Marketing Writing Resources for Creative Copywriters

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The sound of the human voice is powerful. It connects to a prospect on a whole different level. Online, it breaks through that liquid crystal barrier and says, "Listen to me, I'm here, I'm human, and I have something real to talk to you about." It's time to bring a human voice to your own site.

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You're sitting on a hard chair, constantly shifting position, trying to get comfortable. The speaker doesn't keep your mind off your discomfort, since he is reading precisely exactly what's on the slides. Unfortunately, you have to squint to follow along, because he squeezed two pages of content in 10-point type on each slide. Sound familiar? Here's how to avoid the same ol', same ol' boring presentations.

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Management wants more leads, but you can't get an increase in your budget. To meet their demands, you have to lower your cost per lead. You have to either increase response rates or cut your cost per contact. There are literally dozens of ways to accomplish those goals. Here are 10.

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Savvy marketing professionals understand that sales and marketing must work together to move prospects through the sales pipeline. This is especially important in the complex sale with long decision making cycles and multiple buyers that need to be influenced. The good news is that Web content drives people through and shortens the sales cycle for any product or service—especially complex ones, that have many steps and take months or even years to complete.

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In many organizations, corporate communications doesn't get a lot of respect. Why is that? And more importantly: How can you change it?

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While getting people to enter your site through the home page of your Web site is ideal for conversion, occasionally visitors will enter through a sub-page, not designed for that same means. Marketers need to regularly utilize Web site analytic tools to keep a watchful eye on all pages, to make sure they are effectively converting visitors. Here's what marketers should know about the homepages they may not know about, and what they need to do to optimize these Web pages.

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The secret to successful copy is in all the thought, work and research you do before you write a single word. In the following 10 tips, Kranz lifts the curtain to reveal the backstage mechanics you can leverage for more effective copywriting. Get the full story.

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Your direct mail package clears a major hurdle when your prospect opens the envelope. The moment of truth has arrived. The next 3-5 seconds will largely determine whether your marketing effort is a success or failure, because it's during those critical first few seconds that your prospect decides whether to continue reading.

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One way to increase your conversion ratio is to make sure your Web site is easy to navigate and information is easy to find. In other words, ensure its "usability." Often, search engine optimization and marketing principles benefit a site's usability with people as well as search engines. Here are some tips on how to improve usability and improve your conversion rates.

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Customer acquisition directly contributes to your bottom line. Use the following five strategies to help you improve subscriptions to your content—print or online.

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Direct mail remains a successful way to reach customers. The trick, of course, is getting customers to act on the mail. How can a marketer increase response rates?

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German Chancellor Willy Brandt once said, "If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying from you, dann müssen Sie in meiner Sprache sprechen." (Translation: then you must speak my language.) Local-language content can help deliver a more culturally relevant experience to your site visitors. It not only optimizes the selling of products and services but also contributes to an organization's bottom line in many important ways.

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A case study provides the opportunity to communicate the benefits that your product or service delivers, in the form of practical experiences of a user organization. This is so much more powerful and persuasive than any theoretical arguments you can muster. So why isn't every organization churning out case studies? A few do; but, for many, generating case studies is a real battle.

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In today's increasingly post-literate culture, the idea of a 10-plus page linear narrative may seem out of date. But not so. The role of the marketing/technical whitepaper is on an upswing as companies recognize their effectiveness in communicating with audiences that demand authenticity and detail when making business decisions. The big problem with whitepapers, however, is that their length and complexity make them vulnerable to delays and budget overruns, usually in the late phases of the document review process. Here's how to avoid Death by Review.

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For many organizations, 'tis the season to shop for talent, especially copywriters. But it's awfully hard to look beyond the exterior to identify the talent who will really work for you. And while there are no fool-proof formulas for finding winners, you can take measures—right at the start of your relationship—that give you a much greater probability of success.

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The Web is not a great place to win hearts and minds. It is not a great place to convince people to do something they did not come to the Web already intending to do. Traditional marketing techniques, such as brand name repetition and the use of images to communicate brand attributes, don't work as well online. What works well on the Web is a useful Web site that wastes no time and gets straight to the point for your customers. Do you know what your customers want when they come to your Web site?

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You've heard it many times: If you want your marketing materials to do their job, you have to stress benefits, not features. Ultimately, your target readers don't care about what your product does. They care about what your product does for them. But with all the focus on "benefits," it's easy to forget that benefits don't work in a vacuum. Whenever you write copy, there's more you must always keep in mind.

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Content management has been a fuzzy, poorly respected discipline within many organizations. Its related discipline, communications, is often seen as peripheral and non-strategic. But the truth is, there are quantifiable benefits that a quality public Web site or intranet can deliver.

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What's wrong with most blogs? They're too chatty. Too rambling. They lack passion. If you're going to blog, become an expert on something. This is especially important for blogging in the business world. Think content, not rambling comment. Get the full story.

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How can marketers write "human" email messages, that truly speak to the hearts and souls of your clients? The first step is to figure out a way, by hook or by crook, to say something. Get the full story.