Copywriting Posts from the Internet Marketing Blog
Five Reasons Every Startup Needs a Great Writer
When hiring for a tech startup, most companies focus, understandably, on technical talent: developers and engineers. Obviously, you need great engineers if you're going to build software, apps or a website of any kind. But don't underestimate the value that a great writer can bring to your organization.
A lot of startups make any writing tasks that come up the responsibility of whichever staff member is the most competent writer. When you're bootstrapping, multitasking is a necessity. But if you've got some funding, hiring an excellent writer can impact your business in a lot of positive ways. So whether you make a full-time hire or find a reliable contractor, it's worth the investment to seek out a writer who understands your business and industry and cares about the outcomes. Here are fi... > Read more
What Do Ads with High Click-Through Rates Have in Common?
When analyzing the performance of your pay-per-click ads, one of the main factors you'll want to concentrate on is click-through rate (CTR). Ads with high CTR are desirable because they drive more traffic to your site in less time. In addition, a high CTR contributes to a good Quality Score, and that helps lower your cost per click.
It's also an indication that you're targeting a relevant, qualified audience, which can improve your conversion rate as well. (Of course you'll want to keep an eye on both metrics and make sure you're not sacrificing one in favor of the other.) Recently I scanned through the ads in our own AdWords account and identified some patterns in the ads with the highest click-through rates. Note that I've changed the examples so I'm not giving away our best creative, bu... > Read more
Five Ways to Repurpose Marketing Content
Ideally you would be able to produce multiple new blog posts, press releases, case studies and newsletters every day, bolstering your company's supply of marketing content and appealing to Google's love of freshness. But the reality is you are not a machine, and can only write so much during your workday.
Given time and energy limitations, it's key you find efficient ways to reuse, recycle and repackage your content (otherwise known as repurposing your content). Here are five ways to repurpose your marketing content to save time and get maximum leverage out of your work. 1. Tweak a blog post you've published and pitch it as a guest post. Google doesn't look kindly upon duplicate content, and neither do your fellow bloggers, but if the posts are significantly different, you should be in the... > Read more
Seven Unusual, Eye-Catching Calls to Action
There are a few key basics that every PPC text ad needs in order to rank well and generate clicks: A compelling headline Relevant keywords A relevant display URL A call to action This post focuses on the last requirement. The call to action, or CTA, is the language that tells the searcher what to do – in other words, giving them a reason to click.
(Aside from increasing your traffic, a higher click-through rate will also improve your Quality Score, which in turn will lower your costs.) The default call to action is something like "Buy now!" This may be better than no CTA at all, but it's not very good. It's too familiar, too general and too pushy. So what's a better call to action? It's good to remember that your CTA doesn't have to be a direct sales push – there ar... > Read more
SEO Copywriting Interview: Heather Lloyd-Martin
Heather Lloyd-Martin is a 20-year marketing veteran, a recognized author and considered the pioneer of SEO copywriting. For over 12 years, Heather’s firm, SuccessWorks, has been training corporate in-house SEO copywriters and creating revenue-driving Web site content campaigns. Heather serves on the board of American Writers and Artists, Inc.
, is an advisory board member of SEMpdx and serves on the PubCon conference advisory board. In 2010, SuccessWorks launched the SEO Copywriting Certification training, the only certification program for in-house and freelance SEO copywriters. Can you tell us a little bit about SuccessWorks and how you got into the SEO copywriting business? Sure! I started my SEO copywriting career B.G. (before Google) around 1998. Prior to that, I had worke... > Read more
Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, Part 4
This is the final excerpt from Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, by Angie Nikoleychuk. Click below to get the full article now, including the final section, "Social Media Keywords." Qualifying Site Visitors For me, one of the most important steps is qualifying your visitors.
For instance, while I work with many different people and businesses, I aim for businesses and professionals who already have a site and are looking to get more from it. So, when I produce content, I use keywords and topics that focus on getting more out of what you already have. This piece, for instance, isn’t just about keyword research, but all the different aspects surrounding the practice and how it relates to content production and publishing. Therefore, I’m more likely t... > Read more
Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, Part 3
For the rest of the week, we'll be posting excerpts from a new article: Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, by Angie Nikoleychuk. Click below to get the full article now. Different Keywords for Different Purposes Not all keywords bring the same results, and I don’t mean the difference in the amount of traffic they bring in.
Ask any smart businessperson and they’ll tell you traffic and sales are still miles apart. What I mean is that you can’t just say to yourself “OK, now I’m going to become an authority figure,” pound out some content, and expect to get results. It just doesn’t work that way. Traffic Keywords These are the ones all search engine optimizers are familiar with. These keywords generate massive amounts o... > Read more
Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, Part 2
For the rest of the week, we'll be posting excerpts from a new article: Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, by Angie Nikoleychuk. Click below to get the full article now. Levels of Keywords When researching keywords specifically for content, I select three types of keywords: Primary Keywords — Keywords geared specifically for your main goal.
If your goal is social, you’ll want to use various social media tools to find out what words your target audience is using at the moment. What are the hot topics? If you’re in need of links and rankings, your keywords will likely be found using SEO keyword tools and based heavily on your findings. This doesn’t mean there isn’t any consideration for social in an SEO-based piece or vice versa — simply that its f... > Read more
Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation
For the rest of the week, we'll be posting excerpts from a new article: Master Class: Keyword Research for Stellar Content Creation, by Angie Nikoleychuk. Click below to get the full article now. Keyword Research and Content Type Great content is...well...great. There’s no denying that, but when it doesn’t attract the right people, or achieve results, it’s essentially useless.
Of course, you can slam down a list of keywords and requirements, but it simply won’t generate the results many would like to believe. So, just as you did when you built the main pages of your website, you need to do some keyword research. The basics of this research are similar, but it’s quite different from what you’re used to. In this article, I’m not going to go through how to use variou... > Read more
The Creativity in PPC: Ad Copy Lessons from Advertising Masterpieces
This is a guest post by Caleb Levell, a search marketing consultant at Hanapin Marketing. His interests include search and social marketing, online collaboration, and social media for business and non-profit organizations. He blogs at PPC Hero and SEO Boy.In anticipation of the new season of Mad Men (which begins later this month), I thought it might be worth exploring the creative side of PPC.
Unfortunately, PPC specialists too often forget their creative merits. Amidst all of the researching, monitoring, and overall managing of client expectations, it is easy to downplay the importance of being creative in the search engine marketing industry. Today, I’m here to preach the other side of the story and encourage you to embrace the Don Draper or Peggy Olson that lies within you.Day in and... > Read more
