You’re happy. Nay, ecstatic. Because you’ve got your copy righter. Maybe it’s already made you look good. Huzzah!
But while lots of businesses get their copy and throw it out into the world, you’re sure there’s ways to get even more bang for your buck.
And, because you’re a clever sausage, you’re absolutely right. Here’s how to get even bigger returns on your investment in your copy.
This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised.
It’s easy to think, “I’ll just wait for X before I publish.” Sometimes, this is important; it might make no sense to publish your ads if you haven’t launched your product.
But make sure you don’t get stuck in a duck-loop; just as you’re getting your row sorted, another duck waddles up asking for a spot in the line-up. It leaves you sitting on good copy. As long as it’s unpublished, that copy is just a cost. But it should be out there making you money and driving business.
Your Copy Righter is doing no good on your hard drive. Get it out there.
Then get it out there some more.
Don’t get stuck in a duck-loop; just as you’re getting your row sorted, another duck waddles up asking for a spot in the line-up.
Your team needs to see Your Copy Righter.
After all, you’ve just paid a talented wordsmith to write clearly about what you do and why. So there’s bound to be phrases and ideas your team can use in their day-to-day interactions with customers and prospects. It also makes for a more consistent experience when everyone in the business sings from the same hymn sheet.
Plus, get the credit you deserve. Sing from the rooftops about the new copy you just produced and bask in the glow of approval from all those internal stakeholders. So send round an email, post it on the Intranet, use it in internal meetings and materials. Make the flipping most of it.
If you build it, they will come.
Except they won’t. Because you can’t go to a stadium if you don’t know it exists.
So get out there and tell everyone about Your Copy Righter.
This is what most people think of these days when we talk about sharing. It’s the easiest option and ironically, the one most people get wrong. Because it’s easy to write a post saying, “we made a thing.”
But everyone’s doing that. In fact, your competition is likely destroying interest in their copy with bland social posts. Just like Your Copy Righter, you want your social posts to stand out from the crowd.
So get creative with your written posts. Make them a little clearer, a little quirkier, a little more personal. Create quality visuals, record entertaining video. You can use parts of the copy itself as a starting point, or create a reaction (“I thought I knew about soap-making until our marketing team produced the latest issue of our newsletter, the Daily Sud!”) You’ll catch attention, pique interest, and drive more eyeballs to your copy righter. Getting you more bang for your buck.
Your competition is likely destroying interest in their copy with bland social posts.
You have a list of people who’ve said they want to hear from you. They’ll feel left out if they don’t see your copy righter.
There’s a couple of ways to share your copy righter with your list.
Take the approach that’s right for each time you publish your copy righter. After all, horses for courses. One size doesn’t fit all.
Internal links are links from one page of your website to another. These links are signposts to search engines, helping them find your new content and telling them it’s important. But it’s also a key way of helping your audience find the content they want to read.
Take a look at your existing content and, where relevant, link to the new content. Avoid links that use text like “click here”. This text is called “anchor text”, and search engines pay attention to this anchor text to figure out what to show in search results. So, use the sort of terms you want to rank for. A post about how to trim your nose hair needs anchor text like “how to trim your nose hair”.
If internal links are signposts, backlinks are like shepherds with whistles, trained sheepdogs, and one of those hooked sticks to waylay the stragglers.
If internal links are signposts, backlinks are like shepherds with whistles, trained sheepdogs, and one of those hooked sticks to waylay the stragglers.
A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours. These links will hopefully appear on relevant websites and direct interested prospects towards you and your copy righter.
But backlinks also tell search engines that your website is worth reading; after all, someone thinks it’s so good they went to the effort of linking to it. So, a site with quality backlinks appears higher in the search results.
Backlinks are more valuable when they come from sites that Google deems authoritative, such as sites that see high traffic (news sites or popular sites within your industry) or carry a particular heft (such as a university website).
If you’re wondering how important backlinks are, the inimitable Mark Williams-Cook doodled out this quick chart. In short, unless you’re an international corporate giant with name recognition so strong it could carry all the shopping from the car in one go with two toddlers on its back and concrete in its shoes? You need backlinks. Preferably from heavy hitters in your industry.
