I took several creating writing courses back in junior high and high school. For a while, as a teen, I even considered pursuing a career as a novelist—until I did some research and realized that the probability of becoming a best-selling fiction author is on par with the odds of winning the lottery. While being attacked by a shark. And struck by lightning. Simultaneously. Twice.

So I went into engineering instead. But my love of writing and storytelling eventually drew me into marketing and PR, where I could bring true customer stories to life and help people understand the transformative potential of technology.

As it turns out, many of the elements of storytelling apply to writing customer stories, new releases, blog posts and other marketing content as well. A customer story or news release shouldn’t read exactly like a novel or movie script of course, but keeping in mind the elements of proper storytelling can help add life and draw readers in to your PR and social media marketing “stories.”

Setting: creating the context or setting the scene is the essential first step in storytelling. Almost everyone of a certain age can identify, verbatim, the setting for Star Wars (“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”). A fictional story can be set in any place or time. A social business story, however, is always set in the present, the very recent past, or just slightly in the future, and always in your customers’ world—though the setting changes slightly for the different buyers of your product or service (e.g., the C-level, finance, technology or business buyer).

Protagonist: the hero of the story; in fiction, this can be a person, a group, an animal or even a thing. In a social business story, the hero is always your buyer, or in the case of a customer story, an existing customer whom you buyers can relate to.

Antagonist: the villain, the enemy, the bad guy; again, in fiction, the antagonist can take a wide variety of forms, from a person or group to an apparition, an object, the weather, or a monster.  In a social business story, the antagonist is often a business problem (excessive costs, low or declining sales, inefficient processes, unhappy customers) but can, effectively, also be more personal (low compensation or recognition, long/late hours at the office, excessive travel, lack of advancement).

Conflict: a key element of plot, conflict is what draws us into a story, makes us wonder what will happen next, the source of suspense or uncertainty; it’s what creates the dramatic tension that makes a story interesting. Suppose someone were to write a story along the lines of: “Fred woke up one morning, then a bunch of good things happened to him, then he went to bed and thought about what a good day it had been.” That’s all fine and good for Fred, but it’s not much of a story. There’s no suspense, no mystery, no wonder, nothing to interest us. Too often, marketing materials are written that way: “blah, blah, our product, blah, features, blah, benefits…” As with Fred, that’s nice for the product or service in question, but not terribly interesting. When writing a news release, blog post or other content, ask yourself—what’s the “hook” that will draw readers in and make them care?

Plot twists: an unexpected turn of events, a surprisingly revelation about a key character, an unforeseen obstacle—these are often what set a good story apart from a great one. Business stories often have plot twists too: a budget cut, the loss of a key customer, an unexpected move by a supplier or competitor, a change in the market landscape, or other events that the alter the course of, complicate, or add urgency to a story.

Resolution: the hero triumphs, the smoke clears, the alien flies off back into space, the bad guy gets what he had coming, the boy gets the girl (or vice versa)—basically, the conflict is resolved and the dramatic tension is eased. How does your product or service help the hero (your customer) to emerge victorious, in a believable manner?

Denouement: the wind-down, the epilogue, the final resolution, the hero riding off into the sunset, the happy ending. In social business writing, this is where you explain how your customer/hero’s life ends up better than before, how their situation is improved, how their world is changed by what you provide.

Obviously, that’s not to say you should literally write a business story like a novel—that would be cheesy—but rather that business writing can be enlivened and inspired by considering the story elements of great fiction.

And don’t be formulaic; stories that are formulaic (Halloween) can degenerate into ironic, self-aware imitations (Scream) and then into parodic farce (Scary Movie). Don’t let your business stories turn into Scary Movie. Be original! But consider incorporating the elements of classic fiction to add life to your PR and social business stories.

In this age of inbound marketing, content is king. And all content, regardless of format—text, video, audio, presentation—begins with the written word. The ability to arrange words and phrases in ways that capture interest and compel action is a skill at a premium.

But good writing isn’t easy. As Eric Siu noted recently in Is Blogging Dying?, blogging is declining among Fortune 500 companies because “Most people don’t like hard work. Blogging (or any type of sustained writing for that matter) takes time and effort.” These companies are shifting efforts to “newer social media platforms.” But without a blog—a core place to create, store and curate in-depth thought leadership content—what exactly will these companies be tweeting about or sharing on Facebook or with LinkedIn groups?

Effective writing—crafting text that is easy on the eyes and stimulating to the brain—isn’t easy, but it is an extremely valuable skill that can be learned and honed over time, and a craft worth the time and effort required to master.

How can you write copy that keeps visitors engaged on your site? How can you measure the effectiveness of business copywriting? Which over-used (or often improperly used) words should you try to avoid in your writing? Find the answers to these questions and more here in some of the best guides to better copywriting of the past year.

