29 Quotes That Perfectly Explain What Copywriting Means

If you’re not sure what copywriting means, start here: Copy is the words businesses and people use to sell something. And copywriting is salesmanship in print. The Short Version: Copywriting moves people to action Copywriting is a conversation between you and one person It isn’t creative – it’s about selling and making a new “control” It sells...

Oct 2020

SaaS Websites: Is shorter copy really better?

Inside: 3 CRO-killing trends to avoid in your SaaS web copy What was REALLY going on in the NNG study that suggested people don’t read online 5 factors for winning SaaS website copy Yes, sometimes short copy is better than long copy 3 actions to improve your web copy performance “It’s too long.” Web copywriters get this feedback all the...

Sep 2020

How to write a landing page for problem-aware visitors

All the optimizing in the world can’t fix a landing page that doesn’t match your visitor’s expectations. With the rising cost of PPC campaigns and the mad competition of organic search, the wrong messaging (especially at the top of the funnel) will lead to higher bounce rates than Ice Cube in the 90s.  God that’s a solid reference....

Jul 2020

How a Unique Selling Proposition for Our Content Marketing Doubled Revenue

They say it takes 6-12 months for content marketing and SEO to “start working.” Does that seem like a long time for you? It does to me… John Bonini and his team at Litmus took six months before his traffic started to climb: Marcus Sheridan was blogging on RiverPoolsandSpas.com and saw a traffic increase in six months.  ...

Jul 2020

COVID Memes: Why we’re using laughter to get us through a pandemic

Timing. One of the cornerstones of humor.  Nobody knows this better than Professor Sophie Scott, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.  Scott and I were recently talking about her work on laughter and humor, when she muted her microphone to not cough in my ear. Seems like everyone needs to justify...

Jun 2020

Speaking the Language of Coronavirus: An analysis of the words and phrases that spread viral content

Between March 10 and April 23 there was an approximately 1478% increase in engagement with coronavirus-related content: So – aside from the obvious – why are we obsessively consuming this content? Why, when your area may not even have cases of coronavirus yet, do you find yourself reading and thinking about it constantly? And can we – as marketers...

May 2020

The post appeared first on Copywriting for startups and marketers.

The post appeared first on Copywriting for startups and marketers.

May 2020

How to Survive Your First Recession (or Any Other Disaster) as a Freelance Copywriter

While the world at large is discovering Zoom and hoarding toilet paper, I am celebrating a milestone in my freelance copywriting business. No, it wasn’t hitting the six-figure mark. And no, I didn’t score an interview on an episode of MarieTV. At least yet. It’s that I received the following email from a client in response to the COVID-19 outbreak...

Apr 2020

How to spot bad headlines before they make your visitors bounce – an intro to easy copy validation

User testing tools aren’t just for user testing experts. In fact, five-second tests offer a quick, easy and (relatively) cheap way for copywriters and digital marketers to run quick checks on their copy (“copy validation”). Most of us know we need to use data to help us know what to write. But you should also use data to help you spot if you hit or...

Feb 2020

Breakthrough-or-bust emails

Best practices create mediocrity. That’s my take, at least. It’s also Dilbert’s take, I’ve just discovered: Something performs well a thousand years ago or twelve days ago, and it becomes a better practice. The repeated use of it turns it into a best practice – folks start to see it everywhere and think, Well, that’s gotta be...

Jan 2020