Study participants said they were 131% more likely to purchase from a brand, after reading content from that brand.
78% of respondents found a brand “helpful,” while 64% found the brand “trustworthy” after reading content from that brand.
These numbers increased by 8-9% one week later!
Those are powerful numbers.
But, it can get overwhelming quickly if you don’t know how to do it, or where to start first in terms of hiring a copywriter or even trying to do it yourself.
This means that sometimes your web copy can get pushed to the back of your pile of important business-related items.
Yikes.
What should you do if you can’t spend the time writing excellent web content to help set your site apart from competitors?
Hire a copywriter, of course!
Let’s take a look at just why you should hire a copywriter and how one can help you create the best web copy ever for your business.
[bctt tweet=”Did you know? @Conductor found that 131% of people are more likely to purchase from a brand after reading content from that brand. This and 1️⃣4️⃣ more reasons to hire a #copywriter ✏” username=”ExpWriters”]
14 Reasons Hiring a Copywriter is Your Best Idea Yet
Let’s take a look at 14 great reasons why you should hire a copywriter. Ready?
1. More Time for Your Morning Coffee (Or Anything Else You’d Rather Be Doing)
One of the main reasons why you should consider hiring a copywriter for your content needs is simply because you will have more time.
This means you can spend your time drinking your favorite cup of coffee or tea in the morning ☕, or spend more time on another aspect of your business. Creating consistent, engaging content can take up a significant amount of time, and copywriters are a great way to save that time. Expertly trained copywriters are able to write excellent copy quickly while still hitting the mark you want.
2. A Professional Copywriter Can Perfectly Capture Your Services
When you hire a professional copywriter, you aren’t just getting someone who can write amazing pieces, you’re hiring someone who can capture your services. Copywriters are trained to learn as much as they can about various industries to make sure they write quality content. In addition, many industry-specific copywriters out there have special training, making them perfect to write for your niche audience.
3. Never Worry About High-Stakes Copy Again
Sometimes, you need copy that does some seriously heavy lifting.
Maybe you have a big product launch coming up, so you need tons of enticing, persuasive copy that encourages customers to buy. Maybe you’re publishing a mega blog guide that you poured a ton of resources into, and you need a headline that gets people to click and start reading. Or, maybe you invested in Facebook ads and you really need some great ad copy to make the investment pay off.
Whatever your situation, sometimes you can’t mess around with amateur copy. In cases like these and many more, you need to hire a pro copywriter, one with experience and results behind them, to get the job done and churn out that ROI.
4. Grammar Issues, Begone
Not everyone is skilled with grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and that is usually perfectly fine. However, when you’re writing web content, you want to make sure every aspect of your copy is perfect for the big Google machine, not to mention your reputation as a brand and/or a professional expert in your field. You know if you’re a strong writer or not, and it’s a good idea to make sure you hire a copywriter if you are not strong.
Copywriters have various degrees in fields that require great grammar, which means they will be able to craft expert material for you, Google, and your readers. In addition, many copywriters also have copyeditors on speed-dial who can look through the content to catch any little mistakes that do make it through. Grammar is vital for great SEO, so make sure you always have excellent grammar simply by hiring a copywriter.
5. A Copywriter Knows How to Write Persuasive Content
When writing for the web, persuasive copy is a must. However, not everyone has the talent to create persuasive content that helps pull customers through the sales funnel without coming across like a 1970s used car salesperson.
Copywriters know the importance of creating persuasive content for their clients without focusing heavily on sales-speech, because we know this can easily turn your readers off. When you write your own content, it might come across as far too sales-y for your readers, simply because you don’t have the expertise to walk the fine line between being persuasive and sales-driven. Beat the doubt on whether or not your content is too persuasive (or not persuasive enough) by hiring a writer who can create expert copy that will turn readers into customers quickly and easily.
6. There IS Such a Thing as Being “Too Close” to a Topic
You might think being very close to your industry is helpful when it comes time to create copy, but this can actually be detrimental.
First of all, when you’re too close to your industry, you might not realize just how confusing your jargon is to newbies or those outside of it.
Second of all, when you’re writing about your own business and services, you might find it hard to be objective enough. We all think we can be until it comes down to it, and then we begin questioning and doubting, which you don’t want reflected in your content.
When you hire a copywriter, you’re able to have someone write about your services in a great light without focusing heavily on jargon, making your content easy to understand and enticing.
7. Copywriters Know the Importance of Variation in Content
Writing content for real readers, not just SEO, means you need variation, especially when it comes to content length. While longer content is still the most popular with Google, you should also have different lengths, such as a short piece of 350-500 words or a medium-length piece of 800-1,500 words, to give your readers the ability to choose the content they prefer to consume.
Someone on a commute might be more likely to read a short content piece while saving the longer ones for their lunch break or after work. You need to give your readers both options. A copywriter can make sure that each and every piece of content is written to different lengths to provide that ability, while still maintaining the same high quality standards.
8. A Copywriter Knows How to Craft Different Content Formats
Creating copy doesn’t just mean writing blog posts and web content, but also creating copy for multiple formats. You can find copywriters who have training in creating copy for infographics, videos, and images that help drive engagement on your social channels and blog. In fact, a copywriter can easily write a blog piece that can then be broken down into different formats, which repurposes your content and gets it out to a wider audience.
