Copywriting Makeover: Making An Emotional Connection - Part 1 of 2

One statistic shows that over 80% of all buying decisions are emotional. That means your copywriting should be, too. This is something I firmly believe in and have preached for most of my copywriting career. However, all too often, I find people skipping the vital step of making an emotional connection with their customers. That can be a tragic, and costly, mistake.

Thats why I was excited when I had the opportunity to rewrite the homepage copy for a vacation cruise service. While the copy they used previously gave all the details and got them a good number of bookings, it just didnt have what it takes to make me start daydreaming about my next cruise. It didnt but it was about to!

The Problems

The previous copy on the Cruise Vacation Center home page faced a couple of challenges. (You can view the original copy at this link: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/CruiseVacationCenter-Original.pdf.) The copy was very company-oriented instead of customer-oriented. It talked about who Cruise Vacation Center (CVC) is, why the visitor should buy from them, and some wonderful benefits CVC offers its clients including excellent bargain rates and extra discounts. However, all the verbiage was geared toward the company. The customer was left out.

The home page copy also lacked emotion. It was very matter-of-fact. In addition to making visitors aware of the wonderful prices and deals CVC offered, I wanted to create a vision for the site visitors. I wanted to give them what they needed in order to float off into a daydream about fabulous ports-of-call; warm, gentle breezes; and thrilling adventures.

While I was painting a picture of the vacation of a lifetime, I also had to be sure to include a vital fact. CVCs business plan was set up to be most affordable for the customer when s/he booked online. Without sounding rude, I had to do everything in my power to get the site visitor to book their cruise vacation while at the site. This was an extremely important issue and a point that needed to be woven throughout the copy.

Lastly, the page had to uphold Cruise Vacation Centers excellent search engine rankings. They were ranked at the top of several major engines, and the rewritten copy couldnt jeopardize their positioning.

The Solutions

The first step was, without question, to woo the site visitors with delightful fantasies about their next vacation. My goal was to conjure up all sorts of visions in the minds of Cruise Vacation Centers visitors. I wanted the visitors to be dreaming of exotic places with lots of fun things to do, interesting sights to see, and 24/7 access to gourmet meals that rival any five-star restaurant. I wanted their blood pressure to drop 10 points just from reading about the onboard staff of hundreds who would pamper them with VIP treatment. After reading this copy, I wanted them ready to leave on vacation today! However, I also had to persuade them to book online rather than calling CVCs office.

During the rewrite, I had to carefully plan the use of their primary keyphrase, cruise vacation, so as not to disrupt their most reliable source of business the search engines. After all, there is a delicate balance between pleasing the search engines and appealing to site visitors.

If I leaned too much toward the search engine side of the equation, the conversion ratio of the home page would suffer. In other words, Cruise Vacation Center would get lots of visitors, but few of them would book cruises.

If I leaned too much toward the customer side of the equation, CVCs rankings would plummet, and they would need to find a new way to drive qualified traffic to their site. As is normally the case with SEO copywriting, balance was going to be vital.

In the conclusion to this two-part series, youll see how I handled the rewrite and what the end results of all the work were. Curious to see the new copy? Youll find it on CVCs site: You can see the new copy on CVCs site at http://www.cruisevacationcenter.com.

Karon Thackston © 2004

About The Author

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karons latest e-report How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy) at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

IF PUBLISHING ON A WEBSITE, USE THIS RESOURCE BOX:

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors with The Step-by-Step Copywriting Course. Be sure to check out Karons latest e-report How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy), too!

---

Copyright, Copyrighting, and Online Copyright Abuse - Save Yourself the Headache by Reading This!

Lets start with copyright infringement.It is easily explained as copying... Read More

7 Easy Tips on How to Improve Your Sales Letter Instantly

Would you like to get more sales from your online... Read More

11 Ways to Get an Editors Attention

I worked as a business magazine editor for about 20... Read More

How To Write Powerful Headlines

I want to tell you how I go about writing... Read More

Better Copy: The Interview is the Key

Most of us spend our days persuading others to buy... Read More

Online Promotion Beats Traditional Ten-One

While traditional marketing can work for the book author or... Read More

Why Your Advertising Copy is not the Most Important Part of Your Ad

If you own a shop in the middle of the... Read More

Beyond Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tales arent the Only Thing Needing Catchy Openings

Once a upon a recent time in a galaxy not... Read More

Organizing Your Data to Write Better Copy

Last quarter I talked about interviewing / gathering data. So... Read More

Six Reasons You Don?t Need a Technical Writer (and Why They?re Dead Wrong!)

I know, I know. Times are tough. You have to... Read More

Help, Help, Help, Sell

Here's a fundamental difference between copywriting offline and copywriting for... Read More

Freelance Business Writers - How To Get The Best From Your Writer

At times, it can be frustrating to find freelance business... Read More

Crank Out More Articles More Often With An Article Swipe File

If you write copy you need a swipe file. A... Read More

Art Of Writing Profitable Classified Ads

The art of writing profitable classified adsEverybody wants to make... Read More

How To Ethically Use A Swipe File For Your Ad Copy

Did you ever wish you could afford to hire one... Read More

Is Your Web Copy Plain Talk?

It's true, we were all taught in school to express... Read More

Copywriting and Your Five Senses

In its most basic form, copywriting is, among other things,... Read More

How To Personalize Your Headlines For Increased Profits!

Personalizing your headlines to your target audience can significantly improve... Read More

Copywriting Goldmine: One of 20 Insider Secrets to Great Copywriting

Each weekday during my Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp, attendees (or... Read More

How To Become A Freelance Copywriter In New York

As a freelance copywriter in New York, your work is... Read More

SEO Copywriting: 7 Tips

So you finally built a website for your home-based business.... Read More

How To Write An Effective Ad

A letter or postcard allows you to "talk" one-on-one to... Read More

3 Keys to Better Online Copywriting

Doing the copywriting for your own website without the proper... Read More

How Not to Write a Press Release

Several years ago, when I was working for an agency,... Read More

Copywriting for the Web: Do You Have What It Takes?

In the world of web copywriters, many will try, but... Read More

5 Deadly Copywriting Mistakes That Kill Sales

Chances are that you are making many, if not all,... Read More

A Copywriters Rant: Either You Get it, Or You Dont

Today I am having a rant inside of my own... Read More

3 Reasons why Content is Still King

Back in the late nineties, the phrase 'Content is King'... Read More

Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?

I confess--I'm a marketing heretic! I've built my career on... Read More

Cleaning Up Your Copy

When you are beginning to write, you gather as much... Read More

5 Critical Mistakes Most Freelance Copywriters Make

Think you have what it takes to be a freelance... Read More

Want to Make More Money as a Freelance Writer? Here are 10 Reasons To Consider Copywriting

Looking to chuck that full-time job for a life of... Read More

Deciding What Voice to Use in Copy

You have to choose a character or an angle that... Read More