How To Use Social Media To Reach More Customers

Did you know that the 2nd most followed page on Facebook is Samsung, with 159.82 million followers? That’s six times the population of Australia tapped into all the moves the South Korean electronics giant is making - from a consumer perspective. That is, they’ve all opted in to being sold new phones, cameras, TVs, and tablets as part of their daily social media scroll.

Though enterprise businesses may employ social media managers (who may be flustered by the overwhelming demands of the job, as I’ve explored here), small to medium businesses often flounder under the constant demand for content - or mistaken belief that just because one posts it will be seen by all their audience, every time. (That’s the non-linear algorithm at work, baybay!)

Social media is free to use - but with all free things, it means spending time on it to gain any real benefit. Here is a primer on how to use social media to reach more customers.

Find Your Audience and Meet Them There

There’s no such thing as the Field of Dreams on the web. It’s not a case of “build it and they will come” but rather, “build it where they already are.”

That means looking at your business and figuring out where your core demographic customer base already hangs out. B2B businesses will likely want to focus on B2B social media, such as LinkedIn. (It’s where I hang out!) B2C will want to embrace Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, and to a lesser extent, X (formerly Twitter.)

If you have limited time to spend, you may want to focus on one platform. Meta Business Suite helps you post across Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp, which means reaching three sets of audiences at once.

Apps such as Keyhole can help you identify these audiences without waiting too long for analytics to come in - which can help you along tremendously.

Establish a Narrative and Social Proof

Stories are everything. People are drawn in by stories; brands that establish solid narratives about themselves will rise to the top of the pile compared with soulless, bland sales pages. For example, the DIY, grassroots values of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream - a small business started by two hippie college dropouts from Vermont selling fresh ice-cream from their gelatery - (almost) overrides the fact they are now a global brand owned by Unilever, a multi-national corporation with questionable holdings.

Social proof is the act of using other’s opinions of your brand to sell your products and services. This may come in the form of using content from your customers (i.e., re-blogging or re-posting their Instagram reels or TikToks) to “prove” that people like, use, and trust your product.

Using Influencers and Brand Advocates

Believe it or not, 40% of Twitter (as it was called in 2016) users said they bought something because an influencer tweeted about it. There was a 5.2x increase in the likelihood of a purchase when users saw both brand and influencer tweets about the product.

According to Mention.com, URL shortener Bitly saw 11x greater return on investment than traditional forms of digital marketing. People who have a large social media following are instant social proof - even if the audience knows that the brand is sponsoring their posts. Influencers need not just be on Instagram; they could be bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, TikTokers, and other high-follower count individuals or groups.

Reposting content from satisfied customers who become “cheerleaders” for your product is another way to reach even greater audiences. People love being seen - and according to an Olapic study, 70% of U.S.-based respondents are more likely to buy products after being exposed to a relatable or positive image created by other consumers.

Provide Value For THEIR FOLLOW

Yes, some people will follow certain brands or companies just to get the jump on sales. But the top performers provide real value to their customers in the form of informational or instructional content that they can use.

A food brand may want to showcase recipes; a fashion brand may want to emphasise which fragrances to pair with their outfit. Even if you’re an excavator company, you can still provide value by showing which kind of plant you use to tackle certain jobs, which may be useful for apprentices. The more content that you can provide that’s useful, the better.

Use a Strategic Approach

One of the most common mistakes brands make is using a scattershot approach to social media posting and content. A hospitality venue might make one post about an upcoming event…only for it to get buried under the algorithm and have it appear in people’s feeds three days after it’s finished.

Every business should have a social media strategy which should be planned out ahead of time with content (or at least ideas about content), its purpose (brand recognition, promotion, reach), and the goals it is attempting to reach.

This keeps your social media running smoothly as part of your overall sales or marketing processes. Instead of panicking about what to post, where, and when, your strategy will guide you in the right direction whether you want to make a post yourself or leave it up to the professionals.

With a bit of persistence and effort you can use social media to reach more customers - and greater sales!

---

For expert guidance and quality cut-through content that’s both strategic and impossible to ignore, trust I Sell Words for all aspects of social media management. Read about my social media success stories here!

---

Can you have your Google cake and EEAT it too? (Flying Solo)

Content is king, right? I mean, I am a loyal subject to it as a copywriter, supplicating before its wordy throne, feeding it fine morsels of verbiage and sentences crafted to perfection to satisfy its ever-growing hunger, I write at Flying Solo.

How To Use Email Marketing To Increase Black Friday Sales

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retail sales in November 2022 increased 7.7% year on year, with a total retail trade turnover of $35.9 billion. Whether a sale was at a till or on a checkout page, email marketing is still a strong force to pushing people to buying gifts for themselves - and perhaps for others!

If you have a healthy email marketing list, how can you leverage it to increase your Black Friday or Christmas sales?

Create a Content Calendar

The first step toward a successful holiday sales campaign is creating a content calendar. This doesn’t just have to encompass your potential email marketing offers or newsletters, but tie into your social media and content marketing as a whole.

If you’re focusing on a certain product for a week, your strategy should be to push it through all your channels. Make sure you leave some flexibility for flash sales, opportunities that come your way (discounted lines, for example), and of course, crisis communications if things go wrong.

It’s never too early to push holiday sales - commercial media platform Criteo says that first time buyers will check out an online store 41 days before making a potential purchase on Black Friday.

Segment, Personalise, Repeat

Segmentation and personalisation is the “secret ingredient” to encourage open rate and sales. CampaignMonitor says that personalising subject lines can lead to an 8x improvement in click-throughs and 6x improvement in transaction rates.

Segmenting your email list into active users, lapsed users, etc. can also mean targeting campaigns at these demographics. You can lure lapsed users who have signed up and never purchased with a special discount offer; your most enthusiastic shoppers could be incentivised with buy one, get one free offers.

As I’ve mentioned previously, email marketing should feel as if that email is written just for them and no one else.

Add Value With Every Email

You don’t have to offer a discount with every email you send out. There are plenty of ways to add value to someone’s inbox without sacrificing your bottom line. One great way to add value is offering a “holiday gift guide” - based on the segmentation and personalisation discussed earlier - and hit points that you know will resonate with that audience.

Earn $50 For Every Referral!

〰️

Earn $50 For Every Referral! 〰️

• Gifts for him/her (directed at the opposite)

• Gifts on a budget - using language like “Gifts under $50”

• Gifts for people with certain hobbies or interests

• Gifts for kids or gifts for mum and dad

• Gifts for those looking to splurge

You can also build your email list by offering instant discounts, access to early sales coupons or free shipping just for signing up.

Don’t simply bombard your audience with calls to buy something - planting seeds can prove just as valuable!

Get In The Festive Spirit

As I was writing this blog post, I got an email from MOO, an online business stationery and card shop, that was advertising “Fresh Festive Ideas.” I don’t even own a Christmas tree (much to the chagrin of any woman I know) but I do know many people love Christmas and the holiday season. Using Christmas emojis (in fact, using emojis can dramatically increase open rates) Incorporating that into your messaging can increase engagement and rapport with your brand. You may cringe at a Christmas pun as a subject line, but some people find it charming! (I don’t know who. Don’t ask.)

