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business growth

How A Copywriter Boosts Your Business Growth

Business / By / August 31, 2022

Does owning, operating, and growing your small business ever feel like a whole lot more than what you signed on for?

As a fellow female entrepreneur and small business owner, I can 100% relate! 

Plus, FocusCopy has worked with over 90 different brands across 4 countries. So I see firsthand how other business owners experience this, too. 

But did you know you can outsource a big chunk of your to-do list to a copywriter?

This is a professional who will take your ideas and strategically implement them into your marketing – which means you can get your much needed sleep with one less to-do keeping you up at night.

Plus, an experienced copywriter can boost business growth with converting copy that will help your brand messaging get noticed by the right people.

6 Ways High-Quality Converting Copy Can Take Your Business To The Next Level

For you to see meaningful business growth, your target audience needs a few things from your first. From knowing you exist to trusting that you’ll meet (or exceed) expectations, it’s all critical. And it all ties into your copy’s brand messaging. 

Boost your business growth with expert copywriting in your cup. Reach out today and book your discovery call. 

1. Allows You To Focus On What You Do Best – Running Your Business!

Do you know who understands your industry, business, and brand best? 

Pssst…it’s you!

That’s why your focus should always be on doing what you do best. And that is running your business!

When business owners get caught up in tasks they’re not confident in or don’t enjoy (like writing), time seems to slow down. Just a few minutes feels like an hour. You can’t seem to turn what’s in your head into digestible copy that you feel comfortable putting out into the world. Then, when you finally decide to push the writing aside, you’re too flustered to continue through your to-do list. 

Hand off the copywriting tasks to the experts and focus on your strengths while we focus on ours. 

2. Identifies Your Target Audience & Their Pain Points

Copywriters do more than write about your brand. We dig into the details with research. This allows us to learn who your target audience is and what they want from your business. 

Good copy offers a solution to your reader’s problems at a personal level. When they see that you can make their lives easier, they notice!

This is why at FocusCopy, we strategically craft copy that speaks to your customers’ needs. To do this, we emotionally connect with your readers.

This requires a special skillset of getting to know your customers and how to relate to them. For instance, did you know the right use of power words and persuasion principles (like repetition) can help you convert readers into paying customers?  

We have a lot of writing tricks up our sleeves. Are they obvious if you don’t know what to look for? Nope. And that’s the point. Our carefully and strategically crafted copy reads easily and organically. 

3. Builds Your Brand’s Credibility

Sometimes, you can have all the right words and a prospective client is still too hesitant to work with you. It makes sense because if they don’t know you, why should they trust you?

This is why building credibility into your website is so important. 

Whether you are a B2B or B2C company, your customers are at risk when investing their money in a new-to-them business. How do they know you’ll deliver what you promise? And how do they have confidence that your product or service is a worthwhile investment?

The FocusCopy team knows how to wager your credibility to put your readers’ minds at ease. Some of our favorite credibility factors include:

  • Brag about the well known entities that trust your business (but not in a tacky way!)
  • Show off your certifications and awards
  • Give the social proof that readers want with testimonials, case studies, and even some in-person networking action
  • Link your mentions in the press, the podcast episode you appeared on, and any instance you were publicly recognized as an authority figure in your industry
  • Offer a guarantee or warranty to hedge any risk that prospects may feel

However, there is a science behind establishing credibility. You want to keep it customer-focused. Because news flash…readers don’t care about you. They care about what you can do for them. 

4. Keeps Your Brand Messaging Consistent

Want to know the easiest way to confuse and turn off prospective customers? It’s easy. Infiltrate your brand messaging with inconsistent copy. 

It’s no coincidence the word focus is in our name. After all, we have loads of processes that ensure the copy we write is clear and focused on the objective. And with our clients, that means writing copy that will convert readers into paying customers. 

One of our favorite processes is our brand voice guide. We’ve developed a questionnaire that allows us to zero in on a client’s tone, emotion, and overall voice. And this also gets deep into the details of each client’s ideal customers. Because, again – it’s not about you. It’s about finding and converting the people that want to work with you. 

5. Helps Your Ideal Customers Find You

Customers have to know you exist before they can even consider working with you. 

Word of mouth speaks highly of your business in social circles. But you wouldn’t be brainstorming marketing ideas or even reading this blog if you were content with your current number of customers. To be successful, you have to break out of that circle and share your products and services with the world.

One of the best ways to do that is through search engine optimization (SEO). However, effective SEO requires continuous research to keep up with Google’s never-ending algorithm. 

