Buzzwords Copywriting Manchester

Buzzwords has taken another step into the Web 2.0/social media world with Squidoo!  Check out this ‘lens’:

www.squidoo.com/buzzwordscopywritingmanchester

amt0063-graceland

• Buzzwords was involved in case study writing for hundreds of clients for the upmarket flooring specialists Amtico.  This example - for Elvis Presley’s home, ‘Graceland’ - is one of the more colourful!

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO VIEW PDF FILE.

The issue of ‘Copywriting Rates’ is as much about ‘how you charge’ as it is about the amount you charge. Certainly, a more expansive response is more likely to meet with client approval than a bald ‘take it or leave it’ figure.

What I mean is:

• Whenever possible, outline more than one costing scenario.  For example, you could say: If I do this, it will cost you £X.  By adding this, it will cost £Y.  And if you want the Full Monty, you’re looking at £Z-plus!
• For each price, outline in detail what’s involved.  This could be ‘research’.  You could include a re-write in the price.  Or you could create a mini-package which includes keyword-research, on-page SEO copywriting, landing pages for pay-per-click campaigns and so on.

Your initial proposals set the tone of how you do business.  As a copywriter, you’re selling your clients’ wares.  By demonstrating you’re a bit savvy when it comes to selling your own services, you’ll win more respect from potential clients who know all about operating in the commercial world.

‘Copywriting Rates’  (Dec 8, 2007) is easily the most popular post on this blog!  It underlines the commercial significance of business copywriting and the hard-headed approach people take to what is an important, and often crucial, decision.

I should say, however, that quality should score over price every time.  There are plenty of so-called copywriters out there - especially on the Internet - who are charging five dollars an hour.  To me, that’s commercial suicide - unless you’re living in a third-world country of course.

As you would expect, Buzzwords charges much more than that (call me on 01565 654 023 to find out!).  That’s mainly because I have 20 years’ experience and know-how under my belt.  But also because I’m good at what I do! 

Different types of projects are charged out in different ways.  Standard copywriting for things like advertising and brochures are charged at a fully negotiable day-rate, pre-agreed as a fixed rice for each particular job.  Copywriting for websites is negotiable on a ‘per project’ basis, whilst anything that’s ongoing - such as PR, article marketing, link building and SEO - works best on a monthly retainer fee. 

Nothing is set in stone, however, and copywriting rates are always negotiable, especially for volume work or ongoing consultancy-type projects.  The best thing to do is give me a call the next time you feel a project coming on.  The copywriting rates may not surprise you, but the quality and commitment surely will!

For the past couple of weeks, Buzzwords has been Number One on Google for the keyword ‘website copywriters’ (and number 3 or 4  for ‘website copywriting’).  I WAS ASKED RECENTLY HOW I ACHIEVED THIS.  The most accurate response would have to be: attention to detail.

SEO (search engine optimization) copywriting is all about details.  There’s a lot of debate about meta tags and links as well as the ‘usability’ of the page from a searcher’s point of view.  As far as copywriting goes, there would appear to be a new-found premium attached to well-written content.  Whether this is to do with Google’s army of ’human’ readers or the new technology being used by the company’s robots to spot writing that’s ‘relevant’ to specific search terms - without being stuffed unnaturally with keywords - is anyone’s guess.  

The concept of inbound links is one I can fully appreciate.  A site that attracts lots of linking from other sites that are both sector-relevant AND authoritative is obviously deserving of recognition in the search engine rankings.  However, the fact that Buzzwords’ site has fewer that one thousand inbound links (and that a recent DMOZ listing of Buzzwords wouldn’t yet appear to be recognised by Google) makes me think that good on-page SEO counts for a lot, especially for the more niche and ‘long-tail’ keywords.   

Ah, the mysteries of search engine optimization (SEO)!  I thought I knew a bit about it, but the recent rankings of the website copywriting page of my main website (www.buzzwords.ltd.uk/website_copywriting.htm) have puzzled and pleased me in equal measure.