Use Automation and SMS

If you have a robust email marketing system, you should set up emails for different user scenarios such as abandoned carts, missed emails, and flash sales. Many people (myself included) will sign up for an email list, purposely abandon a cart and see if the store sends me a discount to entice me back! You should have email and copy ready to go for every eventuality, including flash sales, buy one, get one free offers, limited time offers, and so on. Since most of us will be reading these offers on our smartphones, using SMS marketing can also help drive engagement and traffic to your site.

Make Sales Seamless

If you have a special sale targeting a segment of your email list, the sales page should be as seamless as possible. That means links should open to the gifts below $50; or have their subscriber discount already applied in a cart; whatever it takes to make the sale as easy as possible for the buyer.

There’s nothing worse than coming across a vague landing page that’s trying to appeal to everyone yet functions for almost no one.

By following some simple steps, you too can rake in a sales bonanza this Black Friday and Christmas!

---

Want help with crafting great copy that’ll cut through all the robotic cookie cutter nonsense? Get your Black Friday sales pumping with I Sell Words!

---

How To Create a Winning SEO Keyword Strategy For Your Business

Google and search engines are always on the look out to optimise their results for the end user. It’s why they so frequently change their algorithms. In 2018 they “improved” their PageRank and ranking signals algorithm over 3,000 times; in the age where AI is taking over more and more, it could be refining itself in ways we don’t even see.

If your business site has been reigning supreme over Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for years, you could find yourself in the unenviable position of being on the wrong side of an algorithm update, losing hard-won rankings and positions.

Having a strong keyword strategy that keeps up with Google and new trends can help your business navigate the wild world of SEO without having to start from square one.

WHAT IS A SEO KEYWORD STRATEGY?

Though it can be confused with keyword research, a keyword strategy goes a step further than mere keyword research. Intuitively, we know what keywords we want to target in searches. If we own a plumbing business, we would type in “plumbers near me” or “gas plumber Melbourne” to Google and grab the first few autocomplete results, incorporating this into our on-page SEO copy.

A keyword strategy goes deeper. Instead of a scattergun approach, an SEO Keyword Strategist would identify the cost/benefit ratio for chasing certain keywords or keyphrases, see what keywords could drive relevant traffic to your site, identify new opportunities, and help structure your content into topic clusters. A strategic approach can also temper expectations around rankings and growth. Highly competitive keywords may be out of reach for many small businesses.

However a laser-focused strategy that also includes less competitive or high-intent keywords could drive more qualified leads to your site. This often means a higher return on investment than looking for raw volume. Many users who end up at your site may be “tyre kicking” and bouncing off without any conversion or interaction. The strategy also needs to consider this aspect of user behaviour.

Benchmarking Performance

At the very least, you should have some kind of analytics set up to gauge what incoming search terms your site is ranking for at any given moment. You should be using Google Analytics or Google Search Console at the minimum.

Signing up for free versions of Ahrefs or SEMRush can give you general overviews of how your site is ranking in terms of keyword authority and positioning among competitors. At the very least, you need to set a baseline from which to work with.

Set SMART Goals

With any strategy, be it crossing the Ardennes or carving out 10% greater market share, it needs an identifiable goal. These should be SMART:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Actionable

• Relevant

• Timely

The specific goal a business could set are improving rankings for a certain topic or keyword cluster to the first page within six months. To use our plumber, this may be “blocked sinks/drains/grease traps” to the first page in that time period. These could be refined into key performance indicators for Top 3 rankings or Top 4-10 rankings, for example. For a list of SEO KPIs every business should track, SEMRush has a great guide here.

Topics - The New SEO Keyword?

As you may be aware, Google uses the E-E-A-T ranking signal to sort relevant pages and display them in Search Engine results. This stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This rings especially true for businesses that trade in “money or your life” sectors such as financial advice or medical treatment. Instead of focusing on individual keywords or phrases, a good SEO keyword strategy will incorporate content and backlinking efforts on becoming trusted expert authorities on topics.

Our plumber may want to target keywords around plumbing, but what other topics are relevant to would-be searchers? How to unclog drains can also relate to general home maintenance; the latter of which could be a topic cluster. The high-level topic then informs what other secondary keywords you could be targeting underneath to support your strategy.

Creating topic pages also feeds into any good SEO content strategy, which also comprises how you lay out your pages and sitemap. Certain pillar pages may contain basic information on a given topic (plumbing maintenance) and supporting pages with their own topics (how to stop drains from running slowly) which you can then link to.

Remember: this topical content need not be written: it could be video content, podcasts, interactives, and social media content.

Keyword Difficulty vs. Payoff

Every keyword has metrics that you need to look at such as search volume and keyword difficulty. Search volume shows how often a search is run (usually a rough estimate) and keyword difficulty is the probability of entering the “race” for ranking high and actually pulling it off.

Sites or pages with high domain authority, referring domains, and page authority are harder to knock off the perch than lower-hanging fruit. The higher the difficulty, the better or more relevant your content has to become, which can take a lot of time and effort (and even then, it may not pay off.)

You will have to evaluate how much effort you wish to funnel into certain keywords or perhaps look for “easy target” keywords that you can target for quick and easy wins. (which Backlinko goes into detail with here.) How you prioritise high difficulty vs. low difficulty keywords or topics is a matter for your business - but the strategy itself should give you insights into what will work best to achieve your ultimate goal.

earn $50 for a referral!

~ click here! ~

earn $50 for a referral! ~ click here! ~

SEO KEYWORD STRATEGY IS ALSO Content Strategy

Your topics and keywords will be centered around content - but your keywords for content shouldn’t be placed “just anywhere.” They too should be laid out in a strategic way.

A strategic approach must include direction for topics, blog or page posting frequency, and where a potential customer could potentially enter your sales funnel when searching for that keyword or phrase.

The top-of-the-funnel often sends larger traffic levels with a lower intent to purchase or convert, whereas the bottom-of-the-funnel typically sends lower traffic volumes with a higher intent. Though you may have less traffic coming through at the bottom-of-the-funnel, the payoff is much higher than if you simply ignored that keyword completely.

Tracking and Refinement

It’s vital that you conduct regular tracking and reporting on progress towards your goals.

Plans can change and the methods you employ to can and might shift halfway through. That's normal, and it's frequently what distinguishes a good plan from a great strategy. 

Checking in on your KPIs at least monthly ensures that you are constantly aware of how near you are to meeting your objectives, that you can communicate updates with other stakeholders and that you have confidence that things are heading in the right direction and that your SEO Keyword Strategy is set up for success.

---

Want a killer SEO Keyword Strategy that can supercharge your business, along with persuasive content that sells and converts more often? Talk to me!

Freelancers, do you feel guilty asking for overdue payments? (Flying Solo)

One of the bestselling self-help books of all time is When I Say No, I Feel Guilty by Manuel J. Smith. It helps soothe anxieties around “people pleasing” and encourages healthy boundary setting.

Above all, it teaches people who feel bad saying “no” to people in fear of being disliked.

However, as freelancers, we hear “no” a lot. We pitch clients, call up leads, and all but get ready to pounce on new work until we hear a “thanks but no thanks”, a “not right now”, or the good ol’ “we’ll keep you in mind for future projects.”

How do we feel when we ask for what we’re entitled to, though?

I’m talking of course, about that all-too-persistent dread: overdue invoices.

