90s week: What the 90s taught us about copywriting | Day 5
Day 5! We’re almost finished!
“Happy happy joy joy!”
Feeling better about things? Ready to get jiggy with your web copy? Did you inhale?
Yeaaa, I’m gonna need you to go ahead and give me need a call to action.
Smash Mouth – Walking On the Sun
So don’t delay act now supplies are running out
Allow if you’re still alive six to eight years to arrive
And if you follow there may be a tomorrow
But if the offer is shun you might as well be walkin’ on the sun
Act now!
Tell me what to do next.
Pick your top objectives – for your website, for each web page….for your entire marketing campaign.
When beginning a new project for a client, they’ll often tell me their goal is “to get more traffic.”
Well, why? What do you want to do with that traffic?
- Get more blog subscribers?
- Sell more ebooks?
- Receive more inquiries?
- Take more bookings?
- Build a mighty empire?
To get from here to there, you need to tell your readers what action to take next.
Use words that leave the control in their hands – and emphasise those precious benefits over & above the distasteful task of spending money. Create a believable sense of urgency, based on the reader’s need to solve his/her problem starting now.
Basic rule?
If you’ve seen it or heard it in an infomercial: leave it the hell alone.
As for you, my homeys, I’d like to help you put into action anything discussed this week.
Only one thing left to say:
(oh, you knew it was coming)
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
90s week: What the 90s taught us about copywriting | Day 4
Day 4 – Writing for the web
Wannabe – Spice Girls
If you wanna get with me, better make it fast
Now, don’t go wasting my precious time
Get your act together, we could be just fine
To review our lessons so far:
Day 1 – Give it away
Give content and useful knowledge away for free, interested paying parties will follow quality
Day 2 – Don’t be a dinosaur
Boring product? Make it interesting and project your personality
Day 3 – Use description well
Help me to imagine it, throw in some benefits
Today:
Got something to say? Make it snappy.
Get on with it. You’ve got 7 seconds to pull off all of the above.
An average visitor will hit up your site and decide whether or not to peace out in 7 seconds or less.
Busy readers. Don’t read books.
Check your website’s bounce rate.
“Must go faster! Must go faster!”
- Write for scanning
- Cut adjectives
- Bullets are good
- Bold words – in moderation – are best
Your readers are busy
Long, flowery copy in dense paragraphs? As if.
How YOU doin’? See you back here tomorrow – same time, same place. Go feed your Tamagotchi.
90s week: What the 90s taught us about copywriting | Day 3
Day 3 – Use description well
Barenaked Ladies – One Week
Chickity China the Chinese chicken
You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin
Watchin X-Files with no lights on,
We’re dans la maison
I hope the Smoking Mans in this one
Like Harrison Ford Im getting Frantic
Like Sting Im Tantric
Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy
Whether or not I need your product or service – or you just hope that I do – I probably have no imagination and care to try very little. You (website) are here to help me (reader). Want me to see what you see? Put the words in my mouth and the picture in my head.
Use a story!
“…and this one time, at band camp…”
Use a metaphor (your own)
“Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Use catchy, memorable description
“Buns of steel” vs. “a firm behind”….
Use benefits!
“The very best thing of all! There’s a counter on the ball! So try to beat your very best score! See if you can jump a whole lot more!”
Describe the feature, then list the benefits in ways a reader can visualise.
Feature:
“Our spa has 10 pedicure stations.”
Feature + benefit:
“Our spa has 10 pedicure stations, so you can enjoy a bottle of wine and a girly movie with your closest friends while your toes get hot to trot.”
A straight features list is, like, so what-ev-er!
- Make it memorable
- Love your audience and describe what they love best.
Hey…hey, guess what?
Your mom! Tomorrow’s post is smarter than Steve Urkel – except not annoying.
Don’t go postal, man – here’s some more:
Textbook stuff! “Features vs. benefits”
90s week: What the 90s taught us about copywriting | Day 2
Day 2 - Put the ‘grrrrrrrr’ in ’swinger,’ baby, yeah!
The Offspring – Pretty Fly For a White Guy
You know it’s kind of hard
Just to get along today
Our subject isn’t cool
But he fakes it anyway
He may not have a clue
And he may not have style
But everything he lacks
Well he makes up in denial
If you’re lucky, your product or service has a little sparkle about it. If you’re most people, you lose your audience in seconds. What you do, sell or offer – quite frankly – bores other people. Blah freakin’ blah!
Take Ross, above. A PhD in paleontology. His friends just know “dinosaurs”. To them, dinosaurs are boring – he never put a twist on it. No sex, no drama, no hook – nothing.
Age-old adage, take 1: “It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it.”
