Category Archives: Copywriting for Small Business Owners

As a small business owner, writing is not necessarily your first (or your best) skill.  Reading these posts on copywriting for small business owners can help. One of the most important lessons is the best ways to spark your readers’ interest.  You’ll find out how to write great headlines, and why actual writing isn’t always necessary.  Since the headline is the first thing people notice, it’s important to use one that’s compelling.

You’ll also discover whether it’s better to sell using emotions or logic. In addition, these posts will teach you how to use emotional triggers and fascinations to write more persuasive copy.

Plus, you’ll learn techniques for structuring your sales letter or landing page to make sure you get attention, grow desire, and ask for the sale.

And, you’ll find out the deadly copywriting mistakes that are nearly guaranteed to make you lose a sale. Don’t make them!

7 Calls To Action You Should Be Using

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Calls to Action

Are your readers looking at your site but not clicking or buying? If not, you may need a “call to action.” What’s a call to action?  Read on to find out, get some call to action examples, and  learn how they work.

The best call to action

It may sound silly, or obvious, but if you really want people to do something you need to ask them first. It’s what copywriters call a “call to action.”

It’s simply a request to do something. It could be trying to get a reader to download a pdf, buy a product, or subscribe to your newsletter.

You can spend a lot of time and effort tweaking your calls to action to see which works best.  The first rule, however, is simply to have one.

Why calls to action are important

Because they ask someone do do something. And, oddly, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

It’s not necessary to be pushy, just clear and obvious. The goal is to encourage people to click (or call, or mail back a response).

You’ve gone through a lot of trouble to write an irresistible headline, outline the benefits of your service, and make an offer they can’t refuse. But, it will all be wasted without a call to action.

Call to action examples

“Ask for a free quote today”

“Join Now”

“Start My Free Trial”

“Start Now”

“Download Demo”

“Sign Up Here”

or even the much maligned “Click here” (which, incidentally, works really well for people, even if search spiders don’t like it).

Be clear about what people should do

For example, tell them exactly what to do (click here), explain what will happen next (your download will start), and stress the importance of doing it right now (not two days from now).

Your readers are busy, possibly a little nervous (will this work? will downloading hurt my computer?), and easily distracted. Get them to act quickly – before Joe from accounting comes over with a question about last month’s timesheets.

Test your calls to action

Don’t just stick with one. Try different variations and test them against each other to see which works best. You can use Google’s Website Optimizer (free) to do this.

Test the colors, size, position on the page, or wording. See which gets more clicks.

Using more than one button? For example, you might have a subscribe button as well as a read more button. Make the subscribe button bigger or a different color than the other buttons on your site.  It’s the most important action to take and you want to make sure it stands out.

A Copywriting Tip from Graffiti

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Graffiti, Lower East Side, NYC

Image via Wikipedia

We New Yorkers love to express ourselves (shocking, I know). We’re noisy, opinionated, and like to let everyone know it.

Graffiti is everywhere, but if you put up something in this town, you’d better be prepared for wisecracks, kibbitzing, and takedowns.

For example, here’s a sample of graffiti spotted on a subway platform long ago:

I LOVE BELA!

Underneath that, someone wrote

Bartok? Lugosi? or Abzug?

One was a composer, the second starred in horror movies, and the third was a member of congress (famous for her big hats and her wit).

Clarity matters

When you’re marketing your business, there are three things you need to do:

1) tell the right people about your business

2) set yourself apart from your competition

3) be clear about what you do (and what you don’t do)

Don’t confuse your prospects

Otherwise, your readers could end up with horror movies when they wanted music.  Or staring at a gallery of hats when they were looking for zombies. They may like both (but they may not).

Before you hit that button, launch that site, or push that email campaign, show it to someone who hasn’t been directly involved in the project. It’s best if they closely match your target audience, but any smart person will do.

Ask them if they understand your product or your page.  If anything puzzles them, ask them why and how you can make everything clearer.

