http://webcopygirl.com Remarkable ideas about the web, emails and how to write for them Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:28:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In this post, let's get practical with this writing thing. What do most writers need to do better on the Web and in EMs? If you ask me, it's headers. (Or 'leads' for you PR types. Or 'H1s' for you SEMers. Or 'titles' if you're in the 9th grade.) Let's workshop ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/04/24/practice-makes-perfect-part-3-of-a-writing-series/  Simply: conversations = conversions Ads are dead. They don't convert. People don't see them (a la banner blindness). Stop kidding yourself, AdMan. Here's a quick list of what you need to do to get more out of your marketing budget: http://webcopygirl.com/2008/04/22/conversations/ You already know that social proof (a la testimonials, statistics/data, user reviews) speaks a million times ---- yes, a million times ---- louder than most of the marketing copy you could write and put online. So why aren't your testimonials helping to build trust and convert? I mean, dammit, you spent all ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/04/16/getting-dialogue-right-part-two-of-a-writing-series/ I write a lot of emails/EMs for clients in the software/hi-tech industry. Of course, at the end of the day, they're all in the people-/customer-/user-focused industry. At least, they want to be. No, sorry, at least they say they want to be. When you're sending out multiple EMs to segments of ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/04/14/full-price-are-you-mad-how-todays-customers-expect-to-save-online/ iMedia Connection had a great piece in their mailing today: What the perfect agency looks like, a video of brand managers revealing how agencies can (and should) evolve to meet their needs. Have a watch.   http://webcopygirl.com/2008/04/02/your-ideal-agency-a-video/ I've been wondering lately why I'm so bothered by a client asking me to write his landing pages with headers proclaiming that his company is #1. It just felt wrong, telling people that. But why did it feel so wrong? One of the companies for whom I do a bit ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/04/01/get-your-story-straight-part-one-of-a-writing-series/   There’s this idea running loose right now that a better user experience is one that is most natural for the user. Kinda makes sense – except I’m not clear on what ‘natural’ means. This all springs up from what Jonathan Follett wrote on XDMatters.com. Here are a few direct quotes from ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/03/25/progressively-deteriorating-does-natural-equal-better/ Have you seen this? WestJet GetSet is an application that runs directly on your desktop and delivers (as pop-ups or as a 'glow') offers to people who sign up for it. No email inbox to compete with. So interesting-----especially insofar as permission marketing of this sort really helps WestJet contact ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/03/20/bypassing-the-email-middle-man/ If you read my January 20 post re: weak company apologies, then you'll know that I think true, solid apologies are not optional----in fact, they're critical. Well, I think that... and I'm pretty sure customers think that, too. As a customer of Amazon.ca, I was recently very, very pleasantly surprised by ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/03/07/i-heart-susie-b-at-amazonca-customer-service/ I love Steve Krug's "Don't make me think." If you want to write better sites with the user in mind, then this is the book to read. Most of us have read it... or, at least, we have it on our shelves and we find ways to drop the title ... http://webcopygirl.com/2008/03/05/testing-when-we-take-dont-make-me-think-as-professional-advice/