How to be a copywriter

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

What is Voice Search? And Why Will VEO Be As Important As SEO?



What is Voice Search? And Why Will VEO Be As Important As SEO?

By Caroline Gibson on Oct 24, 2018 07:00 am
What is Voice Search?

 
Let's start with a few voice search and VEO basics first …
 

What's the difference between SEO and VEO?

VEO (voice engine optimisation) and SEO (search engine optimisation) can both organically boost the position of your website in search engine results. While SEO is based on succinctly typed phrases containing keywords; VEO is voice-based mobile search phrased conversationally to find businesses, services and goods, mostly local.
 

What is voice search?

When we type a search into Google, we use a few keywords shorthand in asking a question. When we speak a question into a smartphone or to a digital assistant, we're more conversational and ask in a longhand form – this is voice search.

Voice recognition devices must not only decode the human voice and understand linguistic nuances but also provide relevant answers.
 

So, why is voice search more important than ever?

The way in which we look for information is changing. 'How do you say egg in French?', 'How old is Justin Bieber?', 'What films are on at my local cinema?', 'Where can I find a great freelance copywriter in London?' All these burning questions can be now answered in a wink and in a multitude of languages.

Siri, Google Voice Search (or Search by Voice), Amazon's Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices, Windows Cortana and Baidu are on instant hand to solve your head-scratcher in a nano-second.
 

And why is voice search important in copywriting?

mobile voice study by Google in 2014 said that 55% of teens and 41% of adults use voice search more than once a day. By 2020, Google estimates more than half of all our mind-burning questions will be done by voice search. And one of the main reasons for its popularity, is the convenience factor: voice search not only lets you be hands free but also multi-tasking.

Shiny informative content is your chance to have stand out in an ever-boring marketplace – but now you need to consider voice engine optimisation as part of your SEO strategy too.

Normal search is done by most people by tapping in just a few keywords. But voice search is a chattier thing altogether, so you need to identify long tail keywords and what might be used in natural speech – especially as we speak faster than we type.

For instance, you might type:
"beauty copywriter London"

But you might ask:

"Alexa, where can I find a freelance copywriter with beauty experience in London who's experienced in writing about dermal fillers?"

 

How can you optimise your website for voice search?

Ok, so hopefully you've already read my blog on how to choose SEO keywords to optimise your site organically … ?

Some of those tips also apply to voice search optimisation, but you will need to think a little differently so here's a quickie guide tailored to voice search.

Five tools to help with VEO:

  1. Quora – a great question and answer site that attracts c. 100 million visitors a month. Anyone can ask a question – and anyone can answer, making it an excellent market research tool to identify what's trending in your business sector or product category. And authoritative answers are often grabbed by Google and Bing and displayed in the #1 search position – see the section below on featured snippets.
  2. Google My Business – voice search can recognise 'near me' and identify results based on your actual location – but can only find you if on Google My Business. Most voice searches are for locally-related enquiries so adding your business category, contact details and hours will help customers and clients track you down faster than a sniffer dog.
  3. Answer The Public – plop a word into this and you're be rewarded with a huge variety of potential questions – it's a fantastic way to get ideas for new content and blogs with questions that are perfect to use for VEO, based on key prepositions. For retailers, it also gives insight into people's mindset and current trends at different stages of a buying process.a>
  4. Google's Search Console – this free Google service helps you keep an eye on your site's presence in Google searches with reports to see the queries people use to find you and any signs of voice in their searches.
  5. Frequently asked questions – the simplest tool is to ask around. Talk to your customer service team and ask about typical questions your customers have. Talk to your sales team – they'll know what's running through people's minds when deciding whether or not to hand over their credit card. Talk to your staff on the shop floor – after all, they're dealing with customer questions day in, day out. 
Is your site mobile friendly?

As you can imagine, most questions will be asked while on the go so check that your site is optimised for smartphones. Just enter a page URL on Google Search Console and see if it's chummily mobile-friendly and whizzily fast. I tried my home page and passed. Phew!
 

