How to Learn Copywriting

Ever thought that you’d love to learn copywriting? Either to work as one or to escalate your marketing career, or to become the best business owner you can.  You don’t have to be a natural writer or creative to learn copywriting. Although it certainly helps and gives you a headstart. But I believe anyone can learn to be a decent copywriter, as there are formulas and techniques that anyone can learn.  Learning copywriting can be a great way to improve your ability to communicate effectively and persuade others to take action. Whether that’s for marketing, sales or just for fun. Who should learn copywriting? Copywriting can be a valuable skill for a variety of individuals, including: Basically, anyone can benefit from learning copywriting skills, whether they are marketing professionals, freelance writers, business owners, entrepreneurs, or anyone who wants to improve their writing skills. But I always recommend that anyone learn the basics to help boost their business activities.  Here are some steps you can take to learn to copywrite: By combining these methods, you can gain a well-rounded understanding of copywriting and improve your skills over time. Remember, like any skill, copywriting takes time and practice to master, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. Keep practising and learning, and you’ll see improvement over time. Can anyone learn copywriting? Yes, anyone can learn copywriting! Copywriting is a skill that can be learned with practice and dedication. While some people may have a natural talent for writing or persuasion, anyone can develop their copywriting skills with time and effort. One of the great things about copywriting is that it doesn’t require any formal education or certification. There are no specific educational requirements for becoming a copywriter, and many successful copywriters have backgrounds in fields as diverse as marketing, journalism, and creative writing. I have an Advanced Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing which helped me understand the basics of writing, but most of my copywriting knowledge I have learnt on the job.  To become a successful copywriter, you need to have a good understanding of your target audience, as well as the principles of marketing and persuasive writing. You also need to be willing to practice your writing and continuously improve your skills. So, while some people may be more naturally gifted at copywriting than others, anyone can learn the fundamentals and develop the skills necessary to become an effective copywriter. With practice and dedication, anyone can become a successful copywriter. Writing everyday is one of the best ways you can learn copywriting I firmly believe that writing every day is one of the best ways to learn copywriting. Writing is a skill that requires practice, and the more you write, the better you will become. Just like any skill that you want to get good at, to charge for or be paid for.  When it comes to copywriting, writing every day can help you develop your writing style, improve your ability to persuade others, and refine your messaging. Writing every day can also help you develop a routine and establish good writing habits, which are essential for anyone who wants to become a successful copywriter. When you write every day, you also have the opportunity to experiment with different types of copywriting, such as sales letters, email campaigns, and social media posts. This experimentation can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a copywriter and give you a better understanding of which types of copywriting you enjoy and excel at. It’s also essential to get feedback on your writing. You can ask friends, family members, or colleagues to review your writing and provide constructive feedback. This feedback can help you identify areas where you can improve and provide you with new ideas for your copywriting. Take my in-depth online copywriting course to learn to write an exceptional blog post.

Copywriting Tips for the Wellness Industry

The wellness industry is expected to reach a value of US $4.24 billion by 2026 in the United States. Whether you own a yoga studio or are a massage therapist, or sell oracle cards or self-development books, you need to stand out in this crowded marketplace if you want to catch the right people. Not just capture the right people’s attention but at the right time for them, since wellness is often a fluctuating and personal journey. There may be a specific timeframe when they require your services – perhaps they are experiencing a nasty breakup or find themselves with low energy all the time after childbirth. And putting your message and brand right in front of them at the perfect time is key to increasing your sales and customer base.  Even if you’re not a copywriter yourself or you have a copywriting team working for your brand, these copywriting tips are going to help you improve your wellness industry marketing.  Why? Well, because there’s a lot of competition out there. So taking the extra effort to ensure that your copy is up-to-date and high quality will help you stand out from the crowd. What is copywriting? Copywriting refers to writing copy that can be used for advertising purposes. It may include sales letters, website landing pages, blog posts etc., but it usually comprises email newsletters as well.  If you’re wondering how copywriting applies to your business and what exactly we mean by “copy” (or copywriting), here’s a brief definition: Copy (noun) — written text used in marketing and advertising. Even the more “subtle” sales copy, such as informative blog posts or video scripts, are still part of the copywriting toolkit.  It might sound simple enough, but there are many copywriting techniques that you can use to make your copy more practical, such as copywriting formulas and copywriting advice. Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, there are some copywriting tips and tricks that apply to all kinds of people who work in the wellness industry. Tips for copywriters in the wellness industry: Write about other people. Highlight benefits, not features or facts. Make it personal. Now let’s dive into these copywriting tips more. 1. Write about other people Whether you’re working for a company or writing your own blog posts, make sure to include quotes from other people in addition to your own thoughts on the subject. Not only does this help with SEO, but it also makes your content more engaging.  You might like to create case studies from previous clients who have had success with your services or product or create a heartfelt story about how you have helped someone’s life. The more a personal and authentic story you can tell, the more chance that other people will significantly identify with it and seek you out to also help them.  Create a connection with the reader. Write your copy as if you are addressing one person directly rather than a group. For example, ‘I will do this for YOU.’  Remember to always get your clients’ or customers’ permission before using any identifying details in your marketing.  2. Highlight benefits, not features or facts When you’re giving instructions on how to use your product or talking about its benefits, focus on what people can do rather than what they are. Instead of saying “it’s organic”, say “you’ll be left with glowing skin!” A feature is something that your service or product has. For example, a feature of a scented candle is the scent. But a benefit of the same scented candle is that it makes you ‘feel more relaxed than a day at the beach or it ‘directly transports you back to your twenties.’ Let’s take the app Headspace as an example. Whilst one of their FEATURES (what it contains/offers) is that they have over 500 meditations available, one of their clearly defined BENEFITS is ‘get the best sleep ever.’ And how enticingly written is that benefit? Who doesn’t want more of that? 3. Make it personal Include personal anecdotes, case studies, and storytelling techniques to enhance your copy and directly connect with the people you want to read it. Use real-life examples of how the techniques or products that you provide have enhanced, healed or softened your life or solved your problems.  Here is why you should inject storytelling into your copywriting: • People like to read about other people – you’ll find more success if you can write from experience or from research rather than from generalisation. • Storytelling makes your message memorable – studies have shown that stories stick in our minds better than plain facts. • Stories offer an opportunity to explore emotions – something which your copy may not otherwise touch upon. • People can relate to stories more easily than specific facts – it’s easier for them to connect with a story, rather than just being told how things will be. It’s also important to remember that copywriting is an ongoing process, especially in online marketing where content needs to be updated regularly. You might write something once and think it’s done, but there’s always room for improvement. And the more you write, the better you will get at it.  Do you work in the wellness industry and want to improve your marketing assets and increase sales? You’ll love my handy guide Promote Your Spiritual Business.

