Posts Tagged ‘copywriting’

Don’t Assume Your Customers Know What You, or “Everybody,” Knows!

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023

“You don’t pay unless we win!”

That’s the compelling marketing claim made by a large and very successful law firm. If you’re a consumer thinking about suing someone—an individual or a company—for a loss or injury you’ve received, such a no-risk offer would be compelling indeed.

But here’s the thing. (more…)

The Trouble With E-Mail “Sequence” Campaigns

Monday, April 24th, 2023

I was working with a client recently to develop an e-mail campaign that they wanted to send out to a list of prospects in a particular order. We were spending quite a bit of time discussing the order and the variation—and progression—in content for these emails.

And then it dawned on me!

(more…)

10 Copywriting Tips to Get Better Results

Thursday, November 3rd, 2022

Whether you’re writing a brochure, copy for a newspaper ad, a script for a radio announcement, or a page or blog for your web site, there are some tried and true techniques that can help you make sure that your copy gets the results you’re looking for.

Think about writing copy as making a sales pitch to a customer. Your goal is to persuade that customer to do something–most likely to purchase your product or service. Here’s how: (more…)

When You Make It All About You, You Lose

Tuesday, June 21st, 2022

Whenever I’m called upon to offer a critique on or advice about a company or consultant’s copy – whether it’s on a web site, in a brochure, an ad, a blog, or whatever – the first thing I do is read through the copy to see whether the focus is on “we/me” or “you/your.” Most of the copy I look at is the former. A quick, easy and relatively painless way to improve it (more…)

What Is Verisimilitude?

Tuesday, May 31st, 2022

Years ago I was fortunate to be able to work with one of the true gurus in the field of direct marketing copywriting—Herschell Gordon Lewis. A marketing genius, a horror-film writer! (he’s actually known for creating the “splatter film” sub-genre of horror, according to Wikipedia)— (more…)

What Are the Best Tips for Writing Great Copy?

Monday, May 9th, 2022

Whether you’re writing a brochure, copy for a newspaper ad, a script for a radio announcement, or a page or blog for your website, there are some tried and true techniques that can help you make sure that your copy gets the results you’re looking for.

Think about writing copy as making a sales pitch to a customer. Your goal is to persuade that customer to do something – most likely to purchase your product or service. Here’s how: (more…)

5 Quick Tips for Writing Headlines for Digital Marketing Efforts

Friday, September 3rd, 2021

In the newspaper business, the above-the-fold headline is a crucial aspect of grabbing a potential reader’s attention and enticing them to pick up the paper and read on. The same is true of online headlines – the hyperlinks that come up in a list when you search for something in a search engine. In addition to page ranking, an enticing headline is an important way to drive traffic to your site. With that in mind, here are some tips for generating great headlines. (more…)

Sometimes SEO, as We Typically Think of it, Just Doesn’t Matter!

Thursday, February 25th, 2021

I’ve written about search engine optimization (SEO) in the past and have gathered input from a wide range of content and digital marketing experts about the topic. As someone who was writing advertising copy long before SEO was “a thing,” I have kind of a love/hate relationship with the concept. Or maybe I should say a love/grudging respect for the concept. (more…)

It’s Time to Move Beyond TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021

I’ve been working as part of an agency team to create a white paper for a technology client and we’ve been having some back-and-forth discussion about the outline and direction the white paper will take. It was, according to the agency brief, initially envisioned as a “top of funnel” piece. After a review of the draft of the outline, though, one of the client reviewers indicated that she felt it was more “middle of funnel”—and an interesting exchange and spirited debate ensued. (more…)

The 3 “Must Knows” for Effective Content Marketing

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

It’s always challenging to come up with a list of “the top” anything. But, whatever the subject matter, it’s an interesting exercise. It requires stepping back to think strategically about what matters most. In this case, what matters most when it comes to content marketing. Having been engaged in content marketing for a number of years now, and having achieved a fair amount of success with our own and client accounts, we’d point to these as the “Three Must Knows” for effective content marketing. (more…)