5 Reasons your online copywriting is not converting

5 reasons your online copywriting is not converting

No matter how much traffic your online copywriting generates, unless people do business with you or unless they do what you want them to do, it doesn’t matter much.

Your online copywriting must convert.

Read: 10 copywriting tips to boost your website conversion rate

What is conversion?

In terms of writing content for your website (even your blog) conversion means people doing what you want them to do.

Conversion can be macro and micro.

Macro conversion means more people buying from you and more people using your service.

Micro-conversion can be anything.

You may want your visitors to download your e-book or your white paper.

You may want them to subscribe to your email newsletter.

You may even want to encourage them to come to your website or blog frequently.

You want to engage them.

Your macro conversion is the sum total of your micro-conversions.

The more engagement you have with your visitors, the greater are the chances of them becoming your paying customers and clients.

Here is a comprehensive explanation of the difference between micro-conversions and macro conversion. A long read, it is also good example of a pillar page as well as long form content.

How do you know your online copywriting isn’t converting?

Of course, if you are not generating enough sales it means your online copywriting is not converting.

If you are not getting regular subscribers to your newsletter it means your content is not inspiring people enough.

If people are not downloading your e-book, they don’t find your content or your copy worthy enough.

Somehow, your copywriting isn’t making a mark.

People are not impressed.

They are not finding what they are looking for.

You need to evaluate your writing.

Unless you know why your conversion rate is very low or even non-existent, you cannot make amends.

Listed below are 5 reasons why your online copywriting is not converting.

1. You are focusing more on yourself and less on your customers and clients

When people come to your website, they’re not interested in you just for the heck of it.

They have a problem and they are looking for a solution.

They have a need and they are looking for someone who can fulfill that need.

If you come to my website looking for someone who can improve your SEO with online copywriting, you don’t want to know what a great copywriter I am.

You want to know whether I understand your problem or not and accordingly, I can improve your SEO.

YOUR problem should be my focus, not my skills and abilities.

Of course, you need to know my skills and abilities, but they should be integrated into a you-centric message.

If you focus more on yourself and less on your customers and clients, there is no emotional connection and people leave your website without doing business with you.

2. You don’t have a call-to-action

What do you want people to do when they are on your website?

If you are simply busy generating traffic from search engines and social media websites without making it clear exactly what you can offer, your conversion rate is going to be low.

Your copywriting should make it clear that you are in the business of providing solutions people are looking for.

3. Your online copywriting is not web friendly

People have a certain way of reading text on their mobile phones and even on their PCs and laptops.

I have repeatedly written on my website that people don’t read blogs and websites the way they read traditional magazines and newspapers.

The digital world is full of distractions.

While you are browsing a website or a blog, you are constantly being disturbed by notifications and by the possibilities of easily going to another website or blog.

Since most of the people may be accessing your website or blog on their mobile phone, they may be sitting at a crowded and noisy place.

The point is, online copywriting needs to take into account zillions of distractions.

Write very short sentences.

Be clear about what you are saying.

Cover every important point as quickly as possible so that even if someone leaves your website midway, he or she knows what you are trying to communicate.

Keep your copy easily scannable.

Organize your text under various headings and subheadings and bullet points.

Don’t beat around the bush.

4. You have a misleading headline or web page title

Many people come to your website after coming across your link on Google or one of the social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

They will be drawn to your website due to the title or the headline that they read.

Some writers create misleading headlines and titles to draw people to the website or blog thinking that the only purpose of their writing is generating traffic.

Many entrepreneurs mistakenly think that it’s all about getting traffic to the website, whereas it is not.

Yes, you need traffic, but more than traffic, you need people who are actually interested in doing business with you.

When you use misleading headlines and web page titles, people feel cheated and they quickly leave your website.

5. You are not getting rightly targeted traffic

Rightly targeted traffic means getting those people to your website who would like to become your paying customers and clients.

For this, through your online copywriting, you need to target searcher’s intent: why people are looking for that particular piece of information?

In the beginning, when people had just started doing business online, I was providing web design and web programming services.

I mostly focused on creating and publishing HTML and PHP tutorials on my website.