Turn Your Content into More Content – 20 content ideas

Here’s how to turn your existing content into even more content (skip to the bottom for the content ideas) Every business owner and marketing manager knows that you need to have much content on your site. And HubSpot recommends that if you want to maximise your organic traffic (people that find your website naturally by Google searching what they are after) should publish between three and five posts per week! With the right amount of content, people will be able to find what they are looking for while browsing through your site, helping them with their decision to purchase from you (and also making it easier for Google and other search engines to find what they’re looking for). However, there’s one drawback: time. As a business owner or marketer, you may not always have time to create new content, especially if you’ve already got plenty of orders/customers/projects going at the same time. Luckily, there’s an easy solution: turning existing content into more content. What do I mean by “turning existing content into more content?” This means taking the existing text, blog articles, information or visual media on your site and changing it around to create something new. For example, if you’ve already got a sales page for one of your products, why not turn that page into a blog post? You could also take some of those paragraphs and change them together to create an ebook download, an effective lead magnet.  What benefits do I get from turning my content into more content? By turning existing content into more content, you will: Increase the number of pages on your site; thus improving Google’s search results for any keywords related to your business (and increasing the number of people who find you online) Increase your number of backlinks, which helps with SEO and builds domain authority and online credibility. Gain a better understanding of how you can improve your current website content to make it more appealing to potential customers/clients, thus allowing you to increase conversions and boost your bottom line. Get more email subscribers and leads by turning existing content into lead magnets. Saves you time on having to research from scratch and guessing which content will be more popular with your target audience. What kind of content could I turn into more content? Anything! Seriously— there’s no limit on the type of content that you can turn into more content. The only limiting factor is your creativity and time. You could take existing blog posts written a while ago and add some new paragraphs for publishing on social media sites such as Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest or even create an ebook out of several blog posts. This is a great way to use the content you already have with little work, and it’s also a great way to build links from other sites back to your own. Read below for more ideas. How can I turn my existing website content into more content? With these steps: 1) Start by copying and pasting the text from your site into a document on your computer. Make sure that this document has enough room between paragraphs for adding some new ones; usually, 2-3 spaces work well. You may even want to make a few headings or bullet points if you think they will help when creating the new content. 2) Determine what type of “more content” you would like to create. Do not forget your end content goals and content writing strategy (to get more new customers, help inform current customers, relieve staff time, etc.) 3) After figuring out what type of more content you’d like to create, start adding new content around your old text. Add in some headings (either bullet points or whole paragraphs), indent some paragraphs, whatever works best for your latest creation. You may also want to move things around so that the most important sentences are at the beginning of each section; this is especially true if you plan on creating something like an ebook where some parts will be read before others. 4) Do a thorough audit of any existing content and determine what works well, what is getting reads, where your readership is hailing from and whether the content converts to contact or sales. You can find all this out with the help of Google Analytics. 5) Do a survey, questionnaire or have a conversation with your current and potential clients or customers to find out what their questions, pain points and needs are so that you can expand your content to address these areas. Can’t think of what type of new content you can create? Here are a bunch of ideas.  20 ways you can repurpose and create more content: Gather up your content articles, expand them, and include more facts, statistics, and case studies to create an ebook.  Repurpose your content into social media posts. Take select paragraphs and paste them directly into social media updates or turn them into graphics. Take the most important facts, quotes and statistics from your articles and create an infographic with them. Turn your blog posts into SlideShare presentations. Gather pull quotes from your content articles and design them into quote graphics in Canva or PicMonkey and use them in your social media marketing. Take any existing video content and transcribe and edit it into a brilliant content article or blog post. Or vice versa! YouTube videos, when embedded into your website, can help with SEO. Turn your existing content articles into a video series. Or an online course. You can either turn it into a full-scale course that you can charge for or mini-courses that will help collect leads for your email marketing lists.  Create a new content hub with the best of these pieces, and use it as a reference point for all future readers who want to know more about this topic. Turn your existing blog posts into podcast episodes or vice versa.  Go back to the last grant or project application you wrote. Where can you take

