Copywriting Services

Let’s face it: some up-to-date technique innovations are too smart, so smart, in fact, that they turn out to give more trouble than benefit. Supposing you want to sell a product and inform your potential customers about the discounts using email. A quite simple plan, nevertheless, your message may stay undelivered. The point is that various email protection systems, such as SpamAssassin or Aristotle Spam Defense Network, do their best to filter all the unnecessary data, and rather often they overdo. According to the report placed in Time Magazine, 40 to 70 percent of all incoming emails are simply wiped out before they could reach their destination. Moreover, up to 27% of legitimate emails are spam-filtered without getting into the recipient’s inbox and, the worst of all, it remains unknown to the sender!

So unfortunately, many of today’s spam filters aren’t perfect and the risk that your email may never be read is still high.

However, there exist some useful tips which help to survive the most insidious filters.

First let’s see what we are dealing with. Spam filters review all incoming emails, seeking certain patterns which can be classified as spam. The system scrutinizes separate words, as well as word combinations, sentences and even colors. Depending on the email’s content, the spam filter adds to or takes away points from its scoring system. If the spam score rates about 20% of the total (usually, the upper limit equals to 5 points), the file will get through easily; if it equals to 21-50%, the filter marks it as possible spam, and if the score happens to be 51% or more, your message is automatically killed.

To prevent such a dismal end, your should make up your email very properly. For example, the subject line content is very important, as it is checked the most thoroughly. Your subject line should contain the date which helps to take off some 0.5 points, and if it also has a newsletter header, a whole dozen of points will be taken off, too.

Next, keep the size of your email within 20K to 40K range. If your message is under 20K, the protection system can consider it as spam and will add up to 0.7 points.

Some formatting, like caps (particularly in the subject line), colors and hyperlinks shouldn’t be overused. No good will come of excessive punctuation either.

Besides that, experts advise to avoid cliches like Dear… and to replace remove with unsubscribe. Other words and phrases which are “unpopular” among spam filters, are money making, financial freedom and click below (use go here instead).

In addition, to go successfully through any kinds of protection systems, the message has to be personalized with the customer’s name.

Finally, the best way to save your email from the filters is to be included in the address book of your recipients: in this case you don’t have to pass through the spam checker at all.

To be continued…

Nowadays, when information has become one of the most marketable goods with ever-growing demand, writing a good press release takes on a special significance.

Just in case, to make sure you know what we are talking about, press release is a statement informing of some product or service. A properly composed press release can create many incoming links to the site, ensuring additional traffic as well as link popularity important for search engines.

The two main points about press release writing strategy is that it should be TIMELY and RELEVANT to the target audience. Timeliness means that given information has to be able to attract people’s attention not tomorrow or three months earlier but just at this moment. It doesn’t mean that one should wait for some “big news” to come. If you want to bring up some topic make sure you find an informational cause; e. g. when writing about your online marketing company, start with the coverage of its current events and news. Another important point to be made is that in order to create relevant content one should take into account potential readers, their problems and motivations.

The next step is HOW to write. The style of press release has nothing to do with a Christmas postcard or belles letters, so neither Tolstoy-style composite sentences nor lengthy emotional descriptions will do. You should put in all the facts using short phrases.

As to press release structure, the central importance is attached to the first paragraph, for if it fails to arouse interest, all the rest will be ignored. To be more specific, this is your summary of the whole press release extended for not more than four lines. After the first paragraph – or the lead, how it is called in the trade – more detailed information follows. The general rule is to answer the six basic questions – “The Five W’s and How”, that is Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? All the data are put in a consistent order, each item is logically connected with another. Try to avoid tautology like “9 p.m. in the evening” or “New York Art Gallery in New York”. Besides, all titles and proper names are given in full for the first time they are mentioned; then in short, for example, write “William Chester Rotheby” in the first paragraph, then just “Rotheby”.

And finally, some press release distribution tips. In order to submit your release properly, choose several (free) press release distribution sites according to how efficiently the release can be added, for example PRweb.com, PR9.net or pressmethod.com. Another way is to send the press release to Associated press, the essential global news network, or your local media. Smaller newspapers can publish any sorts of press releases, but who will read them? You can also submit the release to the top websites or magazines of your niche, if they have press release submission guidelines. Don’t try to submit the release to as many sites as possible, instead be reasonable and choose the biggest ones first. At last, if you have a website or a blog, add the release without hesitation. Remember that the main purpose of press release is to be published; so, the more relevant submissions it has – the better effect it will get.

No matter if you create content for your site, work on a term project or an essay, compile a CV, or pore over a sales letter for your product, you certainly need quality writing to achieve the aims set. This is especially true for the profession of copywriter, where your profits depend entirely on your writing skills.

But what stands behind these magic words “top quality copy” that you see every now and then on the Internet? What are the essential components of good writing? Let us try and name at least some of them.

1) Original thinking. Just like in every business, in copywriting you are unlikely to become successful without fresh and creative ideas. Everyone who’s dipped their toe in the market of words understands the difference between UNIQUE writing, conscious rewriting and shameless duplicating. The value of your words increases in direct proportion to your originality; on the other hand, theft of someone else’s ideas can result in many bad things starting from great expenses to the loss of reputation. You might say, there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet, so how on Earth can one be original? However, as it is your words that earn the money, do your best to mix them well before they are put on sale.

