January/ February 2014
27
TRAFFORD BUSINESS connect
copywriting Good content can generate a 30% response rate to your marketing - or greater As a business, you always want more customers. You want a high response to your marketing, better than the typical 2-5%. Good ways to help are: • E ngage experts to design and host your website; • U se quality printers for well-designed literature; • E mploy a professional agency for mail shots and leaflet drops. But don’t write the content yourself. Unless you understand how to write great content (‘copy’), your efforts may be disappointing. For example, think about the adverts and mail shots you have read today - what grabbed your attention? Almost certainly a professional copywriter wrote it, rather than the Director-Owner. You compete with dozens of
others fighting for your customers’ attention and their business. So copywriters describe your business in a way to propel you to the front, to put you in the spotlight. The industry average for marketing response rates is a meagre 2% – 5%. Persuasive copywriting can increase this to 30% and greater. Copywriting is much more than grammar and spelling. For example, a professional copywriter would: • R esearch your target audience and write specifically to interest them; • U se the power of headlines and sub-heads to put your services on display; • L ay out content for the most impact, whether in print or on the screen;
• U se the way readers scan websites to hold them before they click away;
My message is simple: don’t dilute your professional print and web image with your own content.
• U se a “P.S.” and what it should contain to inspire action.
It needs to be more than wellwritten, it needs to attract and persuade, and above all, it needs to provide a return on investment for your marketing spend.
A copywriter will use these and many other techniques. Think where you should use them: • I s your website holding people’s attention? • W hat’s the response rate from your sales literature? • H ow often do you feature in the local press? • D o your customers receive a newsletter crammed with useful hints and tips? • D o you offer thought-provoking bids for business? • D o your exhibition boards and signage have that sparkle ?
Algy Cole ColeWrite Copywriting www.colewrite.com
Do you want the publicity, but don’t have time to write it?
You want an article in Trafford Business Connect and elsewhere. You want to get your message across, to inform and persuade. But you just don’t
have the time to write it yourself.
This is where ColeWrite Copywriting comes in. I can write about your business in a way that will propel you to the front of people’s attention. Whether you give me a blank sheet, a rough draft or a finished piece, I can make the words work for you. I can do it for this magazine – or anywhere else you want the attention? Give me a call on
07912 374220
to put your company’s products and services into the spotlight they deserve.
www.colewrite.com