After languishing in the bottom half of the first page on Google since the page was re-written last year - a ranking many people would die for, but not really good enough to attract the premium enquiries in what is, let’s face it, a pretty niche neck of the woods! - the website copywriting page of Buzzwords’ website now ranks at #2 for the keywords ‘website copywriter/copywriters’ and #5 for ‘website copywriting’.

Nothing’s been added or taken away (as they say).  So what’s happened to make this important change?  The page had been optimized in the usual way for meta tags and so on, and the copy had the ‘right’ keyword density.

There are only two factors I can think of which may have made the difference.  First, the content has ‘matured’.  To explain: if older links are looked upon more favourably by search engines, will body copy be seen in the same way?  Second, Google’s latest algorithms may very likely include a weighting based on Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI).

In other words, linguistic analysis gives a site brownie points for using clear,  approachable syntax.  If that’s what’s happening with my website - or if anyone out there can give me some other good reasons for the sudden improvement in the ranking for the mainstream keywords I’ve mentioned - please let me know.

The dynamics of client relationships have always fascinated me.  Apart from the usual inter-personal and ‘personal chemistry’ aspects (which are part of life in general outside the business world!), for freelance copywriters - and anyone else who provides business services - this is overlaid with another all-important perspective.

The simplest way of putting it is to say that the work of clients involves many aspects of a single business.  For a copywriter (etc), their work is about a single aspect (providing copywriting/PR/etc) of many businesses. 

We then have a situation  where client and copywriter are calling up questions which basically focus on ‘respect’.  How many times have you heard the question (inferred or actual): ‘Does this guy really understand my business?’

And from the copywriting/supplier side, we hear: ‘These people don’t understand what’s involved in (preparing a brief/valuing my services/working out a sensible fee/etc)’. 

The best grounding for the best relationships is for both client and copywriter to have experience of working on the other side of the fence - although the likelihood of this happening isn’t great.  Some clients have worked in ad agencies or the marketing departments of other companies.  Likewise, some copywriters have worked in ‘proper’ jobs too!

Given that this blend of experience on either side is a rarity, it’s all down to understanding (and respecting) the scope of the other person’s skills and job demands.

It just so happens that before becoming a copywriter, I worked in several other fields outside of advertising and journalism.  Add to this a background in academic marketing and you have the ingredients for potentially harmonious client relationships. 

Clients who’ve always worked ‘client side’ will inevitably be sceptical about the business know-how of ad agency types who’ve never been exposed to market pricing, workforce issues or working within a departmental budget - to name just three elephant traps!

I raise these points because I feel there’s no magic wand that can solve client-copywriter-agency relationships.  It’s more a case of thinking out loud and counting to ten before criticising the other side.

Trying to understand the differing demands that exist on both sides of the fence is a good starting point.  The intellectual demands are probably similar in extent in that both clients and agency people have to juggle with numerous challenges - and, dare I say it, clients often need to bring as much problem-solving ‘creativity’ to the table as the self-designated creatives in the agency world.

If anything, any lack of understanding probably rests with creatives.  Clients have the the multiple demands of focusing not simply on marketing issues, but also on how they fit in with every other department in a company.  This calls for skills which go way beyond the inter-personal.

It always amazes me that more companies don’t use case studies as part of their marketing mix. Business, by definition, is based on customer transactions and a lot of those must have interesting angles which could be turned into a case study.

So why aren’t case studies more widely used as the cost-effective marketing tool they surely are? 

In some cases, there are obviously problems with confidentiality.  Others don’t want to alert their competitors to the fact that they’ve found a pot of gold and they fully intend to hang onto it!

Some may be ‘too busy’ (ho-ho-ho!); yet others may feel that this is a commitment too far that won’t deliver on the cost-effectiveness front. 

Like all PR tools, the main purpose of case studies isn’t to generate a ‘direct response’.  What they will do is build an awareness, a heightened market presence, for your company over a period of time.

