Writing Tips and Trends for 2001
by Heather Lloyd-Martin
Looking to ride some online writing trends? Heather gives you three predictions for the New Year - and some tips to keep you on the cutting edge.
Wow, can you believe that 2000 is over? As I'm writing this on New Year's Day, I'm reflecting on the ecommerce and financial rumbles rocking our industry. A gob of businesses spiraled from being the latest ebuzz to yet another casualty of the dotcom dead pool. The rest of us survivors are tightening our collective belts, searching for that one "edge" that will keep us profitable through 2001.
Search engine optimization writing will become more important.
Sure, we all want high search engine rankings. And it IS possible (really!). As I've mentioned in my previous article, "How to Write a Keyword-Rich Home Page the Search Engines Will Love!," search engines need words (not pretty graphics) to spider your site. Without visible content that's written around strong keyphrases, you're hobbling your chances for a prime ranking.
Good news! Writing persuasive marketing prose around well-researched keyphrases is half your search engine battle (with good tags being the other half). Strong search engine optimization writing can help you target your prospects, rank high in the search engines and still persuade your customers to "Buy now!" What could be better than that?
Tip: Check out savvy search engine resources like SearchEngineWatch.com and the Rank Write Roundtable archives. The more you know about the search engines, the more you can help your own ranking.
Spammy emails will become more frequent and spammier.
Let's face it. Opt-in email is hot and continues to get hotter. According to Emarketer, the number of active email users will rise to 140 million in 2003. Plus, Dana Blakenhorn states in ClickZ, "The obvious result, in the first Internet recession, will be a flood of spam like you've never seen."
Yes, you may want to bend the rules and try a little spam yourself. After all, if everyone else is doing it, you start wondering if you should, too. But beware - you may gain some short-term customers, but you may also make the rest cranky. As an example, the worst spam I ever received came last Christmas Eve. As I was reading holiday wishes from friends and family, I came across an email with the subject line, "I LOVE YOU AND I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!" Wondering if this was some strange kind of intervention, I opened it, only to find an online casino screaming its wares across my screen. That email made me mad - mad at a tacky subject line, mad that I wasted my time and mad that they'd pull that on Christmas Eve. Would I visit their site? No.
Tip: If you want to win the opt-in email battle, write strong offers without the hype. Don't figure "anything that gets them to open the email is good enough." Opt-in email and their subject lines should be crystal clear, include a benefit, and entice the reader to open your email on the spot. Using incendiary tactics may get people to open your mail, but they may NEVER buy from you later.
Customers will demand substance - not style.
Cool-looking Flash animation makes Web sites come alive. Unfortunately, the same cool technology can also be a sales deterrent. From a writing perspective, there are two reasons why you should trash the Flash. First, the search engines have no text to spider on a Flash page, so you're compromising your search engine rankings. Secondly, Flash pages without text don't provide your readers any product or service benefits. Sure, they can watch the animation and get the general idea (assuming they have the bandwidth and the plug-in). But does Flash extol your business brilliance and lead the buyer to purchase your product or service? Probably not.
Tip: Flash can be cool in its place (which is not on your home page). However, if you have important product or service pages, consider making them Flash-free (or at least include keyphrase and benefit-rich text on the top of your page). This way, you increase your usability, give the search engines something to spider and still tell your prospects how you can help them. Read Jakob Nielsen's article, "Flash, 99% Bad," for more information.
Sure, 2000 was a strange year for dotcoms. But with these tips, you can start writing strong copy that wows the competition. And that may be the difference between a thriving dotcom, poised for 2001 - or a slowly faltering (and once-successful) business. Now start ringing in those New Year sales!
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