Create Your Own Content Hub

By creating your own content hub where you share blogs, tips, quotes and maybe even videos and images etc. you can take advantage of one dead easy way to rank higher in Google without having to spend hundreds or thousands on advertising. That’s right: when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), Google likes fresh new content that is well written and relevant to your niche. Sharing this regularly around the web gives Google plenty of reasons to include your site in its regular updates. The more often they update their index with new content from your site, the more likely your site will shoot up in rankings. A content hub is a website or web page that serves as the content home base for readers. Content hubs are typically full of content to help connect readers with valuable information. What I mean by a content hub is a whole robust collection of: content articles blog posts  resources infographics downloadables  ebooks  checklists  and even videos that are all hosted on your website.  There are many benefits of creating your own content hub. Here are the main ones.  You will become a sought after expert in your niche, with a hub of content articles. People will be interested in what you have to say, and you will gain credibility. According to Contently, ’47 percent of millennials indicated they’d be more likely to trust a financial services company if it created useful content.’ That is a fair chunk of the millennial market that you could be capturing if you work in that industry simply by creating quality content. A content hub can be helpful to readers who may not know much about you or your company if it may be their first time visiting your content or web page. Content hubs are extremely valuable to companies online because they provide individuals with easy access to valuable content right from the start, rather than having them search through different sites or articles before finding anything valuable to them. You might like to get my Blog Post Template It helps show others that you are trustworthy, reputable and knowledgeable about the industry you work in.  When the time comes to do a hard sell, e.g. offer a new service or product or get your readers to invest in spending money with you, a lot of the hard work has already been done. You’ve created a bunch of warm leads that will be more likely to buy from you when the time comes because they have been reading and trusting your content for a while.  Business owners want their target audience to come back time and again, so they continue buying what they are selling without thinking about alternative options for fulfilling their needs. We want them hooked! We want them predisposed towards purchasing our products or services. For this reason, when writing articles, the goal is to give away great content to build trust with potential customers. What business owner wouldn’t want that? And the Content Marketing Institute reports that ‘Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without.’ To start your own content hub, be sure to choose a topic niche. You don’t want to blog about everything and the kitchen sink; you want to blog about (and create significant content assets such as infographics etc.) specific topics that relate to your industry and business and are in line with your Content Writing Strategy. Get professional content writing to build up your content hub now.  

The Best Website Copywriting Steps

You want more website traffic? More website conversions? More clicks on website advertisements? Then website copywriting is the answer to your website problems! If you’re time poor, skip down to the bottom of this post for my step by step instructions and your FREE TEMPLATE. First of all, website copywriting is the art and science of convincing website visitors to take a certain action. The “action” could be clicking on your website advertisement or visiting your website product page. Whatever you want them to do, it’s up to you! Good website copywriting does two things: grabs attention and persuades readers to take some kind of action. That means we need compelling headlines and content that pulls people in and makes them think “I MUST read more!” We also need good persuasive writing so we convince our readers to click that link or buy that item. Now, let’s talk about what not to do when it comes to website copywriting. The worst website copywriting you can do is to use cheesy, convoluted language that doesn’t make any sense and just rambles on, trying desperately to sound professional but actually sounding like some kind of unhinged person. Another thing not to do is to repeat yourself over and over or write very long paragraphs about one simple point. This does not increase understanding; it just bores the reader. The best website copywriting has a specific goal for your website visitor in mind so you know exactly what you need them to do when they finish reading your article or website page. That means more conversions for you! So take a moment to think, does each of your webpages have a clear process or goal? Can both you and the reader understand what that goal is straight away? Writing website copy is basically storytelling. If you can get people to read your website advertisement or website article, they’re going to remember it better than just some generic rambling about one idea. Let’s go over easy tips for improving website copywriting so that every time someone reads something on your website, they think “I MUST buy this!” How do I write great website copy? Articulate the problem first before proposing a solution because this shows an understanding of what readers want and need. As a general rule, smart brands understand their customers’ needs before attempting to sell them anything, whether that be online or offline, so make sure your website copy reflects this understanding. Write in an active voice, not a passive one because nobody likes things to be done to them; they like things they do! For example, “The website is visited by many people” sounds kind of boring. On the other hand, “People visit the website every day!” is much more exciting and grabs reader’s attention immediately. Make sure that you’re really familiar with your website product or website service before you attempt to sell it to anyone! If you don’t know what makes your website service so great, how are you going to convince other people? That means research time for you. And researching competitors and how people respond to them also. Know who your target audience is so you can write for them directly instead of talking about them in general terms. Yes, website copy is persuasive and yes, website copy needs to be convincing but website copy also needs to accurately represent your website product or website service in a way that makes sense for the people you’re trying to sell it to. Don’t waste time trying to sell to people a completed website when they are really just looking for a book on how to do it themselves. Be concise! Cut out filler words and phrases wherever possible. For example: “Any person who wants this website service” can become simply “Here’s a website service” with no loss of comprehension whatsoever. Avoid overusing website jargon because nobody outside of your industry (or brand) will understand what you mean. If you must use jargon, make sure you explain it in layman’s terms right after so they don’t get lost halfway through your website copy. Here are my at-a-glance steps for improving your website copywriting: GET A FREE DOWNLOADABLE TEMPLATE TO HELP TRACK AND PLAN THESE CHANGES.