This can be further enhanced by the sheer versatility of case studies.  A case study copywriter can take the raw material of a case study and modify it for use in a press release, sales letter and many other forms of marketing collateral - not forgetting the online applications such as websites, online PR and articles.

A case study is an extended testimonial.  It proves your company has delivered.  Third party endorsement says you can - and you did!  So why do so many companies let these opportunities go begging and leave the way open for their competitors?

Maybe if they spoke to an experienced case study copywriter, they’d open up a new and profitable revenue stream. 

Copywriting for Annual Reports will always be challenging. That’s where I’m at right now - writing away on behalf of a major UK organisation!

Annual Reports must rank as one of the most important documents any business will ever produce. Writing Annual Reports is all about balance - talking in an authoritative way about strategy, Key Performance Indicators, performance itself, people and plans for the future… but all the while making sure that key stakeholders will be able to identify with what the organisation does, where it’s going in the future, and how its achievements are measured and presented.

With all this corporate ‘background noise’ going on, writing effective Annual Reports is as much about acquiring and organising the right information as it is about a consistent copywriting approach. It’s vital to establish a structure from the outset, rather like a website sitemap. This should of course be established in close partnership with the Report’s designer. Decisions on page layouts, photography and graphics are dictated by content and how the information flows.

Achieving balance in the copywritten content is about combining readability with authority.  It’s all too easy to slip into inappropriate informality when writing copy that must always be ‘accessible’ to readers of all persuasions.  This blog, for instance, is written in a fairly informal style.  Taking a similar approach to the copywriting for an Annual Report might cut it with certain journalists or shareholders - but it’s not going to work with bankers and financiers who are looking for a serious and professional analysis of the organisation. 

They may go home and morph into ‘normal’ creatures like you or I - but for the purposes of Annual Report copywriting, it pays to watch your tone!

If you want a higher ranking website, make sure you work on those inbound links!  SEO copywriting is a great tool for doing this and I’ll be looking at the various ways to approach this massive subject over the next few weeks.

Suffice it to say: Google now sees the number and quality of links pointing to a website as probably the most important factor in deciding that site’s fortunes.  The part that SEO copywriting can play in this is enormous - on-page SEO, article marketing (aka ‘article PR’), online PR and systematic directory-led link building… all of which is based on solid keyword research.  It’s enough to make your eyes water!

When it comes to writing popular blog posts, the title must obviously be an important element (judging by the response to my short musings of yesterday)!   In case there were those who thought the piece didn’t deliver on the promise in the headline, here are a few other reasons for writing a copywriting blog:

1. Good to interact with other bloggers (Web 2.0 and all that!) - but you need lots of traffic for this to be significant.
2. Good for SEO (search engine optimization).  Immediate recognition by Google for chosen keywords (providing you keep your blog active).
3. Good to get your thoughts down on paper (or on screen).  Sorts out your ideas and helps you to articulate them, come the day.  Helps you anticipate client questions.  Encourages you to keep up with new developments and the latest industry gossip!

I had a comment a couple of weeks ago that some of my early posts (this blog is only two months old!) were nothing but self-promotion.  This was never my aim.  The intention was to give a new blog some kind of perspective.  This is because  I feel that no-one ever reads the supplementary pages of a blog - life’s too short! I’d be interested to hear what other people’s views  are on that.

On the web, inbound links affect a website’s position in the search engine rankings.  Generating quality links that win search engine brownie points is best achieved through article PR and online PR. 

A huge amount of copywriting work is involved, especially when it comes to writing worthwhile, informative articles  - suitably optimised with appropriate keywords of course.  Online news releases are more straightforward to write, and bring better returns on time invested - providing you have something to say on a regular basis.  Again, SEO and keywords play a part, but frequency of output is vital to achieving meaningful success.

If you can post articles and releases on your website a couple of weeks before launching them into the outside world this allows time for the content to be indexed by search engines and helps in the linking process (although it may be wise to write an edited version of your content to be doubly sure of avoiding ‘duplicate content’ penalties.) 

