Google — the 800-pound gorilla of the search engine space — loves flexing its might. The giant search engine has been rolling out updates that change online marketing at an unprecedented rate. Worse still, Google has thrown out the old playbook and is hellbent on rewriting the online marketing rules.
Besides major algorithm updates such as the Helpful Content Update, Google has quietly implemented smaller changes that can, over time, tank your site’s ranking and ruin your business. One of the silent killer updates is the recent redefinition of the website bounce rate. Dig in as we explore what has changed and what you can do to keep your cash register ringing.
Traditionally, bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who click away from your site after visiting only one page.
So, if 1000 people click on your site from the search results page and 150 of them leave immediately, your bounce rate is 15%.
Naturally, a high bounce rate is undesirable. It shows that your content isn’t spot on and misses the mark by a long shot. If people don’t stay on your site long enough to engage with your content, you can’t convince them to take any action.
Your sales and conversions will tank because potential clients aren’t getting into your sales funnel. It gets even worse if you’re using paid ads to drive traffic — you may not recoup your ad spend.
Worse, still high bounce rates can tank your search rankings. Google uses bounce rates as a ranking factor, so high bounce rates could cause you to lose your top spots on the SERPs.
Thanks to Google rewriting the playbook, the bounce rate is now the inverse of engagement rates. It’s now the percentage of your unengaged sessions.
As mentioned earlier, Google treasures and prioritizes engagement — it’s part of its core mandate to match web users with accurate search results. As a result, GA4 has been calibrated to prioritize calculating engaged sessions.
As per Google’s definition, engaged sessions occur when a visitor:
Lingers for more than 10 seconds
Engages in a website’s key event
Views at least two pages
To calculate your site’s engagement rate, you’ll need to divide the engaged sessions by the site’s total sessions. For instance, if you have 1500 engaged sessions out of 1800 sessions, your engagement rate would be 83.3%. Subtracting 83.3% from 100% brings your bounce rate to 16.7%.
How to Calculate Bounce Rates in GA4
Once you understand what Google considers an engaged session, you can easily calculate your site’s bounce rates.
The formula is pretty straightforward:
GA4 Bounce Rate = (Unengaged Sessions/Total Sessions) x 100
For instance, if 25,000 users visited your site last month and 20,000 of the visits met the GA4 engagement threshold, your bounce rate would be:
(5,000/25,000) x 100 = 20%
Finding Bounce Rate in GA4
In the usual fashion, Google has thrown a wrench in the works with the latest GA4 update. It’s eliminated standard reports, so you must customize your own. Luckily, that doesn’t take a herculean effort. Here’s how to customize your bounce rate reports in GA4:
1. Sign into Google Analytics as an Administrator or an Editor.
Bounce rate is a crucial online marketing metric because it grades how well you connect with your audience. High bounce rates indicate a low resonance between your content and the target audience.
However, the average website bounce rate varies wildly across industries. Bounce rates range from 27.92% in the clothing niches to a mind-boggling 48.22% in the IT sector.
Comparing your site’s bounce rates with your industry’s standard can help you take timely corrective measures.
Tracking bouncing rates is crucial for sites that rely primarily on content marketing to drive traffic. You get detailed feedback on content performance. If your audience finds your content helpful and engaging, your bounce rate remains low.
Conversely, high bounce rates signify that your content doesn’t meet the needs of your target audience. Additionally, low organic traffic engagement means there’s a disconnect between the content and the search intent.
How to Improve the Bounce Rate of a Website
While many factors can affect the normal website bounce rate, none of them holds a candle to content quality and relevance. Ensuring your content matches search intent and addresses the needs of your audience is half the battle.
Here are eight proven ways to increase your engagement rates:
Address your site’s technical performance: Technical errors, such as slow loading speeds, create a poor first impression. Web users are quick to leave pages that take more than 3 seconds to load — they don’t stick around long enough to read your content and review your offers.
Improve user experience: Intrusive ads and pop-ups are annoying and will likely cause visitors to click away. Use pop-ups wisely and ensure the ads don’t ruin the user experience.
Refine your storytelling: Weaving compelling stories into your content can skyrocket your engagement rates and inspire readers to share and bookmark your content.
Update your content frequently: Web users abhor outdated information because it wastes their time and does not meet their needs. Peppering your site with fresh and up-to-date information creates a positive first impression and earns the trust of your readers.
Refine your buyer persona: Refining your buyer persona offers rare insights into your target audience. It lets you understand their needs, preferences, and pain points, which informs your ability to create compelling content that resonates with them.
Craft compelling meta descriptions: Web visitors read the meta description to determine if the page’s content addresses their needs. Detailed and persuasive descriptions drive more clicks to your website, where they browse your offers.
