Good content is a collection of words that can be incredibly powerful, or sometimes not so much. Go for the incredibly powerful.
And that’s where some of the common but misunderstood problems can come in.
Churning out posts of content just to try and get ranked or noticed by the traffic out there will not work unless you are a super wordsmith ninja and everything you write is brilliant.
If like the majority of us you are not a ninja you will need to spend quite a lot of time on each one of your posts in order for it to be effective or hire someone to do the job for you.
How you define effective will depend on what your end goal is and if your content is achieving that. It will be different for everyone.
As many Content or Copywriters that there are out there, that is how many opinions you will get on what makes for effective copy. Couple this with the fact that everyone looking for great content has a different idea of what they want you will have more options for “what is right” than you can shake a stick at.
So what is the common denominator?
Power words
Words can be incredibly powerful if used correctly.
To convey trust words such as certified, guaranteed and endorsed will go a long way to building trust levels.
Remove doubt by using words like Lifetime, money back and refund.
Words can be used to portray any emotion, feeling or problems, some are more powerful and resonate more than others.
Power words can turn bland copy into effective copy that will help you get indexed in search engines. This, in turn, will generate traffic.
Power words are also known as KEYWORDS which are important for S.E.O.
What is S.E.O? Most have heard of it but with the perceived popularity of P.P.C. (pay per click) and other paid marketing, it seems that the importance of S.E.O. is being sidelined a little. Probably by the very people who stand to benefit from you paying them to promote your offer?
I say sidelined which is not strictly true. Evolving would be a better definition of what is happening to S.E.O. methods.
A great definitiopn of S.E.O. is Wikipedia’s definition which I have added here.
“Search engine optimization is the process of growing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine. SEO refers to the improvement of unpaid results and excludes direct traffic and the purchase of paid placement.” Wikipedia
Do not lose sight of the fact that the benefit of great content is the generation of free traffic to your site via search engines.
This applies in all aspects of content writing, whether it’s your Blog, Sales copy, emails, Social Media, anywhere where words are used to put a message across.
Free traffic can be achieved with the correct use of keywords. Correct use, effective use. NOT overuse.
It is very easy to research a bunch of keywords and add them all to your content. This is wrong! It is not a case of “if a few is good, more must be better?”
Properly researched relevant keywords will go a long way to achieving the results you are looking for.
Remember though that optimising your site for search engines involves a lot more than just using the correct keywords. Again a whole new subject.
There are many ways to research for keywords that have been tried and tested to work with search engines. I use one called Jaaxy which you can have a look at. It is very effective and easy to use.
Whatever method you find that works best for you, get comfortable with it. It’s going to be your go-to tool for turning your story into great effective content.
I am not going to apologise for the overuse of the word effective in this blog. Its importance can’t be overemphasized.
If your site, through the words you are using, is not optimised for search engines you are wasting an awful lot of your time and resources.
Here is a link to a great tutorial article that explains in great detail how to write effective sales copy. Well worth a read if you are interested in actually getting your product out there to customer land.
Content writing is a massive subject. What works for one offer will probably not work with another. Regardless of what it is you do or have, the all-important factor here is relevance to your target audience
You probably have a really good idea of what your target audience or customer looks like. A whole new subject but so incredibly important for your end goal. What is important for you with content is relating your content to the right people.
Relevance
The old saying of “selling ice to Inuits” is a good example of customer relevance or perhaps the lack of it.
Knowing your customer or target audience is just the first step in writing relevant copy.
Traffic coming to your website is only relevant if it converts!
Non-conversion in “brick and mortar” terms is like having a crowded shop only because it’s pouring with rain outside. No one is buying anything and leave as soon as it stops raining. Very frustrating, the hope and then disappointment it brings.
It is important to know their pain points and by anticipating them tell them how to solve them. With your offer of course.
Therefore our copy needs to achieve a number of things.
I am assuming that your website already tells your audience what you have and how to get it?
Your Blog or marketing copy is there to attract your target audience to your site. (Digital or otherwise)
To do that you need to point out the Pain, Agitate it then offer them a Solution. Don’t forget the all important Call to Action to relieve the pain!
A little generalized but in my defence this is aimed at general marketing content concepts.
The principles are the same. Regardless if you’re trying to entice someone to buy your Pizza from your outlet or selling a digital product online.
The relevance of your copy to the relevant customer base is what is important.
You don’t want to waste a lot of time and money running in the wrong direction.