How to Get Your Staff to Contribute to Content Marketing

Getting your staff on board with your content curation and marketing efforts can be a daunting task. Many business owners get so wrapped up in “we need to start a blog” that they forget that it takes more than just a few social media postings and a dream to make their content campaigns successful. And I see it time and time again: leaders trying to eke out content from their staff who are reluctant because they are too busy, resistant or don’t realise how much they know and how much of what they know is beneficial. Everyone knows content curation is good for content marketing. However, finding content ideas can be a struggle. That’s where your staff comes in. Whether you’re looking to write content in-house or want someone to manage your content, you need the buy-in from everyone to ensure that content really reflects the absolute best of the business. And no one knows the industry inside and out like your staff do. Furthermore, they often know how customers and clients think better than top-level executives. And your staff are so busy working on their core roles that contributing to content could be an extra burden for them even if they get taught the brilliant benefits of content for the organisation. In this article, when I talk about content, I’m explicitly talking about content articles/blog posts. But this information can be applied across all your content marketing. Set a goal  Both you and your team members should know how, when, where, and why you’re going to promote your work online in advance. Without goals, both short-term and long-term, it’s difficult for employees, foundational partners or board members to understand what you want from them when it comes time to add content curation into your daily routine. An extra tip is to plan so far in advance that you can give staff plenty of warning when you might expect something from them, which alleviates the pressure and burden. Build a content calendar Your content calendars should act as guides that list everything you’re planning to post online and what content needs to be created. Rather than just telling your staff when they can post content, it’s essential to tell them what’s coming up to know what types of content or products they’ll need to market beforehand. Communicate with partners and team members  Communication is vital for getting everyone on board with content curation. Without open communication, people will feel like they don’t understand where their role fits into the process. Or why it’s even necessary that they are involved, especially if their role is in bookkeeping or business development or engineering! Don’t over-promise  Estimating content marketing efforts can sometimes be complex since you don’t always know what types of content will resonate among your audience, especially when you start out. It’s easy to get carried away and over-promise results that content curation won’t be able to deliver on. Avoid this pitfall by not promising more than you can provide. Having said that, content curation can help you reach new target audiences or share content in a way that wasn’t possible before. If you keep your expectations reasonable, it’ll make it easier for team members to understand the process without feeling overwhelmed or confused at any point along the way. Highlight the benefits Explain the short and long term benefits to them clearly. If content is already a part of your content marketing strategy and you’re looking for content contributions from other staff, explain how content writing will directly benefit them. You could say how it improves search rankings, boosts their online presence and helps with internal communication. If you are winning more clients or customers with the help of content, then be sure to share the rewards and the recognition with them because, without their contribution, it wouldn’t be happening. Staff bonuses or staff members awards are great ways of doing so. One of my favourite things about content is that it acts as an extra staff member or customer service operator (which I discuss more in my copywriting book) in that it will answer a whole heap of common questions that your customers or clients have and prevents your staff from having to repeat themselves and spend time in meetings and on phone calls with them. Essentially, by spending an hour or two on a few pieces of content, they could save hours and hours throughout the year. Be sure to highlight that as a benefit for staff! Hire a professional By hiring a content marketing professional, like a freelance copywriter, you can streamline the process. A professional will know precisely the right questions to ask your staff and mine juicy nuggets of content without spending hours and hours doing so. Plus, they can write the content in alignment with the most up to date copywriting and SEO principles. How do I convince my employees? It’s unlikely that your employees are going to volunteer to help you with content curation and writing. It would help if you made it clear that their efforts will directly benefit themselves, their colleagues and the business as a whole. You don’t have to use fear to motivate them but, instead, use positives and possibilities to inspire their thinking beyond their role. Offer them the perspective that content writing is one hundred per cent an opportunity (not a burden), and show your employees how content can help them progress their careers. Once they see how helpful content is and how this will add value that directly affects them, they’ll be much more receptive when making requests for content contributions. Here are my final tips: 1. Ensure there’s a system in place so everyone knows who owns the content and clear formatting for who should contribute when. This might mean delegating shared responsibilities amongst team members or maybe changing content marketing responsibilities. A spreadsheet will do, but there is great software out there. 2. Sometimes, content is a support system for other priorities, so