This is a great way to cover all your bases while giving people the ability to choose how they wish to consume their content. Copywriters exist with training in all areas of content formats, as well as ones who specialize in specific formats to make a greater impact. Whichever way you go, a copywriter can help you create all the different types of content you need.
9. Copywriters Keep Up-to-Date With Every Google Change
Google is great for helping people find your business, which boosts your revenue. However, it can be hard to keep up with every little change the search engine giant makes to its algorithm. There seems to be a new update every month or so, and lately there have been some mega changes that everyone needed to be prepared for. Whether it’s the major core update of 2020 or something a smaller, a copywriter will be on top of all these changes. This will help you get the best, most up-to-date content and SEO to better your copy and website.
10. When it Comes to Hitting the Target, Copywriters are Regular Katniss Everdeens
Hitting your target audience can be trickier than it seems, and no matter how much you do, you still might be missing the mark. Professional copywriters are great at making sure they hit their client’s target audience with every piece of content, bringing in great, organic traffic from Google and your social media channels. When you bring in more traffic, you have a higher chance to convert visitors into leads with even more content. Hiring a copywriter to write copy for you is like hiring Katniss Everdeen to hunt for food or to support your side of the rebellion.
11. You Will Get Fresh, New Content All the Time
Publishing fresh, new content regularly is a vital part of staying relevant online, and you need to make sure you always have it. It can be easy to use the same content across your website, making it feel streamlined and taking up less time. This, however, looks sloppy and many of your readers will not appreciate duplicate content. In fact, Google doesn’t appreciate it, either.
As I mentioned earlier, hiring a copywriter will save you time, and this is one of the many ways that can happen. A copywriter can write consistently fresh, new content for your web page, keeping duplicates out of circulation, making your site a high quality, Google-approved page.
12. A Copywriter Can Make Anything Sound Exciting
I’ve had a few clients come to me and ask about how a copywriter can make their boring subject or niche market sound exciting and enticing. They don’t believe it is possible, but it never hurts to try. When you hire a copywriter, however, it becomes more than possible to create engaging, exciting content for a yawn-worthy topic.
The good news is that not only can a copywriter make your product or service interesting, but also all businesses do have exciting aspects that a copywriter can highlight. You can trust a copywriter to locate and use the exciting elements of your industry while also coming up with great, new ideas for incredible, impactful content.
13. Copywriters Can Help You Generate Organic Traffic and Bring in Sales
Organic traffic is something we would all prefer to have instead of needing to pay a lot for ads. While ads are still an important aspect of any online presence, if you generate more organic traffic, you’ll find you’re likely to have more legitimate customers. In fact, organic traffic can lead to quick sales, as well as helping you keep the clients you bring in.
Copywriters can help create content that drives organic traffic such as creating content for social media, AND content that keeps visitors on-site once they reach your landing pages. When you get organic traffic, your revenue is likely to bump up significantly, and you will really enjoy getting to meet all of your new, wonderful clients. Remember, build a relationship with them once they start showing up to keep them coming back!
Not quite sure what to outsource to a copywriter? Check out our free guide on the essential copywriting services you need.
14. Use a Copywriter to Get Social
Being social is yet another vital aspect to any online presence.
A copywriter can help you create a perfect social media presence by creating engaging, epic social media content that drives clicks and interaction with clients. If you hire a social media copywriter, you will begin to notice that you have more interaction with your clients, which will help when it comes to word of mouth marketing.
Leave It to the Wizards of Words
As you can see, a copywriter is a great idea for every single business when it comes to creating excellent web copy.
Leaving your content in the hands of capable word wizards will help improve your copy and website, bringing in great traffic and clients.
Picture this – summer is here, and your calendar is full of pool parties, barbecues, picnics, and whatnots.
You’ve been waiting for this moment for what seems like ages. ☀
There’s only one small problem.
You want to look great in your bikini, but it’s been cold out there for the past few months, so maybe you’ve stayed in and eaten one, two, or twenty more pizzas than you should’ve (no judgment, we’ve all been there!).
At this point in the game, you don’t have a lot of options. You can go on an aggressive diet, use a body wrap or two, or skip a few meals. There are a lot of ways to get fast results, but the thing is, you shouldn’t be focusing on quick fixes.
What you want is a sustainable approach that can get you the best results possible, and the same goes for blogging.
For a long time, my approach to blogging was all about putting out as much content as possible. That’s not necessarily a bad idea since there’s a correlation between high publishing rates and increases in traffic.
The problem is, quick-fire content isn’t a sustainable strategy, much like any diet that promises dramatic results in a matter of days.
If you want to grow your traffic and maintain it, you need powerful, evergreen content that’s going to keep your website in the best shape of its life for years and years to come.
4 Types of Evergreen Blog Content
1. List-based articles
2. How-tos and tutorials
3. Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
4. History-based posts
That’s a quick cheat sheet if you need help coming up with evergreen blog post ideas. If you stick to those types of content, you’re on the right path. However, you may need a little help coming up with ideas, so keep reading!
[bctt tweet=”If you just fire out short trending posts that will be irrelevant tomorrow, you’ll have a hard time getting results. Better grow your traffic with evergreen blog posts. @JuliaEMcCoy shares what you should start posting now. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
2 Types of Blog Content: Evergreen Posts vs. Trending Topics
We can break down most of the content you’ll run across in blogs into two categories:
Posts that have to do with current trends
Evergreen content
Both types of blog posts have the potential to bring a lot of traffic to your website. However, content that focuses on trending topics has an expiration date.
