how to write great marketing copy for your startup

You’ve got a great product, it can speak for itself, right? Wrong. Well, unless it can *actually* speak for itself like Siri or Speak and Spell. The point is, failure to communicate your brand’s message and your product’s place in the market can spell startup death. Here, copywriter Tim Gregg explains how to get the message right…

 

Bad communication is the leading cause of startup failure. For lack of a coherent message, many great ideas never get off the ground. The concept is lost in a fog of clumsy sentences and vague descriptions. No-one gets it.

Copywriting is a skill every entrepreneur should master. You might have the Next Big Thing up your sleeve, but until you can explain it convincingly to a general audience, who cares?

You don’t need a marketing agency or a degree in creative writing – just an appreciation of how language works. Follow these simple rules to write better copy for your website, press release, or email campaign…

Keep it short

Especially on the web. Brevity is the golden rule of online copywriting. The average netizen has a three-second attention span, so cut the bullshit and get straight to the point.

Never use five words when three will do. Look through your copy and delete every word that doesn’t need to be there. Strip each sentence down to its bare essentials.

• Bad: “It’s our pleasure to announce the latest product in our range”
• Good: “We’re pleased to announce our latest product”

• Bad: “The new app we are building is for lovers of music”
• Good: “We’re building a new app for music lovers.”

• Bad: “We specialise in designing beautiful websites”
• Good: “We design beautiful websites.”

Avoid phrases like “there are” and “you can”. Most sentences work better without them.

• Bad: “There are three advantages to using our product”
• Good: “Our product has three advantages”

• Bad: “You can get updates by following us on Twitter”
• Good: “Follow us on Twitter for updates”

Shorter sentences are clear and punchy, and let you fit more information in each paragraph. By writing less you can say more.

Use the inverted pyramid

 

Everyone reads your headline. Most people read your subhead; maybe half read your first paragraph. But less than 20 per cent will read your copy all the way to the end.

So don’t waste your opening lines – that’s the prime real estate. Structure your copy like an inverted pyramid: big stuff at the top, small stuff at the bottom. Your first 20-30 words should answer the most important questions:

• What’s the product/service?

• What does it do?

• Who is it for?

• What’s the USP?

Use the later paragraphs to present secondary features and smaller details. But always state the important facts at the very beginning. Readers should get the gist of your product or service at first glance.

Keep it simple

Big, fancy words are the telltale sign of an amatuer writer. The best copywriting uses plain English and a conversational tone.

Replace big words with smaller ones whenever you can. Sometimes you need two or three small words to replace a big one; other times one small word replaces an entire clunky phrase.

• Bad: “We are embarking on a large project”
• Good: “We’re starting a big project”

• Bad: “We endeavour to provide an outstanding service”
• Good: “We work hard to provide a great service”

• Bad: “Our HQ is located in the vicinity of several major tech firms”
• Good: “Our HQ is near several big tech firms”

Check the thesaurus before using a big word. And never (ever) use those lame corporate buzzwords such as “leverage,” “synergy,” or “value-added”. They mean nothing at all and make you sound like a certified dumbass.

Some pointers on style

Anyone serious about writing copy should read The Elements of Style by William Strunk & EB White. The book is nearly a hundred years old, but the basic mechanics of good writing haven’t changed. For example:

Use the active voice

Sentences in which the subject performs the verb are tighter and more direct than sentences written in the passive voice.

• Passive: “Our service is recommended by thousands of customers”
• Active: “Thousands of customers recommend our service”

• Passive: “New ideas are always being worked on by our team.”
• Active: “Our team is always working on new ideas”

Use the positive form

Don’t sour the mood with negative words. Get rid of not, don’t, can’t and make a positive statement instead.

