Personal Blog of Forest Marie

To Open or Not Open

Tell me honestly how many unsolicited emails you delete simply because you did not find the subject interesting. Or how many emails you opened just because you found the subject interesting. I can bet a two to one that 8 out of 10 mails are deleted instantly because they fail to grab the attention of the user and the two that are opened because you want to find out what’s inside.

That was for unsolicited emails – those which you are not expecting. Now we turn to the other set. You might be receiving emails from sites where you have subscribed or opted in. So you are expecting them. But still, if the subject line is not attractive, you might still delete it without opening.

I delete several a day myself because they’re boring…

I believe that if you are a regular user of email marketing (and you should be!), then you must pay extra attention to your subject line, irrespective of the content inside. Here are some points that you need to focus on.

5 Tips for Better Email Marketing

1. Compose a message that is short and captures the imagination of the receiver. It is not necessary that you summarize the contents of your email. You might want to highlight just one point from your email. The subject line should tacitly say – open me, open me!

2. Even if you are sending weekly newsletters or updates, you must compose an attractive subject line. It does not matter whether it is long or short, but just take care that it can be read completely from the inbox. There is no point writing a long sentence which is not displayed fully in the inbox.

3. Create curiosity, mystery and urgency. For instance, “Find out how a 20 year old became a millionaire in a month”. Now you must have content or a video to support that storyline. Another one – “2 days left for you to register for the so and so Webinar”. You might want to use the word “free” in your subject to gain attention but be warned that overuse can reduce its significance. In fact, some spam filters look for the word free in the subject and classify the message as spam.

4. A neat trick is to use the name of the receiver in the subject line. You can do this using an autoresponder. I never fail to notice the emails whose subject says – Hey Forest, have you seen the video…” Autoresponders will also tell you who opened your email and who clicked the link inside. Then you can further program it to send a different set of emails to each group of people.

5. If you are in touch with the latest in your industry, then use the latest buzzwords in your subject line. Almost all people will be keen to know what happening.

There is so much competition out there that you need to be very smart in implementing your email campaign. I will emphasize again that the title is more than 90% crucial in getting your email opened.

Copywriting, Internet Marketing email marketing, how to, tips

As online marketers we have a lot of writing to do. From capture pages, sale letters, autoresponders, e-mails, ad copy, direct mail pieces to blog posts and more it is important that we master the skill of creating copy that sells. Our copy no matter the format and place has to create desire and action in those reading it.

Whether you are marketing online or offline, harnessing the power of great copy skills will skyrocket your success.

Here are 15 copywriting tips to create copy that sells:

1. Know your target audience. What makes them happy, what makes them tick, what is important to them and how you can help them.

2. Develop your copy voice. Have a consistent style that is uniquely yours. Just like when you talk, your copy has its own rhythm. Figure out yours and go with the flow.

3. Write for scanners. Most people scan copy especially long copy. Help out the majority of people by using bold words, numbered lists, bullet points, headlines and sub-headlines to cover your main points.

4. Write to them. Make it about them not you. Use the word “you” to talk to your reader, avoid the word “I” as much as possible.

5. Give benefits, benefits and more benefits. Write about the benefits, what’s in it for the reader?

6. Write a P.S. Almost half of the readers, scanners included will read a P.S. as well as a P.S.S. Never underestimate the power of the P.S. it is one of the great places to put a call to action.

7. Mix up sentence lengths. Great copy is often mixed up with long and short sentences. It gives the copy a much more natural approach.

8. Keep your paragraphs short. While sentences can be long it is best to keep your paragraphs short. Generally around 6 lines is okay, though for email keep it no more than 5 lines.

9. Powerful words go first. If possible where it makes sense, use the most powerful points and words at the beginning of sentences, headlines and so on.

10. Every one likes free! Free is still the top influential word in the English language. If you are giving something away for free, really wow them with incredible value that will make them wonder why you gave it away.

11. Repeat your call to action. This is really important in long copy. Though even in short copy some repetition of your call to action is important. Just make sure to mix up how you say it.

12. Powerful Testimonials. If your copy has room for testimonials make sure to include them. Written testimonials are great, voice recorded ones even better and video testimonials are the most powerful yet. Just make sure to include the written version under audio or video in case the viewer is unable to access the media version.

13. Guarantees build credibility. People always feel more at ease when they know there is some sort of guarantee. It is one way to build instant trust.

14. Make contact easy. Make it easy for the reader to contact you. Whether by phone, email, etc. Make it blatantly clear how to contact you.

15. Read it out loud. Read it out loud to yourself and some people you respect. Does it sound natural? How do you feel, how do they feel? Tweak if necessary and read out loud another two times.

P.S. Take action, learn from your mistakes and keep improving your copy as you go. Always keep your unique copy style intact along the way. As you write keep this handy list of copywriting tips by your side to create copy that sells every time.

