Amongst online marketers, two very different disciplines are often confused: content writing, and copy writing. It is likely just a simple misunderstanding, but the difference is often something that gets mixed up on the page, too. Article marketers are especially guilty of confusing the two and introducing unnecessary sales copy into their content. At the same time, boring content writing is often mistakenly put into sales copy, robbing it of its effectiveness.
Distinguishing between the two different types of writing is absolutely essential for online success. While copy and content have their places, it is rarely together, and it is especially erroneous to mix them up in a promotional article. This simple guide explains how to balance sales copy and promotional content, and where to use each of them in your article marketing efforts.
A) Incorporating sales content into articles:
It is best to keep sales, or even pre-sales talk minimal throughout a promotional article. While the purpose of a promotional article is not necessarily to inform the reader, it is certainly not to sell them straight away. Think about it this way — if the reader is being sold within the article itself, where will they click to buy the product?
Save the sales copy for your landing or sales page. By all means incorporate pre-sales copy into a promotional article, but even then, it shouldn’t be a major factor. The purpose of a promotional article is to achieve one thing — convince the reader to click through to your website with a slight intention to buy. If your articles are not achieving that, you need to work on flow and readability, not sales copy.
B) Where to start the pre-selling:
The basic structure of any article, or really any written text, is introduction-discussion-conclusion. The first section of your promotional article should introduce a problem, a situation, or an opportunity. Once you have established the situation, move on to the body text. What is going on in this situation? How could this opportunity affect the reader? Where are the best places to find these opportunities?
Finally, once you have established and discussed all that you can, introduce a potential solution for the reader. Do not sell the idea straight away — that is the job of your sales copy — but push the reader slightly so they feel like moving towards it. It is not your job to sell them in the article, just to get them to click on your link.
C) The transition from pre-sell to actual selling:
While your content itself should not sell, it should work in tandem with your sales copy to achieve a sale. Before you start on an article marketing campaign for any product, familiarize yourself with the sales page and landing pages to the point where you can naturally incorporate elements of them into your writing.
Customers love familiarity and trust, not unknown situations. When you can design an article to prime a potential customer into moving to your sales page, and have them arrive full of confidence and intrigue, you have found a formula for guaranteed article marketing sales.
Jeannine Grich, CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan check out her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: https://accbizsvc.com/, or contact her at Jeannine@accbizsvcs
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