From email campaigns to direct response, converting readers to buyers is the primary goal of creative businesses. You need to find niche buyers, and to use multiple forms like email campaigns, direct mail, and SEO to achieve high rates of sale. This set of 8 keyword rich guides helps creative businesses improve profit on the most important part of any marketing effort, the sales letter. It works for any new or established creative business.
Reader To Buyer: Creative Business Sales Letter
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 1, The Reader Who Buys – Finding the Niche Buyers
by Jacob Malewitz
This series of articles harnesses the power of the written word to make creative business riches. Maybe it sounds like a pipe dream, but the whole theory is that in any creative business pursuit, you’re looking for more than readers. You want to convert them into buyers. And not just once either; it takes repeat customers to truly succeed in the creative business world. It starts with finding hot niches.
Hot Niche Buyer:
Niche buyers are typical to all kinds of creative businesses. Simply, they are the ones willing to spend more on one market than another. Book collectors … technology addicts … internet users … those who want to be rich … those who need special car service … the list could go on and on. It’s powerful to design your creative business niche early on, as you gain the opportunity for new kinds of buyers. It’s where the old saying of “niches to riches” came about; if you make yourself the go-to business in a certain field, you’re name factor comes out. You’re also trying to be unique.
Making Yourself Unique:
No matter if the buyer is interested in a specific niche or is new to your product or service, making yourself unique is quite important. McDonald’s is different from Burger King … Best Buy is different from Amazon … one sports car mechanic is different from a specialty truck mechanic. So how do you make your product or service unique? This often is a natural decision: you’re somehow better in one field than a competitor. It also comes down to the price for your product or service. For instance, many online sites selling items come cheaper than going to the store. It’s a matter of convenience, but the line is thin here. Going to the store can be just as convenient as shopping online in some cases. That means creative businesses online need different kinds of advantages, namely with price and free shipping offers.
Personal, Informal?
In any creative business sales letter, you’re also trying to make yourself unique. Some fields are typically advertised in a personal, informal manner. A bank CEO sends you a sales letter explaining what drew him to working with such a high class company … a magazine tells a true life story of how one person’s life was saved with a revolutionary medicine reported in its pages. This is all a matter of choice, but it requires plenty of talent to create a personal, informal piece of copy. Professionals often opt for the formal way of writing, leaving most of the first person notes out of the piece. It often depends on the market—who you are selling to. Formal tends to sound more professional, while informal can lend some emotions to the sales piece.
It’s all about knowing how your buying will react.
Creating a Buyer Profile:
To get your buyer to react, you need to know him or her. A buyer profile is a commonly used tool in all creative business campaigns. If you were researching a new video game console or PC, you might think you know all the kinds of people who like playing games. They’re young … they dislike getting up early and going to school … they get bored quick reading things. That is one stereotype, and isn’t entirely wrong. However, since video games have been around for a few decades, you have countless other buyer profiles to consider. Many parents might play video games! Some video games are based on R horror stories, and are too bloody for many youths to play. Who plays them?
However, the buyer profile can incorporate more than one type. The most important part is to find the common buyer.
What Format?
So how do you send your letter? This series of guides not only defines the best ways to turn readers into buyers, but goes over in detail what they are. There are many types of advertising campaigns common today. Direct mail used to be the bread and butter of certain companies. Today email campaigns are going strong. Now, SEO oriented websites are attracting online shoppers to major websites. Yet direct mail is still quite powerful, even with the rise of online media advertising. In a recent study by the business writing group AWAI (American Writers and Artists Institute), it was noted direct mail still gets a higher response than email web copy!
The best method is to find out who your buyers are with the buyer profile. You wouldn’t see many video games advertising through direct mail, but companies that directly sell them in catalogues might, and even gaming magazines regularly send out direct mail letters to get new subscribers. This proves that all advertising campaigns work in their own way.