You are busy running your business, so dedicating time to learning SEO and keeping up with its constant changes isn’t something you want to add to your to-do list. That’s where FocusCopy comes in!

We strategically place effective keywords into our copy to help our clients’ websites appear higher in the search engine results. Don’t you want your business to be the first to appear when someone searches for your product or service? Of course you do! Because you can’t count on your ideal customers to sift through pages of search results to find you. That’s why we make it easy.

6. Ensures Quality Copy That Will Actually Convert To Sales!

Did you have someone proofread your last social media post, email newsletter, blog, or website copy? 

More importantly, did the proofreader catch any glaring errors? 

Or did they respond with a sweet, “Looks great!”? 

While compliments are nice to receive, you need someone who will catch your writing errors and not be afraid to speak their voice. Otherwise, your ideal customers are going to be the ones who notice. And they’re not likely going to take the time to let you know. 

At FocusCopy, we are constantly evolving our processes and adding to our documentation. Each piece of copy is crafted with care and then sent on to another professional writer to edit with their fresh eyes and perspective. Nothing is sent out without at least two professional copywriters scouring the page. This allows us to produce quality copy every time. And with that consistency, we are able to raise our client’s Google ranking and convert their readers into paying customers. 

Boost Business Growth With FocusCopy On Your Side

Do you know your brand messaging needs help but don’t know where to start? 

We’ve got you covered. 

Whether you enjoy or loathe writing, we can help you craft the perfect message and get it to the people looking for your solutions. FocusCopy offers done with you and done for you services. We even have an awesome course to guide you through writing your own website! 

Ready to give your business the buzz it needs? We’re here to help. Get in touch and let’s talk about how we support your business growth with quality copy.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
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Identify Your Target Market

Why Is It So Important To Identify Your Target Market?

Marketing / By / September 28, 2021

Have you ever felt as though you’re speaking into a void when it comes to your marketing materials? 

What about talking to potential customers that end up nowhere near you making a sale?

No one likes to exhaust their resources. However, you might be doing exactly that if your main focus is on the wrong group of buyers. In fact, 80% of content is geared towards the wrong audience. Spending all of your efforts speaking to the wrong audience isn’t beneficial to your business or to those customers missing out on all you have to offer.

What you need to do is ensure you’re speaking to the right people. This way, you’re producing deliverables that can convert into sales.

Identifying your target audience is essential to any growing business, and doing so is easier than you might think! 

Need a little oomph added to your business’s copywriting? Contact FocusCopy to learn how we can help your business grow.

Factors That Impact Your Overall Marketing

Identifying your target market is just as important as the product or service you’re offering. Because without talking directly to your target market, you likely end up losing a lot more than you realize.

Money

Did you know? The average small business spends an average of $9,000 to $10,000 per month for online advertising. 

On top of your marketing budget, you also have monthly fees associated with your website and other tools you use to get your name out there. In addition, you have operations and supply costs to cover. 

However, if you’re consistently speaking to the wrong demographic, all of those essential business elements aren’t being recovered.

Resources

On top of your budget, you have all of your deliverables that aren’t earning results because the audience you’re focusing on isn’t the right one.

Time

The time you spend planning, organizing, and executing your advertising adds up. Make sure your time is used efficiently by talking to the audience you really want.

Potential Revenue

The thing is, there are probably plenty of people who are interested in your business. But they’re not buying because they simply haven’t heard of you. Hone in on the potential customers you want by shifting your focus. 

Valuable Assets

A fantastic web design, captivating copy, and a solid team are nothing without its consumers. You can have top-notch work simply decaying because it isn’t being seen by those who matter to your business’s revenue.

Need a little help? We can push your business in the right direction with crafted copy that targets your ideal audience.

How To Identify Your Target Market

Here are the 3 steps you need to take to redirect your business’s efforts:

1. Start With The Demographics

Find out the age, gender, income, and profession of your customers. You may have to make broad strokes to identify an ideal target audience, but the goal is to get your audience to fit 80% of what you write down for the demographics.

For example, your target audience may look like:

  • Woman-owned business that offers a professional service, 35-50 years old, lives in the US, works remote, mother of 3 kids, and married 
  • 30-year old multi-generational company who the son is currently taking over, 35-45 years old, lives in the US, grew up in the company, married, goes into the office or company building for work, bilingual (usually in English and Spanish)

The key here… Get specific!

2. Get Into The Details

Use psychographics to pinpoint your customers’ lifestyles, values, and personality traits.