Gaming the system with skim-proof content by iMedia Connection

Madhuri Shekar shows content creators how to take advantage of the “F” pattern that web users most commonly use to skim, rather than actually read, content. How does the pattern work? “Readers will focus first (and often only) on the top paragraph of your content. They will then skip to the top of your second paragraph to see if content retains their interest. Then they will quickly skim through the rest of your content, not reading, but barely glancing at the beginnings of your sections and sentences.”

5 Reasons Copywriters Need to Get Data … Or Get Out of the Business by Copyblogger

Adam Singer contends that it’s no longer enough for copywriters to have a strong grasp of their subject matter and a flair for language; they now also need to understand and be able to apply analytics to their writing. “You are no longer a great copywriter so much because you’ve written for popular media brand X or esteemed company Y. You are a great copywriter because your content improved conversions on a client website by 52% or because you helped a blog boost its subscriber numbers from 2,367 to 10,464 in one year.”

10 Ideas for Crafting a Better ‘About’ Page by Baymard Institute

Noting that the “About Us” page is critical (“New visitors want to know who you are and why they should care”) but often under-prioritized, Christian Holst supplies 10 ideas to craft a better page telling readers about your organization, from making contact information prominent and easy to find to using real photos of your people (not boring stock photography—blegh) to explaining what your organization does—in plain English.

10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building by The Daily SEO Blog
***** 5 STARS

Cyrus Shepard entertainingly shares 10 “secrets” to using copywriting for content organization, to attract more inbound links and more readers (and keep them on your site longer). Among the tips: write for skimmers (see Madhuri Shekar’s post above); use headline formulas, subheads and bulleted lists; and my favorite “Get 20% more with numbers. I made that number up. Why? (Because) numbers grab our attention.”

Words You Don’t Say by The New York Times

Rachel Nolan lists the words that New York Times readers have advised the publication to avoid, either because they are overused or just rarely used correctly. For example, “From RHayes of New York: ‘Proximity’ because no one uses it correctly — proximity means ‘closeness’ but is invariably (inexplicably) preceded by ‘close.’” Also on the list: actionable, addicting (when “addictive” would be correct), and words like “architect” or “champion” as verbs.

Five Strategies for Speaking to B2B Buyers’ Pain Points by MarketingProfs

Dan McDade details “five strategies that build stronger, more powerful offers that will help your sales team close more deals,” such as “WIIFM (what’s in it for me?). People buy things for their companies for business reasons, but also for personal reasons, such as…recognition, security (or) compensation…When marketing and selling to a buyer, you should understand not only why she might buy on behalf of the company but also what might motivate her to buy for personal reasons.”

5 Ways to Become a Better Writer in 2012 by TMG

Daniel Ford offers five tips for improving one’s writing skills, such as writing often, reading voraciously, and getting social: “Engage with people on social media as much as possible. These conversation or debates will generate new ideas for you, as well as making you better connected to this new age of media.”

The first step in optimizing your online presence is making sure you have a website worth optimizing. That means creating a site that your target visitors will be glad they found once they arrive, and will spend some time with because the site provides the information they need in an easy-to-find manner.

It’s like planning a large event or party in your home. If you had a noisy furnace, an unfinished bathroom, or paint peeling on your eaves, you’d want to take care of those issues before you send out invitations. Your website similarly has to be in great shape before you “invite” visitors to it through optimization.

Four key elements of designing an effective business website are:

• • Technology (Platform)
• • Graphic Design
• • Information Architecture
• • Content

Technology

The first decision is the technology, or platform, the site will be built on. The options are almost endless, from custom code, to a development environment such as Adobe DreamWeaver, to hosted content management systems (CMS) options, to free platforms like WordPress. Among the key considerations to keep in mind when selecting a platform are:

Capabilities—will the platform support the sophistication of your design? Do you need extra features, like a built-in CRM system, the ability to easily integrate with external systems, create secure areas of the site, or manage ecommerce transactions?

Usability—does the platform make it easy for non-technical users to add or update content? Is it easy to add new pages and even entire new sections to the site?

Search engine friendliness—does the platform or tool produce clean, W3C-vaild underlying code? Is it easy to add meta tags and customize page URLs? Most modern CMS systems are relatively search-friendly, but this is a critical component for optimization, so do some investigation to make sure the platform you select is strong in this area. One way to check is to run the URLs of some other sites built on the tool through a tool like Website Grader to see how well they score (though keep in mind that factors other than just code quality can affect these scores).

Scalability—will the platform chosen support the planned size and complexity of your website, as well as providing room for growth?

Mobility—though website visits from smart phones and tablets currently accounts for only seven percent of online traffic worldwide, that figure is expected to grow rapidly. Make sure your chosen platform can serve up an optimized experience on both desktop and mobile devices (and automatically detect the visitor’s device) without a separate mobile development effort.

