May 30, 2016

7 Critical Places to Use Copywriting in Your Business

“A copywriter is a salesperson behind a typewriter” – Judith Charles

I couldn’t have put it better myself – copywriting isn’t just about writing random words on a page. It isn’t just about having a firm grasp on grammar (although that does help). When it really comes down to it, copywriting is about creating copy (or words) that sell.

And that doesn’t mean just sell a product or service – effective copywriting sells the reader on whatever is being written about, causing them to take action – whether that be to buy a certain product or just subscribe to an email list on a website.

Whichever way you slice it, copywriting is important to your business.

We’ve already talked about why your business should invest in quality copywriting, but where exactly can you utilize copywriting within your business?

In other words, what can a copywriter offer you?

There are many, many ways that a copywriter can benefit a brand or business, but here are just 7 to get you started:

1. Web Pages and Blog Posts

The copy that appears on your website is critical because oftentimes it’s the first thing that potential customers see when visiting your business online. You need to make a great first impression, and really make your purpose clear from the get go – in other words, what action are you wanting your readers to take after they visit your site? Whatever it is, your copy should all be focused around that action. In a similar way, blogging is great for giving additional information to your audience, as well as converting passive readers into loyal customers. For more on blogging and why this is an effective strategy, visit this blog post here.

2. Sales Pages

Typically, the sales pages on your website will be landing pages, meaning that your readers will land on these pages following a specific prompt from something like a PPC ad, Facebook ad or other social media post. Having cohesive copy that really sells your product or service is extremely important for sales pages for obvious reasons – you want your readers to take action!

3. E-Books

A great way to establish yourself as an authority within your industry or niche is to write an e-book related to your topic. However, many business owners struggle with putting their ideas into words, which is where a copywriter can come in. By creating a well-written, informative e-book for your business, you’ll be able to reach an entirely new potential audience, all while establishing yourself as an industry authority.

4. Emails and Newsletter

Staying in touch with your audience via e-mails and newsletters is an important marketing strategy. A copywriter can help make those scheduled interactions much more cohesive with your overall brand. Plus, if you’re sending a promotional email, a copywriter can help write the perfect call to action.

5. Brochures and Pamphlets

Copywriting isn’t just confined to the internet. Print marketing is still a thing, and many times brochures and pamphlets are what really work for businesses. Add the perfect copy, along with a solid call to action, and your print marketing will be looking sharp in no time!

6. Press Releases

If you have an important event of product releases coming up, creating a press release is super important. Whether you’re releasing the press release online or via hard copies, a copywriter can help to tell your brand’s story in an engaging, yet informative way.

7. Social Media Content

What you post on social media can really make or break your business. Make sure it’s engaging and also cohesive with your overall brand by investing in quality social media copywriting from the get-go. You’d be surprised how big of a difference this can make.

In short, there are certain areas where you really can’t afford not to use professional, carefully-crafted copywriting within your business. If you need help creating the perfect copy in any of these areas, get in touch with us today by filling out the form below or giving us a call at 817.470.5274. We’d love to help make your brand really stand out from the competition!

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May 23, 2016

What Goes into Every Blog Post – An Editorial Process

Have you ever wanted to know what exactly goes into writing a blog post?

We’ve discussed the perfectly structured blog post, along with formatting for SEO purposes pretty extensively, but what about the actual writing part?

We’ve talked about creating an editorial calendar, but what about the entire editorial process?

I can’t speak for everyone out there, but I can share with you what works for me. So, here are the 11 steps I typically take to bring a blog post all the way from concept to publication

1. Keyword Research – If you want to be ahead of the game, it’s best to do you keyword research first in order to figure out what information people in your niche want to know. This way, when it comes time to write, you already have an SEO strategy in place and can write around specific keywords for each blog post.

2. Compile a Topic List – Once you’ve finished the keyword research it’s time to compile a topics list. Block out an hour or so of time and just write down as many blog topic ideas that you can think of. It may seem a little crazy, but it’s so much better than the alternative – waiting until the day your blog post is due to publish to start thinking about topic ideas. If you’ve already got a great list to work off of (all based around potential keywords) the writing process becomes so much smoother.

