Here is an example of what I am referring to.  A mainstream copywriter may advertise their business thus:

We provide effective copywriting that sells your prospective customers by appealing to their most basic needs. Our copywriting has proven results with dozens of client testimonials to support our claims. We write professionally to enhance your company’s reputation and brand.

Then, there is the outrageous copywriter, who has been catapulted to cult status because of the way they ignore image to concentrate on absurdity.

We reach out and grab your prospects by the neck and squeeze until their eyeballs pop. We drag them kicking and screaming and beat your products’ benefits into their heads. Our approach smacks them in the face until they buy while we throw your competition against the curb.

Which writer is the better one? There is one way to discern the difference between the pop-culture heroes and the tried and true copywriters.  Good copywriters have verifiable results they can point to. They have legitimate clients, companies with established brands and products. The outrageous copywriters point to their own self-promotion and followers pronouncements as proof of their prowess.

Does it seem that one group of writers spends more time pushing their style and making millions based on their perceived capabilities?  The plain-vanilla copywriters work every day and get real results. They research their client’s markets, connect product or service benefits with client needs and produce sales. They offer their clients real value.

Next time you hear someone suggest a copywriting superstar who has a long-copy sales-page website screaming of their success, tell them; no thanks. Good copywriting works when the client’s brand and image are considered along with selling their product. The outrageous copywriters write for companies that will last for a year or less. By this time, they have made their money and moved on.

© 2010 K Richard Douglas

At the beginning of this decade, companies were allocating just a smidgen of their marketing budget to digital marketing.  Some big companies still allocated none of their marketing budget to the Internet. Today, the focus has made a monumental shift. Brand recognition and product and service sales are dependent on the Internet. A new generation goes to the Internet as a matter of routine.

Copy writing for print media was still the focus of most big companies at the start of the decade. Content is slowly replacing print media copy.  There are no trees sacrificed to create a virtual page. Internet pages allow linking and viewer interaction.

Content still has the same mission as copy.  When content is employed on an ecommerce site, it must sell products or services. Content must also build brands. Some content goes viral and gains the influence and power of millions in ad revenues for free.

The next decade will bring an entirely different use for words. Portable devices will be the norm and content will have to deliver in very new ways. Smart companies will work with experienced content writers to harness a whole new set of opportunities for utilizing words.

Ironically, in an age of Internet marketing, brand building isn’t always related to SEO or SEM best practices or even a Web 2.0 or 3.0 focus. Sometimes brand building can effectively take an ‘old fashion’ approach and be very successful. That is going to be the approach with The Great Writer.

A good copywriter must think of everything
For the past few years, The Great Writer has proven to be a good domain name and has aided in SEO. It has also been central in the effort to build a positive image based on a client-focus, superior writing and effective copywriting. There has been only one potential downside of the name; some prospective clients may find the name too egotistical or haughty. In the world of marketing, everything has to be considered.

The result of this soul-searching and insightfulness will be some renewed brand building. In the weeks ahead, The Great Writer will become Acme Writing.

What’s in a name?
The word Acme means the highest point; summit; peak. Besides the legendary image of the word ‘acme’ in stories and comic strips as the generic, fictitious company, it has a meaning that is very fitting for the way we do business.

We always raise our gaze to the highest point when we are writing for a client.  Our aim is never low, but always pointed at the summit so that our writing is of the highest quality and nothing less.

In addition to the ‘established’ feel of the word ‘acme,’ it is easy to remember and does not suggest any sense that we consider ourselves pompous or self-aggrandizing. It sounds like a company that was established a hundred years ago and not a half-decade ago.

Marketing the old way to build a brand
None of the explanations above have anything to do with the Internet or digital considerations at all. A change from a business name that has some SEO benefits to one which comes out of traditional marketing speaks to the true constants in marketing and brand building. What matters most is how other people see your company. What is the emotional or intellectual impact on the prospective customer or client?

In the zeal of modern day marketers to embrace all things digital, some of the fundamentals of marketing not only survive, but prevail. When building a brand, its all perception. Much of this approach has not been advanced much by the advent of the digital age. The psychology of prospective buyers is constant.

What has changed? Even a small company, with a minimum of capital, has the ability through smart marketing to reach a global audience. This would have been impossible twenty-years ago. These same small companies can build a public perception through digital channels that can be magnified beyond the means of traditional marketing. Social media and other means of creating a buzz can amplify the company’s image and persona to gigantic proportions.

Our Company
By all measures, The Great Writer has been an enormous success. We have clients all around the world. What’s even more important, those clients have been very happy with the deliverables. We have grown our business, and it’s related buzz through many channels, but in the end the focus on quality has been our calling card.

What we do know, when the smoke clears, is that its many of the traditional means of introducing a company and creating its image that get peoples’ attention and stimulate their imaginations. For that reason, Acme Writing will carry on the best attributes of The Great Writer, but rely on a company name with a broader appeal. Brand building still has to consider these incremental changes to take companies to the peak of success.

