Are you losing business because your advertising literature is simply lackluster? Is your great service being overlooked due to business copy that fails to engage with your target audience?
Don’t allow the competition to get an edge, simply because they’ve got business literature that bangs their drum so much louder.
If you suspect this to be the case, the great news is that it’s a problem with an easy fix. Drown out the noise of the competition with these tips and tricks to turn your limp copy into powerful prose.
Don’t underestimate
Putting together snappy advertising copy to pull potential clients in your direction, requires a certain skill. Many business owners make the mistake of thinking they can take care of all the copy writing and advertising literature themselves. How hard can it be?
Well, actually very hard if you want to get it right. Weighing up the correct text, balancing the content, judging the subtleties and nuances that different phrases bring to the mix, takes a certain level of expertise, knowledge and experience.
But in addition to that, a degree of perspective and neutrality is also helpful – writing your own advertising copy can sometimes be a real mistake because you are too close to the topic. You are naturally passionate about your product, but do potential customers really need to know about it in such detail? Allowing a professional copywriting team to create your business literature will result in them distilling the most attractive, compelling and persuasive arguments for buying your product. This will translate into engaging material that ultimately produces increased profits.
Sound good?
Take your time
If you want to tackle generating your own business literature, take time planning exactly what you would like to achieve. Communicate the key details about your business or service in a light, concise and interesting style. Boring your potential clients is not an option – focus on engaging, entertaining and persuading your audience to want more.
Ask yourself some key questions: Who will be reading this? What am I trying to achieve? Why should clients be interested in my service or business?
Avoid dense blocks of text as this discourages people from engaging in any meaningful way with the material. Instead, they will move on to something that’s easy to read and understand that encapsulates its message in crisp, short bursts of compelling copy. Professional copywriters say a lot with a little – remember this when you are compiling your own website, advertising and promotional material.
Details matter
In order to build trust with potential clients, you need a professional presentation. A website riddled with spelling and punctuation errors reflects poorly on your business. Getting such details wrong undermines business credibility and seeds doubt in the minds of your audience.
If you know what you want to write and are confident with the copy, but feel a little unsure of the grammar you can use services such as edit911.com to knock your documents into shape. This company has a team that specializes in copy editing services for business that can turn the most raw material into polished prose that really sells your idea.
Keep it fresh
A website for your business should not be treated as static. After the initial creation, you can’t simply abandon it. A website needs to be a dynamic, ever-changing entity that is constantly being updated, refreshed and loaded with fresh, interesting and relevant content. Fresh content enables search engines to easily read and find sites. In addition to this, when potential clients arrive on your landing page, if it hasn’t been updated in months it will appear abandoned, unloved and irrelevant – not the image you want to project!
Create an exciting website that is constantly evolving and a pleasure to explore – this will not only charm new clients, but also encourage them to revisit for fresh insights and news. A website with a constantly updating blog that publishes topical content, tied in with lively social media feeds, is a place that potential customers will visit and instantly feel – ‘This is an interesting place to be.’
Writing gems
If you have never written any marketing or promotional material before, unless you are a sales genius, it will take a while to master the rules of effective sales copy. One of the key things to understand is the need to place your potential customer at the heart of everything. Yes, it is your business, it is your baby – but this is not about you. Got it?
Focus on how the client can benefit from your business. What can they gain? Identify exactly what’s in it for them. That is all they are interested in. Once you understand that hard nugget of truth, it becomes easier to focus your laser-like sales pitch at your key audience.
Keep it simple. If you can’t grab their attention in a second or two, you’ve lost them. With everybody living their lives on screens, it’s a battle to get noticed. Online and hard copy material should be simple in design, light on text and direct and concise in its message.
A call to action, whether that’s a simple ‘ Buy this now!’ or ‘Call us to discuss an obligation free quote’ is always a good note on which to end. The direct and blunt methods of written communication are often the most effective; sprinkled with a little sales sugar on top they can yield impressive results.
Whatever type of business you run, the scope for promotion and marketing activities is huge. Writing a business brochure, putting together a series of advertisements or building a significant online presence through websites and social media marketing, you can spread the word about your company with power, edge and effectiveness.
With the best business literature, you can begin building up your brand, extending your reach and making the written word work to your advantage. Now how does that sound for a winning business marketing plan?