Eager to jumpstart your content marketing efforts for 2015? The quality of your blog posts and the topics that you choose will be more important than ever for the success of your website. Google started a SEO transformation several years ago and today, the process seems to be complete. Content has gained central position when it comes to optimization and promotion. Do you know, however, what it will take to make your blog successful in 2015?
1. Length and Quality
Quality content is focused and lacking fluff. This doesn’t mean, however, that the pieces should be short.
SerpIQ statistics show that the top 10 Google search results for particular keywords are usually about 2,000 words long. Longer posts provide more flexibility in terms of keyword placement and they also boost the audience’s engagement. The conclusion is simple to make – write at least 1,500 words per blog post. If you have detailed knowledge of the particular topic, you’ll find the task to be a relatively simple one.
Longer posts increase your chances of getting quality backlinks, they are shared more often and they will probably be quoted by others, as well. Make sure that you have a unique approach and look at the topic. The more original and in-depth your blog posts are, the more valuable they’re going to be.
2. Have a Distribution Plan
Good content is essential but how about coming up with the right distribution plan? Knowing how and where to share your content will boost visibility and make it much easier for you to establish that loyal audience.
Content creation doesn’t end when the posts are written. Focus a bit more on marketing and selecting the right distribution channels. Social media have become the standard in the field and your pages should have been developed by now. Try distributing your content through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Scoop.it, among many other possibilities. Testing each of the channels and evaluating the response will help you determine which ones deliver the best results in terms of content promotion.
Content distribution doesn’t have to be paid. Syndication and social bookmarking are two quite simple approaches, enabling blog and website owners to reach new, targeted audiences.
3. Content Repurposing
That’s right, content can be repurposed. In fact, this approach will deliver great promotional results in 2015.
Content repurposing doesn’t focus on the creation of new text. It simply makes the blog posts that you already have written available to a bigger number of people. In addition, you can use the content that you already have to create an informative piece for an entirely different medium. A series of blog posts, for example, can easily turn in a podcast.
You can also change the length and the style of blog posts. An interview with an industry expert can easily become an opinion piece later on. You generate original content but you rely on source material that has already been created.
Repurposing comes with a number of key advantages. It’s good for your website’s optimization, it enables you to reach audiences that look for information in different ways, it makes content creation easier and it gives you the possibility to capitalize on the most successful content you’ve written in the past. There’s no need to come up with something brand new each time. Some well-established topics and popular blog posts can easily be repurposed to simplify the task of keeping your blog updated.
4. Go Visual
Are you still relying excessively on text? A few visuals will make your content much more engaging and interactive.
Visuals grab the attention of the website visitor. If people like what they see, they’ll probably go through the text, as well. The human brain processes images faster than text. In fact, it perceives an image in 1/10th of the time needed to understand text.
Statistics suggest that content containing visuals generates up to 94 percent more views than texts that are not accompanied by illustrations or photographs. Content that has both photos and videos will get 48 percent more views. Visual content can easily go viral and it will generate more inbound links.
You have so much freedom, when it comes to picking visuals. Illustrations, slideshows, cartoons, diagrams and infographics are all audience favorites. Interactive graphics will be taking your visual content to the next level. These graphics can be clicked to reveal more information, which makes them interactive and highly engaging.
5. Do Competition Analysis Frequently
The online world is highly competitive. You can set your clock by paying attention to what the competition is doing.
If you haven’t been doing competition research until now, you’ve been missing on a huge source of inspiration. The blogs and websites of other entities inside the niche can help you come up with new topics. In addition, you’ll get to assess the audience’s response in order to determine which themes get people interested.
Competition research can also help you come up with partnership ideas. Though many (including Matt Cutts) have claimed that guest posting is dead, this technique can still deliver excellent marketing and optimization results.
Such partnerships give you access to a brand new audience. They result in more popularity for your website or brand. Optimization isn’t everything when it comes to being successful online. Joint efforts in the field of content creation can deliver excellent PR (as in press release rather than PageRank) results without being expensive.
6. Think about the Needs of the Mobile Crowd
So many experts have said that 2015 is going to be the year of mobile. Take this fact in consideration when writing and formatting your copy. The same applies to the design of your website. Make sure that the mobile crowd is finding it easy to access, read and interact with your content.
There have been claims about user experience affecting the Google ranking algorithm for some time. The number of individuals accessing web content through mobile devices is growing all the time. You cannot ignore and underestimate the needs of this audience, especially if you want to make 2015 your most successful year.
