One of the very first statistics that you as a business owner will have learnt is that 80% of your profits come from the top 20% of your customers.

Yet so many small business owners focus all of their time on attracting and converting new leads and customers. Up-selling and cross-selling efforts directed at existing customers get completely forgotten about.

Web design is a prime example of being an infrequent necessity in the eyes of the customer. The hardest part is in changing this perception and to persuade them that to achieve the best for their business, their online spending must be on-going.

This is where consistent communication with customers is essential. It shouldn’t end once the first sale is made. Customers who had a positive experience with your company are more likely to think of you the next time they need a similar product or service.

Where most companies go wrong is in assuming that their customers know all about the products and services that they offer. By opening up regular communications with your customers you can begin to educate them and subtly up sell your services or promotions based on your customers’ previous buying history, ensuring you’re always delivering something of value.

How Can This Be Achieved In Web Design?

By providing content that is relevant to their business and is of value to them. Let customers know about complementary products and services they might enjoy. This is not the time for hard sell, but instead an opportunity to position yourself as an authority in your field.

By offering regular emails, Social Media updates or even regular mailings you can educate your customers on best practices, latest developments and new techniques that will benefit them.

Copywriting Can Help In Two Ways

Deliver Relevant Information – If you are to connect with your customers, the content you send out must not waste their time. It should be easily accessible and directly relevant to their needs. Working with a copywriter you can plan what you would like to share with your customers, what value it will give to them and importantly what value it will give to you.

Deliver Greater Value – Copywriting helps to start a conversation about their needs & what you have to offer. This can include other design options (social media pages), SEO (already covered when website delivered?) or hosting. Copywriting is an option that opens up new value to them, not only to their website, but with on-going marketing, and is a new revenue stream for you.

The biggest danger is to deliver a fantastic service, walk away and not get back in touch until the following year. In this time the website may be under performing, other companies may have been in contact to try and get their business or the main person you dealt with could have left the company.

If there is no ‘face time’, there is time to be forgotten. By staying in regular contact you will not only keep your competitors at bay, you will also be aware of any possible issues before they become critical and you have the chance to increase the level of business you do with each customer.

To find out more about how copywriting can benefit your business, contact us on +357 99091948 or info@cypruscopywriter.com

Cyprus Copywriter – we make websites work harder!

By paying careful attention to the small content details you can significantly enhance the success of your online marketing and sales efforts. Here we look at how SEO copywriting helps optimise search engine results to increase traffic to your site.

Optimise Your Search Engine Results

Think of each search engine results page (SERP) as a gateway where you are presented with the choice of 10 doors. All are of a similar size, but may vary in condition, colour and decoration. Most appear similar but bland. There is one tired old door with dull, lifeless paint peeling off its rotten wooden frame. Standing next to this is a beautifully polished, freshly painted door, clearly numbered and bearing a sign with bold letters welcoming you through.

Which one would you choose?

First Contact with Potential Customers

As a business attempting to drive traffic to your website, the SERP is your first instance of getting screen time with potential customers. This is where you need to start your content optimisation process.

‘On average 55% of a website’s traffic comes from search engines’

‘62% of users click on first page results’

These two statistics point to one inescapable fact – for your business to succeed it must feature highly in the search engine results.

So how do people choose which result they will actually click on to see the website beyond the SERPs?

SERP Essentials

Every page of your site has 3 elements that can feature in these results – the title, description & URL. That’s 3 chances to grab attention and explain what your site is all about.

All of these are determined on a page by page basis when creating your website. For those that dismiss the value of on page SEO, this is where it starts to pays dividends. Get it wrong here and you are shutting out potential business before they even reach your website.

1. The Title
This is created in the coding of your web page as a Meta Tag and is called the Title Tag.

Title Tag – used at top of web browser, on tabs (if use tabbed browsing) and as search engine results title. External website sometimes also use this as their anchor text for links to your pages.

Title Tag Essentials:
• 70 characters maximum length
• Concise & relevant description of your website
• Keyword placement is important
• Branding opportunity – include company / product name
• All about user experience – create a reaction & connect with the reader

2. The Snippet
This is your second bite at the cherry. It’s a chance to reinforce the good work you have done with the title tag by providing the reader with vital, relevant information about your site and a compelling reason to click your link.
Again, the snippet is created in the html code of each web page and is known as the description tag.

