Measuring Effectiveness of Landing Pages

You’ve just finished up a major marketing and advertising campaign using various types of media – newspapers, magazines, radio, network and cable television and Internet. Management of your company wants to know the results and the ROI from that campaign. Unfortunately, the only number you’ve got is the amount of money you spent and it’s necessary to find out if that money was spent effectively.

You know that your website has been search engine optimized and it is bringing in an acceptable level of focused, quality visitors.

You’re reviewing your web log files on a daily basis, looking for trends and patterns that would identify traffic generated from this last as campaign. While there is an increase in both traffic and sales volume, the question of how much is related directly to the campaign persists.

Pay Attention to Details in Your Cover Letter

As you’re working on your cover letter you have several goals.  You want to produce an attractive and professional-looking business letter.  You want to make the hiring authority’s job as simple as possible and you also want to highlight your unique skills and experience.

A professional-looking cover letter gets read.

A business letter is short and well formatted.  It is printed on quality stationery.  The location of your name and address, the date and the name and address of the person you’re sending this to can vary.  Many word processing programs will have templates for you to use.  Before you send your letter out, proofread it for spelling and grammar and correct use of words.

Simplify the Hiring Authority’s Job

Don’t leave your reader guessing about your letter. Include any information you have about the job for which you applying (title, reference number, etc.).  Highlight experience in your most recent or current job that relates to the position, make sure your contact information is correct.

If you are providing any references in your letter, make sure that the names and contact information are correct and let the reference know you’ve included them, so a phone call won’t be a surprise.

Highlight Your Relevant Skills and Experience

The cover letter should contain short descriptions of the skills you have that match what’s required in the job.   Be truthful.  Exaggerations and lies will get caught.  That will insure you’re not going to be considered.

Print a copy of your cover letter and look at it.  It should be attractively formatted, placed well on the page and contain the information you want to convey to the hiring authority.  Take this one last opportunity to proofread and check phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

The first time you do this, it’s a challenge.  Once you get the format and words down, you’ll have mastered cover letters.

Why Case Studies?

A good story is worth the time to read. They are popular, entertaining and even informative. Prospects, customers and editors are always on the lookout for the best stories to read. This is where a case study comes in. What better way to get out the word about the products and services available? There is no better story than a case study when it comes to a tale of success.

The contemporary case study is no longer the boring and analytical document it was in the past.  Case studies can also be called customer profiles or case histories, and they are now stories – often very uplifting stories about how a company rose from humble beginnings. They are also stories of the customers who used the product or service and found it to be everything they hoped it would be. They tell the tale of the success of a product or service and how the use of them affected the lives of their customers.

A case study isn’t a detailed analysis with numbers and charts and graphs and dry technical phrasing. It is written much like any article one might in a business magazine. Instead of business strategies and cost structures, a case study can detail how a service saves time and money for its customers through quotes, examples and anecdotes from both the company and the customers.

Do You Know What Makes a Press Release Stand Out?

Many individuals are simply afraid to write a press release. What if it’s not written correctly? What if it’s ignored? What if it’s printed? No matter what the question, people avoid writing their own releases, thinking that there’s a deep dark mystery surround this type of communication.

You must learn to view a press release as a news item. It is NOT a sales letter. The intention is to provide the readers with information that will be of benefit to them. Do not confuse a news release with a sales promotion article. If you have something that is of benefit to members of the public, use a press release to let them know what you have available.

Save the sales copy for circulars and ads. The objective of those is to sell your product. A press release, on the other hand, lets your customers and potential customers know that your product is available and it has benefit to them.

If you treat your press release copy as an important source of information about what you have to offer, if you avoid a sales approach, your press release will stand out as important and of interest.

Let Freelance Writing Desk write a press release that will help you stand out.

Six Reasons Why Freelance Writers and Case Studies Are a Perfect Match

It is perfectly natural to be a little nervous when a client offers a case study writing assignment. After all, is that really freelance writing? In fact, a lot of freelance writers might ask what a case study is in the first place. There are many questions to answer for someone who isn’t entirely certain just what is involved in case study writing.

Like all forms of writing, it takes some practice to master the form. But once the writer gets a handle on it, it can not only be an interesting assignment to fulfill, but a lucrative one, as well. There’s no reason to be afraid when the opportunity arrives. Take it, learn from it and grow as a writer. It may be one of the best decisions a writer could make.

Case studies are really a simple concept. It is the success story of a business seen through the eyes of a customer well pleased with a certain product or service. It is the story of a happy experience. More and more companies need case studies, but they have difficulty finding writers willing to write them.

