Virtual Assistance and You

Today, I’m going to return to my foundation in copywriting as the focus of this post. For the most part these days, I work on and talk about inbound marketing. But despite my infatuation with how the internet works, old fashioned written communication remains my most true love.

There are two reasons I’m choosing this theme today. For one, I worked a long while yesterday on some editing and rewriting and was again reminded how much I love doing it. Some may consider it torture, but I love seeking the perfect word and rhetoric. For me, this is work that is fun.

The second and much more important reason to re-visit copywriting is the sad state of so many blogs and websites I visit, so many emails I receive. These are major vehicles for communicating the offerings of their respective enterprises, and yet the lack of decent written communication serves to obliterate the messages. Note, I’m looking for decent writing; not necessarily expert or brilliant writing. Just communication that accomplishes – however humbly – what it sets out to do.

Copywriting commands marginal respect, as is clear from any sampling of websites. Seems businesses consider it to be a luxury, something they can do without.

I’m not going to cite specific examples, because I’m not out to embarrass anyone. But if your readers have to go over your sentences multiple times to figure out what you mean, you’ve lost them before they even get a whiff of your offer. A misplaced or missing comma can totally confuse your reasoning. A there when it should be their, or a your when you really mean you’re can require careful dissection before the reader gets your point.

And we have neither time nor patience for such painstaking reading. There are enough choices: we simply move on.

Good writing is an invisible thing: we skip right over it and plunge into the soul of the message. Isn’t that what you want your readers to do?

Since the English language is so pervasive, those whose native tongue is something else are especially challenged in these internet times. So many wish to communicate with and sell to English-speakers; and though they may evidence great intelligence and creativity, if we have a hard time reading their thoughts, we’re off somewhere else at one click. And thus it is that potentially great resources, exchanges, and collaborations can be eclipsed, summarily pre-empted by poor communications. It’s a shame!

In the end, valuing good copywriting and other forms of written communication is a matter of respect for your reader. Especially in online marketing strategies, in which providing useful content is paramount, a key part of making content useful is ensuring that it’s easily consumable.

Communication is an exchange between people. You probably want your exchanges with others to be fair, clear, profitable on both sides. When your web presence is characterized by poor writing, you are not fully respecting the people who visit you there.

It seems a little thing, and it is! Especially when you take care to attend to it. When you neglect good copywriting, your business and brand eventually suffer. Eventually, that ‘little thing’ becomes an insurmountable barrier. But if you tend to the excellence of your copy, if you learn how to make the writing invisible, you’ll immediately find yourself at a new, higher level of opportunity and profits.

And if you think you might benefit from the services of an editor or ghost writer, please contact me right away.