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What’s Wrong With the Writing on my Web Site

March 26th, 2012

I get this question all the time.

Most often the business owner or professional asking the question is looking for help with headlines or wording.

More often than not the writing is fine; its the approach that is all wrong.

If I give you the assignment to find and evaluate  the websites of ten lawyers or ten doctors or ten accountants in your area you will likely find websites that look pretty much the same and that also say pretty much the same thing. These websites will usually talk in glowing terms about the accomplishments and experience of the site owner.

Experience and competence are important but from a marketing point of view they are not all important. Do you know where you accountant went to school or how he learned his business? Do you care?

What you do care about is your own needs. If you have a leaky pipe you want to find a reliable plumber who will come when you call and charge a fair price. If you are looking a computer consultant you want one who understands your business and knows how to help you be more efficient.

This is the key to good writing for your website: it needs to about your customer.  You need  to  think about the problems of your future customers and tell them how you can help.

Once you figure that out the writing will take care of itself.

How To Start Writing Your Way to More Customers

March 1st, 2012

Does your business need more customers? Do you want to get more leads for your professional or freelance practice?

The answer could be closer than you think.

The first step is to admit that what you want will not happen by itself. You will not get customers by greeting them as they walk in the door or contact you by phone. You must take action to get the result you want.

Should you advertise? Hire a PR firm. Use direct mail. Promote your Facebook page?

There are a number of things you can do but you can’t do anything until you first answer this question: Why should anyone want to do business with you?

Are you better at what you do? Do you have more solutions? Do you charge less? Is your service better? Are you more reliable? Is it fun to do business with you?

Whatever the reason, you have to know it and, more importantly, you have to believe it.

So if you want more customers start writing. Don’t write an ad or a press release or a letter. Just write the best reasons for doing business with you. Write as many as you can. Then read over your list and put your reasons in order with the most important reason first. Work slowly and carefully because what you are doing is very important.

Also, it is very important that you write down your reasons from the point of view of your potential clients. What can you do for them; not how good you are at your business.

Once you have your list of reasons is complete, you have your message platform. You ware now ready to figure out how to get your message to potential customers.

Write to Sell: a sure fire method

February 22nd, 2012

Good writing can get you new customers and build your business.

That’s pretty self-evident.

But if copywriting is not your main job, what can you do to put writing on your side.

The first thing is to commit yourself to saying something about you or your business that is meaningful. What can that be?  That’s up to you but here is a little trick you can use to get yourself on the right track.

Visit the websites of your competition and read each home page–especially the “About Us.” section.  Unless you are up against really stiff competition you will find a certain sameness with what you find. Most companies don’t make a commitment to say something meaningful. They just say something and much of it is exactly what the others say.

Once you see what the competition is doing ask yourself what sets you apart? What is it that makes your customers appreciate doing business with you.

Once you know that you are ready to start writing.

Writing and Salesmanship

February 20th, 2012

If you want writing to help you more successful here’s something that can help.

Think of writing as a type of salesmanship.  Anytime you write a letter, or an ad or a web page ask yourself: “Is that way a really good salesperson would have said it?”

How to get started?

One of the great characteristics of a great salesman is efficiency. Great salesman know how to choose their words but more importantly they don’t like to waste their words on bad prospects.

When you get ready to sell on paper think first about your reader– the person who you want to buy something. If you don’t know them that well, get to know them. Figure out what’s important to them and how you can help them.

What should you say?

Great salesman are problem solvers. They find out what is important to their prospect and convince the prospect that they can deliver what they want.

It isn’t high pressure, or aggression or motivation or determination that gets the sale. The trick is to know what the customer needs and then make the customer trust that you are the one who can deliver.

A salesman does this with words and intonations.  A writer has to do the same with words on paper.

The Job of Writing

February 18th, 2012

Every day I get phone calls from people who need a writer. Some are business owners, some run a professional practice, some have a product to sell or a cause to promote.

The requests they make are usually simple. They need an ad, or an email or a brochure, or a web page.  The first thing I do is to start asking questions:  What is your unique selling proposition? Why should customers do business with you rather than your competitors? What is the main message you want your audience to know? What are the main benefits of your product and service? How much is an internet lead worth to you?

All of these questions, and many others need to be answered before a writer can get to work.  Yet astoundingly, most of the people who call have a hard time answering these question. They are not ready to provide the preparation I would need because many  didn’t know that preparation was necessary.

This is one of the greatest frustrations of the writing trade. The actual writing is the easy part. The hard work is figuring out what you want to say. And you can’t figure that out until you answer a long list of questions that may make you uncomfortable.

Hello world!

February 6th, 2012

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