Learning to Make Money Via Multiple Formats:
The best method in the very beginning is to simply make sure the reader knows you exist. If you want to make them a buyer, the general business rule is they need to notice you seven times. It often takes any reader a good deal of thinking before becoming a buyer. They need to read a few letters in the mail, a few in email, and maybe see a press release feature somewhere else. It’s best to make sure you cover all the bases.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 2, The Reader Is Your Route Ultimate Creative Business Riches
by Jacob Malewitz
If you know your reader, you know the path to ultimate creative business riches. It may sound trivial, it may sound odd, but your reader is your business. It comes down to making them come back to you again and again. If you treat a reader right, if you attract them in a certain way, they not only become buyers but often repeat buyers. It’s creative gold when it comes to a successful direct mail letter (called a control) that doubles business. It’s exciting to see the internet working for you, simply by using powerful email campaigns, SEO landing pages, and a unique product that makes everyone want to buy. Here’s a few reasons readers who become buyers are your path to creative business riches.
They Tell Others—If Your Product is Good!
One obvious benefit of turning readers to buyers simply, they tell other potential customers! They give you leads in the marketplace, the best form of free advertising. Typically the average buyer who truly likes a product, whether it’s a product or service, will tell others. This usually happens when the 2nd person needs something. We all have had broke down cars, and know a good mechanic is like gold.
But you’re product or service must be good! It must have some unique trait, lest the next time they buy they decide to go cheaper.
They Buy Again:
The repeat buyer is all around the best way to grow a creative business of any kind. It also shows you’re doing something right. However, that means using many different forms to remind the customer you’re still here. It means new sales mailed or emailed to them. It means using the internet to make it simple and easy for them to shop the second time around. Lastly, it means offering better products time after time with strong customer service and easy buying.
They Help you See What’s Needed in the Market:
The buyer is powerful for you. You will know, when a dozen buy one product and one buyer chooses a different one, what’s hot. This doesn’t mean to quit any product, but the simple law of demand plays out here. In a less obvious way, it shows you what to choose for your next products, especially those in the same niche. Some creative businesses even up the ante some and push the prices up.
You Can Experiment:
You’re experimenting with some of your new buyers, especially if you’re a new creative business. As well as seeing what’s needed in the market, you get to see what works in certain sales letters. You can offer special sales and send them out via both direct mail, email, and online ad campaigns. Who’s still buying? The control, the main letter of any kind for your creative business, becomes stronger with this, and offers new opportunities for similar controls to be tested.
There are a multitude of other things to do. For example, happy customers often give testimonials. This is one powerful facet in both print and online worlds. It shows not only you’re doing something right, but that this product or service is going to grow.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 3, The Creative Business Seller: Why Reach Out?
by Jacob Malewitz
In terms of wealth, the online business is the name of the game for creative businesses around the world. Social media is here, and both beginning and advanced sellers are pulling together business plans for reaching out to all kinds of customers. In such a full creative business online climate, it comes down to reaching out every single day to new readers, hoping to turn them into buyers. So why should you reach out to all these people? Here are five reasons.
Creative Business Word of Mouth:
Word of mouth begins simply, and when we get to developing a signature brand, becomes ultra specific. For now, look at word of mouth business as simply the best means of finding new buyers. You still need to convert them over, which sales can help with. However, sales not only come about because of word of mouth in the creative business field, but combined with a quality service or product. For instance, if you constantly see top sales for a specific brand of cell phone and its network, you might move on. If you heard of the cell phone being offered for a great deal, and heard good things about it, you might tell the next person who needs a phone, “Here’s a good deal.” This may sound too simple, but it comes down to the business mindset of being in the right place at the right time. First, you have to be there. Then make them notice. Then make them remember with a quality product.
Creative Business Sales:
Why reach out to buyers more? Sales are one key factor in selling your service or products in the creative business field. There is no point in offering a sale, via online or TV or print paper methods, if no one knows you exist! Simply stating on a website, “A brand new sale for our top product!” will only work when you’re established. One method is to submit press releases not only via free press release services but to sites who focus on similar products. If you’re creative business is technology, you have magazines as well as thousands of sites which like to feature news on new products. That is one example, but it points out how you should treat sales as more reason to reach out to buyers. A sale won’t bring more buyers unless they know and read about it, often somewhere other than your site.
In Any Economy …
In any economy, it’s important to find who’s buying and who’s selling. This helps creative businesses twofold. For one, you’ve got the buyers looking to save money, so sales on specialty items might catch more interest. Secondly, who’s selling usually means your competition. In any economy unless you are the only cable company in the area or have some sort of government business, you need to know what your competition is doing.
