Recently someone mentioned to me she was having trouble finishing a sales page because she was continually editing, thereby not getting all the information on the page. My suggestion – writing while blind (to the tune of ZZ Top’s Driving While Blind). Seriously, if you find you continually edit when trying to get your ideas on the page, then close your eyes.

Now, if you have been typing since before PCs (like I have) you may have a tendency to edit anyway, since the muscle memory in your fingers knows when you are making a mistake. Do your best to keep that to a minimum and just allow the ideas to flow. Don’t worry that they are out of order, or that your grammar is not perfect, just keep the momentum going. Write as much as your want, even if you think it might be more than one idea on the page. Keep going, and going, and going until you have everything out of your head and on the paper.

Once it’s done, walk away. Go for a walk, have some lunch, sleep on it – whatever the amount of time you need to let it percolate and make sure you have completed the idea process. Now, come back and edit. Read the entire piece, then start chunking down. Reorder it if necessary, divide into more than one piece if that makes sense, put in all your punctuation, correct your grammar, then read it out loud.

After several tweaks, again let it sit. If you are in a hurry or under a tight deadline, this process is tough.  You will only have short periods to allow the ideas to meld and the edits to sit. However, do push away from the piece for a period of time (even if it is to tackle another project). You will find you have a stronger, more fluid piece of you can get all your ideas down first, then edit later.

One of the most important aspects of copywriting is to reach your target audience and compel them to take action. Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as we would like. Many people make the mistake of thinking that because they are part of the target audience, they can simply write in their own voice and everything will be fine. (I know – I’m guilty of it too.) But to truly reach the target audience and actually compel them to take action, you have to know a little something about them. In particular, you need to know what gives them pain.

It is proven that people will go to great lengths to alleviate their pain – much further than to support their happiness. A good target market profile will help you with understanding what compels these people to take action. The profile should include:

• What keeps them up at night?
• What magazines might they read?
• What types of hobbies do they engage in (golf, tennis, reading)?
• How do they research their buying decisions (all Internet, ask friends, combination)?
• What is their home life like (married, kids, pets, single)?
• What are their motivators (spouse, work, children)?

You need to have a detailed profile of who you are writing to, and a clear understanding of how your product or service can help them. Make sure you are providing them with benefits, not features.  Features are what you or your product does for your customer; benefits are how your customer is helped. Remember, they want to know how you can help them, not only what you can do.

I like questions as a way of breaking through – Do you feel, or Aren’t you tired of, or Would you like to have x,y, and z again.  It’s easy to scan a bulleted list of questions, and it lets the person know you already understand their pain points.  Then simple answer each one in your copy, again making sure to discuss how the target is being served. I’m sure you are great at what you do, and the product is the best ever, but people want to know how it helps them, not what it does.

If you can, use a group to review your copy. Maybe not all of it, but try to get someone who either really understands your business OR better yet, your target market, to review what you have written. Ask them to be brutal. I know it hurts (my review team is tough!) but it will make your copy better.

Once you have finalized the copy, sleep on it. Always give it another review with fresh eyes, and read it out loud. You will catch a lot of mistakes by taking the time to read your copy outloud. And it will have a more polished feel.

Hours of research and a lot of work go into writing to your target market. But it will pay off in the long run!

We are going to chat a bit today about one of my favorite topics – the long-tail search. You see, when people arrive at your web site, they are there for primarily one of three reasons:

1. Research information
2. Browse your services or products
3. Buy your services or products

In order to accommodate their needs, you must have information, and consequently pages, written just for them.  Let me give you an example:

Let’s take a jewelry business that handcrafts women’s sterling silver bracelets.  The high level pages of the web site should give information about the jewelry overall.  The keywords used for these are simple, short keywords.  With this company, the keywords for the high level pages are jewelry, bracelets, women’s bracelets.  Makes sense, right?  After all, these pages are to help people understand how beautiful the jewelry is, how it fits their particular style, how it’s made from sterling silver, and how it is the ideal bracelet for you, the ideal prospect.

