There’s a great story in the news this week about an Aussie cook book in which one recipe asked readers to add freshly ground black people.

Obviously it was an innocent mistake. They meant black pepper. But these are strange times, and political correctness is king.

As it happens the publisher had to destroy 7,000 copies, which cost a fair few dollars. If they’d been unlucky, and the mistake less obviously innocent, they could have faced legal action.  

Once, long ago, I printed 60,000 direct mail leaflets with the signatory T. Bollock. It should have said T. Bullock. It went down like a fart at a Bar Mitzvah. Luckily I wasn’t sued either. But it just goes to show - you can’t be too careful!

Spellcheckers check spelling, but not context. The word ‘people’ isn’t a spelling mistake, nor is ‘bollock’! The moral of the tale – get someone who knows their stuff to proofread your copy or content before approving it for upload or print. 

Email opt outs are usually negative, which is probably why most marketers prefer to make them as unobtrusive as possible.

Because people tend to respond very well to honesty and transparency, I prefer to give email opt out text fair prominence. And I like to make it positive. That way it reinforces the brand I’m writing about and adds to it’s credibility.

Here are three examples of positive email opt outs:

1. I’m sending you this offer because I genuinely believe it’ll help your business. If you don’t want to hear from me in future, just let me know and I’ll never darken your doors again!
2. I found your contact details on your website. I hope you don’t mind me emailing you.  All you have to do is let me know and I won’t bother you again. Otherwise I’ll keep sending you exciting, relevant stuff !
3. We’re a respected organisation and we  only make genuine offers. We respect you too. If you’d prefer not to hear from us we’ll take you off our special list straight away.   

Your website needs a spring clean. So where do you start?

If the task seems daunting, not to worry. Here’s your top three key actions. 

1. Research and identify your business’s primary and secondary keywords and key phrases using free online resources like the Google Adwords tool. Why? Because there’s very little point writing new copy without taking keywords and phrases into account. You’ll only have to go back and crowbar them in later.  

2. Rewrite your website including the keywords and phrases you’ve identified. Why? It’s sensible to get your content into shape before you start attracting visitors and getting search engines all excited. 

3. Redesign your site with SEO in mind. Chances are if your site content’s out of date your design will be out of date too. A decent designer will take visitor needs into account. They’ll use their expertise to create a clear graphical user interface. They’ll write beautiful, SEO-friendly, standards compliant code in powerful source code order and much more.

Here’s a few common sense guidelines about using US English versus UK English

• it sounds glaringly obvious but if you have a dotcodotuk site use UK English. And if your site is mainly US-focused, use American English
• if it isn’t immediately obvious where your visitors and customers come from, find out from your webstats and write for the majority

What if you’re global?

If your customers live all over the world, you can’t really win. Luckily the biggest difference between UK and US English  is the spelling. While you’ll probably annoy a few people no matter which you use, the differences in spelling won’t mislead. 

Sometimes the same words mean completely different things. Americans might feel comfy wandering the streets in pants and vest, but in the UK we’d probably be arrested for it! Public school, brackets and first floor have different meanings too.

If you can, stick to words that mean the same thing in both countries and sidestep the contentious ones. There’s usually a perfectly good work-around if you think creatively about copywriting.  

Terms & Conditions can be a genuine force for commercial good… as long as they’re written with your customers in mind.

T&C are almost always legal gobbledegook, often lifted wholesale from a template. From a communications perspective they’re criminally poor.  

Which is a shame. Every communication is an opportunity to promote your business. In a world packed solid with dodgy dealers, positive, honest, transparent Terms & Conditions can be powerful marketing magic. 

The thing is, most lawyers would probably advise you to leave your T&C well alone. The solution? 

• provide a plain language version of your T&C for people to read in tandem before signing up to the legal version. Say something like: Because our Terms & Conditions are legally binding, they’re difficult to understand. We think it’s nice to know what’s what, so here’s a plain English version. 

or  

• summarise each term and condition in plain English above or below the legalese. Say something like:  Because our Terms & Conditions are legally binding, they’re difficult to understand. We think it’s nice to know what’s what, so we’ve summarised each section in plain English.

or

• Take the view that your T&C are a formality. Some terms and conditions are just common sense written in legalese. For example when you join a forum it is usually a condition that you don’t swear at your fellow members. There’s absolutely no need for simple concepts like good manners to be expressed in legalese.   

or

• If you’re 100% risk averse, say what the hell and get a good copywriter to create a palatable document that means the same as the legalese – but communicates it properly. 

