Direct Response Copywriter on The Google Penguin Update

I’m not an SEO expert. I’m a direct response copywriter and content creator so SEO is best left to people who don’t have the intellectual ability to produce money-sucking copy(!). So I don’t spend vast amounts of time worrying about search engine algorithms.

Google just made a big change to their algorithm through its Penguin Update.

The search engines wage a constant war with ‘black hat’ SEO practitioners. The search engines want to maintain the quality of their search results. The so-called ‘black hat bad guys’ want to use dodgy tactics to rig the search results.

There’s nothing illegal about the tactics of the bad guys. Companies like Google call them bad guys because Google sets the rules. But I don’t want to get into the whole ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’ thing.

If you know nothing about SEO, the Penguin Update especially penalizes SEO practitioners who essentially produce nonsensical website content—content ‘written’ to improve SEO results; the content is often directly plagiarized from other sites.

Here’s an article from The Wall Street Journal explaining the impact.

From the remedies the article suggests…

1. Content is king. Make sure your website has original and accurate information. Google places the greatest value on sites providing the best possible user experience.
2. Use social media. Post links to content on your site from Twitter, Facebook and other social-media profiles. Your fans may repost the information.
3. Spread your wings. Don't rely just on Google. Look for other ways to attract people to your website, such as by running special promotions or buying ads.

If you rely on ‘black hat’ SEO techniques, Google is going to penalize you. You’re better off spending money on content and copywriting. Content to keep your visitors engaged and coming back to your website and social media outlets. Copywriting to persuade people to visit your website for the first time. And copywriting will also persuade people to take the next step in the sales process once they're on your site.

The Wall Street Journal says it best…

Make sure your website has original and accurate information. Google places the greatest value on sites providing the best possible user experience.

Again—I’m not an SEO expert but I believe EVERY search engine expert will tell you to pay close attention to superb and fresh content. Content will ALWAYS help your search engine results...and keep your prospects and customers engaged.

Remember Conversion

I’ve been working with an excellent SEO company. They get superb ‘white hat’ results for their clients. But there’s a problem. The companies they help aren’t getting results—phone calls, emails, opt-ins, etc.

That’s where conversion comes in…turning the visitors into buyers. If you want to do this, I’ve got the following advice.

1. Use proven conversion techniques for landing pages. DON’T reinvent the wheel.
2. Hire a direct response copywriter and use direct response copywriting techniques. We spend all day every day persuading people to BUY.

Again—I’m not an SEO expert. I’m much more important! But seriously…when you focus on content and proven conversion techniques, your digital marketing will thrive. Just make sure you hire top-quality talent.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Indulges in Branding

In the world of direct response, branding is a banned word. There’s a famous book about branding…or non-branding: Branding Only Works on Cattle.

People in direct marketing (like me) often wonder why small companies spend a lot of money on branding/image advertising. And the people who run branding/awareness agencies generally view people in direct response as inferior. Let’s not get into that battle for now. But it was time for me to come up with a new image for my business so I asked a graphic designer to create a new logo. I gave her the direction and the copy and it was ready in two days.

The result…

I think every business needs an image and a brand but it’s less than 1% of the marketing spend.

When you want actual results from your marketing investment, use direct response techniques and hire a direct response copywriter.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Copywriter Embraces Positivity...and Hemingway

One of my copywriting "issues" is being too negative--letting the reader stew in their own juices a little too long. It's important to express some sympathy and understanding but if the reader is suffering from heel pain, there's no need to remind the reader about how much their feet hurt for 500 words. Get to the positivity...the solutions...the happiness.

As a direct response copywriter, I use a direct response copywriting checklist. One of the items on the list...SELL HAPPINESS. Get that heel pain sufferer to imagine life without heel pain...bounding down the road, able to run marathons and standing up for long periods at parties...or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

When I'm writing, I take a look at a paragraph I've just written and instantly turn any negative sentences and phrases into positives.

So...

You will no longer suffer from heel pain...

Becomes...

Wear the Acme "Easy Night" Boot for just 14 nights and you will soon walk easily...even hike up a Colorado mountain.

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On Brevity

I have to admit a weakness for long, involved sentences, like the ones you will typically read in novels by Martin Amis, Charlotte Bronte, Tom Wolfe, Dickens, and other writers with a passion for over-expression and literary gluttony, as exemplified most commonly in, perhaps, mid-Victorian novels but also present more recently in writing by students at American Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs where "has been" and "never were" writers who are themselves extremely mediocre, instruct "would be" writers how to write fiction that will likely never be published by one of the "big six" publishing houses but will end up, like their teachers' writings, in the so-called slush pile, which is a stack, sometimes moving, sometimes not, of manuscripts that mostly novice writers have sent to agents and publishers in the hope their work, often replete with long, involved sentences (with an abundance of semi-colons) will help them earn a significant advance and get them in the literary 'game.'

OK...you won't read anything like THAT in ANY of my direct response copy but I find myself with a tendency to write long sentences. The cure: Hemingway.

From...The Sun Also Rises.

There was a light in the concierge's room and I knocked on the door and she gave me my mail. I wished her good night and went up-stairs. There were two letters and some papers.

Simple. Efficient. And a touch of tension...what was in the letters and papers?

I'm striving to write simple and efficient copy without making it anorexic or overly taut. Just like a simple conversation.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. My website is here.

Copywriter Motivators--What Makes People Pay Attention? Part 3...GREED

Save money or make money. Make more. Save more. Earn more.

I recently received some feedback from a fellow direct response copywriter who was critiquing some of my work. At one point, his note was...TELL THEM ABOUT THE MOOLAH, BABY! It's all about THE MOOLAH!

Even with the motivator in the last blog, FEAR, fear of losing money or retiring without any is a big motivator. Tapping into the greed motivator is easy but it's most effective when the numbers are specific.

Readers may be greedy but they're not stupid. I quite often see claims that are too good to be true. The reader will ignore these claims UNLESS there's proof. Actual numbers from stock performance can work. Testimonials. Still...numbers that make sense, make sense. Readers click away from numbers that seem outlandish.

Greed can be a good way to position a solution to a problem. For example, you're not making enough with your investments...so...subscribe to my newsletter and I will make your stock advisor look like a dolt.

I think massive and constant discounting is a sign the company hasn't got its USP and value proposition in order. The beauty of greed, from my standpoint, is that greedy people will pay a good price for a product or service that will help them satiate their greed. Greed begets greed.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte North Carolina USA. My website is here.

Copywriter motivators--what makes people pay attention?

What makes people buy? You'll hear this answer quite a bit..."a solution to a problem" and while that's correct in most cases, a copywriter has to go one step further...and find the perfect motivator. In the next few days, I'm going to write about five motivators although I reserve the right to come up with more. It's my blog and I'll add motivators if I want to. Right?

Five motivators...

FEAR

GUILT

GREED

EXCLUSIVITY

SOLUTIONS

I'm going to reveal how I determine which one of these to use and how to find the motivator within the motivator. This will determine headline and opening paragraphs: the crux of the impact.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte North Carolina USA. My website is here.