Then come the long-tail keywords.  Long-tail keywords or key phrases are three to four words that specifically identify or describe what the person wishes to find in a search engine. With our jewelry store, they would include phrases like women’s sterling silver bracelets, or sterling silver beaded bracelets, or even silver turquoise woman’s bracelet. 

People who use long-tail searches are typically buyers.  They are looking for something very specific to fulfill a need and do not want to waste time on web pages that do not meet that desire.  So, if you optimize your web page for a very specific phrase, then that phrase better be the focus of the page.  You would not, for example, want to optimize a page for sterling silver red beaded bracelets and then only have turquoise bracelets on the page.

I find that the best way for me to lay out my keywords and key phrases is to use a web site map.  Having a layout of the design of the site gives me the opportunity to determine the best use of the keywords and key phrases, allowing for creation of compelling and unique content, while not overusing any particular keyword or phrase.  It’s much like you would lay out a brick and mortar store – you want to think about your customer, what they see when they walk in the door, where they would go next, and how you want to lay out each section to best accommodate their purchasing habits.  Make your web site each for your shoppers to use – whether they are researching, browsing or buying, you want to give great content to each of them, and make it easy to find.

I have found one of the best ways for me to keep writing is to mix it up a bit.  What I mean by that is I write blog posts, articles web pages, journalistic articles, research papers, speeches…whatever I can to learn a variety of writing styles.  Plus, I also do some personal writing where I just allow my own ideas and feelings to flow.

Why?

Because, I have learned that by writing about multiple topics and using various styles helps your writing style, helps you find your best voice, and keeps you from getting bored.  For me boredom is the kiss of death!  I’m more like my border collies – if I’m bored I will get into trouble.

So, I’m going to share one of the exercises I did in a writing group recently. It was very interesting because everyone in the room handled the same topic very differently.  If you know other people who like to write, then I recommend doing this together, and reading your results out loud.  There is no right or wrong way to do this, so no pressure.  But you will enjoy the experience much more by sharing with others.

Here goes…write about the color blue.  It does not matter how you decide to use it (a color, emotion, etc) and just free write.  Don’t edit yourself or try to make it perfect.  Just use blue and write until you feel you have thoroughly covered your topic.  It can be a couple of sentences, but a paragraph is best.  I’ll share mine below.  Hope you’ll share as well!

I watch my niece’s focus intensify as she strains to pick up a Cheerio. She’s so little and her fingers don’t always work the way she wants, so that Cheerio is not only her snack, but right now her nemesis.  She furrows her little brow, her lips turn blue, or almost purple, from pursing them so tight, and she makes this crazy little grunting noise.  I hold my breath so I do not laugh while she works so hard at picking up the Cheerio until finally – success!  She pops the annoying little circle in her mouth, and beams at me, her bright blue eyes full of life and joy…until the next Cheerio.

Writing can be hard. You have to give good information, provide value to readers, and hopefully keep them coming back for me. But there are days you might find it hard to write. Here are some tips to help you quickly work out a topic:

• Give yourself a break. Sometimes writing about the same subjects can be hard to maintain. Find something else interesting to both you and your readers to write about.
• Do a review. Whether it’s a book, a piece of software, an article, or even a blog, write a review on it. Keep the review on topic, and make sure it’s in line with what your readers want.
• Put together lists. Readers often appreciate lists such as the top ten ways to lose weight, or how to organize a closet. They are easy to read and easy to put together.
• Find someone to co-author.  Collaboration is a good way to get the creative juices going. Find a good affiliate partner who can provide valuable information to your readers, but not directly compete with you. Write articles or blog posts together, ideally in a series, to give your readers a slightly different take on a popular subject.

It’s OK to not be all excited about writing. Just don’t let it stop you. One of the best ways to alleviate pressure is to create an editorial calendar for your upcoming article and /or blog topics. Write in advance and queue up as many in advance as possible. It will give you more time to create with less stress.

If all else fails, just start writing. Once you get into it, the words will just flow.

I spend a lot of time researching web content writing, and one theme that continues to ring true is you can never squelch quality for anything – not for traffic, not for SEO, not for trends.  The reality is that good copy ensures that you have a way to deliver a solid message to your audience.  Period.