Build landing pages for your money keywords: Creating specific pages for your money keywords— high volume and low competition — increases your click-through rates. You can comprehensively address the topic matter and build your site’s topical authority on the subject.
Use compelling calls to action (CTA): Establish the key event for each page on your website and craft compelling CTAs that galvanize readers to act. Make it clear which action you wish the reader to take after reading your content. Avoid generic phrases such as “click here,” which have lower click-through rates.
Reduce Your Bounce Rate While Skyrocketing Your Engagement
The adage, “What gets measured gets managed,” summarizes the need to measure and track your bounce rates. Tracking bounce rates lets you get to the root of the problem and take quick corrective measures. You can easily refine your content strategy to ensure your content addresses the search intent and resonates with your audience.
At Express Writers, we thrive on helping webmasters refine their content marketing strategies. Our writers will craft compelling content that mirrors your brand voice and proposition, helping you build a brand following and skyrocket conversions.
As an online writer, whether new or seasoned, do you hear the word “copywriting portfolio” or get the potential clientele email demanding your “best samples,” and break out in shivers?
It doesn’t have to be such a scary thing, but I understand.
Copywriting clients and employers want to see many samples of your work. They look for your best pieces before considering you. These samples show what you can do. When they review them, they judge and assess your work.
I was once an online writer applying for jobs in 2011. Now, Express Writers judges incoming writing applicants. The key value we provide is to evaluate writing talent.
As writers, we all shake just a little at the thought of this—a judgment placed on our entire repertoire of writing skills, based on the samples we feature. After all, writing is pretty subjective, isn’t it? What I may think is an incredible piece of content you may see fit to hit delete on immediately.
This is exactly why getting your copywriting portfolio nailed down is so important. Especially right the first time since, as we all know, you only get one chance to make that great first impression.
10 Ways to Create a Knockout Copywriting Portfolio
Interestingly, when I sat down to write this piece, I came across a great many blogs out there full of tips on how to build your portfolio with simple and general ideas, i.e., “get experience.” There aren’t many guidelines out there telling you what to actually include in your portfolio once you’ve got that experience – or even if you’re starting out. My blog is (hopefully) an answer to these missing questions.
So, without further ado, here are my top tips for building your best online copywriting portfolio.
Tip 1: Select Your Best Samples to Showcase
Here are a few pointers on how to start picking out exactly what to put in your freelance writing portfolio.
What: When it comes to writers, there is not one of us who doesn’t have pieces that are close to our hearts for whatever reason. But when it comes to designing your portfolio, push all nostalgia away, and think about your strongest pieces in terms of the skills required to write them, the performance of the content and how well your copy fit the particular brief.
If you find yourself torn between, say, two pieces, think about who your end client was – the person or company you wrote the content for. Also think about how big the audience for that copy was and how you are able to assess the copy’s performance.
Those are good general rules for assessing your best samples. It’s all about objectivity, not subjectivity. Your favorite piece might not be your best piece.
How Many: Also, if you’re planning on sending in your copywriting portfolio with a job application, try and stick to a maximum of five pieces. This gives the potential client or employer just enough to get a feel for you as a writer, your skills and diversity, but not too much that you overwhelm (or bore) them.
Where: If you’re creating your online portfolio (and there are some great free sites out there you can do this on), you can take the number of samples up to 20. But remain selective about what you’re putting in there and don’t be afraid to replace those pieces as your writing becomes stronger and more diverse.
Tip 2: Showcase Your Diversity, But Pin-point Job Application Samples
When it comes to the copy you want to include, I always advise writers to try and select a diverse range that shows off your skills, diversity and talent. What I mean by this is try to include copy on not just a few different subjects, but also a few different styles, such as on-site copy, blogs, press releases, eBooks, web copy and so on. If you don’t have much experience just yet, go ahead and practice a few different styles and get an editor or trusted friend to look them over and help you pick the best.
The more diverse your copywriting portfolio is, the stronger it is going to be. And that, of course, means, it’s going to be more appealing.
That being said; if you are applying for a copywriting position in a specific industry and you have experience in that sector already, make sure you pinpoint what they’re looking for, and then send them directly or include in your application a couple of examples that relate directly to the industry and position in question. It’s a great way to show the potential employer that you are a step ahead of other copywriters because you have the required knowledge and experience they want.
Tip 3: Have The Answers Ready
When it comes to every aspect of your copywriting portfolio, you absolutely have to be clued up on every piece you’ve put in there and completely ready to answer any questions that could be fired your way. Prior to being interviewed (be it in person or online), make sure you familiarize yourself with each piece of content, why you wrote it, why you chose the particular style or keywords you did, who the audience was you were writing to and how successful the piece was (remember, in the online world, it’s a lot about measurability).
