Copywriting Tips that Can Make or Break Your Marketing Campaign

Copywriting, Web Design, ,

Copywriting is the one skill which all online business owners should learn. As an online marketer you communicate through words – if those words aren’t effectively conveying your message, then you’re in for a long and bumpy ride or a short drive off a cliff!
Here are a few copywriting tips to help you get started:

1. Know your Target Market – Good copywriters know exactly who they’re writing for before starting. They speak directly to ONE person and keep that same person in mind at all times. If you try to reach too many people with your copy you’ll end up missing your target altogether and not reaching anyone at all. Before starting, know exactly who you’re writing your copy for and stick to it.

2. Headlines that Intrigue – Use clear headlines throughout your copy to guide the reader. Your main headline should be in bold and large letters to grab the reader’s attention. It is often the headline which can either make or break your copy. Use a benefit-focused headline, which explains in powerful detail how you can help solve the customer’s problem. Then use sub-headlines throughout the copy to keep the reader intrigued so they will keep reading.

3. Don’t use Big Words – Online writing is different to the writing you did in English class. Throw out the text book and forget all those rules your teacher taught you. Online writing is casual and needs to convey emotion and a clear purpose. You need to speak to the person as though you’re sitting down with them and chatting over a coffee… stay away from big words and long adjectives or risk boring (and losing) your prospects!

4. Be Persuasive – If you love your product that’s great but it’s also a bit biased. Your customers want to hear from other unbiased people who have used your product. Include customer testimonials but not just any testimonial will do, the more information you can include the better. Try to include the person’s full name, city, state, website URL and if possible a picture of that person. The more information your testimonial includes the more persuasive and believable.

5. It’s not all about you! – In fact, it’s not about you at all. Effective copywriting is concerned with the needs of the customer. The writer doesn’t really matter… Of course, you may need to add a little personal information about yourself in order to gain trust and to explain why your customer should trust you, but even in this case it’s all about what you can do for them. Go through your copy, does it contain a lot of “I’s” then it’s time for a serious re-write. Go back and change most of those “I’s” to “You’s”. Your writing should always be about the customer.

6. Don’t forget the call – The call to action that is. You must guide your visitors and tell them what you expect them to do. If you want them to click over and purchase your weight loss product, say so, and say so in a clear way which promotes all the benefits of your products “Click here to learn how you can lose those last 10 pounds and keep it off for good” . You may want to “Twitclick” the hypertext to track its performance. If it is a brochure, flyer or self mailer I recommend you have a special splash page made to drive visitors to and use a free google analytics tool to see the ROI of your campaign.
Above all be precise in your wording and always include a clear call to action. If you can’t invest the time to write or lack the talent to do so hire a copywriter. It’s the best investment in advertising that you can make!

By Peter Marino

Keyword Research is Key to SEO that Works

Copywriting, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design, , ,

When you say the words “keyword search” to most internet marketers you’ll get one of two responses. You’ll see them groan and shudder or you’ll simply see them shrug their shoulders. The fact of the matter is that many don’t know how to or have never taken the time to do a little keyword research. It’s not difficult and the information can be invaluable. Once you know what keywords your audience is using to find relevant information, you can position your company so they the find you instead of your competition.

The first step in any keyword research project is to come up with a few words to start with. You can pull them out of the air, do a bit of brainstorming – what do you think your clients might be using to find your business? You can check your Google analytics to see what they’re using or you can check the meta data on your competition’s websites to see what keywords they’re using. Pretty sneaky, right?

Once you have a handful of words to start with the next step is to choose your keyword research tool. They’re in abundance so you’re not stuck with the first one you land on. Google and Yahoo both offer keyword research tools and there are tools you can subscribe to like wordtracker.com.  Make sure if you’re choosing one which you have to pay for, that they offer a free trial so you can make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

Once you’re in the tool of your choice the next step is to plug in one of your beginning keywords to create some results. For example, let’s say you’re creating a surf instruction school and hunting for keywords to optimize your website. You may use ‘surf instruction’ for your beginning keywords.
You hit enter and now you have anywhere from 10 to 10,000 more keywords. Some have potential and some do not. Look for keywords which have good popularity. Meaning they’re used often. Yes some people may use the words ‘riding the waves’ but if only a handful are using those keywords they’re not going to generate much in the way of traffic or profits.

You’ll also want to look for keywords which don’t have a lot of competition. That doesn’t mean you don’t use the words “surf instruction” to optimize your website if that is the single most popular keyword phrase people use to find surf schools however if everyone is using that keyword to optimize their website it might be difficult for you to rise to the top of the rankings – which is ultimately the goal.