Mobile UX may become a ranking signal used by Google. Talk to your webmaster about the mobile design of your website, its load speed and accessibility. A few basic fixes will make it easier for you to address the needs of the mobile crowd and thus avoid a potential penalty.
7. Select the Right Technology and Plugins
Well-researched and well-written content is the heart and soul of every online marketing plan. Apart from paying attention to your writing skills, however, you should also think about the tools boosting the appeal of your content and making the entire process easier.
Need a bit of assistance in terms of plugin and software selection? Here are a couple of great picks that will simplify the content creation process:
Yoast SEO Plugin: it addresses all of your SEO needs in a simple and easy to use functionality. The plugin for Wordpress ads focus keyword, SEO title and meta description fields to each of your posts. Your content gets thorough SEO analysis before being published, enabling you to make necessary fixes. In addition, you’ll get keyword suggestions, enabling you to rank each of your pieces for the right phrases.
Social Metrics Pro: this Wordpress plugin gives you detailed information about how and where your content is being shared. The plugin provides information about sharing on the most popular social network, enabling you to learn what the audience wants and make your content creation efforts more targeted.
Buffer: enables you to do more effective social media marketing. You get to choose the channels for each post and schedule when it’s going to go live. This automation possibility simplifies the task of social media marketing. The app also enables you to reshare older content through the Buffer dashboard, as well.
Editorial Calendar Plugin: this free plugin doesn’t help a lot with content creation or SEO. It, however, plays an important role in helping you organize your efforts. The editorial calendar enables you to write down content ideas and notes about these. The date reminders will let you know when you need to publish a new piece and which topics you’ve been thinking about.
Post List Featured Image: the plugin displays the featured image for each post in the administrative panel, right next to other content characteristics. The thumbnails you get to see side by side give you a really good idea about the images that really pop out and engage the audience. Consider this plugin a visual preview that you can use to make aesthetic adjustments before posting.
Organize Series: a very useful plugin that enables you to create series of posts on the same topic. It gives you a full archive page, as well as information about the posts linked to each other. The plugin is essential for organizing your blog and increasing the logical flow of your content.
Creating excellent blog posts in 2015 will form the backbone of your marketing strategy. Your passion for a topic, writing skills and understanding of contemporary trends will all be essential for making the most of your online presence. The same applies to the selection of the right tools and automation features.
If you’re a retailer, you depend on good copy to help sell your products and services.
With good copywriting, you can garner interest in your brand, cultivate trust, and provide value to your audience. In turn, these aspects make them more likely to pull the trigger. This is when leads convert to sales, and you score.
Fantastic retail copywriting, however, is what sets apart the merely successful from the true stars of the market.
However, that level of writing is often hard to achieve. In short, you need the pros.
This is where a content creation and copywriting service swoops in to help you.
At Express Writers, we’re staffed with skilled scribes who know how to write engaging copy. We employ slick sentences, nimble turns-of-phrase, and alluring adjectives to present valuable information to your customers.
We write copy that gets you noticed. We do this in a few different ways, including using the same techniques that the big retailers use.
Get the gist of what we offer, then find out which major brands we love to emulate.
What Express Writers Offers for Retail Copywriting
Our Content Shop is a treasure trove if you’re looking for great retail copywriting. Just a few of our offerings include:
We write your copy so you don’t have to, and we write it professionally. This means you’ll be a step above your competitors with snazzy copy that holds attention. It’s clean writing that alternately entices and engages your readers.
Your copy will be unique to your business and what you’re selling. Whether you offer products or services, we’ll make them desirable. We’ll answer the readers’ questions and position you not only as useful, but necessary to your potential customers.
Our Track Record
We have helped thousands of clients edge out the competition with solid, smart, well-written copy that’s SEO-ready and optimized for discovery.
Our successes are proven: our services have given clients boosts like high conversion rates, big increases in revenue, saved time, and high-ranking pages. We have worked with brands big and small and helped speed their way to standing out among their peers.
Our services make it possible – we’re ultra-flexible and can give you just what you need.
Our Products and Services for Retail Copywriting
You’ll find all kinds of options for custom retail copywriting in our Content Shop.
Product Descriptions
Excellent product descriptions highlight what you’re selling in a way that makes them unique but understandable. Customers will quickly get the gist of key features with well-written descriptions, but, more importantly, they’ll be enticed to click “Add to Cart.”
