How to Do More on the Web – A Few Ideas

March 16th, 2009

How to Sell More on the Web:

A Thoughtful Approach to Crafting Success

This guide isn’t just about selling more on the web: it’s about achieving your goals, whatever they are.

That might mean selling tickets to your gigs, or getting donations for your charity, or building support for your big idea. Whatever you’re trying to do, the principles and ideas covered will apply to you. Just bend the suggestions until they make sense for you.

Good websites are full of people’s ideas. Anything worthwhile needs a bit of brain-space. As soon as you start thinking about your website your chances of success increase dramatically. Most websites suck and fail because they are designed and built in haste and then left to gather dust. Always view your website as an evolving work in progress.

If you get stuck, and can’t find a way to progress, email leif@kendallcopywriting.co.uk – if I can spare a few minutes I’ll think about your conundrum.

This guide should answer questions like:

Why doesn’t anyone visit my website?
Why do people come to my website, but never buy anything?
What can I do to create interest around my website?

Who is this for?

This guide is designed to help anyone with a website. If you’re a very experienced website creator/owner/manager then this guide might not offer anything new. But if your website doesn’t do a lot, then you might find a few useful ideas.

Success Doesn’t Have to Lead You to Evil

Selling more things, or recruiting more donors, or persuading people that your scheme is brilliant does not need to involve under-hand tactics. Success does not require evil.

If you’re offering something useful then you should let people know. This guide is all about how you can let people know.

Part 1: Thinking about Your Customers

Before you think about your website, you need to think about the people that you created it for: your customers.

Who are they?
What do they want?
Why do they want your products?
What can you offer them?
Where are they?
How can you get in front of them?

Who Are Your Customers?

If you’re going to sell anything to anybody, you’ll need to establish who wants what you’ve got. Are they:

Young, old, or in-between
Male or female
Organised around a niche
Highly web-literate or borderline Luddites
Pinko liberals or conservatives?

Identify your target audience. Think about who they are. Imagine you are them. Step into their shoes and consider their motivations. Ask yourself:

What do I want?
What am I trying to achieve?
What are my concerns?
What would make me happy?

Why Do Your Customers Want Your Products?

Okay, so you know what you’re offering, what it does and why people use it… or do you? Do you really know why people use your things, or engage your services?

You might think you know exactly what people are doing with your stuff, but you might be surprised to learn that people are misusing your products – or that they really just want your services for a reason other than the ones you intended.

Luckily, it’s easy enough to find out what your customers are up to. Just ask them. And you don’t need to set up a survey and harvest reams of data. Just call a few people and have a chat.

A few examples of products that have found unintended uses:

Thanks to the following for their suggestions:

http://twitter.com/mikebrondbjerg

http://twitter.com/SpaSpy

http://twitter.com/kathburke

http://twitter.com/Angpang

Meeting Your Clients in the Middle

Your products and services might be valued for reasons other than the ones you know about. If people think about your work in different ways to you, address this in your website’s copy.

What Can You Offer Your Customers?

Are there other ways you could help your customers? Are there additional products or services that fit with your existing range? What would people like from you? How can you make people’s lives better, easier or more fulfilling?

Don’t just assume that your products and services have to stop where they are now. If there’s something more you can offer – something real, something useful and desirable – then start offering it.

Crafting Your Offer to Match Your Customers

Many businesses decide what they do, then create products and services that they think are required, then offer them for sale. Rarely do businesses ask what is required – what is wanted – and then offer it.

It’s easier to sell the thing that people want, than it is to sell the thing that you need to sell. So if you’re struggling to sell something, consider changing it until it meets people’s needs.

Again, it’s a good idea to spend time talking to your clients. And don’t make it complicated. Just pick up the phone, dial a number, say hi, ask some questions.

End of Part 1

That’s it for Part 1. Part 2 will look at your products and services (although really we’ve already thought about this, but in relation to how your customers think about your products and services.) Part 2 is the shortest section.

In Part 3, we’ll explore the aspects of your website that might be failing. This will cover SEO, social media and other wonderful things.

The Absence of Marketing

Oh, and did you notice that I haven’t mentioned marketing ? There’s a good reason for that. Many people in marketing are disreputable, unlovable rogues who smarm their way through life with slick grins and thin lies. ‘Marketing’ is a word so loaded with negative connotations that I prefer to discuss ‘marketing’ without using the word.

Tags: blogging, content, copywriter, copywriting, copywriting tips, marketing, SEO, web marketing, website, website copy
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Invisible Copy – Why Your Copy Should Have a Small Ego

March 9th, 2009

Short version

Good copy doesn’t attract attention to itself – it attracts attention to your products and services.

Long version

Occasionally clients expect copy to have some ‘wow’ factor. Perhaps they were expecting poetic, glorious prose. Or perhaps they were expecting copy that their clients would remark upon. Or perhaps they just expected something more sensational.

In most cases, for most organisations, copy should not draw attention to itself. Good copy does not stand out. It draws attention to your organisation, your products and your services. The best copy is like a ninja – it moves silently and people read it without even realising that they’re reading something.