The best way to put that into perspective is to take a look at Google’s most popular searches for the past years.
Here are some of the shiny things that caught our collective attention in 2017:
Source: Google
Now compare that to 2018 and you’ll see there’s little overlap:
Source: Google
The trends themselves change, but certain topics never go out of style. For example, those two breakdowns tell us that as a society, we care a little bit too much about sports and celebrities.
Spotting those types of big-picture trends is important because it enables you to come up with blog post ideas that tap into more lasting concerns.
I’m talking about the type of content that your readers care about now, and they’ll still care about in five years.
Chances are if you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ve already written some evergreen posts without even noticing it. The best way to spot them is to take a look at your website’s analytics.
Usually, there’s a spike of interest around new content. It brings in some traffic, and then that flow of traffic turns into a trickle.
Evergreen blog posts, on the other hand, tend to bring in a steady amount of traffic over time.
Source: Google Analytics
Blogging about current trends may give you a great ROI in the short term. However, evergreen content is the equivalent of that healthy lifestyle that will see you get to the pool party with the same six-pack you’ve been sporting all year.
Keep in mind, though – just because you follow a healthy diet, doesn’t mean there isn’t room for burgers and pizza somewhere in there and the same goes for blogging.
It’s very difficult to build an entire blog around evergreen content only because it tends to require a ton of work.
Ideally, you’ll have a healthy mix of blog posts that target current trends and evergreen articles. That way, you’ll maximize your traffic growth, and you’ll be able to maintain it ✔️
4 Types of Content That Make for Great Evergreen Blog Posts
As a rule of thumb, evergreen content is in-depth, and it has built-in longevity. Let’s break down the five types of blog content that fit those criteria.
1. List-Based Articles
The web is obsessed with list-based articles. If you do a random Google search right now, I’m willing to bet that most of the articles that come up are based on lists.
The logic here is simple. List-based articles enable you to judge an article’s worth at a glance. Know what’s better than learning 5 ways to tie your shoelaces?
Learning a cool 15. Can’t argue with that logic.
When it comes to evergreen content, you want lists that aren’t tied to specific products or events since those can change over time. Instead, go back to the basics and focus on everlasting advice. Articles like “6 Super Simple Tips for Writing Clear Sentences” will never go out of style.
2. How-Tos and Tutorials
The internet is amazing for a lot of reasons. Not only is it the best source for cat-based humor, but you can find guides on how to do anything.
Let’s say, for example, you want to learn how to change a tire. It doesn’t matter if no one ever taught you – you can look it up online, read a quick tutorial, and you’re in business.
Notice how lists are also incredibly popular when it comes to tutorials. If you can find a topic that you can break down into steps, you have a winning formula for an evergreen blog post.
3. Frequently Asked Questions
If you run a popular website, chances are there are a lot of questions you get all the time. You’re not alone, and that’s why FAQs are a thing.
We know all about that, which is why we have a shiny FAQ page.
Not only do FAQs save you a ton of time, but they also serve double duty as evergreen content. A FAQ can be both a page on your website or a lengthy blogpost that answers key questions about your industry.
The more questions you answer, the more valuable your FAQ becomes. That means more opportunities to use keywords, more traffic, and since it’s all broken down in clear sections, it’s easy for visitors to find what they want.
4. History-Based Posts
When you think about it, history is the ultimate example of evergreen content.
History is fact – it never changes, it only gets updated as we go along.
Now, here’s the deal, I don’t know what your blog is about. By some estimates, there are over 500 million blogs, and I’m only one person, I can keep up with maybe 1 million of them before things get confusing.
However, most blogs have one thing in common – they stick to a narrow set of topics or a niche.
Every niche or industry has its history. If you blog about running shoes, for example, you can write about their history, from the moment a guy first had the idea to attach spikes to the bottom of shoes for cross-country running back in the late 1800s (yes, of course, I had to Google that).
Whatever your deal is, there’s a history there, and it’s evergreen. If you can write about it and keep it up-to-day, you have winning blog content on your hands.
[bctt tweet=”What evergreen blog posts should you start posting now? Try list-based articles, how-tos and tutorials, FAQs, and history-based posts. Understand what these content types are in this post. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Evergreen Blogs Are Healthy Blogs
Growing your blog’s traffic is easy, in theory.
You write blog posts that people want to read about and boom, you get traffic. The thing is, the only way to maintain that traffic is to keep publishing content at a fast pace.
Option B – you write evergreen posts that keep bringing traffic long after you’ve published them (or you hire an expert writer to do it for you!).
If you need help coming up with and writing evergreen blog posts, check out our content shop.
Two distinct strategies that many people confuse or mix up:
Content marketing.
Copywriting.
They aren’t the same thing, although both intertwine with each other in benefits and results.
Think of it like this:
Content marketing gets your prospects invested in what you do.
Copywriting makes them want to follow up on that investment with action.
That, right there, is the key difference.
And here’s the magic of both:
When you mix the best of these two strategies together, awesome things start happening.
Your content won’t just be educational and valuable for your readers – it will also make them want to take action.