When Your Reworking Your Business Image:
Reach out to buyers whenever you change your image or what you are selling. You sell refurbished computer parts, but push into selling modern, brand new computer equipment. This doesn’t always mean a new image is needed, but often a new look will attract new customers and keep the older, loyal ones too. A business image simply is how you communicate, how you convert readers to buyers, and how you sell your product or service on a daily basis. It can mean a new spokesman, a brand new site, even a brand new base of operations under a new name. Often it’s not drastic, but there is always an opportunity for growth.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 4, How to Write Any Powerful Sales Letter
by Jacob Malewitz
So far this series has focused on both online and print aspects of branding your creative business, of turning any reader into a buyer. You do this by using reader response, developing a niche, and setting yourself up for success with constant communication to the buying market. What do you do at the very start? How can a letter “sell” your product completely? It starts with a promise and ends with an offer.
Promises, Promises:
The art of the promise has led to a true beginning of success for many top businesses across the world. You can’t promise too much or too little. You need something that stands out. In journalism, the promise is like the lead. In fiction, it’s the inciting incident. You have to reach out to a broad area of readers with a few declarative statements explaining more and more about why they need your product/service to truly live. You don’t need skills in any field but good business to do this. A promise simply states something they need. “This is the best deal you’ll read about all year” isn’t terrible, but a better one is “Selling your own web pages can double your income in 6 months, and this program explains how.” That isn’t incredible either, but it used a more ultra specific approach. The devil is in the details with promises.
Pictures:
Imagine a picture that can tell a thousand words … and you’d be close to the picture you need to present to your buyer in the outset. Some companies spend more time on the picture than anything else, even the offer or order device. The picture is integral in offering your potential customer a new reality. You want something that will make them need your product service even more. “Imagine a car lasting ten years without needing gas, driving thousands of miles with no problem, no smoke, no engine alerts, and think how much you’ll save!” That’s offering the reader a new reality, and turning them into buyers.
Proof:
Proof is the most direct of the creative business sales letter approaches. You can’t just say anything you want obviously. Well, you can, but without proof it will not convert most readers. If you say “This car will last ten years with no engine trouble,” you need definitive proof. It comes down to knowing your product or service well, and knowing the experts in the field. If you’re selling a brand new laptop, there are many sites you could ask to review it for you, and based on their positive reviews, you could incorporate outside proof.
USP:
What makes your product or service different? There dozens of cell phone companies, so you need to be different. There are thousands of styles of cars, old and new, so what makes this used vehicle so much better? The unique selling proposition comes down to your product/service not only being different but better. “This car has been proven to last twice as long with no mechanical problems than COMPANY cars.” See how simple it can be?
Offer:
While some work most on the promise, picture, proof, or USP, when you truly offer your product/service, you’re in dangerous territory. The reader is often looking of a reason not to buy it. They read one statement that sounds too good to be true. Or, if the price isn’t reasonable, you lose and the rest of the sales letter is pointless. However, you need not be incredibly creative with the offer. More often than not, don’t hide it, state it. State the price, the complete package, the bonus item(s) you get, and you will turn more readers into buyers.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 5, Writing Style Means Creative Business Profit – Handbook on Style
Style in any creative business letter comes in a variety of ways. You can go in the 1st person, informal “I loved this product, and you will too!” to the more direct third person, formal “This pill has changed lives across the world.” Those are two rough examples of the complex difference between formal and informal writing.
After that comes the writing style itself. The sales letter is one of the most important pieces of paper for any business, and sometimes you need to rework them 10 times or more. If you want to get it right, it takes time and patience. However, there are so many ways to do it, and learn how to, that you’re often confused. When you’re doubting, choose simplicity. This short guide will explain the formal, informal creative business writing strategies, combined with the direct path to simplicity in your writing.
Informal:
Ever get a “charismatic” sales letter that made you fall in love with the sender? It might have been one of those chain mail emails you’re supposed to send to 10 others for luck. Or maybe it was the orphanage in Kenya in need of support, and a young doctor trying to save lives there explaining how she thinks you can help. That’s informal at its most powerful. Personal. Compelling. Needed.
The best route in writing informally is with the charismatic sales approach. You let the reader get to see a softer side of you. A 60 year old investor explains how poor he was in his 20s and couldn’t afford to buy a single meal a day. A mother explains how her children could have been saved if they had enough money, or the right doctor. Less dramatically, a father explains how he loves fishing. Whatever it is, you are going personal.