Though I was able to generate lots of traffic, I rarely got clients.

Instead of targeting people who were looking for web designers and web programmers to build their websites, inadvertently I was targeting people who themselves wanted to learn web design and web programming.

Routinely publishing educational content is not bad, but publishing educational content just to attract an audience who is interested in learning but not in doing business, can be counter-productive.

Even for my content writing and online copywriting business I share lots of educational content but now I don’t repeat the same mistake.

Even when I’m sharing my knowledge and experience with my visitors, I never neglect the keywords and search terms that bring me content writing and copywriting clients.

Hence, be careful of your targeting when regularly publishing content on your website or blog.

Remember that it’s very chaotic on the web.

People will come across your information among hundreds of other links.

When they come to your website, they may get confusing or mixed signals.

The job of your online copywriting is to make sure that you articulate the benefit of doing business with you, as clearly as possible.

If you don’t do that, you will have a low conversion rate.

Why you should pay for quality content writing

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Why you shouldn’t mind paying for quality content

One of the biggest problems faced by good content writers is that most of the clients undervalue quality content.

I have expanded my presence on the Internet enough to attract clients of different dimensions.

Hence, if there are some clients who are not comfortable with paying the rates that I request, there are many other clients who are ready to pay my rates and in fact, many believe that I should be charging more.

There was a time when I never had conversations with clients who had problems with my rates. I would simply tell them to look for another content writer.

With age I have become more patient. I try to have conversations with those clients.

I try to explain to them that when they are spending money on a quality content writer, they shouldn’t worry about needlessly spending that money because writing on their website is the most important aspect of their presence on the Internet.

Read: Why quality content writing matters and how to maintain quality

Some understand. Some don’t. Some understand but don’t want to accept that they have understood.

For an average person or entrepreneur, it is difficult to recognize the uniqueness of business content because writing is everywhere.

You go to any website, writing is just there, by default.

You notice the header. You notice the logo. You notice the animation. You notice the images. You notice the color scheme. You notice the layout. You notice even the font type.

But writing?

Writing is just there.

You will rarely say, “wow, what a writing!”

You come across writing on the blogs. You come across writing in newspapers and magazines. You come across writing on social media websites. It is everywhere. Everyone writes.

So, I can understand if you don’t feel like paying your content writer what he or she deserves.

With so much writing, people forget that casual writing and sharing your thoughts is different from writing for business.

I will give you a small example.

You use free services on the Internet without giving them even a second thought.

You use free email. You use free social networking tools. You use free blogging platforms. You use free video hosting services. You use free cloud storage space.

But the moment someone asks for money, you start thinking about the pros and cons of using the same service that you have been using for years.

Even if tomorrow Google starts charging for Gmail, you won’t pay eagerly.

You will quickly start looking for other “free” email services even if they are not as good as Gmail.

You will pay for Gmail only if you cannot do without its features.

So, if you’re not ready to pay to Google for a service that you have been using for years, for free, how do you expect people to spend money on your website especially when countless other alternatives are available on the Internet?

The Internet gives you unprecedented opportunities, but it also gives you an unprecedented level of competition.

If you sell something, there are hundreds of people selling the same thing and people are already buying from them.

If you offer a service, there are hundreds of people offering the same service and people are already using that service.

Even your website layout and template may look the same as someone else’s because you have probably bought a template that is being used by many other businesses.

One thing you can be totally unique at is your writing and hence, whether people realize it or not, it is your writing that is a deciding factor.

For example, this blog post that I am writing is completely unique.

Even if someone has already written about the issue that I’m writing about (why you must pay for quality content writing), the way that person has written is totally different from what I’m writing here.

Whether you realize it or not, your entire business is based on what you have written on your website.

Deciding to buy something is an emotional decision.

Emotions are controlled by words. Written words.

People don’t decide to do business with you because of the image, or the logo or the animation or the layout of the website.

People decide to do business with you after reading what you have written on your website.

Not wanting to pay for quality content writing is like not wanting to clean the air you breathe because the current state of the air, though polluted, isn’t killing you, yet.

