How do you do that?
The first step is to lay a foundation of web copy that compels site users to stick around and explore what you have to offer.
Another point worth considering is that your web copy is not always going to be displayed primarily on your website. Your name may be attached to content across the web in articles and blog posts published on other sites. When you do get the name of your brand out there via guest posts, you will want to avoid – at all costs – looking like the “spammy” posters that Google’s Matt Cutts wrote about in his 2014 article that rattled the blogging world at its very core.
As best-selling author and web influencer Neil Patel was quick to point out a few days after the infamous Cutts article, “Guest posting is a great way to drive traffic, increase sales, uzbekistan cell phone database and grow your brand.” He then mentioned that Matt Cutts had expressed the same sentiment. Getting your brand out there is crucial when you own a small business; it’s one of the marketing strategies that can propel your business to a truly competitive position in the marketplace.
The secret when optimizing your posts and articles to meet increasingly discerning search engine standards is to produce web copy that is relevant; it must provide real value to web users. That isn’t an unreasonable standard, and it can be achieved when you create high quality web copy. It is certainly possible to do so while also making your sales copy and blog posts the stuff that draws traffic to your website on a consistent basis.
The tips offered here can help you to devise the kind of copy that will incite web users to learn more about your brand.
Tip #1: First Things First: Alluring Titles
David Ogilvy (largely known as “The Father of Advertising” – whose mid-1900s Rolls Royce ad was a study of perfection in advertising, many industry experts might say) was a highly successful advertising executive who had some invaluable things to say about creating inviting sales copy. The brilliant ad man maintained that 80% of each advertising dollar goes to the headline (because five times as many readers view the headline than do those who go on to read the body of the copy).
When you’re a small business owner competing in an age in which brand recognition is everything, you’ll need to be creative in terms of drawing readers to your website and blog posts. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a marketing genius to do this. Keep these points in mind when you write the titles to your web copy:
Descriptive words efficiently paint a picture, as in “Shocking Secrets of the World’s Wealthiest Entrepreneurs”.
Numbers will give potential readers a reference point as to what they might expect from your articles, such as “The 10 Best Ways to Save Money on Airfare”.
Using words such as when, what, how, and why will prompt people to read past the headlines. An example: “How to Tune Your Guitar Like a Pro”.
Active Voice Inspires Action
By its very nature, active voice spurs the reader to envision an action. This imagery, once implanted in the mind, can soon result in the same reader taking action (such as making a buying choice or further exploring the merits your business has to offer). Consider the examples cited by Steve Masters; he uses a couple of the top game changers in their respective industries to depict how passive voice could have otherwise sunk their winning ad campaigns. In his first example, Masters displays a passive voice version of a long-famous Nike slogan in the form of “Make Sure it Gets Done”. The passive voice wording doesn’t have nearly the same impact as the actual slogan (“Just Do It”).
The second example portrays a slogan below the famous golden arches associated with the McDonald’s restaurants. The passive voice wording provided by Masters – “It’s Being Loved” – falls flat in comparison to the slogan heard in countless TV commercials for the fast food chain (“I’m Lovin’ It”).
Use active voice whenever possible in your sales copy, and you won’t leave your site visitors yawning as they exit your site.
Webcast, October 3rd: How to Create Hilarious Content People Will Be Dying to Share