2013

COPYWRITING

101

MARKETING SALES

Venture Accelerator Partners

www.vapartners.ca Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

SOCIAL MEDIA

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2013

Content
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 What is Copywriting?
Why is Copywriting Important? How Do I Start With Copywriting?

Chapter 5 Copywriting for Social Media

Twitter LinkedIn Content Calendars

Chapter 3 Copywriting for Websites Chapter 4 Copywriting for Email Newsletters

Chapter 6 Copywriting Resources & Contact Information

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 1
An Introduction to Copywriting
At VA Partners, we have seen increased success in our marketing efforts and brand awareness by staying up to date with our copywriting efforts. As a part of our Copywriting Strategy, we focus on updating our content and repurposing it when applicable. Each of our communications tools, like our website, email newsletter and social media platforms, have a copywriting plan. The plan enables our entire team to stay up to date with our efforts and having copywriting plans also makes it easy for us to make any necessary changes as we go. Our successes with copywriting include: 400% increase in inbound leads Used social media to distribute content and add to sales funnel Updated the user friendliness and effectiveness of several websites Created a sustainable social media and blog plan This whitepaper will explain how great copywriting can enhance your sales and marketing efforts. It will address: What is copywriting? Why is good copywriting important to my business? Where should I begin my copywriting efforts? How does copywriting translate to my website, email newsletter, and social media tools? What is a copywriting content calendar?

QUICK
There are 140 million active Twitter users

FACTS
65% of the worlds top companies use it 340 million tweets are sent each and every day

Twitter is a great tool for developing your sales pipeline and qualifying prospects
Twitter can help you build your brand, scale your marketing, and improve your customer service Try and foster engagement with local followers first

You can be successful with Twitter in as little as 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 2
What is Copywriting?
Copywriting is produced content about a company that is used to communicate information about their services /products. Copywriting is key to websites, white papers, blogs, tweets, posts, email newsletters, brochures and case studies. Copywriting is an integral part of any companys marketing strategy. Why Is Copywriting Important? Copywriting is how a company communicates the benefits of its services/products to customers. There are numerous types of documents requiring copywriting, such as white papers, web pages or newsletters. It acts as a tool to help drive sales and educate your audience. The way a company writes needs to speak to the types of customers they wish to target and direct those customers to the next step in the buying process, regardless of the medium used for communication. How Do I Start With Copywriting?

340,000,000
tweets per day

140,000,000+
active Twitter users

250,000,000+
Active twitter users by end of 2012

Getting started is easy but the first thing you need to do is determine which platforms youre writing for. Each platform will have a different format and style. Here are some questions you need to answer before you get started:
1. What is the purpose of this platform? 2. Who am I targeting? 3. What type of discourse am I looking to take? (i.e. conversational, business, personal) 4. What are the main points of information I want my viewers to take away? This type of information should be capable of being put in bullet points.

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 3
Copywriting for Websites
In order to develop Copywriting for your website, there are steps that need to be taken to ensure you are including all the necessary information. In order to ensure every aspect of your webpage is being included, we recommend using a template similar to the one below. Web Page Title You should avoid getting overly creative with web page titles and simply tell your readers what the page is for. This is especially true when youre writing for SEO purposes. Search Engines will pick up Blog as a blog, better than they will understand Our News as a blog page. Utilize parent web pages by having drop downs, but do not exceed more than 3. If you choose to use drop downs (which are suggested when you want to incorporate more than 5 web pages), ensure that each one fits categorically under the right title. For instance, team member bios should be under Team and Team can be under About Us. What is the purpose of this particular web page? Is it to provide educational tools? It is to describe your services/products or is it meant to give a brief overview of what your company does? Decide what the purpose of the web page is before writing to ensure your content follows your initial intent for the page.

Tip
Avoid getting overly creative with web page titles

Parent

Purpose

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 3
Copywriting for Websites
Continued: Keywords Once you have established the purpose of your web page, you can determine which of your keywords is best suited. On the VA Partners website, for example, keywords for our Sales page include: Sales, VP of Sales & Sales Representative. Each keyword should appear at least 2-3 times on your page. By establishing your purpose, followed by your keywords, you are creating direction for your writing. First, remind yourself what the purpose of the website is: Reaching out to Prospective Client A or B? Providing tools? If trying to speak to a particular prospect on a web page, ensure you are using language they would understand (these types of words should also be under your Keywords section). Frame the content so your readers understand what you are communicating, the benefit and how they can go about benefitting from your service/product. Use images only when they benefit the written content on your web page (for example, infographics). Images of your team hard at work are appropriate for pages that describe your team and in your team profiles. Images depicting your services are also helpful when used properly. Take a look at our home page for examples.