Most of the websites have lousy writing on them because the content on them is not written by professional and trained content writers.

Importance of quality writing for SEO

Quality content writing is more so important when you want to improve your SEO.

Read: 5 Reasons Why Content Writing Is Important for SEO

Long gone are the days when your SEO depended on the way you used your keywords.

Keywords still matter, but what matters more is the way people interact with your writing.

If your writing is not relevant, if it is not engaging, you begin to lose your search engine rankings.

More than 97% of your search traffic comes from Google.

Google is spending millions of dollars every month to make sure that irrelevant and useless content doesn’t show up in the search results or at least doesn’t show up in the top search result pages.

More than 300 maths PhDs are constantly modifying ranking algorithms at Google to enable the crawlers crawl and rank high value content.

If you want to compete with these 300 maths PhDs, it’s your choice, but an easier option is to give Google the type of content it is looking to rank higher – quality content.

Why paying for quality content isn’t a waste of money?

The writing on your website is an asset.

Although, on your blog you are constantly publishing your content, the content that you publish on your main, business website, remains there for months, and sometimes even for years.

This means, for months and for years, this content will make people do business with you.

The writing on your website is a business-generating machine.

It is a high-value asset.

People are going to form an impression of your business by reading what you have written or published on your website.

They will decide whether they want to do business with you or not, after reading your information.

If your writing is not compelling, if it is not engaging, if it is not conversational, people are going to leave your website to explore and evaluate another website.

Small businesses are always personality-based.

If someone goes to a Google website or an IBM website or a Microsoft website, he or she is ready to put up with small annoyances and even lousy writing.

But if the same person goes to the website of a small business, he or she is going to become all judgmental.

Even a tiny uninspiring sentence or word will send him or her away.

It’s because, whereas Google, IBM and Microsoft don’t have much competition, a small business has lots of competition.

Going to another website is as simple as going to another link or doing another search on Google.

If I’m looking for a mobile app developer and I’m not convinced with the information you have presented on your website, all it takes is a couple of seconds to go to another mobile app development website.

Aside from these, here are a few reasons why quality content is important for your website.

People want to share high-quality content

Sharing gives you brand visibility.

Content shared by people is more valuable than content distributed through advertising.

The more people share your content on their social media timelines, the better are your search engine rankings.

Not just sharing, even when people “Like” your content, it gives indications to Google that people are appreciating your content.

Every instance of sharing your content, liking your content or any other reaction to your content (someone leaving a comment), sends out signals to Google which are then used to decide your search engine rankings.

Quality content establishes your authority

If personal branding matters to your business, then you must establish yourself as an authority.

When people respect you for your knowledge, wisdom and your hold over your subject, they want to do business with you because they know that they are dealing with an expert.

They will also eagerly pay you higher compared to your competitors.

In my content writing and online copywriting business too, since I’m constantly sharing my thoughts, my expertise and my knowledge, people are eagerly ready to pay my rates even when sometimes they feel they’re having to pay higher than they would pay to another content writer.

Good quality content helps people remember you

Good quality content on your website renders a unique personality to your presence.

When you work with a professional content writer, he or she also brings a unique personality.

Many of my clients want me to write for them because of my writing style. They want the same writing style for their website and blog.

Retention is very important on the Internet.

If people cannot distinguish you from your competitors, it is difficult for them to develop a sense of loyalty for your business. They get distracted easily. They switch easily.

So, the next time, if you are wondering why you should pay for high-quality content writing, remember these points and you will enjoy greater clarity.

5 qualities of a content writer who delivers results

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Qualities of a content writer who can deliver

A lot of people who leave a message using my website’s contact form want to work with me as content writers.

I really admire their courage and confidence as, when I was trying to establish myself as a successful content writer on the web, I could never muster enough courage to approach another content writing website to give me work.

Even now, I cannot approach clients.

I simply promote myself on Google and social media websites like LinkedIn through constantly publishing content on my website and blog.

I maintain my visibility and I like it this way, even prefer it this way.

Nonetheless, when I receive queries from writers/people who want to make a living writing content or copy for other websites and businesses, I can’t help noticing how they have written and what it tells me about what type of writers and content writers they are.

