7 Deadly Copywriting Sins
Knowing what not to do helps to give a clearer picture of what to do. Here are seven mistakes you should never make when writing sales copy.
1. Being slow to get to the point
- impressions are made in moments
- mention the main benefit and incentive right out of the gate
- your opening should be impossible to ignore
- tell the reader “what’s in it for me” (WIFM)
2. Not giving the reader some WIFM at every point
- use headings, illustrations, videos and captions to communicate prominent benefits wherever the reader’s eye might land
- repetition is okay just vary the point each time
3. Failing to do a complete selling job
- give every sensible reason why the reader should respond
- overcome those objectives
- omit nothing relevant
4. Failing to prove your statements are true
- use testimonials
- when possible use photos of those giving testimonials and their letters in original form — don’t edit them
5. Failing to connect as people
- show your own picture or pictures of customers
- people look at and relate to people
6. Failing to cut the fluff
- every element of your message must contribute to the result
- don’t distract the reader
- don’t belabour the details
- balance between effective repetition and overkill
7. Failing to guide the readers response
- a strong opening with a weak close leaves the reader feeling more frustrated than motivated
- make it easy for the reader to respond
- close persuasively — repeat all the reasons your reader should respond
- guide the reader to a yes/no choice
- have more than one call to action
Anything I missed here? Please let me know in the comments.
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Google Wonder Wheel & Other Search Fun
Just finished reading a neat article over at Search Engine Land on some search tools. The article is part of a series on PPC (Pay Per Click) they have been running. The article provides an overview of search engine tools; social monitoring platforms like Twitter, Technorati and Social Mention; SEO tools includes an overview of who SEOMoz’s tool suite can be used for paid search campaigns and industry intelligence sources like eMarketer, comScore and Marketing Sherpa.
Google Wonder Wheel
What really grabbed my attention was the pointer to the Google Wonder Wheel. All this time I’ve been using Google for search and never knew this little gem was there. The wonder wheel provides a visual display of some other search terms which your search results contains. A great way to drill down to more specific data when exploring for article ideas for example.
How Do you find the Wheel?
- Go to Google
- Do a search for a topic
- Click “Show Options”
- Scroll down to “wonder wheel” on the left hand menu
- go explore
You might also want to read through the article, never know what treasures you might find that I missed.
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Google Wonder Wheel & Other Search Fun
Speed Matters With Google
I love it when I read an article which actually leads me to learn something. Search Engine Land reports today that Google now includes page speed as a factor when ranking your site. How important a factor speed is, isn’t yet determined.
As much as possible, I’ve always tried to keep page speed as quick as possible. What you might not notice on a broadband connection, your visitors on dialup or slow satellite connections sure will.
I’ve done some web design in the past so I’m tend to remember to pay attention to things like optimising graphics or trying to keep them to a minimum. On most of the blogs I have, I avoid using pictures unless there is a value added element to them. I know, some of the gurus will tell you to use pictures on most of your posts.
So, how do you find out what your page speed is like? This article will point you to resources that Google offers in their webmasters toolkit which includes a plugin for Firefox which will analyse your page speed.
Even without page speed being a ranking factor. Think about your visitor’s experience. If they have to wait around too long for your site to load, they better really love you or they are going to move on to something they can get to sooner.
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7 Steps to Cranking Out Content
The oft repeated phrase in SEO is “content is king”. It is, consistent, well written, targeted and useful content is sucked up by the search engines as quickly as it can be written.
My brother often talked about how my mother would spend hours chasing quarters in business while the dollars flew by over her head. It was true, she spent more time rearranging the stock on the shelves than worrying about getting the stock sold to customers or giving the customers something to come into the shop for.
It is true for many trying to make a dollar online too. We design and redesign, tinker and tweak while the job of writing content continues to beg for attention.
So how do we crank out this targeted, well written and useful content? We need to:
- Get stuff out the door.
- Focus on keywords but make it natural
- Get input from coaches
- Group your assignments
- Protect your hands
- Develop and refine your system over time
- Hire writers if you can’t do it yourself
For more information on each of the above points view this article at Solo SEO.
I’m as guilty as the next person for not getting consistent content written on my blogs. In the coming weeks, it is my intent to change that. Come on for the ride.
visit the Patti Network News to see where else I’m writing.
