One of the biggest problems any business has is how to make potential clients aware your company even exists and has the capabilities to solve their problems. These potential customers have problems they want to solve, but have no knowledge about your firm and your skill at solving those exact problems.

An incredibly easy solution is the case history.

A case history is a short article detailing how your company solved a problem for one of your existing clients. When a potential client, with a similar problem, reads your case history, your company is instantly on that potential client’s radar as a solver of that problem.

As a freelance copywriter, I follow a very easy formula when writing case histories for my own clients. In fact, my formula is so easy it’s almost embarassing to write it down for you.

If you’ve ever read a book on how to write a resume, you have seen the formula called PAR, which stands for PROBLEM, ACTION, RESULTS. All I have done is adopt this formula for writing case histories.

1. The first step is the Problem. What was the problem you solved for your previous client? As you write out this step, make sure you are both specific enough to clearly describe the situation your client was facing and how it was hindering their business. An easy way to think of this is to describe the pain your client felt before you arrived on the scene. But your description of the problem must also be general enough for your potential client to identify their own need with the problem you are capable of solving.
Array BioPharma is creating the next generation of orally active drugs Seeks to create new drugs through the integration of chemistry, structural biology, and chemoinformatics.
2. The second step is Action. How did you solve the problem? What steps did you take and what skills did you utilize on behalf of your client? This is no time to be modest. Demonstrate that your company didn’t just fall off the turnip truck when it comes to the kind of work you do. Make this second step a showcase for your capabilities so the potential client will want to pick up the phone and call you right now.
Array Compare prices on array at Smarter.com and shop smarter.
3. The last step is Results. All selling is a presentation of before and after stories. Your potential clients want to see the happy ending your previous client experienced. Ask yourself what changes a potential customer wants. If you were able to deliver these changes to your previous client, make sure you show these changes as the happy ending for your story. If your previous clients have given you testimonials, this is the place to use them to add even more credibility to your case history.

Showing up on potential customers’ radar is simply a matter of making them aware you are a solver of their problems and that you have done so for others.

Over time, your goal should be to compile a portfolio of case histories applicable for all the different types of problems you solve. You should also create case histories of different types of clients so a wide range of potential customers can identify your services with their own problems.

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Popularity: 17% [?]

The Before and After Scenario is one of the oldest, and best, methods used by freelance copywriters. And why not? It works because it paints a vivid portrait for your prospect of how he can realize a major change in his life.

A “Before-Scenario” depicts a person whose circumstances are much like that of your targeted prospect: overweight, broke, stuck in a dead-end job, bald or what have you. This is a person your targeted prospect can identify with because he or she languishes under the very same circumstances.

hen you present an “After-Scenario” depicting one of your satisfied customers who is delighted with the changes your product or service has brought about. She is now fit and trim (and has the requisite bathing suit pictures to prove it), they now have enough money to live the life they have always dreamed about, or he now has a full head of hair and is irresistible to the opposite sex.

The simple truth is that now matter how familiar we are with this kind of advertising, it still works because the targeted prospect identifies with your Before-Scenario and strongly wants to escape from those circumstances. And the After-Scenario offers the prospect the very life he or she wants to escape to.

But at times the very familiarity of this formula may simply get old in your market. Nevertheless, there are a few ways to get even more mileage out of this old advertising workhorse by adding a few twists:

1. Create A “Virtual” After-Scenario Sometimes you may not want to use a real person’s situation, but want your reader to visualize his or her own Before and After Scenario.
   PHP Help: Array Functions – PHP Manual PHP Freaks is an online PHP Help community that provides PHP Tutorials, PHP Examples, PHP Scripts, PHP Support, Web Developer Documentation and more.

   You do this by injecting a lot of emotion into the problem your product or service is designed to solve.

   Suppose your company provides auto financing for people with poor credit. You could create a Before-Scenario by vividly describing the embarrassment of driving an old, dilapidated car. Remind the prospect of the constant fear of driving a car that could break down on a remote highway late at night or on a busy highway in the middle of rush hour traffic. You could also, stir up the humiliation of being turned down for financing from traditional lenders.

   Array Raid Upgrade Your Computer. Save On array raid.

   Then you paint a second, emotional-filled scene of your prospect driving an attractive, dependable car, after being treated with dignity and respect by your finance officers. Paint an emotional picture of your prospect being seen by friends and neighbors driving this nice looking, late model car and having the peace of mind that the monthly payments are reasonable and that the car is in very good working order.

   Raid Array Enjoy Savings & Selection On raid array.

2. Depict a Negative After Scenario. Sometimes you have to educate your prospect about why buying your competitors’ cheaper product is more costly in the long run. Here is an example, written by Dan Kennedy, to sell an ordinary product like shoes:
   

   ?but if you insist on just wearing any old pair of ordinary shoes, here’s what you have to look forward to in your so-called golden years; fallen arches?intense lower back pain?even pain from just walking around a shopping mall! You’ll be asking your friends to slow down so you can keep up. You’ll be futilely soaking your feet at night like some old fuddy-duddy. You may even need pain pills just to get to sleep.

