We now have the tools to test what effect every element on a web page has on response rates. But as yet, these tools are criminally underused.

Is it due to laziness? A desire to just get copy signed off and the job done? Or lack of awareness? Probably a combination of all three.

So next year I aim, in my own small way, to change that, with a new tested copywriting service.

Out go best guesses, assumptions and hope. In come stats, analysis and higher conversions.

My newfound enthusiasm for testing has been inspired by the fantastic book ‘Convert!: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion’ by Ben Hunt (yes, it’s an affiliate link. But as you know, I’d never promote to you, dear Crucible fans, anything I don’t use myself).

Drayton Bird’s endorsement was enough to get me interested, and as I started ploughing through its pages it was like switching on a light bulb. Ben explains, step by step, how to identify customers at different stages of conversion (or steps on the awareness ladder, as he calls it) and how your website needs to be organised to drive them through a trust building process until they’re ready to take action. Hitting them with sales messages from the get go isn’t going to cut it.

In particular, he explains how to use Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer to track, analyse and verify your website is performing as an optimised sales machine. This is where assumptions and best guesses translate into clear, transparent figures.

I’d like to say it’s a page turner but you’ll find yourself constantly putting it down to action one of his suggestions to your own website. Eventually I gave up and read it at my keyboard.

So why not treat yourself to another Christmas present and discover how you can implement a smarter, tested approach to your website’s copywriting and design, and watch your response rate grow:

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There are few professions that can compete with the air of mystery that surrounds SEO. In fact, David Copperfield could learn a thing or two about misdirection and creating mystique from a chat with an SEO consultant.

But things are changing.

Google’s algorithm is getting ever more sophisticated, and the attempts to game it ever more antiquated. Pretty soon, it will be what other people say about your website that decides its ranking, rather than the tactics you can deploy yourself.

But for now, here’s a basic rundown of how SEO works:

On page optimisation

Title tag <title> – Placed in the header section, this helps Google identify your page’s subject, and defines the description that appears at the top of the browser window

URL – Having keywords in your domain name and page name also helps

Heading tag <H1> – Tells Google what the title of your page or article is

Body content – Keyword stuffing is more likely to get you blacklisted then patted on the head. But it’s wise to aim for a keyword density of 2-4% to keep the SE spiders well fed.

Popping your website address into SEOBugz.com will tell you whether you’ve ticked off all of the above.

Off page optimisation

It’s all about the backlinks baby. So how do you get them? Here are some common tactics:

1. Blanket email/spam website owners offering a link exchange.
2. Beg relevant websites with a high Page Rank for a backlink
3. Manually create mini websites for posting backlinks
4. Post articles to directories with linked keywords and phrases
5. Post links in social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit)
6. Post relevant comments in blogs

These tactics are all well and good. But they can be very time consuming and there’s no guarantee Google won’t flick a switch (e.g. Panda) and reduce their impact.

There are 100s of other SEO tricks you can try, but they could all stop working tomorrow.

Instead, there’s a better approach to SEO that combines marketing, PR and sales into one juicy cocktail. What am I talking about? Yep, you guessed it – customer focused SEO copywriting.

SEO copywriting should focus on answering your customers’ questions

The aim of a forward thinking SEO campaign should be to attract links naturally.

To do this, you need to create content that people want to link to. So rather than produce keyword stuffed articles that scrape, copy and mash together content already available, SEO copywriting should focus on being valuable, interesting and original.

For topic ideas, consider what questions your customers might ask before buying your product or what queries they’re typing into Google. Answering these questions through your content will:

1. Attract ‘long tail’ traffic from search queries
2. Build trust in your expertise
3. Pull customers into your sales funnel if they subscribe to your blog
4. Attract links from people sharing your articles with friends and colleagues in social media
5. Attract links from other bloggers in your field (posting helpful comments on their blogs is a good way of attracting their attention)

To get these benefits, your articles will need to deploy the persuasive and psychological techniques used by generations of copywriters. These are skills not easily found in article writing sweatshops, which continue to pour their bilge onto the web.

