Great copywriting can solve a lot of marketing problems – but not all! Here are 7 thing than can sink the best words.
You have done the right thing and invested in a professional copywriter to get some decent web copy for your business.
You resisted the siren call of your mother’s-Bingo-friend’s-second-cousin who always wanted to be a writer. You
You relaxed into the process and ended up with some truly exceptional copy for your business,
Woohoo you!
Now, you just need to avoid these 7
What?
You mean that you can’t guarantee that exceptional copywriting is enough?
In the words of the quintessential Australian philosopher and poet Jon English “Words are not enough.”
Or to put it another way: Great words are the start of the conversation – they are not the whole conversation.
Why Copywriting is Not Enough
For a moment, I want you to imagine yourself standing on the bow of a
Iceberg 1: Faulty or Poorly Designed Websites
It doesn’t matter how exceptional your web copy is, if the website that contains your words is ugly, constantly crashes or is not designed with sales in mind, the copy will just sit there sparkling like the Hope Diamond in a second-hand junk store ring. Appearances matter.
Read More >> The 3 Questions Websites Need To Answer To Be Effective
Iceberg 2: Missing Visuals
Words are awesome. Words plus images are rocket fuel for your marketing.
Humans are visual beasts. We buy with our eyes. One of the most tested areas in internet marketing is the difference adding in the right image can make to click through rates.
According to Hubspot, Tweets with images get 18% more clicks and 150% more retweets. A study of over 30,000 Facebook business pages found posts with photos had 87% more engagement than other types of posts.
If you want to increase the power of your words, you need to have the right visuals accompanying your words. Cheesy pixelated stock photos need not apply!
Read more>> Statistics About Visual Content https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-marketing-strategy
Iceberg 3: A Waterfall of Words
A good copywriter will help you create brilliant words for your marketing. A great copywriter will help break up the cascade of words to help different readers absorb the information in the way that works for them.
Your words need
Your words also need to be incorporated into everything to do with your website, from your page titles through to your page descriptions in the
In other words, your copywriting needs finessing to ensure you increase the readability of your content for both humans and Google; otherwise you may as well be uploading a chapter of War and Peace (or Twilight).
Read more >>> How to Create an SEO Friendly, Readable Blog Post https://yoast.com/seo-friendly-blog-post/
How to Write Great Website Copy
Iceberg 4: You Are Not Driving New People to See Your Content
Having a brilliant website and content is not your end goal. It is only your entry ticket to the game.
No matter how exceptional your website and copywriting
Think of it in the same way as building the most amazing hotel deep in a jungle. Unless you take some action to promote your hotel, you won’t get visitors.
Hitting “publish” is not a content marketing strategy and it is not enough. You need to do more.
Iceberg 5: You Are Not Giving People A Low-Stress Way to Take the Next Step
Most people are not willing to pick up the phone to call a business on the basis of their website alone. They want to be wooed. You need to help them take the next little tiny step on the process of getting to know you.
Having great content is a start, but ramp it up with high-value additional content that people can access through sharing their email with you.
Giving someone your email address is akin to smiling back at someone at a nightclub. It is not an invitation for them to jump you – it is simply saying, “I am interested. Let me find out a bit more about you.”
Too many small businesses provide awesome content without giving people the chance to smile back and start to get to know you.
Iceberg 6: You Went For A SEO Quick Hit
This is one of those horrible warning stories. I have had a couple of Brisbane based copywriting clients in the past few years who had superb content and brilliant websites. They then fell in with the wrong SEO crowds.
A few took advantage of those emails that hit every business email box every day saying, “Your site is not performing in Google – Let us fix it for you.” Others joined SEO companies that looked great on the outside.
And the problem?
The SEO tactics that were used to get their business on the first page of Google were a lot like taking Ice. It gave them a quick high then proceeded to trash everything they held dear.
In a number of
Why totally re-written? If your reputation has been trashed, you can’t reuse the smallest hint of your past material. Google is smarter than that. These clients had it all, but they just wanted to get high faster, and have had to start all over again from scratch. So move those get SEO quick emails straight into the bin.
Iceberg 7: You Had a Little Fiddle With Your Words
Having someone write for you is like being fitted for a suit. There are always bits you want to add in and bits you want to take out.
That said, your copywriter has expertise that you don’t (otherwise why would you hire them?) They know for example that emotions sell real estate. If you insist on removing all emotional content then the words will fail to sell your property. Trust their expertise.
Tiny tweaks to your copy are common. Directing every stitch and then unpicking them and restitching it your way is probably not going to deliver the result you want.
Exceptional copywriting is definitely a worthwhile investment. Make sure that you are making the most of your investment by providing the right platform, supporting material and ongoing content marketing strategy to make the most of it.