Content

Tip
Be sure to include keywords at least 2-3 times on each page

Images

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 4
Copywriting for Newsletters
The following are parts of a typical email newsletter that require copywriting: Introduction Provide a brief introduction to your company and/or products and services. Ensure your copy doesnt sound like you are trying to sell your company, but rather, introducing what your company does. Ensure each newsletter uses the same intro to maintain consistency. Blog Summaries/Events Use blog summaries and event recaps in your newsletter to drive traffic back to your website. Include a short (under 75 word) synopsis of blogs or events that direct the reader to your site to get to the full story. Suggest Tools/Material/Resources Put together a list of suggested articles, webinars, events, readings or other educational tools that are beneficial to your readers. Ensure these tools relate to your core services and provide a value add to your readers. By providing suggested outside material, youll help to position your company as an industry leader. Your Send Off Include a conclusion at the end of your newsletter that thanks people for signing up and reading your newsletter. Inform them of how they can forward the newsletter to others or be a part of it (i.e. submitting suggested events). Ensure each newsletter uses the same send off in order to maintain consistency.

340,000,000
tweets per day

Tip

140,000,000+
active Twitter users

Dont use images 250,000,000+ when they add Active twitter users by end of 2012 nothing to your copy

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 5
Copywriting for Social Media
Every tweet and social post will be different, however, the discourse for each separate source should be the same. For example, your discourse over Twitter should be more casual and conversational than your discourse over LinkedIn. Once you have identified the social media platforms you will be using, answer the question: Who am I targeting through this platform? How do I wish to present myself and my brand? Twitter If you are active on Twitter, use this platform to connect, converse and provide information to your prospects. Interact with people by: RT-ing and including a comment Provide links and information that is valuable to your prospects Utilize your companys key words within your tweets to maintain consistency in your area of expertise Utilize hashtags that also relate to your area of expertise and ensure everyone in your company that manages your account has access to this information. Ensure your bio on Twitter includes your companys services/products, expertise and a link to your website. Use your 30 second pitch to formulate your biography; you will need to cut it down to the 140 character word limit available in Twitters biography section.

Tip
Twitter is a causal communication tool, so be casual in style

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 5
Copywriting for Social Media
LinkedIn

If your company has an active account on LinkedIn, use this platform with a professional discourse. Distribute information about your company, areas of expertise, and industry.
LinkedIn is a business tool with a professional atmosphere, so ensure to keep your discourse conservative. Interact with people as if they are a prospect by maintaining respect, understanding and professional discourse. LinkedIn provides users with more room to describe their company than Twitter, however, do not take this as an opportunity to describe every detail of your company and its services; you want people to visit your website to get the whole story. Take your 30 second pitch and expand on it by providing some examples of what you and the industries you work with. Provide links back to your website as well. Under the Products & Services page, describe each one your company provides and include examples of the type of work you have completed (avoid mentioning clients specifically).

Tip
LinkedIn is a professional atmosphere. Keep your discourse conservative.

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 5
Copywriting for Social Media
Social Media Content Calendars

Updating and keeping track of your content can be overwhelming, which is why we recommend using a content calendar. Our team recommends using a Microsoft Excel spread sheet to keep track of your content. Our content calendars are integrated into our marketing tracking document in order to centralize our information. We have 3 different types of calendars:
1) Content tracking for our blog 2) Content tracking for our 3rd party blog sites 3) Content tracking for the tweets/posts we send out through our social media platforms. By being careful to record our content, we can: Plan our content to ensure we are not repetitive Keep track of our blogs on 3rd party sources to ensure we arent supplying each one with the same blog and make sure each blog follows the regulations put in place for each source Track who writes what so we know which one of our employees is due for another blog Record our social media activity in order to utilize information sent out for our other marketing efforts, such as our newsletter Keep track of tweets/posts to ensure we are using the correct discourse, hashtags, and we are providing info pertaining to all of our services (sales, marketing and social media)

Tip
Document all of your social media posts for analytics purposes

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Copywriting 101

Venture Accelerator Partners, Inc.

2012 2013

Chapter 6
Resources & Contact Information
Here are some great resources if you want to learn more about prospecting (and sales in general):

CopywriterTO
Rachel Foster, the brains behind Copywriter TO, is a Toronto-based Toronto-based freelance copywriter. You can visit her website here.

Dawn Comber
Dawn Comber, the brains behind Digital Dialogues, is a Toronto-based freelance web copy writer. Visit her website here.

Contact Us
For more information on VA Partners please find us at: www.vapartners.ca Email: info@vapartners.ca Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn

Dana DiTomaso
Dana is the CEO of digital marketing agency Kick Point Inc. Edmonton-based Kick Points blog is full of great copywriting resources.

MarketCopywriter
Lorraine Thomson has been a print and digital copywriter for corporations, small businesses, and non-profits since 1987. Visit the site here.

VA Partners Blog
Check out the VA Partners blog for twice-weekly posts on sales, marketing, and social media, including a number of posts on copywriting best practices.

Twitter: @vapartners Find us on LinkedIn