As word spreads on the new long term approach to SEO, expect to see more businesses investing in high quality SEO copywriting in 2012 – which provides useful information with a sales pitch weaved between the words.

It’s one SEO tactic that’s destined to always generate results.

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Ah, the long form sales letter. Such a bone of contention among copywriters. Many will deride their length, saying nobody has the patience to read pages of copy these days, whilst direct marketing copywriters, who test avidly, will tell you otherwise.

When discussing long form copy, many people will picture those get rich quick schemes covered in bold red headlines, where you can earn millions with only ten minutes work a day while drinking pina colada’s on your beachfront balcony.

With this sort of reputation, you’d think a long form sales letter has no place being on a serious corporate website.

After all, business folks are busy people. They’ve got a mountain of emails to plough through, meetings to attend and conference calls they’re already late for. They don’t have time to wade through pages of copy, or will be fooled by your copywriting mind tricks.

But is this correct?

Perhaps it’s time to take a scientific approach. To stop basing the length of B2B copy on intuition and to find out what actually pulls in the numbers.

Long form copywriting gives you space to answer objections

Long form sales pages have the potential to dramatically improve conversion rates on B2B websites.

This was the argument put forward in a recent Internet Marketing Podcast interview with Dr Karl Blanks, the co-founder of Conversion Rate Experts. With a client list that includes Google, Apple and Sony, when he speaks you tend to listen.

One example he gave was how the changes they made to the landing page for SEOMoz increased revenue $1 million/year. Their approach included all the classic traits of a long form sales letter. These tactics would be equally effective on a B2B landing page.

After all, whether you’re selling sparkplugs or software, your website still needs to convey the same information as you would selling face to face. And you wouldn’t tell your sales people to stop talking after three minutes, now, would you?

Write for the customer, not for yourself

Too often, corporate home pages focus on trying to make the company sound important and impressive. They’ll use longwinded clichéd gobbledegook rather than tell the customer what they actually want to know.

A landing page should be focused on the customer. It should answer all their questions, counter their objections, remove risk and give proof that you can deliver what you promise. This is a lot to cram into 300 words.

Ultimately, landing pages should be as long as they need to be to win a sale or to trigger an enquiry. Maybe long copy isn’t always the answer.

But (as the SEOMoz case study shows) it’s certainly worth considering and testing.

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Getting people to trust you has always been a cornerstone of effective copywriting. It’s a simple principle: if people believe what you say, they’re more likely to buy.

A key factor in building trust, that’s often ignored, is the channel you use. An advertorial, for example, in a well respected broadsheet is likely to have a higher response rate than if you were to email the same advert.

A YouGov survey (reported upon in Marketing Week) to assess levels of trust in different types of media (in response to the phone hacking scandal) found the following:

• radio  - 52% think it’s very or fairly trustworthy
• TV – 47%
• newspapers – 28%
• magazines from brands – 25%
• online magazines and mag apps – 23%
• paid-for printed magazines – 22%
• websites – 21%
• email – 11%
• direct marketing – 8%
• celebrity tweets – 1%
• YouTube and website videos – less than 1%

(Breakdown courtesy of Help in the City blog)

Combining channels can increase trust levels (and sales)

Another interesting stat is that the same percentage (31%) trust ‘comments/reviews written by other users and customers’ as editorial written by professional journalists. This highlights the power of ‘word of mouth’ in the social media age, and that people are actively looking for feedback from other customers before committing to a purchase.

With this in mind, it’s worth considering how you can incorporate customer feedback alongside your own content for maximum trust building impact. Perhaps by extending your promotions into Facebook and Twitter, therein lies the answer?

Another takeaway is the fact that people now trust free branded magazines (e.g. those of supermarkets) more than paid-for magazines. After endlessly banging my drum about content marketing a few years back, it looks as though people are finally getting used to the idea of brands being producers of quality content, and not merely shallow advertising.

Customers are a cynical bunch

So what else can you apply from these findings to your marketing?

