Are you struggling to find the right words? It could be lack of time, focus or simply objectivity (its ok, it’s very hard to be objective about one’s own business, we all suffer from it!) but hopefully these tips will be of use.
I’m not going to go into a heavy sales pitch about recruiting the services of a freelance copywriter, but you could potentially save yourself a lot of time and grief if in doubt about your writing skills!
Where to start
Here are some simple pointers to get you started:
- Who is your audience? Ie, who are you writing for: existing customers you already have a relationship with and who are already familiar with your products and services, or potential customers you don’t know and who know nothing about you? Also consider their age and gender.
- What are you trying to say? Try turning this around and think instead about what your reader wants to know, what your product or services are for and the features and benefits, playing more on the benefits than the features!
- What are you writing? Are you writing for the web, information based, a piece of DM (direct mail) alerting your customers to an offer, a press release or a sales letter? Each will have a different tone of voice and a different style. For example, press releases are traditionally written in the 3rd person but web copy is much more relaxed [than it used to be] but perhaps not quite as relaxed as a blog. A sales letter could be quite lengthy whereas DM would be punchier.
- Writing for the web If you are writing for the web, then you will also need to consider how people will find your site. Ensure your content is search engine friendly, your keywords and phrases are appropriate and your site is optimised. Your web developer should be able to help you with this or use an SEO expert. Cue Distinctly Digital…
- Formatting text Unless it’s a novel, people tend to scan read, naturally searching for key information which could be of use to them. Therefore ensure your key messages are included within the headline and the first sentence, and use bullets and bold to highlight key words and ‘draw’ the eye. Rest assured your reader will revert back to the beginning and read in depth if the subject matter is of interest to them.
- Brand recognition Confusion creates uncertainty. Make sure whatever you’re writing and for whatever medium, online or print, that you are consistent with your messaging, your style, your brand, colours, logo etc.
- Be unique It is not good practice to ‘lift’ copy from other websites and search engines can identify duplicate content on a website, which could lead to your site being excluded from a search engine’s database. Therefore be original with your content.
I hope you find the above tips useful. If there is anything you don’t understand or which requires further explanation then don’t hesitate to drop me an email to: Alison(at)acpmarketing.co.uk. You may also like to take a look at my own blog which can be found at: www.alisonpagemarketing.co.uk/blog.
Finally, thanks for the opportunity Tom!