Everyone has a different style and a different voice, but there are always those few that seem to stand above the crowd.  I have my favorites, and I want to share them with you now!  These are copywriters or copywriting programs that I think really help you deliver a solid message.

Enjoy!

Karon Thackston – read Karon’s blog for some great information and tips - www.marketingwords.com/blog

Lorrie Morgan-Ferraro – her latest bootcamp The She Factor gives you specific info on how to market to women – www.redhotcopy.com

Brian Clark – everyone probably knows Copyblogger by now, but I have found that there are also wonderful guest bloggers, like Sonia Simone . You have to check out www.copyblogger.com!

AWAI – I just attended my first bootcamp – Web Copywriting Intensive – and I found the AWAI folks, particularly Rebecca Matter and Denise Ford, to be aces!  I love what they are doing and think you should take  a look.  www.awaionline.com

These are just of few of the wonderful people I follow regularly.  I’ll post later on people I follow in the ares of social media, blogging and SEO. The main thing to remember, no matter what you are doing, is to stay true to your own voice.  People want to have their needs met, not be sold to, and by being genuine, you will find your copy is better and your conversions higher!

The Today Show recently aired a program called Social Netiquette:  When poking isn’t polite.  I thought several of the rules of engagement were worth mentioning, such as:

Number 1 Rule – Treat others with kindness and respect according to U.K.-based etiquette authority Debrett’s.  So true! It is tiring that people feel the anonymity they can receive on the Internet gives them the right to be tacky. It doesn’t.

Other rules include:

Don’t give too much information (this can come back to bite you later, particularly since employers use the Internet to check into applicants)

Keep the information appropriate when posting comments.  Don’t air your dirty laundry.

Keep Poking (on Facebook) to a minimum.  Better yet, don’t poke at all.  Why would you poke someone in the first place?

It’s not candid camera, so put your best face forward and be mindful of the type of pictures you are loading. You are never sure who is looking!

You do not have to accept every invitation you receive. It’s OK to be selective about who gets access to your information.

Remember, keep it clean. The clever quip or dirty joke may keep you from landing a big contract later on.

To read the entire article, check out the Today Show’s web site at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29616648/. The video is worth watching as well!

Social networking is no longer a young person’s entertainment media. It has grown into a more mainstream method to interact with your customer base, give employees options to interact internally, and provide a company an authoritative voice on the Internet.

Social networking, including blogging and online communities, has experienced phenomenal growth over the last 5 years. Early adopters primarily used the technology to communicate with family and friends. Now the social networking phenomenon includes major corporations and is showing strong, steady growth in the corporate space. A recent study of the top 500 corporations as ranked by Inc. Magazine, a major business publication targeting CEOs of fast-growing private companies, shows a significant increase in the use of social media in their marketing mix.

The Inc. Magazine survey depicts a 22% increase in use of social networking as part of their top 500 corporation’s marketing strategy over the previous year when comparing 2007 and 2008. A critical metric to understand is the final question asking the corporations if they were not using any social media. The results yielded a 20% decrease in companies no longer considering or using social media. The survey also predicts continued use of social networking among large corporations.

Edelman, a leading independent public relations firm, compiles an annual survey on trust and credibility. The 2008 version yielded some interesting results, including 58% of those surveyed named a peer, or “a person like me,” among those trusted to provide advice and information. This is the first time in the nine year history of the survey this number surpassed professionals like doctors and corporate executives. Therefore, it is important that all companies find a means to communicate and collaborate in a peer-to-peer fashion with their target market and customer base. Social networking allows for such interaction while giving a “person like me” face to the company. The personalization of companies is important to achieving success in social networking. Additionally, companies engaging in social networking will have a collaborative effort with some competitors and affiliated professions, known as co-petition. This open communication provides a competitive advantage by the sharing of ideas and issues between organizations, and has not been previously possible in such an easy and open way.

Bottom line – social networking is here to stay, and needs to be seriously considered as part of every company’s marketing strategy. Otherwise, you may find yourself left behind.