Ashley - Express Writers

Compelling Copy Home for the Holidays: 10 Tips for High-Performing Seasonal Content

December 31, 2020December 5, 2016 by Ashley

Christmas is almost upon us, and you can bet that your audience is feeling festive and frisky. But is your content set up to match? The holidays are the best time to alter your content in the name of engagement and celebration, and many site owners find that adding a bit of holiday flair and seasonal content to their web pages is an efficient way to draw attention and promote more conversions and sales during the holiday season. What’s more: there are dozens of places to do this! From product descriptions to blogs, bios, and social media updates, creating festive copy is a fantastic way to make your company more approachable and keep your readers happier than a group of hard-working elves on their day off. Bring Compelling Copy Home for the Holidays: How to Create Your Best Seasonal Content As Christmas draws near, people dive headfirst into purchasing mode, and they’re looking for things to buy, companies to engage with, and new brands to discover. What a perfect time to be a marketer! By rewriting your blogs, descriptions, and social updates to provide a bit more of the holiday spirit, you can create content with a seasonal appeal that will leave your readers wanting more. Holiday Content on the “Nice” List: 3 Examples of Companies that win at Seasonal Content For three examples of businesses that are great models to follow in seasonal content that wins every holiday, check out these three businesses: 1. ModCloth ModCloth is one company I always reference when we start talking about great product descriptions, and rightfully so. The clothing company is the queen of wildly creative copy, and the names of their clothing alone is enough to make you want to buy. For an example of a holiday-themed product description that went particularly right, check out the “Oh Christmas Treat Sweater:” While the sweater itself is cute enough, it’s the product description that drives the point home and makes holiday-focused buyers want to click “add to cart.” For another great example, check out the “Barkin’ Around the Christmas Tree Knit Top:” Sweet, reliable, and decidedly festive, these product descriptions add a festive feel to shopping for clothing, which may otherwise be a mundane process. 2. PooPourri PooPourri is famous for its decidedly raunchy but very (um…) honest product descriptions. For an example of some of their more recent holiday-focused content, check out last year’s “Even Santa Poops” commercial, which has earned more than 15 million views on YouTube. While you may not want to get this gross with your holiday content, this commercial just goes to show that ‘tis the time of year for creative copy to take hold. 3. Backcountry.com Backcountry.com is a “Gearhead’s paradise” that offers outdoor clothing and accessories for people who ski, run, hike, climb, and camp. Every year, the site puts together one massive product description. It calls this its “Holiday Gift Guide,” and