Apart from anything else, continually adding to your website is viewed favourably by the likes of Google - hence the power of blogs to surge through the search rankings, and stay there, providing content is updated on a regular basis (daily is the ultimate, but weekly keeps the pot simmering). 

The links associated with blogs are of course generated through tags.  Social media links to Technorati, StumbleUpon, Squidoo and so on also help.  Main websites which incorporate a blog therefore have a head start over their ‘unblogged’ counterparts.

Creating links is hard work - hard copywriting work that is also very time consuming.  The dividends are impressive, however,  especially if search engine rankings equate to new business enquiries for your company.

Finding the time to do all this - the writing, distributing to online directories and media etc - is usually a problem for most companies.  Employing a specialist freelance copywriter to handle it all makes lots of sense. 

Not only do you get quality writing and the regularity of output that comes with commercial commitment.  You’re also buying-in specialist knowledge of the market and, crucially, how the market works.

Copywriters like Michel Fortin are predicting the comeback of offline marketing in 2008 but, in reality, it never went away. Of course, there was a time not so long ago when I was writing press ads like there was no tomorrow.  All that time spent on ‘creative concepts’ now seems like a lost world.

Display ads are still with us, as are in-your-face news releases in the trade press and crude mailshots by banks trying to persuade us to do all things financial.  So offline never went away.  It just kind of got lost in the online maelstrom. 

Economic conditions notwithstanding, it now seems like there are opportunities to make a killing with astute offline marketing.  You could say a gap exists in the market.  I would say it’s more a question of carefully combining online with offline. 

Markets and media have fragmented that’s for sure.  Whichever way you cut it, this is a permanent feature in a new marketing landscape which should be seen as an opportunity to which we can all easily adapt.  Online marketing merely adds to the options available.  We overlook ‘offline’ at our peril.

Direct mail copywriting may well become more popular as marketers realise that the online world is now an overcrowded (and expensive) place.  The Internet is here to stay but some marketers have probably gone too far in the direction of SEO and pay-per-click advertising at the expense of having a rounded marketing mix which includes tried and tested offline techniques.  Here endeth the lesson.  A Happy and Prosperous New Year to one and all!

I’ve always felt that freelance copywriting is like a bell-weather of the wider economy.  In case that sounds a little grand, what I mean is that a copywriter’s potential clients tend to cover a wide spectrum of companies, and any economic trends out there may be reflected in things like enquiry numbers, the type of work that’s in demand and, not surprisingly, how much people are willing to pay - and how long it takes them to pay it! 

If the economy is about to take a dive, I’ve seen no evidence of it.  In fact, everyone I’ve been dealing with recently is very bullish - with never a mention of hard times ahead.  Unfortunately, the media has a lot to answer for (I’m talking journos - not marketing media types!).  Bad news becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if enough people harp on for long enough.  My own feeling is that we may see a certain plateau-ing of expectations in the UK in 2008 but the medium-term won’t be anywhere near as bad as the current crop of soothsayers are claiming.  

It’s amazing how many people call me with the question: ‘Have you ever worked in… beta blockers/timeshares/materials handling’ - or some other highly specific industry. Any half-way decent copywriter can turn his hand to almost any subject.  That’s simply because it’s experience of copywriting techniques that matters - not the subject matter being written about.  (That can always be researched.)  Just for the record, I’ve worked on some very obscure topics.  Here’s a few of the more ‘mainstream’ sectors:

Travel Copywriting - Upmarket or down dale.  UK hotels or jet-set hideaways.  Brochures, ads and direct mail.  Nothing fazes me with travel copywriting - although it has to be said that this is a more difficult writing genre than many imagine.

Industrial Copywriting - This is a catch-all label for what covers a multitude. If you want to find out about the diversity of UK industry, become a copywriter!  (I did - but not for that reason.)

Financial Copywriting - Banks, building societies, insurance companies, financial advisers, brokers and accountants - Ive written for them all.  Quite a mix, with some pretty impressive names too. 