Description Tag – unlike the Title Tag, this tag is not displayed on any part of the website visitors will view. It acts as a guide to the search engines to explain the relevancy of the contents of a page. It is important to net that it does not directly impact on where your site features in the search results. However, Google tends to use the first 20 to 25 words of your Meta description as the default description in the search engine result pages (SERP).

Snippet Essentials:
• 160 characters maximum length
• Keyword placement is extremely important
• Opportunity to show some personality to readers
• Expands and reinforces information given in Title

3. The URL
Every web page has a URL (Universal Resource Locator) or web address. Again this is an element that is set when each page is created. It does have an impact on search ranking so should feature key words, and is also useful to inform & reassure people about a site’s authenticity and aid navigation.

URL Essentials:
• Optimal domain name contains the keywords / phrases and will give your site more authority
• Shorter is better – no more than 3 -5 words for ranking benefit. This also makes it easier to remember and increases the likelihood of being copy & pasted, shared & linked.
• Keywords placed close to the domain name help ranking
• Use a logical / hierarchical naming system that relates to the content on each page and preferably includes your keyword terms.

Example:
If you are a plumber in Paphos your domain could be www.paphosplumber.com (or.com.cy).
If you specialise in heating systems, the relevant page should be www.paphosplumber.com/heating-systems
When you create a page to attract commercial customers then this should be www.paphosplumber.com/heating-systems/commercial

Balance SEO & People Appeal

As with all web content, it is not just about search engine optimisation (SEO). In the case of the SERPs, SEO will help to increase your site’s ranking, but copywriting will get people to click. You make every word count, beginning with the search results.

Remember, people using search engines are actively looking. Don’t let them pass you by.

For advice and further information about SEO copywriting, contact us on 99091948 or email john@cypruscopywriter.com.

Cyprus Copywriter – we make websites work harder.

Would you like your website to win more sales? Here are 10 easy tips to make your website work harder. They are tried, tested and best of all – FREE! At Cyprus Copywriter we use them all the time to get results for our clients.

Most are surprisingly simple, but very few businesses use them to their advantage. Are you?

1. Use ‘you’ more than ‘we’. Speak directly to your customers by using the word ‘you’. If you use the word ‘we’ too much they will switch off and go elsewhere. Talk about your customers, not yourself.

2. Stay focussed. Don’t overload your page with different topics. Create separate pages for different products, otherwise search engines won’t know what the page is about and people won’t find what they want.

3. Stress benefits, not features. Very few people care how your product is put together. What they do want to know is whether it will make their life better. If it’s faster, applies better, will create more professional results – say so.

4. Avoid professional jargon. Don’t talk about ‘heating solutions’ if your customers are searching for ‘boilers’ or ‘radiators’. They won’t be able to find you on Google.

5. Use relevant words in the right places. Ask your website company if there are relevant keywords in page titles, heading tags and in a piece of code called ‘meta description’. If there aren’t, look for a new website company immediately. We can advise you.

6. Simple words are best. And the very best highlight the benefit to your customers: ‘quick’, ‘easy’, simple’, ‘free’, ‘guarantee’, ‘first’.

7. Keep to the point. Don’t waffle – plan what you want to say and stick to it. Keep it short and precise so that you keep your readers attention.

8. Break up your text. Use short paragraphs, headings, lists, quotes, and boxes to add variety. If you do, more people will read to the end.

9. Do your research. Find out the words people use when searching for your products or services. They are often different to the ones you think they use. Use the free online tools such as Google’s keyword tool.

10. Ask for the sale. So many people forget to do this! If you want people to buy from you, call you or download a report, you have to ask them. Use phrases like ‘order now’, ‘call today for a free quote’ or ‘download your free report now’.

Want T0 Learn More?

Using just a few of these techniques will make a big improvement to the number of sales your website will generate.

This is only the tip of the iceberg though – there are many more proven techniques that we use daily to help companies get ahead and stay ahead of their competitors.

They can work for you too.

Call us on 99091948 or email john@cypruscopywriter.com to find out how.

Cyprus Copywriter – we make websites work harder!

10 ideas to help your online business succeed 

It is essential with any business to constantly monitor and review progress. Revisiting your business plan will not only help you identify the highs and lows of the past few months, it will enable you to be better prepared and stronger for the challenges ahead.