The compelling words you use to tell the story sell themselves. You need to focus on simplicity, explaining yes you do want them to click this ad or send this letter back. You need to sell them on the idea by putting the benefits together for them.
Many products/services are needed, and some aren’t. However, that doesn’t always mean it’s tougher to sell a product that isn’t needed. You just need a different approach to writing, a more celebratory opportunity for wealth or a simple plan that will pay people dividends over the long haul. Needed products are much of the same as unneeded, but you can be more direct with the sale and offer clearer proof and calls to action.
Formal:
Formal is usually the route to go, especially early on with your creative business. If it’s new, you want to sound, more or less, like you know what you are doing from the outset. Going personal can be considered amateurish to some readers, especially if they’ve never heard of your creative business. With a more direct approach, you have a chance of focusing on benefits to readers from start to finish. They don’t have to love your story, just your product or service. They must think it’s valuable. They must think it’s needed to think it will make their lives better. The formal approach works completely on benefits, much like any powerful sales letter. Always, always keep it about benefits.
Many businesses focus on features. Features are “10 inch screen” instead of “Eye Catching Colors with all the Details Captured in a 10 Inch Screen” which is benefits. It’s that simple. You want more benefits than features, making the product or service seem even more valuable because it will, in this case, be the perfect TV to watch movies on, not just another small TV.
Style Handbook Finale:
Building sales letters, whether they’re emails or direct mail letters, will turn into creative business profits. You will learn .You can often do it by yourself, but if you’re not a writer many of these rules will seem foreign. Writing is a business too, and sales letters can be mastered and turn readers into customers written by anyone. You don’t need a master’s in creative writing to promote your business. You will have advantages over some writers with your unique business sense.
If you have done some writing, it doesn’t mean your style is perfect. One useful tool for both is simply reading sales letters out loud. This cuts out the odd phrases you say in your mind that make sense, but sound odd in print. The next step to creative business profits is the idea of volume.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 5, Volume Hits the Mark – SEE it More than once
by Jacob Malewitz
One of the hallmarks of creative business sales letters is getting the buyers to see your promotion more than once. It typically takes 5-10 times for someone to see an ad(s) before they decide to buy it. That means they see a commercial a few times … see your ad in a magazine … receive a few letters from you … notice your site listing … get your emails. Added up, you want a volume to hit them quickly and efficiently. This will make them more than readers turning into buyers. It often means new customers and more word of mouth advertising. If they see your promotion that much, whether they decide to buy or not, they just might tell someone else about the brand new, hot looking cell phone available.
Turning readers to buyers can be taken in a dozen different directions. This article offers a few.
Again, Why Volume?
Still, volume often means a lowering of quality, correct? Not always. Volume can still mean a high quality style, especially if more than one person is working on the promotion. You send out five different direct mail letters written by one person … a few emails put together by a different team … even run radio or TV ads written by one expert copywriter. Volume means more profit, because the market is so bloated you need to up your chances of reader response.
A touch of Quality:
Quality comes in simply by using different forms of the same sales letter. For creative businesses, it can be called the “control,” the most striking way of reaching out to readers. Quality comes from knowing not only the reader, but which readers are buying. You’re style comes in simply from following the basic frameworks of benefits. You don’t always need some huge marketing plan spread across several departments; sometimes you can’t afford that yet. However, if you focus on quality in your creative business sales letters, you will save time and money.
Some sales letters, no matter how strong, fail. This comes down to finding the one which connects with readers. If you’re going to sell to them, they need to take you seriously.
Creatively Make Money Online with Promotions:
The creative business online is the most powerful way other than TV to reach out to new buyers. You can creatively make money online for almost any business here. You sell clothes, some of the best brands with the highest quality for the lowest prices. You offer weekly sales, but no one knows about them. Even department store chains branch out into the online world. It’s a must. More, you get to see much faster which promotions will work. If you mail a sales letter, it could take months to find out if it’s good enough to be the control. If you send an email, you might get some responses within days. Promotions online should be integral to the creative business.
Knock on Readers Doors:
However, finding readers for your direct mail pieces is also powerful. This will be noted in a following guide, but direct mail, surprisingly, still has a higher reader response than email campaigns, averaging about a third better response rate. That a HUGE difference, because 33% more customers is obviously not something to downplay.