Property Copywriting - Scene-setting and then getting to grips with the selling points of everything from a one-bed flat to a major mansion house - property writing has its own unique demands.  Brochures, news releases, ads - whatever your weapon, I’ve used it.

Advertising & Design Agencies - I know about agencies.  It’s where I started my advertising career, and I’ve written for hundreds of them since.  I know what agencies want - their target markets, the tone of voice needed.  If you have an agency and you’re reading this, I can probably help you get over the ‘cringe factor’ that comes from writing your own publicity!

Offline copywriting skills are alive and well at Buzzwords!  There are two ways of looking at your needs for this type of copywriting: by specific skill or by business sector.  In this blog posting, we’ll look at ’skills’:

SPECIFIC SKILLS

I’m sometimes surprised just how many offline skill-sets I have floating around in my head.  Maybe I should call them ’skull-sets’?  And when it’s said that ’yesterday is another country’, I’m beginning to think that ‘copywriting yesterdays’ are more like another planet.

Brochures - These are still going strong, and probably always will be.  Most popular right now: ‘corporate’ brochures with a wallet at the back for half-a-dozen leaflets or data sheets.

Advertising - Used to be a mainstay - but no longer so.  The marketing dollars have moved on.  Most of them online - or into PR.

PR - News release writing  is a specific strength of Buzzwords.  Crafting a good release is quite an art.  Try me and see! (Mike Beeson MCIPR - Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.)

Newsletters - Harking back to my five years as a freelance writer with the Manchester Evening News, newsletters are an interesting exercise in news gathering, organisation and journalistic licence.

Sales Letters - I love writing sales letters.  Not the American ‘killer copy’ types.  Nor even the four-page Readers Digest model. I CAN actually write long sales letters, but my approach tends to be to make the letter as long (or short) as it needs to be - and cut the crap and convention that strangles a letter with underlinings, red ink, capitals and PSs (pee-esses!).

Catalogues - Having worked for all the UK’s largest catalogue companies (Grattan, Empire, GUS etc), I know about volume writing, at speed and with a certain economy of words.  If you need a hired hand (or three) for mega catalogue projects, call me, Mike Beeson, on 01565 654023.

Having started Buzzwords in Manchester a million years ago, it’s reassuring that many of the copywriting skills in demand then are equally in favour today. 

Companies who pile all their eggs into the online basket are probably missing a trick.  Integrated marketing never went away, and it could be argued that because fewer companies are now involved in traditional offline marketing activities, the field is wide open to steal a march on the competition! 

From the enquiries for copywriting services I’ve received recently, website copywriting is top of the tree.  A close second, somewhat surprisingly, are company and product brochures.  Everyone I speak to about the continued popularity of printed matter reckons it’s all to do with people wanting something they can hold!

It may also be something to do with the fact that we’ve over-estimated the extent to which ‘online’ will wipe everything else off the map - pretty much like the much-vaunted ‘paperless office’ of the 1980s which never transpired.  What is happening is a fusion of both offline and online marketing methods in a marketing flurry which places the primary emphasis on cost-effectiveness - or ’ROI’ to use the current jargon.   

To find out more, call Mike Beeson on 01565 654023.

To achieve freelance copywriting success calls for a certain amount of versatility.  Tied in with this: a certain mount of experience never went amiss either,  especially offline copywriting experience.

To give you an example:  website copywriting is all about engaging the reader with the equivalent of ’sound bites’.  It’s also about creating benefit-led headlines where you cannot spot the join between artifice and emotion.  When you’ve spent as much time as I have agonising over a single headline - that also generated or incorporated a creative concept - it’s relatively straightforward to create a headline for a website page that will also make a reader sit up and take notice…  and then carry on reading!

Buzzwords has assimilated the necessary skills to ease the transition to the ‘online’ environment.  A similar mindset is always at play, however, and it’s one that will never desert.  Copywriting versatility is a deceptive skill borne of marketing awareness; of consumer psychology if you will; and a willingness to embrace change.