Copywriters: You can’t bully your prospects into saying Yes.

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copywriters shouldn't bullyAs a copywriter you are placed in an adversarial position with your readers.

This happens whether you like it or not.

The relationship is adversarial because you are trying to get your reader to change in some way. Change their brand of toothpaste. Change their diet. Change the software they use. Change the coffee they drink. And so on.

It is our job as copywriters to drive a change in behavior. Or, if you are writing to existing customers, it’s our job to prevent change from happening.

Either way, there is an adversarial element to the relationship.

If you don’t think there is anything adversarial about trying to persuade someone to change a behavior, pause for a moment and think about the last time you tried to make your spouse or one of your kids change their behavior.

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Whatever you’re selling, imagine you know nothing about it.

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don't assume reader knowledgeOne of the things every copywriter learns is to do plenty of research.

Whatever the product or service you are selling, you need to dig deep and learn everything about it…before you start writing your sales copy.

If you don’t know…and I mean REALLY know…what you are trying to sell, your sales copy will feel thin and lacking in any persuasive oomph.

I experienced this myself recently while reading a draft written by a youngish copywriter. The copy felt thin. I didn’t get a deep, reassuring feeling for the product being sold. So I emailed the copywriter and asked him about the research he had done before putting pen to paper.

It turned out that he had simply worked from the information provided by the client and had done no additional research of his own. And that was a bit silly, because the client had provided contact information for the person who created the product. The client had assumed the writer would get in touch with this person and grill him for more information. Didn’t happen.

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Make your online sales copy LOOK like it’s easy to read.

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easy to read copywritingThe best copywriting in the world won’t work if people don’t read it.

And people won’t read your copy if it looks “hard” to read.

In other words, the structure and visual design of your copy can make it or break it.

Often when I look at an online sales page the headline is too long, or the opening paragraph is too long. Or the first three paragraphs are all too long.

The outcome? The page looks like hard work. The appearance of the first screen of text signals that the reader is going to have to take a deep breath and really concentrate. They are going to have to commit to working their way through the text. Like reading a text book at school.

Bad move.

Sales pages that look like hard work are created by people who misunderstand the nature of people’s attention online.

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Impress your clients by asking about audience segmentation.

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audience segmentsYou are about to start writing an online sales page.

Your client has given you the briefing information you need. You know all about the product or service you are going to be selling. And you also have some information on the demographics of your audience.

Let’s say the demographic information is reasonably complete. You know that prospective buyers are between the ages of 18 and 65, with the bulk of buyers being in the 35-50 age group. Most own their own homes. 65% female and 35% male.

Hopefully you can now form a picture of your buyers in your mind, and write your sales copy in a way that will resonate with them.

But hang on.

Just because you have that demographic information and know who you are writing to doesn’t mean that everyone in the target audience will respond the same way to your sales copy.

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When a freelance niche appears to be too narrow, but isn’t.

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narrow freelance nicheI’m a big fan of choosing a niche when you set up as a freelance writer or copywriter.

By that I mean that you should not set up as a generalist: “Hi, my name is Nick and I can write your direct mail, your social media, your White Papers, your video scripts and more…across every industry imaginable from the fashion world to industrial fastenings, and everything in between!”

If I did that I would be perceived as a generalist, a jack of all trades and master of none. How can people see me as an expert if I claim to be “expert” at everything?

It’s far better if you decide to become a true expert within a defined niche.

You can niche yourself by industry, “I serve companies in the consumer electronics industry.” Or by writing skill, “I write shareable content for the web and for social media.”

Do that and your prospective clients will know what you do, and choose you over other freelancers because you are an expert in your particular specialty.

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But who writes the homepage?

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fight for homepageThere are copywriters for copy, and content writers for content…but who writes a website’s homepage?

There is no doubt that writers and copywriter are in demand.

With the explosive growth of web content marketing and social media, a lot of words need to be written. Not to mention all those sales pages and landing pages. And the emails and newsletters.

So it’s no surprise that when you do some Google searches for words and terms like copywriter and “content writer” you get a lot of results.

Here’s what I found today on Google

copywriter – 13,800,000 results

“content writer” – 4,180,000 results

There is plenty of supply and demand when it comes to copywriting and web content writing.

Which brings us to my key question…who writes the homepage?

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