Why is this? How much junk mail actually reaches your regular email folder? Of that, how much is even read and not considered spam? This isn’t to say a direct mail promotion is easier, but people see less risks of opening weird viruses, for one, or getting completely ripped off, with a direct mail letter. This will be explored more. However, the computer is still your friend at reaching out to new readers, especially younger ones.
Go to the Computer, Passive Volume:
There are many opportunities beyond simple email campaigns for online media. Maybe the email campaign is a tough one. However, many sites find new customers with their own sign up email lists. This is a highly profitable way to retain readers, even if they’re not ready to become buyers. It also offers you some opportunity to make passive income in the online world. Many sites selling products and/or services also sell ad space. There are many successful creative businesses which make passive income work for them. You can also use affiliate marketing to create income outset your main sales profits.
And, not to miss one of the most important parts of online media, the PPC ad is more trustworthy than a unsolicited email campaign. A PPC ad has much less time to grab readers, but if it sparks their interest it often turns them into buyers.
Specialize, Make Yourself Unique:
Volume doesn’t mean making your creative business the be-all-end-all of sales. It often comes down to specializing in certain fields. Even major online retailers sell most of their products in certain categories. Amazon sells books and DVDs at high rates, for example, and that once was the focus until they expanded. So, you can branch out, but if you have a new creative business, focus on your high end products. Use your volume sales campaign, both online media and print sales letters, to make this niche noticed. Amazon is the place to buy books online. What’s your main appeal? What product or service will you be the expert on in ten years? The more you specialize early on, the better chance you have to branch out in the future to similar fields. Volume doesn’t mean doing everything; it means trying to sell a lot of some high end products.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 6, The Direct Mail Reality
by Jacob Malewitz
Direct mail is a multi-billion dollar market, and the focus for many years of countless creative businesses. Often these products turn into money makers simply because of one sales letter. It comes down to the hallmark of business sales writing. You give a promise … create a picture … offer real proof … make your product different with a USP ... then directly make the offer. If it sounds complicated, it is. However, the reality is the basic direct mail letter is still one of the best ways for both new and old creative businesses to obtain higher profits. Nowhere is turning readers into buyers more paramount than with the direct mail letter. If they read, and you sell, that’s a conversion you can take to the bank. This article offers unique ways to truly build creative business profit with the powerful direct mail letter.
What is It?
Simply, direct mail is a path to marketing your creative business. No way is more proven to increase sales than a simple direct mail letter. That does depend on the market and the product. Restaurants send out simple brochures occasionally, and no sales letters are usually needed. However, stock broker companies, new career options, choosing colleges—these businesses all use direct mail letters. They need to be written powerfully, and few direct mail campaigns succeed with their first letter. However, with the control, the sales letter most responded to, you will see a constant spike in sales. Some letters are used for a decade. One famous letter by Mastercard brought in billions of dollars in profits. One letter!
Other Elements of Direct Mail Letters:
We know the promise, picture, proof, USP, and offer. Those are the hallmarks of sales. There are many other components to a successful direct mail letter. There is the Order Device, the option to buy given after the close of the letter. The gate, a letter written by someone else who knows the product well and offers a different perspective on it. There is all the possibility of using a separate page for endorsements and testimonials, to make sure the reader can trust the product.
Email is the name of the game …
As noted earlier in this series on creative business sales letters, email campaigns often get less response than direct mail! Surprised? In a recent study by copywriting company AWAI, it was noted that direct mail letters often have a 33% higher rate of reader response. However, these are still two different markets, and two to be used in conjunction. Still, a third more response means much more profit. That’s the reality: creative businesses often need direct mail letters because of that.
You’re Selling—Don’t Avoid the Offer:
Direct mail comes down to making money. Those reading the letter will obviously understand you want them to buy your product, or sign up for a service. There are many creative copywriters who fail to grasp this obvious point, hiding the details of the offer. It’s still about money; the offer should be the most direct piece of this letter.
You’re Making it Unique:
Direct mail letters also have more room to make the letters unique than many other business letter forms. Email campaigns with 10 pages may be glanced over. Catalogues may get a brief look. Radio and TV ads may be ignored entirely. The reality is you have more room to truly make your offer. This doesn’t mean write 10 or more pages every time, but it does mean you have the chance to improve profits.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 7, Email Campaigns Do Work!
