Copywriting

Blog » Copywriting

Which Web Site Will Your Prospects Pick?

By Charlie Cook | September 7, 2005

Your surfing the web, looking for information to help you solve a problem. With a seemingly infinite number of sites to pick from your task is simple. You want to to scan sites as quickly as possible to determine whether they have the information, product or service that can help you. You want to minimize the amount of time you spend on each site and click on to the next web site until you find one that gets your full attention.

Your prospects do the same thing when they are searching for information online. If they can’t instantly see that you can help them solve their problem or have what they need, they’ll be gone to your competitors’ sites.

You’ve got just a second or two to grab their attention, to let them know you can help them.

What do you do when you come to a web site that leads with the company name, a welcome message or worse yet is titled “home page”? Do you spend the time looking down the page to find the information you want or do you skip to another web site that leads with a headline that specifically identifies your concern and promises the solution you are looking for.

If you want more prospects to stop at your web site you need to make it stand out from the crowd with your marketing message You need to discover how to use the copy and the web design to prompt prospects to contact you.
– Charlie Cook

How to Get Extra Mileage From Your Marketing

By Charlie Cook | August 26, 2005

If you have a headline or an add that pulls in prospects like a magnet, think about other ways to use it to bring in even more business.

Earlier this summer I wrote a 35 word newspaper ad for a client. The first week it ran their phone started ringing with interested prospects. Based on the success of the ad the client’s secretary took the lead copy and printed it on the back of their envelopes and sent out their monthly invoices. Days later the phone started ringing like crazy with even more work.

Have marketing copy that works? Use it again and again to attract more clients and increase your sales. Or if you need marketing copy to get your phone ringing off the hook, contact Charlie Cook at 1-800-795-1858.
– Charlie Cook

Revealed: The Secret to Writing Headlines That Sell

By Charlie Cook | August 25, 2005

During a vacation to Scotland this past week I noticed the following front page news,

“Revealed: The True Cost of Potholes”

Yes, revealed is a great word to use in your headlines. Unfortunately you’ll need to do more to get attention for your small busines than include the word revealed. Unlike the above headline you’ll want to include copy that motivates your prospects to read your marketing copy and to contact you.
– Charlie Cook

Why I’m No Longer an Advertising Skeptic …

By Charlie Cook | July 14, 2005

Ever run an ad or a send out a mailing and get hardly any response? I get calls daily from people who believe advertising can help their business generate leads and sales. What happens when they spend money on advertising? Too often, a whole lot of nothing.

Is advertising a waste of money?

I’m a skeptic about most things so when clients ask me to write ads for them I always wonder, will it work? I don’t want to embarrass myself by charging big money to write them an ad and then have it flop. So last month when a client called and wanted me to write a 35 word newspaper ad for their property management business, I was skeptical. Their current ad wasn’t generating a single response and I wasn’t sure if their target market was paying any attention.

I’d never written a marketing piece for a residential property management firm and didn’t want to embarrass myself. I bit the bullet and wrote the best 35 words I could come up with.

Did it work?

The only way to know whether an ad is any good, is to test it or at a minimum quantify the results. Three weeks after the ad began running in a couple of local papers I called my client for the good or bad news. I hadn’t heard a word from him since I’d delivered the ad copy so I was curious and concerned.

What news did my client have about the ad’s performance. In the first three weeks it had brought in a flood of inquiries resulting in nine new clients and $180,000 of additional revenue for the year. He been so busy handling the new business he hadn’t had a chance to call.

Now with those type of results its hard to be a skeptic about advertising!

How Do Prospects Read Your Ads?

By Charlie Cook | June 24, 2005

Want to see what your prospects see when they scan your ad or your web site’s homepage in 3-5 seconds in order to determine whether they are going to read the rest of it?

Before you launch an ad campaign pin your ad to the wall and step back, fifteen feet or so until you can barely read the words in the largest type. In the case of your web site moving back seven feet from your screen should suffice.

Which words do you see?

Do you see copy that appeals to what your prospect is looking for?

If you look at most small business web sites or ads, you’ll see the company name as the easiest to read item and then a phrase like “our top three priorities” or “we’re a …. company based in …”.

Most companies lose their prospects in the first 3-5 seconds with their ads and their web sites. Don’t make this small business marketing mistake!

Use your marketing copy, your headline and the words that appear below it to grab your prospect’s attention, get them to understand why they need your products and services and to contact you. Find out how to write a marketing message that gets results or use a business marketing expert to write your marketing copy for you so that your ads and your web site do what you want them to, help you grow your business.

What Do I Do If I Don’t Have Time to Rewrite My Marketing Copy?

By Charlie Cook | April 27, 2005

You’ve got a web site, an ad or a brochure and you know it could be doing a better job of attracting prospects and converting them to leads but you’re too busy to fix it. What do you do? You could do nothing and you’d be leaving money lying on the floor. Or you could do something about it and get someone to rewrite your marketing copy so it follows the marketing strategy mapped out in 7 Steps to Attract More Clients.

Recently for a couple of clients I’ve been reworking their marketing copy so it does what they want it to, attract attention and prompt people to contact them. If you’re serious about improving your marketing but don’t have the time to do anything about it give me a call or send me an email describing your goals and the project you have in mind. – Charlie Cook

How Do I Create A Budget For Building My Site and My Web Site Marketing?

By Charlie Cook | April 4, 2005

“How do I create a budget for creating, marketing and operating a web site?” – Arthur Doglione

Here’s a brief overview of what to do to get your web site marketing in gear.

1. Identify the objectives for your site, what you want people to do when they visit it. Map out the steps you want them to take based on how people make purchasing decisions.

2. Identify the problems you solve for prospects.

3. Write your marketing copy, focusing on your prospects concerns.

4. Create a list of the tasks involved in building, marketing and maintaining your site, such as:
– url purchase and annual fees
– paying someone to build “design” your site
– purchase of sit graphics
– maintenace costs (who is going to regularly update the site?)
– site hosting fees
– if you plan to sell services or products include merchant card fees, online transaction fees and shopping card fees.
– if you plan on using a service to help you manage your list building and email broadcasts, include these fees too.
– identify how you plan on attracting people to your site, and the associated advertising costs.

5. Determine which of the above you will be doing yourself and which you plan to pay someone else to do.

Learn how to structure and write your web site to attract prospects, position your products and services and sell more with the manual I wrote for you detaiing how to build or fix your web site so it helps you grow your business. Use this link to order Creating Web Sites that Sell and use your web site marketing to be more successful.- Charlie Cook

How To Write Creative Marketing Newsletters?

By Charlie Cook | March 11, 2005

“How do I keep the ideas coming so I can continue writing creative newsletters?” – W.L.

My best source of ideas are my prospects and clients. Prospects send me questions, clients describe their concerns and problems. Each marketing question or problem posed provides the topic for a potential marketing article. Each time I get an inquiry or after talking to a client, I jot down any marketing ideas. Then when I sit down each Wednesday morning to write I have more than enough ideas to use. I may get a question about web site marketing or internet marketing, small business marketing strategy, writing a marketing plan, business networking or increasing sales with their web site. Each has the potential to become a marketing article or in this case the topic of a marketing blog. – Charlie Cook

Newer Posts »