That action could boost your likes and shares, increase your social media following, grow your email list, AND best of all – lead to sales.
It’s also why these two strategies are so perfect for each other.
They make each other more powerful.
The right content marketing meshed with stellar copywriting could give you success in the form of 4.5x the leads you had before. To that, add 3.5x more traffic if you create content consistently, according to HubSpot.
Let’s go a little further, though.
What are the nitty-gritty differences between content marketing and copywriting? How do you blend them together in a winning formula?
Creating the copy can be the most challenging part of great content marketing. I totally get it.
So, let’s talk about it.
Grab a mug of your favorite hot drink (coffee, tea, etc.), and dive in with me.
[bctt tweet=”Learn the differences between #copywriting and #contentmarketing and how both fit together to help you win online, in @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide” username=”ExpWriters”]
Content Marketing and Copywriting: What the Heck Is the Difference?
You can use them together, but they’re not the same thing. Here are the major differentiators between content marketing and copywriting.
Content Marketing: Many Tactics, Various Ways to Succeed
Content marketing is about creating content that nurtures your readers. The content you provide is served to prospects with the end goal of building trust and loyalty with them so they’ll turn into customers.
Educate them concerning their pain points, and they’ll end up turning to you for more solutions.
That’s content marketing at its core, and it can be done through a wide array of tactics – think blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, email campaigns, and more.
It’s about creating content (which can mean writing, but also all kinds of other production methods) and distributing it so your prospects become customers and stay customers.
Copywriting: Using Writing to Motivate the Desired Action
Copywriting, on the other hand, is about using your writing to strategically spur the reader to do something.
Good copywriting is not annoying. It sells whatever you want to sell without the reader realizing they’re buying in.
Good copywriting is gently yet irresistibly persuasive.
It helps move the prospect to sign up for your email list, click on your link or ad, follow you on social media, make a purchase, and more. As such, it’s used for stuff like landing pages, sales pages, ads, and direct mail campaigns.
Great copy is essential to content marketing.
[bctt tweet=”Great copy is essential to content marketing.” username=”JuliaEMcCoy”]
Content marketing copywriting is cohesively intertwined. Think of it like this:
What Happens When You Apply Great Copywriting in Content Marketing?
What do better results look like with these two strategies?
For one, engagement.
Look at this blog example from Intrepid Travel, an adventure travel company based in Australia.
The blog is called “The Top Destinations for Travel in April.” This could easily get very same-y and unoriginal, as there are scores of similar blogs out there.
However, what keeps you on the page is the copywriting.
[bctt tweet=”What keeps you on the page is the copywriting.” username=”JuliaEMcCoy”]
Check out this intro:
It invites you to stick around and keep reading without actually saying any such thing.
It also promises what you’ll find in the series of guides: “Your easily digestible list of places to visit, things to experience, and amazing weather to chase around the world.”
The blog copy also cleverly links to where you can book one of the company’s travel adventures:
On the sales page for the “8-day Best of Jamaica” trip, more compelling copywriting entices you to imagine exploring this locale:
“Experience the island in all its Caribbean colour, from Rastafari and reggae to the gorgeous unspoiled coast.”
Finally, there’s a call-to-action at the end of the blog that urges you to check out the other guides in the series:
The result?
It’s not just informative, fun, interesting content – it’s content with a purpose.
This content is working hard for this company. It’s providing value for their audience, but it’s also urging them to take multiple actions throughout the blog.
This banks on the solidity of the writing and research. If these two things were sub-par, then you wouldn’t feel inclined to click on anything within this content piece.
But, since both are on point, Intrepid Travel can use that built-in trust to get you interested in taking the desired actions.
To put it simply, content marketing and copywriting are holding hands and skipping together into the sunset in this blog post.
Now you may be wondering:
How do I get these same results?
How do you create awesome content marketing copy?
Well, my friends, I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve that can help you get there.
6 Essentials to Nail in Your Content Marketing Copywriting (Or, How to Appeal to the Online Reader/Buyer)
1. Use the Flow, Luke
If you want your online writing to be a little more engaging…
If you want to draw in readers and make their eyes compulsively move down the page…
Flow is crucial.
Use the flow, you must.
However…
Writing with great flow on the internet is markedly different from writing with great flow elsewhere.
Smart Blogger addresses this in one of their best posts ever.
In this piece, they tell you exactly why your flow needs to work differently online.
Basically, reading online involves a barrage of distractions. Notifications, ads, pop-ups, enticing links, and more all jostle each other for your attention.
Maybe that’s why most people online don’t read in-depth.
Instead, they tend to scan and skim the page in an F-shaped pattern, according to a Nielsen study:
Therefore, you’ve gotta write the way they read.
If you do it correctly, your audience will do more than skim. You’ll lull them into reading the whole page.
So, here’s how to use flow, according to Smartblogger.
May the flow be with you.
Great writing flow onlinebegins and ends with paragraph structure:
Make paragraphs shorter.
Break up sentences according to the rhythm of the piece. Don’t write in a monotone – vary your sentence lengths, paragraph lengths, and wording.
(This is what a boring paragraph looks like. The sentences are all a similar length. They all have a similar structure and style. It gets repetitive quickly. It leads to reader abandonment.)
Use one-line paragraphs to emphasize important thoughts.