For example, if we were to take the woman-owned business listed above, her personality profile may include being sociable but introverted, determined to make this work, values family over money, and relationship-focused.

3. Uncover Their Values

Narrow your funnel by learning your customers’ attitude, knowledge, and response to your services.

If you aren’t digging down and getting to the root of who your customers are, it will be tough talking to them about what you can do to serve them better. Your customers want to believe you understand them and are willing to go the extra mile to solve their problems. 

They want reliability, honesty, and value. Understanding everything about them from their age range to their preference in politics helps inform your marketing endeavors.

How To Talk To Your Target Audience

Now that you have your audience, you should be able to talk to them directly.

Demand Their Attention

Don’t be afraid to call your customers out! There’s no need to beat around the bush and evade talking to a smaller group of people because you’re afraid it will single others out. People are much more likely to perk up and pay attention when they feel seen, heard, and understood.

For example, instead of saying “All-Inclusive Legal Services For Texans,” you should say, “Are You The Victim Of A Drunk Driving Accident And Need Legal Representation?”

The point is, you may be a law office that serves all types of clients. However, if your main focus is representing drunk driving victims or their families, you need to say so upfront. Don’t be concerned with leaving others out by zooming in on a specific demographic. 

Instead of spreading a net that’s too wide, you cast a net towards a smaller, but more quality audience.

Get To The Point

You don’t need to worry about using a ton of fluff copy or over-explaining yourself. Too much copy is off-putting and can confuse your customers. Stick to their pain points and how you can solve their problem. Speak their language and use every chance to write in a voice you think they would respond well to.

For example, your audience may have a wealth of experience and knowledge in the oil and gas industry. They know their profession at an extremely deep level of understanding and respond well to efficient copy. In this instance, try to use words and phrases that you know they’ll be familiar with, even if they’re technical. 

As another example, you might know your audience is largely made up of bakers who are in their 20’s. Again, it’s okay to use wording or practical phrases as they relate to the market your customers are in.

Place The Spotlight On Them

In everything you write, place the focus on your customers rather than on yourselves. There are certainly some aspects of your business that customers want to know about. 

However, this doesn’t mean you want them to forget that you’re there to help them. It’s helpful to use copy centered on the customer in your above-the-fold website copy. And use wording like “you” more often than “we”. 

RELATED: Read How to Make a BIG Impact on Your Conversion Rates By Including These 4 Requirements For Above The Fold Website Copy

Set Your Sights On A More Refined Focus With Writers Who Can-Do

Whether your business is 5 months old or 50 years strong, you need to identify your target market and understand who you’re speaking with. We understand because we’ve helped businesses in all stages of growth get where they need to be through comprehensive copywriting services that include identifying your target audience

Have a quick deadline? No problem. We’ll work with you to deliver high-performing copy in a timely manner. Worried about being shut out of input? Not with us! We believe open communication is key to a successful partnership

What are you waiting for? Get started with us today.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
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surveying your target audience

What Are The Benefits Of Surveying Your Target Audience To Make Business & Marketing Decisions?

Marketing / By / July 22, 2022

Surveying your target audience to help you make business decisions may not cross your mind. But there are some big benefits to doing so. For starters, you may want customer insight into an ongoing situation or upcoming event. In this case, customer feedback can be an excellent tool to gauge which direction you should take. 

You can’t expect all of your clients to respond or submit feedback. However, any observations you receive could be constructive. Google found that less than 40% of marketers use surveys to help make business decisions. This means it’s an overwhelmingly unused resource for a business owner to take advantage of. Aside from getting customer feedback, surveys have many other benefits as well.

Searching for a stellar team of writers to help create whatever is on your to-do list? Contact us to get started.

6 Benefits Of Surveying Your Target Audience To Make Business & Marketing Decisions

Ideally, you want to talk to each and every one of your customers. By doing so, you can find out where their head is at and how they feel about your services. However, the reality is that this is pretty impossible to accomplish. But there is another way to reach the insight you’re looking for. For example, online surveys can ask questions you may not be able to ask in person.

In addition, digital surveys can:

  • Be easy on your budget
  • Cast a large net all at once, reaching your target audience
  • Be simple to create yourself
  • Managed easily through software like SurveyPlanet or SurveyMonkey

Need help with your digital marketing endeavors? Reach out to FocusCopy and see what you’ve been missing.

1. Get A Gauge On Current Conditions

Events beyond your control can dictate how you conduct business. But you can use surveys to get ahead of the curve. As an example, the pandemic left many business owners stuck on figuring out their next steps. Because there is so much controversy surrounding the pandemic, it can be hard to read an audience. This makes it that much more difficult to make smart decisions that can help expand your business. 

