SEO Copywriting Vs Sales Copywriting

What does an SEO Copywriter bring to the table that a sales copywriter or advertising copywriter doesn’t? How does SEO copywriting differ from any other type of copywriting?

What exactly is SEO Copywriting and why is it so important to your business?

When a client asked me to put together an SEO copywriting course a couple of months ago it proved a great opportunity to take a long hard look at the art of SEO copywriting. To appreciate the important contribution that SEO copywriting makes to your online presence and also to recognise the similarities and the differences between traditional SEO copywriting and modern content marketing.

I’m going to share parts of the course here over the next couple of months. I hope you find it of interest.

What is copywriting?

Here are a few valuable opinions.

The classic – “Salesmanship in print” – John E Kennedy.

Roger Horberry says: “Using the right words, to say the right thing, to the right people, to get the right response”.

American direct marketing copywriting guru Joseph Sugarman: “To cause a person to exchange his or her hard-earned money for a product or service” –

“The secret of good persuasive writing is to be as clear as you possibly can be about two things: who your reader is and what result you are hoping to achieve” says Lindsay Camp.

Whatever your business objective, whether you want;

• More customers?
• More leads?
• More votes?
• More downloads?
• More clients?
• More subscriptions?
• More email addresses?
• More links?
• More trust?

It’s your copy that will get you there. But not if you’re talking to an empty room.

You need to get in front of people first.

Be Found And Prosper

Online marketing is a big deal. And it’s getting bigger: Search and social search matter.

• Over 130 billion global searches are made every month, 90 billion of which are on Google, of which nearly 5 billion are made in the UK
• Social networking now accounts for nearly a quarter (23%) of all time spent online
• The average UK shopper spent £1,102 online in 2009, and the UK overall spent £38bn – more than any other European nation, accounting for almost a third of all online sales in Europe. Online shopping also made up 10 per cent of all retail sales in the UK
• Online retail sales have increased 22% year on year. This is the highest rate of increase in more than two years. IMRG, June 2010
• More than 500,000 Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer biscuits are made and sold every week (just testing :-))
• Online alcohol sales have grown 23% year on year IMRG, June 2010
• Online sales of electrical goods have grown 13% year on year IMRG, June 2010
• Online sales of clothing have grown 32% year on year IMRG, June 2010
Searchers are in the zone. They’re hungry
Attract the right sort of searchers and it’s likely they will convert

Your copy bears two major marketing responsibilities

1. To help you rank in the search engines,
2. To help convert prospects into visitors.

It’s a war out there. Anything you can do to get you above the noise, that will put you in front of the rights sort of audience and to help you engage them effectively has got to be a good thing. Your competition is busting a gut to take business that could and should be yours – don’t let them.

Top search ranking matters actually matter far more than most people realise. Just take a look at the numbers:

• 90% of search traffic flows through the first page of search returns.
• Number 1 ranking wins 40% of all search traffic
• 2nd place generates less than a third of click-throughs compared to first.
• 80% of that through the first five sites listed.
• First place wins as many visitors as second to eighth place combined.
• You can multiply your opportunities to convert by a factor of 3.5 compared to second position and 14 compared to tenth.
• If you’re in a large search volume or high value neighbourhood the financial implications of even a small shift in positioning are huge.

Or put bluntly – if your not ranking high you might as well not rank at all.

In the next excerpt I’ll be looking closely at how your SEO copywriting can help you get your share of social search. Exactly where you need to focus and what you can do to boost your online profile