Why you should use the word FREE

Free catches attention. It makes an irresistible promise.

Free excites us to take a closer look at the rest of your offerings.

Free is the happiest word in the English language…and from a copywriter’s perspective, it is darn near fool-proof.

Fool-proof is good. Fool-proof means it should be in your toolbox — not just mine.

Some time ago I blogged about why free is a better word choice than its counterpart, complimentary.

For starters, free is easy to spell, and you don’t get confused about the pesky “i” and “e” that completely change the word’s meaning.

Complimentary (the stand-in for free) is spelled with an i.

Complementary (note the middle “e”) means talking about contrasting colors that, when blended, become neutral. For the grammarians out there, here are other definitions.

More to the point — here’s what happens when you get it wrong:

Complementary 1/1 coaching today through July 9, 2010

Spell check won’t catch it, but eagle-eyed readers will.

What to do?
If it’s free, say so. No service — especially a free phone call — is so high-falutin’ that you can’t call it what it is: Free.

One more reason
In this instance, free is part of the call to action.
If you want your reader to take action NOW then your message should be clear, direct, easy to read and remember.

And that’s the end of today’s free advice.

How to make your website beat the competition

Can your website beat the competition? Sure it can. But first, answer my question:

Why should I read your website?

There are more than 206 million websites on the internet: How do you make yours stand out from the competition?

By telling a captivating story that instantly tells your customers they have come to the right place.

Sounds easy, right?
But it’s not – put your consumer hat on for a moment. Now think how often you can’t find what you’re looking for online. Think of all those search terms that yield mountains of data, but not that one piece of information you are looking for.
Frustrating!

Now, let’s step back into business owner mode to understand what’s happening:
It’s easier for us to write about what we do (telling our business story) than it is to describe how our customers benefit by choosing us.

Whether you are a solo-preneur or work for a company, your job as a writer is telling YOUR story from the CUSTOMER’S point of view.

As consumers, we know how this works: We buy solutions, not products. We buy nails to build a dog house, not because we want 100 shiny spikes in a box.

As business owners, we have to shift our thinking: If we’re selling nails, we need to write about hanging pictures, building a tree house, or fixing the sagging garage door.
This means we don’t talk about the history of nails, how many employees work at the factory, or where the CEO went on vacation (and you can tell her I said so!)

Think about it this way: Marketing is about information, sales is about choice. We want to communicate so that our customers make an informed choice.

Writing to sell is:

• What grabs attention and drives sales. This is what I call “benefit-based” writing. It is what sets you apart — and above — the competition.
• How you show customers that you not only understand their problem, but know exactly how to solve it.

The next time you write website copy, a blog, a sales email, or an ad: Ask yourself: How does my customer benefit by what I do?

What’s in it for you?
Business writing that delivers results: Increased traffic. Greater credibility. More sales.

Proper punctuation: What happened and who did it

Now that’s power! Apparently the US Geological Survey does more than track the earth’s movements. It actually moves the earth in the first place.

Courtesy of United States Geological Survey A 5.7 magnitude earthquake rattled Southern California, striking 5 miles east southeast of Ocotillo and about 70 miles east of San Diego just before 9:27 p.m. Monday night.

All I can say is…mind your punctuation. California thanks you.