Copywriting Tips for Recruitment Agencies

Recruitment firms can benefit from white hot copywriting to capture leads and generate interest in their business. From writing adverts to content, copywriting is the art of selling through words. With ‘approximately 7300 agencies in Australia‘, there has never been a better time to stand out amongst your competitors. Recruitment agencies can sometimes struggle to produce truly world-class recruitment marketing copy. They need to approach the task with a professional, dedicated and somewhat unique mindset. For those involved within the recruitment agency business, you’ll know it’s crucial for to understand your client’s businesses and marketplaces really well. Recruitment is such a delicate animal that you must always ensure you’re fully aware of your client’s company ethos and target audience before you start crafting any campaign or campaign piece. Otherwise you risk alienating them and becoming an automatic PR disaster. All too often agencies enter into their marketing campaigns without taking these details into account and as a result they face negative media attention, poor reputation management results and reduced profits as a result of this lack of professionalism. So, what are the specific challenges faced when writing recruitment marketing copy? 1. Recruitment agencies need detailed client information in order to write content that engages effectively with their audience (which is extremely difficult without any client access). 2. Content must be written in language suitable for potential applications (and not necessarily agency employees or clients themselves). 3. Client brands need protecting; it’s vital that all recruitment marketing copy avoids sounding like an advertorial for the company who has hired the agency but still educates and informs candidates of key benefits available to them. 4. An inherent problem is that by being so close to your own business you can sometimes struggle creating content which focuses on the needs of a third party. Recruitment marketing is all about making the client look great and encouraging their target market to engage with them. 5. Recruitment marketing content must be easily digestible, well written and engaging, all whilst writing for two different audiences. Recruitment consultants should follow the following copywriting tips when making any content for their marketing activities. Ensure you start off right by understanding your client and their business first, don’t go straight into writing copy without first exploring how they work and what makes them unique as an organisation or brand. Keep sentences short, clear and exciting. Sentences with an average of about 20 words are best suited for job seekers and clients alike. Use language that people use every day, not jargon or specialist terminology that only you understand, even if you are recruiting for a particular industry. Make your copy positive. Reflect a buoyant job market and use language the inspires hope and motivation. Avoid clichés and overused expressions such as ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ as they turn into noise for the average website scanner. Why not try writing more specifically. Why is the opportunity of a lifetime? Is it because the job is 100 per cent remote based with an exceptional salary? Point it out. If the copy is for an ad, focus on the advantages for the candidate and how they will benefit from working for your client. Keep content interesting and relevant; it’s OK to be enthusiastic about what you offer but avoid overplaying certain aspects. Be realistic but optimistic. Keep copy consistent with other copy on your website and social media sites. Show that you know about that industry you are recruiting for. Use the correct terminology and phrases and stay up to date with trends and demonstrate that through your digital marketing copy. Demonstrate your warmth through your writing. Job searching depression is a recognised thing, and the kinder you are to candidates, the more they will work with you to find the right job. They will likely remember your service and recommend it to others too. Have a solid tone of voice plan to ensure you constantly communicate the way you need to foster client relationships and find suitable candidates. Have a go at writing your own copy but don’t forget that help is just an arm’s length away with my professional copywriting services. I love working with recruitment firms!

Copywriting Tips for Yoga Teachers

If you’re a yoga studio owner and you want to increase your clientele, then there’s one thing you need in your marketing arsenal: copywriting. Well, after you take those gorgeous photos, of course. Even if you aren’t familiar with copywriting it’s still important that you understand how good copywriting can help you attract new class attendees and drive up sales. Before we go any further let’s look at what the term copy’means. According to Wikipedia it ‘is text crafted to persuade readers to take action.’ In other words, it’s marketing material. Professional copywriters (like myself) write website content, blog posts or email blasts for a living. As well as basically anything that will appear online or be sent out to potential customers. From your About Us page and contact details on your website, all the way down to your one-line bio on Instagram. All these things make up a complete picture and your copywriting could be the very thing that draws in potential customers. Writing good copy is an art form. You need to make people want what you’re offering without being too pushy about it (especially in the more heart centred realm of yoga), and it’s all about carefully choosing your words so that your visitors know exactly what you want them to do next. Ie, should they sign up to your enewsletter? Should they attend a free class? Here are some basic copywriting tips to keep in mind next time you are producing any marketing material. Use keywords in your copywriting. You do this by incorporating industry-related terms into your website copy and marketing materials. This is the best way to get noticed because search engines love websites with lots of keywords. Search engine crawlers will then prioritise your page higher when someone searches on that term or phrase. If you’re new to SEO, check out my collection of helpful SEO blog posts to help you get started. Tell a story through your copywriting. Yoga is more than an exercise class. Yoga is a beautiful, life altering philosophy as well as an artform and a journey. So let your customers know this by telling them what it’s like to take a class there or why you started teaching yoga in the first place. Take your potential student on a journey with your words – all before they have even walked past your reception desk! If you imagine your potential student as the main character, your studio the setting and their path to wellness as the plot, write a story that sees them take the most beautiful trip in the near future. They won’t be able to help themselves feeling inspired and motivated once they imagine themselves in the shoes of that main character. Testimonials and feedback Collect and showcase as many testimonials as you can from anyone who steps into your studio – even if it’s a longterm friend. Create opportunities for people to leave written feedback that you can use in marketing wherever possible. Through email competitions, social media platforms, hard copy forms, verbal discussions… anything that helps! You can even have your customer showcase why they love your class, studio or certain teachers at the end of their testimonial. This helps create trust-worthy promotion about you as a brand because people just crave social proof. What is the repeated feedback (informal and formal) that you get about your studio or classes? Do people say that it’s ‘such a healing space’? Or that they come to class because they need to escape their family for an hour? Or have been sleeping better? Take note anytime anyone says something and add it to your website and social media marketing as these are the HIGH selling points of your studio. Have some negative feedback? Use that as well! If you’re not in a position to change something that people have offered their criticism about, then that’s totally okay and can be used in your marketing. Let’s say, for example, someone says that they find the classes ‘just too hard.’ Perfect! Use that in your copywriting. ‘Our classes tend to be a little harder than others you have experienced…’ Not only will attract the exact right people for that class but you will be spinning a negative into a positive. Meet people where they are Just because you have done the training and study the sutras or the Vedas or other philosophical texts, doesn’t mean that your clients have. In fact, they might not even be aware of how it feels to live in their bodies! Often, particularly in your marketing (given that is the first place people learn about you) you need to meet your potential new clients where they are. Use word and terminology that they are familiar with, peppered with some aspirational outcomes. For example, ‘We know that getting enough sleep is not happening for you right now. But our classes teach you how to relax your body and mind, so it’s possible.’ Yoga teachers are often a place people come to for support, information and wellbeing guidance. But it can be more than just on the mat. It would be hard for even the most dedicated student to get all the wisdom they need in that 60 to 90 minutes in class. Students and community members need guidance outside of class. That’s why creating and sharing supportive and informative content articles are an ideal way to nurture your beloved students. As well as position you as an authority in the industry and improve your SEO. Next time someone is looking for a new yoga class to attend, who will they choose? The one that make them feel held and safe with a free flowing of information at their fingertips? Or ones that just have a stock standard website? Want 39 blog post ideas? Having trouble coming up with blog post topics? I’ve compiled an instantly downloadable pdf with THIRTY NINE BRILLIANT YOGA BLOG POST IDEAS. Get your FREE copy now.

