When writing a business website, get right to the point. Communicate the benefits vividly but quickly, in the fewest possible words.
How to read your customers’ minds
Your website copy needs to assure prospective customers they’re in the right place, that your site has what they’re looking for, and that they can trust you.
My next copywriting lesson: mind-reading
My next copywriting lesson: How to read your customers’ minds
Why give it away?
A few people have already contacted me to ask an obvious question in response to my earlier post (and newsletter) about how to write your own business website. As one person put it, “What are you — off your meds, Tom? Aren’t you going to put yourself out of business?” Naw. Actually, I’m just showing …
Why you, the business owner, are the best person to write your website
I know this will sound like heresy, coming from a longtime professional copywriter like me. In fact, it’ll probably get me drummed out of the swanky and ultra-exclusive Copywriter’s Club. I humbly submit that you, the business owner, are far more qualified than I am to write the copy for your website. Why? Lots of …
How to Overcome Customer Cynicism
Sick of hype and hard sell? Good news. The Marketing Gurus seem to be catching on. Famed copywriter Clayton Makepeace just wrote an article that confirms what I (and others) have been saying for years: “Everything you think you know about attracting new customers and writing to existing customers is quickly becoming obsolete.” For example: …
Little words, big problems
Certain words make a big impact in the mind of customers. Use the wrong word, and you can easily scare off interested prospects.
Coming soon: Bigger, louder, more obnoxious ads
Hate those awful online ads ? You know the ones I mean. The ones that blink and spin and move around and morph into different shapes? Brace yourself. They’re about to get even worse. “The Online Publishers Association has created a series of new standards for really big, intrusive, bash-you-on-the-head sorts of advertisements, which you …
Beat writer's block — with a kitchen timer?
For me, it’s not really “writer’s block.” It’s more like a reluctance to apply the seat of my pants to the seat of my chair. Sound familiar? In his awesome book, The War of Art, Stephen Pressman nails it on (practically) the first page. “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, …