Pure Ink News Story Roundup – 5 Things We’ve Learnt This Week
Posted on February 3, 2012 by Pure Ink | Leave a comment
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of information on copywriting, SEO and marketing then let Pure Ink’s roundups do the hard work for you. Save yourself some time and read over the top five marketing, copywriting and SEO stories we’ve read this week.
1. Earnest Hemingway was a positive guy
The ever-informative Brian Clark at Copyblogger wrote an article about Ernest Hemingway’s tips for writing well and point four was a real gem. Brian used Michel Fortin’s example of using ‘up words’ to describe what you’re writing about…
“Stating what something isn’t can be counterproductive since it is still directing the mind, albeit in the opposite way. If I told you that dental work is painless for example, you’ll still focus on the word 'pain' in 'painless.'
• Instead of saying 'inexpensive,' say 'economical,'
• Instead of saying 'this procedure is painless,' say 'there’s little discomfort' or 'it’s relatively comfortable,'
• And instead of saying 'this software is error-free' or 'foolproof,' say 'this software is consistent' or 'reliable.'” Such a simple tip but one that can be applied to pretty much any sales copywriting piece.
2. ‘The xxx daily is out’ tweets do have a good click through rate
“Of all the words and phrases I analyzed, the phrase that had the greatest positive effect on CTR was from paper.li tweets: 'daily is out'.”
According to Dan Zarrella’s Infographic on how to get more clicks on Twitter, Tweets which featured “daily is out” received a click through rate (CTR) of over 30%. This was very surprising as we’d always assumed the click through rate of these would have been low as these Tweets are so common they verge on being spammy. It could be that the CTR was higher as companies featured in the Tweets were either clicking through to see which of their stories had been picked up or because the companies featured were Retweeting to their Followers which gave the Tweets a wider audience. The Infographic also states that using ‘via’ in a Tweet also increased CTR and as these ‘daily is out’ Tweets feature the word ‘via’ this could be another reason why the CTR was so high. Check out the Infographic for more examples of factors affecting CTR, it makes for a very interesting read.
3. Link for People, Not Search Engines
This advice came from Eric Ward writing for Search Engine Watch (and found via @seonow on Twitter) and while this is not something new to anyone working in the SEO copywriting arena it is good to hear key influencers pointing it out. With many companies still choosing to pay a few dollars for low quality articles which serve no purpose other than dodgy SEO, it’s vital that SEOs and copywriters keep promoting the importance of writing quality content for people to read. We’ve found that if you write for your audience and include well placed keywords then the search engines (and social media channels) will pick up your content anyway. The links in articles have to be strategic in order to encourage links back to your website but if you’re writing an interesting, on-topic article then these links will also enhance your readers’ experience naturally instead of misleading them or interrupting their reading. Instead of investing in cheap writing, create content that matters and says something which people want to read.
4. How to land a guest blog spot
Mary Jaksch’s post on landing a guest blog spot is actually much more than that; it’s a lesson in how to write engaging and respectful content in all communications. When you email clients, prospects, colleagues or collaborators it’s easy to forget they’re real people and so your message can soon become corporate and detached and turn people off. Mary’s article has a number of great reminders for writing effective emails such as using humour, being natural, remembering you’re equal and being confident and respectful. Being honest and friendly and remembering you’re human goes a long way to writing emails which people will respond to.
5. Keep in touch with clients
When you’re marketing your own business and dealing with existing clients it’s easy to let previous clients slip away. The Marketing Fundamentals Team (found via @DesignBizLiz on Twitter)published a nice little post featuring ten ways to re-contact lapsed clients. Having tried a few of these ways here at Pure Ink, calling people works a treat but it’s good to be reminded of how effective sending thank you notes and recommending new services can be.
What have you read this week which is worth revisiting? Let us know below!
Posted in Copywriting