No, in this blog post I’m not analyzing the writing styles of people who approach me for work.

I’m just creating a context and, in the process, if these people can read this particular blog post, I hope in some manner it will help them become better content writers.

Listed below are 5 qualities of a content writer who can deliver results – whom clients would like to hire and pay.

Remember that ultimately it is not about your writing abilities, it is about your ability to help your client grow his or her business.

Here they are…

1. Develop an understanding of the web medium

As a professional content writer, you will be writing for websites, blogs, email marketing campaigns and social media updates.

These are web entities.

Your writing will be accessed by people surfing the Internet through their PCs-laptops and mobile phones and tablets.

Mostly mobile phones.

Write for an Internet audience.

Develop an understanding of how people on the Internet read content.

Remember that the Internet is a buzzing ecosystem.

There are constant distractions whether these distractions originate from the surrounding environment or from within the device.

When someone is reading your writing on a mobile phone, the reader might be traveling in a car or a bus.

He or she might be standing in a queue or walking on the road (not advised).

He or she might be sitting in the park while keeping an eye on his or her kid in the play area.

He or she might be watching Netflix while trying to pay attention to what you have written.

There can be a zillion distraction in the physical world when a person is using a mobile phone.

Unlike reading a book or a magazine or a newspaper, or even sitting in front of the TV, there is no dedicated time or space for a mobile phone.

And what about distractions within the mobile phone?

There are notifications.

There are other mobile apps.

There are phone calls and video calls.

Amidst all that, you want the reader to pay attention to what you have written.

Write keeping that in mind.

Don’t beat around the bush.

Write shorter sentences.

Express one thought in a single sentence.

In most of the cases, write one sentence per paragraph.

Use shorter words unless it is absolutely necessary to use longer words.

2. Know how to strike up a conversation through your writing

Many writers who approach me want to impress with their writing and hence, end up writing staid sentences.

Although I can understand someone’s tendency to go to extra lengths to prove that he or she writes very well, the more effort you put into your writing, the less conversational it gets.

As a professional content writer who delivers results, your job is not to prove how well you write, your job is to engage your readers and convince them into taking the action you want them to take.

The same happens with every type of communication.

When you purposely use compound sentences and heavy words (by the way, I love heavy words) it shows that you are not comfortable in the language.

Write like you talk.

There is no harm in using very simple straightforward sentences.

Your job is not to impress but to engage your readers.

You don’t want to intimidate them.

You want to talk to them like a friend, like a well-wisher, like someone who wants to inform them and educate them and help them make a better decision.

3. Gain mastery over your skill

You will be able to write simply AND effectively only if you are totally at home with your skill.

Practice your art all the time.

Even when you are not working on paid assignments, keep writing.

Have you seen a maestro playing his violin?

Have you seen a classical singer?

Or a painter working on his or her masterpiece?

There is a mesmerizing rhythm.

This rhythm comes when you are totally comfortable with your skill, with your art.

When your skill and your art have become muscle memory.

When I want to express something, I don’t have to think about the words or the sentences.

It just flows out of me.

I’m not a Schumacher but if I want to go on a leisurely drive (in a car called writing) I can easily do that.

I’m not a Dostoevsky but I don’t have to pause and think of how to create the right sentences when I want to express myself.

This is because I practice every day.

Not a single day goes by when I don’t write.

If I’m not writing for a client, then I’m working on a journalistic article or an essay.

Write, all the time.

4. Constantly educate yourself and keep yourself informed

Knowledge gives you intellectual muscle and flexibility to be yourself when you are writing.

It gives you conviction.

It gives you authority.

Even if you don’t have to use a particular piece of knowledge in your content writing, it gives you the needed stability.

Even your clients will appreciate when you work for them as a professional content writer.

When you interact with them, when you write for them, it comes out naturally.

People can read between the lines.

Knowledge and education also make you more confident, so you don’t want to impress people just for the heck of it.

This again has a bearing on your writing.

Educating and keeping yourself informed was never easier.

Interact in online forums.

Read relevant news.