The role of featured snippets in voice search

Know what a featured snippet is? It's the answer to your question that Google values above all other answers and appears at the top of the Google page. In fact, here is the answer to that very question (and here's the Search Engine Watch article in full: 'What are featured snippets and how do I get them?').

Here's one of mine, as a result of my blog 'What's the difference between a headline, strapline, tagline and slogan?'

Several answers will appear if searching on your computer but only one answer will be presented if using voice search on your mobile – and it's likely to be a featured snippet, so it's all the more important to create relevant and expert-sounding content.
 

A final say on voice search

Be relevant. Be topical. Be helpful.

As devices become more intelligent, copy needs to be written more intelligently and more creatively too so that your brand can shout out above the competition rather than merely whisper.

 

About the author: Caroline Gibson

Caroline profile pic

Caroline has been a freelance copywriter for over 15 years, with clients ranging from international brands to small businesses looking to become big businesses.
Before then, she worked for some of London's leading ad, branding and design agencies. She has experience in every sector – from finance to health to drinks – and has won awards in every discipline.

 

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

What Is Tone Of Voice In Copy And Why Does It Matter?




What Is Tone Of Voice In Copy And Why Does It Matter?

By Caroline Gibson on Sep 19, 2018 07:00 am
Tone of Voice in Copy
Your tone of voice: why fade away when you can stand out from the crowd?

With reviews and comments being easier to share than ever before, clients and customers have a great deal of choice these days. So how do you make your brand stand up and stand out? Through your logo? Typeface? Name???

All these elements create a valuable first impression and successful companies typically have a consistent design identity. Yet …very few manage to articulate their brand distinctively and consistently through their tone of voice (probably the most well-known examples being innocent and Pret).

That's why creating and using the right tone of voice (aka TOV) to create an outstanding – and accurate – first impression of your brand is so important. And not just in ad copy or web copy either: really clever, really sharp brands showcase their tone of voice across all touchpoints. Just look at how this packaging and signage for Brooklyn Fare sing out.
 

So, what is tone of voice?

A tone of voice is the way in how you speak and write, what you say and how you sound. What you say is defined by your knowledge and experience; how you sound is defined by your personality.

What's your first impression when you read these statements? If you don't know me, then any of these could be a true reflection of my personality. But which is more likely to make you pick up the phone?

  1. Caroline Gibson is an experienced freelance copywriter based in London. She's worked with a wide variety of clients and won awards.
    Or
  2. Meet Caroline Gibson, freelance copywriter. Caroline's worked with zillions of different clients. She's even won awards!!!
    Or
  3. Hello, I'm Caroline Gibson. I'm a freelance copywriter and I've been fortunate enough to with just about every type of business (and even picked up a few awards along the way).

 

What's the difference between tone of voice and copy style?

The tone of voice is how you sound. The copy style is how you bring that sound to life through an engaging narrative, whether in an ad, brochure or on a website.
 

Why does tone of voice matter?

Like a person, a business has a mixture of characteristics: brand values. These guide the way you behave. And the way you're viewed by others.

They're unique to you. They help define and drive your tone of voice.

And the more consistent you are in the tone of voice and language you use, the more likely it is that customers will understand why you're unique and why they should choose you rather than your competitors.

As an example, I've picked a small American brand with just a handful of branches in Austin, Texas: Maudie's. Just like its ads, Maudie's packs a big punch. The ads look and sound distinctive, telling me the brand is confident, positive – and fun.
 

How do you create the right tone of voice?

As William Zinsser says so brilliantly, 'Writing is thinking on paper.'

First, you need to understand a brand. Inside and out. Yes, you may feel you already do so but … it pays dividends to get an external perspective, such as through hiring a branding copywriter or tone of voice expert.

I send potential clients a link to my copy briefing template which is a mini-interrogation so that I can understand the challenges they face, the people they want to attract and the competitors they want to beat.

I'm a great believer in providing clients with choice. (After all, you'd expect to see a few different logos or web designs to choose from for your bucks, wouldn't you?)  If you believe your brand to be 'dynamic and innovative', then great. But my interpretation of 'dynamic and innovative' could be quite different. So, I like to show a reasonably safe route (maybe something close to what you have already but neater, crisper, clearer), an option that may push you out of your comfort zone, and one that's in-between.

