With the holiday sales season only 2 weeks away, now is the time to take a look at your advertising copy and give it a tweak.

To help you out I have outlined below seven sins of copywriting that you must avoid:

1. No compelling headline – how are you going to get people to buy when the first thing they see on the page isn’t inspiring? I would argue that your headline is the most important aspect of the copy on your page. The key is to tell the visitor exactly what you are offering while also making it appealing so they will read on (and ultimately purchase).

2. No attractive benefits – we’ve all heard the adage features vs. benefits. The features are what you, as the marketer, believe about the product but the benefits are really what the visitor wants to know about. They don’t care how your SEO service works, all they care is that it will get them in the top 10 search results.

3. No bullet points – these ties in with deadly sin number 2. Make spelling out the benefits of your product/service easy by using bullet points. This will make it easier for the visitor also. Here is an example of one of our ads. It shows how easy it is for the visitor to see what the product will do for them by using bullet points.

4. Sentences too long – I have to admit this is one of my biggest challenges in writing copy. But the trick is to know when to end a sentence and start a new one. Here is what I was taught: read the sentence out loud and as soon as you run out of breath, that’s when the sentence needs to stop.

5. Hard to understand jargon – This is probably the most common sin in copywriting. But just remember that not everyone who is looking for your product is as educated as you about the product. Spell out the product in layman’s term. However, don’t talk down to them or assume they know your industry language and terminology.

6. Spelling/grammar mistakes – this is the easiest sin to avoid. Don’t assume that a common spelling/grammar checker is going to pick up all the mistakes. Read back over your copy carefully or give it to someone else to check who hasn’t seen it before (fresh eyes).

7. No break in ad copy – Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. How daunting would it be to visit a website and find a page full of text? To be honest I would probably click away. People don’t have time or the patience to read through such a large amount of text (not to mention it would look pretty ugly). Use relevant images to break up the text such as a call to action button or an image of your product.

Are there any additional sins you would add to this list? If so feel free to share them below.

[...] According to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, 86% of professionals in a variety [of] fields said that they have adopted social media in some way. [...] it also indicated that some professionals or companies are adopting social technologies without having a way to actually measure how effective or useful the measures actually are. In fact, 84% of respondents said they don’t currently measure the ROI (return on investment) of their social media programs.

Even less encouraging, more than 40% of respondents said they didn’t even know whether they could track ROI from their social tools. This is worrisome because it indicates that industries and professionals are adopting technology without actually taking into account how it will impact their business and what value it will add.

via mashable.com

Unfortunately, it’s a similar picture to what I often see in the UK, based on many conversations during this year with organizations large and small.

Not only that, far too many people don’t seem to have a clear plan that sets out what the measurable goals are for their communication and what is the role of social media tools and channels alongside traditional forms of communication.

A point that sometimes crops up that I get asked is: what are we defining as “ROI,” meaning “return on investment”? Money spent?

Not necessarily. ROI can have many meanings as long as everyone agrees on which meaning you’re applying.

I usually illustrate how easy it is to set up your situation for measurement like this, when you’re doing your planning (and well before you execute), an example if you were setting up a business blog:

If you don’t set measurable goals, no wonder there’s not much actual measuring going on.

I wonder what KD Paine or Angela Sinickas would say on this topic.

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Now what if I said they’re all irrelevant? What if I said you don’t need sales to be successful? You’d probably say (fairly sarcastically), “Why not just hand my business over to my competitors while I’m at it?”. And you’d be right – if I were serious.

Of course PR, marketing, advertising and sales are relevant, and hugely important parts of your business. But they’re not the most important part.

“But they’re the ones that bring the customers and make money, and money equals profits!” you might say. And again, you’d be right. But take a look at that sentence again.

“Customers… make money and money equals profits.”

That’s both sets of customers, new and existing. So why are so many businesses concentrating on the new and forgetting about the existing? Is the mindset, “Well, they’ve stuck with us so far, they must be happy”? If it is, be prepared for a wake-up call.

Just because a customer has stuck with you doesn’t mean they’re satisfied. They may be tied into a contract or they may feel it’s too much effort at the minute to find a new vendor. But satisfied? Not necessarily.

Have you asked them lately how they’re feeling? Have you asked how you can improve your service (don’t fall into the trap that your service has reached its plateau – nobody’s that good)? You do have ways of asking these questions, don’t you? If you’re not sure, ask yourself the following:

• Do you have a customer feedback form on your website?
• Do you have a proactive approach at asking your customers what they’re thinking?
• Do you collect your customer details and use that information to personalize your relationship?
• Do you have some form of customer service performance in place?

If you can’t answer “Yes” to at least one of these questions, you might want to check and see how many of your customers have dropped off the radar in the last 3-6 months.

As important as your sales team is, or your marketing team, or your PR team or your advertising team – as important as all these elements are to your business’s success, they all cost money.

Your customers, on the other hand? A happy customer is your sales, PR, marketing and advertising teams rolled into one. Your most loyal employee. Your most vocal supporter – and they don’t take wages from you. So look after them.

Be Pro-Active

If you collect contact information, use it. Call your customer up and ask how they’re finding their time with you. Ask how you can improve and what you can do to make their lives easier when shopping with you.

