It’s 10PM. What’s Your Copy Doing For You?
It's 10PM, where's your copy at? Better yet, what's it doing for you?
Earlier today, I was speaking with a client who is working on some sales collateral. It reminded me that it wasn't too long ago that on-demand information wasn't possible. If you wanted more information about a product, you had to make a call and then wait for a fax or even sales material in the mail. Yowza!
Today, of course, it's an entirely different story. If you see something you like in a magazine, or hear someone mention something that sounds interesting, you just hit the Web. A quick search yields exactly what you're looking for and you can easily read more about it and pull the trigger when you're ready to buy. All without picking up the phone or waiting on the mail. It's a miracle.
How's this relate to copywriting? Well, think about the process above. There's no personal interaction before the sale! The copy (along with an appealing web design and a decent e-commerce system) does the work for you. Well-written copy is a 24x7 silent workhorse.
Does your copy help seal the deal? Whether you're selling a back massager, high-end denim, cars or computers, your copy must help you sell the product. Is your copy helping or hurting business?
When you're ready for sales copy that works, contact me!
Esqueeze me?
Esqueeze me?
That's correct, I'm brave enough to open a post on squeeze page copywriting with a lame junior high pun.
I've noticed that IWriteCopy.com is attracting quite a few folks who are interested in hiring a copywriter for squeeze pages and landing pages.
As you can imagine, copy for squeeze pages and CPA landing pages is extremely important. You have a instant to grab someone's attention and entice them to read on. Once you've hooked them into reading on, you have to convince them to act -- whether it's requesting information, buying your product or something altogether different.
If you're new in the game, you may not even know where to start. Don't worry, you've come to the right place! Sure, I've worked with some of the largest ad networks and marketers, but I've also worked with one-guy operations. If you're new to this space, don't worry, I can walk you through it. (If you haven't yet picked a designer, I'm a partner in a company that specializes in this type of work and we can provide turnkey squeeze pages, landing pages and mini-sites. Visit INeedSales.com for more info.)
If you've found this page hoping to find tips for writing your own squeeze page copy, I really don't recommend it. If you're paying to market or advertise your product, your squeeze pages deserve high-quality copy that sells product.
Long form copy vs. short form copy? I do both. I feel that long form copy is better for certain products and categories while power-written short form copy can drive sales for other products and categories.
If you're looking for a professional squeeze page copywriter, contact me!
Update your copy for Spring
Birds are chirping. Tulips are blooming. Spring is springing.
What a wonderful time to dust the cobwebs off the copy on your website, corporate brochure or other sales copy!
Sure, everyone talks about "spring cleaning" around the house...but what has that sort of spring cleaning ever gotten you? A happier spouse? A cleaner garage? More room? Let's run with that one for a minute...
More room. More space to be filled with new stuff. How are you going to afford that new stuff if your website and corporate brochure aren't pulling in business like they used to?
That's right, without money-making copy on your website and corporate brochure, all of your spring cleaning at home will be for naught. Who wants to spring clean in vain? Certainly not you.
One quick e-mail to yours truly for a copy tune-up and you can make sure that your house stays full of stuff.
Who can argue with that logic?
Bringing tech copy to life
During college I spent a good chunk of time finding exciting ways to describe hard drives. Since then, I've had a soft spot in my heart for tech. I did more than just write about hard drives during that gig, but at the time external hard drives were that company's bread and butter. Finding exciting ways to differentiate them -- and keep them entertaining -- was a challenge.
I received my first national exposure during that stint -- I wrote the copy for a double page spread for a new computer that ran in several national publications. I also learned quite a bit, not the least of which was that catalog and technology copy can be fun...and that if done right, "fun" can translate into big sales.
I went on to found Drinkspecials.com, a nightlife destination. A couple years later, I then co-founded VendingAuction.com, a business to business site that enabled vending companies to liquidate excess inventory. (As far as I know, it's defunct now -- but I cashed out before that happened.) Around that time, I co-founded BillMyClients.com, which currently processes half a billion dollars worth of invoices each year.