2) General knowledge/education. Though a writer may have more experience in one particular field than the others, of course it is impossible to know everything. All topics require prior research, but the time and depth of this research can vary considerably. Here, academic background can be of great help. What I mean is this: no matter what subjects you studied at the University, one thing you must have learned for sure is the ability to learn itself. Some time you may wish to thank your Mom who’d made you do your homework.

3) Communicability. This one can be your savior when you have to say something on a dull topic and say a lot about it. People who have a ready tongue often become good writers and find no difficulty taming words. It is interesting that you may be a bad talker and a great writer at the same time.

4) Ability to put difficult concepts in clear words. The more you indulge in a subject, the more jargon you learn. These special words can be real jaw breakers, difficult to read and comprehend. But have you ever heard that a true scientist is the one who can explain her theory to a 5-year old kid? Similarly, one of the basic rules of successful copywriting is staying simple. Lexicologists say that most Anglo-Saxon words consist of 1 or 2 syllables, and yet they are more emphatic and emotional than words of Latin/Greek/French origin.

4) Basic literacy. Stupid grammatical mistakes or even typos can seriously undermine your authority. All those notorious ‘loose’ and ‘lose’, ‘it’s’ and ‘its’, ‘their’ and ‘there’ are easy to overlook, but they make a great difference for the reader and may produce an overall negative impression: imagine an HR manager reading your resume and wondering whether you’ll make similar mistakes in your work if you are hired. Revise, edit, polish and proofread your copy until it’s perfect.

By the way, you don’t have to be a native speaker to write well: research shows that ESL speakers are often more accurate in writing than native speakers as the former study the language more carefully and intensively.

5) Ability to organize your thoughts logically and coherently. Even if a person is extremely knowledgeable in a field, this does not make her a good writer. On the other hand, someone who knows just the basics of a subject, but is quick-witted and intelligent enough to catch the key concepts, can produce quality content and strike as an expert.

6) Persistence and diligence. It is almost inevitable that occasionally you’ll have to deal with the so-called writer’s block. Don’t lose heart if you seem to have run out of ideas; there are many sources of inspiration around that might make your creative juices spring! Try to approach the whole thing as a gradual problem-solving process. Set yourself tasks and tackle them one after another.

7) Good teachers. Just like a poet or a novelist would start their “career” copying the style of some renowned writers, a beginner copywriter could learn from the works of some copy gurus and follow their advice on writing techniques step by step; as even most intricate things can be easily settled if you take them to pieces and study each one separately…

Hopefully, the above small tips have helped build the general notion of good writing essentials and will be of use making your final product more effective. One thing to add: always be professional in your attitude, ’cause it is only then that you can expect professionalism from the others.

Good luck!

Today, there is no need to speculate on the importance of advertising in business. Everyone knows that to become popular you need to advertise. In fact, we do it ourselves every day, advising a new restaurant to friends, complimenting an interesting book or a movie, speaking about our own virtues and talents at a job interview.

We do our best for the people to believe us and respond to our call for action, whatever it might be. But what happens if they actually follow your advice and then are extremely dissatisfied with the outcome? Do you answer for the results? Should you account for your promises? Or is it really a problem at all?

These questions get a special meaning with regard to the profession of a copywriter. As while you are unlikely to persuade your buddy to buy crap, if it is your job to compel, you sometimes need to compromise with your conscience. Even knowing that magic weight-loss pills are not that magic if not to say worse, you receive money for saying they are good, so what’s the difference? However, many copywriters refuse to perform the like assignments as they feel responsible for their words.

Let us take another simple example, namely, e-books. Hundreds and thousands are sold on the Internet covering every imaginable topic, and only a tiny proportion of them is really worth spending time and money on. But still it is the copywriter’s job to assure the target audience of product quality. If people are told “black is white” a lot of times in a row they soon start believing it. Amazingly, statistics shows that even if there is a return option, few take advantage of it, so bad stuff does sell when it has nice wrapping.

Look at the fast food stores: most of them provide products of medium to law quality, and every person can make sandwiches better than they make at MacDonald’s, still the business is extremely successful thanks to the highly professional and well-elaborated advertising campaigns. At the same time even products of exceptional quality can be getting dusty on store shelves without proper presentation.

So the answer to my initial question, whether cool copy can sell crappy stuff, is a definite “yes”. Thus, do not economize on copywriting services, this sort of investment can be repaid a hundredfold.

Once upon a time Far Far Away there lived a King. The King’s name was Content Compellius. He was very powerful and ruled his great kingdom with an iron hand.

Content Compellius had many laws enacted in his fairy land, and it was difficult for many to observe them, however, for those who managed to do so life was much easier and happier, too.

Moreover, the King was very smart and willingly shared his knowledge and wisdom.

For example, Content advised people to be original and creative, taught them to always take into account the needs of others, be relevant in their communication and focus on the right words to be heard. He used to repeat, it is not only WHAT you have to say, but HOW you are saying that.

Content’s valuable skill of persuasion helped the Kingdom avoid wars with neighbors more than once, as negotiations with the King as a rule would result in enemies’ turning into friends or at least business partners. A pen is mightier than the sword, he would say, and considerably easier to write with.

So what was the secret of Content’s success? In fact, debates about it are still taking place. The majority of contemporary historians agree, however, that is because he used plain words, was specific, took a personal approach and always concentrated on benefits for people, researched the issues he was dealing with, and also listened to advice of his clever Queen named Linking. In particular, the latter always told him it was important to be friendly and maintain good relations with others.

Content Compellius was a rightful King, and not a figurehead like many other rulers of those times. He is still honored our days, and it is very probable that his power will not be questioned for years to come. Viva Copywriting!