Why the Demands of Online Shoppers Means More Demand for Copywriters

May 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I often read comments by other freelance copywriters who have just entered the online market and are panicking at the fees they see on freelance bidding websites and Craigslist. Such rates give the impression that the internet is just one huge literary junk pile, with more rubbish being dumped continuously from a conveyer belt manned by impoverished writers, chained and drugged up on Pro Plus (pep pills) just to get through enough articles so they can pay the rent.

I have always believed/hoped that the perception that writing is cheap would be just a phase, and that rates would rise and stabilise once businesses realised the value of well written copy.

In recent posts, I discussed how in order to turn browsers into buyers you have to solve their problems and answer the questions which might be an obstacle to making a purchase. Recent studies would suggest that online shoppers agree, and are demanding more information if they’re going to spend their money.

E-Consultancy, with their ever watchful eye, alerted me to research by Harris Interactive on online shopping habits.

From their survey of nearly 3000 people they discovered the following:

  • Nearly half have increased shopping on the web.
  • 44% have abandoned a purchase altogether due to the lack of information available.
  • Access to information during checkout was deemed as helpful by 56%.
  • 45% wanted to be able to find the answer to their questions themselves, rather than wait for an email.
  • Most consumers (57%) now research products and services online.
  • Manufacturers need to follow the approach of retailers to customer self-service: 69% of consumers will now go to the manufacturer’s website if they have a problem, even if the product was purchased from an independent store.
  • “An effective way for retailers to differentiate themselves from the competition is through customer experiences.”

Now I’m not suggesting everybody adds ‘FAQ section writer’ to their list of services; however, it’s worth noting that websites now face increasing and unique demands from online shoppers, and need writers to meet them.

Freelance copywriters can help improve a shoppers’ online experience and boost sales with the provision of concise copy that emphasises how a product solves a consumers’ problem, without having to resort to the hard sell.

A separate study, by eGain, has shown how UK businesses still have a long way to go to provide such an experience. Their research found that only 17% of 125 businesses offered acceptable customer service solutions on their website. This was assessed in terms of the quality of the information available, the ease of finding answers and the response times to queries.

To convert browsers into buyers, businesses need to differentiate themselves through the provision of content of value that answers their shoppers’ questions.

Freelance copywriters, in turn, can differentiate themselves by being able to show how their writing talent can help provide a better shopping experience, and boost profits as a result.

Hopefully, then copywriters will start being employed based on their value, rather than just on price.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Marketing 

The Benefits of a Rubbish Case Study

May 23, 2007 | 5 Comments

Case studies are a potent tool: they illustrate your point and demonstrate the benefits of what it is you’re trying to sell in a real life situation that people can relate to.

Last week I was discussing the problem of turning web browsers into buyers, and suggested starting a newsletter or blog as a possible answer.

This week I was able to find the perfect case study to illustrate my point; a case study which proves that even removing rubbish can be the basis for a dialogue with your customers.

The Telegraph newspaper ran a feature on Topskips.com - an online skip booking service whose initial investment of £5000 ballooned into a projected turnover of £3.5 million in just four years.

The success has attributed to finding a niche, and then using effective marketing to corner the field; the key being the Topskips.com website.

The website goes beyond being merely a billboard of pricing and booking information, and moves towards actually trying to solve their customers’ problems.

With a free Secrets to Successful Skip Hire guide, blog and video clips, Topskips.com aims to answer all the questions that could present hurdles to making a purchase.

What can I put in the skip? How much can it hold? Do I need a permit? Where will it need to go? – all questions answered in a manner which will not only assist the buying decision, but also develop trust and confidence in Top Skips’ expertise.

One response to the website was:

‘I can say without a doubt that your site really does make a difference to how skips can be ordered, compared and enquiries dealt with in an efficient manner well done!’

By providing visitors with the opportunity to learn more about skip hire the website sells through education, which surely in this evolving age of transparency and trust should be marketing’s objective.

