer base because they are the best at what they do.

 

Are you doing everything you can to be different? To truly be unique in a world full of wanna bes? Then your freelance copywriter is lucky! And you are smart! 

This Seattle copywriter has been swamped!! So I have no time for dating the guy who went from sweet to not-so-sweet anyway!

 

Being such a busy copywriter means it’s a struggle to find blogging time—which I shouldn’t admit to because I believe in blogs as marketing tools—but that’s my long-winded excuse for referring to something I heard weeks ago at Online Marketing Summit Seattle…

 

One of the speakers (maybe Aaron Kahlow?) talked about Web sites and how the user has control, the user is like your competitor now. My memory is fuzzy on exactly what was said, but it sparked my take on it as a copywriter/marcom person: The customer now is your competitor. It’s less about your company vs. the competition and more about the customer simply deleting your email marketing, ignoring the Web copywriting by clicking the Back button, or tossing your direct mail.

 

Because “marketing is like dating” is my favorite analogy, put it in that context: Say you’re a man who wants to date a certain woman. You’re not up against all the other men who want to date her. You’re up against what she wants. She will choose to go out with you or not based on criteria like your behavior and appearance. (If she’s shallow, she’ll also check out your shoes and car apparently.) It’s not you vs. them. It’s you vs. her expectations.

 

Now apply that to marketing: Customers today are more likely to decide whether or not to buy from you (date you) based on their criteria, not on how you stack up against a competitor. (I’m talking B2C here.) If you’re selling things like pop, clothes, sheepskin slippers, espresso and cars, the customer will first consider how well you fit his view of himself and how he wants to world to see him, not comparison shop.

 

And it’s your marketing that tells the story the customer bases his decision on! Does your story map to his or not?

 

Be customer-centric. Be focused on what the customer wants, and do your copywriting in his terms. Make your email marketing relevant. If you use blogs as marketing tools, make your blogs personal and authentic. Purge your database so your direct mail goes to a quality list, not a quantity one. Segment and personalize.

 

It’s no long you against “them” (the competition). It’s you against the customer. Meet her criteria and she will choose you. You’ll win.