Be honest. Brutally honest! Did you meet your targets such as getting that important new client or launching your new website? Perhaps you tried out some different business practices.

What could you change? What will you keep? This time next year, what do you want to have achieved?

Now is the time to update that plan and set out your goals for the coming 12 months. Here are a few areas of your online business to focus on:

Get Social 

If you aren’t already using Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other social media, then now is the time to do so. Studies show that most Cypriots that have access to the internet use at least one of the major social networks (Facebook being the most popular). It is worth noting that LinkedIn is quickly becoming the Facebook of business, so don’t overlook this important resource.

Meetings Are Good 

While social media is increasingly important, don’t rely on it completely. Make a point to meet with customers face to face. E-mail and phone calls are good, but it needs to be backed up with the personal touch.

Network 

Try and attend one major industry event. This will provide opportunities to network, learn from the successes or failures of others or perhaps brainstorm ways to improve how you work.

Go Mobile 

If your website is not set up for mobile, then it needs to be! It is estimated that just over 10% of all searches are now performed on a mobile device and this is predicted to grow to 20% in 2012. Can you afford to miss out?

Focus On SEO

Whether you have a regular or a mobile friendly site, look at anything you could change to make it rank higher in the search engine results. This is also a good time to review and update your site’s keywords, links and content.

Inform & Share 

If you don’t have a blog on your website, why not? A blog keeps people informed about your business and by adding regular new content you will increase your site’s visibility in the search results.

Create a Buzz 

Whatever method you choose to promote your business this year, make sure it creates a buzz. Get people talking and sharing the information or offer to create excitement and interest. Think of unusual or time limited ideas that will spark your clients’ attention and draw in new customers.

Be Consistent 

If you are going to have a newsletter, blog or marketing campaigns, be consistent and not hit or miss. Don’t give up the initial response is weak. Critically evaluate what you did and use the analytics tolls available to help make tweaks and improvements where necessary.

Work With A Professional 

Many business owners go it alone and it is tough to keep up with all that needs to be done and stay creative and ahead of the competition. Invest in the things that are important (like marketing) and don’t run yourself ragged trying to do everything yourself.

Work Smarter, Not Harder 

Give yourself a break, don’t try to be everything to everyone. Enjoy being a business owner and outsource the things that take you away from growing your business. Make use of the vast array of technologies that are available to help and enhance business performance. Many mundane or repetitive tasks can be automated, freeing you up to focus on the things you do best – managing your business.

It is essential to continually step back from your business to evaluate, revisit and revise some of the aims and goals set out in the original business plan.

Make this year the best business year you have ever had by making sure you put these plans into action.

If you need any help with elements like copywriting, SEO or planning a marketing strategy, call us on +357 99091948. We’re here to help.

Cyprus Copywriter – we make websites work harder!

Taking a look into areas outside of your core market can help you generate fresh ideas for your business. With a nod to Robert Caldini, Doctor of Psychology and author of the bestselling book ‘Influence’, here are a few subtle tips to help grow your online business.

Reciprocation

Reciprocation is based on the theory that if you give something as a gift, the recipient will respond in kind and willingly return the favour.

For example, if you give a customer something extra for free, you will then be able to ask them to return the favour by sharing the news with friends. You can reinforce the likelihood of the referral by offering a further bonus reward once they have shared. That’s reciprocity.

A common social media strategy is to give away free information in return for subscribing to your blog, Facebook Fan page or Twitter account.

Social Proof

We often look to other people for clues when making decisions. This is called social proof. Here are a few examples of social proof in the social media world:

Subscriber or follower counts – If there are a lot of people following a blogger, then you will be more inclined to follow it too.

Reviews – You are more likely to buy a book that has over 500 reviews and an average four stars than a book without any reviews.

Comments – It is usually more tempting to see what’s going on at a blog with hundreds of comments as this suggests that it is either a very good or controversial post.

Share counts – An article that has been tweeted 2,000 times is more likely to draw you in to read it than an article tweeted 50 times.

When it comes to social media, a large audience has a bigger attraction.

Likeability

Do people like you? It may sound simple, but to sell more you must be liked more. Here are a few ideas on how to make this work for your business online:

Be warm and personable – On social media sites, communicate with people in the same manner you would interact with them at a dinner party.

Give people what they want – If you come across some information that you know your customers are interested in, share it with them.