Ad Copywriting
You only have one chance to grab attention with your click-through ads. With professional ad copywriting, we write the kind of creative, fun, targeted copy that gets web users to stop scrolling, take a closer look, and click.
Web Pages
If you want to grab the customers who are looking for businesses like yours, you need SEO-friendly web pages that are easy on the eyes. We write readable, professional, custom copy that is up to Google’s high standards. This means more traffic and conversions for you.
At Express Writers, we know quality retail copywriting. As such, we’ve collected some of our favorite examples of awesome brands doing it right. When we work for you, we’ll aim to emulate these successful brands by using their tried-and-true techniques.
5 Examples of Big-Time Brands that Nail Retail Copywriting
According to Econsultancy, there is a formula to great retail copywriting. It includes:
A unique approach
A knowledgeable perspective
Seamless keywords
A readable format
An inviting, friendly tone of voice
Not too much technical jargon
Some of the best brands out there nail every aspect – and they make it look easy.
1. Apple
Time after time, Apple keeps on producing crisp, clean copy that grabs your attention and holds it. In fact, their words are like their products: sleek, crafted, and to-the-point.
But what are the nitty-gritty reasons behind why Apple’s retail copywriting works effortlessly? According to Kissmetrics, it’s based on a couple of key techniques:
There’s always one big idea. For example, in the above screengrab, the idea is simple: the iPad Pro is just like the older model, but better. With it, you can still carry out all the tasks you used to do – just better.
Sentences are short and broken. Most of the ideas Apple puts out there are rather abrupt in their wording. However, they all give you the sense that the company is making a firm, bold statement that they absolutely stand behind. They’re not suggesting, they’re telling.
The copy is memorable. The line “Anything you can do, you can do better” is not just catchy. It actually riffs off memorable song lyrics from the Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun. As such, it has a ring to it. It sticks in your head. Of course, that’s totally the point.
2. ModCloth
If there was an award for “best use of plays-on-words in product descriptions,” women’s clothing retailer ModCloth would win it.
Just listen to the names of some of these clothing pieces:
The Flair and Back A-Line Dress
Pull Up a Cherry A-Line Dress
Flourishing Flirtation Top
Patio Chatting Tank Top
According to Hubspot, ModCloth accomplishes enticing product names and descriptions because they know their buyer persona inside-out. This includes what will appeal to them. They know that the gals who shop their website are smart and savvy – and they run with it.
3. UncommonGoods
UncommonGoods immediately grabs your attention on their homepage with their unique product categories. Instead of settling for your standard “men,” “women,” etc., they instead zero-in on fun categories that directly appeal to special interests.
It’s fun and a little silly to name your “bestsellers” category “Selling Like Hotcakes!” – but it totally works.
4. Old Spice
Old Spice has set themselves apart from other men’s brands by just plain going for it. Their wacky, hilarious ad copy is everything from attention-grabbing to tongue-in-cheek.
Just look at that tagline in the screengrab: “Don’t smell yourself short.” It’s simple, memorable, witty, and funny. Old Spice’s ad copy takes itself incredibly seriously, but that’s part of the joke – and you can tell that they’re laughing right along with us.
5. Avocode
Avocode is nailing the simple, straight-to-the-point strategy. Combined with their clever and cool name, their copy tells you, in plain language and large font, exactly what they can do for you in one sentence.
As Kissmetrics notes, it’s not pushy or complicated, and it doesn’t scream for your attention. It tells it like it is.
Unsurprisingly, this makes you feel like their program might be equally as simple to use. That’s just smart retail copywriting.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Learn which brands are killing it at retail #copywriting in this post from @ExpWriters!” quote=”Learn which brands are killing it at retail #copywriting in this post from @ExpWriters!”]
How to Emulate the Pros and Get Effective, Attention-Grabbing Copy
If you want to emulate the big guns and cultivate creative copy that translates into a tidy ROI, you totally can.
There are a few basic principles to follow.
1. Keep It Concise
Short and to-the-point is always better than long-winded and rambling when it comes to good copy.
As you probably noticed from the examples above, keeping it short keeps things punchy. After all, which is more likely to grab your eye: a huge wall of text explaining a product or service in fine detail, or a short sentence that captures its essence in one try?
2. Be Creative
Creativity will take you far with retail copy. Creativity is what makes you stand out from the pack. It’s what sets your message apart from the thousands of other brands that are similar to yours.