it features curated gear for both men and women. As a user, you click the guide and wind up on a page featuring dozens of drool-worthy gifts for men or women. While the products are exciting enough, Backcountry got it right by compiling some of its most festive offerings into one convenient platform for its users. While the holiday marketing isn’t over-the-top, there’s no denying that this is a downright festive experience: How to Write High-Performing Holiday & Seasonal Copy: 10 Timely Tips When it comes to writing high-performing holiday copy, here are a few tips to get you started: 1. Keep your choice of holidays broad Because there are several holidays throughout December, it’s smart to avoid putting all of your focus on one of them. Unless, of course, your company sells Christmas trees, Thanksgiving turkeys, or something else that is decidedly singular. For everyone else, keep your holiday options open, or opt to choose a few holidays and work around them. In addition to allowing you to appeal to the broadest segment of the audience, this also gives you a framework for keeping your content fresh and ensuring that you’re not getting too wrapped up in a single holiday and neglecting the others. This can make it difficult to create useful topics, and people who keep things open-ended commonly have an easier time staying creative. 2. Offer surprises, discounts, or contests To make the most of the festivity of the season, provide your readers with the occasional holiday surprise, giveaway, or offer. Because the holidays are a season when people shop till they drop, now is a fantastic time to give things away and draw new customers through unique offers and surprises. If you’re not sure what to give away, don’t worry. Free downloads are a fantastic option, as are eBooks and other types of digital content. If you’d prefer to give away a product, run a holiday contest on a social media platform of your choice. In addition to spreading the word about your goods and services, this is also a fantastic way to keep your customers happy, festive, and engaged. 3. Add holiday graphics to your site If you look more closely at the Backcountry screenshot above, you’ll see that the company has developed a unique little Christmas logo to jazz up their holiday content. While you don’t need to go over the top with neon elves and light-up monstrosities, adding some festive holiday visuals to your site is an excellent way to get people into the Christmas spirit and ensure that your content is the one gift that truly keeps on giving. To maintain your brand identity in the process, work to make sure that your holiday additions stay in-line with your company colors, voice, and approach. Additionally, work to find areas in your existing brand strategy where you can add some Christmas flair like Moz did last year with a dog named Lettie Pickles, the company’s resident brand ambassador: 4. Revisit your older holiday content If you’ve ever created holiday-focused content before, now is an excellent time to bring it out to play once … Read more