The absolute minimum you need to know about brand copywriting

The brand is the face of the company. It is how consumers perceive your brand and product or service, so it’s logical that brand copywriting – writing brand names, slogans and taglines – should be done artfully and with great care. As a business owner, you already know brand copywriting isn’t just an art form; it’s vital to success. Brand copywriting affects revenue in two ways: 1) Customers satisfied with their experience will become advocates for your brand, sharing word-of-mouth marketing with colleagues and friends. That leads to what marketers call the top of the funnel effect, where new customers enter through customer referral through brand awareness campaigns 2) The language used in branding also influences brand perception, which can influence purchase behaviour. Since brand copywriting is so important, it’s essential to understand what you need to know as a business owner. Let’s look at some key points explaining brand copywriting and the effect it has on brand success. A brand name needs to communicate value in just four words or less Your brand name should describe precisely what your brand offers customers. For example, Apple Computer communicates that they are a technology brand. At the same time, KFC (after years and years of superior branding) tells consumers exactly what they’ll straight up to get. We all know it stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken. While unique brand names are typically more memorable, there are several variables to be aware of before launching a branding campaign: Does the name emphasise benefits or features? How easy is it to brand across multiple channels? Can the brand name be used as a verb, i.e., Skype? Customer equity impacts brand influence and brand salience Research shows that brand equity contributes directly to brand value, so it’s worth investing in. Customer equity or brand loyalty can affect revenue by increasing purchasing frequency and purchase volume. It is essential to consider that brand familiarity does not necessarily lead to preference because people can grow accustomed to seeing a particular brand without forming an opinion about its quality. On the other hand, if consumers prefer a specific brand over another, they will seek out information about that brand even when no direct purchases are involved. As you can see, maintaining customer equity is vital for good business, and you can do that through really cleverly crafted copywriting and assets. A brand’s personality gives it an edge over competitors. Today, brand influence is driven by brand personality. You’ve probably heard the acronym ASP— authentic, sincere and professional— used to describe the brand character. It is a simple way to explain three components of brand building: 1) Brand positioning – why a brand exists 2) brand personality – what role a brand plays in consumers’ lives 3) Brand behaviour – how a brand behaves These three elements make up a brand’s ‘DNA’ – its fundamental values that communicate trustworthiness or fun, for example. The critical thing here is that brands with personalities are more likely to be remembered by customers because they trigger emotional responses which influence purchase decisions. In other words, brand personality is the foundation of brand success, and you can convey that through written and visual assets and marketing. Taglines are the brand’s short and sweet pitch to customers A brand tagline is a slogan that expresses the brand essence in just a few words. Taglines usually define brand positioning or position brand attributes. For example, McDonald’s’ motto ‘I’m lovin’ it’ tells customers why they should be excited about their brand experience. It also uses wordplay to communicate that McDonald’s offers lots of love and not just food. A good tagline should resonate with consumers long after hearing or reading it because it conveys an emotional message. The best brands express something unique about themselves through their taglines. But make sure you choose your words carefully! Research shows that specific phrases are more memorable than others. For example, ‘Just Do It’ is a much better brand catchphrase than ‘Just Don’t Do It’. Don’t forget about brand colours Colours are powerful when it comes to brand identity. They are the first thing consumers notice when they see your brand in action, so it’s essential to choose wisely. According to research, people immediately judge products based on colour alone— before they digest any other brand information. Colours also affect purchasing behaviour because people tend to buy shades that reflect their personalities or moods. That means you need to consider all the different ways your brand will be viewed in order for colour choice to impact sales success. It’s worth noting that brand colour is not the same as brand personality. The moral? Before finalising your brand colours, make sure you think about what emotions they should evoke and how that will affect brand salience. Your brand name represents a successful investment There’s no denying it: names can be hard to come up with and even harder to test. That’s why we often end up with nonsensical or abstract brand names like Google, Twitter or Pinterest. But this doesn’t mean these brands don’t have beneficial brand equity. Research shows that solid brand associations can offset brand names that are difficult to understand or remember. The best brand names represent a brand’s personality and meet customer expectations. It is also good to avoid trendy words because they rarely last more than five years. Lastly, make sure brand names suit your brand positioning and limit the scope of future product lines. Please don’t underestimate the importance of this final point. Recently, we’ve seen some big brands change their name (e.g., Yahoo! became Altaba) for better or worse. It can have a considerable impact on consumer perception! What you need to know when hiring a brand copywriting expert Every brand is trying to get a particular message across. For example, every brand wants to make their customers feel a specific emotion towards them before purchasing their products and services. This is why brand copywriting is essential. When hiring a brand copywriter,

