Why clear communication should be your priority

April 16th, 2008

Smart business people recognise the value of good communicators.

If your organisation doesn’t value communication, you may be wondering why people don’t get what you do.

Poor communication at all levels of an organisation can be the cause of:

Confused customers
Disillusioned staff
Unclear goals
Bad products/services.

If your team doesn’t include any talented writers, consider using a freelance copywriter to boost the quality of your organisation’s communications.

(picture courtesy of Sascha on Flickr)

Tags: communication, copywriter
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Is bad copy to blame for your website’s high bounce rate?

April 6th, 2008

If your copy is a load of balls your bounce rate* will be sky-high. Bad copy can affect your bounce rate in a number of ways:

Your visitors may have been expecting something different to what you are offering. Unclear copy can attract the wrong kind of visitor.
Poor grammar or spelling tells people that you’re lazy and stupid. Correct your copy and people might stick around.
Copy that doesn’t offer clear benefits will not persuade customers to buy or read on. Make your selling proposition obvious and stress your offering’s benefits.
Verbose copy bores visitors. If your visitors get bored they may bounce off to a competitor who doesn’t waffle.

Copywriters understand the reasons why web users bounce off websites. If your website is suffering from a high bounce rate ask a copywriter to assess your site for flaws.

Identify weak spots and change them. Changing a website is simple so this process is quick and cheap.

Don’t let your copy let you down!

*Bounce rate = the rate at which people “bounce” away from your website. A bounce occurs when a visitor leaves your website without visiting any other pages. It’s a clear sign that they didn’t want to be there in the first place or don’t like something about your site.

(Picture courtesy of Tom Barnett)

Tags: bounce rate, copy, website
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Quick Copywriting Tip #2

April 1st, 2008

Is your copy full of “we”?

If you find lots of “we”, “us” or “our” in your copy, it’s a sure sign that it’s self-centred, and not focussed on your customer.

You should have copy littered with “you” and “yours”. These words generally indicate that your copy is aimed in the right direction (your customer’s!).

Click here for a more in-depth look at this subject.

Tags: copywriting, tips
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Ask for Feedback – Writing Tip #3

March 26th, 2008

It can be hard to hand over your writing to someone. New writers often get very shy about their work, and nervous of what people will think.

But it’s important to get started with the process of finding readers.

Your first readers may be family, then friends, or anyone who will take the time. But whoever these readers are, they will provide an invaluable service.

Any advice, whether from a professional writer or an occasional reader, is useful. It will also get you used to the apprehension of waiting to hear what people think of your writing.

Criticism is hard to take, but it gets easier. Especially when it’s intelligent, constructive criticism that helps you progress.

Tags: feedback, tips, writing
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Understand Grammar – Writing Tip #4

March 19th, 2008

Grammar and spelling are a writer’s tools. Just as a plumber must understand and own a set of tools, writers must have a good grasp of grammar.

If grammar troubles you, I recommend reading Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. It’s a classic (and very short) book on using English well.

Once you get writing, ask another writer to read your work. Ask for feedback on your style as well as your content.

Practice writing and your grammar will soon improve.

(Picture courtesy of Richard Leeming)

Tags: copywriting, grammar, tip, writing
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Even the boss can blog (with a little help)

March 15th, 2008

Blogging has revolutionised the way organisations communicate with their clients and peers.

CEOs are blogging about their work. Organisations are opening up, creating greater transparency in their dealings with customers.

Anyone in business that wants to blog must understand that the key to a blog’s appeal is honesty.

Readers accept that the CEO may need an editor, but they won’t accept ghost-written posts from an office junior. Blog content must always be high-quality, pertinent material, direct from the boss.

Copywriters make perfect editors – leaving your voice and your message intact while weeding out errors and improving readability.

Tags: blog, business blog, copywriting, editing, editor
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Gaining Trust on the Web

March 14th, 2008

Don’t hide behind your website. Too many businesses barricade themselves behind a chunky website, giving visitors no easy way to get in touch.

What are they afraid of?

Whenever I struggle to find a telephone number, postal address or email address on a website, I immediately begin to think the owners have something to hide.

If your business has great products and efficient customer services, you should have no reason to deny your users the opportunity to contact you.

When writing copy for the web, I always advise clients to be bold in displaying contact details. It’s a great way to gain the trust of your visitors.

Tags: contact details, copy, honesty, trust, website
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Feed Your Imagination – Writing Tip #5

March 11th, 2008

Your imagination will not feed itself.

If you want to write, you’ll need ideas to fuel your writing.

If you fill your brain with lots of interesting stuff, interesting stuff will come spilling out.

Consider your inputs as imagination fuel. What kind of things are you exposed to? Do you have a life filled with routine? If you’ve had the same job for a long time, take the same route to work, have the same old friends, re-read favourite books, only read a static selection of magazines and only ever watch the same shows on TV, you’re not giving yourself much chance of having a great idea.

Expand your circle of influences. Change things in your life. Do something you don’t normally do. Accept an invitation that you wouldn’t normally. Be adventurous. Watch a film that doesn’t naturally appeal to you.