What's the point in saying you're dynamic if you don't sound it?
 

What about tone of voice guidelines?

My heart sometimes plunges when I see this section in a client's brand guidelines. The challenge with copy style guidelines is that they need to help employees feel confident about writing short pieces of copy, such as emails, but also enlighten external contractors such as freelance copywriters. Which are two quite different audiences.

The best tone of voice guidelines are short and sweet with a few guiding principles and worst vs. best practice examples.

However fancy your shiny new tone may be, good writing matters. Here are two key tips I always include so that your words are as lovely to read as they are to write:

Be human
Write like you speak, as if to a friend. And use the active voice, not the passive, as it's more one-to-one, less formal and just easier on the eye.

Here's an example:

Passive: Your email will be replied to in due course.

Active: I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Be simple
Why use ten words when three will do? Don't [use] a complicated or long word if there's a shorter or simpler one instead. Get straight to the point.
 

How brave do you want to be with your tone of voice?

I always encourage clients to be bold. And be different. And to really, really turn up the copy volume dial to stand up and stand out. Just like this for Bellroy (proof that product descriptors needn't be dull) …

And this for anatomicals (proof that, when a copywriter and art director – who happen to be brothers – launch a toiletries brand, you know that brand is born to be head and shoulders above the rest) …

Need a tone of voice? Then why settle for vanilla when you can go for gold?

 

About the author: Caroline Gibson

Caroline profile pic

Caroline has been a freelance copywriter for over 15 years, with clients ranging from international brands to small businesses looking to become big businesses.
Before then, she worked for some of London's leading ad, branding and design agencies. She has experience in every sector – from finance to health to drinks – and has won awards in every discipline.

 
This article was first published by Caroline Gibson

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Thursday, September 06, 2018

6 Degrees of Social Media


Advice by copywriters for copywriters
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6 Degrees of Social Media

By Kenneth Shinabery on Sep 05, 2018 07:00 am
6 Degrees of Social Media

In the digital age, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. As we begin to utilize social media we soon find out that there is less than 6 degrees of separation between most people. The more we network using social media the degrees of separation become even smaller and smaller. Ultimately there becomes a thin fine line between you, me and the rest of the world.

Maintaining your social media feed is important if you are working in the creative industry or any other industry for that matter. Also engaging those who follow you also becomes quite important. And this should not even be looked at just on a personal networking level, but also for exposure of brands.

As a creative I utilize Instagram. It has become an easy great place for me to connect with those who like my artwork or read my articles. Sometimes I will discover an artist, then randomly they will like something on one of my feeds (before I have even made contact with them). These random happenstances seem to happen more and more often.

How does this relate to marketing? Well if an average person can engage people and connect with others via social media…then it is very important for a brand to establish themselves as well via social media. However, I think with many brands it requires being clever and creating a unique social media feed. If a brand's feed comes off as too commercial…then many will disregard the feed.

Coca-Cola & Social MediaBy utilizing social media a brand can introduce their product or services to people who have yet to discover them. Thus, if used correctly the reach of the brand grows exponentially. Now if that brand engages people who engage them or for that matter engages people who do not engage them that reach doubles. Let's say you are managing the feed for Coca-Cola on Instagram. If from time to time you look up hashtags relating to Coke…and then like or comment on pictures that follow the Coca-Cola spirit. Those people who shared those images will become curious and view the companies social media feed. Then if your feed proves to be interesting or even has contests this may spark the interest of the person viewing the company's feed, which in turn may make them decide to follow the Coca-Cola feed.

GRANTED…if a company does engage the community they should do it in a sincere manner.

Also, the company cannot go and post "ENJOY COCA-COLA" as comment who those who created good images with the hashtags relating to the beverage. You need to create unique little posts that do not sound as if they were copy & pasted or as a commercial. If you engage people via social media with witty or fun or thought remarks then that will make a difference.  Simply copy and pasting the same comment every time comes off as horrible.