Well firstly, the overall low levels of trust show that you can’t afford to treat your customers like idiots. People are already cynical of marketing. Filling your copywriting with exaggerated claims and hype won’t win you many friends.

Secondly, try to involve customer input, with reviews, case studies and comments, to build the authenticity they’re looking for in this (supposed) era of transparency.

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Sooo, the new website is up and running, after a few minor technical hitches.

On the home page you’ll see I’ve followed through with the idea/threat of switching to promoting myself as an agency. Along with the elevated sense of self importance, I’m hoping it will push me up higher into the big leagues as a serious outfit, one that’s ready to take on all the business world’s copywriting projects, both big and small.

But with transparency and being honest with clients high on the agenda, I’ve made it clear that it’s still me behind the curtain pulling the levers. Otherwise, I’ll be on thin ice when clients start wondering why it’s only me that ever picks up the phone.

My USP – Cliché free B2B copywriting

Google’s search results are a crowded place.

So to try and stand out I thought I’d give myself the USP of offering corporate BS free copywriting. You won’t find any ‘bleeding edges’ or ‘best of breeds’ being poured out from this melting pot.

But I’m starting to have second thoughts.

Am I at risk of scaring off the entire B2B crowd with my high mindedness? Are endless superlatives and grandiose claims how they expect copywriting to sound?

If so, will they pay my invoice?

So to help me decide, I thought I’d put clichéd copywriting on trial.

First up, the defence for the ‘blue sky thinking’ style of copywriting that’s sat (looking rather smug in a pinstriped suit, might I add) in the dock…

The Defence – Clichés build rapport and familiarity

Buzzwords might make us copywriters wince. But customers are different. They don’t spend all day reading through marketing material like we do.

Words and phrases that sound like clichés to us are common expressions that help people get your point. They immediately know what you mean.

After all, isn’t it our job to communicate as clearly and concisely as possible? Creative wordplay should be left for novelists. Otherwise, for the sake of sounding unique and clever, you risk writing long winded phrases that are inaccessible to readers.

And terms like ‘synergy’ and ‘one stop shop’ sound professional. It’s the way business people talk. If you’re a serious company with a serious product, you don’t want to sound like someone flogging watches in a bar or how you’d chat to a neighbour over the fence.

Keep your ‘conversational’ copy for those that want to hear it – teenagers and bloggers.

Well, after that ballsy defence, clichéd copywriting is looking more pleased with itself than ever, even giving the court typist a sly wink.

Will the prosecution be able to knock it off its perch? Let’s find out…

The Prosecution – Clichés are lazy, meaningless and send customers to sleep

When you read copywriting packed with clichés it can sound as though the copywriter has been writing on autopilot – hammering out one hackneyed superlative after another, with one eye on Game of Thrones.

Clichés are so overused that they’ve become vacuous phrases without any real meaning.

Everybody is so far outside the box we don’t even know what the box is anymore. And can anybody remember a world where everything wasn’t already ‘turnkey’ and ‘off the shelf’? Supposedly, we all had to assemble everything ourselves, like an Airfix model without any glue.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s not as though there’s a shortage of words to choose from for expressing an idea or concept.

And customers don’t want to listen to a business droning on about how it’s the fastest/cheapest/market leading/ etc. They want real information they can use.

Focus on what the customer wants

Copywrting should be focused on them – on their problems, hopes and desires. It should show empathy for their predicament, and explain how your product can solve it in real tangible benefits. Not with sugar coated features.

And beneath the power suit and reassuringly thick business cards, a B2B customer is still a living, breathing human being. You’re not writing to a fax machine.

Writing that’s more conversational, and mirrors how people talk, comes across as more trustworthy. And as any salesman will tell you, trust is invaluable when trying to sell something.

So rather than use lazy, meaningless clichés, copywriting should be fresh, tight and brimming with personality. It should arouse a customer’s curiosity, keep them reading until the last full stop and then send them rushing to place an order.

Copywriting won’t achieve this if it’s reeling off the same old tired sales patter customers have read a million times before.