3. Be Approachable
Don’t be afraid to poke fun at yourself, and maintain a friendly tone. Approachable writing makes people feel warm and welcome – it invites them in and draws them closer.
4. Consider Your Target
Don’t write for teenagers if teenagers aren’t your target audience. Pay attention to exactly who you’re addressing with your retail copywriting, and think long and hard about what will appeal to them.
5. Hire Fantastic Writers
If you want to skip the hard parts and let someone else do the creative legwork for you, then you should hire fantastic writers to make your copy sing.
At Express Writers, our team is ready and waiting to take your retail copy needs and run with them. We have a variety of products and writing services that can get you noticed in the best way possible.
So, what are you waiting for?
To kick-start your retail copywriting, visit our Content Shop today and get rolling on your way to new heights with great copy.
But, the bright side of making mistakes is that we learn how to correct them and in doing so become slightly better at avoiding those mistakes in the future (usually).
In content creation, there are a lot of mistakes that inundate the Internet, unfortunately. My mind and soul cringes as I discover them. From the simplistic ones regarding spelling and grammar to the more complicated ones that impact our SEO validity, mistakes are a pain in the side of any content creator.
And it’s not just one person. Content creators the world over suffer from the same problems that you do regarding content creation.
10 of the Worst, Eye-Digging, Bad-Bad-Bad Content Mistakes
Let’s take a look at ten of the worst content mistakes I’ve ever come across. (Beware: it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.)
1: Duplicate Content. Ah, this evil beast. From an SEO perspective, this is a capital sin and one that many content creators and blog owners fall victim to all too often. Duplicate content hurts your search ranking and can lead to erroneous search results. Redirection tags and multiple hosted copies of a home page can lead to terrible problems when a search engine is trying to reference your actual home page. It can be something as simple as a double-posted blog entry that could lead to the dreaded duplicate content error in your site.
From a marketer’s point of view, you’re probably going to need to have a handful of home pages in order to gauge the effectiveness of any particular one. The problem arises when you forget to state these pages as non-indexed one to the search engine robots. The result is that you can have multiple copies of your home page being referenced and one may be a draft or incomplete one. Leaving the decision to the robots on the search engine means that they could be sending users to your unfinished landing page, leaving them with a horrible impression of your site. In the blogger’s case, multiple posts can easily be detected and removed, but only if you know your post was double-posted. Keeping an eye on your site helps you to avoid these issues.
2: Too Much & Bad Backlinking. Backlinks are very important in determining the usefulness of a site and how well it shows up on search engine rankings. The trustworthiness of a site comes down to how well it backlinks to other sites. Creating backlinks that incorporate spammy sites, link directories or ad-heavy sites drives a site down the search rankings. When you’re creating backlinks, you should really examine where your backlinks are coming from to ensure you don’t get flagged as an untrustworthy site.
Creating a backlink history that is on the up-and-up requires some research into where you’re linking to. Always try to keep authority sites at the top of your link data. For content that already exists, you should ensure that the links that exist in these content pieces are viable and do not link to any shady sites. Using utilities such as SEMRush aids in creating a backlink report that can help you to weed out these bad backlinks. It’s a time consuming process, but in order to keep your ranking intact, it’s a necessary one.
3: Over-Optimization of Keywords. This one makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out. Seriously. There’s nothing much worse (except maybe my first two points).
Creating a page that has a plethora of good information does require you to use keywords to aid in finding the information when a search engine user requests it. But in the past, throwing together a handful of keywords and using them inside the text of the landing page was usually what you needed in order to place high up on the search rankings. Eventually, the focus moved away from keywords and into a combination of factors. This came about because of the abuse of keyword stuffing in the early days of search engine optimization. Over-optimization of keywords occurs when you have more than one page with the same targeted keyword. The search engine doesn’t know which one of your pages is the main site and so you are left with pot luck as to what the search engine decides is the more relevant site, which may not be the one you want to appear there.
Proper SEO practice requires you to use different targeted keywords for different pages in order to ensure a situation like this does not arise. Over-optimizing your site for your keywords can have a massively detrimental impact on your search engine results and your overall SEO strategy. As a technical content error it can be a lot harder to spot, requiring constant vigilance over your SEO results and targeted keyword seeding.
4: Too Many Links Off The Home Page. This might seem counter intuitive after having described how important backlinks are, but having too many links from your home page makes your page hard to navigate. Links serve as incoming traffic points and outgoing traffic locales. The more there are, the more areas that you send traffic out to. However, by limiting your links, you are able to direct a larger amount of traffic to the pertinent sites instead of trying to create a link storm that doesn’t really send significant traffic anywhere.