You probably already know some: reputable websites, journals, and thought leaders. You probably already read their content to keep up with news or opinion in your industry. If you don’t already have a relationship with them, start building one. Don’t worry too much about reaching out cold; you are, after all, sharing amazing content that they probably want to read themselves!
Now it’s time to take your investment in Your Copy Righter and really put it to work.
Repurposing content is the act of taking a piece of content from one medium and adapting it to another. Turning blog posts into social posts, white papers into podcasts, etc. It’s a way of wringing every penny of value out of your copy righter, as well as helping you get eyeballs on the original piece too. For example:
I talked briefly about social posts already. But Your Copy Righter can be a source of even better content for your social channels.
Start by pulling out your favourite parts. Tidbits, quotes, statistics, lines and even paragraphs. Some of them can be shared pretty much verbatim, or simply with a “Did you know” popped in front (i.e. take a stat like 52% of people prefer soap bars and make a post saying “Did you know 52% of people prefer soap bars? Find out more in our latest newsletter, the Daily Sud.”)
Some of them will need some adaptation. Sometimes this just means a minor rewording. But you can also adapt much larger tracts of text to a social post if you’re comfortable with rewriting your copy righter (and if you’re not, you know who to call!)
Having a library of memorable morsels, startling stats, and persuasive phrases can help you pull off some persuasion in a pinch.
Use Your Copy Righter to fuel your video and/or podcast content.
Start as simple as having someone talk about your favourite tidbits, quotes, statistics, even lines and paragraphs. This can be the basis for shortform video or audio content that helps drive people towards the original, just like your social posts.
You can go further and record someone (perhaps the person you labelled as the author?) reading your copy righter.
Even better, have them explain it to someone else. Involving a second person adds a more natural, lively air to the recording. They also act as a proxy for the audience, asking questions and going on the same journey from ignorance to understanding.
Put a camera on any of these recordings and now you have a video podcast.
You can also use this new content to pitch for appearances on other podcasts, putting your brand in front of new prospects and raising your brand awareness.
Infographics are a great way to illustrate complex topics or just make it easy to digest a bunch of numbers. Your Copy Righter has likely unearthed some persuasive data or distilled those complex topics into straightforward language. So it won’t take a designed much time to create a visually arresting infographic around those words.
Got a growing collection of Your Copy Righter? You could package it up into a longer read like an ebook! Depending on the content, the style, and the subject matter, you may even be able to sell this book, creating direct revenue, building trust, and driving more business down the road.
Getting your content in other publications is a great way to put your brand in front of more eyeballs. Editorials, guest blogging, editorials, advertorials, article contributions, they all need words. And, just like a comedian using a favourite joke on a panel show, there’s nothing wrong with a little judicious repurposing in these situations. Your Copy Righter could provide the meat of one of these pieces, making these third-party media placements quicker, easier, and more effective.
Every time you’re invited to a speaking appearance, you need something to say. Your Copy Righter is a mine of clever, witty, memorable words. For example, one of my clients now takes an entire anecdote from the copy I wrote for him and uses it in every single pitch for new business.
You can do the same, folding your copy righter into something you’re already using (like a pitch deck) to make it even stronger. Or you can use your copy righter to kickstart a sudden need for new content, like a speech or talk you’ve been invited to give.
And if you suddenly find yourself needing some clever words, like at a networking event? Having a library of memorable morsels, startling stats, and persuasive phrases can help you pull off some persuasion in a pinch.
To crank your ROI to the max, reuse Your Copy Righter whenever you can.
Every industry has their own unique use cases for good copy. You can probably already think of a few places you could get your copy righter working harder for you. And if you’re not sure? Hey, that’s when you get Your Strategy Righter; the act of figuring out which words to use where, when, and why. We can find new places to use your copy and drive even stronger results without writing a single new word!
It sounds like I’m doing myself out of a job, but the trick to great copy isn’t to keep writing more and more and more. It’s to write something great, and then squeeze every drop of value out of it. Because a single piece of great copy can drive dozens of pieces of great content. Why leave that money on the table when it’s better in your pocket?
So just remember this rule of thumb: to crank your ROI to the max, reuse Your Copy Righter whenever you can.