Example: Every time you write a Tweet to Pantone you will get something like the following: "What color are you feeling like today?".  This is the most insincere thing ever.  No one wants to read responses from a BOT!  I love Pantone, but this is one thing that they should change.

Wrap…

For year's the world has been experiencing a global connectivity that has transformed the world into one community. This community via social media allows one to remove the degrees of separation between other people, users and their community…thus creating new bonds and followers. Whether you are a large company or an artist or a regular person… networking via social media has its benefits if used correctly.

 

About the author: Kenneth Shinabery

Kenneth Shinabery

Kenneth is a creative from New York City that is currently living in Europe. He is part of several Adobe programs such as the Adobe Influencer DACH program and Adobe Community Professionals Program as well as Wacom Evangelist. As an internationally published writer and content creator, Kenneth has spoken at conferences across Europe. Topics include: Creativity, Social Media and Community Development. One of his crowning achievements is having produced two full-scale creative conferences for Adobe in Germany.
Visit Kenneth's portfolio at:  https://kennshinabery.myportfolio.com/
Or connect with him on LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/kshinabery

 
This article was first published by Kenneth Shinabery 

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Has Digital Marketing Killed Off Branding & Creativity?


Advice by copywriters for copywriters
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Has Digital Marketing Killed Off Branding & Creativity?

By Caroline Gibson on Aug 29, 2018 07:00 am
Branding and Creativity
How has digital marketing affected branding? Q&A with Chris Bullick, MD of The Pull Agency.

Bill Gates – somewhat belatedly – said 'The Internet changes everything'. In reality, Microsoft was late to the party but Gates nailed it just in time. But has the Internet really changed everything for marketing? The way in which services and products are promoted and sold may be different, but are the fundamentals still the same? 

I interviewed Chris Bullick, Managing Director of The Pull Agency (which has just changed its name from Pull Digital). The agency creates brand propositions, websites and campaigns for clients that are challenger brands wanting to 'out-think rather than out-spend the competition'.

 

CG: So Chris, has – as Gates proclaimed – the Internet really changed everything?

CB: Having started my career on the branding side when at P&G, and therefore having been around pre-Internet, I've always been intrigued by people saying that brand is dead … it's all about Google and Search … anybody can start a dot.com business … long-term brand building no longer applies. The question, for me, is to what extent that's proved to be the case and what's the real impact of the digital revolution on the world of marketing and advertising.

I believe that, for a while, businesses felt that all that was needed for marketing was an army of geeks: I think that approach has been disproved. To my mind, the way digital has played out has proved that everything leads back to brand and that brand is still key.

CG: If a client contacts you for help with digital marketing, would you encourage them to let you evaluate their brand first of all?

CB: A lot of potential clients approach us because they think digital marketing will wave a magic wand or it's a shortcut. My argument will always be that whatever you do will be much better applied if you get your brand into shape first. So we will always try to undertake an audit of a client's brand and break that down into several components to understand what the brand narrative is, what's the awareness like, how good the brand promise and proposition are, etc., etc. There's really no point embarking on a marketing programme if those things aren't in good shape.

CG: With so much focus on attribution and programmatic solutions these days, how do companies look to measure their return on investment?  Do they want to rank at the top of Google or measure ROI in other ways? 

CB: Marketing has been always been science and art. People think building a brand is a largely creative process, but creative is just a way to address something and solve a problem. You have to prove that what you do positively impacts on the client's bottom line – and that's enabled by digital marketing.

The old joke used to be that 50% of your marketing works and 50% doesn't, and you don't know which is which. But that's changed and digital marketing lets you measure accurately – whether it's attributing sales to an e-commerce client or getting leads. If it's B2B, you can measure back to the source (so, where does that come from?). If it's organic, what keywords are responsible? If social media, which platform? You really can find the answers to those questions nowadays.

