Marketing Writing Resources for Creative Copywriters

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Communications

If your sales cycles seem to be dragging, it may be time to revamp your communications plan. Done well, your communications programs can generate demand for your solutions, create a sense of urgency, attract prospective buyers' attention, and keep you high on their radar—all without sales intervention. Your communications program can even encourage prospective buyers to "raise their hands" when they are finally ready to purchase by offering the right enticement. The key is getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

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Turning online lookers into buyers takes work. You have to ensure the site is intuitive, in that visitors can find what they want and there's a clear path of for them to follow.

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Acquiring new customers is the "show biz" side of direct marketing: The budgets are much larger, and you get to be more creative and perhaps use a broader variety of media. There's this problem, though: It costs five times as much to find a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. That's why smart organizations are focusing more of their resources on keeping and growing current customers. The key is to exceed customers' expectations. Here are 10 ways to accomplish that.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

In a world of mental clutter, information anxiety and narrow attention spans, your Web voice could become the next big weapon in Web media presentation and marketing. So how do you effectively implement voice on the Web?

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Marketers are much more aware of the significant opportunity that varying demographic groups present. What's more, they realize that they can no longer afford to neglect the combined buying power of ethnic Americans who, according to estimates, make up $1.3 trillion or 18.5 percent of all US buying. To appeal to these highly lucrative and diverse audiences, marketers are now abandoning traditional mass-marketing practices in favor of laser-focused, multicultural marketing efforts.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

Since its inception, the Do Not Call Registry has had a profound impact on the telemarketing industry, just as it has on individual organizations relying on outbound telemarketing in their marketing strategy. The challenge now facing these businesses is to find creative ways to still make telemarketing work.

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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.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

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.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

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.