Nevertheless, proactive businesses took it upon themselves to send email blasts surveying their customer base. They asked questions regarding the pandemic to get a feel for their audience’s current wants and needs. And then tried to offer a solution. 

Ultimately, digital surveys helped businesses think about their availability, remote and delivery services, and more.

2. Keep Customer Feedback In Mind

Help Scout says that for every customer who complains, there’s 26 more who feel similarly but don’t say anything. However, you should keep in mind that 95% of customers share their bad experiences with friends, relatives, and acquaintances. As a business owner, you don’t hear every complaint. But many potential customers are hearing more than you know. 

These findings may not seem fair. Nevertheless, there is a way to reach out and hear more from customers who may be dissatisfied. That’s where surveys come in. Keep a pulse on your audience and check up by sending surveys every once in a while. This way, you can find gaps in areas such as your:

  • Business model
  • Marketing tools
  • Management or employee service
  • Wait times
  • Repetitive problems
  • Poor customer service or resolution

Getting feedback in these areas can help you decide what needs to be addressed. In addition, it can tell you where you’re doing well. From here, you can make changes in management, operations, and other departments as needed.

3. Surveying Your Target Audience To Reorganize Priorities

Additionally, surveys can help you rearrange your priorities and get to the root of what really matters to your customers.

You may find that certain products or services are more popular than others. You might even find you have an untapped potential by offering something else you didn’t think of before.

Say you’re a nutritionist and personal trainer who offers packages geared mostly towards healthy eating advice. However, you might get survey results that say people would rather pay more to get additional workout and exercise programs. Even more so, you find your audience isn’t all that interested in one of the packages you offer. This may be the ideal time to consider realigning your priorities and focus less on nutrition by balancing those services with exercise options. Doing so shows you’re capable of listening and allows you to offer something new to current customers based on direct responses. 

Adaptation is key to a business’s long-term success. Your priorities shouldn’t remain the same every month or year. By often surveying your audience, you won’t run the risk of falling behind the market. Or losing customers by not actually offering the services they most want.   

4. Manage Your Reputation

It’s important to maintain your online reputation the best you can. You may not agree with every survey response you receive. But there is always a way to respond with professionalism.

Say you’re hearing a ton of negative comments about your production times. However, you know that your company works as fast as it can to get products to your customers. This may be the time to create a marketing campaign that gives customers an inside look at production, why it takes so long, and the value in not cutting corners.

Your audience will value their feedback being addressed and come to better understand how your business operates.

5. View Your Business From The Customer’s Perspective

Surveying your target audience is an opportunity to see your business through someone else’s eyes. Responses can shed light on an idea or opinion you may not have ever thought of before. There may even be additional opportunities to do some good like making charitable donations or offering discounts to essential personnel. You might find out you can make a certain aspect of your business even stronger. 

6. Give Management And Employees A Chance To Adjust 

You’ve conducted a survey and see that perhaps you’ve been focusing all of your efforts on delivery services. If most of your customers say delivery is seamless, but a few of your staff are poorly trained, rude, or make continual errors, it may be time to make some tough decisions. 

Getting both positive and negative feedback helps your ability to come up with a game plan. In this case, you may want to congratulate your team on amazing delivery services. However, you will also need to transition and spend more time and resources on training. If necessary, you may need to let go of workers who are unwilling to learn, adapt, and alter their work style. But by doing so, your client base will see you’ve improved and potentially become repeat customers.

Make The Best Business Decision By Choosing Expert Copywriters

After you’ve surveyed your audience, you might feel ready to take the next step but don’t know where to start. Have a list of deliverables in mind? What about a marketing campaign you’re SO ready to get fired up?

Whether you need completely new website copy and additional pages, or just a few blog articles to send out, we can do it all! 

Get started on creating the best lead generation ideas for your business.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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Questions To Discover Your Brand Voice

5 Key Questions To Learn How To Discover Your Brand Voice

Copywriting / By / August 31, 2021

Learning how to discover your brand voice sounds complex and tedious. But once you start answering the questions you need to ask yourself, it becomes quite a bit easier. 

Now, you may think: Is it really a big deal if I don’t have a brand voice? 

Do I need one?

Yes! And not because we’re telling you to do so, but because companies with a brand voice sell better and make more money. It’s the one thing that gives you the warm and fuzzy feeling when they hear it. A well-developed brand voice is both familiar and trustworthy.