3. Assign Topics to Days in the Editorial Calendar – Once you have the topic list, don’t stop there. I like to go through and actually assign a topic to each blog post day. For example, if I want to post a blog every Thursday, I’m going to pick a topic for each Thursday going out for the next several months. Of course, if something big comes up or I really feel inspired to write about a certain topic, I’ll switch things up a bit, but for the most part, I try to stick to the schedule – it helps to keep me accountable.

4. Set Due Dates – Sometimes assigning a weekly topic isn’t enough. You actually have to go in and set a specific due date (for example – Thursday, January 21 at 12:00 p.m. CST) for your weekly blog post. I’ll admit it – I do this. I need to have a firm deadline otherwise, I’ll just keep on procrastinating. If you don’t need this sort of discipline feel free to skip, but if you’re anything like me, setting a deadline can be very beneficial!

5. Research – Once you have your topic for the week, set about researching. I’d recommend doing this before the night before a blog post is due (looking at myself, here) but whatever works for your schedule. Try and find 3-5 good sources, along with some relevant stats that you can mention (and link to) in your post. Be as thorough as you can be – the research really determines the full value of your post.

6. Outline – During your research, you’ll probably start to notice some trends and interesting things you might want to talk about. Using these points of interest, craft a brief outline of what you want your blog to look like. It doesn’t have to be anything special or particularly detailed (unless you really want it to be). Just try and lay out everything and make sure it all flows. At this point, you can also look for gaps in the research to determine if you need to go back and fact-check anything.

7. First Draft – Now that you have all of that stuff out of the way, it’s time for the first draft! Take time to write this well, but remember that you can always go back and edit things. Here are some of the main points I try to hit in the first draft:

Headline – Make it attention grabbing. Only 20% of people read past the headline, so you need to spark their interest and make them curious right from the get-go.
Catchy Intro – Did you find an interesting story or stat in your research? This would be a great place to include that. Again, think about grabbing your reader’s attention in a way that compels them to read the rest of the blog.
Body – Split up the body of your blog post into sections using headings to break up the page. This helps to guide your reader’s eye down the page and also makes the content easier to absorb on first glance.
Conclusion – End with a conclusion that ties it all back together. Summarize your main points for the readers who skipped ahead to the end (yes, we all skim J) – this will really help your readers remember the point of the blog.
CTA – Don’t forget to include a solid call to action (CTA). Be direct here and give your readers an actionable step to take next, whether that be to purchase something, contact you or just comment on your blog. Give them something to do after they finish reading.

8. Edit – Once the first draft is written, put away your laptop for a little while and do something else. Let the draft rest for a bit. Then, after a day or so (if you have enough time in your production schedule, otherwise do it sooner) open up your draft and make your edits. Looking at your draft with fresh eyes allows you to catch things that you might have missed otherwise – always a good thing!

9. Format in WordPress – After all the writing is finished, it’s time to format the blog for WordPress. This is pretty simple and just involves making sure the headings are the right size, bullet point lists are clearly defined and all of your images are in place. Make sure you double check your links to be sure that they are pointing the correct pages.

10. Publish – This one is pretty self-explanatory J Once everything is good to go and you’ve tested it all out, it’s time to hit the publish button!

11. Promote – Your work doesn’t stop with the publish button, though. If you don’t promote your blog post, no one is going to have the chance to read it! I always go through and promote my posts via all my social media platforms, and then add it to an email to send out to my email list. This just helps to get the content in front of as many eyes as possible.

Anyways, so that’s what goes into every blog post I write on this site. Some take longer while others are much quicker – a lot of it really depends on the amount of research required.

Do you do any of the steps on the list when publishing a blog post? What additional steps do you include in your list?

May 16, 2016

How to Deal with the Fear of Failure

“Do the thing you fear, and the death of that fear is certain.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear is a powerful emotion. It’s something that we all experience at some point in our lives, and it tends to come in many different shapes and forms.

One form that it often takes? Failure.