Speaking of which, these days it’s all about links and social shares. If your client posted what you wrote, find out where it’s posted and track down the counts. Work on knowing accurate figures of how often your pieces were shared on the likes of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your share counts are always a great metric to share with a potential client or when you write up a brief portfolio summary of the piece you wrote: “…my blog about Google’s new update was shared on the client’s marketing blog and earned over 500 shares across Twitter and Facebook.”
You can use BuzzSumo to find a direct amount of how many shares your content piece got.
For example, using BuzzSumo, I can type in my domain, expresswriters.com, and instantly see what is my most top-shared blog (The Top 60 Content Marketers – 498 shares):
Alternatively, you can also track down share counts if the site has a counter or social sharing bar in place.
If the client is willing, try to get information such as how many backlinks your piece attracted and what (if any at all) direct benefits the business received from your copy, for instance increased traffic, leads, sales etc.
Tip 4: Make Sure You’re Sharing Content with Permission
When it comes to a copywriting portfolio, you have to be sure you have permission to share your content in public – something that isn’t always the case. Especially if you’re a ghostwriter and you’ve signed multiple NDAs (like me).
For example, let’s say you wrote a piece for a private company that has never been made public (the content, not the company) and for which you signed a non-disclosure agreement. I’d absolutely suggest you keep that out of your portfolio – both digital and on paper.
You won’t believe how many companies approached me in my early years of owning expresswriters.com. The problem? My portfolio content was ranking higher for their name than their own site!
That said, if you are still new to the world of copywriting and your portfolio looks a little sparse, you may have few options. In that case, write a fresh sample on a fake company. This also gives you the advantage of being as creative as you want with your sample and writing for a company that you love.
Tip 5: Consider Your Presentation
This might sound a little silly, but even with copywriting portfolios, design matters. Instead of printing your masterpieces out on a standard, scruffy A4 piece of paper and stapling the lot together, invest in a shiny presentation wallet. Then, slot each piece in. I don’t need to tell you as a writer that the easier you make your pieces to read, the more likely they are to be read.
What’s more, when it comes to your online portfolio, pick the design of your template very carefully. Make sure the font you choose is easy to read and that the design seriously emphasizes the copy, as opposed to the images. Always keep in mind that you’re going to be judged on your words, not the images you choose!
Tip 6: Show Off Your Writing Skills On Every Online Profile
Your online portfolio needs to be easy to navigate as well as being everywhere you are, online.
For example, if you’re on LinkedIn, write some New Posts as your own writing samples. See my content pieces on my own LinkedIn:
Make sure your samples are easy on the eyes and easy to access. Always include a link to your online portfolio on your CV, email signature and social media platforms, regardless of whether or not examples of your written work is asked for.
Tip 7: Find Pieces That Say Something About You
We’ve all been there: writing about something that we really don’t care about, but it’s a paying gig. Your personal projects may not necessarily be examples of your smartest or best work. Back in 2011, I remember writing an article about trash bags for an online hardware store. You read that right – trash bags.
So, inside that vast writing portfolio, make sure you’ve checked this off: find something or create something from scratch now to truly showcase YOU. Are you a secret (or maybe public) fiction author? Include a short story. Geek? Include that Trekkie fan piece. Hey, you might be surprised. Clients actually love touches of your personality. I’ve seen it all the time in my five years as a full-time content marketer.
Tip 8: If You Have It, Include That Award-Winning Piece
This could be something a lot of writers may struggle with. You may not yet have won any awards, but you may have been nominated or even been a finalist for one – even if it was back in your college course days. Think back to anything an academic professor loved, and showcase it: that’s sure to be a winner.
Tip 9: Keep Rationales Short
I’ve seen too many inexperienced copywriters place long rationales next to their work. That’s okay, but in my opinion, they’re usually around four times too long. Clients want to see how well you’ve actually written for your own clients. “Nugget”-ing your information is a critical skill you should possess as a copywriter. You want your work to be the focus, so keep your rationale to a couple of easy-to-consume bullet points.
It’s good to include little write-ups with your actual writing samples, though, just as a rule of thumb keep them 100 words or less. In the content, you can tell the client what type of copy this was (blog, web page, etc.); what tone the client requested; and any social results/ case study results the content piece achieved for the client, if your client is willing to share that (see my #3).
Tip 10: Update Your Portfolio Consistently
Update your portfolio regularly. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a writer, it’s that you grow with every single writing project you get. Your research, writing, and overall skills will continue to progress as you consistently take work. So, audit your portfolios and update your samples at least once every couple of months. Present an enticing preview of what readers can expect from you. Make sure that your portfolios appear on the same page everywhere you appear online; show that you’re consistent and pay attention to details.
