1. Maggie Dennison
Marketing Consultant and Writer
presents
5 Huge Mistakes in Writing for the Web –
and How to Avoid Them
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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2. Why do visitors come to your
website?
»Get information
»Solve a problem
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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3. Mistake no. 1:
Writing about you (me..me..me)
Sorry, but they don’t care about you!
Write from the perspective of your clients.
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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4. Mistake no. 2
Not writing to a specific market
…leads to boring, generic copy that nobody
relates to.
Know your market, how they think, what
their hot buttons are.
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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5. Mistake no. 3
Writing is not engaging or
persuasive
so visitors don’t feel you understand them and see
no reason to approach you
• Get inside the head of your ideal client and
figure out what they want to hear
• Use everyday language
• Appeal to the emotions
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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6. Generic, vague copy
In addition to inpatient treatment and
extended-care programming [company] also
provides one-of-a-kind advanced workshops.
While these workshops specifically cater to
the needs of those who have not yet enrolled
in inpatient treatment, they also are a source
of renewal for patients who have undergone
treatment.
7. Before and After
BEFORE
A Natural Approach to Looking and
Feeling Great
AFTER
Look and Feel Great With Natural Skin
Care Products That Keep Their Promise
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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8. Before and After
BEFORE
This book may change the way you cook,
eat and think about food.
AFTER
Dramatically improve your health and well-
being with over 250 easy-to-prepare
recipes that stop cravings, help you lose
weight and restore your natural vitality.
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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9. Before and After
BEFORE
Traditional Chinese Medicine and
Acupuncture
AFTER
Powerful Natural Therapies Restore
Balance and Harmony to Your Body and
Your Life
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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10. Before and After
BEFORE
E&M Equipment partners with its
customers
AFTER
Turn your idle assets into cash in the
bank!
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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11. Mistake no. 4
Too much information –
or not enough
…leads to confusion or overwhelm.
• Be clear and concise
• Give as much information as they need
to make the decision to take the next step
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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12. Mistake no. 5
Not setting yourself apart from your
competition
If I had to choose among 3 professionals
who all do what you do, why should I
choose you?
Without a good reason, I choose based on
price.
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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13. Bonus Mistake:
Poor readability
• Huge chunks of text
• Paragraphs that are too long
• Nothing to guide the eye through the copy
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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14. Summary
• Know your target audience and your ideal
client, what they want, and how they think
• Focus on them
• Know what makes you different
• Use emotions and benefits
• Keep your language simple and concise
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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15. Learn How To Do It Right!
Introducing “Writing For The Web”, a do-it-
yourself program that teaches you how to write
basic pages for your site
Learn principles of copywriting that you can
apply to ALL of your marketing materials.
The system I use when I write for my clients.
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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16. What you get
• A complete downloadable package
• A 60 page e-book including worksheets
• A separate Action Guide that you can fill
out on your computer
Bonuses:
• “A Guide to Getting and Using Great
Testimonials”
• “The Power of Color on your Website”
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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17. Where To Find It!
Go to www.EZwebwriting.com
Maggie Dennison www.MyMarketingMesssage.com
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Editor's Notes
SLIDE 1 Talk about mistakes, I’ll give you some ideas on how to avoid them. What I’m going to talk to you about are principles, that you can apply to any of your web writing. At the end I have an offer for you that will help you with your writing. What kind of businesses are here? Who has a website?
SLIDE 2 What is the purpose of your website? Wrong question. What you want your website to do may not be what your customers are looking for…so there’s a disconnect. Old school marketing is about getting people to do things. Web marketing is about helping people do things. Big difference – the power is with the customer, not with you.
SLIDE 3 Writing about we, we, we. You can’t “wewe” all over pepole and expect them to like and trust you! Example: you go to a networking event and someone comes up and pushes a business card into your hand and starts telling you all about them and their business. How long does it take before your eyes glaze over. Focus on your potential clients, their wants and problems that your service can solve. _ let them know you understand them Benefits of working with you
SLIDE 4 Mattel example. Your target market is not ‘everyone’. “Everyone who has skin.” Why do you need to know your market? Spiel on target market. Doesn’t mean you can’t have different target markets. e.g. Volvo 36 year old mother of 2 young kids. All their marketing is built around safety Mattel story. Can’t go into how to define your target market.
SLIDE 5 Attention-getting headline. Create curiosity or excitement and give visitor a reason to stay and find out more. Check headlines on mags at supermarket check out. They’re good. Someone from Cosmopolitian or one of those women’s magazines was once asked how do you come up with so many different topcs to write about and she said something along the lines of “a lot of it is the same stuff in different words or with a slightly different angle but it’s the headline that sells it. Connect with their emotions. WE make decisions form our heart and justify with the head. EXAMPLES Bmw suvS – RUGGED, MACHO, stEVE Hamlin – SUV WILL BE A CHICK MAGNET.
SLIDE 6 Vague fluff Factual but not compelling.
SLIDE 7 Skin care companies exaggerate what products can do.
SLIDE 8 Before and after Suzanne l. book cover
SLIDE 9 Befor and after acupuncture clinic
SLIDE 10 Before and after Ed
SLIDE 11 tan wanting 50 words on the home page. Analogy of sales person. You wouldn’t send a sales person out and say you can only use 50 words. You don ‘t want to bore your readers, but you also don’t want to make them impatient because they can’t do what they came to do. Sensitive to having their time wasted. Gerry McGovern. BACK TO KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE e.g. accountants are very detailed so will want more detail. Big picture thinkers may need less. Engineers are extremely logical, so make sure there are no holes in your logic. Coaches are empathic and care about people. So appeal to that.
SLIDE 12 Not price, service or quality. Too vague. This ties in with your brand identity. What is the image? Talk about mine – curious, dpeendable and straightforward. Creative people are not known for that. And I have a business background. Used to be a proejct leader so understand budgets, deadlines and how to get projects over the finish line.
SLIDE 13 You can use bulleted points. Use elements like bolding to guide the eye through the text.