Don’t break up your paragraphs at awkward times. Try to keep your thought trains coherent.
Smartblogger has an excellent example of awkward paragraph breaks:
2. Always Be Optimizing
Here’s another key for copy in content marketing.
Good copywriting that’s not search engine optimized will not earn as much ROI as you’d like.
If you want those returns (hello, rankings + leads!), you have to use SEO and make sure your copy is optimized and search-ready.
It’s not just about targeting keywords in the headline and body of your copy, though.
SEO is also about how you approach content creation in the first place, before you ever write a word.
For instance, how are you coming up with blog topics to write about?
Are you going off a random list you dreamed up?
Or are you basing the topics you cover (and the keywords you use) on what your audience wants to see and user search intent?
I’ll give you one guess as to which method gets better results.
Once you have the right topics and some good keywords, the copywriting can be much more effective. It will appeal to people, first and foremost, but it will also get indexed, which will increase your chances for visibility and exposure to more people.
Need some scope for that?
Well, consider the fact that over 64,000 searches are performed on Google every second of an average day.
Every. Second.
If you’re not angling to get a piece of that seriously huge search engine traffic, you’re fishing in the wrong pond.
3. Make Your Copy Stupidly Easy to Read + Scan
What’s another tactic you can use to make sure your content marketing copy does its job?
As you can see, walls of text are unnecessarily complicated.
Here are some tips on how to simplify your copy for ease of reading:
Breaking up your paragraphs can help drive home your ideas and introduce clarity. The white space in-between acts as breathing space for the eyes. (It’s also a great technique for flow, which we’ve already discussed.)
Subheaders help organize your content so readers immediately get the gist of what you’ll cover in an article or blog post. Make sure they’re in a slightly larger font or in bold so they stand out.
Lists, bulleted and numbered, can help further break up and simplify long paragraphs.
Consistency in formatting helps give your copy a unified look. Use the same styling and spacing for all like elements throughout your content – it will look nicer, but also helps with comprehension.
4. Write Like You Mean It
Of course, the content marketing + copywriting formula is nothing without the addition of skilled writing.
When I say “write like you mean it,” I mean write the way you know you can.
Use all the skills in your arsenal. Don’t phone it in. Put in your best effort every time you sit down to write content, and aim to really speak to your target audience.
According to Neil Patel for CMI, advanced skills like these are necessary for great copywriting – whether on its own or infused into your content marketing:
Simplifying a complex topic for your audience
Creating content and copy that’s easy to read
Transitioning between ideas seamlessly, so the reader never feels jarred
Composing introductions that hook readers
Writing conclusions that do their job well, whether you want to sum everything up or leave your reader with questions to ponder
Choosing the right vocabulary for the right context
Using a style and tone of voice that appeals to your audience
Not every writer is capable of these things.
But the best copywriters are, and they strive to use these skills consistently in all their work.
5. Stay User/Audience-Focused
People first.
More specifically, your audience first.
That has to be your main mantra for content creation and copywriting.
If you write for search engines first, your copywriting and content will show it.
It will be really, really obvious.
According to Kissmetrics, “When you take the time to develop your story, your writing mimics the natural tone you would use in a conversation.”
This is absolutely true. They give a great example of a huge company that majorly failed at this basic tenant of good copywriting in this great post, “10 Things You Can Learn from Bad Copy.”
Read this about page from LEGO and tell me if they didn’t lose sight of who their audience is:
This reads like an encyclopedia entry about LEGO, not a bio written for their customers and fans.
Your content marketing copywriting must put your specific audience first in every detail. You can’t risk losing them at any stage of the buyer’s journey. Maybe LEGO, a giant, international brand, can afford it, but you can’t.
6. Don’t Neglect the Little Details
The little details are what set good copy apart from great copy in content marketing.
And, when you have great copywriting in your content, you’re packaging it up as beautifully and appealingly as possible.
After you create content that’s substantial, valuable, and high-quality, you have to dress it up. You gotta spend time on the wrappings, the trimmings, the ribbon, the bows, and the decoration.
This is what sells it. This is what makes people stop, scan, and ultimately read your content.
When you put lots of effort into every tiny aspect, that means you pay attention to each piece of the puzzle: headlines, subheaders, calls-to-action, intros, and conclusions.
Let’s start with the headline.
The Headline: The Attention-Grabber, Curiosity-Inducer, and Hook
An example of an awesome headline via Smartblogger.
If you can’t be bothered to spend time on your headline, your readers won’t be bothered to read your content.
Overwhelmingly, the headline is the hook. It sets the tone for the content it looms over. If the headline sucks, why would anybody look deeper and keep scrolling?
The stats back that up. On average, 80% of people will read your headline, but only 20% will continue on to read the rest of the post.
This is a spot in your content where good copywriting can pay off ten-fold… even one-hundred-fold.
If you want to motivate prospects to read more, the headline is where it starts.
The Subheaders: The Unsung Blog Post Heroes
Subheaders may seem small in the scheme of your content, but they can easily make or break it.
Here’s where content organization and formatting come into play.
If you use subheaders correctly, they logically split up your words and paragraphs, making them easier to read and scan for meaning.
If you use subheaders like a boss, they do all of the above AND they entice your readers to stop scanning and read, read, read.