By Jacob Malewitz
Recent articles in this set have said “no” the email campaign isn’t better! Direct mail … SEO web copy … blogging … they each have their own advantages and disadvantages. No, email campaigns aren’t superior, but neither should they be ignored. In terms of sales letters, few are more cost effective. An email letter may not get as high a response as a direct mail letter, but it may get a faster rate of response and be more economical to use for newer creative businesses. At its best, it points to a landing page. At its worst, it’s too short or too long and ignores the simple rules of business media online. This guide will explain the reasons to use the email campaign, while also offering powerful tips on making yours work.
Why Email?
Why use email campaigns? The world is evolving, and much of that is occurring online. We can get news faster, watch any videos we want, order anything we want—the list goes on. Email campaigns, much like blogging, are simply the next step toward making your creative business powerful in the online marketplace. Email campaigns can be turned out weekly, with new products constantly. And email campaigns can keep you in touch with your buyers … quickly explain new sales … and can reach a regular inbox as easily as a spam folder. Spam?
Stay Away From Spam:
Spam is your mortal enemy when it comes to email campaigns. The best email campaigns are subscriber based. People don’t open many emails they receive, especially those in the spam folder. There are routes to stay out of that folder, though first you should sign people up instead of sending thousands of emails out to buyers. This cuts out having to find mailing lists of potential clients. If they sign up, they want to read more. If they don’t, either they need to know more about your product or your landing page isn’t strong enough.
Tips on Spam:
There are many theories on staying out of the spam folder. One useful way is to avoid using words you would see in your own spam folder. Odd titles like “You’re hired” often go to the spam folder. So does “Free,” and many words/phrases involving money like “You Won!”.
Writing the Letter:
You still need to get your email opened, so what next? Simply create a powerful title which makes the reader interested. In a article for copywriting firm AWAI, author and copywriter Steven Slaunwhite noted that asking questions often lead to curious readers opening the email. Why? Friends and family send emails to each other: “How are you? How is the job going? What are you up to?” Obviously, you don’t want to pretend you’re someone else just to get an email opened. However, asking something like “Are you happy with your career?” may make them curious. Curiosity is the hallmark of many writing forms, and it’s no different with creative businesses.
Slaunwhite also noted two important points in his AWAI article. “Write a letter, not an ad” and “Don’t be afraid to go long.” The first one makes sense: you need to use charisma and curiosity to keep the reader moving through your email. If they think you’re only out for their money, like many other businesses, it may put them off. So tell a unique story. Offer an immediate promise of benefits and a new reality.
Also, your letter shouldn’t be too long or too short. My personal view is shorter copy online usually works better. Most pages are 400-500 words, and if it’s longer it might not get read. However, if the web copywriter has some talent, he/she often works better with a little more length in an email letter. It depends on the product/service as well. The old line on any copy is that long copy often sells better than short copy. You have more room to show the complete package.
What do they sell?
Email campaigns often sell get rich quick schemes, the negative, but also go right to buyers with simple emails on new products. Simplicity is your friend in email campaigns. There is no rule on what you are selling, only that you should make it available online if you’re emailing the offer to them.
How Much?
Email campaigns can completely turn around lagging creative business sales. A good email campaign letter opens up a new market. All creative businesses with online presences should use a powerful email campaign to remind buyers of them. Yes, we are still here and have sales all the time. Or, we’re still here and we’re still the best in the market.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 8, SEO Power: Blogging, Landing Pages, Copy
by Jacob Malewitz
SEO, search engine optimized, is yet another new reality hitting the creative business. If your plan is to go online and profit, mastering the SEO is the first step toward online creative business profit. It starts with effective copy, then moves to strong landing pages improving your income, and lastly it’s about using the power of blogging and social media to turn readers into customers from day one onward. This guide opens up a new world for the creative business seller, and it’s one here to stay.
Online Copy:
Online copy is different from print copy. Print copy is the brochures you get in the mail … the catalogues … the direct mail letters from credit card companies to even magazines asking for you to subscribe. Online copy comes down to the internet page. It still has rules. Some think online copy should be shorter. Some say online copy is more profitable than print. And many say it’s more cost effective.
