Writing generic ads that aren’t directed to a specific target group won’t work no matter how well crafted ads are. So, first thing you need to do is learn everything you can about your market.

There are several ways you can do this:

• Surveys - You can simply ask what your prospective customers are looking for.

• Canvass your customers – Ask your present customers what they like about your product or service. Ask them what specific thing makes them keep coming back to you.

• Forums and Message Boards – Visit as many as you can every week. You’ll be able to tell from discussions what problems your market is confronting and how you can best offer solutions.

• Ezines and Newsletters – Read everything you can find that reflects thoughts and feelings of your market. The more you can learn stronger you can make your sales copy.

Because web copy is so important for achieving results you want and expect from your website - and because so much stress is now placed on use of WORDS by SEO companies - we want to explain concept of "strategic copywriting" and in doing so, show you why it's so much more than optimizing text for search engines to read it. This is our definition:

Strategic Copywriting is skill of designing words to create an experience that motivates a customer to take a desired action and enables him to achieve his desired purpose. A little clunky, but there it is. Now, for what this means…

Designing words...

If words were graphics, they would have size, shape, depth, width, weight, color, texture, organization, position, and a relationship to what's around them. For copywriters, words are our graphics, and how we 'design' them to shape a message determines their impact on a customer. Part of copywriting process is to combine words with a visual design that guides a customer's interest and understanding. A good writer-designer team will agree that, with few exceptions, words are king and visual design loyal servant. In website development, this rule is golden. In all media, strategic copywriting is skill of designing words that influence behavior.

Create an experience...

Why do print, radio, and television ads work? The short answer is, they create an experience that motivates a response. So what is that experience, and how do ads create it? There is no simple answer to this question, but one key factor is this: The ad copywriters and designers know customer. This knowledge dictates message that will appeal to that customer. If ad is written and designed specifically for that customer, if it's delivered through right media (say on television, on a certain channel, during a certain program, on certain days of week, at certain times of day or night), and if customer happens to see it, he might respond. Or if not then, perhaps another time. When he does respond, it's because ad provoked in him an emotion that caused him to act.

Web marketing works basically same way, with one very major difference: here, customer comes to you in search of a certain experience. With a copywriter and designer who know that customer, your website can give him experience he's looking for.

Motivate customer...

By "customers" we mean people who are most likely to want or need what you offer, whether they actually buy from you or not.

In world of web marketing, customers conduct a search because they're motivated to find something. If you have a website that offers them what they're looking for, first and most important experience you must give them is finding your website. This is a matter of configuring your site to come up on first or second page of a search. This is a function of search engine optimization, which is covered in another article.