Beware, however, of using subheaders that provide no context/meaning, or that get too clever. Smartblogger has some great examples and tips that may help you craft great subheaders.
For an example of subheader mastery, look at Jon Morrow’s content. His subheaders are crazy-good. Here’s an example from one of his pieces on Copyblogger, “7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School”:
The Calls-to-Action: The Words That Work Hard
Your entire content piece, no matter what it is, works hard for you, from the first sentence to the last period.
However, if you want it to work harder, your calls-to-action need to be on-point.
If copywriting as a whole is about inspiring action, then calls-to-action are copywriting that’s focused down to a laser point.
These are the movers and shakers of your content. They can be simple, but they always need to be effective.
What does an effective CTA look like? Check out this ConversionXL post to see great examples of both good and bad CTAs. Here’s a goodie from KlientBoost:
The Introduction and Conclusion: The Table Setter and Nightcap
Your introduction and conclusion are essential to get right.
The intro sets the table and makes your readers want to pull up a chair and tuck into your feast of words.
The conclusion ends the meal, but it can do it in a lot of ways: It can leave your readers full and satisfied, it can spark their curiosity with further questions, or it can offer them dessert (think lead magnets).
A good copywriter will take time to hone the introduction and conclusion, because these two pieces are notoriously hard to get right.
When you do nail them, they make your content 10x better.
Here’s a bare-bones guide for intro writing from HubSpot:
As for conclusions, check out this guide for “How to Go Out in Style with Your Ending” from Copyblogger.
Better Content Marketing Copywriting? It’s in the Bag
Copywriting and content marketing go together like peanut butter and jelly. They’re pretty good on their own, but mash them together, and you have something incredible and memorable.
Content marketing may be the meat-and-potatoes, but copywriting is the salt and pepper.
So, craft great content that provides value, answers questions, and drops knowledge. But, don’t forget to use copywriting to turn those content pieces into workhorses.
Or, to continue the food metaphor, use copywriting to make your content marketing delicious.
Build your authority, make your readers trust you, and then get them to act on it.
That, my friends, is how you turn regular ol’ content into solid-gold assets.
There is nothing new under the sun. And guess what, I am not the first person to have said that. In fact, it was written in Biblical times by King Solomon. So if nothing was new back then, imagine how much more true that is today?
No matter what you write, you are not going to come up with something that has never been said before in some way—unless you are talking about exclusive news, are Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, or
What will make your content great is the unique spin you put on that old concept. When you read, you experience all of the things you want to express.
And once you have experienced them, you are much better equipped to share with others.
9 Quotes from Literary Geniuses that Tell You Why Reading Makes Your Writing Better
Reading makes you a better writer whether you are writing a novel or copy for your latest product. However, do not just take my word for it. I am going to prove my point through copious references to the words that have inspired me all from the mouths of the greatest writers and thinkers. You won’t be able to argue with me, because you have to admit they know what they are talking about. Which means all my reading has already paid off in writing this post alone.
“Genius is one percent inspiration … “ – Thomas Edison
So what if the other 99% is perspiration. Even Edison recognizes that to really be a genius, you need a little bit of inspiration. That is the purpose of books: to inspire the reader. When it comes to writing, reading a book does not magically make you a wordsmith. It does not have any actual magical powers.
Writing takes a lot of hard work. If you want to be a genius writer, you are going to need to put in that 99% of perspiration that Edison suggests. However, while you are putting in that hard work, do not forget that one percent. Read a book, and be inspired. That is part of the genius formula.
“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” – William Faulkner
George Deeb wrote an article for Forbes that says mentors are one of the most valuable resources you can get if you are an entrepreneur. Well, if writing is your enterprise, then you have access to some of the greatest mentors throughout time.
Take advantage of this. Tap into the resources of the masters and learn from them. Within the pages of a book, you will find all of the secrets of writing success. What other profession allows you that type of opportunity?
“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” – Oscar Wilde
Believe it or not, your reading preferences reflect on who you are. What do you enjoy reading? Sci-fi, romance, mystery? There is no right or wrong answer here, but your reading choices do say something about you.
They should also say something about what you write. When you write what you like to read, you know that you are pleasing somebody. And since one of the things reading does is show you that you are not alone in how you feel or act, you know that if you please one person, you are likely to please many.
So read to determine who you are, then write for that person. You will find that many other people want to read the same things as you.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” – G.R.R. Martin
One of the best things about reading is that you get to have an adventurous life even between all of your real-life adventures. As a reader, you get to discover things that non-readers never get to.
How does this translate into great writing? You have to be able to take your readers on an adventure. Whether you are writing the great American novel or you are selling sneakers online, you have to convince the reader that they are part of your story and that they want to continue on with you.
In order to get to a place where your writing transports your readers, you have to have been transported yourself. So reading allows you to travel to other places and have epic adventures, which will help you bring your readers along on all of the thrilling sagas you want write about.
“The more that you read, the more you will know.” – Dr. Seuss
Reading is educational. When you read, even a novel, you learn. What you learn depends on the book. Maybe you learned about some theorem in a physics book. Maybe you learned about the Civil War in a history book. And maybe you learned about the strength of emotions between the pages of a Romance.
Knowledge is never a bad thing. In fact, it is almost always a good thing. So, educate yourself. You cannot teach others anything unless you first learn it yourself.