Conclusion
When it comes to your copywriting portfolio, it’s the perfect opportunity to showcase your talents. But here’s a tip: flash the goods and show a few shiny objects. But don’t reveal your entire arsenal. A good copy tease can go a long way!
Most fountains in populated areas have dozens of coins in the fountain basin. People are drawn to fountains, throw in coins, and wish for positive outcomes. While it’s a fun practice, the average person doesn’t expect a return from that coin they toss.
Marketers, however, should be much more strategic than throwing a coin into a fountain. If you start tossing money into strategies without a budget, you may run out of resources before you see your goals fulfilled.
A budget also helps you designate which areas should receive the most resources. Some places, like paid search, require more investments than others.
While your budget for content marketing will be unique to your business, we understand it can be challenging to start crafting a content marketing budget from scratch. That’s why we pulled together some average industry numbers to help you create your content marketing budget.
Is Content Marketing Worth the Investment?
Why?
That’s the question you should be asking right at the start of any budget planning. Why should you invest in content marketing?
If content marketing doesn’t generate a profit greater than your initial investment, it’s not worth the investment.
From our years of experience, we know that well-planned content marketing strategies far exceed a business’s expectations for return. Marketers who include content like blogs in their marketing see 13 times more return on investment than those without blogs.
Your return won’t just come in the form of sales. About 70% of people prefer content to learn about companies rather than relying on ads.
Content marketing builds trust, generates new leads, nurtures those leads, and moves them toward sales. It should be part of all marketing strategies, from the smallest to the largest companies.
How Are Content Marketing Budgets Changing?
About 45% of content marketers plan on increasing in their marketing budget moving through this year. This is a result of inflation and rising content costs. However, it also has to do with increasing customer needs.
Readers want to read longer articles, and Google is prioritizing higher-quality content. Both these factors require hiring quality subject matter experts who can provide just what your audience is looking for.
Content with media also receives more attention than plain text. Adding in branded photos and videos can further increase your content creation costs.
While costs are increasing, so is interest in content. Increasing your budget will also increase your sales if you work with content creators who understand you and your audience.
How Much Does Content Marketing Cost?
Plan to spend between $5,000 and $10,000 monthly on a strong content marketing strategy. The exact amount will vary, but you should plan to invest 25-30% of your total marketing budget on content.
This content marketing cost can be more or significantly less depending on what you include in your content budget and the size of your company.
Here are some of the factors that will influence your budget:
Content Strategy
Cost: $200+, Express Writers Cost: $300-$400
Before writing content, hire a strategist to plan the most effective channels and formats. A content strategist will help you research profitable topics and build a content calendar. The more you invest in your content strategist, the more guidance you will receive to help you make the most profitable content marketing decisions.
Writer
Cost: $100+, Express Writers Cost: $57+
The average writer charges between $0.05 and $0.20 per word. However, once you start talking with subject matter experts with more experience, you’ll see rates of $0.30+ per word.
Your writer will turn your content calendar and keywords into quality content. Hiring quality writers with industry-specific experience will distinguish you online from generic AI content. Experienced writers will also cost more than hiring writers from content mills.
The cost of writers will depend on your posting frequency. Most businesses post weekly or several times a week—only 19% post more than once a week.
Editor
Cost: $12 per 1000 words. Express Writers: Included
While your writer will put forth their best effort to produce publish-ready content, they are human, and you will need an editor to double-check that the content is accurate. An editor helps ensure your content matches the platform and any instructions.
At Express Writers, we have quality assurance editors who look over all content. Their services are included in the project cost.
Designer
Cost: $50+, Express Writers: Included with some packages
Graphic design and blog post layout both require a designer to ensure your content looks appealing and will attract readers. The graphic design cost will depend on the complexity of the graphics and your designer’s experience.
While Express Writers focuses primarily on written content, we have designers who create basic images, quotes, and infographics that will help your blog posts pop without breaking the budget. Blog design is included in several packages, like our Authority Content.
Data Analytics
Cost: $20-$50/hr. Express Writers: $300+ Fixed
After publishing content, you will want someone to monitor your content’s performance so you understand how well you are reaching your audience.
You will most likely have an in-house data analyst to monitor your content. However, if you are looking for a deeper overview, hiring Express Writers’ content strategist to look at your growth and suggest adjustments might be worth the investment to keep you on track.
Advertising
Cost: $200+
While organic search is much more cost-efficient and yields long-term results, you may want to sponsor content to temporarily boost traffic and awareness.
Advertising will add up quickly, depending on the platform. The average cost per click can range from a couple of cents to a couple of dollars. Social media advertising, on average, ranges from $850 to $2750 monthly.
Content Marketing Equipment
Cost: Varies
Content marketing doesn’t require high tech, but you may need to invest in a few supporting tools. To perform all your content marketing in-house, you must budget for research tools like SEMrush and content management tools for creating and posting content.