Everyone knows about the big brands like Apple, Google, and Coca-Cola. But even today’s large companies started small not too long ago and increased their revenue by creating a brand voice that’s all their own. These companies include ones like:

  • Billie: Billie launched in 2017, raising $6 million at its initial stages. By 2019, the razor company dedicated to women raised $25 million, led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing Group.
  • Poo-Pourri: Saw an 80% increase of $15 million to $27 million in sales after a digital campaign went viral.
  • Casper: The mattress company earned $100 million in less than two years.

On top of each of these being great ideas, what do they all have in common? Their branding is recognizable and pushed them to the next level, seeing a huge return on their investment.

We’ll walk you through the 5 questions you should be asking to learn how to discover your brand voice.

Struggling to find your brand voice or unsure of where to begin? We’ve got you covered. Get started with us, and we’ll write it for you!

What To Ask To Discover Your Brand Voice

Did you know it takes about 5 to 7 impressions for customers to start recognizing a brand?

Finding your brand voice can be overwhelming to think about. But it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. In fact, if you have about 20 minutes, we’re sure you can answer these questions yourself and get started.

Grab a pen and a clean sheet of paper or notebook. Don’t worry about being too detailed. Even if you scribble your answers quickly, you’ll have an outline to go off of when you’re ready to think about it more deeply.

Reading along for a quick skim? That’s okay, too. These questions aren’t tricky and shouldn’t leave you confused.

1. Who Is Your Audience?

Let’s start with something you may already be familiar with. 

In other words, this question is asking, “Who the heck are you talking to?”

If your audience is primarily middle-aged men who are married and lean on the conservative side, write it down! If you cater more to a younger audience that’s diverse and single with no children, write that down. Or maybe you aim for high net worth individuals who consider themselves workaholics. Whatever the case may be, jot it down and have it on paper.

Pinpointing who you’re talking to will eliminate a ton of other brand voices that currently exist. Doing this can also help you get a more narrow idea of how you’re already talking to your audience during the following steps:

  • Initial conversation or consultation
  • Following up on the exchange if necessary
  • Sale
  • Thanking them for their business
  • Responding to positive and negative feedback
  • Reaching out to get them to return, sign up for something, or any other call-to-action (CTA)
  • Talking to returning customers

Running through your business model or sales process gives you a better idea of your tone, wording, and other aspects of your brand voice.

Need some extra help? We have a special process to help businesses establish their own brand voice with a handy guide. 

2. How Are You Different From Your Competitors?

You’ve likely heard this time and time again. But it’s because it’s important to decipher what makes your business unique and different from your competitors. This answer could include things like longevity, special certifications or licenses, quality of staff, and so on.

Then, you need to ask why your audience would care about what makes you different. You can then place your focus on turning those unique features into benefits for your customers. 

3. Who Do You Want To Sound Like?

Whether you’re hoping to mimic your own voice or that of someone else, it’s important to decipher what you plan on sounding like. One way to get this down in your notes is to list a bunch of adjectives that describe your brand.

Some examples include:

  • Witty
  • Friendly
  • Relaxed
  • Casual
  • Professional
  • Educated
  • Authoritative
  • Inspiring

You don’t have to use these exact adjectives but think of some on your own. They could even come from client testimonials you’ve read or heard in the past. 

This step leads us right into the next one…

4. What Do You Want To Avoid?

This part isn’t as fun but is oh-so-necessary. Consider what you’d like to avoid when moving forward with your branding. Write down a bunch of adjectives that you want to refrain from or avoid altogether.

Another way to do this step is by writing down negative adjectives you’ve heard about your business to help you decide how to steer away from sounding that way. 

For example, perhaps you’ve read the reviews, and people tend to say your business is inconsistent and sloppy. It’s harsh and may not even be true. However, it’s essential to listen to feedback and turn it into a positive opportunity by seeing what you can do with it. First of all, consistency is key. Then, sounding too informal may not be the best decision depending on the market you’re in. If people expect you to sound professional, you can still do so while showing your human side.

5. What Do You Want People To Feel About Your Brand?

Finally, go back to who your target audience is. Then ask yourself what you’d like your clients to take away from interacting with your brand. Envision their absolute best “buying” experience and explore those feelings and emotions. Whether you sell a product or offer a specific service, it’s critical that you walk through their process, focus on their pain points, and understand how your business helps. Find some descriptors or even personal stories that accurately encompass your brand.

Don’t Lose Out On More Money And Get Help Finding Your Brand Voice

86% of customers say authenticity is important to them when deciding which brands to support. This is why it’s even more important than ever to make sure your business has a brand voice to showcase. This doesn’t mean you need to make the next viral TikTok. It just means people value businesses and business owners being themselves.