I know many of us – me included – feel a gut punch of nervousness insisting that delinquent clients make me whole. I am definitely not alone.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

The Power of Professional Copywriting Services for Australian Businesses

Though business comes and goes in cycles, the power of marketing can’t be understated. Digital marketing opens up new avenues for Australian businesses to reach more people and sell their brand not only here, but overseas as well. As part of any digital marketing strategy, a copywriter should be part of your arsenal of persuasion. So why should an Australian business invest in professional copywriting services? What are the advantages of having an Australian copywriter on call or on retainer?

Why Invest in Professional Copywriting Services?

What you say is how you sell. Investing in professional copywriting services is an investment in your overall marketing and communications strategy. Copywriting services can help your business craft a strategy around digital marketing – every piece of content you post will need some kind of copy to help promote your business or sell your product or service.

Greater reach inevitably leads to higher sales volumes or inquiries. These profits can be re-invested into marketing and copywriting to spur on even more growth down the line.

Crafting SEO-Optimised Copy for Better Organic Visibility

Did all those words sound like they meant something? If you aren’t a copywriter or work in digital marketing, they can feel a bit confusing. In simple terms, SEO refers to Search Engine Optimisation. This is the art and science of writing copy or text on websites so search engines (Google for the most part) will rank your page higher than other competing pages with similar or identical information. Google displays pages on their Search Engine Results Page (SERP) in order of relevance. The higher your webpage ranks on the SERP for a chosen keyword, the more likely it will be clicked on.

According to a study of 80 million keywords and billions of searches by Search Engine Journal in 2020, 28.5% of clicks go to the organic (non-paid) result in the 1st position. It’s diminishing returns after that: 2nd gets 15.7%, while 3rd gets 11%. 10th spot gets about 2.5% of the clicks on average.

SEO is an investment in increasing this organic visibility by helping your site and pages climb up SERPs for chosen keywords. This is a long-term strategy for growth, as it decreases reliance on Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and builds your authority as an authoritative and trustworthy source for information on that keyword – and in sales, this is worth its weight in gold.

Leveraging Persuasive Writing Techniques to Drive Conversions

If you’ve ever read SEO copy, it often sounds like text written by robots for other robots. Sometimes keywords will be “stuffed” into places that make even the most grammatically nonchalant wince. From that perspective, it’s done its job: you clicked on the top link, after all. But here’s where it falls apart in terms of conversions. The copy just doesn’t convince anyone to put their faith in your brand. Something drives them away.

SEO leads the horse to water; but persuasive writing on the page gets it to drink.

Copywriting is about balancing on-page SEO as well as using persuasive techniques to get people to perform an action (I write about calls to action in my blog about email marketing here.) It may be to buy a product, sign up for a service, or simply hand over an email address for a mailing list. These techniques may be straight-forward calls to action (Buy Now, While Stocks Last!) or thematic (appeals to reason, appeals to the hip-pocket, etc.)

Australian businesses need copywriters to help them leverage persuasion as part of their communications in order to drive sales and inquiries. This should be the prime motivator in your marketing – the art of the sale. However, without tailoring it to local audiences, it can quickly go awry.

Tailoring Your Copy to Australian Business Needs

If you have ever taken a trip abroad – or perhaps lived abroad – you will quickly notice how culture affects a business’ sales approach. When I lived in Atlanta, Georgia it was not uncommon for salespeople, even in shoe stores, to push products on me when I hadn’t asked for them. Once, when I was at the mall having a browse at one such shoe shop, an enterprising young sales associate noticed I was wearing Converse Chuck Taylors.

A pair of my beloved red Chuck Taylors.

I’d barely crossed the threshold of the entrance and he immediately rushed toward me. He knelt down and started buffing my white toe tips with a special polishing product. Before I could tell him to stop, he was rattling off all these benefits, ending the encounter by telling me his name (presumably so he could get a commission.)

This behaviour would be unthinkable in Australian shops.

Australian business needs are different from overseas needs, which means overseas copywriters that aren’t immersed in our culture will find it difficult to replicate or cater to our approach. The “hard sell” is often seen as sketchy or “suss” (we had purchase over that word before Among Us, thank you!)

Copywriting services in Australia require a flexibility and versatility of prose to tailor certain tones of voice and style to their audiences. Corporate businesses will use highly abstract and academic style language, while small businesses may use more persuasive or colloquial language – good Aussie copywriters can deftly sprinkle in some Aussie vernacular as well.

If your copy reads as if it was written by a foreigner, it will come across as inauthentic – which can lead to high bounce rates and poor conversions, even if your SEO is on point. (I mean, ridgy-didge.)

Choosing the Right Copywriting Service Provider

Not all copywriters are created equal – some are more creative while others are more technical (read my post about the differences between them here.) You should choose a copywriter that can understand your business and effectively sell the idea and the tangible result to as many potential customers as possible. They need to connect you to your audience and help clarify your message. Your business may want to choose a copywriter with a particular niche; though hiring generalists (such as myself) may open the door for new and creative opportunities for marketing that your competitors may not have thought of before, differentiating yourself from the pack.

Ultimately, they need to be a part of your team and need to gel with your overall business methods and processes. Unfortunately, not every copywriter will be a good fit; nor will every copywriter want to work with your company for any number of reasons. Make sure to research different copywriters and get to know them as if they were a potential employee; you could build a fruitful partnership that lasts decades!

A copywriter who knows their SEO stuff, is persuasive to a fault, and works well with your company can unleash a wave of powerful marketing on your potential customers!

---

Leverage the power of an award-winning Australian SEO copywriter at I Sell Words! Contact me below and let’s get started!

---

Taking care of business: Insider tips for musicians (Flying Solo)

Australia has no shortage of solo musical talent: Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Peter Andre (hey, he still counts!) … However, as we groove along and tap our feet to their sublime sounds, we also have to realise that these are musos living off their craft; in the same way an accountant, copywriter or graphic designer lives off theirs.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

How To Write Effective Marketing Emails

Aren’t you glad that EOFY (End of Financial Year) is over?

If emails were water during the last two weeks of June, we’d all have drowned. Your inbox was likely crammed with emails from brands you forgot even existed (or bought from.) It’s quite likely you sent about 80% of them to the trash folder - but what about those 20% that made you click on them?

According to Campaign Monitor, the average open rate for an email in 2021 was 21.5% with a click-through rate of about 2.3%. That means for every 1,000 people you send your email to, 215 will open it and 23 people will click the link you intend them to after opening. Ouch.

Of course, these metrics are skewed by modern email clients such as Outlook, Mail for Mac, and Thunderbird (the OG) blocking certain trackers. But the results are reliable enough for 81% of small to medium businesses in the US to rely upon electronic direct mail (EDM) as their primary customer acquisition channel.

So what is email marketing, and how do you write emails that are more effective?

What is Email Marketing?

Though it may seem too obvious to even mention, email marketing is marketing your business via email. (Shocker, I know.) However, some marketing strategies around email may vary. Just because a prospective customer has signed up to an email list does not mean they are a guaranteed future customer.

Email marketing may directly sell a product or service; provide information about a product or service to convince the reader to buy in the future; or use other systems to dynamically target emails pulled from other metrics - say, a customer your website analytics has identified as browsing for Size 11 sneakers could fire off an automated email when Size 11 sneakers are on sale.

It could also be purely informational, like a newsletter. Newsletters often presents audiences with new blog posts or video updates on a topic of interest (with some cheeky product placements in the bottom half of the newsletter.)

