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!

Simple or Complicated? Which Works Best in Copywriting for Websites?

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Image thanks to Rohan Baumann

When you’re writing copy for your website should you write simply and plainly? Or is it better to show off your mastery of industry jargon and use plenty of insider buzzwords?

In response to a post about writing great headlines, Zachariah wanted to know if you wrote a song, and couldn’t think of a title, would it be better to call it something like “greatest song ever” or give it a title that was more eloquent? Would that stand out more than a title that’s easy to read?

Should you show off your writing skills on your website?

It’s an easy trap, especially if you’re a writer and have a large vocabulary. You want to show off all those big words you worked so very hard to learn. All of them. From antidisestablishmentarianism to syzygy (that’s when three celestial objects are aligned) and Zoroastrian.

Adapt to your audience

For one thing, it’s best not to talk to surfers the way you’d talk to brain surgeons. “Dude, that’s one gnarly aneurysm.”

However, even if your audience is brain surgeons, they’re still people. Your headline and the words you use have to be easy to grasp and digest quickly.

Using long words or jargon or even puns, can make it harder for your readers to understand what you’re saying. If they can’t understand you, they won’t keep reading.  Instead, they’ll leave your landing page or your website and go look elsewhere for the information they want.

Speak to them directly

Don’t make it about you and your company.  Talk to your audience.  Use words such as “you” and ‘your” more than you use words like “we” and “our.”  Use a conversational tone (generally), and show sympathy for their problems.

Keep it simple

Going back to Zach’s imaginary song, it will get more listeners with a title like “I Gotta Be Me!” than it would with a name such as “Melodic Ruminations on a Theme of Personal Development and Growth.”

Make it easy as ABC, 1-2-3. Even if it’s hard. Reading it aloud can help.  If it’s hard to say, it’s probably hard to read.  Try it on a child. If she doesn’t understand you, go back to the drawing board.

What website copywriting tips do you have for keeping things simple? How do you overcome the “curse” of a large vocabulary?

Headline Writing Secrets Your Readers Can’t Resist

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reading the newspaper

Photo compliments of: inju

I can’t read the text, but that newspaper must be pretty interesting if he wants to read it while swimming. If you’d like your readers to be as hooked as he is, you’ll need to write great headlines to start your sales copy.

Here are some secrets for writing attention-grabbling headlines for your posts, your ads, or your emails.

Make them curious

Curiosity is bad for cats, but good for people. Write something odd, or unexpected, and your readers will want to find out more about it.

One way to do this is to put two or three things together in a new way. Or, combine subjects that don’t seem to belong together at all.

The Yogi Berra Marketing Guide
The only way to find out what in the world Yogi Berra has to do with marketing is to read the post.

The Pajamas, The Lizard Brain, and the Employee Manual. Certainly a strange combination.  The only way to find out what it’s about is to click the title.

Ask a question (without a clear answer)

Are You Reading These Blogs?
Do You Make This Common Marketing Mistake?
Why Are Clients Like Fish?

Asking a question that the reader can’t immediately answer arouses both interest and curiosity.

What are those common marketing mistakes anyway?  If you don’t read the post, you’ll never know.

And what the heck do clients have in common with fish?  There’s only one way to find out.

Make a big promise

The Number One Marketing Secret You Need to Know

What is this secret?  And how will it help me earn more or grow my business?  Tell people you’ve got secret, long-lost, or inside information about a topic of great interest.  Appeal to their desire for knowledge that most people don’t have. This makes people curious, and they’ll click through to satisfy that curiosity.
Try This Timeless Copywriting Technique

This promises another secret.  In this case, it’s a copywriting trick that you may not know, but that has been working for a long time. This lends credibility to the idea. If it’s timeless, it’s proven to work for others, and can work for you too.

Revealed: Why Clients Want to Make the Logo Big

Graphic designers and businesses have been fighting over logo size since the beginning of advertising. If you want your audience to read your article or post, use a headline that addresses something that really bothers them (and offer a solution).

The Truth About CAN-SPAM

Many marketers misunderstand the FTC CAN-SPAM rules.  Getting it wrong can be an expensive mistake. This article has valuable information that will keep you from making those mistakes.

Appeal to self-interest

Earn More Money by Giving Free Gifts

This headline sets up what seems to be a big contradiction. How can giving something away for free lead to more money? The only way to find out is to click the link.
15 Tips for Writing Emails That Make Money

This one appeals to a strong, common desire.  In this case, to earn more money from your marketing emails.  Who wouldn’t want to earn more money, especially if it’s from something you’re already doing.

Get Record-Setting Results in a Recession

This headline appeals to the desire to beat the odds.  We want to earn more, and we also want to know how we can do that when the economy is poor and it’s harder to get clients or sales.

Try these on your own posts. You’ll get headlines so good, your readers will want to take your work everywhere—even swimming.

Killer Copywriting Secrets

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killer copy ebookTired of spending hours writing blog posts and emails that nobody opens or reads?

Wish you knew the secrets of writing great copy?

My new ebook, Secrets of Writing Killer Copy can help fix that.

Read it and you’ll learn:

  • easy ways to write great headlines
  • tips for getting your sales letter off to a great start
  • a quick easy to use copywriting trick
  • the 7 deadly web copy mistakes
  • an old copywriting rule that still works

It’s a short, easy read without complicated jargon or tricks.  And, the ebook is absolutely free.  No obligation, no sign-up, and no registration required. All you have to do is click this link to download the pdf.

If you have a question, just email me (there’s a link at the end of the book).

This is the second in a series of free e-books I’m releasing. If you missed the first one, Email Marketing Made Easy, you can get it here.

Please read them, share them, and pass them along. Just don’t sell them or change them.

A Quick Easy Secret Copywriting Tip Anyone Can Use

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Go look at your Web site’s home page in a new window. Or, pull out your company brochure.

It’s OK, I’ll wait.

Read the first two or three paragraphs.

Do they pull you in? Make you want to read more? Or, is the best opening sentence buried?

Here’s an example, from the completely fictional Wow Wow Web Design company.

After the initial consultation phase of your project, Wow Wow Web Design will create your web site using professional design tools. There are people who will offer to produce graphics for you at highly discounted rates. However, the quality of their design may be poor.

A badly designed web site can have a negative impact on your site’s effectiveness and the money you earn from it. Whether you need a big web site or a small one, we can provide all your design needs.

Easy copywriting tip

What’s the tip?  Look at the paragraph again.

The best sentence is buried at the beginning of the second paragraph.  Move that up and see how much better it reads. Now it’s telling you right away how bad website design could hurt your business.  Once you recognize a problem, you’ll want to know how to fix it.

A badly designed web site can have a negative impact on your site’s effectiveness and the money you earn from it.

After the initial consultation phase of your project, Wow Wow Web Design will create your web site using professional design tools. There are people who will offer to produce graphics for you at highly discounted rates. However, the quality of their design may be poor.

Whether you need a big web site or a small one, we can provide all your design needs.

There are several other things wrong with this copy. Do you know what they are?

Find out here.

Image: spekulator

Creative Ways to Write Great Headlines

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Today is the second in this week’s roundup series. The theme this time is headlines. Here are five posts with tips on writing headlines, starting your sales letter with a bang (and going beyond the headline), and some unusual sources for headline inspiration.

7 Easy Ways to Write Great Headlines

Never-Fail Headline Writing Tips

Start Your Sales Letter with a Bang

7 Secret Shortcuts for Writing Great Headlines

102 Great Headlines

Image: gracey