If you outsource your content, you can save on many of those monthly subscriptions as you can benefit from the agency’s tools that come included with your fee.
5 Steps for Setting Up Your Content Marketing Budget
Follow these steps to decide how much you can spend on content marketing for the highest return.
Step 1: Set Your Available Budget
Before deciding what you want to spend, ask yourself what’s available. Look at your overall company costs and compare them with your profits to determine what you can move to marketing.
You may spend 2-10% of your company budget on marketing. However, your industry plays a significant role. For example, consumer packaged goods have a 25% marketing budget, and communications uses 14% of your total revenue budget.
The more marketing channels you use and the broader your audience, the higher the marketing costs will be.
Content marketing will then be about a third of that budget.
Step 2: Research Your Average Industry Spending
What are others in your industry spending on content marketing? While average marketing spending can give general guidelines to follow, you saw above just how drastically budgets can vary. Industries like transportation require very little marketing as transportation is necessary, and there isn’t too much competition.
However, consumer goods is a very competitive industry, and consumers may not be inclined to purchase products without friendly encouragement and nurturing from your content marketing efforts, resulting in a much higher budget.
As you look at the amounts your competition is spending, note where they are posting. For instance, keep track of what social media channels they use and where they use paid advertising, as you will want to ensure you also have a presence on those channels.
Step 3: List Your Content Marketing Priorities
You can create a list of your content marketing priorities using the data you collected about where your audience spends most of their time and where your competition is.
Some of the most popular content marketing formats and channels include:
Blogging
Email marketing
Social media
Videos
Downloads (eBooks, case studies, whitepapers)
Infographics
After writing down the channels you would like to invest in, sort them by their priority, with those promising the highest return near the top, where they’ll receive the bulk of your budget.
Step 4: Divide Your Budget
While you already have your content marketing budget designated, you’ll want to divide this further. This ensures that all your spending doesn’t flow to the same place but is diversified.
You will use your list of priorities to help divide up your spending by profitability and effectiveness. Remember that paid advertising will be more expensive than regular content creation and would need a much higher budget.
Step 5: Track and Adjust Your Budget
Your budget is an agile guideline that changes with your needs and trends. If you see new opportunities to reach your audience, you may need to shift your budget to create fresh content or advertise on the new platform.
On the other hand, if you’re noticing very little response on some of your channels, such as your social media, you may want to cut back on your content investment.
A content strategist can help you analyze your content health and find new ways to invest your budget.
How to Save on Your Content Marketing Budget
Content marketing can quickly add up. We have other options if you’re looking at those numbers and wondering how you will keep up with others in your industry.
Here are our top money-saving tips for stretching your budget further.
Repurpose and Reuse Content
We can’t stress this option enough!
Far too many content marketers stretch themselves thin, creating content for a half dozen channels from social media to emails and blogs.
If you have quality content, there is no need to keep creating new content.
Repurposing content uses the same ideas, images, and videos across several channels. The post you shared on Facebook can also appear on LinkedIn.
If you can’t share content directly, you can still pull ideas and topics to keep your story consistent across channels.
Create Focused Content Strategies
Focus on only the most profitable channels. Just because Facebook is one of the most popular channels doesn’t mean you have to post content on Facebook. Quite a few companies have not seen much return from specific social channels or advertising and have chosen not to post on those channels.
If a channel isn’t turning a profit, cut it from the list and use that budget elsewhere.
Build an Evergreen Strategy
Blogging is an area where costs can quickly increase, especially if you post several times a week.
The amount of blogs you post depends on your industry. It also depends on the topics you discuss. Some topics will run their course and become obsolete, such as blog posts about breaking news or algorithm changes that will become irrelevant when the next big thing hits the news.
If you only post breaking news, you will need regular blog posts to attract that traffic. However, if you spend most of your budget on evergreen topics, you can get away with paying less.
An evergreen topic remains relevant much longer, often for years. Because it remains relevant longer, it will continue attracting more traffic over time. So, you can post less content and still generate the same or more traffic.
Invest Your Content Marketing Budget Wisely
If you want to stretch your content marketing budget further, outsource some or all of your content marketing tasks. Outsourcing allows you to access top talent and tools without high hiring costs. You can scale your content needs as they change, ensuring you only pay for what you need.
Contact us for a custom quote for your content needs.
Mastering the art of copywriting can take years of experience.
It’s important to enjoy writing, if you’re going to make this your trade.
Copywriting can be an amazing career, especially today. In today’s digitally focused world of marketing, where great online content can generate serious income, top-notch writing skills are critical to attracting and converting customers.
For those who need to polish and perfect their writing skills, we have a list of 25 best copywriting books and resources that will bring your writing abilities to current standards.
