In a matter of days, another year’s behind us.
And what a year it’s been! For many of us, it’s been a year filled with quickly returning to normal after the pandemic took us on a rollercoaster trip.
For others, it’s been a year spent building a new brand, company, and goals.
Whether you’re relatively new to the business scene or are a seasoned professional, this time of year is a great time to reflect. Sure, most posts about new year’s planning happen in January, but the year has already started by then.
And if you know us at Sarah McKenzie Copywriting & Web Design Services, you know we’re always planning. So that involves planning for the year ahead right now!
As we finish our last-minute holiday shopping, it’s a time to assess our achievements, learn from our failures, and contemplate the growth and changes that have occurred. Each year provides valuable lessons and opportunities for personal – and business – development.
For many, marketing presents one of the biggest business challenges year after year. Content managers and business owners frequently wonder where to spend their marketing dollars and what will generate the best ROI.
A recent HubSpot survey found that generating traffic and leads was the top priority for 19 percent of respondents this year. If you’re in the same boat, we have the information that will help ease this worry. Let’s dive in together!
Understanding The Vital Role Of Compelling Marketing And Sales Copy
Think back to when you first turned on your laptop or desktop earlier today.
- How many emails were patiently waiting to be opened?
- What type of ads popped up when you typed a search into Google?
- Which search engine result had the most captivating description to click on?
- Have you made it through all your latest social media notifications?
Information overload – it’s no joke. In today’s world, filled with a non-stop barrage of data, facts, opinions, news, products, services, and ideas, one thing is consistently clear: effective copywriting is crucial.
Copywriting – or the process of writing words that help motivate a target audience to take action – makes you choose particular search results in Google, open certain emails based on their subject lines, and click on relevant pop-up ads.
It keeps your focus long enough to elicit a well-defined (possibly sneaky) action: to sign up for a blog newsletter, download an e-book, or – the holy grail – purchase a product or service from a website.
Great copywriting helps a brand stand out from the competition and creates a loyal following of customers. It helps get your company heard – even during a time known for overconsumption of information.
Most importantly, it takes your target audience on a journey that hopefully ends with some type of ROI.
In short, copywriting must be a priority – not just in 2024, but every year.
But since copywriting is basically on every type of marketing material available, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to place your focus. No need to worry; we’ve prioritized them for you.
#1: Website
It may seem unbelievable, but even in 2023, some businesses have no online presence.
How they’ve made it this far is a mystery, but one thing’s for sure: the days of not having a website – while still having a successful, long-term business – are over.
As Forbes points out, a business’s online presence – no matter its industry – can have a massive impact on its success. Almost every consumer (92 percent) heads to a company’s website before purchasing. As such, there’s a lot of missed business potential if you don’t have one.
Then there’s the matter of credibility. Having a website is an opportunity to prove your company’s legitimacy and create a great first impression. If consumers compare identical products or services between websites, having an impressionable site can make you stand out.
Websites can also help showcase your brand while keeping your business open 24/7. Plus, they’re a great place to send your target audience for information and answers to questions you would otherwise need to answer by phone or email.
THE BIGGEST REASON FOR HAVING A WEBSITE IN 2024
But perhaps most importantly, having a website increases your chances of getting leads. It helps get your brand in front of people who may need your product or service but don’t know you exist.
If your site’s SEO optimized, the opportunity for getting leads increases even more.
When you show up high in Google search results, the chance of being clicked on by someone looking for your type of business increases exponentially. A 2020 survey from Sistrix found that the first organic result in Google has an average click-through rate of 28.5%.
The further down the search results page you’re found, the lesser chance you have of being clicked on. Websites in Google’s tenth position have only a 2.5% click-through rate.
For websites that appear on pages 3, 4, 5, and beyond? Best of luck getting clicked on.
If you already have a website and think you’re exempt from spending dollars on this copywriting tool in 2024, think again! This blog post outlines everything you should do to improve your rankings on search engines.
And if you’re already at number one? Well, you’ll want to keep your rankings there, won’t you?! Continue practising smart SEO tactics, like SEO blog writing and on and off-page SEO.
