Top ten email copywriting tips
I’ve recently been writing and critiquing sales emails for clients. So, gleaned from those, here are some ideas to make your email copywriting more effective. (Perhaps some seem a bit obvious, but our experience suggests that the copy can come a long …
Why your home page shouldn’t be a lecture theatre
Imagine you live in Newtown and you’re looking for a firm to convert your attic into a couple of bedrooms. You go online and Google “loft conversions Newtown”. You choose the number one ranked site – for Bloggins Loft Conversions of Newtown …
21 rules for good writing*
It’s Christmas. Or nearly. What with all that gift shopping, turkey stuffing and holly wreath making, I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of time for reading e-zines. So this month, I thought I’d keep it short with a few thoughts on …
A simple but effective way to ask for the order
It’s no secret that to be a good salesperson you have to ask for the order. But to be a great salesperson you have to ask for the order in a way that makes your customer feel good about it. In the …
SEO copywriting and how to do it
These days search rankings are weighted far more heavily towards inbound and intra-site links than copy, but that’s no reason not to ensure our copy is working hard for its corn. So let’s begin by looking at the principles of SEO copywriting …
Ten hut! How to grab your reader’s attention
Let me ask you a question. An important one. What’s the biggest challenge we face as copywriters? Expressing features in terms of benefits? Making our reader believe us? Finding a synonym for “exciting”? No. None of these. Our biggest challenge is our …
A case study: what’s working in b2b direct marketing right now
Imagine you’re the marketing manager for a hugely successful business magazine. (And I know that for many readers of this e-zine, that’s not a stretch). So, you’re briefing a subscriptions acquisitions campaign. You want HTML emails, a landing page, banner and skyscraper …
Long v short copy: the truth
Every now and again, and against my better judgment, I get into it with somebody about the merits of long versus short copy. I don’t know why, it’s like a drug, I guess. You can go cold turkey but then that inviting …
Why you should make an exhibition of yourself
Let me ask you a question. What can you do at exhibitions that you can’t do with any of your other marketing channels? Put your hand up if you said “meet your customers”. Now help yourself to a chocolate from the box …
How to write authentic copy
For every project, there’s often an Ah hah! moment in the briefing process when I just “get it”. For the lovely people at Blueprint Partners – a channel marketing agency I’m writing a website for – it was when their head of …
Five tips for getting your book published
Everybody has one book inside them, apparently. Maybe that’s why sales of digestive remedies are skyrocketing. It’s certainly a painful process getting them out. Leaving aside novels, which, apart from the gilded few, are a route to long-term penury and waitering jobs, …
Three Email Copywriting Power Tools
This month I thought I’d look at a few simple tricks you can use to upgrade the power of your blast emails. Tool #1 – improve your open rate: hit them quickly The first tool is all the stuff your prospect sees …
How to beat writer’s block
Wouldn’t it be great if you could start writing fluently the moment you opened a new document? Plans, pitches and presentations, ads, emails and web pages: all would flow effortlessly from your keyboard. No false starts, no staring at the blank screen …
R-E-S-P-E-C-T (and how to win it for your writing)
You know the old joke about consultants? You ask them the time, they borrow your watch and tell you the time, then bill you £100. But year after year, companies (and governments) shell out millions of pounds, dollars, euros and yen to …
A Christmas fable
“Yo! Elves!” The burly, leather-clad man grunted with effort as he swung himself down from the menacing-looking black SUV, and pushed the wraparound mirror sunglasses high on his shiny forehead. “Where’s my posse?” he yelled. Three or four diminutive figures shuffled out …
Shake out a few new ideas
What’s the first thing you do when you buy a magazine at a newsstand? I’m guessing you hold it by the front cover and shake it vigorously to release the loose inserts (blow-ins in trade parlance). Me? I keep ’em. This month …
How to ask for the order
Last month we talked about desire. Get people craving or longing for your product (or, to be more precise, feeling that your product can deliver whatever it is they’re truly longing for or craving) and you’re almost home. But there’s still one …
“I want” does get
Read any half-decent copywriting book and you’ll quickly realise that you’re supposed to focus on benefits, not features. What is a benefit? Well, it’s anything that makes your reader’s life easier or better in some way. Top of my head? Save money. …
Five tips for powerful emails
Here are a few of the challenges we face when writing emails. First of all, your recipient can get rid of this intrusion into her working day without lifting a finger. Oh, OK, she does have to lift a finger, but only …
Web copywriting realities: what your reader wants
Consider these three statements… “When people read online they lean forward because they are actively seeking information.” “When people read online they are busy and have lots of other sources competing for their attention.” “When people read online they have a more …
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