So if you’re still unsure of how to turn browsers into buyers: Topskips.com is a great example of a website using their content to start a dialogue, help solve their customers’ problems and drive more sales through education.

Topskips.com’s ability to engage with customers might not be the only reason their business has grown so rapidly, but it will certainly have helped.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing, blogging 

Bring the Love Back - Coming to a Blog Near You

May 21, 2007 | 2 Comments

I was alerted by The Marketing Blog to this new video destined to be hitting everyone’s blog screens very soon.

Produced by Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, ‘Bring the Love Back’ is a video about the break up of the relationship between advertisers and consumers.

Post it on your blogs, share it, distribute it and get businesses listening to the fact that mindsets are changing.

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Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing 

The Problem of Turning Browsers into Buyers

May 17, 2007 | 5 Comments

If you hadn’t heard, people are getting excited about the web again. Businesses are falling over themselves to setup shop online and engage with the millions surfing globally.

Hearing some of the statistics would start anybody thinking of becoming an internet entrepreneur. If you dig a bit deeper, however, it would appear wise to tread carefully. More browsers doesn’t necessarily mean more buyers.

A recent article in the Independent threw up enough statistics to get even the most hardened bricks and mortar traditionalist excited about running an online shop:

  • £42 billion will be spent online by UK shoppers this year.
  • This matches the turnover of UK supermarket giant Tesco.
  • 860 million parcels will be sent to 26 million shoppers, and not all of them were bought on Ebay.
  • A UK online shopper will spend an average £1600 this year.
  • E-commerce has grown globally by 3500% in the past 6 years.
  • The global online marketplace will be worth a total £250 billion this year, with 1 billion potential customers.

Reading these figures would get anybody hammering out Paypal buttons for those exotic tiles they found in Morocco. But before you jump on the ecommerce gravy train there are some more figures you probably should hear.

Jordan McCollum , guesting on The Marketing Pilgrim, linked in a recent post to research by Accenture on consumer online shopping habits. It would appear that although a healthy 69% use the internet for researching products only 33% will actually go on to purchase.

The rosy figures quoted on internet sales relate largely to purchases of electronic equipment, DVDs, groceries and bargain shopping for clothes, all items in which the purchasing decision was governed by price or convenience. Trying to sell something which might involve an element of persuasion is a little more problematic.

There’s a range of reasons why most still prefer the physicality of an offline purchase. But the online market is simply too large to ignore, and growing all the time.

To succeed online you need to find a way of building trust with your visitors and persuading them why they should spend their money with you.

If you can’t compete on price then you have to find other ways to differentiate yourself.

Sharing some of your knowledge and expertise in a blog, newsletter or white paper would be a good start.

As Jordan points out, “if you’re thinking of running an online-only eCommerce business, consider the reasons why two-thirds convert offline, and look for innovative ways to combat those excuses.”

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Marketing 

Why Copywriters are now Builders, not just Decorators

May 11, 2007 | 1 Comment

As internet marketing evolves so do the responsibilities of the copywriter. There was a time when the copywriter was just brought in to splash punchy prose over the website’s pages, before packing up and moving on to the next project. It was the web developers who stayed behind to keep an eye on the site, to make sure it was well sign posted and a pleasant place to visit.

However, research on people’s shopping habits suggests that copywriters are now a vital part of a site’s maintenance team.

Not only are they needed for the initial decorations, but also for regular refurbishments and constant building work to make the website is as big, bold and prominent as possible.

I was directed to the basis of this week’s topic by Mark White at Better Business Blogging. In a recent post he linked to a report on how UK shoppers respond to search results.

The report, commissioned by Tamar search conversion agency, provided some interesting insights into the UK’s attitude to search:

  • Over half will switch to a competitor if they see negative comments about a company in the search results.
  • 7 out of 10 will abandon a search altogether if they see negative results.
  • 43% know the difference between natural and paid search.
  • 9 out of 10 prefer natural to paid.
  • Women prefer natural results because they are seen as more relevant.
  • Men are cynical of the keyword manipulation tactics used in paid search, and don’t trust them.