Building links is important, but too many links results in a page that is difficult for your reader to navigate and even harder for a search engine to rank. Link building, therefore, should be done in moderation and the locations to your links chosen carefully to align with your overall SEO strategy. You can easily determine if you’ve over-linked on your homepage by using the Moz Tool Diagnostics Summary. It will also inform you if you have too few links on the page. Maintaining a healthy balance of links on your home page is very important to making your page successful, so doing too much or too little does register as a bad content error.
5: Spammy Title Tags. Grrr. I hate this one too. And so does Google.
Title tags are supposed to be embedded descriptors that aid a search robot in indexing the titles on your page. When developing title tags you need to strike a balance. They must not be too wordy (over 60 characters) or you risk Google rewriting them and you losing the impact of your title. They should also be unique for each page that you have, since overlapping title tags have their own associated problems.
Duplicate title tags can lead to Google indexing multiple pages as the home page or the targeted keyword page. It can also lead to Google indexing the wrong page and this, in turn, leads to a lot of confused users that end up on one of your content pages instead of your home page. Create title tags that are concise and to the point for each one of your pages. Don’t overdo the titles since you shouldn’t really cross sixty characters in length. Anything longer than that is simply begging the search engine to truncate it. This leads to a loss in impact and a very unprofessional outlook when users see your page show up in search engine results.
6: Bad Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation. On the Internet it’s a commonplace situation to see social media blowing up over simple grammatical and spelling errors. When it comes to content production, proof reading goes a long way towards ensuring that the content you have is properly capitalized, grammatically sound and doesn’t contain any typos. We as writers knows how hard it is to write for hours without a typo. It’s nearly impossible to do so, but if you’re posting things to a blog, it’s your duty to ensure that the post is at least grammatically sound.
The reason why good grammar and spelling (and to a lesser extent punctuation) is important is the nature of our business: we create content that informs people. People are less likely to take you seriously if your content is riddled with spelling errors and subject-verb disagreements. In creating the content you are responsible for it being readable. Communication that is unreadable is worthless and your content is communication in its most basic form. All it takes to avoid this content error is a quick proof-reading of your work. If you have more time, you would be well advised to give it to an independent pair of eyes for scanning.
7: Low Quality Content or Just Plain Bad Content. Content creators build content from the ground up that is designed to give our readers value when they read it. To this end, if we create content that is no benefit to anyone, then what good is the content that we create? Good content should do one of three things. It should inform the user to a new situation developing, teach the user something they did not know before or give the user an opinion of a particular situation or product. If content does not do any one of these three things it immediately becomes bad content.
The quality of your content affects how inclined a visitor is to stay on your site. If your content is all of the “bad” variety then it’s unlikely you’ll have a visitor staying for any length of time since it doesn’t benefit them in any way. In creating good content you should focus on the user. What does the user get out of this content? Will it benefit him or her in the long run? Users are human first and we should create content that stirs them, that informs them and that gives value to their lives. Anything else just makes your site trashy and liable to be ignored by users. Avoiding this problem is as simple as asking yourself, “Who does this content benefit, and how?”
8: Long Page Load Times. Page load times might not seem like an issue with high speed Internet available almost all over, but you’d be wrong. Users have grown used to being able to access web pages quickly, and if your page takes longer than two seconds to show signs of life, users quickly discard the page and go back to their search results. The users that you lose the most through poor page load times are mobile users, but desktop users are just as bad. The fact that their Internet is many times faster than mobile users might lower that two-second window to just one.
Page load time problems are usually signs of poorly built web pages or pages that are hosted on servers that are sluggish to respond. However, it could also be due to internal coding within the webpage itself. Utilizing tools to determine why your page is loading slowly can aid you in isolating the problem which you can then go about fixing. Page code optimization can be done yourself, but if it’s a server-side problem, your only redress would be moving your hosting to a company that has a better response time on average.
9: Unreasonable Expectations from SEO. SEO is not a silver bullet. It’s not a quick cure nor a panacea that will fix all your traffic problems. SEO is a tool, and like any tool, you must be aware of its limitations. Using SEO is the first step in improving your page rank, but it is not the last step by a long shot. SEO allows your pages and sites to be more findable for the people who are looking for your particular set of skills. You can’t expect to implement SEO and within a month have ten times as much users: that is a pipe dream.