Confused readers and prospects won’t buy from you.  They’ll just click away, close their email, or turn the page.

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Editing Copy

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tom bentley style guideI hate typos. And editing flubs. And garbled sentences that look like they spent too much time in the spin cycle. If you hate them too, get your hands on Tom Bentley’s spiffy new style and editing guide. It includes:

  • how to write error-free copy
  • common grammar mistakes that make you look silly
  • the five essential stages of editing (with checklists!)
  • an old editing trick you may not know

Buy your copy  here.

Use A/B Split Testing to Write Better Copy

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Flickrballs

Image by Yodel Anecdotal via Flickr

Would you like to improve your copywriting ? You can.  And, you don’t necessarily have to write a single word.

There’s an old technique we use in direct mail (the kind with paper) that also works on the web. You can do it with copy, a button color, the wording on your call-to-action; anything you like.

Do a split-test

It’s called an A/B split. Essentially what you do is you divide your list into two pieces: A then B, then A, then B (etc.)

One thing at a time

Then you test something. Just ONE thing at a time. It could be a different headline. Or, a different call to action. Online, or in an email newsletter, it might be text link copy. Whatever you choose to test, the idea is to see which one gets a better result.

This could be more clicks, more orders, phone calls, whatever your goal is. The version with the most clicks (or orders) wins!

There are paid tools to do this (such as Unbounce), or you can use Google’s Website Optimizer (which is free).

Select something to test

Say you want to test a “buy now” button (A) against a “free demo” one (B) You make two web pages, one with each button. Then you tell Google (or whatever tool you use) to alternate which version people see when they visit your site. The first visitor gets a page with version A (the buy button). The second gets version B (the free demo one), the third gets A, etc.

When you have enough data, you check to see which version did better. Then, if you like, you can run the winner against a third version, to see if the results hold up.

One thing to remember is to make sure you have enough data before you stop the test, or declare a winner.  You’ll need two more tools for this.

The first is a sample size calculator.  This will show you how many responses you need before you have a valid result.

The second is a tool to calculate the statistical significance of your results and declare a winner.  You plug in the number of visitors for each page, add the number of conversions (whatever you decide a conversion is) and look to see which had a better result.

Why split test at all?

We often think we “know” which one is better.  Oh, the button that says “buy now”! Or, definitely the button that says “Free Demo” will beat “30-Day Trial.”  Guessing can be wrong.  Experience can be wrong.  Often, the version you think is best  isn’t.  What works for one company, or even for one product, may not work for another.  The only way to know for sure is to test it.

Three Quick Ways to Write Great Headlines

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Men and a woman reading headlines posted in st...

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

David Ogilvy said that ““On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

When writing copy, he spent most of his time writing the headline.

Why spend so much time on a few words?

Because the  headline is the most critical part of your article or ad.  That’s where the money is.

Write a crummy headline and nobody will look at the rest of your content.

Write a great one, and people will eagerly keep reading.

But how?

How to easily write great headlines

Luckily, there are some formulas for this. All you have to do is take one of them and fill in the blanks.

Use an extreme:

The 10 Worst _______,

The Five Biggest _______,

The Best ________

Use a number:

10 Ways to _____________,

27 Secrets of  ___________,

101 Free ____________.

Larger numbers are more likely to be bookmarked (who can read 101 Blogging Secrets all at once?)

Promise something useful:

How to ______________,

The Complete Guide to _____________.

While I was looking for a photo to illustrate this post, I found a photo with images of newspaper headlines trumpeting the success of the Salk vaccine, “The Salk Vaccine Works!”, “Polio Vaccine is Safe and Effective!” That was certainly great news, but it was poor headline writing.  Those headlines give the entire story away.  Once you see the headline, there’s no need to pick up the paper, or click the post to read the rest of the article. There’s no suspense!

Have you struggled with writing headlines?  Which do you spend more time writing? The headline or everything else?