So when you employ a copywriter, or write copy yourself, don’t aim for copy that is loud or spectacular. Aim for copy that communicates clear messages, sinking into the background and focussing attention on you and your offer.

Tags: content, copy, copywriter, copywriting, copywriting tips, corporate communication, web marketing, website copy, writing for the web
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Helping Your Clients to Write Well – A New Solution

November 18th, 2008

Web Developers, Designers, Social Media Consultants… gather round!

Have you ever given a client a shiny new blog, quietly terrified that they don’t know what to do with it?

Have you ever winced at said clients’ shoddy blog posts, which defy every good practice of web writing?

Have you ever groaned with existential agony as your clients abuse the CMS you gave them by posting large swathes of incomprehensible copy?

Guides to Good Copy

I’m planning a series of short guides that explain in simple terms what makes good writing for the web. These will be freely available and you will be welcome to share them with your clients. Heck, you can even add your own branding to them, providing you leave a little space for my name.

What Would Your Ideal Guide Include?

I want these guides to be as useful as possible, so please tell me what things regularly trouble your clients. What aspects of writing for the web (including blogs and social networks) would you like me to address?

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Free copywriting sample – what would you like me to write?

November 7th, 2008

Hiring a copywriter is not easy. To make it easier for you to decide whether you like the way I work or not, I’m now offering free copywriting samples. So you can try before you buy.

Send me whatever you have, whether it’s copy for print or the web, or even competition entries, articles, pitches or proposals, and I’ll work it into something fresh.

You can use the form on my Free Copywriting Sample page, or just email me: leif@kendallcopywriting.co.uk.

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10 useful lessons for freelancers…

October 31st, 2008

Gosh, well… what a year! If you don’t know me, then you won’t know that this year I turned 30, quit my day job and had a baby. It’s been an amazing, exciting year (and it’s not even finished yet!).

And here I’d like to review the freelance copywriting aspect of that. Partly to share some ideas with you, and partly to record my own thoughts.

So starting on Monday I’m going to be posting a series of ten lessons that I’ve learnt during my time freelancing. These will be super-short micro-posts.

Feel free to share your comments from Monday!

Tags: copywriting, freelance
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Web marketing services – fresh thinking & effective strategies

October 31st, 2008

Web copy to web marketing

I write a lot of copy for websites. After writing web copy, the natural progression is to ask: what next? And:

How will people find this website?
How will the right people know about this website?
How will this website develop a life of its own?
How can we make this website sell?

In short, writing copy for websites leads to thoughts of web marketing. And quite naturally my work has slipped from pure copywriting into Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and web marketing. I recently added additional pages to explain these services – read about my approach to web marketing.

Web design from a web marketing point of view

Being a marketing kind of person, I view things from the point of view of the customer. I put myself in the shoes of my clients’ customers. As with all marketing, it never hurts to consider the marketing of a thing when you’re deciding the fundamentals. So don’t be afraid to ask a copywriter for their thoughts on your project.

Tags: web marketing
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Address your reader – Copywriting tip #1

September 22nd, 2008

The best way to make your copy more appealing, more persuasive and more effective at selling is to address the person reading it.

Use ‘you’ wherever possible. You shouldn’t be afraid of addressing your reader. Be direct – speak to the human being that is reading your writing. All of your customers are people and they will appreciate being spoken to directly.

(Picture courtesy of And all that Malarkey)

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The art of modern writing: are you stuck in the past?

September 15th, 2008

Out with the old

Most people were taught that serious writing demands formality and the use of certain stock phrases. Such as:

I write with reference to…
Please find enclosed…
I hereby have the pleasure of…
It is with great regret that…

In with the new

Luckily, the world has moved on, away from this kind of formality. These days we can write as we speak. This relaxed freedom can be hard to adjust to. But keep trying.

Contractions in action

At school I was taught to write do not instead of don’t. For some reason, it was thought that contractions were acceptable in speech but not in writing. Thankfully, this has changed. People now accept that it’s weird to speak one language and write another. Most people use contractions in speech, so feel free to use them in business. You have my permission.

Repetition

Another rule we were taught at school was to avoid repeating words. But, sometimes it’s useful to repeat words, such as when that word is the subject you’re writing about. Your writing will become strained if you struggle to use a different word for the same thing every time you mention it. So feel free to repeat words, particularly if doing so aids understanding.

(Picture courtesy of Laineys Repertoire)

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Why you should let your copywriter be a tad adventurous…

August 29th, 2008

More wisdom on corporate communication from John Simmons’ We, Me, Them & It – How To Write Powerfully for Business…

On the subject of ‘fanciful’, ‘playful’, ‘imaginative’, ‘passionate’ or ‘intellectual’ language and its use in business, John suggests that we should take a few risks. Loosen up, and say what you feel. John writes:

“More and more, as I work with companies, they are yearning to be more than just an organisation focused on delivering numbers. They want to be seen as risk-taking, creative, entrepreneurial – otherwise they are too grounded in the reality of simply earning a living.”

So perhaps you should let your copywriter express your business in fresh, honest and direct language. Take a few risks, open yourselves up and let your customers know that you’re human.

