You’re nothing more than a salesperson.

There’s an old saying in “business” that, “a copywriter is a salesperson sitting in front of a typewriter.” True, few of us are using typewriters these days. The principal, however, remains unchanged.

We’re in sales. I know this. You know this. We all know this. Yet why does much of copy out there, especially ads produced by expensive agencies, seem to miss point?

If all we’re doing is sales, albeit transmitted through a written or broadcast medium, then we’d better know what we’re doing.

Starting process

While studying creative writing, I learned this storytelling maxim: every character has a motive for being in a scene. The same is true in a sales situation.

The salesperson’s motive is simple. He wants to make sale and get his commission. But what does potential customer want?

First, what type of customer are they? Are they ready to make an immediate buy? Are they information shopping, looking for a great deal? Are they even looking for our product or service?

Ask Questions, then Shut-up and Listen

When selling to prospective customers ask questions that get them to reveal their needs. It’s a mistake to sell product on tip of your tongue. “Model X” might work, but if you listen you might discover that more expensive “Model Z” is what customer really needs. Once you know why prospect is there--whether they have an unresolved need, an emotional reason for buying, or they’re just shopping around--tailor your pitch to their specific reason.

Now when you make pitch, tell how your product benefits customer, rather than rattling off product features you think he cares about.

When You’re Finished, Close Door

By this point your spiel should be unforced. You know customer’s “hot-buttons” so everything should be smooth sailing.

After you’ve explained last product benefit, you (as salesperson) are obligated to close deal. The way you do that is simply to ask, “Are you ready to make your decision?” or “Is this product you’d like to buy?”

Web Copy – How Much is Enough?

By Glenn Murray *

These days, there’s widespread acceptance that a website is an integral part of marketing plan of any business. Likewise, it’s commonly accepted that web copy is a vital component of any website. But how much web copy is enough?

The pure volume of information available on Internet is daunting – often counterproductive. There are approximately 550 billion documents on web, and every day another 7 million are added. According to an A.T. Kearney, Network Publishing study (April 2001), workers take so long trying to find information that it costs organizations $750 billion annually!

Yet people continue to use it. Information gathering is most common use of Internet (American Express survey, 2000). And it seems work-related searches are amongst most common, with 48% of people using Internet to find work-related information, as opposed to 7% who use magazines (Lyra Research, 2001).

Interestingly, however, average person visits no more than 19 websites in entire month in order to avoid information overload (Nielsen NetRatings in Jan 2001).

So how do you ensure your site is one of those 19? How do you make your content helpful without making it overwhelming? That’s what this article is about…

I’ve written several articles on what to write on your website in order to make it helpful. (See Engage Your Customer – Write About Benefits, Writing Benefit-Driven Web Copy, and Wording Up Your Website.) But that’s only half battle… Businesses also need to know how much to write. Here are 5 quick rules of thumb to help you decide how much is enough.

1) Know your audience (Reader or Search Engine?)

Think about whether you’re targeting human readers (potential customers) or search engines. This must always be one of your very first questions, as answer will determine your approach to content.

In general, human readers think less is more. Search engines, on other hand, think more is more (well, more or less…). In many ways, it comes down to a question of quality versus quantity. Human readers are interested in quality, whereas search engines are interested quantity. Human readers want you to answer their questions and make it clear how you can benefit them. And they don’t want to wade through volumes of text. Search engines want a high word count, full of relevant keywords, and short on diagrams. (See Writing SEO Copy for more information on writing for search engines. See Search Engine Optimization Unmasked for CEOs for an introductory article on search engine optimization.)

You need to think carefully about your audience. In most cases, it’ll be a trade-off. A high search engine ranking is important (or at least beneficial) to most businesses, so a happy medium is required. The following tips will go some way toward providing this balance.