Email marketing isn’t just one way: it also asks for feedback and opinions from customers to improve their services further. This is called “direct response” marketing and is geared toward eliciting a reply from the reader.

Email marketing is also part of your overall communications strategy. Brand stuff up from time to time and using your email list as part of crisis communications is a tried and tested strategy to allay fears, concerns, and righteous customer anger.

With all that said, is there a secret sauce to getting high open rates and click rates? There is, and you’ll read about it in the next paragraph.

Verbs Power Writing, Ergo, Emails Too

One aspect of writing that’s drilled out of writers who decide to (shudder) enter academia, is the use of verbs to power writing. Verbs or action words are the engine that makes a beefy muscle car blur past, belch smoke, and screech to a halt. That’s just one example among many.

Journalist and author Constance Hale in her brilliant Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch which all about the humble yet mighty verb, says that using active verbs make all the difference, no matter which medium or audience you choose. If you want someone to do something, you have to outright ask them.

That’s where the rather mythopoetic “Call To Action” comes from - 99% of the time, it’s some kind of active verb willing you to click here, download now, contact me. This works equally well as subject lines and inside the body copy of your eDM.

AI can also write these for you - if you’re careful. I’ve come to realise AI is not a replacement for a skill, just an augmentation of skills you already have.

If you’re creative, you can write CTAs without verbs. This might appear as a “pattern interrupt” - something that is so out-of-left field it stops you in your tracks. (Like seeing a baby when you’re upset and calming down - more on that in a future blog post.)

This may come in the form as “Have you seen this yet?” or “You won’t want to miss out on this.” In fact, I do it all the time. By doing it, I often beat the open rates for my industry (20.9%).

Hear that? It’s me, tooting my own horn.

Those funny little strings at the end of the email bring us to our next point - email marketing is meant to be personal.

As Personal As a Letter and Television, [FIRST NAME HERE]

The essence of good email marketing is to make it seem personal, as if you’re only writing to that one recipient. Just like a good story, it requires a bit of suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader; but all good writing should do that anyway (in my opinion.)

Being personal means using a more conversational style and friendlier tone than usual.

Segmentation is one way of targeting people on a more personal level, separating people by common interest, demographic similarity, geolocation, past open rate, retargeting, and other metrics. Capturing their first name and using it to address them directly (again, guilty as charged) can also be a game-changer when it comes to gaining higher open rates.

This is also backed up by research from Hubspot, who found that the most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns are subscriber segmentation (78%), message personalisation (72%), and email automation campaigns (71%).

Automation can also be personal, even if it is just an AI spitting out strings according to an algorithm. Many successful brands might use automation in dealing with customer queries, elevating it to a human if the user can’t find a ready solution the first time around. You’ve probably dealt with it before without even knowing.

Much like good pop songs, good email copy always addresses the reader in the second-personal pronoun - you. “You’re going to love this” or “You could be basking in the Ibizan sun this Winter, [NAME]!” That’s because emails are about pleasing one reader - or at least, they want to appear as such.

Great Artists Steal

If I was going to sit here and say I come up with absolutely everything myself, I would be lying. So I won’t.

If you are stuck for inspiration, there’s no shortage of it on the web. I subscribe to a newsletter all about great examples of email marketing called Really Good Emails. It not only covers copy, but design, video, and other aspects to tweak your email marketing.

Of course, when you are stealing, make it your own. Don’t just crib someone else’s homework and put your name on it. Authenticity is king no matter what industry you’re in - so make sure you’re putting your own unique spin on things. It could very well enhance your email marketing game.

With all that said, you can sign up for my newsletter below!

---

Beware corporate cringe: Is that ‘quirky’ job title really as cool as you think? (Flying Solo)

Remember job hunting? I sure try not to. But, when we used to, we may have come across a puzzling ad for a job that seemed bizarre and whimsical.

If you’ve ever worked in a white-collar professional setting, you have likely come across strange job callouts for ‘word wizards’, ‘marketing ninjas’ or ‘accounting rockstars’. You may understand the words, but they make almost zero sense together.

If so, you’ve encountered something called ‘corporate cringe’ – an attempt for corporates, usually startups staffed by a younger demographic, to appear ‘hip’ and ‘with it’ (disclaimer: I am none of these things.)

Even as a (gasp!) millennial myself, I can’t help but wince when I chance upon these – doubly so as a copywriter who prides himself on being clear in his communication. As the great theorist Ernst von Glasersfeld once said, “you can’t not communicate” – so what are these companies trying to say, and what kind of talent are they aiming to attract? If you’re a small business or startup doing the same … why?

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

Should You Cut Back On Marketing During a Recession?

Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and General Motors. Huge companies that have been around for a long time - in the case of GM, over 120 years - but what do they have in common?

They all sprung into life during a recession or depression. They were so successful, the chances of you using at least one of the products those companies make while reading this is almost even money.

With inflation still rampant, interest rates rising, and electricity bills set to soar by at least 25% after the 1st of July, Australia is staring down the barrel of a recession - the standard definition being two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. So what does that mean for us as business owners?

Our first impulse is to cut costs across the board. Where the axe lands, that’s for the almighty to know.

However, planning to cut back needs to be a surgical strike on certain wasteful expenses, not an all out war on your profit and loss statement. Many businesses think that cutting their marketing - usually an outsourced “expense” - is a good idea during a recession. Is it, though?

With SEO copywriting being a vital plank of digital marketing, can we copywriters not only survive, but thrive in unfavourable business cycles thanks to keeping our marketing up too?

Cutting Back on Expenses During a Recession

40% of American businesses surveyed here said they would cut back on their expenses during a recession.

This makes sense from a household budget perspective - but a household is not a business. If you cut a Netflix subscription, it means no more binge watching Stranger Things. If a business excises its Zapier subscription, it means previously automated tasks need someone to complete them manually.

Value in a business isn’t always measured in profit and loss statements to begin with - but it will come back to haunt you eventually in terms of slower cash flow, which can often lead to a death spiral where more cash goes out than comes in. According to ASIC, about 20% of businesses that went insolvent during 2018-2019 was down to poor cash flow management or high cash use.

Though many companies see marketing and communication as a third prosthetic limb they can take on and off at will, it’s essential to maintain that “third arm” for keeping your current customers on side and potentially reaching new clients. According to WordStream, repeat customers are a 65% chance of conversion, while new customers are a 13% chance.

Besides, how cool would it be to have a third arm?

Case Studies in Recession Marketing

Almost every study conducted into marketing during a recession shows one outcome - businesses that maintained or increased their marketing usually did way better than their counterparts who cut back.

Buchen Advertising discovered that companies that cut advertising during the 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961 recessions fared poorly compared to businesses that did the opposite.

The International Journal of Research in Marketing paper ‘Turning adversity into advantage: Does proactive marketing during a recession pay off?’ noted that “firms that have a proactive marketing response in a recession achieve superior business performance even during the recession.” Companies can shore up their position with some strategic, entrepreneurial marketing.

For example, during the 1990–1991 recession to improve their position, microprocessor giant Intel launched its “Intel Inside” brand-building program, aggressively promoting the brand when there was little advertising competition.

During the 2008 financial crisis, analysis by Kantar Millward Brown found that 60% of the brands that stopped all TV ad spend for six months saw their brand use decrease 24%, and brand image decrease 28%.

McGraw-Hill’s oft-cited study into the marketing habits of 600 B2B companies during the early 1980s recession showed that brands who invested in better marketing and advertising grew 275% more than those that didn’t.

