Copywriting for the Busy

by Mike Moran

I’m constantly amazed by the folks in direct mail who send out these long letters asking me to sign up for one more credit card—I know they work, but it’s not my style (and it doesn’t work well on the Web). I am often reminded of a story from my youth—the 1960s—when a long-haired hippy was struggling to get a ride to his destination. The hitchhiker kept sticking out his thumb, but no one stopped. Finally, he scrawled on a piece of cardboard, “Going to the Barber” and he was picked up within minutes. Now, that’s copywriting.

You see, copy doesn’t need to be long to be effective. In fact, on the Web, the shorter copy often tests better because people scan more than they read. What is important is that you understand your target market, what they care about, and what will persuade them.

So, our hitchhiker realized that the people who owned cars in the 1960s were unlikely to be fellow hippies. And his appearance was turning off the few who might be willing to give him a ride. The idea that he was ready to change his appearance was enough to get someone to decide to stop. The key was for the hitchhiker to stop thinking about what he wanted (a ride) long enough to come up with a motivator for his audience.

Often, we marketers are guilty of the same blindness. In our quest for a sale (what we want), we often fail to understand what our audience wants. And we blather on and on in verbose fashion about all the little features of our offering, and how wonderful our employees are, and how committed we are to customer satisfaction and blah, blah, blah…

But do our customers care? Often, they don’t. Now, you’re unlikely to be as persuausive as our hitchhiker with one sentence of copy. Both customers and search engines tend to like more than that, just so they know what you are talking about. But do talk about what the customer is interested in.

Customers usually have a problem that needs to be solved. It could be a practical left-brain problem (my gutters are leaking) or a hard-to-articulate right brain problem (I feel too unattractive to date)—it doesn’t matter. Either way, you need to frame your sales pitch in the parlance of the customer rather than in your own industry-speak. I might not know what a “leader” is or when the last time my gutter was cleaned. I might not know whether I want a matchmaking service or a makeover. (Or a haircut, you hitchhikers.)

But that is what the marketer needs to find out. That’s what you need to write about. And when you get it right, you can persuade your audience in relatively few words. Mark Twain famously said, “If I had more time, I could have made it shorter.” Remember that the right words carefully chosen do the trick and that we pile on more and more because we don’t actually know what people are looking for, not because more is better.

And I better end here before this post itself starts to run on too long…

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Web Equals Opportunity Equals Hope

by Sage Lewis

Sage opens with a rather depressing look at the Dow Jones, offering up examples of companies like Meryll Lynch and AIG that have taken some pretty serious hits. The tone lifts though as Sage infuses his typical optimistic attitude into the situation. He encourages people who might be struggling to consider using the web as a means to bring in income.

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The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Shopping Checkout Processes

by Stoney deGeyter

This is a continuation of a series of website marketing checklists. Check out all Web Marketing Checklists in this series.

What this is about: This list covers items regarding the actual checkout process of the shopping experience, after products are added and the visitor moves to complete the purchase of the items in the cart.

Why this is important: If visitors only add products to the cart but abandon the cart or get confused in the checkout process conversions will be low as will profit. The more proper cues you can provide that give the shopper confidence and assurances about their purchase, the less likely they will be to dump the cart or lose interest before closing he deal.

What to look for:

• No hidden fees: Don’t use the checkout process to add additional hidden fees. All fees should be spelled out in the basket page.
• No pre-registration: Don’t require shoppers to register before purchasing. Let them fill out the form and then add a password at the end of the process.
• Keep checkout process short: The fewer steps the shopper has to take to purchase the less likely they will be to abandon the shopping process.
• Show benefits of registration: At end of process, show benefits to being a registered customer:

  • Faster checkout in future: They won’t have to fill out all the information each time they order.
  • Access to order history: Shoppers have access to complete order history at any time.
  • Check order status: Status of order is available anytime shoppers login.
  • Saved for later information: They can buy some products now and save others for purchase another time.
  • Access to special promotions: Shoppers will be provided special offers and discounts that they can benefit from.
  • Personalization: They will have a more personalized shopping experience based on their order history.
  • Joining a community: If fitting, point out the community that user will join once registering.

• Show checkout progress meter: When checking out requires multiple steps, make sure the number of steps is mapped out throughout the process, identifying each current step along the way.
• Effective after-order follow-up: The order is not the end, be sure to provide sufficient after-order follow-up to keep involved with the purchaser.
• Receipt / Confirmation: Provide a order confirmation receipt allowing the shopper to review the order, pricing and products purchased.