How to be a Creative Copywriter: 5 Unique Tips From Inside the Industry

December 31, 2020November 3, 2016 by Ashley

I got my degree in Literature. In school, my days were spent waxing poetic about Russian authors and attempting casual leans with boys in skinny jeans and black turtleneck sweaters. It’s understandable, then, that when I graduated and became a full-time copywriter, I got some raised eyebrows from the Foucault-worshipers of my alma matter. I’ve actually had some of my art-school friends tell me, in no uncertain terms, that being a copywriter is “selling out,” and that it’s certainly a “disappointing waste of creativity.” I, however, respectfully (and vehemently) disagree. While many people regard copywriting as a boring industry that’s as devoid of creativity as Joan Rivers was facial expressions, this simply is not true. In fact, I’d argue that being a great creative copywriter requires an entirely different type of creativity – one that very few people master. Copywriting requires rabbit-from-a-hat sleight of hand, and it takes a massive level of creativity to muster that. After a few years of writing marketing copy, though, creativity can atrophy a bit – especially for writers who haven’t found a copywriting niche they love. If we’re to succeed as creative copywriters, though, we need to find ways to continue being as creative as possible. That’s what I’m here to talk about today. Creativity & the Copywriter: A Love Story Without creativity, there can be no great copywriting. While copywriting is synonymous with marketing, marketing is changing faster than the speed of light. Because of this, people who sacrifice creativity in the name of mass-produced, boring material risk getting lost in the stampede of companies, consumers, and search engines who want something different. Today, more than 27 million pieces of content are shared online every single day, and there’s no sign that this trend will slow anytime soon. In light of this, the only way that marketers, writers, and brands can get noticed is to be creative. Think about companies like Poo-Pourri, Dollar Shave Club, Innocent Drinks, and ModCloth. They didn’t get where they are by scraping content and recycling ideas. Instead, they rose to the top by being creative in every aspect of their marketing – from their visuals to their copy – and it’s because of this creativity that they continue to stand out as some of the most unique brands in existence. As brands like this prove, you can’t climb the ladder without creativity. People get bored and leave if you fill their pages with boring content, and your chances of staying afloat on the content sea decrease every single time you sacrifice creativity in the name of traditionality. How to Be a Creative Copywriter: 5 Essential Tips So…creativity matters. What next? Even if you are a creative person with an artistic background and unique ideas, creativity suffers fatigue, just like everything else. Fortunately, these five tips can help you be a more creative copywriter, starting right now. 1. Channel Your Inner Don Draper If you watched the hit series Mad Men, you know that Donald Draper is an idol to the marketing world. If you want to succeed as a creative copywriter, one of the best things you can do is channel him. Feel free, however, to leave the alcoholism and adultery out of the picture. Instead, what you want to channel is Draper’s ability to identify a story in any campaign. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing ad copy for an insurance company or helping a startup build their website content – identifying the story within the campaign is the most essential thing you can do to keep your creativity alive. Fortunately, there are dozens of ways to do this. Put yourself in the company’s shoes: why are they passionate about what they do? How do their products make the world a better place? If that doesn’t shake anything loose, put yourself in the customer’s shoes: how will this product help you enjoy your life more? What would draw you to the company in question? Within every campaign, content order, and keyword sheet, there’s a story, and it’s up to you as a creative copywriter to draw it out. Don’t believe me? Consider this meme. It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about why channeling your inner Don Draper is so critical to good copywriting: 2. Take a hint from print copy While many people believe that print copy and digital copy exist on different planets, they overlap more frequently than people understand. You can come out on top as a creative copywriter simply by taking some hints from the world of print copy. Since I’m a lit major, here’s the example I’ll give you: the opening lines of major novels. And since I already mentioned my love of Russian authors, here’s the one I’ll call out: Lolita. Considered by many to be one of the greatest novels of all time, Lolita opens like this: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was always Lolita.” Is that literary? You betcha. A little too clunky for marketing copy? Absolutely. But is it compelling? It is, without a doubt, one of the most compelling things I’ve ever read. While Lolita is a great example, there are others like it. Consider “Call me Ishmael,” or “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” Both of these are equally attention-grabbing, and there’s a lot that a modern-day copywriter can learn from them. While we’ve all heard that the headline and opening sentence of a piece of copy are two of its most critical parts, too many copywriters bulldoze through these things with no style or grace. As this selection of opening … Read more