A realistic expectation of SEO is that it can boost traffic through search engines through your site in the long run. This means that you have to adopt the idea of continually updating and improving your SEO strategy. Gone are the days when you could use algorithm exploits to trick the search engine to display your site as one of the top ten in a particular keyword niche. Now if you want traffic from a search engine, you have to earn it, and it is not an easy road. SEO won’t fix your UI problems, your site design problems and it won’t make your content less boring. Before you implement SEO you need to fix those things first or else SEO won’t be able to help you at all. Avoiding this pitfall is as simple as being honest with yourself regarding what you can expect from a well-planned SEO strategy.
10: Evaluating Content Solely from an Analytics Standpoint. Really, people? Aren’t we past relying on robots when it comes to content? I also (really) hate this one.
Content is more than words on a page. It’s more than a collection of targeted keywords. This isn’t 1995 anymore, a page stuffed with only keywords is going to drop you to the very bottom of the search engine rankings for that keyword.
I will tell you this with a completely serious face: content is alive, it breathes, it grows and feeds off the energy of the backlinks that support it. When you’re evaluating your content, you have to look beyond the numbers and see the importance of its existence.
Numbers are important too. From an SEO perspective the numbers behind your keywords, the cost-per-click and the volume of the search results can give you a general idea of what works and what doesn’t. Analytics will tell you traffic signals of incoming and outgoing links as well as the veracity of your backlinks. But these are all sides to the main course, the content itself. Your content must provide value. It must be interesting and it must keep the reader engaged. Without that, your statistics will just tell you that your content is underperforming. It’s up to you as a content creator to understand why and to take appropriate measures to fix it.
Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Fix Your Mistakes With a Content Audit and Continue
Your best guarantee for as close to 100% error-free content, from your blog or website, is by investing in a content audit. Just be sure you aren’t hiring a machine. A real, SEO-knowledgeable person should be conducting the audit and giving you real recommendations, like replacing duplicate meta tags or writing a new page for that duplicate piece of content (and naming that specific page).
Content creation mistakes are not limited to any one portion of the content creation spectrum. We all make mistakes. Whether it’s a technical mistake, a content-based mistake or even a simply thing like spelling and punctuation, we all make them. We are only human and we must accept that sometimes we fall short of our own expectations. What we can do, however, is to keep an eye out of these mistakes that may lurk in the shadows, and stamp them out when we find them. With any luck we can manage to avoid having these horrible practices trip us up and lead us to a fall.
This week, I’m taking a look at the Super Bowl XLIX ads, specifically looking at the buzz surrounding all the ad spots during the game. Some had high activity levels, others were shared for not-so-good reasons. There were a couple ads I personally loved, as a writer and content marketer. Keep reading. I’d also love to hear in the comments which ones you especially liked!
Highest Activity Ad, and my second favorite: Budweiser Lost Dog Superbowl Commercial
View the MarketingLand article on how this adspot came to be the top online performer.
The “Loser” of the Superbowl Ads: Make Safe Happen by Nationwide
That said about the apparent loser, I have a personal differing opinion. As a mom of an almost-one-year-old, I sympathize and respect their message. There are so many ways a little child can die (yes, die) that it’s inhumane not to raise awareness and try to help prevent some of these easily avoidable unfortunate circumstances from happening. On the other hand, I thought ads like the Carls Jr. Naked Woman Going Through A Farmers Market (not the title, but that’s what it really is) was a lot more controversial, especially if you’re showing these to an audience of all ages.
My Top Favorite: Weight Watchers “All You Can Eat.”
This was their first advertisement on a Superbowl. Dubbed a “succulent smack-down of fast food”, this killer ad nailed a big problem facing America: bad food choices on all sides of us. From the script to every scene cut, this ad was brilliant and bold, raw, direct and hitting. Just what I like. (Oh, and did you know Jesse from Breaking Bad voiced the script?)
And finally, some excellent resource articles relatable to every business owner about the Super Bowl ads:
Super Bowl Commercials With Hashtags Slipped To 50% In 2015 by Martin Beck on Marketing Land. An informative piece that reviews how not everyone jumped on the social publicity that all the ads tried to push. Surprisingly, Facebook was the most mentioned social network (with all the hashtags, I instantly suspected Twitter would have been).
