Inside the 2009 Web Copywriting Intensive … Featuring Top Online and Offline Direct-Response Copywriter Nick Usborne
By Monica Day, AWAI Roving Reporter

“Why are you here?”

That’s the question Joshua Boswell opened with. And he made a great point. One that should make every person who traveled to Austin for this week’s Web Copywriting Intensive feel great about being here – and make you at home happy that I made the trip and am sending these daily “inside” reports to you!

Sure, stock market money has exited Wall Street – and advertising and marketing money is leaking out of Madison Avenue. That means bad news for a lot of people … but not for anyone sitting here in the room – or for you either.

That money hasn’t disappeared – but it is definitely flowing in different ways than it was just a year ago. And fortunately for us, we have a chance to be on the receiving end.

“Guerilla marketing” is in. Companies now understand they need to sidestep those slick, big-dollar ad campaigns and take their messages directly to the people instead. They need to know their marketing dollars are converting into actual sales.

These aren’t the days for “just do it” … these are the times of “just earn it.”

And that’s very good news for people like us.

It’s hard sometimes – amidst the headlines of doom and gloom – to remember you could be on the right side of this mess. But it’s true …

For the next three days, I’ll do my best to prove it to you!

Today, the main event is Nick Usborne – one of the top online and offline direct-response copywriters. I certainly can’t give it all to you here – he shared a couple hundred slides over the course of seven hours! But a few things really stood out to me that I thought you should know …

1. Your online copy matters most when action needs to be taken: Subscribe, Try, Buy.

As direct-response copywriters, we’ve always known this is what sets us apart from traditional advertisers. While they’re creating pithy slogans to “build brands,” we’re racking up real dollars.

Online, that translates to being very directive. You must write your copy in a way that tells people what to do. Keep in mind that with every click to the next screen you’re losing visitors! Your copy needs to keep them moving along all the way through to the sale.

Nick shared a great guideline for this. When someone first arrives at a site, they need fewer words and choices to get into the material. They have to be able to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for, or they’re likely to click away.

But as they get closer to making a purchase, they need more words! So toward the end, as you’re getting prepared to collect their payment information, you need to give them everything they need to make a decision and take an action.

2. Delivering value BUILDS your reputation. Trying to make a sale all the time SPENDS your reputation.

That said, content still counts. All clicks and links without any meaningful or compelling content will work against you. Your web copy still needs to have a “voice” – and you need to have something to say – if you’re going to convert the person viewing it from a visitor to a customer.

Be willing to give away information. Include sections that are useful, helpful, and not directly promotional, such as:

• Expert Tips
• Q&A
• Interviews
• Case studies
• Guides

These help build your relationship with the visitor, establish your credibility, and build your reputation. Do this, and you’ll be more successful when you offer clicks and links that lead to a purchase.

3. Fight company stakeholders who insist on complicating the page.

The one thing Nick’s presentation does is build your confidence. When you’re working with clients who don’t understand that the best web copy and design is clear, direct, and simple – you have to fight them. That’s not easy to do if you feel like a beginner yourself!

But Nick’s presentation is so full of examples of both the right way – and the wrong way – to put a web page together, you’ll know instantly whether to put up your dukes or not.

As a Web Copy Specialist, you’ll have to teach your clients about being customer-focused, rather than company-centric. Replacing features with benefits is a good place to start. But there are more subtle ways to make your site too complicated for its own good.

Like making your hyperlinks cute rather than recognizable. Or putting big, giant pictures of the product and a little tiny, barely shaded navigation bar that is hard-to-read … when a visitor actually wants to learn more or even make a purchase!

There are so many examples of bad web copy and design, it’s overwhelming. Your clients may not know what works and what doesn’t. They might see their competitors’ websites and think they should copy them.

But when you have the basic principles that Nick taught today under your belt, you’ll know in one glance what it would take to simplify your client’s site, make it user-friendly, and, ultimately, more effective. Your job is to make recommendations – and stick to it! Be willing to teach your clients – and even fight with them as politely as possible – to keep it simple. They’ll thank you later when you’re right.

BONUS QUICK TIP: Nick talks not only about websites, but about what works in emails, newsletters, auto-responders … everything. And he gave out a great idea I think you could use today. If you want to land some easy work fast … encourage a client or a company you have your eye on to hire you to go over all their automated emails and rewrite them.

Most companies treat these communications as throw-aways – and most are awful. I knew he was right the minute he said it – in fact, I think some of my own are pretty weak, and I’m going to re-write them the minute I get home.

You can put this tip to work right away too. Fix them up for your clients and add a nice chunk of change to your income this month.

Nick goes on all day today – it’s really quite incredible that someone has that much information (not to mention his connections and experience and real-life stories to prove every single one of his points!).

But in other rooms, Matt Furey and Andrew Palmer are working their magic too. They’re working with the returning attendees today – the people who came to last year’s Web Copywriting Intensive and have returned for more.

I’m going to bounce into those rooms this afternoon and give you some of their advanced tips as well!

“This event was incredible! I now understand why so many websites fail to attract buying customers and how to fix that problem. Plus, I know how to market myself to the hundreds of thousands of potential clients desperate for help.” – Pam Foster