What’s the point? Why is it so hard to stick to it when you write your online marketing copy?
You probably have many good points surrounding a topic. You want readers to know everything they need to know – all at once. You may also struggle with choosing one intended audience.
Sometimes the result can read like a box top full of Scrabble letters. You’ll have much better copy if you learn to stick to one topic and one audience at a time. Landing pages and sales letters must be tightly focused on your readers’ emotional trigger, and your solution to their problem. Effective copywriting and content marketing, while not the same thing, most certainly work together when you see the big picture.
Go ahead and write everything out while it’s in your head, but know that you can’t use that copy effectively till you break it down. All the text, concepts, and additional topics can be used elsewhere when you’re writing online. Let me show you what I’m talking about.
- Start with a broad brush, and consider it version one.
- Now go back and search for instances where you may have confused more than one audience. Highlight everything that pertains to one or another in a different color. You may have two or three more pieces of content now!
- Take everything relating to one topic and one audience and put it in another document. I use Google Docs and easily switch between tabs of things I’m writing on.
- Using proper flow inside each paragraph, guide your reader from one thought to the next, keeping your paragraphs short and specific.
- Analyze the order of your paragraphs, does it read more convincingly if you re-order them?
Now, do the same thing with your additional material. What you have now is something you can work with that will in turn work for you, because instead of one rambling piece of content, you now have two to five more concise pieces – maybe more – that may relate in some manner. Once you discover how they relate, create your plan.
- Blog post series pointing to a landing page?
- Article submission for back links to your website?
- Email marketing series or blast?
- E-book?
- All of the above?
Write it all down, and then tear it apart. Yep, that’s my advice! Let me know how that worked for you. When you leave me a comment, my CommentLuv Plugin will pull a link to your last post for our readers to check out. I’ll be looking, too!
Photo Credit: allyrose18 on Flickr made available through a Creative Commons License.
