General

Why SMEs Shouldn’t Write Their Web Copy

woman typing on laptop while sitting on a sofa

As a small business owner, you’re no stranger to wearing multiple hats. Tempting as it can be though, ‘website copywriter’ probably shouldn’t be one of them. While it can seem like an easy way to save money, trying to write your own web copy can cost you more in the long run.

Read on to discover why business owners shouldn’t write their website copy.

Your time is money

Let’s face it, writing your own copy takes a lot of time and energy. Every minute you spend on your content is time that could be much better spent elsewhere, like growing your business, providing a better service to your customers or investing in your team.

What’s more, good copy sells. The last thing you want is to invest time and resources into creating a website and content, just to confuse or frustrate your visitors. A professional copywriter can save you time and boost your profitability by ensuring your content is reaching the right audience, credible and gives the reader what they need.

You’re not speaking your customer’s language

When you’re an expert in your field, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using technical terms or speak in a clinical way. But guess what? Your customers don’t speak that language. Business owners often want to come across as knowing their stuff, but it’s important to meet customers where they are and communicate in a way that helps the reader ‘get it’.

A professional copywriter can help translate complex ideas or terms into easy-to-understand content. Distilling your business’ services or products, they can write in a way that connects to the reader and makes them feel understood, while still making you sound like the expert you are.

You’re focused on the solution, not the problem

Most businesses offer products or services that solve a problem. While it’s of tip-top importance to highlight these, you don’t want to forget about speaking to your customer’s pain points.

There should be a clear connection between the issue they’re having and the solution you offer. It can help to put yourself in your customers shoes to tweak your website copy to align with this focus. A copywriter understands how to tap into your audience’s needs with their words. They can help you frame things in a way that puts the spotlight on your reader and show how you can help.

You’re not an experienced copywriter

In your field, you know your line of work better than anyone. While you might be a good communicator or got an A in English, it’s not the same as being an experienced copywriter. A well-written website is persuasive, written in your brand’s voice, and takes the reader on a journey, guiding them to action with compelling calls-to-action.

If you write your own web copy, it’s likely to miss key elements and considerations, such as:

  • Customer pain points
  • Unique selling propositions for your company
  • Clear branding
  • Writing in a consistent voice.

A professional content writer also draws from best practice standards, including search engine optimisation (SEO), digital accessibility and user experience (UX).

If you’re ready to take your website copy to the next level, we can help!

Explore our copywriting packages

Other blogs you might like:

Cheap & Quick Ways To Refresh Your Website

close of computer screen showing program codes

New year, same old website? If this is you, don’t worry – we get it. After the rollercoaster that was 2020 and 2021, you’re not alone if your website came nowhere close to your top priority.

The end of one year and the start of the next is a great time to consider where you’d like to be over the next 12 months. If you’re a small business owner, it may be time to give your website a bit of much-needed TLC. Read on to discover some quick and cheap ways to refresh your website in 2022.

Add new testimonials

If you went above and beyond for your clients over the last couple of years, don’t let those success stories go untold! Adding new customer testimonials to your website is a great way to update your site and show people why you’re the best at what you do.

Make sure to showcase projects that represent your services well or the kind of clients you want to work with. You can also add projects that attract more of what you want to do. For example, if you’re a catering company that usually does weddings but have also branched out into other types of celebrations, use a positive review to get more of those gigs.

Update stats, dates or info on your website

On your website, you may have a few dates, statistics or information about your company that are now outdated. Look at your homepage, about us page and your website footer in particular to see if there are any quick fix updates you can make. For instance, your homepage may mention you’ve been in the industry for 25 years, which may be longer now! Or perhaps your opening hours have changed.

These small tweaks don’t take long but are an effective way to ensure your website is the best and most accurate representation of your company. As long as you have access to the backend of your website, making these updates is usually a piece of cake.

Ensure your plugins and security certificates are up to date

When you visit your business’ website, can you see a padlock image in the website address bar? If you do, that means your website is secure. An SSL certificate is an essential security plugin that enables an encrypted connection, so your customers can safely browse your website.

If your SSL certificate has expired, your site may be unsafe and could be penalised by search engines, meaning less customers will see it. It also means that personal information your customers submit on your site could get into the wrong hands, as the connection isn’t protected.

Browse through your website and see if any plugins, such as a Google Maps widget, are still working and click on any links to check they’re not broken. These few precautions will make sure your website is up and running as it should be.

Revamp your homepage

Updating your website doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You don’t need a brand-new website and web pages to give your website a serious upgrade. Instead, you can make a big impact on a tight budget by updating your homepage copy with an affordable copywriting package.

This could include new SEO metadata, using keywords that can help get your website in front of more eyes on search engines like Google. Think of your homepage as a spokesperson for your business. By ensuring what it says reflects who you are today, your values and the services you offer, you can get brilliant bang for your buck. At Shuttle Rocket, our website packages – starting from just $349 – are especially designed for small businesses like yours.