The verdict – Guilty!

And with that, as the writer and self appointed judge, I’ve decided that clichéd copywriting needs to be locked away – permanently.

 Guards!

Not looking so smug now, are you?

But I fear clichéd copywriting will only serve a minimal sentence. I’ll be forced to release it soon. It’s far too entrenched in the B2B world’s vernacular to be removed from polluting the marketing world forever.

After all, I’ve got bills to pay and clients to keep happy. But at least I’ve made a small stand for fresh, cliché free copywriters everywhere.

Now, time to rewrite my home page…

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Why do people buy things? Sounds a simple question. In the copywriting world, you’re taught to use a combination of aspiration, emotion and logic to secure a purchase. But there can also be subconscious irrational reasons at play.

Over the last decade ‘behavioural economics’ has grown in popularity as a way of identifying the irrational reasons behind buying decisions. These are reasons that fly in the face of commonsense or logic, and aren’t recognised in classic economic theory.

After identifying what these irrational triggers are, behavioural economics aims to use them as a way of influencing how people behave and ‘nudge’ them towards taking action.

A popular book on the concept, ‘Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness’, is believed to be required reading in UK government circles, and Obama is believed to use its principles to guide his reforms.

So maybe there’s something in it for us copywriters…

4 key principles of behavioural economics you can weave into your copywriting

1. Price context/framing

People will gauge the value of something based on the other options available.

Restaurants will stock an exceptionally expensive bottle of wine because it increases the sales of the next bottle down by making it will feel as though you’re splashing out without going overboard. Similarly, the second cheapest can be a top seller because it feels like you’re saving money without being like a cheapskate.

Another great example of price framing is the supermarket chain M&S’s ‘Dine in for 2 for £10’. This positions the range as an alternative to eating out in a restaurant, thus subconsciously raising its value.

2. Fewer choices makes it easier to buy

In an experiment, one shop sold 24 types of jam whilst another sold 6. The shop selling 6 jams outsold the other shop by 5 times. Why? Because if you give people too many options it makes it harder for them to make a decision. It simply increases the variables in play and the potential objections to each choice.

3. Power of the default option

When you give people an automatic default option it gives them a sense of ownership. It feels like something they already have. The sense of loss people feel from giving up that option is stronger than the sense of gain. So if there’s a particular option you want to direct people towards buying, set it as a default.

4. Make the cost less painful with delayed payment

This is a trick retailers of high price products, like sofas and high end TVs, have used for decades. Offering delayed payment reduces the pain people feel at the point of purchase. They don’t feel the sense of loss of money being sucked from their bank account at that moment. Delaying payment softens the sting and makes it easier for people to say ‘yes’.

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When one door closes, another door opens.

Long time readers will know that I’m not a fan of the $10 (or less) per keyword article copywriting gigs you find on freelance bidding websites, like Elance and Guru. I pity the copywriters that feel forced into these jobs, where they’re paid sweat shop wages to hammer out 10-20 articles a day just so they don’t have to live in a box.

Hopefully, these low paid writing jobs might be on their way out.

Following Google’s recent ‘Panda’ update the rankings of many ‘low quality’ article directories have been slashed. This means the tactic of flooding directories with keyword articles to boost a website’s ranking might no longer be effective, slamming the door on the market for hastily written (or copy and pasted) content.

But before all you article writers out there start to panic, there might be a bright new dawn on the horizon.

Other changes are taking place which suggest there could soon be a growing market for a more profitable and ethical market for copywriters, one in which quality content is rewarded with increased website traffic – and higher wages.

Article directory marketing is dead. Long live Facebook marketing

There are two key reasons why Facebook’s growth is good news for copywriters.

Firstly, there are already hints coming from Google’s labs that social media will have a bigger influence on SEO in the near future. The world’s most popular search engine has already started including links to videos and news stories at the top of its search results. Higher rankings for websites featuring popular articles being shared in social media could soon follow.