What do you say? Are you feeling inspired to get going on your brand voice?

If you don’t want to go it alone, reach out to us for help on learning how to discover your brand voice!

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
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Benefits for Writing Business Blog Posts

5 Benefits for Writing Business Blog Posts (And How To Start Publishing)

Content Marketing / By / June 1, 2021

Blogging is certainly not dead – especially when it comes to B2B blogging. Some 700 million blog posts are published each month on WordPress alone. 

Today’s web users can hop online and find a blog on pretty much any topic you can imagine. 

Searching for a step-by-step guide on how to perform an oil change? There’s a blog for that. 

What about finding the perfect chocolate cake recipe? Yep, there’s a blog for that, too. 

More often than not, the blogs with sufficient information may eventually lead you to an expert within the field of what you’re searching for. 

This is excellent news for businesses – boasting numerous benefits for writing business blog posts.

5 Benefits for Writing Business Blog Posts

We could go on for hours listing the benefits for writing business blog posts, but we picked these 5 benefits because they directly impact your bottom line. At FocusCopy, we would never recommend anything that doesn’t produce sales or makes your company more efficient (and thereby more profitable).

1. Blog Posts Provide Social Media and Email Content

You want to keep your audience engaged, right? If you’re like us, you’ve been subject to opening a marketing email only to hit close as soon as you scan it (even if you get that far). One way to positively use the blogs you’ve written is to include them in your marketing emails paired with a catchy headline or phrase to draw your audience in. By doing so, you keep readers engaged with relevant content to your business, boost your click rate, and improve website traffic…. Ultimately generating more qualified leads for your business (paired with a few other things).

Plus, with so many tools available like MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and so on, you can use these platforms to help monitor your email marketing performance, making it easy to see which emails featuring your blogs tend to outshine one another. You can then plan and strategize additional content to work better for you and your business in the future.

In line with sharing blogs to your email efforts, you can pad your social media calendar with shareable posts featuring your blog. All it takes is a simple graphic, engaging copy, and a link to your blog to quickly get better engagement on your social media platforms. With almost half of the world’s population using social media, you really can’t go wrong by creating some buzz around your blog posts using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social-sharing software.

2. Blog Posts Boost Search Engine Optimization

According to OptinMonster, “Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.” That statistic alone should be convincing enough to start blogging. 

The bottom line is that more traffic to your website means more potential sales. Writing a blog and sharing its content any way you can help build the number of visitors who end up on your site. As you consistently continue producing relevant content written with SEO in mind, you’ll see your SEO performance build and improve over time.

Chances are, someone who conducts a search on Google looking for a how-to on best business practices during COVID will likely run into a few high-ranking blogs covering this topic. As a result, the business blogs that appear on the first or second page are likely to see improved engagement and viewers on their website.

As long as you have an individual or team member regularly creating, publishing content, and monitoring your results, there is no reason your SEO and, in turn, your business shouldn’t see some improved engagement.

Case Study: Publish Consistently Now

As a new business, we consistently published weekly blogs from August 2019 to April 2020. This was a critical step to start building the SEO snowball. 

Then between April 2020 and September 2020, our blogging became a little more inconsistent because… Well, we were too busy writing for our clients. Yet, our traffic was still growing. 

In October 2020, our blogging became non-existent through the remainder of 2020. We were simply too busy to even schedule posts on social media! All our focus was on our client’s copy and their marketing. 

Yet, our traffic grew and grew. This is the power of publishing business blog posts. This is what we refer to as the SEO snowball effect.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Chinese Proverb
Benefits for Writing Business Blog Posts

3. Blog Posts Educate Your Target Audience

There is a ton of information out there online. But you’re the one who knows your business best, so who better to talk about it than yourself? People want to know accurate and readable information that will help them. Don’t be afraid to give your blogs everything you’ve got and go into as much detail as you can in an organized format that flows with ease.

A simple benefit you can add to your blogs includes graphics, videos, and photography to help users visualize the discussion topic. It’s not entirely necessary, but for businesses who offer intricate services or products, these elements can break down some more technical content in a digestible way.  

(P.S. We’re experts in capturing your brand voice, learning your story, and communicating it with SEO and your target audience in mind. Want to learn how we make your blog production easier? Schedule a call with co-founder Lauren Jefferson today.) 

4. Blogs Posts Position You As a Brand Authority

As the expert, you want to let others know that they can turn to you for the information they need now or might need in the future. With each blog post, you build brand authority for yourself and become a reliable resource for your audience to turn to.