New experiences, outside of your usual range, can trigger new thoughts.

The more you put into your brain, the more you can expect to get out.

(Picture courtesy of Sekator)

Tags: imagination, writing tip
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Are Copywriters Partly to Blame for Shrinking Vocabulary?

March 6th, 2008

“Instead of stretching minds, worlds – including the world of words – are being shrunk to fit them.”

So writes Lynsey Hanley in the Guardian.

Lynsey’s article discusses society’s growing inarticulacy, and the way in which our education system is designed to suit capabilities rather than challenge them.

This got me thinking because copywriters are taught to use simple, plain English, to avoid baffling an audience they want to persuade. While this is clearly a sensible approach for business communications, copywriters should be wary of over-simplifying their writing.

We may eventually be left with too few words to adequately express ourselves.

Tags: copywriting, Guardian, Lynsey Hanley, writing
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Blogging for Business – White Paper Finds Audience

March 5th, 2008

Our white paper – Blogging for Business – is already gaining an audience.

Raj Anand of Kwiqq put it up on edocr.com – a very useful site that offers free documents – and we’ve already had 955 hits!

If you’re in business of any kind I highly recommend edocr.com; there are tonnes of useful documents available and they’re all free to download.

Tags: blog, blog for business, white paper
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Quick Copywriting Tip #1

February 21st, 2008

Be positive.

Always say what is, rather than what is not.

So instead of “We will never be beaten on price,” you could say “Unbeatable on price.”

The second version turns a very negative statement into a positive one. Positive messages are better because it makes you sound more optimistic. The second version is an altogether sunnier statement.

Tags: copywriting, tip
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Simple Web Design – Usability is Key

February 20th, 2008

I’m a big fan of the Steve Krug approach to web design.

His popular book – Don’t Make Me Think – espouses the view that web users do not want websites that make them think. He goes so far as to say that users will be actively turned off difficult websites, clicking away without a second thought.

Web design should take this into account, making the most of conventional features and functions that people already understand.

Conventions such as:

Links are blue, changing colour after you click them
A list of links runs down the left hand side of each page
The logo is also a clickable link to the home page

It seems obvious to me that web design should make website use as easy as possible.

Why challenge your users?

After years of web use I know that some web designers have other things in mind. Web designers may want to impress their peers with the latest technology, flashy graphics or unconventional layouts.

Sadly, ground-breaking formats and novel structures may mean a learning process for a user who doesn’t want to learn.

Make it Easy on Your User

Functional sites, designed with usability at the fore, can be beautiful in their simplicity.

Rather than forcing your users to struggle through something new, work with what web users already know.

Simple, Common Sense Copy

My approach to copywriting follows the ideas of Steve Krug. I want people to use the websites I work on and I want them to find them simple to understand.

The easier my copy is to read, the more likely your users will buy, register or understand the message.

(Thanks to Andy Budd of Clearleft for the book recommendation!)

Tags: copywriting, Steve Krug, usability
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Seth Godin’s Admirable Approach to Marketing

February 18th, 2008

“If you buy my product but don’t read the instructions, that’s not your fault, it’s mine.
If you read a blog post and misinterpret what I said, that’s my choice, not your error.”

– from Seth Godin’s recent blog post – The posture of a communicator.

I like Seth’s approach to marketing. He doesn’t go looking for chances to blame a consumer for getting something wrong.

Not all marketers are as generous as Seth.

I’ve heard the opposite sentiment expressed by prominent web marketers, and it surprises me.

The “if the customer screws it up then it’s their problem” attitude is still prevalent among marketers.

Copywriters play a key part in taking a business message and passing it on (correctly) to the customer. One of the challenges of writing copy is making a message clear, concise and understandable by all.

Tags: copy, copywriting, honest marketing, Seth Godin
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What Makes a Great Copywriter?

February 16th, 2008

“What makes a good copywriter?”

This was one of the questions I was asked yesterday by Naomi Knight. She was interviewing me as part of a project for her digital media course.

My answer?

Curiosity
Business brain
Creativity

My rationale?

Curiosity Made the Copywriter

While copywriters can get away with being just an average writer, they really need to have a head that’s stuffed full of information. A natural curiosity about our world tends to leave a person with just such a stuffed head.

All those seemingly pointless facts come in handy when you’re writing copy about something weird.

Business Brain

Copywriters are business people, not artists. Writing copy is about selling products, persuading people and delivering messages effectively. It is not about beautiful prose and winning awards.

To write copy well you need to understand your purpose. David Ogilvy’s On Advertising is a great book about advertising that hammers home this point.

Creativity

Foster creativity. If you want your brain to be creative, you have to feed it first. In my experience, ideas happen because there is something in your mind that leads you to another, brand new, thought.

Without that stock of knowledge or inspiration, you may find it hard to be brilliant.

And the rest…

Copywriters require a great many other skills to write great copy, but I think these three are the most essential. If you’re a copywriter or if you’ve worked with copywriters, please let me know what you consider to be classic copywriter traits (good or bad!).

Tags: copy, copywriter
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