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” – John Locke
If you really get into a book, you cannot help but start thinking. Great writing challenges your viewpoints and makes you question everything that you thought you knew.
Once you learn to start thinking for yourself, you stop spewing out facts, and you begin to write real, compelling material. If you do not first learn how to think, then nothing you have to say will have real value to your reader.
Readers do not want to read a list of facts unless they are reading the news. They want you to give them something to really ponder. But to get other people thinking, you first have to learn to think.
Sally Kerrigan, a writer for A List Apart, points out that writing is thinking. When you write well, you are not just creating noise. Read, then, so that you can figure out the signal you want to send to the world.
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snickett
Giving sources builds trust. Proving your statements shows you are not just making things up. Reading allows you to find the information that is going to help you prove to your authors you know what you are talking about.
In other words, if people do not believe you, nothing you say matters. So prove to them you are not just throwing up smoke and mirrors.
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” – Fran Lebowitz
Reading helps you form concrete ideas. It allows you to see viewpoints you might not ever before have thought of. It helps you connect with people of all cultures, races, religions, and genders.
If you want readers to connect with you, you have to first connect with them. Find out what people are thinking and what makes them who they are. Once you have developed empathy, it will come through in your writing. People will listen because they will see you really get them.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King
Stephen King has created a name for himself not only as a writer, but as a writing coach. Josh Jones, on Open Culture, took away 20 tips on writing that he has gleaned from King’s own writing tutorial books and interviews. Basically, what Stephen King say you should do in order to be a good writer is what you do if you want to be a good writer.
There is no lesson here like educate yourself or learn who you are. The only point, and it is a huge one, is that Stephen King said if you want to be a good writer, you have to make time to read. And that is reason enough to go grab a book right this instant.
Pick Up a Book, and Change Your Writing
There are many reasons to go out right now and pick up a book. Your writing is only one of those reasons. Listen to the words of all the wise writers and thinkers before you. If you want to write successfully, read frequently.
If you’ve been hanging around blogs over the last year or so, you’ll realize that citations are a big thing. Citation is a skill that bloggers need to learn in the twenty first century in order to see their pages rank well.
Think of these like high quality backlinks that affect the overall rank of your blog and also create a pretty large impact on how your audience perceives your blog.
What exactly is this citation thing anyway?
What are Citations?
Citations can simply be thought of as a means of presenting another website as a link within the body text of your own. The term stems from the academic field where extensive literature reviews usually result in citations that are lengthy and reference a large number of topics on the subject at hand. Similarly, citation in a blog or website references relevant topics so that readers who are interested in these topics can get further information if they so desire. Citations make up the major part of creating backlinks for your site in the modern era of search engine optimization.
Why are Citations Important?
Citations allow for the building of backlinks. The higher the quality of a backlink, the better your page ranks in search results and the more authoritative your own page is in comparison to others on the same topic. Citations are important for two major reasons. Firstly, they allow you to share contact with another, higher-impact blog. If enough traffic comes from your link to their site you may be able to form a suitable link sharing agreement, thereby increasing your traffic. Alternatively, and more importantly, a good backlink foundation allows your website or blog to rank well in relevant search results. The basis of your citations comes from proper use of something called the anchor tag.
What is this “Anchor Tag”?
Basically, it’s an HTML tag that replaces an actual HTML link with actual words. Thus instead of a URL, you can have a short description that, upon being clicked, sends the user to the URL hidden beneath it. Search engines utilize anchor texts to figure out the content of the site you’ve linked to. This means that proper use of anchor tags can affect both your linked-to sites and your own site. The use of the anchor tag represents a particular metric that search engines have taken to tracking termed link relevancy. Link relevancy is determined by what content is on the source page and what the anchor text attached to that source page represents.
Link Relevancy
Search engines cleverly utilize human beings penchant for linking relevant things to figure out exactly what the source page is relevant regarding search terms and keywords. Link relevancy indicators utilize this particular inclination along with complicated natural language processing in order to generate an idea of how relevant the link in question really is. Google’s Penguin update started being more specific in its determination of natural search terms and this allowed the algorithm to determine with a good degree of accuracy when it was dealing with non-organic links by determining if the same anchor text yielded the same link results each time. To this end, links should be made throughout the body of a page with as much variety as possible while still remaining relevant to the source page.
How Does Anchor Text Affect SEO?
As we said before, anchor text allows the building of links that raises the search rank of a page. After understanding search relevancy, we can now form a picture of what our anchor tags should contain to be proper examples of good SEO link building, from Backlinko. Remember that you’re trying to have different anchor texts that lead to your external page in order to create more organic content. To this end, what you should do is to brainstorm possible options that you may have for the creation of alternative anchor texts for your outbound links. It is important that you keep these thoughts in mind when developing your anchor tags:
Do NOT create zero-anchor situations such as “Click Here…”
Do NOT overuse anchor text. Overuse of anchor text makes a search engine look at your linking suspiciously and may actually hurt your search rank rather than helping it.
5 Types of Anchor Text
Anchor text comes in many types and each type has their own particular use. The most common anchor types that you are likely to encounter during your time building SEO type links are:
Zero Anchor Text: These are the text anchors that simply come with a “Click Here” appended to them via anchor tag. Not recommended at all.