Start with the headline – and make it snappy. Raise da roof!
These are posts currently waiting in my Google Reader:
- How to Become a Copywriter
- What You Need to Know About Online Copywriting
- Words to Avoid in Web Copywriting
- Five Good Tips for Successful Copywriting
You did not have me at hello – they all sound really, really boring.
They might have useful info, but it’s just not worth finding out.
So is your subject cool? Make it cool.
Are you pretty fly? Show us. Da bomb? Prove it.
A bit of humour, personality, humanity – we’re dying for it!
Everyone else is writing it straight and playing it safe.
A blog’s a great way to let your hair down and have fun – nowhere better demonstrated than on Twisted Oak Winery’s blog. Make sure to ogle their rubber chickens.
They’re a small winery in California. Whether or not you’ve heard of them, after a quick read of their blog you won’t just add it to your RSS feed, you’ll send it to your mom for a laugh and, next time you pick up a bottle, you’ll look for their label.
“Wine, wine, other wine, expensive wine….funny rubber chicken wine!”
Never underestimate the power of personality. It’s not that Twisted Oak invented anything new – people being stupid with rubber chickens has been a sport since Ross’ dinosaurs roamed – it’s that they’re doing it and you’re missing out on the fun.
There’s a time and a place, yep, and if you’re in a serious field – come through for your readers in a blog. I’ll even hold your hand and write it for you.
You love what you do – make us love it, too. Could I BE any more clear?
Allllrighty then! Tomorrow? More wholesome than a Danny Tanner bedside chat. Hurry back.
Related – and equally FLY – posts:
90s week: What the 90s taught us about copywriting | Day 1
Some days, it all gets a bit overwhelming. The world won’t stop tweeting.
I can’t sum it up better than Drew Barrymore in a recent movie monologue:
“She calls at home but he doesn’t pick up. She calls on his cell, and he e-mails her. She texts him. He Twitters back and leaves coded hints on MySpace. She tries snail mail. He apparently never learned how to open one. She yearns for the days when people had one telephone and one answering machine, and a guy had either definitely called you, or he had not.”
Likewise the copywriter’s headache.
- Did you write for people?
- Did you write for a novice reader, unfamiliar with the subject?
- Does it equally interest an expert?
- Did you write for Google robots?
- Can it easily be scanned and digested?
- Is it properly broken into sections with applicable sub-headings?
- Did you make it interesting?
- Did you make it believable?
- Did you build trust and confidence in the brand?
- Is it search engine optimised?
- Do the internal and external links use the best keywords in their anchor text?
- Did you use long and short form keywords for best effect?
- Did you use a good mix of competitive keywords for ideal results?
- Did you include a call to action?
- Is the grammar perfect?
- Are there any typos?
- Does it seep character, wit, delirious charm?
- Have you dropped as many classic 90s movie quotes as possible?
Houston, we have a problem. With those voices in my head, I don’t need real friends. The many demands on a web copywriter and the flawless copy she must produce can leave her yearning for a simpler time. The 90s.
Stunned to realise that we’re hurtling towards the teens, there’s never been a better time to reflect – Matchbox 20 playing in the background – on what the 90s taught us about great copywriting and online marketing.
1 crucial lesson coming every day this week – add this to your feed or check back daily.
It’s totally gonna suck. NOT!
Day 1 – Give it away
Give it Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Give it away, give it away, give it away, now.
Give it away, give it away, give it away, now.
Give it away, give it away, give it away, now.
Give it away, give it away, give it away, now.
Content marketing 101.
WAAZZZAAAAAAAAAAP. If you write it, they will come. Who will come? First Google, then visitors, then their friends, then the random people who find you through links….
Got pages of dope content? They show you believe in what you’re offering. SEOMoz is a great example. The site’s got an amazing blog, heaps of leading SEO industry info and lots of brilliant tools.
They make the bulk of their money through paid, professional subscriptions to SEO tools – and they’re not cheap. You wouldn’t just show up and fork over $80, so how to convince the buyer? Give [lots of other things] away. Once you’ve tried all their free tools and realise you can’t live without them….then you’re a willing buyer.
Likewise your content. Write it – or hire me to do so. Someone in your industry is going come through with the goods – why not mop up the ‘best in class’?
Deliver more than you need to, every day. Just leave it out, on a plate. “Help yourself.” If you deliver it, they will trust you, like you, buy from you.
***
Tomorrow’s 90s week post will be more fun than Kelly Kapowski at a pep rally – see you then!
Goooooo Bayside! Word to your mother.
Day 2 - Put the ‘grrrrrrrr’ in ’swinger,’ baby, yeah!