My field is content marketing and content writing and I am constantly reading about content marketing and content writing, and online copywriting.

Whether it is how to write well, or how Google is constantly changing the ranking algorithm, or how content marketing is constantly evolving or how the new tools and services are coming up…everything.

Are you keeping yourself updated on how the corona virus is spreading?

What about the impact 5G is going to have on Internet of Things?

Spend at least one hour every day on learning and doing new things.

5. Learn to empathize and think from the perspective of your readers

As a professional content writer your job is to convince people into doing business with your client (or with you).

Frankly, nobody is interested in knowing how great your client is.

But people are definitely interested in knowing how your client can improve their lives.

For that, you need to know what problems prospective customers and clients of YOUR client have and what sort of solutions they are looking for.

You see? How you write doesn’t matter.

What matters the most is the difficulties and problems being faced by the customers and clients of your client, and how much business your client can generate because of your writing.

You need to learn to how to empathize with not just your own client but also customers and clients of your client.

When I’m providing my content writing services to my clients I write for them as I write for my own business.

This is why, clients who don’t give me enough information put me off because this shows they themselves are not interested in getting good content for their own business.

I need to feel passionate.

If the client doesn’t feel passionate, it becomes difficult for me to write.

I need to be able to empathize with him or her and then, with his or her customers and clients.

In the end, by default you should be able to write well.

When you want to work as a content writer who delivers results, how you write doesn’t even figure.

What matters is, how well you communicate.

Difference between demand generation and lead generation and how it affects your online copywriting

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Demand generation, lead generation and online copywriting

The end result of online copywriting can be very delicate.

It’s like, when you are launching a space probe, even a difference of 0.00003 degree can send your space probe millions of kilometers away from its target.

Small words can make a big difference.

The purpose of your online copywriting is to get the right people to your website or blog.

These people should convert and buy from you, become your customers or your clients.

If, instead of attracting visitors who want to become your paying customers and clients, you are constantly attracting people who want to learn so that they can do on their own what you do professionally, you are not going to get any business.

Again, if I want to attract businesses looking for premium online copywriting services but instead, I attract businesses and individuals who are looking for cheap copywriting services, my targeting is skewed.

Anyway, I’m digressing from the main topic: Difference between demand generation and lead generation and how, knowing the difference, affects your online copywriting.

What is lead generation?

You generate a lead when someone gives you his or her email ID or phone number so that you can keep in touch and preferably, make a business proposition.

Now, when I say someone giving you his or her email ID or phone number, it doesn’t mean any person and for any reason under the sun.

If you give me your email ID or your phone number knowing that I will be promoting my online copywriting services to you and in near future, you may be interested in hiring me, you are a lead for me.

Even if you don’t want to hire me in the foreseeable future but think that somewhere down the line you may need my services and hence you would like me to keep in touch with you, you are a lead.

So, someone who shows interest in your business (knows what your business is) and gives you his or her contact information so that you can keep in touch (about your business) that person is your lead.

What is demand generation?

Different sources have different meaning for demand generation, but what it basically means is, letting people know what you can do for them and what is the benefit of doing business with you.

The demand can be generated in two ways: (1) recognizing an existing gap and filling it, and making people aware of what you have to offer them; (2) making people who know that they need your services but are not aware of your existence, aware of your existence.

When Steve jobs came up with the design of the first iPhone almost everyone scoffed at the idea of a mobile phone without physical buttons.

Now we will scoff at the idea of a mobile phone with physical buttons.

He generated a demand for mobile phones that didn’t have physical buttons, even when people didn’t know that such mobile phones were possible.

Hence, to generate demand, you raise awareness about what you can do.

To promote my online copywriting services, I need to constantly educate people on why quality copywriting is necessary for their websites and blogs and what they are missing if they are not working with a professional online copywriter.

Online copywriting for generating leads

As mentioned above, generating leads means encouraging people to give you their contact information so that you can keep in touch with them and present to them your business proposition.

How do you achieve that through online copywriting?

To understand this, you need to understand why would people give the information to you?

When they trust you.

When they value your advice.

When they trust your knowledge.

