Why Companies Online are Desperate for Persuasive Direct-Response Copywriters
When you look at most websites, the majority of their pages are not sales pages.
In fact, most of the pages on websites are informational. They are pretty much like the editorial content you would find in a magazine or newspaper.
As a result, you might think that website owners are primarily concerned with finding good content writers.
Not so.
If you ask just about any online business owner about the kind of writer they value the most, their answer will be something like this …
“Above all else, we need persuasive online copywriters. We need writers who are trained to drive action and increase conversion rates, across all online media.”
How come?
Because the Web is the ultimate direct-response medium.
Think about it … direct-response writing is about making things happen.
And on the Web, if nothing “happens” … you have failed.
Let’s start with a company’s home page. A visitor arrives at the home page for the first time, scans the page, and then leaves. Outcome? The page has failed. It failed because the words failed to make something happen … they failed to make the reader click through to another page on the site.
That “click” is everything. If readers don’t click on links, both the site and the company fail.
It’s the same for a page which might appear to be editorial. For example, a consumer electronics site might have a page which informs people all about the different types of digital cameras they could buy. It isn’t a sales page, it’s an information page. But, if someone reads that page, and then leaves the site, the page has failed. That page has to include links to product pages, where the reader can buy a camera. And, the editorial page has to pre-sell the reader, to maximize the click-through-rate to the sales pages.
This is why companies online obsess about click-through-rates and conversion rates.
It’s all about getting readers to click links, keep moving, and then ultimately make a purchase.
The skills to make readers take action are not usually found in editorial writers.
And, that’s why companies are hungry for trained direct-response copywriters who understand the Web. These companies know they will live or die according to the number of actions their visitors take.
While every page on a website has to drive action — including home pages and editorial pages — there are some places where driving action is essential.
Here are six places where companies will pay top dollar to online copywriters who can drive actions.
Sales pages and landing pages
For companies that conduct all or most of their sales online, their sales pages are absolutely critical.
Increase their conversion rates by just a few percentage points and you could be making them tens or hundreds of thousands more dollars in revenue.
Promotional emails
Online mailing lists can be a source of huge revenue for companies. If you can write emails that drive prospects to the company’s website, and then convert those visitors to buyers, you’ll be golden.
Compelling e-newsletters
E-newsletters may not always generate direct and immediate sales, but they can be a very powerful way to engage readers, retain their attention, and remind them which company to buy from, when they are ready.
In other words, e-newsletters do a great job of converting prospects to buyers, over time.
Lead-generation pages
For most B2B companies, visitors do not click on a “Buy” button. You don’t buy accounting services or a thousand cubic feet of concrete from a website.
What B2B companies need is a copywriter who can generate leads. This means maximizing the number of site visitors who complete a form with their contact information.
Subscription pages
Both B2B and B2C companies want to build their online mailing lists. In fact, smart companies which study their data know the exact value of each new subscriber they capture.
As a result, they are always looking for that special writer who can write a subscription page that will increase the conversation rate of readers to subscribers.
Shareable pages
Welcome to the world of social media. Social media activity not only drives new visitors to company websites, but also impacts page rankings on search-engine results. This is why social media writing is the big, new thing.
If you can demonstrate that you can drive traffic and response through social media, you’ll never lack for new and profitable work.
Summing up …
Think of it this way.
Success, or otherwise, for any company online depends on their site visitors doing three things, and three things alone.
- Clicking on links until they find the page they really want
- Completing a form with a view to buying, subscribing, or registering
- Clicking that final confirmation button
That’s it. That’s how companies online succeed. They just need their visitors to complete those three tasks.
But, for all its simplicity, that three-step process requires rare, valuable skills.
It needs the very special skills of a persuasive online copywriter.
And, that’s why online copywriters will always be able to find work, and will always be well-rewarded for the work they do.
This article, Why Companies Online are Desperate for Persuasive Direct-Response Copywriters, was originally published by Wealthy Web Writer.
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