The most recent example is home short-stay rental’s darling AirBnB and how they fared during the pandemic. They cut almost all their ad spend during the COVID-19 pandemic, where many jurisdictions were locked down by their governments in response. Competitor VRBO outspent AirBnB ten to one during that initial 2020 global lockdown period and saw their bookings recover by 61%, while AirBnB’s slumped by 15%.

Though we may want to tighten the belt during a recession, we really ought to be grabbing a megaphone.

Why keeping professional marketing and copywriting is important

If you use an amateur you’ll get an amateur result. Keeping on your professional digital marketing or copywriting specialists means a consistent tone of voice, branding, and audience engagement.

As information analysts and resources, they can help you identify strategies that will return on your investment more than simply “pouring more money” into PPC or social media ads. They’ll be at the forefront of new channels, techniques, and messages that cut through to people during a recession. They can explore new keywords to target or niches to penetrate. Their creativity is a value-add that you can leverage at almost every level of your business.

Outsourcing your marketing - or bookkeeping, or administration - means concentrating more on your core business and delivering more value to your customers, whether you’re a B2B or B2C business. Everyone needs their dollar to stretch further. Figuring out how to do that with what you have is a big boon for business once the recession passes.

Further, copywriters and marketers are natural networkers. They have their ear to the ground when it comes to new trends, grants, and other opportunities that could come your way.

working with your marketing or copywriting team

Though you may be fretting that dreaded phone call to tell your faithful marketing or copywriting firm “your services are no longer required” it’s better you work with us rather than cutting us off altogether.

Though you may have ordered a blog post every week, it’s unwise to just “stop.” Tapering that back to once a fortnight or month means your SEO won’t stand still compared with the competition who is still investing in their digital marketing - if you stop, they can and will overtake you.

You may want to invest in content at scale using AI while your copywriter edits it using their skills in Artificial Intelligence Optimisation. Even if copywriters become “obsolete”, there are still some opportunities left out there for us!

If you stop advertising or content marketing until you “ride out the storm,” playing catch up may end up costing far more.

Oh, and you know we’re a GST deduction, right?

So, should you cut back on marketing during a recession? I think the evidence speaks for itself.

---

Get ahead of your competition and invest in award-winning, cut-through copywriting and marketing with I Sell Words!

---

Volunteering your expertise: Good for the soul, great for business (Flying Solo)

If you’ve been around the soloist traps long enough to forget the dark times of working for (shudder) an employer!!! – it’s even odds you’ve heard the phrase “givers gain”. That is, doing right by your customers, going the extra mile, and giving away your time to good causes means you gain something far greater in return.

I don’t have to tell you we’re soloists because we know our worth and we’re good – damn good – at what we do. That self-belief and determination to strike out on our own leads to better and brighter things. It’s also the same reason why some of us, when witnessing an injustice, something broken, or someone who needs a lift up, do something about it.

Though we may have heard about the big corporate charities and organisations such as Oxfam, World Vision, or Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), smaller charities and not-for-profits that labour on part-time and run on the ‘smell of an oily rag’ don’t just need money to survive – they need skilled people to help.

That’s where soloists can shine.

Read the article at Flying Solo.

The State of Digital Marketing in 2023

AI, TikTok…what’s next? Digital marketing seems to be so evolved it barely resembles this time last year. In a new report by Hubspot has taken a snapshot of the state of digital marketing in 2023. We all know about the advent of artificial intelligence - but is it all its cracked up to be? Is short-form video still effective? Will budgets increase or decrease in 2023 and 2024?

Drawing on other trends and sources on digital marketing, let’s have a deep dive into the State of Digital Marketing in 2023.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

According to Hubspot’s report, the average marketer works on five campaigns at a time, and a total of seven campaigns per quarter. Using AI to automate certain processes makes business sense to gain more productivity with less time spent on admin and busywork. Tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and DALL-E are proving to be useful in generating ideas, creating templates, and churning out content at scale. However, the time savings may be offset by the limitations of GPTs which are prone to repetition, “hallucination”, and limited in scope.

First Party Data

Notice how “big data” died suddenly and without warning? With Apple and Google both tackling the problem of terrible user privacy with new features that restrict the tracking of data from third-parties via cookies - and users taking matters into their own hands with AdBlockers and the like - gathering first-party data will be the boon for marketers wishing to personalise and target content to their audiences. 86% of marketers told Hubspot that that data privacy changes have impacted their overall marketing strategy over 2022. Giving users control over their data by opting in to newsletters, shopping accounts, and other data capture methods such as surveys, yields a sense of trust and an opportunity to create value in the often hidden transaction of harvesting user data.

The Rise of the Short Video

Instagram Reels is just YouTube Shorts for people who don’t like TikTok. Whatever the platform may be, short form videos are reigning supreme for marketing in 2023. (Especially the tarted up AliExpress tat hawked by people in sweatpants - but that’s a discussion for another time.) 21% of marketers are going to be investing in short form video, and ad revenue from the format is set to surpass $10 billion (USD) according to Woosuite. Research by Wyzowl shows that 91% of businesses are using video and 73% of consumers prefer to watch a short-form video to learn about a potential purchase. 90% of those businesses that are using video has helped them generate leads.

Mobile Friendly Design

According to SimilarWeb, 57.36% of Australian web traffic is consumed on mobile; the present and the future of the web will be mobile optimised. That means optimised designs, user experiences, and even instant apps will be in-demand among users - and businesses. Though desktop designs may look great, the chances are your customers are scrolling with their thumb, not their index finger.

Sliding into DMs

“Sliding into DMs” or direct messages over social media was once describing a slick romantic gesture - and businesses want the romance between customers to blossom as they use social media to directly interact with customers by answering questions, handling complaints, and general interaction. Hubspot says 30% of younger (Gen Y and Z) have bought products on social media over the past three months, thanks in part to direct message customer service. Using AI chatbots and other automation can help start the conversation with humans taking over when things get too complicated for the machine to handle.

Authentic, Organic SEO

When downturns occur, people look for authentic, organic content. Not paid advertorial but something they can connect with and feel good about reading. Hubspot says that 7% of businesses will cut their ad spend during recessions and bottom-out business cycles - but that doesn’t mean you should skimp on your organic content that improves your SEO. Though marketers may do this as a business-building exercise, B2B and B2C companies should be thinking of investing in SEO content that isn’t engineered to hard sell, but connect with customers while taking home the added benefit of improved Search Engine Results Pages. That means providing real value for their reader - not so much top of mind, but strong of heart.

---

Ready to leverage the top marketing methods that will keep your business thriving during 2023? Want the best marketing copy to fuel your videos or SEO? Contact me!

---

The fairytale email hack to cut down on phone calls (Flying Solo)

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Solonia, a frazzled artisan threw his hands up into the air. “Every ten seconds I’m interrupted by calls from the Palace,” he said, pacing around his office. “Surely my written missives are sufficient. But no!” he says, thrusting a finger into the air, “They call and call and call.”

He had proclamations from the King and Queen on the wall, reminding him of his good and faithful service, and the treasured sketch of his appointment to the royal court, framed in the finest oak. He sat down with head in hands, about to write another missive – this time to end his association with the court.

As he dipped his quill in ink, the Royal Poet Laureate appeared at the door in white flowing robes. She saw the artisan and inquired to his frustrated state.