I don’t believe in offering people something in lieu of their contact information.

This is why, I’m not comfortable with the idea of offering your prospective leads an e-book or another lucrative offers so that they leave their email ID or their phone number to you.

I would rather offer them valuable content through my blog and website and then leave it up to them whether they want to keep in touch or not.

But then, it depends on your audience. Just the fact that they are ready to give you their email ID to be able to download your e-book means that they value that e-book written and published by you.

Anyway, to generate leads, you need to create a positive presence on the web.

People must feel confident enough to leave their email ID and your phone number with you.

They should feel moved enough to call you or fill up your contact form.

Whether you want to achieve it through quality content writing or through one-off offer of an e-book or a white paper, depends on your marketing strategy.

Online copywriting for demand generation

To generate demand, you need to make people aware of the benefits of your product or service.

Why would you hire my online copywriting services?

You want to improve your SEO.

You want to engage your visitors in positive conversations.

You want to improve your conversion rate.

Hence you are looking for an online copywriting service you can count on.

But for that, you need to know an online copywriting service can deliver you these services.

What if you don’t know that you need these services to run a successful online business?

Then my job is to make you aware.

I need to tell you why search engine traffic is important for your business.

I need to explain to you why engagement is important.

I need to demonstrate how targeted search engine traffic coupled with engagement, can improve your conversion rate.

When I make you aware, I generate demand for my service.

So, basically, both for lead generation and demand generation, you need to make a connection.

The difference is, demand generation is an ongoing awareness campaign whereas lead generation is a consequence of that campaign.

In terms of content, what you should adopt and leave what, in 2020

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How your content marketing should be in 2020

This LinkedIn content marketing blog post compiles insights by various industry experts on what to adopt and what to leave in 2020 while implementing and carrying out a digital marketing and content marketing strategy.

The first, and the most noticeable advise is from Michael Brenner (because I too have been advising the same thing to my clients) who says that marketers should shift away from content randomness and have a clearly-defined idea of why they are publishing a particular piece of content.

He says that brands that stop publishing content randomly and follow a consistent pattern experience an increase of 50-200% in traffic and leads.

When you use content marketing to promote your business on the web, it is like maintaining a publishing or a media platform.

Whether they are consciously aware of it or not, your target customers and clients expect you to publish high-value content on regular basis.

Read How to come up with great content writing ideas every day.

Another issue that I have experienced with many content writing and copywriting clients is that all their content requirements are based on their keywords.

Yes, keywords are important, and you must optimize your content for better SEO, but if you solely focus on the keywords instead of the value that you plan to deliver with your content, your content begins to lose meaning.

As the next person in the thread says, you should escape the “sea of sameness” and focus on something unique.

The beauty of the world is, every person is unique.

Although, when you’re working with a content writer or an online copywriter, his or her own perspective is going to permeate through the content, but you can control the direction of the content to a great extent by choosing to focus on the value that you want to deliver instead of the keywords you want to optimize your content for.

How do you do that?

Stop living in a cocoon.

Take an active interest in your industry.

Follow conversations on Twitter and LinkedIn and participate in those conversations.

See how you can align your marketing message with the issues affecting the society in general.

You can also publish valuable content by vertical focusing.

Talk to a single individual instead of targeting a broad spectrum.

Focus on problems and issues being faced by a single individual for that blog post or web page.

Yes, if you don’t handle multiple issues in a single blog post you may have to publish multiple blog posts but then, this is a blessing in disguise.

You do need to publish multiple blog posts to cover all possible topics.

Does a strict schedule matter?

If you are publishing a blog post every Wednesday, unless people are really expecting to hear from you on Wednesday, it hardly matters, as long as, you are publishing every week.

Regularity is important.

It increases your brand visibility.

People become familiar with your business and they also begin to recognize you for your quality and sincerity.

This is what ultimately improves your SEO.

The right content writing way: focus on value and accommodate SEO.

The wrong content writing way: focus on SEO and accommodate value.

The wrong way doesn’t work but it seems like shortcut and hence, most of the people want to follow it.

The right way takes time and effort but also delivers results.