There’s no such thing as web copywriting

I think the very phrase “web copywriting” is so broad as to be meaningless. Off the top of my head, here are ten things you can write for the web:

1. Blog posts
2. Tweets
3. LinkedIn updates
4. Corporate web pages
5. E-commerce pages
6. Landing pages
7. AdWords
8. E-zine articles
9. HTML emails
10. YouTube pages

Are we saying that there is something called “web copywriting” that will cover them all?

That there is a single tone of voice, style and approach that applies to the 140-character haiku we write on Twitter and 10,000-word landing pages (yes, they do exist)?

Of course there isn’t! It’s as meaningless a suggestion as saying there is something called print copywriting.

Write for the format, not the channel

Now, if what we want is tips on writing blog posts, or web pages, maybe we’d be getting somewhere.

I have one client who asked me to develop a web writing workshop for her team. She very specifically told me she didn’t want any course content to focus on copywriting itself.

Tags, SEO and usability

She wanted me to talk about those technical aspects of online copywriting that don’t appear in print channels. Specifically, tags, SEO and usability.

Even here though, there is a huge amount of crossover. Writing a decent title tag is not so very different from writing a good headline for a brochure.

Writing SEO copy that is rich in, but not overstuffed with, keywords is a lot like writing good old-fashioned direct mail copy.

It’s poor because it’s poor

Most of the web copy I get asked to improve isn’t poor because it’s not optimised for search engines. It’s poor because it’s poor.

Long, rambling sentences. A focus on features, not benefits. Unengaging tone of voice. Long words where short ones would be better.

In short, it’s just not very good copywriting. Full stop. (Which, incidentally, I see far too few of in most web copywriting.)

Brilliant advice on web copywriting

I’ve lost count of the number of articles I’ve read on the web – about web copywriting – where the author advises us to write clearly; for the user; in plain, simple language; with an engaging tone of voice and meaningful headlines.

This is brilliant advice. It just isn’t particularly new. Nor is it only relevant to the web. That’s great advice for press ads, case studies, sales letters and brochure too.

The Copywriting Sourcebook is out

Barely a month since my second book on copywriting appeared, number three has just hit the shops (and Amazon). While I'm having a breather before getting number four into the publishing pipeline, here the press release:

Copywriter and best-selling author publishes new copywriting book

12 types of marketing copy explained, from websites to press ads

The Copywriting Sourcebook is the latest book from UK-based freelance copywriter Andy Maslen. In it he provides copywriters, entrepreneurs and marketeers with step-by-step advice on writing 12 of the most common types of marketing copy. There is also a special section devoted to headline-writing.

Each chapter follows a consistent structure. The reader learns what to include, what to leave out, the style and tone of voice to use, how to use images and the strengths, weaknesses and applications of the format. The book also includes examples of each type of copywriting with a quote from the copywriter who created it.

“So many copywriters, marketing managers and business owners are under pressure to get copy written to tighter and tighter deadlines,” says Andy Maslen. “By giving them clear guidance on the best way to write copy for specific tasks, I’ve taken away a lot of the guesswork. I hope they’ll save a few hours too.”

The book shows the reader how to write copy for AdWords, articles, case studies, corporate brochures, emails, e-zines, flyers/brochures, press ads, presentations, press releases, sales letters and web pages.

What's in a name?

We have the builders in at the moment. That means the usual disruptions but also the inspiration for this brief post about company names.

They're called Elite Home Improvements.

Not Lloyd Tranter: Builder (which they could be) or anything else with "construction" or "building" in it.

And it's a brilliant name. Because that's what you want when you hire a builder: your home to be improved. In other words, it's a benefit.

My own company name fails this particular test: Sunfish says nothing about what we do or how that's good for our clients.

If I were starting again maybe I would call myself The Sales Machine, or Responsive Copywriting. Hey ho.

Plain English for the web

So just how different is copywriting for the web to its old-school print cousin? I'd say not very - IF you compare it to the very best print copywriting (which a lot of web gurus don't, perhaps because they've never seen any).

Here's what you need to do to make your web copy sing. And for once I'm going to avoid the whole SEO thing.

Not because you don't have to do it but because there's a new way of talking about it. Of which more in a moment.