Maybe I should say, the acme of success.

© 2009 K Richard Douglas

This last point explains why investment advisors should leave web content, marketing collateral and other forms of copywriting and content development to a specialist. They may have the ability to write accurately, observing good grammar and sentence structure, but the goals of effective writing are best left to a professional.

Writing has to achieve a number of goals, among them entertainment, information, disclosure, education and persuasion.  All of these goals can be achieved through carefully crafted writing. All of these goals are also important elements of an advisor’s website, marketing collateral, client communications, engagement standards and newsletters.  Some creativity even helps craft engaging bios.

The Great Writer can help advisors develop an image and a message that is effective and engaging.  We can also help devise a strategy for utilizing social media, blogs and viral marketing as an extension of the advisors’ current written documentation.

As the chief copy and content writer for The Great Writer, K Richard Douglas offers special insights for advisors that most writers would be hard-pressed to match. With twenty-six years in the financial services business, Richard held several Principals registrations as well as other designations.  He has expertise in the areas of defined contribution plans, annuities, mutual funds, TSA’s, insurance, brokerage ops and asset allocation.

Advisors can outsource their writing tasks to a real specialist. There is no need to be a jack of all trades when your written materials and web content may be compromised in the process. Let us know how we can help.  Contact us today.

A great domain name serves many purposes. It is very important for successful SEO.  It can bring instant recognitian to your on-line presence. It can be easy to remember and serve to enhance your public image.

And what of a bad domain name? It can waste your time, energy and digital funding by taking your company nowhere on the Internet.

The Great Writer and Solution Content offer a domain name consultation service that can enhance your company’s on-line presence, increase your SEO success and further develop your brand and image.  We can provide you with great content, that can achieve many of these goals, but your domain name is the ultimate tool for success.

Our domain consultation service looks at your company, your mission statement, your goals, your market and your competitors.  We then determine several potential domain names that best express your company, its products or services and the image you would prefer to project.  We do extensive research to find the perfect domain name and check on its availability.  We also make sure that it is unique and does not duplicate what your competitors are using.

We have performed this service for companies for a fee close to $5,000.  We are reducing this service, for the month of July, to only $500.  Your only additional expense is the minimal cost of the new domain name.  This provides an enormous opportunity to advance your company’s on-line image and your SEO success.

The Great Writer will either replace an existing domain or help your company with its introduction to cyberspace.  Our research will find the perfect domain name for your company. It can mean all the difference in your company’s digital success.  Contact us today.

It is an illustration of just how dismal the market is for lower-cost writers and the buyers who are guiding soon-to-fail businesses.  For those of us who work to turn small businesses into big businesses, it is disheartening to know that so many short-sighted business owners are driving their businesses into the ground.  Copy and content writers, who provide services to this market are generally new to the market or hanging a shingle out with a sign that reads ‘copywriter’ without any formal knowledge.

I spend about 5% of my time looking at projects posted in the service marketplaces.  There was a time when good projects could be found there.  Today, the rates paid by buyers are 80% lower than a year ago and the need for quality writing is nowhere to be found.  If you need proof of this, take a look at this project cancellation notice from one service marketplace website. (they must have thought that my bid was stratospheric…it would have been a fun subject, so I placed a bid)

The buyer should learn to spell ‘professional,’ but I doubt that he knows the word.  The project required an amount of writing that would cost $400 on the low end of the commercial copywriter fee scale. Most of the writers bidding on the project bid $50 in open bidding.  These are not full-time commercial copywriters as a rule, but 50 bucks for the amount of writing required was a cheap rate for even mediocre writing.

Note that the buyer cancelled the project and complained that $50 was too high considering that he can get the work done for $20.  Will this buyers’ business be around a year from now? Very likely NOT.

Business owners very rightly focus on ROI.  They have to get the most bang for their buck.  They have to balance this concern though with the need to build a solid image and brand.  One of the worst mistakes they can make is to compromise on the quality of their content and copywriting. If their target market is made up of reasonably bright people, the prospective clients and customers will remain just that; prospective.

On this site, I have talked about the downside of hiring a $60 writer, but just imagine the $20 writer.  It’s a good thing that the buyer does not expect ‘professional’ quality writing. Unless their target market is made up largely of illiterate buyers, then they are shooting themselves in the proverbial foot.

The disturbing fact is that the service marketplaces no longer offer professional working writers with a venue for connecting with serious buyers.  They have become a repository for low-quality writing and soon-to-vanish companies. I can’t speak to the state of graphic arts, web design and programming, but as for writing, the writing is on the wall.

The lesson to be learned here for buyers of copy and content is that they may have to seek good writing elsewhere.  The other reminder is that scrimping on quality will result in steadily decreasing sales. Worse yet, for small businesses, it can mean no increases in struggling sales.