So many people (myself included) have dealt with or continually deal with the fear of failure, and often times, that fear debilitates us. It causes us to stay stagnant, stuck wherever we’re at because to move forward would mean risking failure, and that’s a risk we’re just not ready to take.

Sometimes I wonder how many brilliant ideas and sensational dreams have died at the expense of this devious, incapacitating fear.

In other words – how many people have watched their dreams die because they were so afraid of failure that they were too afraid to try?

I don’t want that to be the fate of my dreams.

I don’t want it to be the fate of your dreams either.

So how can we deal with the fear of failure?

We need to change our perspective.

When you think of failure, where do your thoughts go? Negative, shameful places, I’m guessing. But you know what? That’s actually the first problem. So many people view failure as the ultimate low, the worst thing that can happen to them, when really it’s just a bump on the road to success.

No successful person has become successful without failing. In fact, some of the most successful people in the world have failed in ways that would cause most people to throw in the towel.

Walt Disney was fired once because his editor felt that he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
Thomas Edison was told by teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything.”
J.K. Rowling was a single mom living off welfare when she first started writing Harry Potter.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team because his coach believed he lacked talent.
Henry Ford failed at several businesses and went broke 5 times before founding Ford Motor Company.

What was different about these individuals? They chose to learn from their failures instead of drown in them. They chose to keep going. They didn’t see their failures as failures, but mere detours on the journey to true success.

If you’ve never failed at anything in life, it’s likely that you’ve lived so comfortably within your own little bubble that you’ve never really lived, never really dreamed. Failure is a byproduct of dreaming, and trying, and doing, and finding your way. It’s going to happen at some point – what matters is how you choose to view it.

Going back to the Emerson quote, “Do the thing you fear, and the death of that fear is certain.”

The only way to defeat fear is to continually do that thing you fear. In the case of failure, sometimes this means that you just have to fail. Then pick yourself back up again and realize that you’re actually okay. Choose not to fear it, believe that you’re going to eventually be successful, and you will be. And this time it won’t be your dreams dying, but the fear of pursuing them.

Keep dreaming. Push your limits. And set manageable goals for yourself. By setting small goals on your way to the “big” one, you’re making things much less scary for yourself. An action plan for success can be a great tool in combating the fear of failure, and every small goal that you reach will increase your confidence that you really can do this.

Here’s a tough truth that I’ve unfortunately had to learn the hard way – failure is temporary, but regret is forever. The pain of regret is much more difficult to live with than the pain of failing. You’ll eventually recover from failure, but regret is something that can’t be fixed. It’s the result of a missed opportunity, something you wished you would have pursued, if only you’d been less afraid.

I don’t say this to depress you, but to motivate you – the next time you’re deciding whether or not to go after a dream and the fear of failure is getting in your way, consider which you’d rather deal with – failure or regret?

I’d take failure over regret any day.

Nothing worth pursuing ever comes easy – don’t be afraid to go after your dreams. Don’t let the fear of failure hold you captive any longer. Choose to change your perspective, and move forward with confidence!

May 09, 2016

5 Tips for Writing a Call to Action that Really Works

“But wait there’s more!”

“Call in the next 20 minutes and receive an additional ab-buster machine for free!”

“Click here to get started today!”

Do any of these phrases sound familiar?

They may be a bit corny, maybe even a little cringe-worthy, but more or less they get the job done. They help to close the deal through a thinly-vailed call to action.

What is a Call to Action?

Let me back up and explain a little. A call to action isn’t really all that complicated – it’s just something, an instructional statement of sorts, that pushes your readers, viewers, listeners, whatever towards a desired action or outcome.

For example, “click here to get started,” is a pretty straightforward one. If you’re using that call to action, you obviously want whoever is reading your website to click on the button or link in question to get started with your course, product or whatever else you might be offering.

For the most part, calls to action are short and sweet. They usually occur at the bottom of your webpage or end of your sales pitch, but you’ll also often times find them sprinkled throughout. This is a good strategy, because as we know, not all people read to the end of a website landing page, or listen to an entire sales pitch for that matter. Sprinkling subtle calls to action throughout can help increase your chances of achieving your desired result.