Don’t collect information initially? Fine – have a feedback form on your site and have that (or a customer feedback phone number) printed on your receipt. Encourage interaction and communication.

Or, if you have a Twitter account, have “Don’t forget to tweet about us on Twitter” printed on your receipt and then monitor your mentions. And this works both ways – you can salvage a negative impression immediately or emphasize a positive one.

Start a forum on your website where customers can chat with each other about how you’re doing, and how you can improve. Involve your employees throughout the company on the forum, and talk to your customers like human beings instead of just sales figures. Sure, you can advise on what employee can say what, but at least offer the voice to open up to and converse with.

The key thing is, sales and marketing and the rest of the new business team is exactly that – new business. And you 100% need that. But you also need existing business to build on and let you have the means to go after the new. Your customers – and by association, your customer service – are the real profit makers.

Isn’t it about time you treated them accordingly?

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Let’s take a look at some of the keywords and trends associated with the upcoming holiday season, and look at a few strategies you can adopt in order to cash in.

1. Historical Research

It is fascinating to look at keyword trends, especially around this time of year. Go to Google Trends, and flip the date back to December last year.

Notice any patterns?

For starters, a lot of people are looking for recipes. If you have a food oriented site, include a section focused on preparing common Christmas meals.

People are also looking for stores and restaurants open on Christmas Day. Think about other holiday specific information you can include to capture this type of search traffic.

The other interesting thing to note is that people are still in the mood for shopping on Christmas day. Either they’re looking forward to the after Christmas sales, they’re looking for something to do, or they’re looking for tunes to put on their shiny new Ipod. Think about how the nature of shopping changes on Christmas day, and the few days following, which should help you earn a bit more revenue than your competitors.

Here’s an interesting one:

Calendar queries rise from Christmas day onwards, and peak in early January. A last minute purchase, obviously.

2. Gift Lists

Here are few examples of gift lists.

Amazon’s Holiday Customer Review Team
Twelve Good, Cheap Christmas Gift Ideas
Geeks Bearing Gifts

Notice how these types of pages pretty much optimize themselves. You can create all sorts of gift lists. Gifts for him, gifts for her, gifts for mothers, budget gift ideas, etc, etc. It is a good idea to personalize the list. Add a human touch, such as a photo, or commentary, or both.

Search on those terms in Google’s keyword suggestion tool, and you’ll find a wealth of profitable terms and ideas for lists.

For example:

gift ideas for guys

gift ideas for geeks

christmas gift basket ideas

gift ideas for christmas

gift ideas for dad

cheap christmas gifts

unique gifts

corporate christmas gifts

romantic christmas gift

unusual christmas gift

unique christmas presents

Often, people don’t know exactly what to buy. They’re hunting around for ideas. Organized gift lists solve a genuine problem, and they’re a great addition to your SEO campaign. They can convert very well, because the buyer intent is closely aligned with the sales process. Think about the sales funnel and incorporate the hunting stage – not just the buying stage – into your site.

Use sales data to help you decide on your list. What are the most popular and/or high margin products? Can you group these together into the type of list people search for? Link to these lists from prominent pages, like your home page, and try to get links from other sites. This will help drive sales, increase Page Rank, and rankings. And not just for this year – hopefully for many years to come. Can you come up with the definitive Christmas list for “gift ideas for *insert term here*”? You can swap out the products each year.

3. Start Early

If you’re only just thinking about SEO for this holiday season, you’re probably left your run a little too late. In fact, anyone who didn’t have their campaign good to go by July probably left it a little late.

Check out this chart:

Year after year, people start as early as July on their Christmas shopping! They really start to go for it in October and November.

Start planning early for next year

4. It Isn’t About Brand, It’s About The Offer

Because Christmas has a set deadline, and a lot of people leave things until the last minute, brand is the last thing on people’s mind. They’re focused on solving a problem.

At times such as these, the offer is the most important thing. Your copy should reflect this. This may mean rewriting some pages, or adding new pages that specifically target this time of year.

Be sure to include delivery times, and assure people that their gifts will arrive in time, else they’ll be going to your competitors who do emphasize this point.

5. Coupon Codes & Discounts

There was a time when retailers didn’t offer sales and discounts during their most profitable time of year, but there’s too much competition these days. People will respond to discounts and coupons, same as they do at other times, so try to work them in. Given we’re in a recession, and people are likely to be feeling the pinch, discounts and incentives will be especially important this year.

Check out keywords relating to:

bargain christmas gifts

cheap christmas gifts

cheap christmas gift ideas

christmas coupons

sale christmas

etc….

Speaking of which, and since Aarons clearly already in the holiday mood, we are
offering all SEOBook readers $25 off their first month’s subscription fees by subscribing to SEO Book through this link.

First in, best dressed.

6. Seasonal Imagery & Details

Stores are awash with Christmas imagery, and with good reason. It compels people to spend. If you’re selling gifts direct to the public, you should do likewise.

Test pages, using PPC, as early as July. Does the Christmas imagery increase conversion rates? What wording and topics produce better conversion rates at this time of year, compared to other times? Feed this data through into your SEO campaign.

The advantage you have over PPC is that PPC bid prices are going to go higher and higher as Christmas day approaches, whilst your bid price remains the same. Zero.

You just need to prepare well in advance.

Got Any Cool Holiday SEO Tactics?

Share ‘em below

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