Then John offers a lovely quote from John Scully of Apple:

“The new corporate contract is that we’ll offer you an opportunity to express yourself and grow, if you promise to leash yourself to our dream, at least for a while.”

Why can’t I have that written into my employment contracts?

(Picture courtesy of Broterham)

Tags: copywriting
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Use the active voice – Copywriting tip #2

August 22nd, 2008

Here’s what I mean. Below are two pieces of copy for a hammer:

Passive
This powerful hammer can strike nails into the toughest timber.

Active
This powerful hammer strikes nails into the toughest timber.

Pull back the smothering blanket

Using the active voice often shortens a piece of text. It also removes a layer of words that otherwise form a softening, smothering blanket between you and your reader. It’s important that your copy retains a sense of urgency, so use the active voice. Your copy will instantly become more direct, more powerful and more persuasive.

(Picture courtesy of Anna Banana)

Tags: active voice, copywriting tips
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Literary junk food – why you shouldn’t limit your vocabulary

August 18th, 2008

“If you consciously restrict your vocabulary – and some companies do this – you end up with the linguistic equivalent of junk food…”

John Simmons – We, Me, Them & It

I’ve previously blogged about the importance of not dumbing-down corporate communications. It’s clearly a difficult balance to get right; I’m also a big fan of clear, easy to understand writing.

So how do you get it right? How do you communicate clearly with your audience but retain some depth and idiosyncrasy?

Sadly, you’ll have to decide for yourself which words will help your cause and which will baffle your reader.

But I would suggest you make sure that anywhere you need to convey information, make it clear. Be more free and playful with anything less critical. Let your corporate personality shine through when there’s less risk of ambiguity – or someone missing a key fact just because they don’t know what an unusual word means.

(Picture courtesy of Marshall Astor)

Tags: copywriting, corporate communication, vocabulary
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Offer benefits – Copywriting tip #3

August 7th, 2008

A wise copywriter once said, “People buy holes, not drills”.

The point being, of course, that when someone buys a drill it’s because they want a hole. And that’s a crucial point. Because if you try to sell someone a drill it’s essential to remember that the most interesting points to entice a buyer will be about the kind of holes that drill can make.

So if you’re a web designer, most of your clients won’t be interested in how you make their website or the technology that keeps it running – they’re just interested in having something that helps their business. People who want websites generally just want more sales, more brand awareness or a better way to communicate with their audience.

If you’re writing copy, remember to highlight the benefits of your product or service. Ask yourself, what does this product do? What can it offer to a buyer? How will it change someone’s life?

Common benefits include time-saving, money-saving and money-making. If your product can save someone time, or make someone money, you shouldn’t have much trouble selling it.

(Picture courtesy of Rae Allen)

Tags: benefits, copywriting tips
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Honest corporate communications – why it’s worth being direct…

August 4th, 2008

I recently finished reading John Simmons‘ book We, Me, Them & It – How to Write Powerfully for Business, and was delighted to read this:

“Instead of saying ‘We’re committed to quality’, say ‘We check everything’. It just means a little bit more.”

Now what Simmons is espousing is honesty and directness. This kind of frank language is often frowned upon in business. Corporations think they must retain a lofty image. But who wants to do business with a distant, faceless corporation? People do business with people, so I think it makes much more sense to appeal to people with language that actually says something.

These days more and more businesses are realising the value of being human, and their copy and communications reflect this. As more people realise how refreshing it is to be addressed as a human, by a human, the more businesses will drop their formal, stuffy attitude.

But going back to the quote from John Simmons’ book- the interesting thing is that thousands of corporations say dull things like, “we’re committed to quality”, and thousands of people hear these messages and they roll over them, like another forgettable wave lapping the same tired coast. Such statements are forgettable because they’re meaningless. What does “committed to quality” mean? Committed to quality – in what way? How do you demonstrate that?

But “we check everything” tells how they’re committed to quality. It tells you: we care about what we do. We care enough to check.

(Picture courtesy of Tim Parkinson – [please note the picture hasn’t got much to do with this post])

Tags: corporate communication, John Simmons
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Appeal to emotions – Copywriting tip #4

July 30th, 2008

Sometimes it pays to get emotional. People are often driven by their emotions and it’s worth understanding this when marketing your business.

Can your products allay fears or reassure the anxious? Copywriters often use envy, status anxiety and guilt to play on their audiences’ emotions.

While I don’t agree with some of the manipulative methods employed by marketers, it is still essential to remember that humans are emotional animals, and much of our decision-making is affected (if not entirely led) by emotional factors.

The lighter side of emotions

Appealing to emotions doesn’t have to involve manipulating your market. You could use brighter, bolder language that makes people smile and laugh. Use honest, emotive language as a way to engage with people.

(Picture courtesy of Drs2Biz)

Tags: copywriting tips, emotional
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Explain features – copywriting tip #5

July 23rd, 2008

Don’t forget to tell your customers about your products and services.

This might seem obvious but lots of people get so caught up in marketing theory that they forget to explain the features of their products and services.

Remember that your customer probably doesn’t know as much about your product as you. Explain it from the beginning and don’t leave anything out. Your customers are interested in your products and services, so don’t be shy in explaining them.

(Picture courtesy of Spoonman)

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