#2: Blog
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: having an SEO blog is one of the best ways to improve your website’s SEO.
Why? Because Google loves to see that you’re regularly publishing fresh content to your site.
A blog is one of the best ways to add new content to your site without clutter. When you publish a new post, Google returns to recrawl your site and update your search engine rankings.
If you have yet to start a blog for your business, 2024 looks like the perfect year to make it happen! Like your website, your blog provides an excellent opportunity to
- Build brand awareness and communicate with your customers,
- Create shareable content for other marketing platforms (like social media and newsletters), and
- Build authority in your industry.
If you already have a website, starting a blog is as simple as adding a new page to your site.
But then comes maintaining your blog.
Perhaps our clients’ biggest challenge (and why they outsource to us) is remaining committed to blog writing.
Because it’s not something that can ever be marked “complete.”
SEO blog copywriting should be done regularly – as often as possible. At the very least, try to publish 1-2 new monthly posts.
At the start, coming up with ideas and keywords is typically easy. But the ideas tend to slow down once you’re 10 or 20 blog articles in. Blog writing may not be seen as fun anymore and, instead, takes up waaaay too much of your time.
We’ve found that our clients simply get busy doing everything else in their business over time. In the process, they let their blogging slide to the side.
Like most other things in life, consistency is key. Staying committed to writing blog posts isn’t easy, but the hard work pays off.
Company blog pages remain the most effective form of content over email, e-books, and white papers. And businesses with up-to-date blog pages see 13 times the ROI compared to companies that don’t.
#3: Email Campaigns
Remember when businesses were panicking not that long ago due to a WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram outage? Some even sustained substantial losses, such as this business that saw their sales plummet by 25 percent. Even Facebook lost a lot. Besides $100M in lost ad revenue, the media giant’s disruption greatly affected its reputation.
Luckily, the outage only lasted one day. But in the blink of an eye, business owners quickly saw what happened when they relied entirely on these channels for sales.
It was more important than ever to put marketing in the power of your own hands.
That’s where building your email marketing list comes in.
Not only does email marketing help avoid unforeseen social media disruptions, but it’s also more effective. According to McKinsey, email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook or Twitter.
Nurturing your current leads, rather than attracting new ones, is also easier. The Harvard Business Review found that acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
So, long story short, it pays to stay in contact with your previous or existing clients. After all, you’ve sold them on your business already once – and if you left a good impression – it will be easier to do so again. With the help of an entertaining newsletter or engaging sales campaign, you have a good chance of making sales happen.
But crafting compelling emails is an art in itself! Although it may take some time to master, the results pay off. To improve your open rates, keep the following tips in mind:
- Use Personalization: 88% of users agree they’re more likely to respond to an email favorably if it looks like it’s been created explicitly for them. Including “you” can increase conversions by up to 47 percent!
- Keep It Short: According to LXAHub, sales emails with 200-250 words witness the highest response rate of 19%.
- Make Your Subject Line Simple: Rather than be overly creative, keep your subject line simple to get 541 percent more responses.
- Include Special Wording: CoSchedule found that using time-sensitive verbiage like “limited,” “exclusive,” or “free” can increase open rates by up to 29 percent.
Revisit Your Content Marketing Strategy
Reminder: You need a current content marketing strategy before creating great copy. Without that, how will you be able to execute any of your copywriting tools properly?
A content marketing strategy provides clarity when executing your marketing campaigns and forms the foundation for your copywriting tools. In addition, it helps you
- Identify business goals,
- Get a clear understanding of your target audience, and
- Create quality content.
Even if you already have a content marketing strategy, the end of the year is a great time to revisit it. Review what worked and what didn’t this year and make any necessary changes.
Combine the insights from social media sharing metrics and your website analytics to craft even better copy in 2024.
The Key Takeaway About 2024 Copywriting Tools
We’re guessing you want to make 2024 your best year yet. As discussed in this post, prioritizing the right copywriting tools – your website, blog, and email campaigns – will help take you there.
If this all seems too daunting, we can help. Contact us for a complimentary consultation to prioritize the key copywriting tools for your business this year.