Secondly, Facebook has given its ‘Like’ button a revamp. Following the update, whenever you click on ‘Like’ you’ll now share a full story in your Facebook newsfeed, with a headline, blurb and photo. This extra information will make ‘Likes’ a potent tool for spreading content, generating backlinks and boosting website traffic.

The key is now quality, not quantity – which deserves to be paid a higher rate

People aren’t going to ‘Like’ any of your posts unless they find it valuable (whether it’s informative or entertaining) and think it deserves to be shared amongst their friends.

Quality content can’t be churned out on a conveyer belt, where copywriters are rushing to get as many done as they can. Creating quality content takes research, effort and time. And writers should be reimbursed for it accordingly.

Blogs have always been an engine room when it comes to driving traffic to a website. Now their importance is even greater, along with the need to consistently write quality posts people will ‘Like’ and share with their friends.

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After reading this headline, I can imagine many of you are shaking your heads thinking ‘Gheeze Matt, what planet are you on? Don’t you know you should keep it short and simple?’ Allow me to explain.

Yes, it’s true – generally speaking you should keep copywriting simple. Unless you’re writing for a highly educated niche, you need to use language that’s easy to understand to ensure as many people as possible get what you’re writing about.

But there can be times when making your copywriting more complex can be a powerful tactic.

Complex copywriting can position you as an expert

People like to buy from experts. They like the reassurance knowing they’re buying from someone who’s done their research, understands the problem inside out and has identified the best solution.

So how can you make yourself sound like an expert?

By getting into the fine detail on how your product works.

Using complex, technical language, which your reader might not understand, can suggest you have a deeper understanding of the problem your product solves. It can signify to readers that you know your stuff. It can also suggest your product has a ‘special feature’ which your competitors don’t have.

Discuss a feature in greater depth can differentiate your product

In TV adverts for moisturising creams, toothpaste and washing powder you’ll hear all sorts of pseudo science and grandiose claims about how their product works. Whether it’s baking soda or licorice extract, often they’ll focus on the ‘special ingredient’ that makes their brand superior and revolutionary (even if it’s virtually the same as the cheaper tub on the shelf below).

You can apply this tactic to your own copywriting, by discussing how a feature works in greater depth than your competitors.

Differentiating a product from cheaper alternatives is always a challenge for copywriters. But making a simple product sound complex is a powerful tactic you can use to justify a higher price tag and give it that extra ‘Wow’ factor.

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Conversational copywriting is an informal style that mimics they way you’d talk to a friend, but with all the ‘ums’ and ‘you knows’ taken out. Readers find it easy to read because it’s a friendly and fun way of writing. It offers benefits for copywriters too.

People don’t like to be sold to. But they will listen to friendly advice.

Conversational copywriting can swoop under the reader’s radar, scanning for sales spiel, and project your pitch in a way they find comfortable to read and can connect with. It talks through your product in a positive light that doesn’t force the message, whilst projecting empathy for the reader’s problem at the same time.

Conversational copywriting is, however, not to everybody’s tastes. In the B2B world (where I’m spending a lot of my time, these days) it can be seen as unprofessional and not the way a brand should project itself.

Instead, many prefer to adopt a tone they think sounds impressive or important. But when you’re writing copy for your own benefit, rather than the reader, you can be left with a convoluted soup of jargon and corporate speak (‘best of breed’ is a particular pet hate of mine) with all the personality of a fax machine.

Personally, I think whether you’re writing B2C or B2B, you’re still writing for people. When you remove the business suit and tie, you’re still left with people with everyday problems and challenges they need solved.

So shouldn’t you write in a way that’s easy to understand, easy to relate to and doesn’t cause the reader’s eyes to glaze over? Or adopt a serious tone to try and sound impressive? I know which side of the fence I stand on.

What I’ve been writing

In December I was busy writing a pharmacy magazine on smoking cessation and common women’s health issues. I’ve also been writing more video scripts for an iPhone application, and in January I helped put together the marketing material for the launch of a new software development platform. It’s the diversity that makes this job so interesting.