  • Printable: Receipt should be web-based and printable for easy record keeping.
  • Emailed: Email a copy of the receipt to the shopper.
  • Thank you message: Provide a strong message of thanks for the shopper. Providing additional information about customer satisfaction is a good idea.
  • Order number: Receipt should have the order number for easy follow up reference.
  • Order date: Provide the date the order was placed with the confirmation.
  • Items purchased: List all items purchased including descriptions and links.
  • Expected delivery date: If order cannot ship right away, provide a date in which shipment can be expected to go out.
  • Payment method: Note method of payment, including credit card type and last numbers of credit card if applicable.
  • Cancellation policy: Provide information or links to order cancellation policies.
  • How to cancel: Provide additional information on the steps necessary to cancel the order if necessary (different from policies).
  • Return policy: Provide information or links to order return policies. This should also include a return address.
  • Address return costs: Be sure to address all concerns regarding the costs of returns as applicable.
  • After-sale guarantees: Provide information on your customer satisfaction guarantees as well as any warranties provided.

Did I miss anything? Add to this list with your comments below.

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What does Google say about Page Rank?

Pagerank (Google Larry Page & Sergey Brin responsible) has been written about – a lot. What does Google say about it themselves?

We stand alone in our focus on developing the “perfect search engine,” says Google co-founder Larry Page. … Something that, “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.”

To that end, we have persistently pursued innovation and refused to accept the limitations of existing models. As a result, we developed our serving infrastructure and breakthrough PageRank™ technology that changed the way searches are conducted.

Read excerpts from Google Corporate and what their senior spam officer has to say about Pagerank. Enjoy!

Top 10 reasons why Google is truly an All-American company

(It’s as American as it can get, read on…):

1. Its young. And so are we. Haven’t you ever gone to Europe and been amazed at the buildings that have been there for hundreds of thousands of years when our oldest building is a woman with a crown, a book, and a flame? Which possibly isn’t even our oldest building, which leads me to my next point:
2. Google is cocky and thinks it knows everything, just like us. It’s convinced that it knows what type of ads we want and need and specially targets and matches them to what we’re interested in. The scary part is that they’re often right too. They serve me up ads about salsa dancing and The Office all the time, and sure enough, that’s precisely what I’m interested in. Remind you of any other entity who claims to be all-knowing and omnipotent? Maybe a certain America who’s convinced it knows exactly what’s best for other people in other parts of the world whose culture and reality is so different than ours its not even funny? Just a thought.
3. Reason three- it’s both copied and a copycat. Everyone tries to emulate what Google and America do, whether its AOL trying to be more Google-esque or little Japanese high schoolers knowing every word to Snoop’s ‘Sensual Seduction’. On the flip side though, both entities know when to copy others. Google wasn’t the first search engine. America wasn’t the first country to speak English and be mean to other people and colonize and displace them. The reason they’re both so successful though is because they do it best. Nobody does it better. Which takes smarts, hence reason numero cuatro.
4. Google is multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-everything. Whatever you want to know can be explained to you in Spanish, French, Norwegian, Arabic, etc. Google’s diverse, with the co.uk, the Google France, and the Google.es for the Espanish espeakers. It’s a bonafide Melting Pot, just like some other place I know…
5. Google was created by people branching off from where they came. They had an idea and went with it. And the rest is history. Just like the land of the red, white and blue.
6. Google is Big Brother-ish. Actually maybe it’s not even ‘ish’, maybe it actually is just Big Brother. It collects personal data about you and stores it for future use and whenever it needs it. And America, well, we know what we do. We have secret societies like the CIA who have the power to put their hand in anything and do whatever they want in the name of ‘democracy’, but shhhhh, it’s all very hush-hush. Just like what Google Earth is doing. I mean, who knows really?
7. Google expands rapidly, buying businesses like YouTube left and right, just like us when we ‘buy’ and take over little places like Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. We do what we want. It’s the big fish eating the little fish. Survival of the fittest. Nothing personal, just business.
8. Under the guise of ‘just business’, we both actually are extremely cutthroat and hardworking. Neither one of us are slackers, that’s for sure. We work very hard. Sure, Google will let you sit on exercise balls and serve you free lunch every day, but did you ever stop to think that they might be doing that so you eat your lunch at your desk and take 15 minutes instead of an hour and a half? Not that bad of a ROI when you look at it that way. And we Americans work hard too. I always hear of these Europeans taking a month off every year and siestas and what not, but none of that for us. The 40 hour work week is soon becoming a thing of the past from what I hear.
9. Google is where people strive to be. It’s at the top of the world. Not too shabby of a place to be, huh? At the same time however, they’re constantly underdogs like China and India trying to bring something new to the table and beat it at its own game. Just like SEO companies beating the Google system. And when you come across a savvy white-hat SEO companies out there, watch out.
10. Since most of the previous reasons could be construed as slightly negative, let’s say something positive about the two, shall we? They’re both fun. And innovative. And cutting edge. Not to mention pretty amazing and incredible. Even though I only pledge allegiance to one (for now). Thanks, Brooke