• Negative: “We don’t accept bad-quality submissions”
• Positive: “We only accept high-quality submissions”

Be certain

Make your statements clear and definitive. Cut out the weak quantifiers like mostly, almost, nearly, just about…

• Bad: “We are mostly focused on social game development”
• Good: “We focus on social game development”

Edit, then edit some more

No-one writes a masterpiece on the first draft. Relentless editing is the only way to produce lean, effective copy. Be hard on yourself – look critically at everything you write. Keep chopping and changing until you’re satisfied. The learning curve is steep, but soon enough you’ll find your voice. Now dust off that keyboard and get cracking…

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A Quick Trick for Writing 1 Page for 2 Audiences

My first startup was a realtor rating site called What Customers Say. On the home page for What Customers Say, we had to speak to two groups: 1) realtors and 2) home buyers and sellers.

Naturally, the value + benefits associated with using the rating site were very different for realtors than for home buyers / sellers. But we knew we needed to speak to both groups because, well, we were a startup, and we were trying hard to grow both sides at the same time.

My second startup was Page 99 Test, a site where fiction readers rate one page of a book submitted by a novelist.

Once again, we had 2 groups to attract… and 2 groups to keep on the site. All with a single home page as an entry point. And with a single headline on that page.

Is it easy to speak to both groups? Um, no. When you’re actually faced with sitting down and writing the copy, you can only pray that someone walks in and gives you something else to do.

But even then – eventually – you have to get back to the task at hand.

Sometimes, you choose one audience and subordinate the other. That’s the easiest approach, from a copywriter’s perspective, and it’s what TutorSpree has opted to do. Even though they’re connecting 2 groups, the goal is clearly to focus on attracting students first, tutors second (see the tiny button in the top right corner):

Other times, you don’t have the luxury of choosing 1 group over the other, which then begs the question…:

What Happens When You Need to Attract 2 Groups Equally… on the Same Page?

Here’s what I do. When I’m helping my startup clients with this issue, I ask them to create a Venn diagram in which the values X, Y and Z audience derive from your product are listed, and the similarities overlap.

Simple, right? Well it’s amazing how rarely people actually sit down and do this exercise, given the simplicity of doing it + the heartache it can eliminate.

Here’s an example of how it works. Let’s say you were to write the home page for Appbackr, which is a marketplace-style site offering a solution designed for both app developers and app sellers / retailers. You want to speak to both groups in the same headline… so here’s what your Venn diagram might look like:

With that Venn diagram complete – and you know it wouldn’t take you long to do – you can then craft a single home page headline that speaks to both audiences:

Where App Developers & App Sellers Make More Money & Generate More App Installs

Once your headline has brought both groups into the page, you have a few choices for displaying content to each group separately:

1. Choose one group to target on the rest of your home page, and use a call to action to quickly drive the other group to a targeted landing page
2. Write for both groups on the same page, but use section headers to help people identify the right message for their needs
3. Write for both groups on the same page, but keep the page very short, driving each group to its own targeted landing page

Let’s check out what direction Appbackr takes. As you’ll see in the screenshot here, Appbackr first addresses both audiences in the headline… and then, below the PR mentions, employs the UX + messaging strategy from the third point above: they keep the page short and quickly drive each group to its own targeted landing page.

That’s it. Writing 1 page for 2 audiences is that simple.  I mean, sure, there are always exceptions…

But if you look deep enough – or even high enough – you’ll see that there IS overlap between what your 2 audiences are looking for when they land on your site. And that overlap can be used to help you craft the right headline to reduce bounce… and increase the likelihood that your 2 audiences will actually read the more targeted messages you’ve got for ‘em elsewhere on your site.

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3 Facebook Targeting Options Marketers Need to Know

Do you want to lower your Facebook ad costs and increase conversions?

What if you had hundreds of micro-targeting options at your fingertips?

Meeting and exceeding your advertising goals rely on reaching the audience most likely to convert.

In this article you’ll discover three Facebook targeting options that help you pinpoint the best audience for your ads.

Refine Ad Targeting With Facebook Data

As Facebook continues to evolve and strives to increase profits for its shareholders, it has slowly been rolling out a variety of advertising options to deliver a better experience for its advertisers.