7 Steps to Cranking Out Content
Gmail URL Trap
If you are engaged in email marketing, you will need to be careful how you format your links for those receiving your emails in Google’s GMail.
It appears Google has made a change which has impacted the entry of links. If you make sure all your links start with “www” then you should be okay. If you prefer to drop the “www” then be sure NOT to use capital letters in your URLs.
Have a look at this video by Frank Bauer for a more detailed explanation of how to structure your links.
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Bloggers!! Think About Your Readers
Okay, you know, everyone likes to have their own style on their blog. We strive to stand out from the crowd not only with our writing but with our the look and feel of the blog. So why do so many bloggers practically drive their visitors away with bad font choices?
It is frustrating enough when I visit a blog and find the font small. At least when that is the only problem in Firefox I can press the CTRL key and the ‘+’ key to enlarge the type to a size that is easier on the eyes.
When the font owner decides to use colours either on their fonts, or their backgrounds, which don’t contrast well, that I can’t overcome. I have to either choose between straining to read the post or moving on. Often I choose to move on.
You know, as much as we might like and want to use colours to present our text, the easiest to read contrast is black text and white background. In fact, while writing this post I went and had a good look at the text on this blog. In particular I had a hard look at the text at the top of the post where there is a very light blue background before it graduates to white. The text was a very dark grey. I changed it to black, and immediate improvement in the contrast at the top of the post.
On my own blogs I tend to stay away from serif fonts (those are fonts with the little ‘legs’) except for titles, if at all. I notice a lot of bloggers tend to stick to Times Roman (a serif font), I don’t find that the easiest on the eyes for reading but if it is a decent size and well contrasted, it is not a struggle to read. I think that is more a personal preference on my part more than anything else.
So, the bottom line is, if you are going to spend the time and effort to write a post — don’t you want your visitors to be able to enjoy reading it?
visit the Patti Network News to see where else I’m writing.
Bloggers!! Think About Your Readers
Canada’s Navy Turns 100; I Remember My Grandfather
On Tuesday of this week what used to be called the Royal Canadian Navy, now known as Maritime Command, turned 100 years old. I take note of this milestone for two reasons.
The first reason I took note on Tuesday was I rose to the news that the first sailor to die in Afghanistan had fallen on Monday afternoon, the victim of a roadside bomb. He was returning from diffusing another bomb at the time.
As I write this, I’ve just returned from having been on a bridge on the Highway of Heroes as the motorcade carrying his body, the military & police escort and his grieving family travelled to Toronto. He is the 143rd Canadian to make that solemn journey as Canadians fill the bridges to honour and show our respect to him and their families.
The second reason I took note of the naval milestone is my late grandfather, Cyril Instance, served in the RCN during both world wars
Grandpa came from a sailing background, his own father, my great-grandfather was serving as a fireman on the Titanic on its fateful voyage in 1914. Grandpa was active duty in WW1, wounded in battle, which one I’ve forgotten the name of. During WW2 he served in Halifax, attaining the rank of CRPO, Chief Regulating Petty Officer, he was in charge of training and discipline.
Somehow that rank suited him, my memories of him was as a stern disciplinarian who loved growing flowers. He had a greenhouse at one time just west of where I now live. I remember visiting there and the long rows of flowers he would carefully tend to sell to local gardeners.
Unfortunately my more vivid memories of grandpa was as he descended into the hell of Alzheimer’s disease. We didn’t know what it was at first, he was several years into it before there was a diagnosis. What we knew was the way it was manifesting within him.
We didn’t know that when grandpa turned every conversation to talking about being in the navy it wasn’t him being fixated on having been in the navy. It was that disease robbing him of other memories. He would occasionally speak of the years he spent as a driver on the street cars in Toronto but as time went on, those memories were too recent for him.
We didn’t know when grandpa couldn’t remember where the ash tray was beside his hand that it wasn’t him but that damn disease. We’d bring him and grandma out for a visit from their apartment in Toronto and within a day or so grandpa was anxious to get home. He needed more familiar surroundings, that disease made him unsettled in the less familiar surroundings of our home.
On one of those visits I took my grandmother out for an afternoon to give her a break from his constant need for her to be close by. She enjoyed herself. I had some errands to do in Belleville and we stopped into the branch on the way back. I made her a cup of tea and coaxed her into playing a few pieces on the piano. She was a wonderful pianist but difficult to get her to play.
