There are advertising agencies that specialise in recruitment; PR agencies that do the same.  And then of course there’s the ‘in-house’ option preferred by so many recruitment consultancies.

Ad agencies and PR consultancies will very likely have recruitment copywriting expertise in-house or, at the very least, a freelance copywriting option.  Recruitment consultancies, on the other hand, have both recruitment industry knowledge and an in-depth knowledge of their own business.

The problem is: so much rests on getting the copy right.  Recruitment ads need the right tone of voice, whilst websites, brochures and other forms of marketing collateral have a major responsibility to present clients in the most accurate way and attract candidates with the most appropriate qualifications, skills and experience.

A freelance recruitment copywriter is a specialist and will very likely produce far superior work to any of the other options mentioned.  Moreover, he or she will be more flexible and cost-effective than an agency.  There will of course be no contractual tie-ins and a recruitment consultancy will be free to bolt-on other services as and when required, thus making measurable longer-term savings.

Being a ‘people business’, there’s no doubt that representatives from various quarters across the recruitment industry will have their view.  When it comes to producing high quality, cost-effective  copy, however, taking the freelance recruitment copywriter route is really a no-brainer.

Take a look at this video by expert website copywriter Nick Usborne in which he confirms that the opportunities for online copywriters in 2012 are HUGE!

And if this encourages you to take things a step further, why not register your interest in Buzzwords’ training courses in online copywriting by clicking on the link!

Looking at these record unemployment rates – with another economic downturn just round the corner – you’d be forgiven for thinking that copywriters are feeling the pinch too. This is not the case – certainly not at Buzzwords! We’re busier than ever, and always on the lookout for new projects and ideas.

Imagine being a copywriter. Imagine bucking economic trends, working when you like and with whoever you like. Copywriting could provide you with a brighter future. All you need is a good level of writing skill, a reasonable ‘business head’ and a drive to succeed! In a matter of months, copywriting could become your new exciting career, putting you in control of your own destiny!

‘So how do I become a copywriter?’ I hear you ask. Well there’s nothing to stop you writing for anyone who’s willing to pay you. And you could start tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, that’s a bit hit and miss. A better approach by far is to invest some time and money in a copywriting training course.

This month, Buzzwords announced the launch of four all-new copywriting training courses which will go live in early-2012. Participants will have the opportunity to discover the insider secrets of copywriting from Mike Beeson. With over 20 years experience under his belt, Mike is sharing his huge body of copywriting knowledge with the world.

Mike has prepared a series of training courses tailored to the needs of each individual. More details will be announced in the New Year.
If you are struggling in the current job market, or you simply want a career change, copywriting is definitely worth considering. After all, writing for a living is great fun – and you can forget about the economy interfering with your life!

Young Nicholas Beeson is also on the scene after graduating in marketing this year.  He’s quite an expert on social media and all things online, so he’s useful to have around – and good news for client services.  You may want to take a look at the Social Media Marketing page on Buzzwords’ main website.  Unlike so many other copywriting and PR agencies, we can actually walk-the-walk too!

There are so many strings to Buzzwords’ bow, I often surprise myself.  Having said that, 30 years is a long time in this business.  To celebrate Buzzwords’ achievement, we’re offering a FREE PRESS RELEASE to every new client.  We’ll write the release for you and distribute it to the relevant UK media.

To find out more, why not take a look at our latest press release:

‘Buzzwords celebrates 30 years in business with free PR for every new client’

• Signing up for Buzzwords’ Copywriting Courses is a great way to get started as a freelance copywriter
• Intensive Copywriting Training Courses can help SMEs save big money by enabling you to write professional-standard copy in-house
• If you work in a big organisation, you’ll have more confidence when it comes to dealing with your advertising, PR or design agency.

Specially tailored copywriting courses will be available in three broad areas from this autumn: Copy for PR; Online Copy; and more ‘traditional’ forms of  copywriting.

To register your interest, contact Mike Beeson on 01565 654023 or e-mail open@buzzwords.ltd.uk

A NEW BOOK!!! If you’re thinking seriously about becoming a freelance copywriter some time soon – my copywriting colleague Len Smith has written a great new book packed with practical business tips on How To Be A Copywriter – Yours for only £7.77!

