http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/news.php?CID=&NID=3608&Title=Microsoft%27s+Plans+To+Buy+Yahoo+Will+Make+Search+A+Two+Horse+Race+

Let me know what you think…

Take a look and let me know what you think:

http://www.impactmedialtd.co.uk/blog/search-engine-marketing-news/seo-news/googles-myspace-integration-poses-challenges-for-seo-19625185/

If I find any more on this story, I’ll pop it up straight away.

“Don’t sell your product in your subject line.”

And this is a good piece of advice. I can easily count on my hands the number of times I have gone to my email to find a subject line which tells me everything about the product. By telling me so much so soon, instead of stirring my interest, I know straight away not to read it.

However throw in a subject line that agitates your curiosity. That makes you go ‘what’ you can attract a whole new audience to your email marketing.

If like me, subjects lines are not your forte, then the following tips will help:

1. Write headlines without mentioning the product once
2. Offer them scandalous/shocking pieces of information
3. Personal the subject line i.e ‘Can’t believe what you have done
4. Make claims/offer statistical data they cannot ignore

Now these may not always work with an existing mailing list (depending on your market place); however if you are trying to attract new clientele using a different mailing list, any one of these can help turn your email from a ‘delete me’ to ‘read me’ message.

Try first writing yourself some generic subject lines which can be applied to any scenario. When you have got a good selection (approx 10), try incorporating themes from your product into the subject line and create a further 10 subject lines. With a collection you can feel confident that you have got 10 email topics straight way which you can use to produce new emails and new content.

This week I wanted to elaborate on this further but show you how to deal with bullets, headers, sub-headers etc.

1. Writing a powerful headline – the saying is you should always fill your headlines with benefits which are related to a desire. So instead of just saying ‘lose 1-5lbs’, you can top this by adding ‘drop a dress size and reclaim your wardrobe.’ Your headlines need to be emotive and focus on one specific theme. The point is you can’t sell to everyone, which is why you need to pick your ideal consumer and target them

   Your headline can also aggrevate your audience before providing them with a solution.

   One useful tip I have found beneficial is to theme your headline around one of the following: a) time/speed b) diaster story/pain or c)natural/purity

2. Sub-headers – the best copywriters are able to use their sub-headers to tell a story whilst providing your audience with an accurate summation of what is to follow in the next paragraph. The key is to make sure that the paragraph that follows leads from this subheading.
3. What is their reading age – it is important when writing sales copy to make sure that the language you use is understandable. It is for that reason that most newspapers and websites will treat their readership as though they have got a reading age of  11.
4. Don’t persume they know everything – if for example you work for a company that sells detox products enriched in antioxidants, it is important to assume that not everyone visiting your site will know what antioxidants are. Now whilst you can’t go overboard explaining it, giving a bried descriptions of how antioxidants impact on toxins and you will win a broader selection of sales
5. It is all about ‘you’ - it has been proven that integrating ‘you’ focused copy can produce more sales. Similarly keeping your tone converstational and personal will enable consumers to relate to you and your product/service
6. Include a P.S. – these are heavily understated but easily be used to re-iterate your products benefits, introduce a CTA or remind them of an important element. If you want to use a P.S. it is best to use the following formula:

- Time limit
- Main benefit – reiterate
- Guarantee

Never go above 4 as this can appear overbearing and will affect the potency of these P.S.’s as you get consumers to buy.

Writing effective sales copy is heavily dependent on the type of audience you are writing for, so whilst a personalised sales letter make work on someone who is looking to lose weight, clear their acne and become healthily, this might not always work on someone in the property investment market.

The trick I am afraid is trial and error. Split testing your sales letters and seeing which produces the best conversions.

Of the sales letters I have written to date though, there is one formula I would recommend to copywriters just starting out. A great copywriter recommended this to me and it hasn’t failed me yet:

THE PROMISE: In your headline try to define what are you offering. What is your unique selling point?

THE PICTURE: Ask yourself why the consumer is here? What are they looking for? Take this information and agitate the problem before sympathising with their situation

THE SOLUTION: Introduce your product. What is it? What does it do? Build interest

THE PROOF: List the benefits of the product. Prove that it works and why it works

CALL TO ACTION: Reiterate why the consumer is here. Restate the benefits of your product. Prove why their lives will be much better after using this product. Be emotive.

PRICE: Depending on the type of product/service you are promoting here is your chance to show the price of the product/service, its cost and incredible value for money

REMOVE THE RISK: Once you have iterated the price, remove the risk of investing by discussing your guaranteed results and guarantee

ORDER NOW: Show them how easy it is to order your product/service

CALL TO ACTION: Restate why the consumer should order. Highlight the products best benefits

I have used this template on a few of my campaigns now and it seems to have worked; however I strongly recommend that you continue researching and looking for templates to add to your swipe file. A good sales page is one that keeps you readin from start to finish.

Failt to pull them on this one simple sentence and not only will they fail to read your email, but you will fail to convert them into a sale too.

As one copywriter once told me, a 2 million mailing list means nothing if you haven’t got the trust of your subscribers or have got nothing of value to offer them when you message them.

Bombard them with sales message after sales message and they will get fed up and will begin deleting your emails on sight.

So what do you do? You give them an impossible to ignore subject line, which will have them clicking on open without hestitation.

The best tricks I have learnt are the following:

1. Give them a shocking result – a statistic/figure that they will want to know more about i.e. ‘93.2% of mothers swear by it…’ – the first question your mailing list is going to ask is ‘what do they swear by?’

