Most of the time, people assume one of two things about copywriters. Either we work four hours a week and lounge around in our PJ’s or we’re workaholics who have no free time to watch TV. Actually, we’re neither – we’ve probably got a very strong work ethic Writing, but I take time out to watch my favorite shows – one of which being House.
House and Copywriting?
What can House teach you about copywriting? Being curmudgeonly can get you what you want? Antisocial is good? Perhaps it can teach you that cheating is good?
Actually, none of these. I’m not talking about the character House – I’m talking about the structure of the program.
With the exception of a very few episodes, House is a standalone mini-story, with a larger overall story arc. The premise set out at the beginning of the show is solved and the story progresses.
So what’s that got to do with copywriting and content?
Any copywriter worth their salt will tell you two things about content – there’s always an overall message (story arc) and that the premise laid out at the beginning of the article is to solve Creative Business Name
Your Client’s Overall Message
Finding the overall message of content can be difficult – especially if your client doesn’t have a vision or mission statement to share with you. It’s important of course to ensure that if they don’t provide one, you consider using one that’s ‘stock’ – the expertise story arc, the knowledge is power story arc, or the quality story arc (or a blend of the three).
The expertise story arc – this ‘story arc’ for clients emphasizes not the product the client is talking about, but the client themselves – it’s a subtle shift in focus, but if it’s a review site – though the body of the content is the review, it is the client opinion that is emphasized. Expertise story arcs are characterized the most by one clear view and opinion of Writing.
Knowledge is a powerful story arc – the knowledge story arc is focused on being the premier source of information. Articles are focused on making sure the site is seen as the brand leader, not the client. A blend of knowledge/expertise is also common here.
Quality story arc – these story arcs are most often employed for a product or service – and can be backed most commonly by the expertise story arc. Quality is emphasized and runs as a subject throughout all of the content. It’s pride in the brand rather than the brand itself that leads the site content Writing. And it only really works when looking at sites that sell a lot. Blogs for these sites can be quality or expertise-based – sharing knowledge might undermine the company’s position, but alternatively can support the understanding of sales, so it’s pretty much discretionary http://www.opinion-nytimes.com/.
Solving the Premise
House always solves the puzzle laid out in front of him – and it can be argued that copywriters in specific circumstances can use the same methods. The two primary methods are trial and error (split testing) and solving the promise at the start of each article .
To do both, you need to look at where the content will be – for example, it’s very common to ‘split test’ sales pages, but you can’t do it as easily with blog content. But the best content could already be tested and filtered, for the client to share, further down the line. And the very best content offers exactly what the article title and intro suggest – even if it’s not what the client first expected (Bonus – make it what the client expects, so they’re not disappointed).
With a little work, you can be an expert diagnostician… a sorry, copyWriting.
The best copywriters know that good content has a payoff – and keeps an eye on the prize. Working with the best means your company can benefit from that
A picture is worth 1000 words. Each second of the video contains 30 still frames – or pictures – in it. You do the math. Using video to show your product in action is one of the smartest things you can do. Video lets you ‘show’ instead of ‘tell’. Actually, the video will let you ‘show’ AND ‘tell’ compared to just ‘telling’ with text. Do you have a new program you designed and want to show people how easy it is to use? Use video. Have a book that is really exciting? Use video to create a book trailer. Do you offer to consult to large or small businesses? Use video to show what your services are. The options are limitless Writing.
• Show your company profile
A great way to stay in the public eye even when you don’t have any new products to sell is to use video to show your company profile. Your company could consist of just you or myriad employees. Either way, created a short video saying what you are up to, what’s coming up in the future, or even how well you did in the past, is another fantastic use of video.
• Introduce your staff
If you have customers that will be dealing with staff members of yours, it can be a weird situation to only know them by email or by a voice on the phone. Showing your employees in a video gives your customer a face to the voice they’ve been dealing with. It makes your business have a personality. This can help customers feel ‘connected to your business, which in turn eases their minds when it comes time to purchase your next great product Writing.
• Social Media Sites
Social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, hi5, Orkut, and more are great places to show your video. These sites work best when you form relationships with other users. Once you have friends on these sites, you can suggest your video to all of them. This suggestion will also be seen by all of their friends as well. They in turn, will watch it and pass it on to their friends hopefully. This cycle can repeat over and over again, thereby increasing your views.
One reason why videos generate traffic is they get high search engine positioning. The reason why that is is that the search engines are specifically looking for multimedia, it’s called a Universal Search . They want to find all the different media that they can to give the searcher the best experience. They are looking for videos exclusively. If you haven’t made any videos yet, think about how many search engine robots have just passed you by because you didn’t even have a video out.
There could be 200 websites with the keywords ‘horseback riding, and there could be five videos on horseback riding and Writing. What do you think is going to have a greater chance of showing up on the first page of Google if someone is searching for horseback riding? Remember, Google likes to give video suggestions. You’d have a much greater chance if you made a video on horseback riding. Out of those five, you are one of those competing videos, compared to 200 text-based sites. Whatever you’re niche is, make a video because there is a very good chance that people have made a lot more articles compared to videos on the same subject.