The Importance of Being Authentic in Your Online Copywriting (From an SEO Copywriter)

December 31, 2020October 6, 2016 by Ashley

As an SEO copywriter, I see what goes on behind the scenes in the world of online content. By that, I mean I see the assignment and request sheets. I even have the long phone conversations with clients who aren’t exactly sure what they want, but who know they want something. I get the jumble of keywords and the word count and the instruction to make it into something useable. It’s often creation ex nhilo, in its finest form. And the other copywriters out there know what I’m talking about. Despite the fact that it’s often difficult, though, it’s entirely worthwhile. And here’s why. Online copywriting challenges us to be one thing that we often aren’t in our daily lives: authentic. Today, more people are turning to online content than have ever done so before, and their B.S. detectors are better than they’ve ever been. Because of this, it’s critical to take all of the raw components of online copy and make them into something coherent, compelling, and, yes, authentic. If this is something that you, like so many SEO copywriters struggle with, this piece contains some tips to help you be more authentic in all of your online content, starting now. Enjoy! Authenticity: The Cornerstone of Great Online Content The best creations from any good SEO copywriter are like a puzzle meticulously assembled. It’s a little bit of SEO, a little bit of research, a little bit of skill, a lot of dedication, and some humor or insight, all rolled into one cohesive package. If any of these components are lacking, the content just does not work. And don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of this out there, but it’s not what people want to interact with. Today, brands in all industries and specialties are striving for authentic content, and readers around the globe are working harder than ever before to find it. This represents something extraordinary. While content has long since been the vehicle for various forms of marketing, it’s a recent thing that the demand for authentic content has reached such a fever pitch. Today, customers don’t want to interact with pushy, stiff content that reeks of used-car-salesman vibes. Instead, they want legitimately valuable content that helps them solve problems and, get this, develop relationships. According to an article published in the Harvard Business Review, the importance of a massive, powerful brand (think Wal-Mart) is falling, while the importance of company-customer relationships is rising. In fact, the value of customer relationships has doubled over the last decade, leaping from 9% to 18%. In addition to driving things like engagement and sales, stronger company-customer relationships also help promote brand recognition and loyalty. And what’s the best way to create these relationships? You guessed it: authentic content. 3 Brands Currently Killing It with Authentic Content To get an idea of what authentic content looks like in the world of online copywriting, it’s smart to look around at a few brands that do it well. Here are three of my favorites: 1. Dollar Shave Club I reference Dollar Shave Club often in what I write because I truly believe they’re one of the best brands out there regarding online content. I’ll confess that I became a member of their service based purely on the genius of their launch video, and the goodness just continues. For an example, consider this email I received from them just today: While this headline might not immediately strike you as “authentic” (slapstick, maybe?), it does a few things well. First of all, it’s funny. I saw it in my inbox and knew that the email would contain a pitch for some hand cream. I also knew I wouldn’t buy any, but I opened it because I wanted to see what was inside. And guess what? As a consumer, I’ll continue opening their emails until another one of their products does appeal to me, and then I’ll purchase it. Because they’re consistently funny, upfront, and authentic, I’m a devotee of the brand – even though there are similar ones out there. 2. Patagonia Patagonia is one of my favorite clothing companies, and it’s also one of my favorite brands for content. Dedicated to sustainability, recycled materials, and super high-quality outdoor clothing backed by an “ironclad guarantee,” Patagonia takes its vision into its content, and practices what it preaches every step of the way. The company’s blog, The Cleanest Line, features articles on everything from preserving the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear to profiles on great outdoorsmen (and women). While Patagonia isn’t funny like Dollar Shave Club (and, where it exists in Patagonia’s marketing, humor takes a different form), the company manages to speak directly and authentically to their clients, which is probably why they have one of the single strongest followings I know of. 3. Neil Patel Neil Patel is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, and Hello Bar, and I believe he’s one of the best marketers out there. While he does many amazing things in the way of content, one of my favorite things about his approach is his willingness to admit that he hasn’t always been awesome at this. While an influencer like Neil could feel completely inaccessible, he takes steps to break that perception down by openly sharing what he calls his “oh sh*t” moments. It’s vulnerable, honest, and authentic, and it makes people want to engage with his brand even more than they would if they knew he was one of the most successful marketers out there. 5 Steps to More Authentic Content (By Yours Truly, An SEO Copywriter) Unless you know how to approach it, striving for authentic content can have the opposite effect: it can make your content feel stiffer. Luckily, these five tips will help you get off on the right foot: 1. Write for your audience, whoever they are Obviously, the audience Dollar Shave Club is targeting is somewhat different than the audience Patagonia is targeting, so it stands to reason that the voice is different. That said, though, both brands do an excellent job of speaking to their unique audiences. To make your content more authentic, learning to … Read more