Since Google acquired YouTube back in 2006, videos have begun to feature more prominently in searches. Combine this with Google’s latest Panda update where the addition of useful and attractive visual content is rewarded with higher SERPs page rankings, and we can see why videos have become so important.

Many of us forget that videos are found on the Internet just like websites – through search engines. (And YouTube is a search engine.) Just like websites – using search engine optimisation (SEO) – videos can be optimised to rank highly on YouTube’s search engine as well as on Google or Bing. The principles of optimising videos are not much different from the SEO optimisation processes applied to web pages, blogs and so on.

Here are 6 ways to optimise your YouTube videos so they rank highly:

1. Optimise your tags
YouTube calls keywords “tags”.  Tags are a great way to enable people to find your video. The tag field is the most important element of optimising your video. Add the appropriate “tags” and your video should be a hit!

2. Choose an appropriate title
Just like the ‘title’ meta tags used on web pages, YouTube also uses the keywords in the title of your video to match searches. You only get 100 characters to use, so make sure the title appeals to your target audience.

3. The video description is key
The ‘description’ of your video also gives you an opportunity to include keywords that viewers may be searching for. The description is very much like the SEO ‘description’ tag on your website pages, but remember: don’t keyword stuff, and keep it organic!

4. Linking
Just like other forms of SEO, inbound links are vital to improving your video’s ranking. The more websites you have linking to your video, the higher your rankings will be. Likewise, you can improve your video’s ranking by having it embedded on your web pages.

5. Comments and ratings
Encouraging viewers to comment and rate your video will also benefit the rankings of your video. The more comments you have and the more your content is shared, the higher your video will rank!

6. It’s a numbers game
Perhaps the most important factor in determining the search ranking of your video is the number of views it receives. More views equal higher rankings!

The word ‘drugs’ was used loosely to include everything from heroin to alcohol, marijuana to coffee!  Amazingly, the discussion became totally bogged down in deciding whether coffee is a drug or not!

Because it alters one’s mental state, it could certainly be called a ‘drug’.  From a copywriting point of view, it’s a drug that can be used (or abused) without it totally impairing the creative process.

Of course, the question was whether drugs actually ENHANCE the creative process.  It’s arguable whether stimulating the central nervous system in the way coffee does is in any way beneficial. 

Conversely, the intense highs of heroin or LSD are virtually incapacitating from a creativity standpoint.  Alcohol in small doses leaves the user  in control but, as many people would testify, what we think is earth-shattering creativity – even under the mildest influence – usually turns out to be mediocre or pretentious stuff in the cold light of day! 

There’s no doubting that ‘drugs’ are useful in taking us away from the mind-numbing routines of everyday life.  So when it comes to wanting to look at life from a unique perspective, it’s hardly surprising that so-called creative types seek out the mental excitement of drugs.

That said, to be creative in a field such as advertising requires preparation, practice and discipline.  If this is occasionally overlaid with the mental changes experienced through alcohol, illicit drugs - or even coffee! – then at least the insights involved with adding another dimension to a creative solution are thoroughly grounded.

There are many people who would disagree with this.  Why upset the natural sharpness and clarity of the mind by introducing foreign substances, they would ask.

It’s all about personal preferences.  It’s also about vulnerability in the face of temptation, and whether one believes that indulging in ‘drugs’ of any type is worth the inevitable hangover. Creativity may get a shot in the arm, but at what long-term price?

Anyone remember the halcyon days of ‘direct response’? From somewhere in the depths of my memory, I recall that was in the 1970s and 80s! Sales letters were also having their glory days – long letters with ‘Johnson Boxes’, Reader’s Digest, Drayton Bird and whatever was on TV at the time!

Fast forward to 2011 and all of what was mainstream marketing-speak then would now be more at home in the advertising museum in Norfolk. And yet, I’ve had a gut feeling for long enough that the so-called ‘traditional’ marketing and copywriting skills would make a comeback. In truth, they probably never went away. Perhaps they’ve been lurking in the back room in some other guise. Online newsletters? US-style ‘killer’ e-mails? Or maybe website landing pages?

One thing I have been grateful for amid all the self-flagellation that went on behind closed doors in the 70s and 80s – the better to create ‘benefit-led headlines’ or creative concepts that perfectly married headlines and visuals – is being confident that everything involving online copywriting is something I’ve done before in the offline world of yore.