But you also need to make them clear and concise. Make it obvious what it is you are asking for from your audience, and make it easy for them to respond. But more on that later.

Why is it Important?

So…why is incorporating a call to action so important? Because even though you understand your pitch or landing page and know what you want people to do, it isn’t always as clear to others as you might think. If you don’t tell your audience what action you’d like them to take next, they likely won’t take any action at all. And it’s not necessarily because they don’t like what you have to offer. More often than not, it’s because they’re confused, not sure what exactly you’re asking them to do, and unsure of what to do next.

Your job is simple – use a call to action to direct your audience towards the desired outcome. In most cases, they’ll be more than happy to comply.

5 Tips for Writing a Solid Call to Action

Now that we know what calls to action are and why they are so important, what’s the best way to write them and incorporate them into your website? Take a look at these 5 tips below for some inspiration:

Remove Risk from the Equation

Let’s face it – most of us don’t really enjoy unnecessary risks. In fact, a lot of us avoid risky situations at all costs. So if your offer or call to action has a lingering sense of risk about it, why would your readers be interested in signing up or opting in for your offer?

Short answer – they wouldn’t be interested.

Thankfully, combating this behavior is simple – just remove risk from the equation. Consider offering a money back guarantee or something similar to help your audience feel more comfortable with the situation. If they don’t like it, they can just return it – there’s no risk in that.

“Sign up for sales coaching sessions today – start seeing results within the first 30 days or your money back!”

Solve a Problem for Your Potential Customers

This is a big one. People are always looking for solutions to their problems, and if you can provide them that solution, they’ll be more likely to choose your product, service or whatever.

Can you perform a service that will make life easier for your audience? Capitalize on that in your call to action. Besides having their problems solved, people generally love to have their lives made easier for them as well – I know I do!

“Know that you need to get started on social media but aren’t sure how? Don’t have the time to run your social accounts effectively? Let us take the pressure off, so you can go ahead and get back to running your business.”

Explain the Benefits

Sometimes all you need to do is explain the benefits, especially the ones that your audience may not be thinking of. Think about all of the hidden bonuses and benefits associated with your product or service. How can these things benefit your audience? How will these things improve their lives?

If you don’t explain the benefits, you run the risk of losing your audience simply because they don’t understand why your product or service is necessary. Again, what may seem completely obvious to you might not be as obvious to someone not as familiar with your business or industry. Take the time to explain things well – it will definitely pay off in the long run.

“When you sign up for regular blogging, not only will you start seeing a bump in search traffic, but your audience will love you for all the quality, free information you’re providing them with.”

Create a Sense of Urgency

This is something that most calls to action have in common – you need to create a sense of urgency, otherwise your audience might just ignore what you have to say altogether. You have to make them realize that what you are saying is important and valuable, and they should really consider opting in for your offer today.

It doesn’t have to be spammy or cheesy like, “Call in the next ten minutes to receive your free oven mitt,” but it should make your readers stop and think, “Hey I should probably get on this sooner rather than later.” Even just including the word “today” can make a world of difference.

“Sign up for our free email newsletter TODAY to start receiving valuable marketing tips that will help your business succeed.”

Provide the Next Steps

So…what comes next? Don’t leave your audience hanging – give them specific next steps to follow after they finish reading your article.

Do you want them to sign up for your email list? Ask for that. Are you hoping to get them as a future client or customer? Tell them what they need to do. Be as specific as you can, and push them in the right direction – after all, that’s the whole point of a call to action anyways, right?

“Interested in learning more about our services? Fill out the contact form at the bottom of this email and someone from our team will be in touch with you within the hour.”

To sum it all up, it’s important to take some time and really craft a great call to action. Think about your audience, your ask, and how best to achieve your goal. Then, put those thoughts into words.

Have you ever used a call to action before? Do you have any additional tips to add?

May 02, 2016

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Email Marketing

Why Email Marketing?

So…what’s the big deal with email marketing anyways? You’ve likely heard of the concept, but why is it so important? Why should you make an effort to send regular emails to your audience?