One way of serving as a brand authority lies in sharing information backed by reliable resources, data, or reports. You can also rely on the professionals around you to get the latest industry updates and material to improve your content. Finally, you can answer some FAQs in depth through blogs that are both requested and informative. Each of these factors sets the tone for your blog and provides a safe space for others to turn to when they need trustworthy information.

5. Blog Posts Create More Opportunities to Sell

If you have your sales process down, blog writing may be the solution you need to pour more leads into your funnel. You see, the more content you produce backed by appropriate facts and figures, the more people will be geared towards your website and brand. As users get to know your brand better and become more familiar with who you are, the more likely they are to use your product or service.  

According to Hubspot, “Marketers who prioritized blogging received 13X more ROI than companies that did not in 2019.” Hubspot’s findings make blogging one of the most useful marketing tools out there on top of creating other inviting digital content. 

How to Start Writing Blog Posts for Business

If you’re tired of being left behind in a digital world, get started today on setting up a blog for your business with just a few quick steps.

Figure Out What You’re Going To Write About

Where do you start? Understandably, you may have a lot to say but don’t know where to begin. Whether you use your smartphone, laptop, or pen and paper, you should kick off your blogging venture by jotting down your best blog ideas. Some components to think about include:

  • Timeliness. Is what you want to write about pertinent to right now?
  • Substance. Is there enough to talk about when discussing a specific topic?
  • Benefits. Will your blog be able to highlight something that your business has to offer to help its readers?
  • Content. Is the content being discussed relevant to your business?

If you’ve answered “No,” to any of these questions, it may be time to discuss more openly with your team about what would work when it comes to blogging for your business.

(Need help thinking of potential topics? FocusCopy is here to help! Contact us today to learn how we make this process easier for you.)

Decide How Frequently You’re Going to Write Blog Posts

Some websites will tell you you should blog twice a week, once a week, or once a month. Depending on your business, you may want to post more or less. If you don’t have the bandwidth to start posting numerous times a day, work on getting your posts written and provide yourself with a bank of blogs you can rely on when you’re ready to start publishing.

“Blogging frequency has a direct and significant impact on lead generation.”

SEO.co

We take a little different approach when it comes to choosing frequency. At FocusCopy, we want to see consistency in your marketing. If that’s every week, go for it! But if you can only manage one blog a month, that’s great. Start building that rhythm so you can produce more content down the line. 

Determine Who Is Writing Your Blog Posts

I you are considering starting a blog, think no more. Get your blog up and running with a content writer who knows the ins and outs of blogging, wordplay, and adapting to your company’s work model, style, voice, tone, and attitude.

We get it! You may not have the time for blogging. Lucky for you, we’re the experts you need in that department. FocusCopy offers content writing for your business – bringing your brand to center stage for the audience you crave.

Benefits for Writing Business Blog Posts

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Copywriting / By / November 4, 2021

During the holiday season, we are bombarded with advertisements, sales, and deals. It can be overwhelming and just plain annoying. This year (2019), I received a staggering 238 emails about Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone. 

As a copywriter, I usually read every email to see what other companies are doing; however, this influx of emails beat me.  

All that being said, there’s a lot of noise. And you have to do something different if you want to stand out from the crowd. Cue today’s topic… You need to start building a unique selling proposition. 

First, what is a unique selling proposition?

What is a Unique Selling Proposition? 

A unique selling proposition or USP is a statement of what makes your business unique and ultimately valuable to your prospective customer or target audience. Essentially, it answers the questions… How are you better than your competition? Or Why should the customer choose you over your competition? 

This is the secret weapon that a lot of marketing strategies forget about or don’t spend enough time on. 

Think of building a unique selling proposition as laying the foundation for your entire business.

Unique Selling Proposition vs Value Proposition

Before we go any further, let’s clear up a few things when it comes to the difference between a unique selling proposition vs value proposition. 

A value proposition describes what your company is offering, to whom you are offering it to, and how it solves your customer’s problem. For example, you can use the following framework to build your value proposition.

We sell [your product or service] to [your customer] to solve [their problem]. We solve this problem by [your solution with the big differentiators].

In comparison, a unique selling proposition is a statement that explains how your product or service uniquely solves your customer’s needs. It is a specific statement that can vary slightly between landing pages, offers, and promotions. It is meant to “move the masses” because it is uniquely better than the competition. 

Although the USP isn’t necessarily “copy”, we do use it as a framework to base our copy around. 

