Is Copywriting Like a 5th Grader a Good Idea?

Tony skinner 

Hi, and welcome to the podcast, podcast, my business at podcastmybusiness.com.au. And today we have a guest, Ben from scribe copywriting. How you going, Ben?

 

Ben 

I’m good. Thanks, Tony.

Tony skinner

Excellent. And we can find you at scribecopywriting.com.au

 

Tony skinner 

That’s it.

 

Tony skinner 

Excellent. So I don’t want to dwell too much on the event, so we won’t talk about it too much. But I certainly think one of the big things everybody should be doing as a business at the moment is generating lots and lots of content, getting that content out there. Getting in front of people, and certainly a professional copywriter can help you a lot with that.

 

Ben 

That’s right.

 

Tony skinner 

Excellent. Okay. So what are the benefits of engaging a professional copywriter?

 

Ben 

Sure, well, the benefits of engaging a professional copywriter, it really all comes back to your business’s online presence. So you want to be ranking well for SEO, which is search engine optimization. And that just means that where your site is ranked on Google, so of people looking for a certain business, in your industry, and they type in like they type in a generic term, let’s say they type in Pest Control Sydney or something like that, or maybe they’re more specific about that. And it just, it’s it’s how quickly you’re going to get found in Google search results and how high up you’re going to be ranking. And that’s one reason that copywriting is important obviously, because if people don’t know that your business exists, then you know, your business might as well be dead. So through good copywriting, what good copywriting does is it doesn’t just help you to rank well for SEO, but it also helps to engage new leads. It also helps people to understand what your business is and why you can help them and it also persuades your leads to take action. So whether you want them to join your join your mailing list, sign up for your database, send you an email or contact your member, you are a member of a sales team, whatever however you want your leads to take action. That’s what copywriting does. It’s it’s basically the art of creating words that help to sell your business.

 

Tony skinner 

Hmm. I know that whenever I’ve done copy and added onto the website, there’s a thing called readability. Yeah. So how does that work?

 

Ben 

So, in a nutshell, readability really just comes down to how easy it is for the average layman to read your content and to understand what you’re about. And this is especially important if you’re in a more technical business, or a business where there’s a lot of industry specific terms and you’ve got to peel it back and go Okay, who is my target audience here and reading through it? Are they going to understand these terms straightaway on top of that, how easy is what we call the flow of your copy. And what’s the tone of your copy. Because if Think about it this way, if you’re, if you have a funeral home, don’t you think that the way that you write is going to be slightly different to perhaps if you if you own a ski hire company, because you’re aiming for a slightly different market, so they have to read it, and they have to feel like you can relate to them personally. And also, as I said earlier, to get them to take action however you want. So in order to do that, in order to keep people on your page, it has to be it has to have that good readability scale.

 

Tony skinner 

Now, I’ve read lots of stuff over the years about readability and what, how to write to the particular audience and I’ve read lots of stuff about an American they call it year five, we call it fifth class down to that level. Is that correct?

 

Ben 

As a general rule of thumb, yes, it is. Look, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean that you can’t use bigger words in your content but it just means that you want to make it as easy as possible for people to, to read your content. So whether we’re talking about the copy that’s on your website, or whether you have a database and you send out email newsletters, whether we’re talking about your social media profile, or the ebooks that you’re publishing, or if you’re writing regular blogs, which I recommend every single business should be doing, always make it as easy as possible for people to read your content. And that’s what that’s the one thing you got to keep in mind.

 

Tony skinner 

Well certainly a good way of doing blogs is to do podcasts and convert them send them to a copywriter and a copywriter can write them out and add much better information and do the snippets and everything for you. Yeah, it’s such a better easier process.

