Archive for the ‘Copy Writing’ Category
Best Copy Writing Tips of 2009
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Now that content marketing has turned every marketer into a publisher, writing skills are more important than ever. Want to launch a successful blog? That takes great writing. Maximize the impact of Twitter for your business? It takes great writing to convey meaning and achieve impact in only 140 characters. Use article marketing to spread your fame and generate links for SEO? Optimize LinkedIn profiles? Write a script for a potentially viral YouTube video? All require great writing.
No one is born a great writer, but anyone with the proper cerebral architecture can learn the skills. Read on for some of the best tips on great copy writing in the past year, from recognized authorities such as Newt Barrett, Ardath Albee and Copyblogger.
Take 5 Minutes Now to Learn How to Write Great Headlines by Content Marketing Today
Newt Barrett reviews Tom Whitwell’s online presentation on writing great headlines, noting that a well-crafted headline can increase readership by a factor of 10 or 20. Tom sums up the task as “working out what the story is, what your reader will respond to, and how to squeeze all the goodness into 68 characters.”
Don’t Do These 12 Things When Writing Headlines by Copyblogger
While the post above focuses on how to write great headlines, Jonathan Morrow here explains a dozen headline writing mistakes to avoid, such as trying to be too clever, ignoring the needs of readers, and settling for less than your best.
The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases by SpeedyWap
The misuse, and proper use, of common terms such as “alright” (it’s not a word), “unique” (a word so definative it needs no modifier) and “inflammable” (George Carlin had the greatest line about this: “why do we have flammable, inflammable, and non-inflammable? Seems to me two words should be able to take care of that; either it flams or it doesn’t”).
Darth Blogger’s Holiday Writing Rant by ToughSledding
Along the same lines as the post above, Bill Sledzik shares his list of tragically common writing gaffes from PR students, including using “due to” in place of “because” and starting a sentence with “there is.” My favorite: “Lifeless verbs strangle sentences.”
B2B Marketing Content Turn Offs by Marketing Interactions
Ardath Albee warns writers to avoid seven deadly sins in b2b content writing, such as the use of jargon/hype/fluff and ambiguous takeaways.
Marcom A to Z — J for Jargon by converge
Anna Baxter Kirk explains why jargon isn’t always bad, but advises writers to “beware overused, misunderstood jargon, and terms so obscure that, outside of a certain industry, profession or group, no one will understand.”
A B2B marketing message angle that could close sales by B2BMarketingSmarts
***** 5 stars
Susan Fantle lists the top 10 marketing motivators in the b2b world (e.g. make money, save money, save time), plus a very powerful bonus 11th motivator.
Get Maximum Exposure for Your Content through Syndication by Internet Marketing for Business Owners
Jarom Adair discusses various applications for spreading content automatically through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010Any type of marketing copywriting is a blend of art and science. Writing for the web involves requires as much art as any other form, plus another level of science.
Here are some tools, tips and guidance for crafting more effective and compelling web copy, from among the best articles and blog posts on web and SEO copywriting from last year.
12 Tips for Writing Effective Internet Marketing Copy (Keywords are King) by Internet Marketing Post
Jennifer Norene provides an excellent set of tips for newbies and reminders for experienced copywriters for writing effective web copy, such as focusing on 2-3 keywords per page, using your customers’ language, breaking up long blocks of copy with subheads, and aiming for about 500 words per page.
Small Business Marketing Unleashed: Keyword Balance by WebProNews
Doug Caverly provides some brief but helpful reminders about effective web copywriting from Heather Lloyd-Martin at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, like don’t overdo keyword stuffing; write with the buying cycle in mind (awareness, research, purchase); and using FAQ pages, how-to articles, blog posts and archived newsletters to extend your SEO potential.
Ten Copywriting Tips for B2B SEO by Search Engine Land
Galen DeYoung offers tips for meeting the unique challenges faced by B2B copywriters, such as watch the lingo, don’t be afraid of long copy, and use image “captions as another opportunity to sell to the prospect and another opportunity to influence search results.”
SEO Copywriting Tools and Resources by Internet Marketing Blog
Following up on his earlier post about 10 favorite free keyword tools, Frank Levert presents eight “free online SEO copywriting tools and resources that can help you write content with more style and vocabulary,” including Readability Test (a tool to help determine if you’ve written at the right level for your intended audience), Synonym.com (free online thesaurus) and Rhymer (a rhyming dictionary).
Discover The Top 3 Crucial Tips You Must Know To Create Powerful Headlines and Stop Losing Sales by SiteProNews
Noting that “With only a few seconds to grab the attention of your site visitor and pull them into your site, your headline is the most important element of your website,” Jennifer Horowitz lays out a three-step process to produce headlines that grab readers’ attention and compel them to read your body copy.