The study reinforces the need for businesses to approach their online marketing as a long-term commitment.

Getting to the top of the natural rankings should be the primary aim, with paid search just a useful tool for getting quick, early customers

Paid search can be very effective if you know your conversion rate, and only need to sell a few high value products to make a profit. Consequently, it suits some businesses better than others.

It is ideal for those whose visitors are more likely to buy on their first visit, and don’t need convincing of your product’s benefits.

The problem with relying solely on paid search is that it’s a bit like attracting shoppers with a megaphone, but not having a sales team to greet them when they arrive.

Few people are ready to buy the first time they visit your site. To persuade them to part with their money you need to build trust. The best way of doing this is through the ongoing provision of content of value, and developing the sales process over time. A natural search campaign can achieve this.

Getting to the top of the natural search results takes a much greater investment of time and energy than paid. With Google’s algorithms enough of a puzzle to support a whole industry, there’s no quick and easy way to get to the top, and stay there.

Natural search optimisation is like building and running a shop. It takes a lot of effort, and requires regular investment long after you’ve first opened your doors. Ongoing renovations are needed to keep it relevant, and to build up the content needed to attract search spiders, garner backlinks and develop trust with visitors.

That’s why copywriters should start thinking of themselves as a website’s resident builder, rather than just the initial decorator. Copywriters are now needed to hang around to keep the website’s content up-to-date, and to pull in the search engines.

Your words are your bricks, and with them you are responsible for constructing a website’s organic material needed to push it to the top of the natural search results.

A natural search campaign is about building concrete foundations. Once your website’s relevance is robust enough to be on page one then you’re there for good, and open to do business with the steady stream of customers flowing through your doors.

People trust you because they know you have spent time laying the groundwork to be there. You are not a fly-by-night organisation who has just bought your way onto their screens.

Paid search is a lot like setting up a market stall at somebody else’s shop door. You’ve paid the market inspector for the pitch, and then you try and waylay as many of the shop’s customers as possible.

Most will pass by because they don’t trust you, but at least one in ten is likely to stop and have a look at your wares.

Paid search might be the quick and easy way of getting noticed. But with 90% preferring natural results you are missing out on a lot of business by not having a natural search campaign.

At present most businesses are still fighting over the best market stall pitches, rather than investing in long-term bricks and mortar.

A recent survey, taken from E-consultancy, highlighted the following:

  • 6 out of 10 UK businesses plan to increase their search marketing budget in the next year.
  • 44% said the rising click costs were affecting the ROI of paid search.
  • The average proportion of a marketing budget allocated to online was 32%.
  • 61% of an online marketing budget was spent on paid search, with only 33% on natural SEO.
  • Most felt SEO had a more positive impact on branding than paid search.
  • The scope of success in driving their search marketing strategy was limited by the lack of internal resources.

Based on this survey, it would appear we still have a long way to go before business mindsets change from focusing on paid to natural SEO.

Once more businesses wise up to the long-term benefits of natural search then they will need copywriters to build and manage their campaigns for them. Not only to provide wheelbarrow loads of news and information, but also to drown out the noise of disgruntled customers.

The Tamar report highlighted the problem of negative comments in blogs and social sites clogging up search results, and scaring off visitors. Over half of those surveyed would switch to a competitor if criticism cropped up in a company’s results.

Copywriters are needed to drive down negative search results, by building a website’s positive exposure with happy news stories and cheery case studies.

But I’m going to have to save this discussion for another day, because it’s time for my tea break.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting, Online-PR, Search Engine Optimisation 

Why Western Copywriters Shouldn’t Fear India

May 3, 2007 | 14 Comments

I often read complaints by US and UK copywriters on the swamping of freelance work bidding websites by Indian writers. Many blame the low prices on the foreign competition, prepared to work for fees sometimes lower than the minimum wage.