Ready?
Learn and get started with techniques taught by the greats right away, and watch your own copywriting skills come to life!
Enhance Your Copywriting Skills With These 25 Awesome Books for Copywriters
Robert Bly’s copywriting handbook helps you turn bland copy into persuasive and meaningful content. He also offers advice on web marketing, e-mail marketing, and multimedia presentations. The book includes 15 techniques to ensure that your e-mails are opened, and 11 ways to make your copy more readable. The Copywriter’s Handbook serves as a valuable book of reference for common copy writing needs.
2. Everybody Writes: The Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content — By Ann Handley
The power of superior content writing is at the turn of every page in Ann Handley’s book. She offers practical advise for publishing content that makes an impact, along with the secrets behind content that helps bring businesses to authority status. For a copywriting guide that packs a punch, Everybody Writes just might be the right choice for you.
3. The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters — By Joseph Sugarman
Looking to learn how to motivate your buyers? The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman is yet another solid reference source for writing top-notch copy. Joseph demonstrates how to write effective copy that sells product, but he doesn’t skimp on the creativity. This book is easy to follow and serves as the perfect guide for writing snappy and creative ad copy.
Yet another hit by Robert Bly, The Online Copywriter’s Handbook is an all-in-one demonstration guide to writing copy that turns into conversions. Catering to multiple online media platforms, Robert focuses in on the best copywriting techniques for websites, landing pages, e-mail marketing, and more. Don’t miss out on this handbook if you are looking for an all-inclusive guide to online copywriting.
5. Creating Fat Content: Boost Website Traffic with Visitor-Grabbing, Google-Loving Web Content — By Dr. Andy Williams
Dr. Williams’ book on web content emphasizes the power behind content that feeds the search engines. In order to get the most mileage out of your online copy writing, you should aim for a balance between pleasing both your audience and the search engines. He gives clear examples for content that converts and content that falls flat. Creating Fat Content explains exactly how to write great content all while boosting traffic.
Content creators come in all forms these days. This author breaks down includes 22 errors to avoid when writing content, along with 9 tips for empowering your writing skills. The author takes this book a step further and includes 28 honest questions for discovering your own writing voice. As a content creator, you are the voice of your brand. This book will help you find that voice and empower your writing skills.
Everyone loves a step-by-step guide, especially when it comes to copywriting that will sell your products and services. This kickass copywriting book helps small business owners understand the methods behind powerful writing. Susan offers clear concept on how to effectively market small businesses with content, and she also uses real-world examples with emotional triggers. This book is a must-buy for small business owners who are new to content writing.
8. 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love — By Rachel Aaron
Nearly everyone wants to write better, but what about writing faster? With content essentially flooding the market, serious writers need to keep pace with the endless stream of demand. 2k to 10k demonstrates exactly how writers can take their ho-hum daily word count to beyond what they have imagined capable. Rachel shows her readers how to double their word counts while still maintaining the quality of their writing. For busy bloggers to newbies, 2k to 10k can help you write better and faster.
9. Breakthrough Copywriting: How To Generate Quick Cash With The Written Word — By David Garfinkel
Looking for a few inside secrets in the copywriting industry? Breakthrough Copywriting gives business owners the know-how to writing copy that generates a profit. The book outlines exactly how to craft world class copy that sells your products almost every time. Breakthrough Copywriting helps you zone into your target audience by establishing emotional connections and tap into their subconscious.
This book is short, sweet, and gives great guidance for helping yourself write stellar copy. At only 56 pages long, this book is highly reviewed for its conversational tone and straightforward approach to copywriting. This book emphasizes the importance of the human touch in copywriting, while steering readers away from writing like robots. It will help inspire new bloggers and startups while giving specific examples of quality content writing.
11. The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era — By Teressa Iezzi
The Idea Writers offers copywriting tips from a unique angle. Teressa dives deep into the new rules of copywriting in the form of the digital age. She emphasizes that customers consume information on multi-channel levels, with not only written content, but video and beyond. She describes how the advertising copywriter has evolved over the last 50 years, and how we must change our style of copywriting to reach a more modern customer base.
Are you tripped up over what to write on your home page? What about your about us page? How to Write Seductive Web Copy gives new writers an edge on how to write copy for your own website like a pro. This how-to is dubbed as a practical guide that tells you how to write, as well as what to write about. It also offers multiple techniques on updating your existing web copy into something that’s unforgettable.
13. High Conversion E-Mail Copywriting: 50 E-Mail Marketing Copywriting Tips to Increase Your Rates by 30% or More — By Scott Frothingham
E-mail marketing remains as a top marketing technique in 2015, but getting your copy just right can be a challenge. In High Conversion E-mail Copywriting, Scott offers pro advice and tricks on getting customers to open your e-mails, turning them into sales. Better yet, Scott offers a 50-point checklist that every copywriter should keep on hand when starting a new e-mail campaign.