The Benefits of an Editorial Calendar: SEO Strategy

It is important for an editorial calendar to be a part of your SEO strategy. This will ensure that you are getting the most out of your website and generating more leads. Here’s why: editorial calendars can help you plan content, which means that you’ll have new content to put on your website every day or week. Not only does this provide fresh content for visitors, but it also helps increase traffic from search engines because they’re able to index new pages each time new posts are published! An editorial calendar is a powerful tool that will help your brand generate more leads and it can also improve SEO. Learn how an editorial calendar and the proper use of keywords on a website are important for bettering your business online. Editorial calendars can help plan content to make sure there’s always fresh, new content for visitors coming back to your site every day, week or month. This helps rank higher in search engines because they’re able to index these pages each time a post is published so you’re keeping up with other bloggers who publish daily. An editorial calendar allows you to keep track of when posts were published as well as what type of post was made (ie: long form vs short form). This makes it easier for people following your brand to know what type of content they can expect each time they log on. Some editorial calendars will even allow you to plan out editorial themes that’ll be published regularly— these could include specific holidays, timely projects or company announcements, tips or interviews with your team members and tailored blog posts and articles that speak to these. It will also identify the content pillars in your content and ensure you are hitting all these identified content pillars (that will be assigned by your copywriter or marketing strategist). It’s important to get content pillars right, and from the start, so you equally share information about the important parts of your business that actually makes money. Otherwise, you are just making content for the sake of making content! Editorial calendars are a powerful tool that will help your brand generate more leads and they can also improve SEO. Not only does editorial content provide fresh content for visitors, but it also helps increase traffic from search engines because they’re able to index new pages each time new posts are published! The editorial calendar is an important part of any business’s marketing strategy as not only does editorial content provide fresh content for visitors, but it also helps increase traffic from search engines because they’re able to index these pages with each time the post is published so you’re keeping up with other bloggers who publish daily. An editorial calendar makes it easier for people following your brand to know what type of content or theme they can expect when visiting your site because it will keep you on track and keep the content consistent. Rather than blogging last minute on topics that don’t relate to your overall business or marketing objectives. The editorial calendar also helps you decide which articles are worth promoting with social media posts and your email marketing so your content can be seen by more people than just the subscribers of your email list or RSS feed. It will also have the advantage of helping you to plan out your research. This is particularly useful if you outsource your research and information gathering or interviewing needs. Let’s say you have three blog posts that will require an interview of the same person, you can plan ahead and interview the person on all three topics at once, rather than playing the dreaded “phone tag” in trying to lock in three different interview times. The amount of time and money you save is incredible. Here’s what can go wrong if you don’t have an editorial calendar: You may not publish content when it becomes relevant and useful. You will forget/get too busy to publish regular content and by the time you realise, six months has passed before you have published ANYTHING on your blog. Your editorial calendar will dictate what topics you can cover, so this means that your attention might be more focused on just a few subjects instead of spreading the love around to all things in your industry or niche. You could make mistakes like duplicating posts for different audiences (which is against Google’s guidelines), republishing old articles, or accidentally publishing an out-of-date blog post as new. A good editorial calendar solves these problems by being organised: it ensures everything gets published at the right time with appropriate promotion and social media linking; makes sure every topic is covered without repeating any material; helps save time because you’ll know ahead of time exactly what you need to publish. You can set a date for when content should go live as well as decide on topics to cover. This makes it easier because there is no guesswork involved; if an article topic doesn’t work with the editorial calendar or isn’t completed by its post deadline, then it’s scrapped altogether so nothing goes up at the wrong time. Why you really need an editorial calendar The main reason why an editorial calendar is so important is that it allows you to strategize your content. When you have to create huge amounts of content – for your blog, for social media, for email marketing campaigns and any other marketing tactics you’re using – it’s imperative to plan and strategize your content. 5 Steps to Build a Powerful Editorial Calendar For Your Business by Forbes How an editorial calendar helps you write with your SEO keywords in mind By having deadlines and topics scheduled, writers know exactly what they need to do each week and month leading up to publishing dates. They don’t have to worry about forgetting their SEO keywords during brainstorming sessions or trying (and probably failing) to remember what they’re supposed to write about.