It is best to avoid caveats altogether. Why?

• caveats interfere with your sales proposition
• reading is a challenge because your flow is constantly interrupted by irritating little swords and asterisks
• caveats make you sound negative
• and, contrarily, they make you seem less trustworthy

Is it possible to avoid caveats altogether?

Yes. It’s easy. Turn them into positives instead. Make them earn their keep. Here’s an example.

• Replace the caveat *Offer valid for  a limited time only with a sentence  in your body copy, loud and proud: Hurry, this great offer won’t be around for ever!

What if you can’t make a caveat positive?

There’s always a positive side. If there genuinely isn’t, think about making people a decent offer that’s worth accepting.  

What if you can’t bear to clear out the caveats?

Put them all in your Terms & Conditions or Agreement, where they’ll work their hardest to reassure people rather than scaring them off.  

As a freelance copywriter I’m very aware how little time – and inclination – most people have to write stuff for themselves.

So it’s no surprise that getting customers to provide testimonials, comments and case studies can be a challenge.

My tip? Write the testimonial or case study yourself. Then ask your customer to approve it.

Which sounds ridiculously simple. But it’s an incredibly effective way to get what you need within a  reasonable timescale.

If you’re just as reluctant as your customers to put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard - get in touch and I’ll write it for you! Just click through to helpinthecity.com and we’ll take it from there!   

Add a ’status’ line to your home page – a bit like Facebook – and you can update your website in seconds every morning.

Just add a simple line of code, like I’ve done on my freelance copywriter website helpinthecity.com. 

Why? From a SEO perspective updating your site regularly encourages extra visits by Google etc. It tells them you’re alive and kicking. But a status line can be a powerful little direct marketing tool too. It is a beautifully easy way to:

• tell visitors exactly what you’re doing every day – evidence that you’re present, correct and waiting for their custom!
• announce news via a prominent, powerful one liner
• inform people about new stock, new products, special offers…
• reinforce your brand by consolidating your website’s tone of voice – cheap, cheerful and effective brand building
• give visitors an extra insight into your business’s personality
• differentiate yourself from competitors
• encourage people to come back every day to see what you’re up to
• deliver cross-sell and up-sell messages
• let people know when you’re on holiday, useful if you’re a one man band!
• prompt response by asking a daily question
• make one off and time-limited offers – for one hour only etc… a great way to win repeat visits

That’s just a quick off the cuff list. Test drive a status line on your website’s home page, monitor your stats carefully and see what it does for your business.

What is the inverted pyramid method? Ask any journalist. All it involves is putting your information in priority order. Putting crucial information at the top, less important material further down.

What’s ‘important’? It depends whether you want the reader to buy, make an offer, answer a question, join something, subscribe or respond in another way. For online work, you’ll probably want to use your keywords in order of importance. 

Whatever you want from them, give readers and search engines key information in an order that will: 

• let people know immediately that they’re in the right place 
• inspire them to start reading
• keep them reading
• drive them towards your goal in a logical, methodical way
• let search engines know what keywords they should treat as priority when ranking the page

Here’s an example

• Strong header including core proposition: Buy the cheapest copralites on the internet here – limited offer!
• First priority: We supply the best quality, cheapest copralites available anywhere online
• Second: Buy before the year 3000 and we’ll give you a 1000% discount
• Third: Here’s our copralite range. Aren’t they gorgeous!
• Fourth: This is how you buy
• Fifth: Buy now… click here
• Sixth: Copralite safety issues
• Seventh: Ask us a copralite question and we’ll get right back to you
• Eighth: legal / regulatory stuff

Most of us have the attention span of a gnat. Or a fish.

Unless we’re deep into a novel we tend to scan things rather than read every word. We might register basic concepts, propositions and ideas. But only if they stand out.

Which is why getting the core focus of a piece of written communication right is vital. Whether it’s a short product description or a blog post, an article or a web page.

If you’re having trouble establishing the focus of a piece of copy, it helps to take a step back. Ask yourself: What is the single most important thing that I want people to remember about this communication?

Once you’re crystal clear about exactly what you want people to take on board you can cut out all the fluff, make it integral to your proposition and focus your call to action firmly on it.

It also helps to put subsequent important points in priority order. Then you can give them the appropriate weight within the copy.