“My child, what troubles you?” she said.

Read the rest at Flying Solo.

How Often Should You Blog for SEO?

Blogging: once the province of teenagers with too much time on their hands (hello, LiveJournal) is now the backbone of corporate and business marketing and communication.

Blogging, or adding authoritative and trustworthy content to your website is a time-honoured and proven strategy for increasing your Search Engine Optimisation. Blogs that target keywords can help increase your ranking and drive traffic to your site, theoretically increasing conversions and revenue.

With all that in mind, how often should you blog for SEO purposes?

The advantages of determining your appropriate posting frequency are considerable.

Why Blog for SEO?

Blog entries, first and foremost, help you rank for natural keywords. For your website to receive organic traffic, you need these.

A blog that is regularly updated also raises brand recognition. Your target audience becomes more aware of your web presence, your products, and your services as you post more about your sector.

Your company can gain the community's trust by blogging. Regularly updating and posting pertinent articles about your sector can help you establish credibility with your audience. In contrast to a rival that rarely refreshes their content or publishes blogs, they are more likely to convert on your website.

How often should you blog FOR SEO?

You need to establish a blog post frequency first and foremost. How often can you afford to blog, in terms of time and resources? An ad hoc approach of “when I’m not busy” will lead to exactly zero blogs being written.

A blog post frequency lets you set a baseline for yourself or your content writing staff for more pragmatic reasons. Without a schedule in mind, you can neglect other tasks in favour of creating blog entries all the time. This also applies to teams that are close to one another, such as social media and design, who would significantly benefit from a set frequency so they could order their tasks.

You have an upper and lower limit for blog post frequency, allowing you to concentrate more time and resources on other areas of your company.

Newer websites or start-ups should blog at least once or twice a week to play “catch-up” with their competitors. For established businesses, blogging bi-weekly or monthly may be key. The important factor is to keep adding to your pool of content, as the SEO benefits will emerge over time.

Even a solo writer like me can’t compete with enterprise level communications firms or dedicated blogs that churn out content several times a day – so you have to keep your expectations reasonable and sustainable. Burning yourself out writing blogs all day as an accountant will likely upset your clients due to a lack of attention!

When too many blogs steal your keywords: keyword cannibalisation

With many things in marketing and communication, too much of a good thing can often lead to diminishing returns. Having too many blogs – especially blog posts of equal quality and authority – on the same topic or search term can lead to keyword cannibalisation.

Keyword cannibalisation means that a site has too many pages that are competing against one another, potentially driving away traffic from more important pages, especially ones that are geared towards conversion (e.g., a sales page.)

You should be targeting key phrases and keywords related to your business – just don’t choose the same ones too often!

You can compliment evergreen topics or blogs with new information and timely resources. Just remember to keep on top of new developments to share on your website – because old and outdated information can work against you the staler it gets.

Skyscrapers – the long read blog

Blogs don’t have to be any particular length – though more words are better to convey as much information as possible – but experimenting with the “Skyscraper” or “Hero” blogs once a month can lead to greater SEO dividends than peppering your site with smaller blogs more often.

One client of mine uses this strategy, producing timely and keyword rich skyscrapers of over 1,500 words every month. It not only increases traffic for their chosen keywords, but it also garners considerable media attention and the all-important backlinks from other authoritative sources.

This of course takes time, research, and editing to make it all flow and read well.

The final word on blogging for SEO

The trick is to examine other blogs in your field and assess how frequently they post in relation to their organic keyword distribution. For a hint as to how many posts per month are optimal for your site, search for a strong organic keyword profile that has the largest percentage of industry-relevant page one keywords.

That way, you’ll see significant upticks in your Search Engine Page Results over time!

---

Want to supercharge your blogging output? Get a professional award-winning copywriter to create a blog post frequency that helps your website stand out with superior SEO.

---

Is there a mental health crisis in social media work? (Flying Solo)

Going days without eating. Constant stress and rumination about work. The tightness in one’s chest as your phone buzzes over and over in the wee morning hours; a welling up of guilt as you let it go to voicemail. So much for a job that so many think adds up to ‘scrolling through Facebook all day’. Such is the life of a social media manager or strategist in the modern world.

Read my latest column for Flying Solo here.

How to Choose an Effective SEO Copywriter

Of course, this could be the shortest blog post in the history of this site - Choose me! I’m awesome! End of story.

However, not all SEO Copywriters are the same. Some have particular niches; others are generalists (such as myself.) One may emphasise on-page techniques over off-page optimisation. I am more creative - others are more technical. Learn about the differences between types of copywriters here.

Identifying a suitable SEO content creator or copywriter for your organisation is vital to the success of your digital marketing and content strategy.  It’s important to consider various factors when selecting the ideal SEO copywriter for your business.

Research Their Portfolio

It’s important to research a potential copywriter’s portfolio before hiring them. Check out their past work and see if it aligns with what you need done. You want someone who can provide quality content that will help boost your website’s visibility and attract more customers.

Gaining an insight into their methodology is key when searching for the right SEO copywriter. To make sure you’re on the same wavelength, ask questions about how they approach a project, what kind of results can be expected, if they’ve worked on projects within your industry, and any other important details like turnaround times or keyword optimisation techniques.

Gleaning information from reviews and testimonials can provide insight into the efficacy of a copywriter, allowing you to make an informed decision. Seeing what others have said about them can give insight into how reliable and effective they may be when it comes to producing content for your business needs.

Tailored or Specific Writing Styles

When selecting an SEO copywriter, make sure to read through some samples of their work so that you understand their writing style and determine if it fits with yours or the brand identity that you want portrayed online. A great writer should be able to produce content tailored specifically towards meeting all of your objectives while also staying true to the tone desired by both parties involved in the project (you included).

I Sell Words, for instance, always produces “test pages” to ensure the tone and style of your content suits your brand’s personality and your target market’s expectations.

An experienced SEO copywriter should be able to offer valuable insight into how best to optimise content based on industry trends, keywords used by competitors in similar markets, etc. What's more, it is essential that they understand exactly what success looks like from your perspective; meaning having a clear grasp of both short-term and long-term objectives associated with each piece of content written/produced for the best results across multiple channels (e.g social media platforms).

By following these steps when selecting an copywriter, businesses can ensure they find someone who meets all expectations set forth prior to engagement, ultimately leading up towards successful digital marketing campaigns.

---

To make things easier, why not choose I Sell Words? Award-winning SEO copywriting done right for small, medium, and ASX 200-listed companies.

---

What is Artificial Intelligence Optimisation (AIO) Writing?

There’s a new buzzword/acronym floating around the writing space at the moment, and it’s the “AIO writer” - the Artificial Intelligence Optimisation writer.

Some sites are saying that the advent of the AIO marks the death of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) writer - and at this stage, there is merit to the argument.

What is AIO writing, and will it really kill the SEO writer?

What is AIO Writing?

AIO writing is a bit of a misnomer. AIO writing is more like AI editing - taking the output from an AI text generator and editing it up to make it seem as if a human wrote the piece itself.

The business model is to have an AI write a blog or webpage in mere minutes, have a human AIO specialist massage the content so it bypasses any potential AI-detection algorithm (the kind that can scuttle your hard won SEO) and appears as if a human wrote the entire thing itself.

HOW AIO WORKS, IN THEORY

If you are an SEO content writer, the usual process is to write an article that caters to a certain search term, keyword, or keyphrase.

