Freelance Copywriting – How to Get Ahead (Part 5)

The 21st century route into copywriting requires little in the way of qualifications, or even – dare it be said – very much in the way of writing ability.

The negative result of this ease of entry into what once a respected profession has seen an explosion of self-styled copywriters who arrived as if out of nowhere to meet an insatiable need for online content.

As we all know, ‘content’ is basically basic information that’s arranged logically – web pages, articles, that sort of thing. The more traditional skills of copywriting such as advertising, direct response and sales letter writing demanded a persuasive writing technique.

In the case of advertising – and to a lesser extent with other collateral like brochures and mailers – it also placed an onus upon the copywriter to dream up relevant and creative visual concepts that allowed art directors to have a field day.

Online copywriting is predominantly a low-skill form of writing that can be handled relatively easily without too much writing talent, business experience or ad agency work-outs on creative concepts.

An exception to this is search engine optimisation (SEO) copywriting which has added a new level of expectation of a copywriter’s ability to write succinct, attractive copy that also scores with the search engines.

SEO copywriting aside, it’s good that clear, simple writing is still seen as important (it was ever thus!). In a society where the profusion of marketing messages is daunting, the new emphasis on laid-back clarity is encouraging – a factor given additional momentum by the power of social media.

So how easy is it to survive in a sea of ‘information writers’? Is this type of copywriting that much different to what’s gone before – and does it matter what labels are applied? If we’re all speaking and reading David Ogilvy’s lingua franca, surely everyone – including businesses – should be happy!

Freelance Copywriting – How to Get Ahead (Part 4)

Marketing training is but one route into a copywriting career. The fact that it took me into an ad agency world was useful and relevant in the 1980s when freelance copywriters were a rare breed.

For reasons I’ve never fully understood, graduates in English featured frequently among my competitors in those days (and probably still do!). As the great David Ogilvy pointed out, however – and he was no intellectual slouch – a copywriter has to use the language of the people. To which I would add: ‘With a business slant if you want to keep your client’s smiling’.

A university education is of course priceless as a preparation for any walk of life, so I’m not decrying a degree in English as a route into any business-oriented career. On the other hand, so many of the ad agency people I’ve met over the years have had very little in the way of tertiary education – but it never held them back in what must be one of the most egalitarian occupations around!

(To be continued… )

Freelance Copywriting – How to Get Ahead (Part 3)

In some ways, it was inevitable that the happy coincidence of formal marketing training and the zappy world of advertising created a personal ‘big bang’ that ultimately led to a career in copywriting.

In the beginning, my conception of marketing was all about why people ‘consumed’, research, psychology, accountancy, case studies and guru-worship.  Academics love gurus, thought leaders, didactic types who’ve immersed themselves in their subject to create that ineffable ‘crustiness’ you can sniff at twenty paces.

In subjects like marketing, this is offset by regular contact with ‘industry’ and the academic’s own consultancy clients.  The fact remains, however, that – almost by definition – they lack a certain ‘worldliness’ that can only come with the school of hard knocks, the ‘university of life’ and all those other chip-on-the-shoulder epithets that practical types love to lean on.

Nevertheless, ‘marketing’ proved to be a good introduction to at least some of the business insights needed to become an effective copywriter.  As an academic subject – and certainly in the day-to-day practise of copywriting – marketing doesn’t become involved with pricing and risk-taking.

This may come later, of course, in the tentative world of ‘brand management’ – which in turn precedes the commercial realities of profit and loss.  That’s not an apology for the shortcomings of the copywriting function – more a celebration of its freedom from the iron grip of economic reality.  In a unique way, copywriting exists in its own commercial warp, in the sunlit uplands of delusion, dreams – and dreaded deadlines!

Freelance Copywriting – How to Get Ahead (Part 2)

When I said ‘business insights’ (in the previous post – Part 1), I was talking about a certain type of experience. Having a formal business training helps of course. As does a degree in subjects like economics or marketing.

‘Experience’, however, is all about real-life exposure to opinions and thought processes, to the tides of history, micro-economics, news stories, hard-luck and success stories… the list is endless.

In many ways, I’ve lived my life as an ‘accidental’ copywriter. Writing in its various forms was something in which I was always interested. Way back in the day, I fancied my chances as a novelist, but it soon became clear that I was much more interested in the world ‘out there’, as opposed to the worlds I could create inside my head.

Yes, I would’ve loved to be a features writer on a national newspaper or journal, but what editor in his or her right mind would entrust that enormous responsibility to an untried rookie! Maybe if I’d been a high-flying intellectual with lots of family contacts I could have broken into this highly competitive field.