Five rules for effective web copy

#1 Keep your sentences to an average of 10-12 words. It's never been a good idea to write long, windy sentences.

But online, where people feel busier than they actually are, the longer your average sentence the bigger the sense of panic/boredom you create in your reader.

#2 Use the most personal tone of voice you can muster. On the web you must create a relationship with your reader.

Bounce rates, abandonent rates, non-conversions, whatever your favourite metric for assessing the stickiness or otherwise of a web page, one of the prime culprits is an impersonal tone of voice.

Try addressing visitors as "you". Write what you'd say to them in your local coffee shop. Or bar, if you prefer. That's an old journalist's trick, but it's tailormade for the web.

#3 Keep it relevant to your reader. Remember why they came to your site in the first place. Some come direct, some via search, others via links.

It doesn't matter which, once they're on your site keep talking about the things that interest them. And thanks to Latent Semantic Indexing, it's no longer a case of mindlessly repeating keywords.

Instead go for a richly detailed conversation on the subject that interests them, whether it's non-surgical facelifts or aluminium baseball bats.

#4 Break it up into ultra short paragraphs. Most people are used to writing copy in Word or an equivalent.

Which is the right way to do it because it doesn't distract you with design elements. But remember the column width your copy will eventually inhabit. Anything over three lines in a Word doc is going to start looking slabby on the web.

Use the old direct mail copywriter's trick of deliberately breaking a paragraph in the wrong place. Why?

Because you train your reader to read on.

#5 Highlight key words and phrases with bold, highlights or even underlining. yes I know they can look like hypertext but it doesn't seem to matter. It's good for SEO and helps scanners decode your copy faster.

My closing comment is that those five rules work fantastically well in print too. In fact that's where they come from.

There's a lot of sound and fury at the moment about Copify - one of the new content mills acting as an intermediary between copywriters and clients. Incidentally, whatever happened to disintermediation? I thought the web was going to do away with all that.

Copify pay copywriters according to a pay scale ranging from 2p a word for newbies, through 4p for I guess you'd call them middleweights to 8p for experienced writers. They also have a minimum order of 100 words, yielding a newbie writer the princely sum of £2.

As far as I am aware, Copify aren't coercing anybody to take any of the assignments on their site. So it's functioning as any market does - if a buyer and a seller agree on a price, it's the right price. I agree it does seem low. To write 100 words and get paid £2 - well by the time you've bought a coffee and factored in the cost of toner and electricity for your PC you might be making a loss.

I imagine the job, being apparently aimed at creating SEO content, is less about what we might call the craft of copywriting than the simple process of typing as fast as possible with a client-specified keyword every tenth word or so. If you can type at 60 words per minute and you count as a professional, you could make £48/hour, which is OK. And if you can keep that up for ten hours straight you would make £480, which seems pretty good.

So why all the fuss? Some copywriters believe that Copify is dumbing down the craft. Others are losing clients to content mills and feel justifiably aggrieved. Still others can't get their heads around the notion of working for peanuts and rail against the injustice.

Ultimately you can't game the market. Clients who want quality will search it out and pay for it. Clients who want cheap will do likewise. Copywriters always have a choice about who they work for - the freelance ones I mean - so if Copify doesn't appeal, just ignore it.

And for writers who are working through Copify and retort "Well I'm quality and I'm cheap" I think the answer is, "Good for you!"

The January edition of our e-zine - Maslen on Marketing is now on the Sunfish website. It's about home page copywriting. Here's the opening paragraph...

Imagine you live in Newtown and you’re looking for a firm to convert your attic into a couple of bedrooms.

You go online and Google “loft conversions Newtown”.

You choose the number one ranked site – for Bloggins Loft Conversions of Newtown – and click through to their home page. Here is the page head. And the first few lines of copy...

Welcome to Bloggins Loft Conversions

Converting your loft can release much-needed space in your home. It can add a bedroom, a home office or even a play room.

Nothing wrong with that. Or is there? It’s my view that...

If you;d like to read the whole thing, and all our other issues back to January 2006, just join The Sunfish Copywriting Library. It's free and you join here http://www.sunfish.co.uk/archive.htm.