The aim of this is to provide expert-level, authoritative and trustworthy content so it ranks higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for a user query. The higher the ranking, the more likely it will be clicked on, resulting in more traffic for the site. For business or commercial sites, this forms a crucial part of their digital marketing.

Instead of an SEO writer writing the content from scratch, the initial ‘draft’ would be generated by an AI algorithm. This can take minutes instead of the hours in which a human would usually complete a draft.

As discussed in a previous blog, “ripping and posting” AI content can potentially harm your SEO efforts. An AIO writer (or editor) would “massage” the AI content so it has the superficial appearance of “experience” - the Google PageRank metric that AI struggles to replicate in its writing.

The AIO writer could also edit the work so it has a consistent tone of voice, is free of glaring copy errors, and/or factual inaccuracies.

However, it could be argued, that any veteran SEO writer would not need to edit their own work to a significant degree. In the three hours an AIO writer shapes a 2,500 word AI-generated article so it’s worthy of PageRank and human eyes, a deft writer could have written the article itself with the editing process resembling proofreading (fixing grammatical or spelling mistakes) instead of substantive copyediting (making stylistic or editorial changes to the piece, e.g., removing entire sections.)

A human writer could also have made critical decisions when it comes to linking to other authoritative sources, instead of shoehorning them in after the fact.

The POTENTIAL Limitations of AIO

It would seem that my job is caught up in a “rapidly developing, uncontrollable technological system” as the thinker Jacques Ellul would say.

However, the fact I just (rather shamelessly) name-dropped an obscure technological thinker from the late 20th Century also shows the limitation of AIO writers. If they are mere editors, over a long-enough timeline, all AIO writing will sound, feel, and read the same.

AIO writing as a bonafide “profession” may also be a flash in the pan. Google and other closed-source detection algorithms may become so sophisticated they will ferret out AIO content from the “real thing” and end up penalising “cheaters” who take the easy way out.

Ellul said “every problem generates a technological solution; computers breed ever larger, more fragile, and vulnerable systems. But the solutions raise more and greater problems than they solve.” His disciple, the incomparable media ecologist Neil Postman went further: “like all important technologies of the past, they are Faustian bargains, giving and taking away, sometimes in equal measure, sometimes more in one way than the other.”

Like the smartphone revolution in 2007, it “solved” many problems by combining many different technologies into one device. It also had unintended consequences. Mental health problems, addiction, and cyberbullying are now rampant problems caused (at least to a significant degree) by smartphones and “always-on” social media.

The academic Evegeny Morozov in his landmark To Save Everything, Click Here, argues that technology can often be an improvement, and is not necessarily revolutionary in and of itself. Even the once “revolutionary” streaming service Netflix has lost more than one million subscribers.

There is a tendency to view any mass-adopted technology as truly game-changing. I even wrote in a journal article (2011) that businesses don’t use computers because they’re handy; you literally cannot run a business without one and a connection to the World Wide Web. Is AIO in the same category? Would this level of introspection even be possible for AI? Or is that not what we want?

I mean, you can travel by horseback these days, but why would you?

That said, I still wear mechanical watches when many of my friends wear Apple Watches. What does that make me?

---

Get your premium human-written content here at I Sell Words! No computers harmed in the making of any articles!

---

Should AI Write Your Content For You? (Answered By An AI)

I used the dialogue artificial intelligence ChatGPT to respond to questions about AI writing content. Here is the unedited response:

Should businesses use AI to write their content for them?

It depends on the specific use case and the type of content being produced. AI can be used to generate certain types of content, such as product descriptions or news articles, but it may not be appropriate for all types of content, such as creative writing or content that requires a high degree of industry expertise. Additionally, it is important for businesses to consider the ethical implications of using AI to generate content, as well as the potential for errors or inaccuracies in the generated content. Ultimately, businesses should weigh the benefits and drawbacks of using AI to generate content and determine whether it is the best approach for their specific needs.

Should a business use AI to write blog posts for them? Are there any potential drawbacks?

A business may choose to use AI to write blog posts for them, but it is important to consider the potential drawbacks. One potential drawback is that the AI-generated content may not be as high-quality or unique as content written by a human. The AI-generated content may also lack the personal touch and human connection that many readers look for in a blog post. Additionally, there may be ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI to generate content, particularly if the content is being used to influence or persuade readers.

Another potential drawback is that the AI-generated content may not be able to capture the nuances, tone and style of the company, which can make the blog post look less professional and less engaging.

It's also important to consider that AI-generated content can be less creative and less engaging than human-generated content, which may lead to lower engagement, fewer shares, and less ROI.

In summary, while AI-generated content can be useful for certain types of content, such as product descriptions or news articles, it may not be the best approach for a blog post, as it may lack the high-quality, unique, personal touch and engagement that many readers look for. Businesses should weigh the benefits and drawbacks of using AI to generate blog post content and determine whether it is the best approach for their specific needs.

As a human copywriter, should I be afraid that AI will take my job?

As an AI, I do not have the ability to predict the future and can't say for certain whether or not AI will take your job as a human copywriter. However, it is important to understand that AI has the potential to automate certain types of writing tasks, such as product descriptions or news articles. However, it is likely that AI will not be able to completely replace human copywriters in the near future, particularly for tasks that require creativity, emotional intelligence, and a high level of industry expertise.

Many experts believe that AI will augment human work rather than replacing it. AI can help copywriters to improve their productivity, efficiency, and quality of work. For example, AI can assist with research, data analysis, and even with the generation of ideas and headlines.

Additionally, human copywriters have the ability to understand the nuances and subtleties of language, as well as the ability to connect with audiences on an emotional level, which is something that AI currently lacks.

Therefore, it is important for you to stay informed about the capabilities of AI and to adapt and evolve your skills to stay relevant in the field. It's also important to focus on your unique strengths, such as creativity, storytelling, empathy, and personal touch, which are not easily replicable by AI.

Will Artificial Intelligence Change SEO Copywriting?

If you haven’t taken the AI natural-language dialogue engine ChatGPT for a spin, you definitely should.

It’s astounding how it can take a normal query and reply in a structured, easy-to-understand, and if you didn’t know any better, thoughtful way.

Friends and colleagues have been sending me links to ChatGPT, fearing that this will kill off my livelihood. As an SEO copywriter, at least on the surface, it can produce articles in minutes for cents while it takes me hours and hundreds of dollars of investment later.

With that scary thought in mind, should I learn how to code these machines instead of competing against them?

The written word by a scribe’s hand has been around for tens of thousands of years; we aren’t extinct just yet.

The Limitations of AI-written copy

The irony of logging into ChatGPT is the reCAPTCHA asking if you aren’t a robot. AI cannot access itself, it would seem.

I asked it “How do I optimise my content for Google?” - and it returned a pretty decent list of best-practice SEO techniques. Use H1, H2, etc. headings, use internal and external links, upload sitemaps, conduct keyword research. Couldn’t fault it there.

Then I asked it something more subjective - something that required real-world experience to answer.

“Who's the better Starfleet captain, Picard or Sisko?” If you don’t speak nerd, this is the eternal debate as to whether who is the better fictional starship commander - Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D or Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine and the Defiant in the iconic Star Trek spinoffs.

Here’s where things got interesting; or from my perspective, quite boring.

