copywriting

When you’re ready to publish your latest stroke of brilliance, it’s common to have an itchy trigger finger. Never before has the wit and wisdom flowed so effortlessly and elegantly from your brain to the screen. But will your audience feel the same way? Here are some important questions that you should ask every time you’re ready to publish content, so that it will reflect well on your company and bring business your way instead of sending customers off.

Are you mesmerized by the beat of the content drum? There’s no shortage of advice to “write great content” but what if you’re not a writer? What if you don’t have the time to obsess over every word that leaves your brain? What if you just don’t WANT to obsess that much about content? Well, if you want to be successful at business, content is part of it. But it doesn’t have to leave you wringing your hands or pulling out your hair. Next time you need to write for your business, pull out one (or more!) of these techniques to improve the quality of your writing and give it a lot more punch.

The great David Ogilvy once said: “I don’t know the rules of grammar… If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.” Here’s why it’s important to write *for* your audience and *to* your audience. You can maintain good grammar and break the rules at the same time.

This post isn’t about writing a good headline. It’s not even about writing a bad headline. It’s just about writing headlines that I promise you I’ll never click on. You may wonder why that matters! Well, because I’m not alone. I know plenty of people with the same gripes and maybe you’re one of them. Since writing a good headline is half the battle, sometimes the best favor you can do for yourself is to avoid writing the *bad* ones. Don’t disguise great content behind bad titles. Here are a few things that drive me – and other potential readers – quickly to the competition’s blog. When you’re done reading, let me know what some of your biggest headline pet peeves are!

“Just read these pearls of wisdom and you can expertly write a better press release, headline, blog post, call-to-action, Linkedin profile, ‘About’ page, brochure or bio – as long as you follow these simple steps!” I hate those articles. With a passion. Here’s why – and why professional copywriting matters.

Sending out a press release is cheap and relatively easy. That’s one reason why everyone does it. Professionals who are more serious about distributing press releases know that a good one will be picked up by media outlets, shared via social media and boost your search ranking. But the ultimate goal is to generate actual coverage of the news you’re sharing. That’s the “press” in “press release.” Here’s how to make your press releases newsworthy.

Whether you have a warehouse of inventory or a few items in an Etsy shop, your product descriptions can have a big impact on whether customers buy or just shrug and browse another site. Even if you’re selling a digital product, you still need a good description. But what makes one description “good” and another “meh”? Here are a couple of tips for keeping yours in the “good” column and increasing the odds that someone will click the buy button.