14. Phrases That Sell: The Ultimate Phrase Finder to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas — By Edward Werz
Have you ever been stuck with wondering what to say? With Phrases That Sell, the thought on the tip of your tongue will flow seamlessly into your copywriting. Edward showcases thousands of words, phrases, and slogans that can be applied to almost any kind of marketing. Not only does the author spell out the best phrases to say, he also helps his readers generate their own ideas on the spot.
15. How to Write Magnetic Headlines: The Fundamental Guide to the Most Important Copywriting Skill on the Planet — By Copyblogger Media
One of the most well respected content marketing agencies in the industry crafted the perfect guide to writing headlines in this eBook. When it comes to writing compelling headlines, it’s sink or swim. With 80 percent of customers reading your headline and only 20 percent clicking through, you only have one chance to grab your customer’s attention. This book gives you the inside scoop on writing headlines that click with your customer.
16. Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business — By Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman
Copywriting is all about customer engagement, and you can’t go wrong with the tips contained in Content Rules. Whether you are looking to perfect your copy for your blog, eBook, or video, these tips for copywriting and marketing will help make your sale soar. This book offers a comprehensive and how-to angle on creating the best content possible.
While some of us may be attempting to dominate national (and international) search terms, there are others who are focusing on a much smaller scale. Choice of Words for Local Marketers helps small businesses understand the power of local content marketing and the impact it can have on their business. The book also helps small business owners understand the varieties of content marketing and how to reach more customers with copywriting.
18. Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy That Grabs Their Attention and Compels Them to Buy —By Maria Veloso
The title may be a mouthful, but this book is a practical guide for crafting web copywriting that sells. The author helps writers perfect their skills for copywriting on multiple mediums, including online video scripting, tips for Facebook ads, and even test copy to help maximize your response rate.
We already have a book on phrases that sell, but what about a solid selection of power words? In Words That Sell, Revised and Expanded Edition, there are over 6,000 words that help copywriters promote their products and services. Even if you’re not looking to completely overhaul your copy, this book can help with tweaks that can yield surprising results.
20. Copywriting 101: The Fundamental Guide to Writing Compelling Copy That Sells Your Product, Service, or Idea — By Copyblogger Media
This is the third Copyblogger book on our list, and with good reason. This eBook covers the art and science of copywriting that captivates and moves product. It offers the basic fundamentals of great copywriting, all in one convenient and affordable eBook.
21. Writing for the Web: Creating Compelling Web Content Using Words, Pictures, and Sound — By Lynda Felder
The mysteries of writing for the web are unraveled in this book, as author Lynda Felder breaks down the basics of creating compelling web content. She uses visuals and straightforward instructions for web-focused writing techniques. This book is great for beginners and it’s noted as very easy to follow and understand.
Letting Go of the Words helps you create copy that not only enhances user experience, but also boosts search engine traffic. Janice ties in the value of content creation along with SEO in this popular second edition of Letting Go of the Words.
23. Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) — By Colleen Jones
Clout is the copywriters’ guide to creating the best content possible for a variety of websites. Even if you aren’t experienced in copywriting and content creation, Clout helps readers easily understand the value of quality content and how to
24. Copywriting: Successful Writing for Design, Advertising and marketing — By Mark Shaw
Those that don’t write copy may see the craft as a talent only existing among the few. However, that mindset will change when you dive into Copywriting by Mark Shaw. He demonstrates the steps for what it takes to become a successful copywriter in the world of marketing, and how you can put yourself on the path to success with the written word.
With the mindset of you can write copy, too, Copywriting For The Rest of Us includes easy steps to becoming the best copywriter possible. The ability to write motivational copy is essential if you are looking to promote your brand and generate cash online, and Copywriting For The Rest of Us will help you put your words into action.
Conclusion: Read These Books & Learn Copywriting from the Greats
These copywriting books and resources should help you know what steps to take next in your marketing and writing journey.
While you might not become a pro overnight, following the steps, formulas and advice in these books will enhance your skills and help boost sales.
Here’s to your content writing and copywriting chops! ?
There are approximately 34,000 species of fish, and scientists discover hundreds more each year. Despite the huge variety of aquatic life, commercial fishing typically only focuses on a single fish species at a time. Casting wider nets doesn’t always result in higher profits.
Content marketers can be tempted to cast a wide net – to appeal to every demographic, capture every audience, and speak to every niche. However, by focusing on a few topics (or a single topic) content marketers can actually increase their profits.
Today, I’m going to dispel 3 content marketing myths:
Having content about more topics will attract more followers.
Focusing on only one topic will become boring.