Be polite – Don’t make the mistake of letting off steam and saying exactly what you think online. If you can’t say anything nice, keep it to yourself.

Be funny – People love to laugh, even in professional contexts. If you have a sense of humour, let it show.

Authority

A visible relationship with a well-known brand can help establish authority. For example, if any of your clients or publications has an instantly recognisable brand or profile, highlight it on your social media accounts.

If you have built your company to a position of success over time, you are already an authority. If you lead the market, you are an expert. Writing about, and sharing, your knowledge will strengthen this authority.

By including your achievements in your social media interactions you will develop greater influence with your audience.

Scarcity

Scarcity implies a limited supply of something, which often leads to greater demand.

Limit your interactions – Online attention is limited. To increase your social media performance, identify the best times to interact with your social media communities. Posting too frequently will overload your audience, so only post when you have something truly productive to say.

Use deadlines – People hate to miss out on an opportunity. Force them to act quickly by limiting how long a product or offer is available. Reinforce the scarcity by reminding them how little time is left to take action.

Commitment

During the entire process of connecting with your social networks, you should constantly ask for small commitments.

For example, if you published some information or an offer and asked for it to be shared by your contacts, once they have received it, remind them of their commitment!

Push those commitments because most people don’t like to be seen as inconsistent in their behaviour. If they commit to something (and are reminded that they committed), they are more likely to do it.

Conclusion

To be successful in business, you must ask people for help. But first, you need to convince them to comply with your requests. There is no need to be pushy – most people’s in-built responses will ensure they take action. You simply need to push the right buttons.

These basic human traits will help you to better understand and focus on getting greater response to your online business activities to help your business grow.

For ideas and practical advice on how to incorporate these ideas into you digital content, contact Cyprus Copywriter on +357 99091948 or info@cypruscopywriter.com.

Cyprus Copywriter – we make websites work harder!

Google “Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old,” Google says in a blog post announcing the big change.

As much as 35% of all searches on Google are expected to be affected by the latest update the company says. The impact is likely to be huge seeing as the Panda update had businesses struggling to maintain their search rankings was said to affect 12% of searches.

Google “This change better determines the level of freshness needed for each query and promotes fresher results accordingly,” a Google spokesperson says. “We’re continuously working to improve our search algorithm so that we provide users the most relevant answers to their queries.”

Google says the main impact will be on searched for recent events or “hot topics”, regularly occurring events and searches for information that changes often but isn’t specifically a trending topic.

Matt McGee – Search Engine Land “It seems to me that the biggest impact on small-business owners will be that, in some industries, it will be near impossible to get visibility with a small, rarely-updated website,” says Matt McGee, executive news editor at SEO-focused news site Search Engine Land. “If the business is in an industry where there’s regular news, where things change on a frequent basis, it looks like never-updated websites won’t have much chance of being visible on a lot of queries.”

One effective way for businesses to generate fresh content for their website is to create and frequently update a business blog or news section, Google recommends.

This change only seems to emphasise the value of publishing quality content on a regular basis, whether that is a blog, articles or latest news updates.

For information on how Cyprus Copywriter can help create and maintain fresh, unique content solutions to keep websites at the top of the rankings call 99091948 or email info@cypruscopywriter.com

The business environment is tough right now and many companies are cutting costs to prepare for more lean times to come.

How are you planning to tackle this?

a)    Hang on to the clients you have and hope to ride it out?

b)    Cut advertising spend to control costs?

c)    Explore alternative ways to work that are low or no cost?

Stand Out From the Crowd to Get More Business

If your answer was c) you stand the greatest chance of success. This doesn’t mean spending your way out, it simply requires greater creativity than your competitors.

Now is the time to look at simple strategies that will set you apart from the crowd and in doing so will ensure you benefit from any available business opportunities.

Helping You Get More Clients

Let’s focus on just one idea – email marketing. How well are you doing this at the moment?

Do you run a targeted campaign to remind your customers exactly how you can help improve their business or quality of life?

Are you aware that you are missing out on valuable business by not intoducing some very basic, often free changes?

And are you aware that to set-up a clear, powerful email campaign with strong calls to action will help you:

Build your database – build your list to drive successful promotions & market awareness

Up-sell your services – make clients aware of everything you can do for them

Win new business – develop new business through increased marketing activity & more focused sales materials

Better communications – open up new channels to promote your business & get fast feed-back 

Helping you add more value for your clients

How are you planning to set your company apart from the competition?

a)    Lower prices

b)    Impress them with your knowledge & experience of new technologies

c)    Offer greater value for money

Now you’re talking if you answered c) again!