For a while, webmasters loved it. They had a huge online pool of intelligent, university educated Indian graduates prepared to work for bargain basement prices. However, the tide might be slowly turning back in favour of the natives as webmasters realise that they might not be getting quite what they had wanted.

J. Watanabe discusses in his Beyond Konspiracy blog about an occasion when he tried to find an Indian copywriter for a UK client. Despite finding numerous copywriters he thought were acceptable (including a leading Indian writer with a Masters degree and who read English publications daily) none were taken on because the UK client found that, “Though a fair number of Indian copywriters write well…their writing looks funny.”

Indian copywriters use the same vocabulary and grammar as Western writers, but there are inherent differences between the two versions. I often find Indian writing a bit disjointed and cumbersome to read. Many a time have I retraced a paragraph on an Indian news site because I felt I had lost the meaning halfway through.

To an Indian their English writing structure is correct, and flows according to their conventions. The nuances and differences in how the language is applied, however, means that it never quite reads as if it were written by a native English speaker.

Even if you were to train an Indian copywriter on some of the distinctions of Western English I think they would still struggle to write like a native because they are not fully immersed in the language.

Writing is like sculpting a block of ice. You start by pouring out all your garbled points and thoughts into your first draft to create your block, ugly and unrefined. Then the real work begins of chipping, chiselling and fashioning the ice to try and create a beautiful sculpture, with every word and sentence shaped to reflect your desired impression.

Indians approach their block of ice with different shaped tools and a different plan in mind. Their sculpture isn’t necessarily any less attractive. It’s just designed to be appreciated by a different audience.

Brian Clark wrote a post this week about using metaphors to improve the impact of your copy. When you consider how our language has evolved, with the subtle use of such devices, it makes it virtually impossible for a foreign writer to be able to compete in the same ball park.

There will always be webmasters who just want cheap copy to fill up space. However, if a business really cares about ensuring they communicate their message then there are just some corners that can’t be cut.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Copywriting 

Learn More About Online PR with a $200 PRWeb Press Release

May 1, 2007 | 2 Comments


Online PR is certainly one of the buzz terms at the moment, and what better way to learn more about it than by using a free $200 press release from top online distributors PRWeb.

Ponn Sabra at EmpowerWomenNow.com is currently running a promotion with PRWeb in which you can use one of their top press release distribution services for free. All you have to do is sign up for Ponn’s newsletter and then attend a PRWeb webinar.

Requirements taken from EmpowerWomenNow.com:

Rules:

1. Subscribe to Ponn’s free Empower Me Now Tips ezine, here.

2. Register for a free account to PRWeb.com here,* and register for a “Free Webinar” once you are in your account. [On the left-hand side of “My Account” you’ll see Mario Bonilla, Platform Trainer, smiling at ya!]

* If you already have an account, hit “SIGN UP NOW”, and click on the upper-left-hand-tab <Home> to ‘login’ your ‘username’.

3. Once you receive your confirmation Webinar email, forward a copy to prweb<at>empowerwomennow<dot>com

4. Attend the Webinar and afterwards send an email to Mario at the address he supplies. He will email you back a coupon code for redeeming your press release distribution service worth $200.

For anybody unfamiliar with Webinars, please note that you need to call a teleconference number. I used Skype and it only cost me £0.96 for the full hour; I’d recommend that anybody else calling from outside the US tries this instead of using a landline.

The Webinar was very informative and certainly gave me some new ideas as well as an insight into some of the extra services that PRWeb provide over free services.

Now I’ve just got to think up a story worthy enough for my $200 release!

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Online-PR 

RSS for Dummies

May 1, 2007 | 1 Comment

More people and more people are becoming familiar with RSS now that it’s integrated into web browsers and featured on mainstream portals such as newspaper websites and Ebay.

For those still unsure of why they should want to use this time saving method for pulling news to you and keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry, here is a brief video I was alerted to by Ponn at EmpowerWomenNow.com created by Commoncraft:

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Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under RSS