Shorter copy is still a challenge, especially with an expensive product/service. If you’re selling business reports for $100 a copy, and try to use one page to sell it, you may be in for a surprise. On the other hand, if you try and sell a $5 item with ten pages, you’re usually wasting some time. The more expensive the product, the more the reader needs to be ”sold” prior to being converted.
In creative business terms, it’s still a sales letter. You might try the informal first person approach to make your company seem real. You might simply pull on reader’s curiosity about some new business model. Whatever you do, it’s rare for powerful sales letters of any length with useful products to completely fail. You might rework them, but creative business profit will come in most any economy and market. One of the most important facets of online copy is the landing page.
Landing Pages:
Landing pages are where the true SEO power will be seen. Creative business direct mail letters often focus most on making the offer and order device powerful; these are two of the most important pieces to any sales letter. With landing pages, you’re using keywords to still get new readers, but you’re also focusing on converting the customer. Conversions mean a reader has become a buyer, and something you’re doing is right. Some businesses thrive on landing pages more than any other pages, because the reality is they’re the true money makers. It’s also an important field for the modern web copywriter; it’s a focus for thousands.
Social Media – The Blogging Element
Blogging is something all creative business can explore. It’s the perfect way to convert readers to buyers. And it comes down to using SEO keyword power to promote your business. You can hire professional web designers and bloggers, but a simple page highlighting what your creative business does, with press releases and keyword rich articles, is most cost effective. You can get ad free blogs for free or incredible prices. Wordpress and Blogger should be your two first choices. Social media also means promoting these blogs too. That means using keyword rich articles in conjunction with an advertising campaign. You want to use both formal and informal writing for your blog. A personal letter from the company head, even if ghost written, on why this product or service is the best is one clear way to get reader response. This is a smaller way to make a profit. You usually send potential buyers to a landing page or ask for them to sign up via email. Yet social media and blogging combined with keywords bring you different kinds of customers.
In short, blogging and social media are cost effective, sometimes free forms of advertising.
Keyword Usage:
Lastly, keywords are your bread and butter with most online copy. Some smaller businesses with a focus on selling to people in the area use state and city names as keywords. “Plumbing” becomes “New York City Plumbing.” That actually works, unless you get repetitive. Pushing keywords into anything can hurt your ranking in search engines. You want to be as specific and precise as possible when using keywords. Using general keywords like “careers” will not make your business stand out in any form. Go for ultra specificity, and take time honing the right keywords.
Creative Business Reader to Buyer Part 8, Creative Business Marketing Conclusions
by Jacob Malewitz
Turning readers to buyers is the prime point of most online businesses. It comes down to successfully marketing your company and company image. You need specificity .You need an online presence. You need to use many forms of both paid and free advertising solutions. This final article on the creative business sales letter offers lasting tips for a changing marketplace.
Surviving – The New Creative Business:
If you’re developing a new creative business, it’s often exciting and terrifying. Whatever the product or service you’re using, it often comes down to surviving the twists and turns of a changing marketplace. No matter what you do, failing to reach out initially hurts you in the long run. To survive, you first need buyers, then repeat buyers, and then new buyers again. It comes down to creative business marketing. You need something different. You need to show a unique selling proposition from older, more established companies.
Profit and the Small Business Online:
Small businesses, no matter how old or young, often fail to capture new potential markets. For example, many local business have never sent you a simple letter in the mail. Or have they? Note which ones did and didn’t. If you bought something from them, did they ask for an email? That’s one hint you’re looking at a creative business marketing itself both online and print. Such companies often reach out to former buyers again and again, pointing out specials and sales. Profit for small businesses today often means looking to the online world. It will keep you out of the red, and make sure you’re in the black.
Work From Home Marketing:
Even more businesses are using the work from home approach. This often isn’t just one person selling services or products. Some employees take computers to home. Some network online and across the world. However, working from home is making more and more sense for creative businesses. It means cutting down on certain expenses while opening up more approaches to online business.
Talent – Using Copywriters:
Since the whole basis of this series is on sales letters, who should you hire? Often it takes years for talented copywriters to become incredibly valuable to creative businesses. You will likely, or already are, work with a multitude of talents. You may have hired out to graphic designers for your websites, specialized companies for your business cards, and firms for your brochures. Treat the copywriter the same way. They are often the most important person in the entire creative business marketing process.