   National Biotech Register Online A refined list of array companies. Online since 1995. Company and keyword search. Providing bio/pharma industry, immediate product/service information.

   With a Negative After-Scenario, you are projecting an undesirable future resulting from your prospect’s shortsighted attempt to save a little money now by buying an inferior product, or by not spending any money at all to solve a known problem while there is still time.

   Redundant Array of Independent Disks Learn more about Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

3. A Back-Story Scenario. This Before and After formula is not seen by your reader, but is sketched out for you the writer and marketer. Even if I am writing copy that follows a different format, I will often write out a before and after comparison for my own use when I begin my work. This enables me to clearly see the benefits the prospects are seeking in the form of specific changes they want to experience in their lives.
   Raid Array Save on Products in Any Category. Compare products, prices & stores.

   I want to know what the prospect is dissatisfied with now, and how intensely that dissatisfaction feels. I also want to know how the prospect wants to feel in the future and what changes must take place in order to achieve that desired state and the emotions that will come with it.

   Raid Array Products Buy raid array products at SHOP.COM. Toll-free shopping assistance.

   Let’s face it, I don’t want to overlook a single benefit that my readers might be seeking. And without my own draft version of a before-after sketch, I might miss the very benefit that will trigger the most response.

Every worthwhile product or service helps to bring about a desired change. And let’s face it, all of us, regardless of what we sell, are really in the business of selling change. A person who is satisfied with the status quo is not a prospect, and will never be a customer.

But when that person is ready for a change, and has become dissatisfied with the way things are right now, a strong Before and After Scenario can show them the way to find that change.

COPYRIGHT(C)2005, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I was so excited to read his post! Google-icon Matt Cutts was blogging on August 21st and hit the nail on the head (as he does quite frequently). The title of the post was, “SEO Advice: Writing useful articles that readers will love.” That, in and of itself, says it all. Why is this such a thrilling post? Because it reinforces what I’ve been saying for years. Whether you’re writing content for a website, an article or any type of SEO copy, you must think of the reader first.

There is such a barrage of worthless articles floating around the ‘Net these days. Keyword stuffed, useless ramble that was obviously written with the sole intent of attempting to rank high. Striving for top rankings is not a bad thing, but the purpose of writing SEO articles is threefold not onefold: provide information, rank high when used on your site and increase link popularity. That means the practice must follow the purpose.

Why Write an Article?

Let’s start at the beginning. Why write articles to begin with? While having SEO content on your site is a good thing, your first concern should be with offering useful information to your readers. Cutts agrees with this practice and makes a point to discuss why providing relevant, helpful information is vital.

If the information isn’t helpful, those who visit your site will have little interest in reading it. Yes, if the page ranks highly, it might bring in a bit of traffic. But if visitors take one look at your article then click away, what good have the high rankings done you?

Likewise, if you choose to distribute your article throughout the Internet, it is highly unlikely that others will elect to run your article on their sites. If your work doesn’t provide solid information and is poorly written, it will not be considered link-worthy.

Optimizing for the Engines

Once you’ve decided what information you want to provide, you can turn your focus to SEO. Copywriting for the engines requires balance. You never want to sacrifice the reader’s experience for the sake of rankings. Stuffing keywords into text is a method that will almost always backfire. Practically no one wants to read an article (or website page) that constantly repeats the same exact terms to the point of extremes.

Cutts also addressed this issue in his blog post, stating that he included keyphrases within his own article and also used similar terms. Cutts made a point of suggesting that we pay more attention to keyphrase use (and the use of variations of those keyphrases) than focusing on keyword density.

The Two Most Important Keys

The two “meta-issues” Cutts highlighted in his article were both related to user experience, not to the practice of SEO copywriting. First, pay attention to the content you offer. Always impart useful, concrete knowledge to your reader. Second, study your niche (a.k.a. know your target audience!) and write specifically for the purpose of helping them.

There is other great information included in Cutts’ post, and I encourage you to read it plus the comments that follow. You can find it here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-writing-useful-articles-that-readers-will-love.

These are things I (and other SEO pros) have been preaching for years. User first, search engines second. When you get the priority straight, the rest will fall into line without much hassle.

? 2006

Popularity: 12% [?]

Despite your best efforts (and a lot of money out of pocket) your advertising and marketing just aren’t producing the sales you had hoped for. For some reason, your message just isn’t connecting with the people you’d hoped would become your customers.

As a freelance copywriter, is see this situation a lot when I am called in to fix advertisements, web copy and other marketing materials that just aren’t living up to my clients’ expectations.
More often than not, the problem is my client hasn’t developed a strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to set their company, product or service apart from the competition.

A USP tells the world you are different from all the rest. It creates a brand new category for you to be the biggest – or better yet, the only – fish in the pond.