Well, for one, it provides you with a great opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level. Have something exciting to share? Send an email. Want to keep your clients in the loop about what’s going on with your business? Send them a monthly email full of updates.

But the warm fuzzies only go so far – will you really get a good return on your investment?

According to the statistics, yes – you will get an excellent ROI.

In fact, it’s been reported that businesses who partake in email marketing receive a 4,300% return on their investment.

In other words, for every $1 spent, the average ROI is approximately $44.25.

What?

That’s…unreal.

And while it may sound crazy, it’s 100% true.

Take a look at some of these other reasons why email marketing is so important:

Increases Web Traffic

You can look at basically any avenue of online marketing and the end goal will be similar, if not the same – increase sales and brand awareness by bringing potential customers back to your website.

Email marketing is no different. The end goal (for the most part at least) is to lead readers and potential customers back to your website to see what you have to offer. That’s why the emails you receive from various companies often are loaded with links and clickable images. They know what they’re doing – they want to take you back to their website so that shopping can take place and sales can occur.

You can do the same exact thing through your own email campaign. All you have to do is send the emails (on a regular – yet not annoying – basis, and with quality content that is interesting to your audience, of course). Which leads me to my next point…

Establishes Trust and Builds Credibility

Sending regular, non-spammy emails is a great way to connect with your audience, and over time, this sort of connection begins to establish a certain sense of trust and credibility. People will begin to recognize you in your industry or niche because you seem to really know what you’re talking about. And you send really great emails, of course.

The thing with email marketing that is so different than even something like Facebook or Google Ads/Marketing is that you are targeting people who are already interested in what you have to say. They signed up for your email list – they want to learn more about your business and/or industry. This is part of the reason why this strategy has such a great ROI.

You’re already got the upper hand here. Take advantage of this by giving the people what they want – more useful information that will benefit their lives and businesses. And you may just convert a casual reader into a loyal customer this way – never underestimate the power of a simple email.

Increases Sales and Generates Leads

It’s not always the most fun (at least for me) but in order to run a business, you have to constantly be thinking about how you can increase sales and generate more leads. And since email marketing has such a great ROI, doesn’t it just make sense to give it a go?

Going along with what we talked about in the point above, you’ve got a captive audience who, in most cases, are just waiting to receive your email. They may even look forward to it. Now, I’m no sales expert, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that selling to captive, already interested audience has got to be much easier than trying to make a cold call.

Use this opportunity to advertise your services and products to an audience who is already interested in what you have to say. This is also a great way to generate new leads – not everyone will be ready to become a customer right away, but over time those people on your email list could turn into quality leads.

Provides Real Time Analytics

Another great thing about email marketing is the opportunity it provides to view and analyze statistics. For example, I personally use MailChimp for my email campaigns. When I send an email, I’m able to see things like the open rates, click through rates, and various times that people opened the email. This data might sound insignificant, but it is vital to the success of any marketing strategy.

What are people opening? What are they not opening? What times of the day and/or week are the most people opening and reading their emails? All of these questions can provide valuable insight into your target audience, which in turn helps you better understand how to market to them.

Make little tweaks to your subject lines or content to see if it makes a difference in the open rates or click through rates. Try sending emails at different times to see if there’s a certain time period that receives the most opens. Play around with things, and develop a strategy that works for you.

Delivers a New Way to Promote Your Content

Have a new book or product releasing soon? If you’ve been diligently building and maintaining your email list, you’ve already got a bunch of people who are interested in your business – they’ll likely be interested in your new book or product as well.

You could send a series of pre-launch emails to get people excited about what’s coming, then send another one on the day of your launch. The key here is to build as much excitement as possible, and what better way to do this then through an audience that is already eager to hear what you’ve got to say.

All in all, email marketing truly is a great marketing strategy. Not only is it a way to build brand recognition and connect with your audience, but it also boasts a pretty awesome ROI.

If you’re interested in starting an email marketing campaign, but need some help getting started, let us know! We do this sort of thing all the time and would be happy to help take your business to the next level, while getting you a great return on your investment.

To get started today, all you have to do is fill out the contact form at the bottom of the page – we can’t wait to help you get started!