What I’ve been reading

I was one of the 8 million people that received a Kindle in their stocking at Christmas Day. So I’ve been busy filling it with classics freely available on Amazon, such as Crime and Punishment, The Adventures of Sherlock Homes and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

But I haven’t read any of them yet, because I’ve been too engrossed in the first two books of the Demon Trilogy. Once you get past the premise of a country town’s struggle against demons that materialise from thin air, you’ll discover a well paced story with extensive character building and dark undertones beneath the surface.

It appears as though the author, Peter V. Brett, has similarly got lost in the world he’s created because he’s now planning on extending the series to five books. I’ll be there devouring every word until the final page.

About Matt Ambrose

Matt Ambrose is  a freelance copywriter that writes brochures, emails, websites and anything else requiring words for businesses in many different sectors. Clients include Siemens Enterprise Communications and Technicolor.

You can find out more about Matt on his website:

www.copywriterscrucible.com

If you’re in need of punchy copywriting, which reels in readers and converts them into customers, contact Matt now:

matt@copywriterscrucible.com

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Writing subject lines for email campaigns can be tricky.

Their impact can decide whether your emails are ripped open and every word devoured, or dumped nonchalantly in the junk pile.

At this time of year there’s even more noise than usual in people’s inboxes. And so your subject line has to be able to demand attention if it’s going to be picked out from the hubbub of offers and promotions all clamouring to be read.

So how can you give your email the best chances of being treated to a minute or two of your prospects time?

These tips should help:

Tell them what they’ll gain

It can be tempting to try and be witty or clever when writing email subject lines, thinking readers will be so impressed with your creative brilliance that they’ll be desperate to know what your email has to say.

But this is a common mistake.

Humour is subjective, and your wit might confuse as many readers as it amuses. It also fails to achieve your subject line’s primary aim: to tell your recipient what they’ll  gain from reading your message.

People are only going to be interested in emails that can benefit them in some way, whether it’s saving money, being better at their job or more successful in their personal life.

So instead focus on writing subject lines that indicate a benefit (just like when writing headlines).

Tell them what it’s in it for them if they read your email – whether it’s news, advice or insight. Asking the reader a question can be an effective tactic.

Keep it short

People have little patience when checking their inbox, so it’s a good idea to keep your subject line short and sweet. 50 characters is a good target.

Include your location

A Mailchimp study of 200 million emails found that including people’s name had little effect on open rates. Probably because this tactic is so widely used by spammers. Including your location, however, can reel in readers because it’s more relevant to customers in your local area.

Words to avoid

The Mailchimp study also recommended avoiding the words ‘Free’ at the start of your message (to avoid being sent flagged as spam), ‘Help’ and ‘Percent Off’. These were all shown to reduce open rates.

WRITING IN CAPITALS APPEARS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING

Throwing in exclamation marks also screams of spam!!!

Vary your subject lines to keep it interesting

Even after stumbling upon a magic formula, which gets your emails ripped open faster than presents on Christmas day, you shouldn’t keep repeating the same subject line over and over again. This just makes your messages appear boring and stale.

Instead vary your subject lines, along with your content, to build excitement in your news, important information and special offers.

What I’ve been reading

Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples – Architect of one of the most famous headlines in copywriting history (‘They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I began to play!’) , John Caples shares his exceptional wisdom on writing headlines, the importance of testing and other copywriting lessons as valid today as they’ve ever been. It’s required reading for every copywriter; I’m embarrassed it’s taken me this long to add it to my bookshelf.

The Dark Tower by Stephen King - The 8th and final book in the The Dark Tower series has a predictably ambiguous and controversial ending, which you’ve spent 3200+ pages pondering over. The Dark Tower series is rumoured to be the next big TV project for J.J. Abrams and the rest of the crew behind  Lost. This rumour has fans shuddering and delighted in equal measure.

What I’ve been writing

This month’s highlights have been an integrated print and PURL (personalised URL) campaign for software for selling match tickets online and working on brochure copy for a Swiss banking magazine.

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