Best practices for copywriting

Marina Mathews

Marketing Communications Manager

Vocus, Inc.

First things first!

Research– Writers usually spend 80% of their time

researching before they begin writing. Audience Goal of the email What has worked in the past? Outline message

"On average, only 20 percent is spent writing; the other 80 percent is research. I go deep into the product or service I'm writing about, as well as the audience I'm writing to. I look at current e-mails that are working for the client, as well as competitive information.” Pat Friesen, Target Marketing

Anatomy of an e-mail

Headline Problem Solution Call to action Testimonial

Headline best practices

Short and succinct (3 to 5 words) Attention-grabbing Honest

Blah: "Nonprofit Leadership Center Offers Unique New Accounting Training Program."

Better: "Turn Your Nonprofit's Finances Around in 60 Days!"

Copy tips and hints

1. Begin with "Introducing" or "Announcing." Introducing a high-performance modem for just $49.95! Announcing a whole new way to edit color images!

2. Start with "Now." Now the hottest spreadsheet on the market is yours at half price! Now you can try our brand new management tools risk free!

3. Start with "At last" or "Finally." At last! A presentation graphics program with all the features you've been looking for! Finally, remote access that actually works!

4. Start with "How to." How to back up your hard disk in half the time. How to slash the cost of managing your network.

5. Start with "Why." Why you should call for a free Virus Alert Report. Why our new software can double battery life!

6. Start with "Which." Which monitor is really the best buy? Which of these uninstallers can you trust with your precious data?

7. Start with "This." This tiny chip can turn your 486 into a powerful Pentium. This half-price upgrade is for DataKeep customers only!

8. Make a free offer. FREE! A CD-ROM with over 650 typefaces! Call now for free CAD software worth over $100!

9. Ask a question. Are you making these five data storage mistakes? Want to stop software pirates once and for all?

WIIFM

Relate your product to your audience.– Write for an audience of one. – Use common conversation, and avoid formal

speech.

Active vs. passive

Use the active voice The most effective way to communicate a message or idea is to use the active

voice. The active voice focuses on the subject rather than how the subject is being acted upon, creating a more powerful image or idea.

Below are some examples of the active and passive voice:Passive We're happy to announce that there are now over 20 new product categories on

our site. Best of all, more categories are still being added every day.Active We're happy to announce that you can now shop in over 20 new product

categories -- and we're adding more products every day.Passive You've been selected for a special discount on any of the following products:Active Buy any of the below products at a special discount:

Examples

Make your copy more benefitoriented and tell your recipients why they'd want your widget, notjust how cool your widget is. People are emotional, they buy because they want to know how your product or service will benefit them first, features are secondary.When you're writing your copy and you list a feature, always pay off the feature with what goes after "...so now you can..."  or "...for better..." in your copy.

Example #2

- Dell does a great job here with three features and benefits related to them.They list a few of their popular cool features and the reasons why they are actually cool. Kudos to Dell.

Making our case

Tweeting? Facebooking? You-Tubing? Still trying to figure out how to put it all together for your organization?Believe it or not, making social media work for you isn’t rocket science. It’s all about having a conversation,

andin many ways reflects the same basic tenants of traditional PR strategy and outreach.

Take a demo of Vocus’ PR software and learn how to use the same principles of traditional PR to engage, monitor, measure and analyze your way to social media success. Vocus shows you how you can:

Target key journalists, bloggers, analysts and more Engage, monitor and analyze social media including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and more Automatically post a “tweet” when your press releases is distributed, making it easier to share your

content with your social media network. Compile mentions from various social media sites to simplify the monitoring process and get a full view of

your online reputation and that of your competitors

With emphasis …

Tweeting? Facebooking? You-Tubing? Still trying to figure out how to put it all together foryour organization?

Believe it or not, making social media work for you isn’t rocket science. It’s all about having aconversation, and in many ways reflects the same basic tenants of traditional PR strategy and outreach.

Register today for a free demo of Vocus software and learn how you can:

Have access to over 800,000 key journalists and bloggers for better targeting of your press releases

Get the most from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr by engaging with your audiences and potential customers!

Easily share your press release the minute they’re distributed with an automatic news “tweet” to your social media network

Use a comprehensive media monitoring solution that provides a 360 degree view of all of your news results from print, broadcast and the web!

Call to action – early and often!

Preview of what you’ll get

Pitching tips

Measuring email