If you’re searching for keywords to use for search engine advertising then it will also be important to pay attention to the cost of the keyword or keyword phrase. It’s easy to blow an ad budget in a day with the wrong keyword! Not all keyword tools provide this information. If you’re going to be using search engine advertising, use that search engine’s keyword tool to generate results.

Keywords change over time so it pays to make keyword research a regular process. Some business owners are fastidious and are often looking for the next best keyword phrase, while others prefer to analyze their SEO on a quarterly or annual schedule. Take the time to make sure you’re optimizing your site and do a little keyword research – it’s really not so bad.

By Peter Marino

Article Marketing: Reprint vs. PLR Articles

Copywriting, SEO,

Article marketing should be an essential part of your SEO and social media marketing strategies. Why? Article marketing brings expert status to the writer and increases your ranking on the search engines by allowing back-links to your website and for others to link to your domain. It also allows you to insert important search keywords into your content that can potentially generate more traffic.
There are three ways of performing article marketing:

1. Reprinting another author’s content with their permission;
2. buying content from a private label rights publisher; or
3. writing your own content.

Ofcourse writing your own content has the potential to work best for you, however, if you’re like most people you may find it difficult to find the time and/or lack the talent for writing good content from scratch. With that in mind, we’ll list the pros and cons of PLR and reprints:

– reprints come with a bio box and must be printed as is with author name and crediting (doing nothing for your expert status)

– PLR comes print ready and is able to be adapted to your needs.

– reprints are often link seekers so you need to be choosy about what you use on your site so you don’t link to spam or junk fillers.

– both PLR and reprints can add value to your website when used properly and contain related content.

– PLR can be edited, added to, shortened or lengthened for many different content purposes such as your newsletter, blog posts, and website pages.

– reprint articles tend to be shorter than PLR articles.

– both types of articles save you time in content production and are easy to use.

– you can add affiliate links to the page using both types of content, although PLR is more easily adapted to affiliate link sales .

– PLR articles tend to be more detailed and can be modified to be more or less lengthy.

– you can adjust PLR for specific keyword content on your site, where as with a reprint you are hitting the keywords the author chose. With a reprint you also risk getting banned or downgraded in search engine ranking by Google for duplicate content.

By Peter Marino

YouTube as a Marketing Tool

Social Media Marketing, , , , ,

YouTube has only been online for a few short years, but it has quickly become one of the hottest destinations on the Internet. Once a little-used medium due to slow Internet connections, the widespread use of broadband has made online video a popular attraction. YouTube is one of the first sites to have been built around online video, and its ease of use and variety of videos has made it extremely popular.

Marketers were quick to catch on to the possibilities presented by YouTube. They began to create “viral videos”, clips that were intended to draw interest and spark widespread distribution. YouTube’s embed feature allows anyone to place videos on their blog or website, so by creating funny or informative videos, marketers could spread their message far and wide.

Any online marketer can harness the power of YouTube to promote his products, services and website. Here are some types of videos that tend to do well:

* Popular commercials – If you have a television commercial that has brought you lots of business, putting it on YouTube can get you more mileage out of it. And best of all, you don’t have to pay for airtime.

* How-to videos – While some Internet users just want to be entertained, many of them come online looking for information. How-to videos allow them to see how something is done rather than just reading about it. Businesses capitalize on this by producing videos about how to do things that relate to their products or services.

* Video from special events – If you’ve held or participated in a conference, seminar or other special event, posting a video of it on YouTube could get you lots of traffic. So don’t forget to take your video camera along!

* Funny videos – Lots of Internet users visit YouTube when they need a good laugh. If you can whip up a funny video that features your products or services, there’s a good chance that it could be highly rated and go viral.

A frequent mistake of YouTube marketers is just uploading their video and hoping for the best. Here are some simple steps you can take to increase your video’s chances of success.

* Take care to put your video in the right category, and make full use of tags. Add tags that describe your business and products, as well as the video’s subject matter. This will help users find your video more easily.

* Write a good description that contains keywords that one might use to find your video. Also, be sure to include your site’s URL in the description. Always include audio in your video as well!

* Be sure to allow embedding, comments and ratings. Allowing others to embed your video will give it more exposure. Making it possible for them to comment will generate discussion, which is also good for your video’s success. And allowing ratings could put you higher in YouTube’s search rankings if people like your video.

YouTube is an invaluable marketing tool. It gives businesses the opportunity to use the popularity of online video to their advantage. Anyone can create a video with Windows Movie Maker and upload it to YouTube, so why not give it a try if you haven’t already?

By Peter Marino