The crux of those efforts is offering precise demographic targeting.

In early 2013, news began circulating that Facebook was teaming up with some very powerful data giants (Epsilon, Acxiom and Datalogix) to allow brands greater access to a vast amount of audience data. These three data giants not only tap into shopper loyalty programs, but also consumer purchase habits, demographic information and a host of other options from both online and offline consumer activity.

You can now target people who are interested in vacationing in Idaho.

For purposes directly related to this article, it’s important to note that Facebook also acquires behavior, demographic and interest data from its own internal data collection. Additionally, they collect data from external sources such as the “U.S. Census, warranty cards, registration information, the Department of Motor Vehicles, public record information, survey data and other offline sources.”

Facebook also gathers “U.S. consumer data on where consumers shop, how they shop, what products and brands they purchase, the publications they read and their demographic and psychographic attributes.”

Below I discuss how all of that data helps Facebook advertisers refine their target audience according to demographics, interests and behaviors.

#1: Use Demographic Data to Hone Audiences

As a consumer, it may be disconcerting to know that Facebook collects so much personal data. As an advertiser, it’s the jackpot.

Facebook uses the data it collects to provide you with deep demographic targeting. Before, that wealth of information was reserved for advanced advertisers who used Power Editor. Now it’s available to everyone via Facebook’s Ad Creation tool.

To use the extensive demographic targeting, create an ad and scroll down to the Audience options (under the Text and Links box) and click the More Demographics button.

Currently, Facebook’s demographic targeting offers 10 categories, each with subsets—amounting to well over 100 segmented demographic targeting options.

Facebook offers an array of advertising demographics to choose from.

For example, if you select the Relationship option, you’ll see Interested In and Relationship Status. These two categories are strikingly similar to the old Facebook demographic options. However, when you click through and examine each, you see how broad the segments have become.

Now you can target not only users who are married, single or divorced, but also open relationship, complicated, domestic partnership, separated, civil union and more.

Each general demographic offers several subsets for even deeper targeting.

Each of the 10 main demographic options offers this type of expanded segment choice. I encourage you to click through each to see what options are available to you.

Take advantage of the data Facebook and its partners supply. The deeper you delve into your audience’s needs, wants, habits, etc., the more successful your campaigns will be.

#2: Segment Interests to Lower Ad Costs

Not too long ago, Interests was the only option in the Ad Creation tool that allowed advertisers to segment their audience.

According to Facebook, Interests now include “pages [users have] liked, their interests and activities.”

Based on the interests you choose to target, Facebook provides suggestions or lets you browse through a list of related interests that allow you to segment your audience to a greater degree.

In this example, I’ve selected Home and Garden as an interest, and Facebook has suggested HGTV, Home Improvement, DIY, Interior Design and more.

Every general interest comes with suggestions or additional list ideas.

When choosing interests, be as focused as possible. Interests are an important factor in lowering your cost per click (CPC) and raising your click-through rate (CTR).

This is where a keen appreciation for your target audience truly comes into play. If you do not understand your audiences’ interests, hobbies and activities, you’ll have a difficult time bringing down ad costs and increasing ROI.

#3: Incorporate Behavior for High Conversions

Behavior targeting is mostly a result of offline activities and is extremely effective at creating conversions.

While it can be a very powerful tool, behavior targeting can also cut a large chunk out of your ad budget. Of the three—demographics, interests and behavior—I’ve personally found behavior targeting to be the most expensive.

As shown in the image below, behavior choices are quite varied. Each one of the categories provides hundreds of behavior targeting opportunities.

Choose behaviors based on your audience’s offline activities.

For example, the Automotive category includes focused targeting for New Vehicle Buyers (near market), New Vehicle Shoppers (in market) and Used Vehicle Buyers (in market).

Consider the possibilities of targeting expectant parents who are in the market for a new crossover or hybrid vehicle. If you already know they’re in the market and you develop a highly targeted ad campaign centered around the type of car they’re looking for, there is no doubt your conversion rate will be extremely high.