Don’t start to stress over the cost involved – this is simply the time & effort it takes to set-up a great email campaign.

The key is to add value, not cut prices or give something away that costs you money.

Instead you can share your expertise by offering information or more competitive methods of working such as:

Educating your clients on how to use technology to improve their business

Develop free information packs or quick tips for using the technology available to them

Offer special promotions & incentives for loyal  or new customers

Raise their awareness of all your company’s services

Perceived value (the added value that the customer feels they are getting) is extremely powerful and is the key to all great marketing.

It’s Your Call

The next step is up to you. Are you going to stick with the herd, keep your head down and hope it will all blow over like most of your competitors?

Or are you going to do something about it?

To talk about email marketing and other creative ways professional copywriting can help your company stand out from the competition, call Cyprus Copywriter on 99091948 or email info@cypruscopywriter.com

Cyprus has huge potential for internet business growth. Right now, for creative entrepreneurs, online business (ecommerce) is an area that offers fantastic opportunities.

Recent statistics show that internet access and connectivity levels are high. When compared with the rest of Europe, Cyprus is only slightly behind, with 88% of businesses having internet access compared with 93% for the EU.

The major difference is the disparity between Cyprus and the EU when it comes to ecommerce as a percentage of total turnover – 1% v’s 14% respectively.

The problem therefore is not the ability to get online and use the internet, but may simply be the number of businesses with an online presence (not to mention the ability to offer internet shopping).

For consumers there just aren’t the quantity of websites in Cyprus ready and able to deliver what they want.

Huge Internet Business Opportunities

Cyprus companies that are open to new technologies and are adaptable, creative thinkers can quickly develop a successful internet business. Those that are there at the beginning stand the best chance of profiting from this growth.

Looking at just the UK, the value of goods & travel purchased online in 2009 was worth a staggering £50billion and ecommerce contributed to nearly 7.5% of the country’s total GDP.

Cyprus still has a long way to go to match these figures, but that just goes to show the potential.

Quality, Reliability, Innovation

Every business should have a website, even if it is just to tell customers where they are and how to get in contact. Building on that, any business that produces or sells goods and services will find it easy to adapt these core business principles to trading on the internet.

It is neither expensive or particularly difficult – there are now many companies in Cyprus that can advise, design and maintain great websites that stand up to competing in the international market.

The basics remain the same as traditional business – offer quality, develop your customers trust and deliver new and exciting offerings at competitive prices.

The potential, however, far exceeds most traditional businesses. The internet opens the market not only to the whole of the country, but internationally too. With minimal costs for marketing to the rest of the world, there are no limits to how far your company could grow.

To discuss making improvements to your existing website, or if you need inspiration and content for taking your business online, contact us.

Cyprus Copywriter creates search optimised articles with targeted keywords to create a steady flow of unique content that will increase the impact of your online marketing.

SEO Services

• targeted, researched 300 – 400 word articles
• submission to online directories
• keyword targeted to attract responses from specific markets
• Cyprus based

Search Engine Optimised (SEO) website copy can make a dramatic improvement to the success of your website. Creating this content is challenging – it can be time consuming and requires in-depth knowledge of how the search engines find and read websites.

Cyprus Copywriter’s SEO Copywriting Services provide the on-going content development required for your website to flourish, leaving you free to concentrate on running your business.

Get in touch if you would like information about our monthly SEO Copywriting and Article Marketing packages for business.

People are drawn further into a site if the content is relevant and compelling.

Search engines rank a site highly if the content is……relevant and compelling.

Remember, research shows that visitors generally don’t make a purchase on their first visit to a website, so getting them to return is essential for your business. Sites that are content rich with clear navigation are the sites that win return visits and convert these visitors into loyal customers.

Increasingly, people are willing to pay to subscribe to highly relevant websites that deliver what they want. Quality content has become king.

At Cyprus Copywriter we can provide copywriting that reflects the values of your business, while capturing visitors attention and motivating them to act. Content that is highly rated by the humans as well as the search engines.

All this translates to more visitors, staying longer and buying more. For you this results in a better bottom line and a reason to smile!

Get in touch today to discuss how we can help your content rule.