Copywriting brief – here is a checklist

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
If you want to improve the quality of your 'marketing words', a  written copywriting brief will clarify your thinking. It will help you to produce better results – whether you are doing the writing or whether someone else is. Within the brief: *  State your objectives clearly. *  What business challenge will the writing solve? *  What are we selling? *  What does the product / service do? *  What is the identity of the product / service? *  How does it work? *  Key features? *  What are the benefits? (Create a Benefits List). *  How is our product / service better than the competition? *  What market segment are we communicating with? *  Describe a typical member of the market segment. *  What needs do they have (which we can help them with)? *  What are our key messages – for this segment? *  What else can we talk about? *  What proof can we offer? (Testimonials; research; statistics; surveys). *  How will we include our contact details? *   What sort of call to action will...
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Using stories in marketing

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
People love stories - are you using them in your marketing? Story telling makes it much easier to remember information. Think of the stories you heard as a child: can you remember any of them now? Here are some ideas for you. Tell the business founder's story (adversity overcome). Tell stories about the brand (creative thinking personified). Write customer case studies (problem - search for a solution - finding your product / service - benefits derived - what has changed - next steps). Run a story ideas brainstorming session. Write story ideas up on a whiteboard. Ask customers for their stories. Bring your stories to life with a storyline, characterisation, dialogue and images. By the way, if you read quality fiction, the way the author uses these devices will jump out of the page at you (which reminds me, are you reading any good books at the moment?) I trained for three years as a professional copywriter. We were living in Bromley, in...
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Content marketing and search engine rankings

By Nigel TempleNo Comments
In a digital economy, much of what you know can probably be found for free on the internet. On this basis, you may as well share a reasonable proportion of your knowledge on the web. Google will love you and so will prospective customers. For many years, it has been said that 'content is king'. This is now more true than ever - due to changes in search engine algorithms.  Content marketing and search engine rankings walk hand in hand. Therefore, the more you write, the more you sell....
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