I’d go further. Some of the techniques of yesteryear are set to make a comeback. I would say this is true of something like sales letters for instance. There’s a new conventional wisdom focusing on digital marketing, social media and so on. New rules are evolving where once there were no rules at all. The web was once referred to as ‘the worldwide wild west’. Now, we have ‘website usability consultants’; research into where web visitors’ eyes alight, for how long and why; not to mention focus groups analysing web copywriting to death in search of a winning ‘third way’.

Can it really be that sales letters are dead, simply because conventional wisdom says so? Is this really true? It IS true that UK postage rates are extortionate. And it’s true too that there are so many other ‘instant’ marketing tools competing for our attention. What’s interesting, however, is that the very same conventional wisdom that seeks to consign sales letters to the rubbish heap of history has in fact (unwittingly) created a great opportunity to grab what – in old-currency parlance – would have been described as a ‘solus’ position.

No, that’s not some tantric sex technique, or even a singles dating website. What I’m saying is that when your sales letter arrives with its intended recipient, there are far fewer letters (if any) competing for his or her attention. Providing the proposition is attractive, the chances of converting have been multiplied exponentially!

If this strikes a cord, then the next step is to teach a whole new generation of copywriters about the tricks and techniques of sales letter copywriting. Not to mention the clever design layouts and typography that were obviously the forerunner of many online design techniques used nowadays.

The point of all this is to say that no technique is ever dead. And not even ’til the fat lady sings. Mixing marketing services that work has always been about opportunism. The concept of ‘integrated marketing’ has been around since Adam was a lad. Because we now have a whole new array of online media and techniques to choose from is no reason not to include traditional methods in today’s integrated marketing plans.

Nowadays, videos can be created and optimised quickly and easily.  The quality of what currently ranks highly isn’t always the best – but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for those on a tight budget who want to achieve something extra with their SEO. 

Google’s recent Panda Update stressed the importance of improving the search engine experience.  This included creating pages that will deliver a more ‘complete’ search experience for users who are maybe looking for something more visual to back up the on-page text.  This could include things like PowerPoint presentations, screen-grabs, charts – and videos, among other things.

Research has shown that web pages featuring videos will consistently achieve higher organic rankings and click-through rates than those that don’t.  In a televisual age, the reasons for this are obvious.  Until recently – perhaps coinciding with the time when Google bought YouTube? – on-page SEO and search results were focused on keywords, written content and links.

This mindset still prevails in the way videos are ranked, with ‘information’ (and not high production values) being the predominant criterion.

From a SEO standpoint, videos can achieve massive exposure on YouTube and other video search engines.  Social media links are also achievable with a well-planned distribution strategy. 

If you’re looking to maximise returns on your video as a piece of ‘content’, it’s a straightforward process to transcribe from the visual content and distribute it with the text alongside.  This ‘belt and braces’ technique gives the best of both worlds – approachable, clickable user content on the one hand, plus indexable and optimised text in a PowerPoint, PDF, podcast or other format on the other.

The potential for videos as a SEO vehicle is massive.  First, consider the low cost of informational video production, then add the opportunities to re-format the content in ways that are search engine friendly.  Whichever way you look at it, videos are probably one of the most under-rated SEO tools around. 

The humble tweet is now a force to be reckoned with in the world of SEO.  Or according to Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land it is!

Google and Bing now recognise Twitter as a conduit for delivering high quality content from recognised ‘authority’ sources.  Given the ubiquity of social media, this has to be a welcome development. 

As with other types of inbound links, tweets are given a leg up in the SEO stakes by ‘influential’ people tweeting about you or re-tweeting your content.  We’ll probably never know what constitutes ‘influential’, but it’s not difficult to make a few educated guesses.

SEO research has also revealed the not-so-surprising fact that ranking rewards come from an abundance of high quality tweets linking to your site.  From a purely practical viewpoint, bear in mind that your keyword-rich tweet-links will act very much like anchor tags on web pages.

If you’re looking to generate more link juice, make sure your content is good enough to share or re-tweet; make sure you attract a steady stream of new friends and followers; and use highly visible buttons to allow visitors to click your links.

Remember, however, that links from Twitter are ‘NoFollow’.  The river of tweets that go by every minute of every day make it impossible for search engines to monitor the minutiae of what’s going on.  Safe to say from case study research that it is the overall weight of public tweets that give Twitter links both their credence and their SEO ranking potential.

(Download Notes image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)