Copywriting Copy That Sells, Copywriting Tips, How to Create Copy

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If you are planning on writing articles, for your website, your blog, or article directories, it’s definitely important that your articles are well written. Don’t expect people to read articles that are not well crafted. Of course you may be wondering how you can write an effective article that will get the attention of readers. Well, here are six great tips for effective article writing that will help you out.

Tip #1 – Write Using Short Paragraphs

First of all, it’s definitely important that you focus on using short paragraphs. If you write huge paragraphs, the text looks daunting and it’s harder for your reader to digest the information. In fact, many people will just go on to another article. Go with paragraphs that use 3-5 sentences for the most effective articles.

Tip #2 – Check Your Spelling and Grammer Grammar

It’s definitely important that you check your spelling and grammar. No one wants to read an article that is full of spelling errors and bad grammar. Most word processor programs have spell check and grammar check. Use them!

Tip #3 – Create a Title that Grabs the Attention

If you want your article to be effective, you need to create a title that grabs the attention. The first thing a reader sees is the title. This decides whether or not they decide to read the article or move on to another one. Make sure the title is descriptive, but also ensure that it draws in the reader so they want to read the article.

Tip #4 – Keep the Language Simple

The language in your articles should be kept simple. In fact, they should be easy enough to read that a 6th grader would have no problem reading and comprehending them. If you use language that is more advanced and technical, the general reader is probably going to move on to another article instead of trying to read their way through all the difficult language.

Tip #5 – Break Up the Text

Break up the text in your articles. Large masses of text look daunting. There are many ways you can do this, including using subheads, numbers, bullets, and more. The more you are able to break up the text, the more readable your article is going to be. Ignore everything you learned from your English teachers on this subject!

Tip #6 – Develop a Great Signature Box

Last of all, and most importantly, develop a great signature box. This is where you put in a compelling call to action and link to your site. Make sure you grab the attention and emotions of your readers in your box. This part of the article should be just as well written as the rest of the article if you want good results!

Articles and Press Releases, Copywriting, Internet Marketing Article Marketing, article writing, Copywriting, Internet Marketing

SEO Copy Writing

SEO copy writing, which some may consider Web Site copy writing, is about understanding how content writers use keyword optimization and exactly where they are placing keywords at on a Web page. To help you out, here are five tips to effective SEO copy writing.

1. Web Site Title and ALT titles

The first place you want to put the keywords you are targeting is in the title of your Web Site. The Web Site title is the first thing people see as they get to your site. Therefore, you want to make it known exactly what keywords you are targeting. You should have the keyword phrase you are targeting including in your title, and if possible, put it first.

NOTE: If by some ridiculously misfortune you can only do one of these 5 tips, this is one to do. Yeah, it’s THAT important.

And by the way, if you need to get a list of keywords that people are searching for (and there is absolutely nothing more important than this), you will need to get real familiar with keyword science and you can master that (and a lot of other things as well) by picking up a copy of Traffic Secrets 2.0.

As for your ALT titles, these are visible in the source code of each web page. The power of varying your ALT titles using specific keywords is it allows you to index your entire site categorically.

2. META tag description

The next place you want to focus on with your SEO copy writing is your Web Site’s META tag description. This description is going to be what comes up when visitors are looking through the search engines and your web site comes up. People will see your URL and then a brief description; that is the META tag description. Within this description you want to include what services you provide and what kind Web Site they can expect to find.

And of course, be sure to definitely include some key phrases you are optimizing your page for. For example, if you’re a dog groomer and you want people to find you while searching for dog groomers, make sure you include the key phrase dog groomer in the description, but make it natural like you’re writing to your potential customers.

3. Page headers

Much like your Web Site title, every page header should have a keyword or two that you are targeting. The headers, of course, are created by using header tags such as <h1>, <h2> all the way to <h6>

By including keywords in each of your titles and page headers, you are ensuring that the web crawlers will not skip over anything. You want your entire site to be indexed without spamming with an overuse of your keywords.

4. Web content

You have to be careful with SEO copy writing web content. Far too many people get keyword-happy and end up spamming their site. You do want to include keywords throughout your content, but within the context of what you are saying. Your keywords should flow smoothly with the content that is being written.

5. Navigation bar

The last place you want to sprinkle keywords on your web site is in the navigation bar. Some common navigation bars you may be familiar with include About Us, Free Tips and Contact. You want to use words like these to help create an efficient search engine run-through.

When it comes to effective SEO copy writing, you have to understand where to sprinkle your keywords at and how much you should do so. Take the five tips in this article to help guide you with the copy writing on your Web Site.

But A Word Of Caution:

While these tips are helpful, you want to make sure you do it naturally and not just write your Web pages for the search engines. There must be some balance.

For more traffic tips and ranking high on Google, you should learn these how these 2 highly important tips can get your Web sites ranked highly and respectably on Google.

Copywriting, Internet Marketing, SEO Copywriting, Internet Marketing, SEO