“Naked” URL’s: This also defeats the purpose of the anchor tag as some URL’s are usually made up of non-words and incomprehensible strings of letters. On the off-chance that the link is actually made up of good keywords (as is the case in many links from WordPress blogs), the link might end up helping itself out.
Exact Match Anchor: One of the best anchor tags to use in a localized anchor tag strategy. These give a geographical area and a relevant keyword. In some SEO strategies, they allow for more localized searches which can lead to a much higher conversion rate.
Partial Match Anchor: This depends upon the ability of a search engine indexing bot to determine the relevant location and other information from the surrounding words in order to rank the link. It has the benefit of allowing you to be freer with your anchor text and helps you create more natural outbound links. Highly recommended.
Hybrid Anchor: These are a combination of links that associate different anchor tags with each other allowing for a more targeted strategy, while at the same time giving you the freedom to create links naturally. The links usually relate branded items with non-branded items and are also highly recommended.
The flavor of anchor text that you use can make it more difficult for search engines to rank the link and therefore affect your overall search ranking and how well regarded your site is.
How Can I Generate Authority Links? 7 Key Ways
Authority links in the past (as close as 2013) was a whole different game to what it is today. In fact, if you follow the same link-building strategies that you would have done in 2013 today, it’s likely to hurt more than help. When you’re trying to generate authority links for your site, it’s important that you follow best-practice. There are a few very successful ways to build backlinks that are high quality and help your search engine ranking immensely. A few of these are:
Create a Resource: Developing a resource is as simple as compiling a single location that gives information to visitors. What resource links do is they give other websites a handy place to link to that covers all their needs in a single URL. This makes it attractive to link to this resource site and allows a lot of traffic to come through it through linking and cross-linking. Resource pages are useful and amazingly good at generating high-quality backlinks, and all it takes is a little bit of skill in content curation. Knowing your audience also does a great deal for creating resource pages that are beneficial to them, making it all the more likely that you’ll generate backlinks from that page.
Bridge the Content Gap: One of the hardest things for site owners to do is to catch the attention of their target demographic. It’s what many content producers and marketers spend countless hours trying to figure out. How to attract your audience’s attention is one of the most important things you learn in advertising. Bridging the content gap means reaching out to your audience and grabbing their attention by giving them something that they want but that other content hasn’t managed to satisfy yet. You’re trying to fill the gaps left by other content producers. There are countless opportunities that exist out there that have yet to be explored. All it takes is a little bit of imagination.
Use the Power of Infographics: If you don’t know what an infographic is, you probably haven’t seen new content at all in the last 3 years. Infographics are a unique way of blending text copy and images into a nice, holistic piece of content that catches the eye but doesn’t bore the audience with tedious walls of text. If anything, infographics are the way that all content marketers should seek to converse with their audience. Developing infographics on trending themes is a great way of getting backlinks and sharing what you know at the same time. These text-pictograms have become one of the most effective ways of leveraging an audience’s attention span to your own benefit.
See what the Competition is Doing: Monitoring the places other sites you compete against in your niche are doing is a great way for you to develop an idea of where quality backlinks are to be found. You can start off by studying the types of links your competitors have by doing a system of competitive auditing. From that you can come up with a plan to outperform them. Imitation has always been the sincerest form of flattery and if your opponents have managed to find a workable solution for getting high quality backlinks, then you can follow suit and do what they have done, even improving on their methods immensely.
Capitalizing on Broken Links: Google’s main source of determining how well your site ranks on the Internet is still based heavily on your links. In such a case a broken link could spell disaster for a site’s link-building hopes. Enter broken link building. Essentially, in this type of strategy, you spot a link that leads nowhere and point it out to the webmaster of the site, while at the same time asking for a link where that dead one currently is. It’s a very good strategy for developing a rapport with owners of authority sites. One link from an authority site can generate as much or more traffic than ten mid-range or low-impact sites can. That’s a lot of traffic to spotting a broken link.
Find the Influencers for your Niche and Interview Them: Influencers make up a major part of content marketing strategy. They’re called “influencers” because their opinion usually sways a large portion of a target demographic. One of the reasons that they are such influential people is because a lot of people are interested in them. Interviewing an influencers creates a post based on what you found out about that person and also provides an authority link for others who may want to garner information about or directly link to information that supports one of their article’s points. This is another type of resource site with the same overall effect: a lot of links coming inbound from high-authority sites that raise your overall search ranking.
Content Repurposing: You might have had content that performed well but seems to be a bit dated now. You don’t have to toss it out as old content, but you can refurbish it and republish it as repurposed content. Some of the content you made at a previous date was probably not well received because at that point in time your article wasn’t a relevant piece and the industry’s attention was held elsewhere. Giving it new form and function allows you to resurrect these posts, especially if they become more relevant in the present day. Repurposing content and presenting it in an alternative format (such as on Slideshare) makes for a great draw for social media sharers, since Slideshare is much more suited to a social media platform. Repurposing content in this way can gain you a lot of inbound links through social media shares and external linking.
Keep an Eye on your Citations
After understanding how important citations are, and how they function, you’re in a much better place to deal with citing links correctly and increasing your search rank through dedicated link building. It might seem like a tedious process, and at times it can be, but it’s far more effective at getting your traffic and search rankings up than almost any other method of promotion out there. It works hand in hand with SEO strategies to guarantee that your site finds itself among the top search results for a particular keyword.