I agreed that the next day I’d take grandpa out for the day to allow mother and grandma to have a visit uninterrupted. Grandpa reacted to the news he was going out with me by refusing to go. I put on a very hurt air and told him that I was hurt that he’d make a date with his granddaughter and then stand her up. Too proud to admit he didn’t remember, he decided he was going.
It was a difficult day. It was hard to watch over someone who had reached a point that even hearing him talking about the navy would have been preferable to hearing him ask the same question over and over as he searched through the increasing fog in his brain to find the familiar.
Every few minutes he would ask me if he’d been down this road before. I’d tell him yes. He had lived in the area years ago, he likely had been on those same roads and somewhere in that fog was something familiar. There was a few lucid moments as we’d pass flower beds and he’d recognise what was planted there and tell me what they were.
On the way home, I also took grandpa into the branch and made him a cup of tea as the guys tried to politely chat with him. When we got home, he told grandma he’d had a really nice day and we’d stopped into the Legion for a beer. At that stage alcohol and grandpa didn’t mix, which is why I made him a cup of tea.
The murderous look grandma shot me quickly subsided when I told her that he had exactly what she had the day before. Man was I glad of that, that sweet little soul was deadly when angered.
When I think about grandma and grandpa; the long years of his descent into that soul robbing disease and how painful it was for grandma to watch helplessly as it happened; I remember how fortunate I am that even though both my parents were taken from the family with cancer, they didn’t suffer long.
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Canada’s Navy Turns 100; I Remember My Grandfather
Police & Liberals Support the Gun Registry
A couple of weeks ago, at a meeting of Police Chiefs, Ignatieff committed to a whipped vote on the Conservative gun registry bill. The bill is a private members bill and as such it is unusual for any party to whip (require a vote on party lines). It is also rather unusual for a bill that is part of a party’s platform to be brought to the house as a private members bill.
The bill has previously passed Parliament but had died on the order paper when Harper prorogued the House in December to avoid the detainee issue. The bill had passed the House in part as the result of 8 Liberal MPs giving it support in a free vote. The MPs had been targeted by the Conservatives as vulnerable to the issue. That doesn’t necessarily make it a free vote when the MPs in question vote as the result of political pressure.
The Canadian Association of Police Chiefs opposed the elimination of the gun registry. The consider it an important tool in fighting crime, something that the Conservatives claim as being their committed forte. In response, Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz dismissed their call to leave the registry alone as the chiefs being out of touch with the frontline officers on the street.
Guess what, the Canadian Police Association (the frontline guys), has now stepped up to call for the registry to be left alone. That sounds like a pretty loud plea from those who are sworn to serve and protect to leave this tool for police work alone. Do the Conservatives listen?
Of course not, that would be way too far off their ideological path. Government in Canada these days is not about the will of the people, it is about what Conservative ideology demands.
Ignatieff should have seen through the Conservatives ploy the first time round when they introduced the bill as a private members bill. He’s seen it now, he hadn’t better waver.
Conservatives claim that women in Canada want less crime. Apparently women voters haven’t bought that assumption of what we supposedly want, the latest poll shows a 10 point gap between the men and women who would vote Conservative.
Maybe women are more concerned about the huge cost of the Conservative’s plans for mandatory sentencing while at the same time seeing so many woman’s groups having their funding cut. Those groups meet needs in this country which work towards true equality between men and women, something Conservatives appear to be quite willing to impede.
As for this woman, leave that gun registry in place. The more tools the police have to work with to prevent serious crimes, the less we’ll pay later while the criminal lingers in prison. Prevention is way cheaper than cure.
UPDATE: Just after making this post I came across this link: Top 10 Myths About the Canadian Firearms Registry. An eye opening read.
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We Will Remember Him
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them
In memory of our fallen Canadian:
PO Douglas Craig Blake – Afghanistan May 3, 2010
Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated
Support Our Troops — Wear Red on Fridays
If you like this post, please tweet it. Follow me on Tweeter here
We Will Remember Him
They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them
In memory of our fallen Canadian:
PO Douglas Craig Blake – Afghanistan May 3, 2010
Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated
Support Our Troops — Wear Red on Fridays
Related posts
- No related posts.
