Online Success Articles

In this article, not only will I list 5 types of copywriting services, I also give you some out-of-the-box ideas that will help you see new communication channels through which you can reach your market. 

This is not an exhaustive list of services.  The 5 types of copywriting services are listed here with the intention of representing all the possibilities that are in store for you.  Your website copywriter can help you determine which type, or combination, is best for you.

So What Are The 5 Copywriting Services?

The two broad categories we can classify copywriting services into are: offline and online.

Since this article is written with the internet busienss owner in mind, I’ll focus on these services as applied to the internet and e-commerce.    (Keep in mind, however, that with proper guidance, most offline advertising can be transferred online, and vice versa.  An infomercial can easily be converted into an online video format and placed on your site.  Your best-converting pay-per-click ad can easily be printed in a newspaper classifieds.)

Copywriting Service #1: Salesletter Copywriting Services {(But Not What You Think)(Not What You Think)(Without Leaving Money On The Table)}

Though all marketing should lead to the page where the prospect becomes a buyer, this isn’t the type of copywriting I’m talking about here.

Instead, I’m talking about the OTO, the one-time-offer page. This is more than a simple sales page.  It’s actually part of a winning (profit-increasing) strategy…

Whereas the salespage is what your visitor sees before they buy, the OTO is a salespage your visitor sees after they have just made a purchase.  The OTO is a salespage your visitor lands on after they have just made a purchase.  It’s part of a strategy based on the fact that a certain percentage of your buyers are likely to buy again…especially while they’re “hot”!  And because it’s a one-time offer they won’t see that same offer at that price again.  If they close the page or refresh, they lose out.  They can buy later, but not at this steal of a deal.  Of course, the one-time offer is complimentary to the product or service they just bought  In fact, it may be an enhancement of it, or even a “diamond” version.

Because of this one-time-only situation, and if your copywriter has done a good job at presenting your one-time-offer, your buyer will feel very compelled to make a second purchase.  In fact, it might not even be a hard decision at all.  This can drive profits by up to 65% or more.

The OTO is a very profitable example of how a strategic website copywriter can significantly increase your profits.

Don’t overlook the power of this strategy.

Copywriting Service #2: Video Copywriting and Marketing

Is a slide-to-video presentation best for your visitors?

How about an infomercial-style video?

How does the fact that most people are visual learners influence how you’ll produce a visual message?

I’m sure you know that online video is a huge trend, confirmed by the growing number of video sites like YouTube, Metacafe, and Revver.

Though the traditional definition of copywriting services didn’t include video marketing, when you consider the fact that 52% of all Internet traffic is video, or video-related, it becomes apparent that you should consider the services of a professional video marketer.  Savvy, leading-edge marketers and copywriters are adding video marketing to their roster of services, for themselves and their clients.  Your prospective copywriter may provide video marketing advice.  If you’re lucky, they may even provide the service themself.  Currently, there are very few who do, but since video is increasingly used as a viable marketing medium, the need for video marketing services will increase, and copywriters are in a very good position to offer this.

Video marketing, when done well, can be a profitable marketing channel for you.  One need look no further than Blendtec’s popular “Will It Blend” series of videos on Youtube.

Copywriting Service #3: Adwords Campaign Management

Last month, one of my copywriting coaches told me something that I had heard numerous times before: that a small change in an ad can yeild a significant increase in response.

In addition to writing pay-per-click ads for your marketing campaigns, a professional copywriter can also manage them. That is, a good copywriter who understands pay-per-click advertising can monitor each pay-per-click ad.  Some will be profitable for you, whereas a few will break even or fail to yeild a positive ROI.  By observing click-through and conversion rates, a web-savvy copywriter can pause your low-converting, money-wasting ads, and direct more effort toward creating ads that resemble the positive ROI ads.

Copywriting Service #4: E-mail Copy (And Autoresponder Series)

Before going further into the subject of e-mail copywriting services, we should note that being CAN-SPAM compliant is one thing to keep in mind. I won’t go into the specifics of being CAN-SPAM-compliant, except to say that doing so is an important requirment of legal e-mail marketing.

In a moment, I’ll explain what an autoresponder series is.

Not only can enticing sales messages be written for web pages; they can also be  delivered to your prospect’s inbox.

But…depending on the market, people may not welcome overt sales messages being delivered to their inboxes, even if they’ve subscribed to your e-mail list.

So…how do you keep in touch with your e-mail subscribers, without scaring them off by repeatedly sending them “buy this” messages?

Send them e-mails that discuss on how much better their lives will be as a result of having your product, or service.  The key here is to sell them indirectly, instead of blatantly.  This is where the good work of a copywriter can come in handy.

For years, it’s been said that over 80% of online sales take place after 7 exposures.  That is, your prospect may need to see messages from you 7 or more times before they make a purchase.

In addition to regular, timely e-mails, an autoresponsder series is a great way to automatically keep in touch with your prospects.

An autoresponder series is simply a number of sequential, pre-written e-mail messages that are sent to your e-mail subscribers on a pre-determined basis.

Entire products have been devoted to e-mail marketing.  Last month, 2 collegues of mine attended a seminar devoted to e-mail marketing, and I know of at least one copywriter who specializes in writing autoresponder e-mails.

All these things confirm the validity of e-mail marketing and how, when done legally and properly, it can be a profitable way to keep in touch with your prospects and customer base.

Copywriting Service #5: Split-Testing and Conversion Tracking

What if all your advertising got better and better?

Here’s a “little” secret…

Most marketers either don’t do it the profitable way, or simply haven’t heard of it.

Without going into too much detail, split-testing is the testing of two ads or messages, finding out which of the 2 works better, and improving our findings.

For example, what would you do if you had an advertising campaign that gave you an ROI
of 2:3?  ($2 profit for every $3 invested.)

You’d be running a loss…but why?

Most marketers never look beyond this point.  Or, they don’t look further than they should.

This is where a pro copywriter and marketing strategist can help you.

Let’s say that your advertising campaign consists of 2 different ads.

Upon closer inspection, we find that one of the ads is losing money, and the other one is actually profitable for you.  The losing one costs you $4 for every $1 it brings in, and the winning one returns $2 for every $1.

At this point, we can pause your losing ad, and focus more of our advertising into the ad that works.  This means that your previously-losing campiagn will now turn in  a profitable ROI of 2:1.

There’s a little more to it, but I’ll keep it simple for you.  Your copywriter, if they do split-testing, can explain this in more detail for you.  The unfourtunate thing is that even though they may conceptually understand what split-testing is, there aren’t a lot of copywriters who know the technical aspects of split-testing on the Internet.

All of your advertising dollors can actually become an investment, instead of an expense, when this is done under the management of a good copywriter.

Conversion tracking is a little more involved.  Essentially, it’s a split-test that tracks your prospects throughout your entire marketing funnel.

I hope I’ve begun to open you up to the many profitable advertising avenues that exist for your Internet business, and all of your projects.

I know this seems like a lot, and it is.  However, a good website copywriter can implement most of the things I’ve listed here.