Writing a Good Book Blurb

Blurbs are book descriptions, and they are a crucial part of book marketing. A bad blurb can cause readers to pass over your book in favour of another book with a more attractive description, so it’s important for authors to know how to write a good book blurb that will get their book noticed. This blog post is written specifically for self-published authors who want to promote their books but don’t know where to start. Book blurbs can get your book more sales and reviews so don’t delay in writing your best blurb yet! Book blurbs are important for new self published authors Book blurbs can be written by any author using solid sales copywriting techniques but they should always be aimed at readers who might not know about your book yet. A good way to start writing a new one is with this question: “What one sentence would make someone want to buy my book?” When you answer it yourself, think about what’s appealing and different about the story compared to other books out there on shelves/eBooks stores now. The first sentence is everything The first sentence needs to be the most enticing and capture the essence and theme of the book. And you most certainly need to have a hook in the first sentence. The book blurb is the first thing that many readers see, and it’s your best opportunity to hook them. It should be short and concise but detailed enough for potential buyers to know what they are going to get out of reading or listening to your book. What do you want a reader who picks up this book to say? That they read an amazing book filled with suspense? A fantastic book with twists at every turn? Let them know before they buy the book! Writing a good book blurb tips Don’t use flowery language or tell everything about the story (that comes later). You just need a quick summary of themes, characters, setting. You know, the basics A book blurb should not be too long or too short, it needs to include the main points of what you want people to know about the book without spoiling anything. Instead, try something like “In this gripping novel by Jennifer Hillier we find out why Alexis left her hometown in shame twenty years ago.” Now their curiosity has been piqued but they don’t have any spoilers yet. Avoid being clichéd by using phrases such as ‘one man’s struggle to find himself’ or ‘the book will change your life.’ Be specific. Exactly HOW will it change someone’s life? And in what timeframe? Know what to include in the blurb and what to leave out. Sometimes, leaving out the details and getting people to work their imagination can be the biggest seller since our brains just naturally love to fill in the gaps. Writing a good book blurb (step by step guide) Start with the basics: Step one – What is your book about? The best way to answer this question might be in broad terms. For example, ‘a love story set in New York City during the summer.’ Step two – Why should people read it? Get into the mind of your reader and tap into exactly why they will want to read it. Does your book change your reader in some way? Does it reveal a facet of our minds that we are too afraid to face? Will it help them improve their business? Be explicit here. Step three – Who are some of the main characters? This question might be answered with just a sentence or two. For example, if your book has more than one protagonist, then you could say something like ‘The story follows three women: Julia who lives in New York City; Jane who lives in London; and Anaïs from Paris.’ Remember, this is to start with. The following sentence will need to be a contrast, expose the obstacles they need to overcome or the shock to their world. Eg, ‘The story follows three women: Julia who lives in New York City; Jane who lives in London; and Anaïs from Paris. And unearths how their lives or intertwined through a tragic car accident.’ Step four – Summarise Summarise your blurb in one or two sentences that acts a final convincing statement. Eg, ‘A charming book that will ensure readers learn enough about Paris to never have to go there!’ A book blurb is your biggest selling tool (alongside the cover) when it comes to your book. So you can’t afford to skimp on writing a good book blurb. If you need help, let’s talk and get your book selling like hotcakes with my book blurb writing service. Get ready to launch your author career with the international Self Publishing Formula

Applying AI to the Marketing Analytics of Your Business

  Artificial intelligence is everywhere in today’s world. You use it on your phone, it powers the digital assistants so many people have in their homes and it makes home automation devices smart. Beyond that, it is one of the most powerful tools for helping businesses make decisions.  Companies can now become more data-driven by using an AI-powered BI tool. Instead of having to rely on data scientists to handle all of your analytics needs, these AI platforms can take your data and find insights for you. In many cases, it is as simple as inputting queries like you would with a search engine.  One area where AI has great potential is in marketing analytics. It can help businesses to know their customers better, find the most effective messaging and identify the products that different customers want. With AI growing in importance, many businesses are wondering what they can do to apply it to their marketing data. In this post, you will learn about some of the applications for AI-powered marketing analytics. What is AI for marketing? With AI, you are taking machines or computer systems and making them intelligent. With modern AI tech like machine learning and deep learning, you have AI systems that excel at finding patterns and learning from experience.  When applied to your business data, it can provide insights and help you forecast the future. As it concerns marketing, you could use customer data to find the types of content that will speak to different groups, identify trends that could help you sell more products, find the channels that offer the best conversion rate and more. As an example, an AI analytics platform could be trained to analyse the performance of landing pages. Based on the data, it might find that certain headlines perform better or that a specific page length has the best conversion rate. Marketers could then use this information to create more effective landing pages. All the while, the AI can continue to learn and refine its results to give you more powerful insights in the future. Working With Data From Different Sources Most businesses have multiple sources of data. It could be your CRM, data from social media, email marketing data, your bookkeeping software or anything else. All of this data is valuable, but it is not one unified source. Processing the data and putting it all together can be time-consuming. Many AI-powered analytics platforms have the ability to work with a wide range of data sources. They can connect with different data sources and bring everything together for one unified source. Along with saving time and reducing errors, this can make the data more powerful by allowing these different sources to work together. Insights That Matter AI analytics tools perform well when it comes to finding patterns in data. These systems are smart enough to automate analytics and find insights you might not have even thought to look for. They also tend to do well at knowing which insights are most important for a business, so they are great for providing actionable information.  The Power of Predictions  These analytics tools can do more than just provide insights about the past or current state of the business. Many of them even offer predictive analytics to help businesses see what is coming in the future. This can help you get ahead of emerging trends and prepare for issues that otherwise would have come as a surprise.  Beyond prediction, some AI tools will offer prescriptive analytics. With prescriptive analytics, the system will look at historical data and current data to model different scenarios that may occur. It can then run different models based on the different actions you could take to find the best course of action based on the data. AI can help you get more from your marketing data. With the right tools, you can make campaigns more effective and increase your ROI. Many of these tools will even get more effective the longer you use them.  This is a guest post.