| Many small businesses today are seeking ways to | | | | searchers of that particular information. |
| capitalise on social media networking and viral | | | | We also should find out about your customer profiles. |
| marketing, before ensuring their basic website copy is | | | | The first step towards this is ask yourself: "What |
| right. So they might attract the right people, but the | | | | motivates Jane Bloggs to read my content?" |
| people might be put off by the website's words. | | | | The answer could be... personality. Personality is the |
| Copywriting is sometimes called "the silent salesman"; it | | | | conversation that you have with your users. To |
| can do much of the warming up from a cold lead. g up | | | | maintain a consistent, authentic voice, you should |
| from a cold lead. | | | | employ one person to write all of your copy. That |
| So what are the basics of copywriting? Headlines | | | | person should work with your website developer |
| aimed at piqueing curiousity and answering a common | | | | designer. Before you try to impress your audience with |
| problem have proven the most effective. I have | | | | all your knowledge, remember, to engage everyday |
| created a headline above which does both. Blurbs that | | | | people it is best to use a conversational tone and don't |
| start with their most important point first (similar to | | | | assume any prior knowledge. |
| journalistic writing) are more likely to get read. Calls to | | | | Pay attention to the details. I prefer to write all the |
| Action that prompts the user to do what you want | | | | page titles and metatag descriptions myself, as this |
| them to do right away, is a key feature of copywriting. | | | | writing is going to be seen by the end user in a search. |
| What else do we do in copywriting? I guess you could | | | | I have seen too many errors or omissions by website |
| call it finding your niche. If it's an online document, | | | | designers to believe that is their area! Another reason |
| copywriters research and identify keywords (i.e. | | | | is search engines use these metatags, plus the actual |
| search strings people type into search engines), so that | | | | page URL, to help give users relevant results. |
| content can be optimised for a search engine. This | | | | Remember, to engage customers and ensure you are |
| enables the page to be more easily found by | | | | being understood, use direct conversational voice. |