GUEST POST: The Five Secrets To Creating Great Copy by Jennifer Schiff

By Jennifer L. Schiff

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but if the copy accompanying that picture has typos, grammatical errors, misspellings, broken hyperlinks, and/or is incomprehensible, chances are you are losing customers – and sales – no matter how pretty a picture you paint of your business.

Think about it: Would you use bad (i.e., dark or fuzzy or hard to read) pictures on your website or in your marketing or sales materials? Of course not. Great copy is equally essential to creating a positive image of your business, as the picture you paint with words is the primary way you build trust between you/your business and your customers. And customers who feel they can trust you are far more likely to buy from you and/or use your services.

Herewith, The Five Secrets to Creating Great Copy:

1. Know who your (primary and secondary) audience is and write to them. If your primary audience is adults over the age of 50, don’t use jargon or language that sounds like something your teenage daughter or your twentysomething co-worker would say.

2. Tell a story. Everyone loves a good story. And it needn’t be long. It just needs to make people feel good. How do you do this? Just pick a few interesting details about your business and/or products or services, things that make you stand out – for example, how you came up with your idea, why you do what you do, or what’s special or unusual about your business (that is, what separates you from the competition) and craft a paragraph or two around that. Then use your story on your Home page and/or your About Us page (if you have a website), and in your marketing and sales materials.

3. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short – and use bulleted lists where appropriate. People (especially businesspeople) have short attention spans.

4. Have someone edit/proofread your copy, including checking hyperlinks. If you can’t or don’t want to hire a professional copyeditor/proofreader to review your copy, find someone who has a good grasp of the English language and your business or industry (an employee, coworker, or friend) to edit and proofread your copy, including checking all hyperlinks to see that they work, to ensure there are no mistakes and that it reads well. If for some reason you can’t get someone to check your copy, read it OUT LOUD. You’ll be amazed at what you find when you hear words spoken.

5. If you want to achieve high(er) rankings on the major search engines, update your copy regularly. Search engines search for words not images, so it’s important to update or add new copy to your site on a regular basis (if not weekly, monthly or bi-monthly), and make sure the copy you are adding is clear, contains key words or phrases, is spelled correctly, and if linked that the links work properly. Note: You needn’t change all the copy on your site, just some of it, typically on your Home page and on product pages (if you have them).

Jennifer Lonoff Schiff is the president of Schiff & Schiff Communications, a marketing communications firm that specializes in helping small and mid-sized business, provides tips and advice to SMBs on her blog KNOWschiff, and writes for several business publications.