I've spent a great amount of time in consumer packaged goods and promotions, but I know what MTBF stands for. I also know how to set up and administer a web server, be it Windows/IIS or Linux/Apache based (Ubuntu, preferably). Couple my technology experience with my writing background and you've got a geek translator. Literally.
If you need a seasoned technology writer, drop me a line -- I'd love to discuss your project!
Spring: The Season. Not an NCAA trademark. Yet.
Ah, Spring. Birds, a greening lawn and plenty of trademark confusion.
Having worked for a number of clients who wanted to run promotions centered around the NFL's "big game" in February and the college basketball tournaments in March, it's always been a -- oh heck, let's call it a "big dance" -- around trademarked terms for those clients who don't have rights to use those terms. (And much too easy for those that have "earned" the right to use those trademarked terms.)
Sure, "Super Bowl" and "Final Four" are trademarks. It wouldn't get past legal at most places, but I usually see at least one of these sneak into at least one local ad of some sort where they don't belong almost every year.
The Super Bowl is one thing, but what chaps my hide sometimes is that all of the fun March terms are also trademarked. The NCAA and its cohorts are all about generating as much revenue as possible off of every fun phrase you can think of.
If you're a professional writer reading this, you're already well aware. If you're not, well, try to steer clear of reusing anything you see or hear on CBS in any form. March Madness, the Big Dance, you name it -- they're trademarks of the NCAA. Well-protected trademarks.
Interested in some background on the cases surrounding some of this stuff? I was. Ever since I learned that Dumpster was a trademark for a mobile garbage collection bin, I started paying closer attention to these things. (Believe it or not, that's one of the most memorable nuggets of knowledge I took away from J-School). I still shed a tear when I see a cub reporter use the lowercase form of the word.
Learn the history of the Dumpster (Yes, it still garners capitalization per the AP, but you'll likely won't suffer the wrath of the legal gods for using or misusing it.)
In 2003, the trademark "March Madness" survived a genericness challenge. (Interesting history on that one -- it was in use back in 1939, before the formation of the NCAA.) "The Big Dance" -- don't even think about it.
Here's a list of all currently trademarked NCAA terms. Here's a link to the NCAA trademark protection program page. (As of this posting, the link is to a page on their site with the file name "ambush.html" -- and you can probably expect to feel ambushed should you misuse one of their trademarks.)
This March, protect your assets and don't use any of the NCAA's trademarked terms unless you or your client has the proper clearance!
A day in the life of a writer.
I've tried to make sure that my clients are diverse -- I'd go crazy if I wrote the same things day in and day out.
For example, today I wrote copy to be used in a client's proposal template, reviewed & researched a request from an agency to provide written promotion concepts for a popular snack cracker (which also happens to be my favorite snack cracker), edited copy for a landing page and carefully crafted a couple pages of drop-in flyer copy for an anti-hair loss product.
Diverse is good.
Let me Americanize Your Sales Copy!
These days it's fairly common for American companies to outsource overseas. What many people don't realize is that sometimes those foreign companies outsource here too.
The last couple of years, I've had an increase in requests from overseas companies who want to do business with American companies and need a little help making sure their sales copy reads the right way.
Take an India-based software company, for example. It's a top-notch development company doing business with quite a few Fortune 500 firms. They have their own writing staff -- and they're solid. The trouble is that as good as they are, English isn't their first language. When they write sales copy, it's pretty good. An American businessperson could read it and understand it just fine. However, the copy might strike them as a little awkward -- a few misused words here and some colloquial language there.
To present the best image companies like the one in the example above send their copy to an American writer like me. I'm able to take the copy that their writers have put together and give it a solid once over. If a paragraph wouldn't make sense to an American reader, I'll re-write it. If I find a colloquialism that an American reader wouldn't understand, I change it. The result: Clear, compelling copy that's ready for an American audience.
Do you need an American writer to edit and "Americanize" your copy? Don't take any chances -- contact me at john@johnlaing.com for a free analysis of your needs.