Its opening line was this:

It's difficult to say definitively who the better Starfleet captain is between Jean-Luc Picard and Benjamin Sisko, as it ultimately comes down to personal preference.

That’s not what I asked, ChatGPT. I asked who is better.

It rattled off, in natural-language, how Picard was a level-headed, intellectually curious, and stoic diplomat; Sisko by contrast was an impulsive yet decisive warrior who let his emotions guide him more often than not.

That’s all fantastic; but AI will never ever give you a “straight” answer. So who’s better, HAL? I am unable to tell you that, Dave.

If it was attempting to persuade me one way or the other - the essence of sales - it was doing a pretty poor job.

Fortunately for us mere mortal copywriters, Google has seen the inherent flaw in AI copywriting and adjusted its PageRank algorithm, the fundamental programming behind its search engine, to accommodate.

Preempting the rise of AI - Google’s E-E-A-T

Prior to 2018, Google’s quality index rated pages in terms of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). If a page could demonstrate more of these attributes compared to others, it would rank higher in Search Engine Page Results (SERPs).

In August of 2018, Google added another metric to the ranking system: Experience. (E-E-A-T.)

Google is essentially asking if the writer behind the content has accumulated actual, real-world experience on their chosen topic. Have they actually made Gramma’s Sausage Gravy & Biscuits? Have they actually stood underneath and witnessed the grandeur of the Sistine Chapel? Have they binge watched Star Trek: The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine to truly evaluate whether Picard or Sisko is the better captain?

An AI could have high levels of Expertise (they have the entire internet at their disposal), and in turn Authoritativeness or Trustworthiness owing to prior social proof, high traffic, or user ratings on a particular site.

However, if this high E-A-T site begins churning content written by a machine lacking Experience, their ranking will be soon be diminished in comparison to a site that has a real human that has actually done all the things it’s writing about.

Expertise is also a subjective measure - just because I changed my oil on my car, does that make me a motor mechanic? Hardly. How do I stack up against Star Trek nerds who saw the first television run in 1966 and stuck with it ever since? At the end of the day, it’s for the reading public to decide.

Training and formal education can go a long way to establish credibility as a subject matter expert or influencer - but I can’t sit here and say that I learned everything there is to know about copywriting by attending university. That took independent research, trial and error, informal learning, and practice.

AI copywriting is cheap and fast, but never good

If you’re a business and you’re thinking that SEO copywriting “costs too much” we now have something that can do it for free. But should you use it?

Remember the triangle of value: good, cheap, and fast - you only ever get to pick two.

AI copywriting seems to pick “cheap and fast” each time, every time. That doesn’t bode well if you have high search engine ranking aspirations in the short-term or long-term. AI will always be one step behind human minds doing real and original research.

The Hungarian scholar and author Arthur Koestler once remarked, “true creativity often starts where language ends.” For AI, there is no end to language. It can only regurgitate or synthesise what we feed it.

For now, pioneers will always be flesh and blood; and machines will be playing second fiddle.

SPOILER (RED) ALERT

To me, Sisko is clearly the better captain.

---

Get your own human-written and award-winning copywriting for your business right here at I Sell Words!

How Will Copywriting Change In 2023?

In the 1990s, the internet (or just “Internet”) was referred to as the information superhighway. Many on-ramps and off-ramps taking you where you want to go from point A to point B. After the smartphone revolution in 2007, the World Wide Web resembled less a highway and more of a vending machine - content was now on demand, curated by algorithm, stopping and starting at the whim of the user.

Copywriting was once the province of “Mad Men” who wrote pithy, predictable, and gimmicky headlines.

For the most part, they were effective.

Now, headlines are boring in comparison to other forms of content. Text is competing against short videos on TikTok, pictures on Instagram, and podcasts on Spotify. Not only that, but endless streams of them, all the time.

Your business isn’t competing against other businesses, it’s competing for attention. This is the crucial distinction between doing copywriting the old way and doing it the new way in 2023.

COPYWRITING From New Media To The Norm

Let’s assume the “snappy headline” is no longer relevant since the competition is just too fierce and compelling. What must you do right away? Your content and copywriting should convey the value of your product or service in a way that is educational, insightful, and interesting.

If you can't connect with your audience, you won't be successful since they'll go on to the next exciting thing. These constant bursts of content releases dopamine chemicals into people's brains to maintain their bio-transmitter levels and hold their attention.

Former Facebook engineers have since admitted their medium was built around “continuous partial attention,” as Justin Rosenstein. inventor of the ‘like’ button, told the The Guardian.

If you can't convince potential customers to remain, you lose them. However, you need to know how to maintain consumer interest throughout the entire transaction. You must establish a compelling value proposition, a compelling story, and a reason for people to care if you want to do it well.

The curiosity Factor in copywriting

Curiosity is always the call for attention. One of the most famous examples in narrative storytelling instills a burning curiosity that leaves even five-year olds spellbound: a flickering, repeating hologram of a woman saying, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”

Who is that? Who is Obi-Wan? What kind of help? Why is he her only hope?

We are inherently and naturally highly interested as humans.

You can hold someone’s interest for a while if you tell them something intriguing and engaging without immediately providing the solution.

In the end, we want people to understand that we have something that can benefit them, and that is what we as copywriters are trying to convey to them with this interest. People need our help. Someone's time is wasted if your product or service doesn't genuinely provide something of value. They'll be irate if they spend five seconds or five hours with you if you don’t give them anything truly valuable.

The last thing you need is a disgruntled customer since they won't do business with you again. It cannot be overstated how little time you have to capture and hold someone's attention in the present environment with all of your competitors. It follows that your headline, hook, and entrance point into that person's world has to be intriguing otherwise it’s a flick of the thumb and on to something else.

Creating The Compelling Narrative

The first part is giving someone a reason to be interested in what you have to say - which is how you sell. Motivation is what drives characters in narrative fiction, and it’s what drives humans to do pretty much everything. In business, the motivation may be the profit motive. In Law and Order: SVU, the motivation might be something more sinister.

Then, comes Information. Information that a target audience can actually use. Not just “five tips” that have been recycled ad nauseam, but information that is the entry point into a grander and more compelling narrative.

Once Luke takes R2D2 to Obi-Wan, he learns that Princess Leia is seeking the old man’s help after a failed diplomatic mission to Alderaan. We enter the world of the dastardly Galactic Empire, swashbuckling Jedi, scheming bounty hunters, and an entire galaxy of creatures. Will the Rebel Alliance prevail? Every scene in Star Wars ended on an old serial style cliffhanger by design - we all couldn’t wait to see what the next scene had in store.

By sharing a little of your experience or explaining why you might be able to relate to their suffering, you are also connecting with them. And the world's top start-ups and businesses are built on the principle of relieving someone else's suffering or making a difficult task simpler.

Heeding The Call To Action

The next step is to give the customer a Call to Action. These can range from asking customers to follow your channel or to look at the free report or case study at the bottom of an email. It could ask someone to begin a risk-free trial. It may be to purchase a product or sign up for a free consultation. Giving consumers the next step in the process of becoming and keeping a client is the ultimate destination on this journey.

The more value you can provide people, the more trust they will develop in you. The more examples you can provide of the job you can really execute, the more probable it is that they will become your clients or customers.

Always conclude with a strong call to action, and be extremely precise about what you want them to do.

Like in this instance, I want you to sign up to my newsletter. The form is below!