The art side is still leveraging your intuition; it's bringing creativity to bear, it's impacting the emotional pull the brand can have on the consumer. But what digital marketing allows you to do is the truly scientific part. Even when working with a client on brand building, you need to agree on a whole set of cold-blooded metrics – it might be sales, it might be ROI, it might be cost-per-acquisition, which comes from sources like Google analytics. The latest buzz phrase is 'big data' – if you collect enough data and use enough processing power, you can find the answers to everything. But I feel that approach is being discredited: again, it suggests that if you have enough processing power you don't need experienced marketers. I'm not sure I buy into that.

There's a soft creative side to brand building based on the fact that human beings are irrational and subject to emotional responses, and there's a scientific side which the digital revolution has fully enabled. If you're managing a brand well, then you've got to have a pretty good grip of both sides.

digital marketing and creativity

CG: Has measuring digital marketing caused creative work to suffer? Are advertisers and companies less adventurous?

Yes, I think marketing went through a period – the first stage of the digital revolution if you like – where geekiness and techno-crats moved in and which devalued things like copywriting and creativity. But people are now seeing the power of creativity again as technology falls to the background slightly. Clients are still looking for that emotional pull. Think about, say, the eagerly awaited John Lewis Christmas TV ads. That pull can only come out of creative work: it doesn't come from analytics.

CG: What are the major differences you've noticed about how digital marketing has affected branding?

The really big thing I've seen is how brand search has increased around tenfold in the last ten years compared to generic search. Everything's been turned on its head.

Take Wiggle, the UK's largest online provider of sports kit – especially cycling. Ten years ago the ratio of search for the phrase 'bicycle parts' versus 'Wiggle' was 10:1 in favour of 'bicycle parts'. Today, the ratio of search for Wiggle as a brand is 10:1 versus 'bicycle parts'.

So, ten years ago, if you wanted to build a business on the basis of that type of Google search result, you did everything you could to be in the number one slot for bicycle parts. You'd probably start a business called bicyclepartsonline.com and maybe even deploy so-called 'Black Hat' SEO techniques to reach and hold that number one search slot.

However, people have now found their favourite online brands – and search for generic items has been replaced by search for brands. For consumers now, the brand name 'Wiggle' is synonymous with 'bicycle parts' so they simply type in 'Wiggle'.  Although Wiggle has invested in SEO, they've put their real effort and investment behind building the brand. That's why they're number one in their category.

Brand Analysis

CG: How has that affected Wiggle's marketing spend?

The majority of Wiggle's revenue will now come from brand-related search, and they bid on their own brand term in paid search. Type in 'Wiggle' and the first result you see is a big Google ad from Wiggle. Now it may be that half the consumers searching with Wiggle-related terms are clicking on that. The result next down from that will be the organic search result. It may seem counter-intuitive that you're forced by Google to spend on your own brand, but the reality is that the cost-per-acquisition (getting a sale from someone clicking on the Wiggle ad) is probably 30p or 40p. The cost-effectiveness of this dilutes the cost of bidding on generic search terms, so the overall cost per acquisition or ROI is much lower than that of competitors with weaker or less searched-for brands.

So the latent value of a brand can be indicated better by what used to be the slightly vague term 'brand equity', which was notoriously difficult to measure. Now, all of a sudden, you can measure that – it's a massive turnaround. For Wiggle, it means they can afford to spend an awful lot more on non-brand terms such as 'bicycle parts' because the fantastic ROI they get on a brand-name sponsored search pays for all their other advertising on Google. That's a perfect example of brand value.

CG: Lastly Chris, any predictions for the future of digital marketing?

CB: In the last year alone, I've seen Facebook come forward to challenge Google in a whole load of ways that I didn't necessarily expect. I think that Facebook, because of the way in which it profiles people, is getting stronger by the day. Google may be very good at profiling people's intentions, but it's not so good at understanding them as individuals.

 

About the author: Caroline Gibson

Caroline profile pic

Caroline has been a freelance copywriter for over 15 years, with clients ranging from international brands to small businesses looking to become big businesses.
Before then, she worked for some of London's leading ad, branding and design agencies. She has experience in every sector – from finance to health to drinks – and has won awards in every discipline.

 
This article was first published by Caroline Gibson

The post Has Digital Marketing Killed Off Branding & Creativity? appeared first on .


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