treasure valley

Captivating Copywriting for your Company

M. Shifley 1 Comment

How can I do this for you? Web copywriting can be difficult, and if it’s not done correctly, the results will unfortunately be poor. Great copywriting requires the following:

1. Know your audience: If you can’t say who you’re marketing to, how are you supposed to sell them anything?

2. Know your product or service: Like your market, you have to know your product through and through. Placing a few open-ended ideas in your copy can sometimes leave people wanting to find out more, and that can keep them coming back.

3. Showcase the value of what you can offer to customers: There aren’t too many truly new products or services out there. So, copywriting made easy requires that you show people why what you’re offering is better and more valuable than what someone else (i.e., your competitor) is offering.

4. Write for your customers, not for yourself: Cast your Web copywriting with the correct tone and focus, and customers will respond in a positive way to what you have to say.

By allowing me to follow these steps and following them carefully, over time your website will improve and you’ll see your business grow. Great copywriting isn’t easy, but I can help you achieve captivating copy for your company.

If you need more advice or assistance in getting the right copy for your product or your website then contact me. I will be more than happy to help. I can be reached at 208.598.0084 or matt.shifley@yahoo.com.

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A Great Product Needs Great Copywriting

M. Shifley Leave a comment

A great product needs a great sales copy. The objective of the sales copy is always to sell the product. And even if your product is the best that is out there in the market, it needs the RIGHT words to strike the RIGHT chords in the heart of your potential customer.

The two big questions you need to ask if you are attempting sales copywriting are: Who is my target audience? And: How do I strike the right chords to their heart so that they sing the same tune as me and believe that my product is the best one to buy?

These two questions should be the backbone of your sales copy. The rest, you may forget about for the time being. You have to lead your target audience on to the benefits of your product and give them some good and valid reasons regarding why they should buy it from you.

The first step in writing a successful sales copy is to identify your audience. Who would be the potential users of your product. Once you have done that, you have to find a way to lure them into your website. Look for the right keywords and litter them judiciously in your sales copy so that whatever search engine your potential customer is using, he or she gets to see your site at the top. You can use simple applications like ‘wordtracker’ or ‘overture suggestion’ to look for the right keywords related to your product. Weave these keywords throughout your website sales copy including title tags and meta tags. It would be easier for your potential customers to find you on the web that way.

Now that your audiences have found you, you have to get them hooked to your site … and that is where the lesson ends today. If you need more advice or assistance in getting the right copy for your product or your website then contact me. I will be more than happy to help. I can be reached at 208.598.0084 or matt.shifley@yahoo.com.

Copywriting Guidelines

M. Shifley Leave a comment

As an experienced copywriter in Boise I have learned a few things over the years, and I am more than happy to share some of that knowledge with you. I am also more than happy to assist you in your copywriting needs if you or your company does not have the time to devote to this aspect of your business.

So here’s a friendly tip … Do not write a word until you have studied your product or service and dug out every possible benefit you can, along with the selling points. Don’t try to do it on your own. Talk to people. Talk to the buyer, the product manager, the account executive. Anybody and everybody you can find than can provide you with input. Look at ads and direct mail packages for competitive products. If it’s possible, try the product or service yourself. Then build your copy skeleton. List the benefits and selling points; make an outline. This is the tough part of copywriting. It will take more time than actually writing the copy. Yet it is the most vital and important part of copy writing, because it forms the basis for every word you write.

Please give me a call today at 208.598.0084 or contact me at matt.shifley@yahoo.com for more information to discuss how I can help you or your company with its search engine optimization, online marketing, or copywriting needs.

Alright Five More SEO Tips …

M. Shifley Leave a comment

1. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

2. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.

3. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It will not work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, this will count against you rather than for you.

4. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text and use those keywords.

5. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings and that would be most unsavory.

Please give me a call today at 208.598.0084 or contact me at matt.shifley@yahoo.com for more information to discuss how I can help you or your company with its search engine optimization, online marketing, or copywriting needs.

Copywriting & online marketing services for the greater Boise metropolitan area

M. Shifley 1 Comment

After graduating from the University of Idaho in 1999 I embarked on my professional career. First stop – Roseburg, Oregon as a sports writer for the Roseburg News-Review. Not a bad gig but my heart belonged in Idaho as I missed my future wife who was still there. So after giving Roseburg the old college try  – I think 6 months is the standard duration these days –  I moved back to Boise and landed a job with The Idaho Statesman as a copy editor. I spent nearly 5 years there and learned a lot and met some great folks. I was in charge of the Life and Scene sections and wrote video game reviews but it became clear that I needed to work a day shift if the love of my life and I were going to share our lives together. I worked nights and we were ready to get married and I thought it would be nice to spend some time with her. So job #3 was with FOR 1031 – a national commercial real estate company – as a copywriter. Another solid gig with great people and after nearly 5 years there my job title had changed to online marketing mananger. The economy also changed and in October 2008 I was laid off. For the first time since I was 18 I was without work and it was kinda scary. I looked at my options and decided to take control of my destiny by becoming a freelance writer and online marketing consultant.

So I am here to help you. What you would like to order today?

My skills include:

• Extensive, award-winning writing and editing experience of more than 10 years
• More than four years experience creating and managing successful online marketing initiatives for a leading national commercial real estate company
• Proven ability to create, manage, and implement multiple projects while adapting to changes in time lines, deadlines, and project goals
• Online marketing skills include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), email marketing, viral advertising, keyword development, social networking, and competitive research
• Proven track record of driving sales through online marketing

Give me a call at 208.598.0084 or contact me at matt.shifley@yahoo.com for more information.