Limiting your focus will limit your revenue.
Myth #1: Having Content About More Topics Will Attract More Followers
On it’s face, it sounds like a no-brainer: if you have something for everybody, everybody will have a reason to stay. However, spreading yourself too thin can have real consequences.
The Reality: Zooming out Attracts a Wide Audience, but Zooming in Attracts a Dedicated Audience
Let’s say your makeup brand’s blog hasn’t gained the traction you’d hoped it would. To appeal to more readers, you start incorporating articles about trendy topics like cryptocurrency and AI. While you may earn a few clicks that way, you’re unlikely to increase your profits.
This is for a few reasons:
Compromising your focus may earn short-term clicks, but unfocused clicks are less valuable. Focused content marketing attracts a focused audience – people more likely to become customers and advocates. Having content about too many topics attracts a scattered audience who are harder to convert.
Writing about vastly different topics makes it harder for audiences to find more of the content they’re looking for. If you attract a new reader with an article about lip liners, but your other posts are about travel destinations and homestyle recipes, they’re unlikely to stick around.
Covering multiple topics can undermine your credibility. Credible experts typically stick to their areas of expertise, so creating content about too many different topics gives audiences the impression that you’re a jack of all trades but a master of none.
Instead of “zooming out” by expanding your focus to include more topics, “zoom in” by going further in-depth with your content. Your audience seeks out your content because they’re interested in your niche and they want to learn more – so give them what they’re looking for!
Ultimately, it’s better to appeal strongly to a focused audience than to appeal weakly to a wide one. A shallow pool gives you more room to cast a wide net, but less depth results in less sales.
Myth #2: Focusing on Only One Topic Will Become Boring
Depending on how specific your niche is, you may worry about running out of topics to cover – after all, how much can there possibly be to say about faucet diffusers or data management software? However, when you fully explore your topic, you will constantly uncover new things to say – and new ways to say them!
The Reality: Fully-Explored Topics Rarely Become Boring
Don’t underestimate your audience. No matter how niche your topic is, a quick online search is likely to produce a YouTube channel, web forum, or Facebook group focused on that very topic.
When it comes to marketing, it’s good to be unique.
In the previous myth, we talked about the benefits of “zooming in” to cover topics more in-depth rather than casting a wide net and piquing a lot of interest but not being able to keep it. But if you find yourself running low on ideas or fear the well will someday run dry, try these tips to reinvigorate your content marketing:
Try a new angle. For years, your music equipment company’s YouTube channel has released a “guitar pedal of the week” video every Friday. Over the last few years, your engagement has tapered off, and you just can’t get the traction you used to. Try a new angle, like “battle of the guitar pedals” or “pedal guitar of the week.” In addition to attracting new viewers, a new angle can reinvigorate your creativity and enrich your content.
Expand to new channels. Are your blog posts starting to feel stale? Try writing a social media post, drafting an email campaign, or filming a YouTube video. Instead of branching out to a new topic, try exploring your topic through a different format. The unique limitations and opportunities of a new marketing channel will force you to approach the topic in a new way.
Conduct new research. One of the ways you can offer value to your audience is through providing credible expertise. In some minds, expertise means not needing to do research, but the opposite is true: experts are the ones who do the most research and are constantly learning new things. If you’re concerned that your topic is getting boring, seek out new knowledge about it – learning something new will not only give you something new to talk about, but it will also enrich your understanding of the entire subject.
Myth #3: Limiting Your Focus Will Limit Your Revenue
Content marketers have to straddle many different goals: crafting a strong brand image, attracting new leads, speaking to their audience’s needs, increasing engagement, etc.
However, one central goal underpins these other endeavors: your business has to be profitable to succeed. At the end of the day, if your content marketing is engaging, targeted, and informative, but it isn’t profitable, it isn’t viable.
The Reality: Focus Drives Revenue.
In the introduction, we talked about how when it comes to casting literal nets, fishers do better by targeting a specific kind of fish rather than by casting a wide net and catching whatever comes their way.
Why is that?
Different fish require different strategies. Fishers use different techniques to catch bluefin tuna than they do catfish. It isn’t practical or profitable for fishers to invest in the equipment, tools, or training needed to catch fish they aren’t targeting. In the same way, producing and investing in marketing content about a variety of topics can multiply your overhead without actually increasing your profits.
It’s hard to sell an inconsistent product. If fishers return with different fish every day, they’ll have a hard time building relationships with customers who are looking for consistent catches. In the same way, focus strengthens your profits. When you go in-depth into the topic your audience cares about, you attract sales.
Find Your Focus
It’s tempting to try to have something for everybody – after all, mass appeal seems like it would translate to mass interest in your product. But in reality, focusing your content marketing on a few key topics attracts a more serious audience and increases your revenue.
