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nick usborne's guide to online copywriting
Excess Voice Newsletter
May 2007, Issue # 155
In this issue:
>> Intro: What worries us most
>> Review: 2008 Landing Page Optimization Workshop
>> Article: Give your emails a sense of NOW
>> Survey: What kind of web writing?
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>> Find out about my COACHING service for freelance writers and copywriters.
http://www.asknickusborne.com
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Greetings,
Thank you to everyone who replied to the last survey. As you may recall, it was all about the concerns and worries freelancers have about their work.
Above all, it seems freelancers worry most about promoting their businesses and finding new clients.
Anyway...as I was browsing through the responses, I had a thought and made a decision.
This newsletter is meant to be about writing for the web. However, as a freelancer myself, I find myself slipping in articles and surveys about freelancing. This is all well and good...except not everyone who writes for the web and reads this newsletter is a freelancer.
So from now on I'm going to divide things up. For this newsletter I'll stick to articles about writing for the web.
I'll still be writing about issues relating to freelancing. In fact, I'll be writing on this topic weekly now. But to get my articles on freelance writing and copywriting, you'll need to sign up for my new asknickusborne.com e-newsletter.
You can sign up here:
http://www.asknickusborne.com/newsletter.html
OK...back to this issue, and writing for the web.
This issue's article is about adding a sense of immediacy and "now" to your emails.
And the review takes a look at an upcoming conference on landing page optimization - with a 20% discount for Excess Voice readers.
Finally, as always, please take a few moments to respond to the survey.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Usborne
>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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REVIEW: Save 20% on the 2008 Landing Page Optimization Workshop
If you are interested in optimizing your key landing pages, here's a two-day event that will add hugely to your knowledge of what works best, and what doesn't.
The 2008 Landing Page Optimization Workshop is being hosted by MarketingSherpa and MarketingExperiments on June 2nd and 3rd.
As you may know, MarketingSherpa is famous for publishing its Landing Page Handbook, a veritable bible of data and information on landing page optimization.
As for the folks at MarketingExperiments, this is their bread and butter. I worked with them for a year and know the depth of data they have collected when it comes to tweaking landing pages.
In other words, if you can get away at short notice, this will likely be the very best opportunity you have to learn from some real experts.
AND…as I know most of the people involved, I have managed to secure a 20% discount for Excess Voice subscribers.
Just be sure to use the link below and you'll save about $400.
Use this link:
http://LPOWorkshopexcessvoice.MarketingSherpa.com
POPULAR PRODUCTS AND REVIEWS:
#1. Nick Usborne's Million Dollar Secrets to Online Copywriting
This is a "professional-grade" course written to address the full complexity of writing online. It is a strictly how-to course in which I go through the process of writing all kinds of web pages, emails and newsletters. Take this course and you'll know everything I know about writing for the web.
More details here:
http://www.awaionline.com/nu/onlinecopywriting/
#2. Writing Rituals
My productivity guide for marketing writers and copywriters. This set of 5 rituals will help you stay focused on your writing tasks, avoiding the perils of procrastination and writer's block.
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http://www.writingrituals.com/
#3. Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
Other than my own, this is the only copywriting course I wholeheartedly recommend to any copywriter who wants to write copy that drives results.
Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/michael-masterson.htm
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ARTICLE: Give your Emails a Sense of NOW.
As our readers become more and more adept at speed-deleting unwanted emails, we need to find new ways to capture hold their attention.
People really are getting good at removing unwanted emails. If you're lucky you'll just be deleted. If you're not, your email will get the "Report as Spam" treatment.
20% of people use the Spam button as a fast and convenient way to get rid of emails. Of course, most of them don't know that using the Spam button is going to damage your company's reputation among the ISPs. These readers are not being malicious. They have simply found a really fast and easy way of unsubscribing from emails they no longer want.
And yes, even people who have double opted-in to your list will use the spam button to "unsubscribe".
This means that as writers and marketers we have to think hard about ways in which to tag our emails as being both relevant and timely.
We don't want to sound like spammers, so we can't go crazy with our subject lines. We can't do the 'rush rush' thing.
Here's a partial answer for you: make your emails timely.
You can connect with the seasons. "With summer on the way…"
You can connect with annual events, "With father's day just a couple of weeks away…"
You can connect with the news, "According to the latest issue of Time magazine…"
You can connect with your own customers' relationship with your company, "Your subscription runs out in 5 days."
Why is it important to connect your message with "now"?
Quite simply because "now" is the only time that is relevant to any reader faced with a screen filled with new emails.
If your email doesn't need one's attention now, it will either be deleted or will gently slip below the fold and never be seen again.
Getting your reader to act now is one of the foundations of all direct marketing. More or less, it's "now or never".
And yes, your emails are direct response communications. You want and need your reader to take some kind of action. Don't you?
As people's inboxes become more and more busy, it is essential that you make a connection with what's important to them right now.
That connection with now could be about the weather, the news, a holiday or anything else you can think of.
Giving all your emails a sense of NOW won't cure all your email challenges, but it will help.
>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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SURVEY: What kind of web writing do you do?
As writers online we deal with a variety of different kinds of tasks. Check the boxes that best match the kind of writing work you do...
[ ] I write content for a company web site
[ ] I write content for an intranet site
[ ] I'm a copywriter and write online sales copy
[ ] I write e-newsletters
[ ] I write emails
[ ] I write blog entries
[ ] Other......
Comments:
(NOTE: Any comments and your name may be published in the next issue, or on the Excess Voice web site.)
Cut and paste your replies to me at mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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NICK USBORNE'S SERVICES:
Yes, I do more than write articles and publish newsletters.
Ask me to give a training seminar or webinar for your writers or web team.
http://www.nickusborne.com/speaking.htm
Ask me to write for your site, emails and newsletters.
http://www.nickusborne.com/copywriting.htm
Ask me to optimize your key offer pages...
http://www.nickusborne.com/consulting.htm
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