The lesson for writers is this; don’t waste too much of your time in service marketplaces. You will be reduced to the lowest common denominator.  It’s like a brilliant person marrying an imbecile; the imbecile doesn’t become brilliant in the process.  The brilliant person, on the other hand……….

If you need quality writing and expect to have a successful company or continue a record of success, then by all means, contact us.

Who needs quality writing?  What is quality writing?  Does quality writing still exist in the world in 2009? These questions are legitimate and warranted in light of the state of freelance copywriting today. 

The staggering unemployment rate in the U.S. has flooded the freelance copywriting market with untested amateurs who use the service marketplaces to find uninformed buyers.  Copywriters in countries where English is the second language are flooding the world market also, writing English copy and content for an English-reading market.  Both groups pose problems for buyers, professional copywriters and even readers.

Service marketplace buyers suffer

In service marketplaces like Elance and Guru, buyers are snatching up the work of unproven writers because of their low-ball bids.  The buyer never sees beyond the bid amount and rarely blames the amateur writer when the copy or content falls flat.  Brand and image seem to take a back seat when a page of words comes so cheaply.

The net result of this trend is to drag down the fees for copywriting.  While free markets normally have a positive outcome for the consumer, the effect on copywriting is just the opposite.  

Buyers, in the service marketplaces, get copy and content that does not convert their site visitors or sell their products or services.  The buyers are left scratching their heads wondering if they need a new sales approach.  Their sales strategy may be sound, but the words that convey that strategy may be poorly planned and poorly structured. 

The $60 dollar copywriter-quality is not in their vernacular

Imagine the quality of writing when a writer bids $60 to author all of the content for a new website.  Juxtapose that writer’s experience and mindset with the requirements of the website.  In most cases, the website has been developed to sell a product or service.  Each page of that website has a specific purpose and mission, all of which is compromised by hiring the $60 writer.

Imagine also the impact of the web content on native English speakers and readers when the content has been authored by someone who does not speak or write English as a first language.  The writer is confident that their copy or content is written in perfect English, but the site visitor knows the difference and the image of the site owner’s company becomes dubious.

It may seem too cliché’ at times to state that ‘you get what you pay for,’ but the reality of the freelance writers marketplace is that a buyer is always left with what they paid for.  In the case of a website, the all-important content, tasked with achieving sales and brand-building, is ineffective at doing either.  The company eventually fails and the site owner points the finger at the competition or the market.  The sad truth is that the content they purchased may have done just as well as a placeholder.

The net result of hiring an inferior writer

What can a buyer get from a freelance writer for $60?  Words.

Take the example of an e-commerce website.  The content on the homepage has to be effective at selling a site visitor and prompting that visitor to explore the site beyond the homepage.  A professional content writer knows how to do this and what will motivate the site visitor to remain on the site past the first paragraph on the homepage.  A $60 content writer knows how to construct a paragraph.

The About Us, FAQ and Service or Product pages all offer additional opportunities to sell.  An inexperienced content writer sees these pages in stark terms.  There is enormous missed opportunity for the site owner because the amateur writer only regurgitates what he or she is told.  There is no value-added benefit.

How many companies will lose the potential for meeting or exceeding sales goals because they decided to take the cheap approach and hire the lowest cost copy or content writer?  How many companies will fail because they hired a writer who could barely author their own bio?  When quality writing is sacrificed, who suffers most? 

We are living in an era where service providers can access a worldwide audience.  Some of those service providers are experienced and competent and some will be a bane to their employers.  Many site owners will never realize their impact and many small businesses will fail because they scrimped on the most important commodity they require; quality writing.  Hire experience.  

Contact us today.  It’s your image.

If you missed our March content development special, contact us with your project requirements and see what we can do to meet your budget. We are not the cheapest copywriter on the block, but we give you real value for your money.  You get what you pay for and that is never truer than when you hire a writer.

Let’s face it, your writing project has to meet certain goals and expectations and that means that the writer you hire must understand your service or product. Seems like an easy task.  It isn’t.

Some writers never ask the right questions. The Great Writer wants to know all about your product, your company and your goals.  Those goals are our goals.

Contact us today with your copywriting, content writing, marketing collateral, sales letter, press release, white paper, feature article or tagline project.

For more intense content development, web site design, SEO, domain research or static web page content projects, visit Solution Content. We have your writing needs covered.

Effective writing, always researched and always designed to satisfy.

The Great Writer is a commercial freelance writer with your success as our number one goal.

When you need content that makes use of keywords and  key phrases, we can craft a creative solution.  There is no need for separate marketing consultants; we already have your marketing strategy formulated and ready for action.

We are your marketing communications source. The Great Writer can crystallize your branding strategy and increase revenues while improving ROI.

In addition to creative and business writing, we provide editing and copy editing that improves the flow and effectiveness of your copy and content.

There are a lot of writers you can choose from, but there are few that draw from 26 years in sales and marketing. To turn your brand into a name brand, improve your sales letters and conversion rate, there is only one copy and content writer; The Great Writer.