5 Smart Productivity Hacks for Copywriters Everywhere

December 31, 2020September 14, 2016 by Ashley

Ashley A. is a full time copywriter at Express Writers. As a copywriter, there’s virtually nothing more important than productivity. While productivity means getting more done in less time, it also means staying organized and producing better work – which is ideal for you and your clients. Unfortunately, copywriting productivity is something that many writers struggle with. In addition to the fact that most copywriters work from home, every copywriter I know is juggling multiple jobs at once – tending to the needs, questions, and concerns of a huge selection of clients at the same time. Needless to say, this can become a tenuous balance after a while, which is exactly why mastering productivity hacks meant for copywriters is so critical. Read on to learn more. 5 Copywriting Productivity Tips to Make You a Better Writer, Starting Now Copywriting is more important today than it’s ever been before, and the most successful copywriters on the web are the ones who know how to manage their time effectively. With that in mind, check out these five smart copywriting productivity hacks I use that will help streamline your days and produce better content. 1. Use a browser plugin to stop yourself from getting lost in the internet Copywriters spend a lot of time online, and if we’re not careful, it’s easy for things like Facebook and cat videos (or cat videos on Facebook) to eat up our hours. Without question, one of the largest challenges I’ve faced since becoming a professional copywriter is learning to put a lid on internet-based distractions. Luckily, there are several smart ways to do it pretty efficiently. My favorite way to keep internet distractions at bay is to use a browser plugin called Momentum. Every time I open a new tab (in Chrome), Momentum displays a personal dashboard that includes a scenic photo, an inspirational quote, a daily priority (which I set every morning), and a list of to-dos. Every time my energy starts to dip, and I begin to fantasize about watching a cat in a shark costume ride a Roomba around someone’s kitchen, Momentum reminds me what I’m supposed to be doing and helps me stay on track. Thank goodness for that. 2. Make your workspace a phone-free zone Before I was a copywriter, I worked as a legal assistant. In that job, I could check my phone all day long without my productivity taking a hit. The minute I moved into full-time copywriting, though, this ground to a halt. Maybe it’s because copywriting is such an involved profession, or because it requires so much focus, but I believe that one of the biggest distractions for copywriters is a buzzing cell phone. If I stop to check a text or pick up a friend’s phone call during the work day, I have an amazingly difficult time picking up where I left off, it takes me four times as long to get anything done, and the work I do churn out is sub-par. With that in mind, banish your phone from your workspace. It doesn’t matter where you exile it to, so long as it’s not face-up on your desk. While I’m writing, I leave my phone plugged in on the kitchen counter. This allows me to keep my productivity intact and churn out my work with fewer distractions. 3. Write yourself a daily to-do list While I use the to-do function on Momentum, my primary mode of organization is a huge planner that contains the contents of my entire brain. If I lost this planner, I’d be reduced to wandering the streets and sobbing like a lost child. It is that important. While the planner keeps me organized and prevents me from forgetting assignments or breezing past due dates, it also helps me hold myself accountable. Don’t believe me? No worries – there’s some good science to back this up. According to research conducted by psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews at California’s Dominican University, people who write their goals down are a whopping 42% more likely to achieve them. While this is true for big, long-term goals, it’s also true for daily goals. With this in mind, write yourself a daily to-do list. In addition to helping you meet your milestones, it will also motivate you to stay productive and fulfill your goals each day. 4. Take frequent breaks to boost attention Isn’t it odd that one of the most effective productivity hacks is to stop being productive? While it may seem counterintuitive, taking frequent breaks is one of the single most effective ways to stay sharp and driven throughout the day. In addition to the fact that stepping away from the desk dramatically reduces eye fatigue in people who work on computers (I see you, copywriters!), people who take regular, two-minute long breaks are 11.15% more productive than their peers. With that in mind, take frequent breaks throughout the day. When I feel myself starting to get distracted and bogged down, I set an alarm for thirty minutes. For that thirty minutes, I do nothing but write – even if what’s coming out is terrible. When the alarm goes off, I get up, make myself a cup of tea, or step outside for five minutes. And then I keep doing that until the piece is done. The moral of the story is this: sometimes you have to give productivity a break to stay as productive as possible. 5. Batch check everything (no exceptions) This is a tip I learned from the master of productivity – Tim Ferriss. In a world of push notifications, alerts, inboxes, and text messages, it’s incredibly rare that we get to spend any amount of time focusing on a single thing. Over time, this leads to mental burnout and rising stress levels. Luckily, you can combat it by placing some limits on your digital world and beginning to batch-check your virtual communications. “What can I batch check,” you ask? Great question. You can batch check your emails, voice mails, text messages, social media notifications, and alerts. To get started, define two times each day that you’ll … Read more

A Professional Copywriter’s Guide to Writing Creative Content for Boring Industries