Make this decision carefully as you will be essentially “stuck” with your chosen platform until you reach a point where you need to redesign your site—depending on your industry and growth rate, generally two to five years. Avoid obscure platforms that force you to rely on a single consultant or agency for support.

Graphic Design

Effects Like Transparency and Typography Can Enhance Website Design

Though design considerations are often subjective, two key questions to ask when developing the overall look and feel of your website (fonts, colors, images and other design elements) are:

• • Does the design reflect the “personality” of our brand (e.g. bold, conservative, leading-edge, safe, sophisticated, intelligent, friendly)?
• • Will the design appeal to our target audience?

Special effects such as texture, transparency, typography and motion can enhance a design and provide a distinctive look—but these should be used carefully to enhance the user experience, not simply to “dress up” the site in ways that don’t help the user, or worse, that make the site seem complex and confusing.

Information Architecture

Possibly the most critical element of website design, this is the “map” of your site: what information will be included, where, and how different areas of information be connected. And the single most important consideration in developing your information architecture is your audiences: your website shouldn’t be about what information you want to provide, but rather about what information your key audiences want and need in order to engage with you.

The primary audience for most business websites is sales prospects. To determine their needs, first identify them as precisely as possible by title, role, industry and other attributes. Then put yourself in their shoes: why are they looking for information? What are their burning issues? What information do they need when they come to your site—at different stages in their buying process? How can you help move them through that process, and convert them into identifiable leads?

Secondary audiences may include existing customers, prospective employment candidates, investors, analysts (industry or financial), partners, and the media. Most of these groups are likely to have some information needs in common with your sales prospects, as well as some unique needs. Make sure your site meets the information needs of these audiences without detracting from the prospective buyer experience.

The output of this stage of the design process is an information architecture map, which may look something like this:

This information architecture map also serves as a guide for scoping out the work required to create the new site; establishing priorities; collecting any required images or website assets; and assigning content to writers.

Content

Content should be developed using two primary guides: the information architecture map (what to write), and keyword research (how to write it). Keyword research helps to identify the specific phrases your prospects most commonly use when searching for your types of products and/or services, as well to determine which terms have the best potential for optimization.

Knowing the keywords and topics, writers should be able to develop content that answers the five key questions every business website needs to address:

• • Who are you?
• • What do you sell?
• • Who do you sell to?
• • Why are you the best?
• • How do I buy from you?

Once you’ve designed and developed a site that uses a search-friendly platform, is designed and written with your key audiences in mind, and answers the questions and potential concerns of your sales prospects , you have a site truly worth optimizing as the core of your web presence.

Writing has always been a demanding vocation, but the challenge of producing copy that stands out and compels people to action in today’s environment of sensory overload is uniquely daunting. Sentences must be short. Ideas must be explicit. Prose must be lucid. Benefits must be explained in a clear and compelling manner using the language of the reader. Flowery copy and “corporate speak” are definitely out the window. Attention is a scarce commodity; you won’t get much of it, so use what you get as well as you can.

Below are five posts from outstanding writers that will help you write copy that gets found, read, and acted upon.

7 steps to writing killer sales copy by Mike Consol

In this guest post, Patrick Schwerdtfeger outlines the “Motivating Sales Sequence” sales process and how it relates to copy writing, starting with getting their attention (“The opening sentences need to jolt your readers to attention.”) and concluding with a call to action (“Be specific. Explain exactly what you want the reader to do.”).

How to Create Remarkable B2B Content by Savvy B2B Marketing

Stephanie Tilton shares a half-dozen ideas for developing content that stands out from the online clutter, such as showing how your product or service stacks up against the competition: “a majority of tech buyers want content comparing a vendor’s offering to the competition as they get further along in the buying cycle. Yet few companies put out competitive comparisons for public consumption…(many) organizations are averse to taking this step, but the problem is that your prospects are looking for this information. And if you don’t offer it but your competitors do, guess who’ll make the short list of potential vendors.”

SEO As a Copywriting Tool by iMedia Connection

Daniel Flamberg argues that far from being a straitjacket on the competitive process, incorporating SEO keyword research and knowledge into web copyrighting is essential and an opportunity missed if not employed; “Effective key words and phrases can be creative cues for other forms of branded customer engaging messaging. But too few creatives mine the insights from SEO analytics.”

25 SEO copywriting tips and content ideas you can implement today by Success Works

Heather Lloyd-Martin offers an excellent list of tips to keep handy when crafting search-optimized web copy.

How to write for the web: 23 useful rules by eConsultancy

Conceding that “rules are always there to be broken,” Chris Lake nevertheless proceeds to provide 23 rules—or guidelines if you prefer—for successful web writing, including writing the opening paragraph last, keeping sentences short, limiting yourself to one comma per sentence (helps you stick to the previous rule), and following the “wiggly left margin” rule.

Now 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.

Any 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.

Want 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.