Even when you work as a freelance copywriter there is a part of you which makes you want to believe that the blogs you find online were written by someone with a genuine interest in the subject. Sadly this isn’t usually the case, is it? We all know that there are loads of people all round the world armed with lists of keywords and spinning software.
This is why it brightens my day when I find a site which has clearly been together with a bit of loving care. Blogs which make sense, the odd burst of humour and the ring of truth are all that you need to make me a fan of your site. I am guessing that I am not the only person who thinks like this.
In fact, I am willing to hazard a guess that the percentage of people looking for high quality copywriting is going to increase in the near future. As internet users become more experienced and sophisticated they simply don’t want to settle for third rate dross which has clearly been put together by someone who knows nothing about the subject and hasn’t bothered to find out about it either.
So how does blog writing get this intangible ring of truth on it? It is something which I always strive to add to every blog but until I sat down just now to try and explain it I had never actually really tried to analyse it. Let’s think about it just now then.
Set the Scene
Not every type of copywriting assignment lets you do this but I love the ones which do. It is a tactic which works well with retro type subjects or when your audience is of a certain age. If I need to take about a retro style radio, for example, then I could start off by reminiscing about our old gramophone player which my grandfather used to play scratched Little Richard records on every Friday night.
This immediately gets the reader reminiscing as well and lets them know that I am not a faceless global freelancer who has never seen an old radio in his life. We now have established some sort of relationship and this is a good start.
Bring in Some Characters
My Aunt Agnes would come round every Sunday to watch Songs of Praise, complain about the price of butter and ask if we could switch the radio over the Archers afterwards. Just giving a name to someone in the story immediately gives it more depth, and if you give them some characteristics it helps the reader identify with them as well.
Most of us probably had an Aunt Agnes type relative who listened to weird programmes on the radio and this makes it easy to picture both her and her old style radio. I don’t mean that you turn your blog into a Dostoyevsky novel but it just helps the readers if they can read something interesting and familiar. If it someone who has never bought anything online before then this kind of thing can make them feel more at ease and see the whole thing as being a bit more personal than they had expected.
Don’t Ruin It with Crass Linking
Sometimes a blog gets me hooked right till the end, when it goes in for the kill and gives me a blatant link to some product which has nothing to do with what I have just read. This makes me think that it was all just a cold, capitalist ploy to take money off me in a fairly unsubtle way. We all know that most things we read have a commercial purpose but we also like to be seduced in a rather more pleasant way.
Fitting in keywords and links is all about weaving them in and making them appear natural. With a bit of luck some people will think, “Oh, how sweet, there’s even a link in case I want to buy one of those radios he mentioned”. More likely the experienced reader will just think that at least you had the decency to give them a decent read before asking if they are interested in buying something.
image: Adam [Rez]
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About Chris Hoole
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