 

Ben 

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Tony skinner 

So so what what sort of clients do generally work with

 

Ben 

generally speaking I work with clients who are in service based industries over product based ones. It isn’t that I don’t work with people who sell products, but I tend to work more with people who are in service based industries. And when they come to somebody like me, they usually have one of two problems either a, they they just can’t stay on top of their their content needs. They can’t keep publishing content online, updating their website, all that stuff that helps your, your your business online presence to be SEO friendly and to continue to engage new leads, they can’t stay on top of that, because they just don’t have the time to do so understandable. Or be they want to change the results. They’re getting online. But they just they don’t know where to start. And so people usually come to me with one of those two problems. This might surprise some of your people, some of the people listening at home but I would say of the like, of the clients that I write for. I’d say around 50% of them could actually write their own. They Writing copy they’re competent at doing it themselves but considering the time that it demands they just they don’t have the time to do it with everything else they’re juggling

Tony skinner 

that’s certainly true. I mean, I again I I love copywriters. I use copywriters all the time and anybody that saw the building a new website, or making changes to their current website must have a copywriter to write the copy for them.

 

Ben 

Definitely. Yeah, it’s, it’s I mean, I’m probably preaching to the converted here, but it’s one of those things that you want to leave in the hands of a professional like if you want to actually, if you’re going to invest the time to to write your business’s, copy online, wherever whether we’re talking about your website or your articles or social media or anything like that. If you’re going to invest the time to do that yourself, then make sure that it actually works. And if you’re not entirely sure that it’s going to work, then pay someone who will, because it’s one of those  that you can’t afford to leave undone. You want to make sure that it’s working and it’s it’s persuading people to take action? How you want to take action?

 

Tony skinner 

Exactly. Yeah. It’s really, really critical to get that messaging, right. And what I found is that people know how to talk about their business from a technical perspective, but not from a perspective of the average person on the street.

 

Ben 

That’s right. Yeah, that’s, I mean, the problem is a lot of people are great at what they do. Like they’re the experts at what they do. They’ve got decades of experience, superior service or product, but they just, they don’t know how to, for lack of a better word, they don’t know how to sell it. They don’t know how to make it easy for people to understand what they do and why the product that they sell or the service that they provide can benefit that person and that’s where the money is. That’s the big difference between that big difference between being an expert at what you do but not having a profitable business and being somebody Who is great at what they do has a great product, and is great at selling that service or that product?

 

Tony skinner 

It’s like that old expression. How do we eat an elephant?

 

Ben 

You eat it one small bite at a time.

 

Tony skinner 

Exactly right. And that’s where a good copywriter will help you. You know, again, financial services, or even the support packages and what have you. How do you get that across to people to understand quickly and easily and simply getting back to that fifth grade level? making it simple? Yes, you can use some big words and so forth. And let’s keep it really, really simple for people.

 

Ben 

That’s it.

 

Tony skinner 

Okay.

 

Ben 

So just sorry to interrupt you there for a second. I always, always think of that expression that you’ve probably heard which is kiss in capital letters. In other words, keep it simple, stupid.

 

Tony skinner 

That is my guiding principle in every single thing that I do is simple. Good. I’m very good at that. I’m very, very simple. Ask Anyone? Okay, all right, look. Thanks, Ben. Okay, so how can we get in touch with you?

 

Ben 

All right, if people want to get in contact with me, they can. They can visit the website, which is www. scribecopywriting.com.au. And you’ll see up in the top menu bar, people can get in contact with me via email. And also, if you follow scribe copywriting on Facebook, or you can follow me on LinkedIn, look for Ben Mackie ma ck IE, and that’ll have my contact details there. But look, I’d love to chat with anybody. If you’re at that point where you just can’t stay on top of your content needs, you know that you need your copied, written and updated, but you just, you know, understandably, you just don’t have the time for it. Or you want to get better results online in terms of the amount of leads and sales that you’re getting through your business. And you just don’t know really where to where to go with that. Then Yeah, just reach out and contact me

 

Tony skinner 

Fantastic. Okay. All right. Thanks so much for your time, Ben.

 

Ben 

That’s all right. Happy to speak anytime.

 

Tony skinner 

So this is the podcast, podcastmybusiness.com.au