8 examples of CTAs that Should Inspire You to Assess Your Own and Make Some Changes

“If you build it they will click?” Not likely. Your visitors do not have some instinctive urge to click a button just because it is there. They have to want to click that button because there is some value in doing it. The questions to ask yourself are as follows: Have you created enough value or benefits? Is your CTA really “connected” to the conversion? Are you providing “no-risk” for clicking that button? Have you told the visitor exactly what to do? Have you established some form of urgency? Are your CTA’s taking advantage of the psychology of conversions? While no single CTA will probably meet all of these criteria, the more that can be incorporated, the better. Here are 8 example CTAs that are getting conversions, with an explanation of why they do.

Manpacks Wants You to Get Creative

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Why you should pay attention to microcopy on your website and how to make it work

The great majority of advice for digital marketers and content writers is about how to write incredible landing pages, engaging content and killer headlines. And those things are incredibly important - don't get me wrong. But, the good web marketers know that there's a third category of text that's so tiny (literally) that most writers ignore it, yet so significant that it can help boost conversion rates and customer loyalty. It's microcopy. Those tiny snippets of words that ask people to fill out a form or tell them that there was an error. For those out there that think that microcopy doesn't matter consider this: microcopy is sometimes the only actual interaction between you and your readers/customers. It's where you ask your customers to fill something out, explain to them what went wrong and guide them on…

The essentials of writing excellent content

Are you beginning to wonder about how effective content writing is? Maybe you’ve written some outstanding pieces that received only a lukewarm response. All those long hours of research on problem solving for your niche, then writing, editing and polishing posts for a handful of shares. It’s a bit worrisome, isn’t it? That’s because there’s a popular misconception about writing great content. The actual writing of the content is only half of the formula for success. You can write absolutely brilliant posts that are on topic, providing top-notch solutions for your audience - but if you don’t have a strategy for how to consistently produce and market it, it’s not going to do you much good. So, today we’re going to focus on the entire picture, not just one segment of it. Let’s start with some of the primary elements of writing excellent content for small businesses, then cover…

Copywriting best practice: Opening Lines - How They Make Or Break

A good opening line draws you in. A bad one tells you to put the book down. Opening lines are the most important sentences a writer will put down in pen and paper. They are crucial for commercial success. If readers cannot go beyond an insipid opening line, they cannot reach the thousands of beautiful sentences that lie just beyond the first page. If a reader does not read, then the subsequent lines will virtually not exist. In a sentence, a good opening line leads to a strong literary start.

A must for commercial success

The start of any literary work begins with the first two lines and continues to the first two chapters. Agents and publishers read a work before readers do, and they are not afraid to cancel the novel if they find it uninspiring. Their most said excuses are: If readers…

4 quick tips for shorter, successful social updates

My dream is to open a clothing store for online marketers. So content marketers can wear t-shirts with the slogan "I repurposed this from a blog post". And copywriters will proudly declare "I kept it short".

Short is beautiful in the online world.

Though that's not quite correct. The right length for text depends on many factors. But if you can make your text shorter while communicating the same message, then that's a good thing.

Why?

Because you don't have a lot of time to capture attention and draw people into and through your text...whether it's a blog post or a product description, email copy or a sales page.

Cutting text down is a particular issue when you have a character limit or space is at a premium, such as with a Tweet or subject line. It's one of the many topics I cover in a new Smart Insights video…

Web product copy

When you’re writing about an individual product, the ‘formula’ or framework is the same as for catalogue copy or indeed any written piece of sales material.  Start with a key benefit or statement of superiority, describe the benefits and end on a call to action. You all know AIDA -  Attention, Interest, Desire and Action). The main differences between web product copy and catalogue product copy are: Copy for the web can be longer but ensure it’s written and laid out so it can be ‘skimmed’ quickly and easily. Sometimes longer copy can bolster your natural search engine rankings. Be careful! as some individual product pages have a restrictive word count in CMS. Websites often have a specific format including bullet points and paragraphs with headings.  These are known as H1, H2 and so on down to H6 and can be limited in characters.  As well as these, the bullet points…

New report summarises best and worst only copywriting practices

Value: [rating=4]

Recommended link: State of Digital Copywriting: Sticky Content Survey results 2013

This report makes for interesting reading if you're involved in writing content, in the on or off-line world, and feeling the pressure to optimise your process for copywriting so it gets the delicate balance right between benefits for brand, content marketing, SEO, the UX and social interaction. It's also useful reading if your managing copywriting within an agency or as a client marketer managing an agency.

Sticky Content have realised these increasing demands on copywriting and ran their own survey, to 'poll the market on qualitative issues around digital copywriting, content production' and to find out how attitudes are changing.

Sticky Content collated findings from an on-line survey and onsite exhibitions, comprising of Marketers, Copywriters and Content Editors, to identify best practice and challenges which companies are still facing, including industry insights…

Timeless tips for more engaging blog posts

We have given many recommendations on managing content marketing in posts and guides this year, including how to plan the content, be creative and allocate the resources to manage the content. This infographic explains how to engage through copy. It highlights 3 main approaches to how to improve your blog by building a 'captivated audience': 1. Building your audience 2. Use social media to drive traffic to your blog and 3. Increasing your subscriber account. The infographic is from two of our favourite blogs, Blueglass and Copyblogger. It gives a nice simple refresher. If you don't know these sites, they're worth checking out. …

Using copy to make a good first impression

Writing copy for your web page is much more than adding in just keywords for SEO and sometimes we forget the obvious – it’s about your customers!. Here are some tips on writing good copy for your pages by Mel Henson.

Your Home page

Quickly it needs to say ”This is what we do – and this is what’s in it for you” within a few moments before your visitors leave.  Include a simple statement or value proposition that tells your visitors at a glance. Of course, this is best from the customer’s point of view, not the company’s. Additional copy should expand on this and incorporate keywords that apply to the whole site. Of course, there are lots of other functions of the home page and navigation is important. the architecture of your site. It draws your customers in, stops them leaving, gets them…

Do magic words exist or are they a copywriting myth?

I recently received a copywriting advice email  from Yale University describing the ‘the most powerful words in the English Language’. Here they are: 1. You 2. Results 3. Health 4. Guarantee 5. Discover 6. Love 7. Proven 8. Safety 9. Save 10. New Although I agree that these are powerful words, I doubt Yale really conducted any rigorous research – and if they did, it’s certainly not something that the University chooses to share on its official website. What is interesting is how long these types of list have been "doing the rounds". It taps into the insatiable demand for instant solutions. Human nature finds the notion very appealing that all you need do is sprinkle a few magic words into your writing like fairy dust and, Hey Presto, an instant increase in sales pops out of the hat. Using magic words in the right place in your copy and in the right order…