Whether you’ve read his stories or not, Neil Gaiman is a known name in the literary world and I am certain you’ve seen his name when shopping at local bookstores. He has written countless books such as Coraline and Stardust and has won many awards including the Newberry and Carnegie Medals. He has written graphic novels, short stories, novels, and even collaborated with multiple famous authors including Terry Pratchett and George R. R. Martin.
4 Ways Neil Gaiman Wins at Copywriting
Neil Gaiman is an excellent source of inspiration for all writers including us copywriters! Let’s take a look at how Neil Gaiman does amazing copywriting.
Neil Gaiman Knows How to Use Social Media. If you haven’t heard much about Neil Gaiman outside of his books, then you might not realize that this author is tops at social media. He takes occasional breaks from the web because his Twitter is not just his business of writing, but also personal. However, when he is active, he is very active and engages with fans. He regularly tweets and re-tweets fans, and responds to their comments.If you happen to say his introduction to the anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 was beautiful, he will respond thanking you. If you mention something that you found funny in his books or his latest book, he will re-tweet it. Neil Gaiman understands that engaging with his readership is a vital part of becoming and staying a popular author. Sure, his writing can stand alone and bring in many readers, but how many people would truly read his books if he didn’t regularly engage with them.This shows just how important social media is, as well as how important client engagement is for your business. Engaging with clients can help them feel like they are being heard and that there truly is a person behind the brand. It creates a relationship between brand and client that can be absolutely vital to a business’s success!
He Gives Regular Advice to Young Authors. Another thing Mr. Gaiman does is pay attention to his fans who want to become authors. He gives regular advice to young authors about how to write great short stories or novels, and has written countless blog posts and articles giving these tips. He even made a commencement speech encouraging young authors, and artists, to keep making good art.His simple rules for writing include writing one word, then a following word, and so on. He also encourages people to be willing to laugh at their own jokes and be fine with any mistakes they make. We all know that we’ve made mistakes and that even some of the more popular writers, filmmakers, and CEOs have made mistakes as well!This is a great example of giving your client base something that they want and need. Neil Gaiman knows that in order to cultivate his amazingly creative fan base, he needs to give them helpful advice and he is more than willing to do that. In fact, he regularly states that if it weren’t for Terry Pratchett, he wouldn’t be where he is today, and he wants to be helpful to others as Terry was to him. Use this as inspiration to write content that will provide real value to your client base. Give them DIY tips or advice on things that pertain to your industry – trust me, they’ll greatly appreciate it! They will even begin to see you as a trusted source when you do this.
He Discusses What He is Passionate About. While Neil Gaiman loves writing fantasy and science fiction stories, he also enjoys writing blogs and articles about his passions. It doesn’t take much research to realize that Mr. Gaiman has an absolute passion about the need for libraries. Recently, in the United Kingdom, many libraries were either being closed or on the verge of being closed due to various factors. This upset Neil quite a bit, as well as many others. He wrote an article about the need for libraries and even the need of daydreaming. In another article, he wrote about the importance of fiction in the world.What can you learn from this? You might not be writing articles on libraries or fiction books, but when you write content for your readers, you want to write high-quality pieces. How can you do this? By writing on a topic you have a passion for. Your passion will come through your writing easily when you do this, which can help craft excellent and compelling pieces for your blogs, as well as any guest blogs you do.
He Knows the Importance of Collaboration. One thing Neil Gaiman does a lot of is collaboration with other authors. This is something many authors might do at some point in their career, but many only do it once or avoid it all together. Neil Gaiman stands out because he seems to enjoy it. In fact, his very first book was a collaboration with his dear friend Terry Pratchett on the book Good Omens. He has since collaborated with Mr. Pratchett more and has done others with writers such as George R. R. Martin. He also collaborated on a book of short stories based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft with Sherlock Holmes as the main protagonist in the book Shadows Over Baker Street.Neil Gaiman has had incredible success with his collaborations and is a great example of why you should be teaming up with others in your industry. George R. R. Martin and Terry Pratchett could easily be considered Gaiman’s competitors, but they all know that collaborating together helps them all out in the end. Take some time to think about some awesome collaborations with those in your industry or even organizations such as humane societies and other charities.
Use Neil Gaiman as Your Inspiration for Content!
Take this chance to implement a few things that Neil Gaiman does into your very own copywriting strategy. By engaging with fans, using social media, and writing about topics you have a passion for, you will be able to create and maintain a successful strategy. You will notice that you bring in more readers, and those readers might just turn into awesome, life-long customers!
