Using Effective Copywriting to Land Clients

Copywriting is more than just a way to provide basic details of your brand; it’s also a key component of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Great SEO is about conversions – not just attracting huge amounts of footfall. After all, what good are thousands of visitors if not a single one becomes a customer or client?

In this article, we discuss how to harness your online copy to boost conversions and grow your client base as effectively as possible.

Know Your Audience

One of the most vital tools in copywriting is a knowledge of your audience. You must “speak” to them in a tone of voice they recognize, and use language and terminology that suit their requirements.

For example, if you’re a B2B tech company, you shouldn’t need to explain basic terminology to your readers. If you do, they’re likely to feel patronized.

However, if you’re writing a blog post on web design for absolute beginners, abbreviations and jargon are likely to need translating – and your audience will thank you for it.

Long-Tail Keywords

Keyword research is a vital part of SEO, but using only basic search terms will see you popping up in all kinds of irrelevant results. You’ll then be outcompeted by more relevant sites, rendering your efforts useless.

It’s definitely worth including “long-tail” terms in your research. These tend to be between three and five words in length and will narrow down the demographics targeted by your content.

This way, you’ll attract the right audiences and find yourself listed among the best possible search results, improving the likelihood of conversions.

Local SEO

If your brand heavily relies on footfall from a particular region, it’s best to focus your efforts on local SEO. 

This technique involves the use of keywords containing references to a local area (i.e. “house sales in Manchester UK”) and adjusting elements of your business’s web presence to attract traffic from the relevant region.

You can use tools like Google My Business to optimize your presence on Google Maps. This tool allows you to update your contact information and opening hours, include keywords in your company’s description and even add images, videos and reviews.

Relevant, Original Content

You must keep your content relevant in order to gain the trust of the right visitors. Whether it’s on your main landing pages, your blog posts or your social media profiles – your copy needs to stay “on brand”.

“Not only must your tone of voice be consistent, but you need to avoid deviating from your business’s central purpose. Don’t get sucked into commenting on politics or current affairs unless this is a key element of your brand or its image,” comments blogger on property auctions and other housing issues, Ruban Selvanayagam

You should also avoid quoting or reposting too much of others’ copy – although this is acceptable to a degree, particularly on social media (with the right citations).

The more high quality original content you post, the more you’ll set yourself up as an expert in your field. 

Other sites or blogs may even end up quoting or referencing you, which could result in some very handy backlinks to increase your discoverability still further.

By regularly uploading new, original, relevant copy, you’ll be seen as a trustworthy brand by the right individuals – making them far more likely to buy from you over any competitor. General copy tips can also be found here

Focus on Benefits

When describing your products and services, try to make your copy benefit-oriented rather than feature-focussed.

There is a subtle distinction here. In simple terms, describing the “features” of your company’s products and services means listing what they look like and what they do. 

When describing their “benefits”, you’ll be explaining why they are great, what they can offer users and how they will fulfill certain needs or solve specific problems.

Naturally, visitors need to know the basics of what you offer – but you shouldn’t leave it at that. Benefit-oriented copy is always more persuasive when it comes to influencing conversions.

Stay Organic

Cramming in as many vaguely relevant keywords as possible is a rookie mistake. It won’t help you to narrow down your audiences, it’s messy and hard to read – and it won’t fool the search engine algorithms for a second.

Instead, try to include keywords “organically” – in a way that flows and sounds natural – throughout all of your copy. If it really doesn’t work, leave it out.

Don’t Ignore “SPaG”

It may sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget the importance of quality when taking all of the above technicalities into account.

Check your spelling, grammar and readability throughout the creation of your copy. Well-crafted text is easier to read and always looks professional, helping you to gain further trust.

There are endless other techniques you can apply – but you must be sure that every piece you write has a strong foundation. To achieve this, you must return to the core elements of effective, conversion-focused copywriting listed above.

 

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By Susan Barlow

Dr. Susan Barlow is retired from academia after teaching business administration, project management, and business writing courses for over 20 years.

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