Each behavior choice offers similarly detailed information. Purchase behavior in particular is a targeting goldmine. Select any of its subsets to bring up an entirely new list of options you can use to segment your audience.

As an example, if you’re interested in purchase behavior related to anyone interested in sports and outdoors, you can narrow the market down to specific sports and combine that with high-end or low-end retail to segment even further.

The Bottom Line

If there’s one crucial ingredient to Facebook marketing, it’s targeting the right audience. Facebook’s data helps you do that with precision.

A keen appreciation of your audience translates into lower costs, greater engagement and higher conversion rates for your brand.

Play around with each of the main options (Demographic, Interests and Behavior), run some A/B tests and determine which avenue works best for your business. The possibilities are truly endless.

What do you think? Have you used Facebook’s in-depth targeting? Which one has provided the best results at the lowest cost? Leave a comment below.

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How to Succeed on Internet Promotion the Easy Way

With a struggling economy and so many people out of work, there are thousands of people online right now looking up terms like "work from home" and "internet promotion." Internet promotion is a huge business, and one that can bring you a lot of money if done correctly. Check out some solid advice on the genre.

Admit your shortfalls. Don't attempt to deny that your website does not have its own pitfalls, because every website does. Take note when someone complains to you about an issue, acknowledge the problem and make steps to fix it. Allowing the customer to know you understand them, without getting defensive, is a good way to not only fix site issue, but also, to gain visitor trust.

Many small businesses can tremendously increase their revenue by taking their advertising campaigns online. Because more traditional venues of advertisements are slowly becoming less profitable, as newspapers see declining subscriptions, small businesses, which start advertising online are often able to reach a much more broad customer base and see an increase in profit.

Keep the background on your site very light and manageable. The darker the background on the site, the harder it will be for your visitors to view your products. Also, a dark background can create a morose and gloomy atmosphere, which could alter a customer's mood when they visit your site.

If you'd like to get involved with online marketing but don't have a product of your own to sell, you can still have an online presence by selling someone else's product. Buying the rights to an established product, will give you a way to capitalize on sales without spending the time to develop your own product.

Make sure you read a lot of informative resources online and work up a list of your top-10 tips and pieces of advice. After you figure out the top-10 things you want to try or follow, go down the list and do them all systematically. This is like receiving an assist to your overall business plan, and it can pay off in a big way.

Know your goal. Obviously, the overall goal of web marketing is to get more business, but there are many ways to do this. Without a strategy, you can easily become overwhelmed. Start with one small, but specific, goal - such as increasing your site's number of unique hits, and expand from there.

When writing web marketing copy, consider giving customers some kind of prize that proves they have read the entire piece. For example, you can hide a link somewhere in the text that nets them a free gift if they can find it. More people reading the entirety of your ad copy will translate into more buyers.

After you have set up your site and it has begun to make money, it would be wise to expand. Using your knowledge from your first site, go ahead and create another site. This way you can take your expertise and use it to become well known and make money from another site.

In important tip regarding Internet marketing is to try to be as original as possible. This is important because if you are able to focus your originality correctly, then you will create an extremely memorable marketing campaign. This is best utilized by taking something well known and molding it to appear as though it is something brand new and original.

If you have been sending newsletters to your customers and potential customers, it is a savvy internet promotion strategy to convert those newsletters into website content. Some visitors who would never think of subscribing to a newsletter may nevertheless eagerly devour the same material on your site. And since you are reusing preexisting content, the effort involved is minimal.

If you have any well-known people that have purchased your product it would be nice if you got permission from them to let everyone know that they did that. People are more likely to purchase things when they know that well-known people have bought them.

Now that you've read some expert advice on marketing, you can put this information to use and hopefully grow an effective business. Things are going to go slowly at first, but soon, with the help of these tips. You will begin to see some real results and begin making some serious money working online.

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