Components of a Unique Selling Proposition

Take your target audience, figure out their big problem, explain how you solve their problem, highlight the big benefits of your solution, and finally define your promise. You’ll want to combine all of that, rework it, and turn it into an easy-to-digest proposition.

You can use the following framework to build your USP. 

Our [company / product / service] is the only one that helps [your customer] solve [their specific problem] by [unique promise or benefit].

Where To Use Your Unique Selling Proposition

Before you start building a unique selling proposition (USP), it’s important to know where and when you can use the USP. Copywriters use USPs on each advertisement, promotion, or sales letter. In short, your USP is the reason why the customer needs to buy the product or service for a very specific benefit. It helps the copywriter keep focused on that benefit as they are writing the copy. 

Although the USP isn’t necessarily “copy”, we do use it as a framework to base our copy around. As a result, you will see a lot of USPs in the headlines or at least the first few lines of copy.

Examples of Well-Executed USPs

Here are a couple examples of well-executed USPs. 

TOMS Roasting Co. 

You thought they only sold shoes! TOMS has been a long standing, philanthropic company that believes in One for One®. Their roasting company is no exception. Their USP is that in return for your coffee purchase, they provide safe water. Can you name another company that is doing that? It’s unique and admirable. 

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Away Travel 

Away luggage creates suitcases and other travel products. This USP doesn’t directly talk about what they do in addition to creating these products – “building peace in areas of conflict around the world”. But they are unique in that they see travel as something greater.

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

ClickUp

“One app to replace them all.” It’s unique. It’s a huge selling point because if you’re anything like me, you are trying to simplify how you work – and consequently, the number of apps you use. 

Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Steps to Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Building a unique selling proposition (USP) may not be easy. It needs to be strong enough to influence a large number of people, but specific enough to be consumed in one bite. It’s the framework for an entire piece of copy. In this blog, we’ve broken down the steps to help you get started. 

1. Who Is Your Target Audience?

This is always always always our number 1 question… Who is the customer or your target audience? If you don’t know that, then you need to figure it out. 

Remember, there is no business without a customer. It’s imperative that you do not skip this step. 

For a wellness coach, it could be a college student that is experiencing new pain and wants to find a solution. 

For a corporate event planner, it could be a real estate broker that sells luxury condos and wants to woo his clients. 

Whoever it is, know who that person is. It will not be everyone, and that’s totally okay. You can scale later. 

2. What Is Their Problem? 

Now that you know who they are, it’s time to assess what their big problem is. What is the one thing that they are missing or gripe about?

For example, a real estate brokerage firm targets first time homeowners. New home buyer’s big pain points are that they have no home buying experience and fear they may invest in a bad property. That fear is crippling, so they don’t buy at the right time or at all.

3. How Does Your Product / Service Solve Their Problem? 

Next, assess how your product or service solves that problem. In the same example above, a real estate brokerage firm could have a program specifically tailored to educating first time home buyers. 

What features and benefits help you solve that problem? 

4. How Are You Unique?

The key of a USP is the unique aspect. Your competition must not offer the same benefits as you because you’re… Unique! Why are you different? How are you special? These questions are helpful when defining your uniqueness.

5. Combine Those Answers In An Easy-To-Digest Sentence

You may be thinking… How am I going to combine all of this into one sentence? You’re killing me, Lauren. Okay, I get it. I said that too when I developed my first USP. But the big reason why you need an easy-to-digest sentence is because you want anyone in your company to immediately recite it without tripping over words. 

Employees Need to Memorize the USP

You also want your customers and prospective customers to buy-in quickly and even memorize it themselves. 

Customers Need to Memorize the USP

Think about it this way… Your customer isn’t that valuable to you unless they’ve bought from you two, three, four, or more times. Right? The more they buy from you, the more valuable they are to you because your customer acquisition costs are decreasing. 

The relationship goal all companies want to reach is when your customers are advocating for you and eventually promoting your product or service. This is GOLD. Your customer, when they reach this stage, are your free promoters. PLUS their network are more likely to buy from your company because they trust that person. 

That’s why it has to be digestible and memorable.

Conclusion Building a Unique Selling Proposition

Every company has a unique selling proposition – whether they have defined it yet or not. If you need help building your unique selling proposition, we just released a 1-hour Brainstorm Session that includes an entire action plan based on our conversation. And it’s completely customizable. Take advantage of this offer here.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

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FocusCopy® caffeinates your brand messaging so it energizes your target audience to take action. 

(281) 916-4949 | info@FocusCopy.com

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