As it happened, I knew a few people who’d made a very good living as marketing professionals in big companies as well as top advertising agencies. It seemed my life was mapped out already. No-one else in my family had gone into marketing. I doubt if any of them knew what marketing was. (In those days, I didn’t know much myself!) But marketing it was – although I still held a candle for the lifestyle of a struggling novelist, starving in my Paris garret!

(To be continued… )

Freelance Copywriting – How to Get Ahead (Part 1)

Before I start this collection of valuable hints on how to get ahead as a freelance copywriter, allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Mike Beeson. I’m a freelance copywriter based near Manchester, a big city in the north-west of the UK that is probably most famous for its football team, Manchester United.

Yes, I’m mad about football – or ‘soccer’ as it’s known in the US – but I’m even more passionate about copywriting, PR, SEO and social media. Not that many people would guess. It’s a passion I keep well hidden (all the better to fool your competitors!).

After 30 years as a freelance copywriter, I now feel able to spill the beans – and not care overly whether the competition benefits from the tips I’m about to disgorge here!

You see, freelance copywriting is a way of life for me.  Yes, it’s a business.  It’s what delivers my enviable lifestyle in one of the best parts of the country.  Copywriting is also a  mindset, a sub-set of marketing that thrives on business insights that leave the competition standing.

It’s what you could call a ‘qualification’ – not a certificate or a membership accreditation, or even a peer-led group recognition thing!  Unlike many copywriters, I do have formal qualifications in marketing.  That is something that will help all those in the early stages of their copywriting career with the all-important issue of credibility.

(To be continued…)

Buzzwords Copywriting Manchester on Facebook

Buzzwords Limited is now on Facebook.

 

‘Website copywriters’ – Buzzwords is #1 on Google!!!

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.   

 
 

Freelance copywriting and the client perspective

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.

Case Study Copywriting – Credibility on a plate!

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. 

SEO copywriting – Are meta tags dead?

Listen to some SEO commentators and you’d be forgiven for assuming that meta tags are no longer a factor in the way search engines rank websites.  Following a recent Google declaration, greater  emphasis is now placed on the number of quality, inbound links which point to a site.

It’s obvious that this will be a good indicator of the ‘importance’ of a site but, it should be said, meta tags will always remain as the signposts which indicate relevance of content.  That in turn must surely mean that  meta tags will always be an important part of on-page SEO.

Fortunately, the search engine robots can now identify ‘natural’ language patterns in online copy.  The death of ‘keyword stuffing’ is not only good news for the readers of websites who now no longer have to endure unreadable and repetitive text.  It also frees up copywriters to write in the way they prefer – in real sentences that concentrate on the flow of ideas and information, rather than including as many keywords as possible.  

Keywords are still important, of course.  The difference now is that they should be used carefully – in <h1> tags certainly, and also in introductory sentences. They also have a place in <title> tags – the nearer the beginning of the line the better.  (And if you can also include main keywords in a page URL, this too will help with ranking.)

The conclusion to all this is that mega tags are alive and well but – in an increasingly c0mpetitive web environment – the search engines have been forced to look at inbound links to sort the wheat from the chaff. 

And yet, this is far from being a perfect science – even with all the powerful semantic analysis tools at the search engines’ disposal.  Generating links from online articles and PR, for example, is a process that is still open to abuse by automated submission software but, here again, search engines are ‘on the case’ with their increased awareness (and intolerance) of duplicate content.

It’s important for online copywriters (and those who brief them) to remember that search engines exist solely to provide the most relevant search results for their punters.  Quality content will bring its own rewards in increased uptake among the online community.  Meta tags, similarly, will always be needed to invite the search engines to ‘come see about me’.

Buzzwords’ Copywriting Services

With an increasing emphasis on online copywriting, Buzzwords can nevertheless offer clients a broad spread of expertise which includes offline creative techniques.   

Traditionally, this began with creative concepts which brought copy and visuals together in ads, brochures and so on.  It also includes editorial writing for PR-related projects such as newsletters, case studies, news releases and features.  In addition, direct marketing skills still play a major part in writing sales letters and ads which sell off-the-page. 

The crossover of direct marketing skills into online copywriting can be seen most clearly with website writing where the customer-focus is paramount.  Online copywriting also includes an awareness of search engine optimization  (SEO) techniques which will improve search engine rankings without alienating the human reader who, ultimately, will be the one who decides whether to buy, enquire, subscribe – or not.  Buzzwords can offer all these skills and more which will be featured on this blog during the coming months.

Buzzwords’ copywriting clients

Over a 20-year period, Buzzwords has worked for blue-chip organisations, small and medium-size companies (SMEs) as well as advertising and design agencies.

Dec 3, 2007 – Buzzwords is LIVE!

This is the new Buzzwords copywriting blog.