December 31, 2020September 1, 2016 by Ashley

Ashley A. is a full-time copywriter at Express Writers. Let’s face it: being a professional copywriter often means writing about boring industries. While these industries may be incredibly worthwhile (RV rentals, for example, or tax compliance for expats), they’re far from titillating. Yet, our job is to make them seem like the best thing since sliced bread. Sound challenging? It is! I’ve been a full-time copywriter for years now, and, in that time, I’ve been asked to write about everything: from moving services to how to collect canine fecal samples. At times, maintaining creativity in the content I write for these companies has been challenging, but it’s a skill all good copywriters need to learn. Without it, you risk crafting sub-par content that does nothing to advance your client’s online presence and may, in fact, harm their reputation. So with that in mind, it’s clear that the role a professional copywriter plays in learning to craft creative content is critically important – even (and especially) when the topic isn’t that exciting, to begin with. A Professional Copywriter’s Guide: 5 Tips to Crafting Unique Content for Boring Industries Stumped on how to write unique content for uninspiring topics? Check out these five tips: 1. Find the Story Within the Brand or Topic Even if a storyline doesn’t immediately leap out at you, every brand has one, and every topic needs one. When I’m asked to write about something that strikes me as ho-hum or downright dry, the first thing I do is get to work locating the story. For example, the company offering RV rentals doesn’t want a blog post outlining the features of each RV – it wants content that inspires people to take the leap and rent an RV for the trip of a lifetime. The brand selling tax compliance services doesn’t want an elaborate list of impossible-to-decipher tax laws – it wants a compelling landing page that demonstrates how the services offered can help expats live the American dream. When you consider the larger climate of marketing, it’s clear that copywriters are out there working on every single day. Need an example? Consider Febreze, which was on the brink of becoming a multi-million dollar failure until some creative copywriter somewhere discovered how to tell a story customers could connect with. Case in point? Every brand has a story, and it’s your job to find creative ways to tease it out. 2. Put Yourself in the Reader’s Shoes For a professional copywriter, one of the most effective ways to make a boring industry interesting is to put yourself in your readers’ shoes. What are they looking for from this content? How can you arrange it in a way that better addresses their needs or provides more useful answers to their questions? What extra touch could you add to make it special? Consideration for the reader should be the core of your writing process, and you’ll typically find that viewing content from the reader’s perspective is an efficient way to find a creative approach and stick with it. 3. Understand that All Content has Value (As Long as It’s Well-Written) Even the topics that seem mundane have value. When you think about how and why the internet functions, it’s clear that the entire thing is a massive information-delivery service. People around the country and the world need to learn new things, find new information and answer difficult questions. And when these needs crop up, they head to Google. While articles with titles like “How to Collect a Canine Fecal Sample” aren’t what most copywriters consider the assignment of a lifetime, this lofty attitude doesn’t ultimately get us anywhere. Because here’s the thing: all content has value. While it may not be glamorous, somebody somewhere needs this information, and your job as a professional copywriter is to put it together in a clear, useful, and helpful way. When you view content this way, instead of looking down your nose at the topics that don’t immediately thrill you, it becomes apparent that giving everything you write your all is one of the best and most compassionate ways you can serve your clients and readers. 4. Develop a metaphor Sometimes, it’s just really hard to make a topic creative, and in these cases, one of the best things you can do is create a metaphor. For example, we’ve got a post on the Express Writers blog about persuasive copywriting. While the words “persuasive copywriting” on their own might not make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, saying that persuasive copywriting is the unicorn of online content will probably strike you as much more interesting. The moral of the story is this: if you can’t find a way to make a topic interesting, consider likening it to something that is. Metaphor works wonders in online content, and tying a dry topic to something more compelling or unique is an excellent way to help your readers connect with the subject matter. 5. Make the Most of Statistics One smart way to make a dry topic exciting is to draw in relevant statistics. For example, what if I told you that lots of people get hurt by icicles? Meh. Now, what if I told you that icicles kill more than 100 people in Russia each year? That’s more interesting, right? The human brain is wired to love specificity, and bringing in relevant facts and statistics is one of the best ways to get people to perk their ears up for a less-than-tantalizing topic. Plus, high-quality statistics are readily available for virtually every topic under the sun. Don’t believe me? Vending machines kill approximately 13 people each year. No, get busy researching. Professional Copywriters Rejoice: Creative Content is Possible, Even for Boring Businesses While the clients you write for are all doing their best to serve their customers and solve problems, some industries are just plain boring. Luckily, we don’t have to fault them for this. As a professional copywriter, your job is not to critique the industries we all work within. Instead, it is to find a way to craft compelling, unique … Read more