   Using this curiousity, they will open your email. The only point that you need to remember here is, that you cannot ignore this statistic. Whatever you mention within your subject line needs to either remain a theme within your email or act as a starting point to enticing them towards your product/service

2. Ask them a question – now I don’t mean ‘How are you?’ These question has to draw their curisosity as well and make them want to know the answer. For example if you to ask them ‘Have you had much success with these?’ they will then think ‘With what?’

   In most instances you will be writing emails to a mailing list that has subscribed to your newsletter, so if you specialise in weight loss, property, mens health etc, they will expect your emails and subsequently your subject lines to relate to this niche area.

Your subject lines though are only part of the battle. Yes you have got them to open your email, but that doesn’t automatically mean they will read all your email. Write poor sales copy and you could potentially lose them on your first sentence!

That is why it is incredibly important to make your sales copy strong, enticing and fluid.

Some clever tricks I have learnt to prompt readers on is the use of the following:

• … – these 3 simple dots may look like nothing, but subconsciously they prompt your mind to continue reading. In many ways, your mind views these 3 full stops as a sign that your sentence is incomplete.

  Now I feel that these can become increasingly extensive if done constantly, but time them right throughout your copy and you can experience this effect of naturally pushing them down the page

• Be grammatically incorrect  – starting sentences with ‘And’, ‘But’ ‘Therefore’ or ‘Also’ is a great way to keep consumers reading. Similar to ‘…’ consumers naturally assume you are continuing with the last sentence, so will keep reading to find out the outcome of the sentence

All of these are only a starting point for improving your open rates and ultimately your sales, but in the next few weeks I will expand on this subject.

If you have got any questions in the mean time, send me a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Rowena xx

We may all be feeling the pinch carrying on from the holidays but this is not stopping consumers for searching the web for incredible deals to help keep the boredom at bay.

Ask yourself this: how often have you been on the internet in the last few weeks? More than usual? Well so has everyone else making now the ideal to launch a new product campaign and increase your sales conversions.

Whether they are looking to shed those excess Christmas lbs or get back onto the property ladder, the New Year is notoriously a time for New Years resolutions. MEANING consumers are more open to investing in new products, deals or services.

And how do you fit in?

By building more links to your website and creating fresh copy to match these campaigns, you can broaden your brand awareness and attract consumers whose attention you may not have previously been able to harness.

It is definitely a time to get your products out there and make the most of the snow. We more people surfing the internet than ever before, with strong online marketing you can increase your conversions no end.

Here are some I quickly mocked up for some popular websites you can easily find on the web:

This second one in particular, I originally copied the logo and header shape. However after introducing it to Photoshop I was able to make the curves consistent on the top and botton of the header and introduce new text.

The first header on the other hand was created from scratch. Using the pen tool and my mouse I was able to establish the curves exactly how I wanted them, as well as use them to shape the head of the keys. One of the clever things about photoshop is that when you use the pen tool, you can easily correct/modify the shape using the Direction Selection Tool and change the shape of the curves.

Now getting these curves to look smooth will take practice and a lot of zooming in to help smooth out the lines, but it is definitely worth the effort once you finally achieve the end result.

So give it a try and see how you get on.

Michelle

Give us a message and we will get back to you soon.

Have a Great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

Of course you should NEVER copy another writers work, but this swipe file can prove very inspiring if you are struggling to formulate a headline.

Today I thought I would share with you my swipe file of the best headline templates I have ever encountered. Each of these headlines have been proven to generate increased sales and leads and are incredibly adaptable to every niche.

Come take a look:

1. They Laughed When I ____________ -
   But When I Started to _________________!
2. The Truth About ___________________!
3. What Every ______________ Should
   Know About ______________!
4. WARNING: Before You ________________,
   READ THIS!
5. The Amazing ________ Secret Of a __________ from
   ___________!
6. How to Get ______________ Without
   ____________!
7. An Amazing Secret That Can ___________________!
8. Here is What __________ Say About The Amazing
   Inside Secrets Revealed In ________________!
9. How to Make People Line Up and Beg You To
   _____________!
10. Now you can make more __________,
    have more __________
    - than you ever thought possible!
11. He Was Only (#) Years Old and Was Making
    $_________ A Week. I Was (#) and Bringing Home
    $________; Boy Did I Feel Like a Jerk!
12. My _____________ Was Killing Me…
    Until I Discovered ____________!
13. How the Same ______ Who Helped
    Me __________ Can Help You, Too!
14. The Incredible True Story of __________________!
15. How a _____________ Went From
    _____________ to _____________ -
    In Less Than _____________!
16. How I Went From an ________________
    with ___________________ to
    ___________________… & How You Can Do It, Too!
17. Announcing… The First ________________ – Tested &
    Proven More __________ and More __________
    Than Any ____________ Ever!
18. Amazing Free Report Reveals…
19. A Foolproof Way to…
20. At Last… Someone Has Unlocked
    the Secret To _____________!
21. Confessions of a ______________!
22. How to Discover/ Get Free/ Get Rich/ Make Money _______________!
23. Let Me Show You How I _____________…
    And How You Can, Too!

    These are only a handful, but you get the idea of how easy it is to create your own amazing headlines once you have got a template to work from. Give these a try and let me know how they impact on your sales. I guarantee you will notice a difference in the quality of your sales and audience.