Use your web space efficiently with copy relevant to customers

Summary:  When writing product copy, consider the page where the copy will appear in, note what you want the web user to do in that page.  Then attract, interest and build desire in potential customers through giving relevant information on why the product will be useful to them.  You have just a few seconds to do so, so put the meat right in. Whimsy copy is useless and turns off customers.

----

Finally, one local coupon site has stopped using psycho and useless product copy.  Hallelujah!
Another site who does this practice has hidden the weird copy in the middle of the product page.
 The only local coupon site that I've seen who used copy optimally is Cashcash.  The others were just yikes.  (Or maybe I'm not subscribed so I missed it.)

As a loyal customer and a copywriter for usability, I always cringed at their weird product copy.

Example:

 ... Traditionally, lasers have been used to point out important portions of slideshow presentation, to shrink one's children, or as a super villain's go-to weapon of mass destruction.  Find out what good things lasers can do for you with...   ?

This is from an email I received just this June.  

As of today,  their site only has 1 product with weird copy, the others are more efficiently written.  

 The writer definitely knows how to write, but it is big waste of web real estate.  I click these ads when I want to buy something, and I expect the blurb on the email to tell me:  

• a bit more about the product,
• if the feature I'm excited about is mentioned, or 
• if  I have a question, seeing it answered immediately on the snippet under the attractive picture.

Any of these would really excite me to click "View It" to lead on to the product page.  And of course, if all information and terms are satisfactory to me, I would buy at that very moment.

In writing copy, let us treat each page as having its own objective.  Then we write according to that objective. In the photo I posted above, the conversion objective is:  to click on the View It! button that leads to the product page.  I am not clicking to read on shrinking one's children.  Truth to tell, since I did not glance at the title, I didn't know what the product was.  If I liked the picture and price, I would click the button, but the desire for buying is held off until the next page, when desire to buy could have been built directly on the email received, even before landing on the product page.  Time is wasted.

Unfortunately, hurt as it may, but as your buyer too, I can say that most of your sales come from the pictures, the price, the no-nonsense product headline, and in the product page.  But that blurb, it turns me off, and I'm sure a lot of us cringe at those blurbs because it's (sorry) quite cheesy, given the context.  In the past, there were instances when I see people in my timelines snickering about the product copy.  Many times, I have been impatient with this copy as it is not helpful and quite annoying and takes up my time when all I want is to learn more about the product.  

 I am not sure if it's a management policy to write this way, or a personal preference of the writer, but whoever decided to stop it, well, props to you.




Please subscribe for free internet marketing notes, working online, and Pinoy living info
Subscribe to Online Filipino Worker - OFW Din!

Copy Writers Write Like They Don't Want to Sell

This is a broken-record topic, but I'd like to air it out --


Why do copywriters write like they don't want to sell?


Dear copywriters, the purpose of your post is for your client to sell their products.  So please help them sell.


I've been looking through copy of respectable websites and most of them :

• Write the feature first, then
• what happens because of that feature

Unfortunately, the feature is always in some language from another planet, so as a buyer, you definitely have no idea WTH the copy is talking about.  Ex. "This patented bla-bla chorva guarantees the most efficient bla-bla in the whole wide universe."  Eh wot?


I'm not the best copywriter in the whole world, but I try to at least keep in mind to sell to the reader.


That said,  I write in reverse.

• I state the nice thing that happens, 
• Then I say this is because of this patented bla-bla name from another planet.

I state the nice thing that happens/ benefit first because a benefit does not involve language from another universe.  The reader is most likely to understand what you are saying.  "Easy installation", "less time to clean up", etc. etc. is easier at the start of the sentence, than "This patented hoity-toity name for a spare part can do this or that."  And if you state the benefit in a hyfalutin way, there goes the sale.


So, keep it simple. Keep it clean.  Benefit first, then glorify the unique patented design spare part.


Okeh.   




Want free updates from OFW Din?
Subscribe to Online Filipino Worker - OFW Din!

Typo Ghosties can Come Back to Haunt You

Start your website right.  From the start and while it's running, use correct spellings on ALL your copy and optimizing tags.  Do not  dismiss this as "oh, it's just one tiny error."  But you do it the next time and you still say "Oh, it's just a small error."  And you do it again. And again. And again.

Years later, you have a big fully running website that is highly optimized for SEO.  And you can't figure out why your site does not appear in the searches.  Then, to your horror, you find yourself in a Google search alright, but with typos!

Typos make your website look unprofessional.  This can hurt your sales/ conversions.  How can people trust you with their credit card numbers if you can't even go the extra mile with correct spelling?  Not all people are great with spelling, true, but it can be addressed with a little effort.

In addition, because of typos, you can't be found when people look you up.  Unless someone also got the spelling wrong when they search for you, then you will be.  But you will lose a lot of customers because most of them take care to type in the correct spelling so they can get the correct provider they need.  So you'll be out of the ball game before they start.  Only because of a simple neglect to run a spell check or to look up a word in the dictionary.

So be prudent.  Invest very little time to correct typos as you do a page.  Years later, you will be glad you did so.  You may not be able to see all errors while working, but the next time you do see one, do correct it ASAP so search engines will be better able to find you.

Want free updates from OFW Din?
Subscribe to Online Filipino Worker - OFW Din!

Some Basic Online Work Words that I Will be Discussing

Here are my most favorite topics about online work that I will be discussing time and time again.  If anything, I have started on some posts already.  This is posted for those who intend to learn more about working online.  This post will be expanded time and time again, depending on trends that will commonly crop up when you are an Online Filipino Worker.

SEO - is Search Engine Optimization. What you do on or for your website to be found when searched on Google and the other search engines.  This includes fixing the website to be easily scanned by search spiders, posting great content in the site, posting informative SEO articles in other websites, getting other sites to link to your website, etc. etc.

Web Usability - making your website easy to use for the internet user.  This involves:  putting simple and understandable information,  making choosing options easy, clear info what will happen when a user clicks this or encodes that, having the most important element, such as a button or table, in the right place easily seen by the user, etc.

Web Analytics - collection and analysis of all the data happening in your website.  Use the data to improve your users' experience and your sales or sign-ups.

Web Conversion - When your users convert/ do something in favor of your company's objective, such as buying, signing up as member, subscribing to your newsletter, etc.

Conversion Rate Optimization - All the efforts you do to increase the percentage of sales/ conversions vis-a-vis the number of visitors in your website.  To optimize conversions, you usually tweak your website's usability, copywriting, testing, analytics, etc.

Web Copywriting - Writing persuasive text in your web page that will make readers convert/ do something in favor of your website's objectives.

A/B Testing/  Multivariate Testing - Presenting to users different versions of 1 webpage to see which version leads to more conversions/ sale/ sign-ups/ etc. Testing which web page version is the most effective.

There are other virtual online work such as programming, admin tasks, customer service and the like, but I will focus more on the ones above as these are the main tasks I do.


Other words I will usually use:

If I say traffic, most likely I am not referring to the heavy volume of cars on the road, but the number of people that pass through the website.  These are the same people I refer to when I say, audience, users, readers, etc.

Copy is not nicking your classmates answers in the test, but the written text of a web page, advertisement, etc.


A little request from OFW Din: If you liked this post, please click the cute buttons below the title. It will let Google and the others know you sent me some love.