Cheap!

Cheap is such a bad word to use; it suggests shoddy goods and services, it suggests businesses that you’d really not like to deal with.

You know that when you buy cheap, the item you’ve bought won’t last long, it’ll get you through a short period of time, but then it’ll fail and need replacing quicker than you wanted to.

QUALITY is a better word; you KNOW you’re going to get a better service.
It won’t break, fade or lost its shine quickly, it’ll be there to last as long as you need it.

So why do businesses want cheap goods and services?

We were asked again today how “cheap” our services were!
I quickly explained that we are not ‘cheap’, we provide a great quality service that helps our clients achieve their business goals, we have never written or supplied cheap copy and we never will!

That said, we are not expensive either!
We have no massive building to rent and service, we don’t live and work in London or Manchester, we actually provide a very cost effective writing service that our regular clients appreciate.

If you want cheap copywriters, then carry on looking. If you want a cost effective copywriting services, then give ReadCopy a try (http://www.readcopy.com)

TOP Copywriting tip

I have just been asked what my TOP Copywriting tip is!

It was a difficult one to answer because it really does depend on what you are writing, but I was pushed into a single answer!
I had to say that my very top tip would be to understand EXACTLY, why you are writing what you’re writing!

If you are trying to convince someone to buy, click, order etc then it’s vitally important that you understand what their motivation is; what pain have they got that you can help them with!

Everyone is a comedian!

It’s official, everyone thinks that they are a comedian – or at least they believe that their businesses brand personality is comedic!

The research was carried out as part of our usual business processes that we have developed to try to get under the skin of our clients; this enabled us to provide the very best creative copy for them.

Read more here: http://www.readcopy.com/articles/everyone is a comedian.shtml

What are keywords/phrases and how do you use them!

When you search for any information online; whether it be product or services information, or information on a company, you're likely to visit one of the major search engines - Google, Bing or Yahoo! etc.
You will then type in a some words relevant to you completing your search. These words are your keywords!

For instance, if you need somewhere nice to eat in Leeds and simply type in "Restaurant". Ok several million results are too many to go through, plus this will show you results for all over the world!

You might search on "Restaurant Leeds city centre", or a more accurate "Cantonese restaurant Leeds city centre". Your search results are now more manageable!

Focus!
As a business trying to attract web traffic, you need to focus on these more accurate keywords (phrases) and these are the ones likely to be used by potential diners who want to find you!

From a business perspective it is vitally important that you focus on these terms that are actually used; very few website visitors will type your business name into a search engine, they are more likely to type what services you offer and where you are!

Don't ignore your name just include it in the copy once, so for example "A Taste of Cantonese: The finest Cantonese restaurant in Leeds", "Cantonese dining at its best in cosmopolitan Leeds", "Join us in Leeds for exquisite Cantonese dining." Etc

Accurate keyword phrases
A word of warning - never guess the phrases your customers will use to search for your products or services.

Always check that any phrases you come up with are actually being used by real and potential customers searching the web. The very first step is to generate a list of potential keyword phrases.

For instance, for ReadCopy might decide that our keyphrases include: copywriters in Yorkshire copywriting services, uk copywriter, web copywriter, website copywriter uk copywriting, business copywriting, copywriting agency, seo copywriter, yorkshire copywriter, marketing copywriter, web copywriting, online copywriter, advertising copywriter etc etc
We would then ensure that a number of these best keywords were included in the copy on our pages to help bring traffic from the major search engines.

If you need help determining what your keywords/phrases should be and how to put them into your pages then contact us (www.readcopy.com) for your copywriting needs.

Writers Block

I guess is just one of those copywriting secrets! How do you cope with writers block?

ReadCopy has a benefit there in that there are two of us, so creatively we can tend to bounce ideas off each other fairly well, but sometimes that mist falls, and we can both be struck with writers block.

I have run workshops about ‘Creatively ‘ in a previous life, so we can both use some tried and tested techniques to help get us firing on both cylinders again!

One easy techniques that has a high success rate is to leave the copywriting work along for a few hours, sometimes when you’re not thinking about a concept or wording ideas just float into your head and BANG! you’re off again.

When leaving it alone doesn’t work, we can often work in a slightly different location!

Working outside, whilst not only good for getting that fresh air into your lungs, and oxygen to your brain, simply takes you out of your normal working zone and new ideas can be formed.
Working anywhere different or ‘strange’ just gets those creative juices flowing again.

We also try ‘Word Association’ exercises, or backward thinking (trying to think about the complete opposite of what you want to do or achieve) can also bring new and completely fresh ideas to our work.

Copywriting / Copywrite

Copywriting is the most basic element of any sales or marketing effort; it’s both basic and essential.  It’s simply the art of delivering words in front of your target audience in such a way that they feel compelled to take action (buy, click or phone etc).

ReadCopy will copywrite anything that you need writing, whether you want it to educate, entertain, infors, promote or sell.