Master the 4 Cs of Quality Content to Create Sparkling Results by Copyblogger
Sonia Simone has written a beautifully crafted piece correlating the 4Cs “that differentiate a fabulously expensive, brilliant diamond from an industrial-grade one” with great writing: clarity (content must be clear in order to be persuasive), cut (judicious editing is critical), color (use stories and details to add life to writing) and carat (real value, not lightweigth fluff).
Seven Building Blocks of a Destination Website: #6 Voice by Search Engine Guide
The prolofic Stoney deGeyter explains how voice gives your website a unique personality, the different types of voice and examples of each: humorous, thoughtful, down-to-earth and others.
25 Random Points about Copywriting by Conversation Marketing
And finally, in possibly one of the most useful and certainly one of the most entertaining posts written about writing last year, Ian Lurie supplies both guidance and inspiration with tips and observations such as:
- Great internet marketing starts with copy that’s concise.
- You can make great stuff happen with great writing and a lousy web site. Try the opposite, though. I dare ya.
- The best way to cultivate that skill, next to writing for 3 hours a day, is to read. Watching TV with subtitles does not count.
There you have it, the best writing on writing from 2008.
Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010Want to know how to write more effective marketing and sales copy? Avoid common grammar and usage mistakes that diminish the impact of your writing? Craft more compelling headlines and ads? Combat dreaded “writer’s block”?
Then read on—you’ll discover these answers and more in the blog posts reviewed here, some of the best of 2008 on writing great sales and marketing copy.
Copywriting: 7 Ways To Trigger Emotions by Self SEO
After stating “all human beings buy on emotion. With that in mind, here are 7 ways to trigger emotions in your copy,” Lisa Packer shows how to effectively add emotional appear to B2B or B2C writing in this brief but insightful post.
See Like An Outsider In 3 Not-So-Easy (But Worth It) Steps by GrokDotCom
“Insiders” in any business or industry develop their own jargon over time. While this can serve as useful shorthand for communication within the organization or community, it also creates a barrier between that group and the rest of the world (e.g., does anyone who’s not immersed in SEO know or care what “canonicalization” means?). Marketers need to be able to shed this jargon in order to be able to communicate effectively with customers and prospects who don’t use this insider language, don’t know what it means, and couldn’t care less. Jeff Sexton provides three helpful techniques to help anyone who’s been “inside” for a while to take an outsider’s perspective in order to produce more effective, relevant copy.
Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When You Write? by Copyblogger
Brian Clark tells you how to avoid common grammatical and language usage errors that can ruin the impact of your writing by making people “assume you’re dumb” (though I’m sure he meant “stupid” rather than “unable to speak”). 
He sounds a bit like your 8th-grade English teacher, but with a much more entertaining style. Many more examples of common mistakes are provided within the 237 (or so) comments to this post, including one from Ford’s Scott Monty. Another of Brian’s most entertainingly educational posts of last year was The Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words.
Rocket Skates or Running Shoes, Just Make It Interesting by StraightUpSearch
Marketing writers are often tasked with writing something interesting about a topic they know little or nothing about; this post provides some guidance in how to accomplish that, such as “Instead of saying ‘driving fast is dangerous‘ in four or five different ways, show the reader why it’s dangerous; give them broken glass, emergency rooms, and sedans wrapped around telephone poles.”
Power Headlines To Increase Conversion by Marketing Tips Blog
Jenn Blanchard contends that, when crafting headlines that compel readers to want to learn more about your topic, “Certain ‘power’ words and phrases consistently outshine other words.” She then provides a list of 57 such phrases such as “7 Sure-Fire Tips For… ” and “Do You Wish There Was An Easier Way to…” Although targeted at writing sales letters, the phrases in this post can serve as an inspiration when writing blog posts, ad copy, white papers and other types of collateral as well.
Six Ways to Instantly Find the Right Words by Copyblogger
Chris Garrett shares “tips for producing great copy even when your brain is not cooperating,” such as starting in the middle, taking a short break to refresh your mind, and “rubberducking.”
Copywriting – Write Ads That Get Customers and Cash Fast by Angela Booth’s Creativity Factor
Copywriting expert Angela Booth explains how to write compelling ad copy using “a simple formula: HPSA. It’s an acronym for Headline, Pain, Solution, Action. HPSA works for any kind of ad, from a simple classified ad to a long direct response sales letter, whether for the Web or print.” She advises starting by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and understanding their pains, then clearly describing how your product/service alleviates that pain and the next steps to take.