One of my loftiest ambitions as a freelance copywriter is to someday create a USP as powerful as Domino’s Pizza’s one-time promise,

“Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.”

Until some unfortunate accidents involving some of their delivery drivers forced them to soften their message, Domino’s rode this 10 word USP to the top of their industry. That is the power of a compelling USP.

Now does that mean that Domino’s was the only pizza chain that made fast deliveries? Not at all. In fact, I am sure some restaurants out there were probably faster. But Domino’s had created a whole new category in the minds of people who were hungry and wanted their pizza delivered fast. And they owned that category.

Another surprising (or actually not so surprising, when you understand the power of a great USP) effect of their USP was that they re-positioned their competitors as all belonging to the “slower” category. In the perception of people who wanted to order pizza because they were hungry right now, the other guys were just not as fast.

So how do you create a powerful USP that creates a whole new pond in which you become the big fish? Here are a few ideas I have put together:

1. Specifically target a need your buyer has that you want to appeal to. These needs can be things like, “to make more money,” “professional advancement,” “better health,” or “to save money/ to get a bargain.” I recently explored how to appeal to your buyers’ needs in an article I wrote called, Freelance Copywriter Secrets: How to Tap Into Your Readers’ Deepest Needs
   . Click on this link if you want to read more on the subject.
   National Biotech Register Online A refined list of array companies. Online since 1995. Company and keyword search. Providing bio/pharma industry, immediate product/service information.

2. Make a clear promise that you will deliver a benefit. Your benefit statement should promise to solve a vexing problem or bring about a desired change. If your statement does not make a promise, or if it promises something other than a solution or a change; chances are you are talking about a feature instead of a benefit.
3. Make the solution seem as fast and easy as possible. Your USP is all about chipping away at buyers’ mental barriers. If you can truthfully promise fast and easy results, you have chipped through another excuse NOT to buy from you.
   Rackmount Plus Rackmount Plus is a specialist in custom built rackmount servers.

4. Make sure your claim is believable. If Domino’s had promised 5 minute delivery, no one would have bought in to their concept.
5. Avoid making a “me-too” type promise. You are trying to create your own category, your own pond. The goal here is not to dive into everyone else’s pond and to out muscle the competition.
6. Promise a distinct before vs. after contrast. Does your USP help potential customers to visualize a real change doing business with you can bring about?
   Raid Array at Aberdeen We carry Raid Array, network storage devices, NAS servers, rackmount servers, server chassis, custom-configured computer systems, motherboard kits and hardware.

7. Talk about your edge, your advantage over the competition. What can you promise that no one else can do? Or, in the alternative, what is no one else talking about? Domino’s was not the first pizza chain to deliver pizzas quickly, but they were the first to make that their claim to fame.

8. Address your customers in the second person. This is a good rule for writing headlines that I carry over to writing USPs. My own USP is, “I am a freelance copywriter who turns readers into YOUR customers. People respond when you talk directly to them, not when you talk about a subject in the distant third person.
   Array Class (System) Provides methods for creating, manipulating, searching, and sorting arrays, thereby serving as the base class for all arrays in the common language runtime.

9. Incorporate key words. In many ways this is the hardest idea on this list to incorporate. But if you are writing web content or if your USP will be prominently displayed on your web site, you just can’t ignore key words. My own keyword is “freelance copywriter,” and I make sure it appears on every article I write. (Did you notice how I just cleverly made the opportunity to use it once again?) Keywords are how people find you on search engines, so you cannot afford to make it harder for them to locate you by not including
   keywords as part of your USP.

Not only is your USP what positions you as different from all the others, it also tells them why you are the only logical choice in your industry. So go back and look at all your ads and all your marketing efforts that produced less than stellar results. I just bet the problem you need to fix is a broken USP.

freelance copywriter, freelance commercial writer

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Popularity: 9% [?]

It seems like not a day goes by when one of my business partners doesn’t call me up, or I call him up, and say:

“Hey, I was just taking a shower and got this great new idea for that project we’re working on!”

I know that sounds strange, but it’s true.

There’s something almost magical about taking long showers and “suddenly” getting the answers to problems or coming up with ideas for your ads.

It’s just amazing the way that works.

I even did some research on this not too long ago.

And apparently there is something in your brain that stimulates creativity when warm, soothing water pours over your head.

Problems are solved, ideas are sparked and your creativity basically goes on overdrive.

Personally, I seem to get many of my best headline ideas for my ads while taking long, hot showers.

Whenever I’m working on an ad headline, and I’ve cranked out two or three hundred different headlines (and can’t seem to find the right one) I always take a lot of long, hot showers.

Sometimes even several showers per day.

I’ll just sit there in the shower, letting my mind wander, and trying not to think about anything specific.

Most of the time (so often it’s almost spooky) the answer will come.

Try it yourself and see.

Next time you’re writing an ad and can’t think of that right phrase, idea, theme, headline, etc, take long, hot showers. Maybe even two or three in a day. Just let your mind wander and solve the problem for you.

Popularity: 9% [?]