Top 10 Tips Know to Achieve the Perfect Copy Writing for your Website

1. Become An Expert On Your Product

This is the step that determines if your copywriting sells out or bombs. Learn everything there is to learn about your product. Get excited about it; believe that it can do everything that you need it to do and then some. If you really do not feel this way, then you have no right to sell it.

If you believe that you have a product that people just cannot live without, it will be easier for you to sell it. You will be in the mindset that you are not selling the product but instead offering the people the chance to improve their lives.

If you can get into this mind set then the perfect copy writing should just come to you.

2. Understand Your Audience

Before you put anything on paper or computer screen, define your audience.

• Are you selling to a college student or a business owner?
• How much money does your potential client make?
• What age group are you trying to reach?
• Male or female?
• How much time does this person have to read your copy?

Design your website specifically for the people that you answered the questions about. Make sure that you take the time to have others review the site.

3. Point Out The Benefits

People are busy, they want to know one of four things, and they want to know them fast.

• Will it make me a millionaire?
• Will it save some of my valuable time?
• Will it amuse me?
• Will it give me better self esteem?

How to Write Creative Articles

Most writing today is “cut and dried, containing facts and information.  Creative writing on the other hand, is intended to express feelings and emotions, to convey thoughts and ideas.

Writers cherish individual freedom and express that through their works.  Writing creates a background against which to play out their individuality.  It is this desire to live and thrive as an individual that drives many of them to write and continue writing.

The act of writing an article is an act of creation.  Writers will struggle to find a new idea or a new slant for their articles. Creative and original work is valued and will catch the imagination and attention of readers.  Unfortunately, there is no set procedure to get your brain cranking out good ideas at the drop of a hat.  There are, however, methods that will help get your juices flowing and the stream of creative ideas can begin.

Here are some suggestions.

Get a notebook or pad that you use to briefly outline ideas as they come to you.  You’ll need to keep this notebook with you at all times and all places – including your bedside table.  Every time you get an idea, write it down.  Bottom line: if you don’t write the idea down, it may well disappear into the ether.  Use those ideas;– don’t let them go to waste.

Use meditation to free your mind.  Find a quiet place to sit and relax, calming your mind and spirit.  Let your mind open itself.  Avoid negativity.  Turn off the extraneous and distracting sounds in the back of your mind.  Approach writing with a relaxed mental attitude.

Create a special workplace for yourself.  Find someplace that is comfortable, quiet and private, without disturbances.  Working in a place that evokes a feeling of peace in you can only improve your writing.

Adjust your attitude and your mood when you begin to write.  Be positive.  Reflect on the good things in your life and indulge yourself in those positive emotions.

Have fun in life.  Enjoying yourself on a sunny day can do wonderful things for your imagination.  Try something new or silly.  Play on a swing or turn a cartwheel. Experiencing life outside of the ordinary is one way to get your imagination going.

Writing for the Internet

Learning to write for the internet can be a little confusing at first because it is not quite the same as most other types of writing. It requires you to change the way that you think. Let’s start with the fact that your online audience is there to read.  When your readers are online they are scanning your words at best.  Scanning is done because it is a proven fact that when you actually try to read word for word on the screen you are 25 percent slower than reading printed material. If you are wondering what this means to you as the writer, it simply means you have to learn to get people’s attention so that you can connect with them.

Make Your Writing Style Dramatic

The reader is not reading but scanning your words. The more eye-catching a form you use, the more likely they are to stay on the site long enough to read it. Try to break your writing up into segments. Keep each segment in parts of 25 or fewer words. Make sure that the main points of each segment are clearly expressed and even bulleted so that the scanners can pick out the parts that you want them to see quickly and efficiently. Bellow is an example of what your ideas and words should look like in a bulletined format.

Creating a Case Study Analysis

Many students have found a written case study analysis is necessary for their coursework, whether as an individual or group project. Either case must follow certain guidelines common to case study work. There are guidelines following, but first be certain they do not conflict with any guidelines provided by the instructor.

Generally, the structure of a good case study begins with an introduction to the case. Outline the purpose of the company, its development, any problems that have arisen and what approach will be taken with the issues mentioned in the case itself.

The next part of the case write-up should be used for strategy analysis. This should focus on the strategies of the business itself and how it works. Use headings and sub-headings to give the analysis some structure and make it easy to read and absorb.

Tips for Writing a Research Paper

If you are attending high school, college or even attempting to get a job, it is very important that your writing skills are up to par.  The better you are at the writing process the better the end result of your efforts will be.  Figure out what your topic will be, think about how you want to organize your paper, research the topic and remember to take a lot of organized, orderly notes.

When it comes time to choose your topic, try the cause and effect method. Find a topic that you can easily research and explain. Make sure to run the topic past a few friends to see if it is something that will be interesting to your peers. Think outside of the box; creative ideas enliven a paper.