Explore our homepage revamp

Drive traffic with some new blog articles

One of the best ways to improve your SEO (search engine optimisation) ranking is to add some new, well-written blog articles to your website. Blog articles are the perfect way to deep dive into a topic that’s relevant to your services or expertise, positioning you as a leader in your field. Because blogs are generally around 400–600 words, it’s an organic way to weave relevant keywords into unique and engaging content. This is not only great for getting your website in front of more eyes, it’s also an opportunity to help and inspire prospective clients!

Choosing a copywriting agency with set fees is a surefire way to know exactly what you’re getting. Plus, having blogs written by a team of professional copywriters ensures the content is well-written and packed with SEO benefits.

Explore our blog builder

Other blogs you might like:

How To Improve Your Business’ LinkedIn Presence

LinkedIn app

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool in your business’ marketing strategy, when used well. According to Sprout Social, businesses on LinkedIn generate almost 300% more leads than those using Facebook as their primary marketing platform.

Like all social media platforms, LinkedIn has its own set of best-practice ‘rules’, and some things that are frowned upon – that may do more harm than good for your business.

So, with this in mind, let’s look at some ways you can improve your business’ LinkedIn presence.

Remember that not all social platforms are created equal

Repeat after us: LinkedIn isn’t a sales platform. Tempting as it may be, LinkedIn isn’t the place to push your products or services onto your audience. Instead, it should be used to build relationships and connections with like-minded individuals and businesspeople.

LinkedIn is a platform where you can showcase your expertise and industry knowledge and create valuable dialogue between those in your industry. When crafting content for LinkedIn, remind yourself that it’s about educating and inspiring, not hard selling.

Ask thoughtful questions that encourage engagement

One of the best ways to improve your business’ presence on LinkedIn is to make sure you engage with your audience. Encourage other LinkedIn users to engage with your content by asking thoughtful questions in your posts.

Ask for your audience’s opinions — because everybody’s got one, and most will relish the chance to voice their expertise on LinkedIn. It’s the perfect place to offer others a chance to share their knowledge while boosting your own content and visibility.

Use stock images sparingly

Stock images are everywhere, and they’re not always the best quality. They can be tacky and a bit impersonal, so they can be a huge turn off for your audience. That’s not to say you can never use them. Maybe just not all the time!

If you can, invest in getting your own photos taken. Even pictures taken on a smartphone can be more attention-grabbing than a run-of-the-mill stock photo. You can also take advantage of free tools like Canva to create your own visuals.

If you find yourself in a pinch and need to resort to stock pics, check out our recommendations for the best free image sites.

Share content from other people or companies

Remember, LinkedIn should be about showing how you add value to your audience, not just your own business. If you’re putting out post after post of your own content, it can feel like one big ad campaign, which can cause fatigue.

Add some variety by sharing a mix of your own content and content from other people and organisations. This can actually help boost your credibility and trustworthiness, especially if you add your brand’s distinct voice and commentary.

Don’t just share content, share ideas

Thought leadership — it’s LinkedIn’s favourite buzzword. To keep people interested in what you share, and to avoid becoming just another ‘website’ page for your products or services, you’ve got to add some ‘thought-leadership’ style content.

If people agree with your ideas, values, and sentiments, they’re more likely to check out the rest of what you do. If you have a unique take on something, share it. Always try to add value, because your audience could find a similar article, product, solution, or service elsewhere. Why should they pay more attention to your message? Give them a good reason to!

Post strategically — more isn’t always better

Posting frequency is an important part of any LinkedIn marketing strategy. But more posting doesn’t always mean more engagement. In fact, posting once or more daily might actually have a negative impact on your engagement. Depending on your industry and following, posting one to three times a week could be the sweet spot.

And remember, don’t just share content for content’s sake. Think about how it contributes to your wider message, and the goals you’re trying to achieve as a brand.

Don’t forget to tag

Whether it’s individuals or brands, don’t forget to tag others you mention in your posts. As well as being polite, this can bolster engagement and might even put your name on someone’s radar.

This could simply be tagging the author of a piece of content you’re sharing, tagging a brand, or asking someone in your network to weigh in with an expert opinion. Just remember, only do it if it’s directly relevant to your post and those included.

Check your analytics data

Check in on your analytics regularly. This will help you gain insight into:

  • Who your posts are reaching
  • Who your audience is
  • What type of content resonates with them, and what doesn’t.

Using this data to frame your approach to future posts gives your followers more of what they like and helps you get the most out of LinkedIn for your business.

You should also consider the time of day you post. For example, you may get the best engagement when you post in the morning or evening.

Have a solid body of content to fall back on

It’s hard to appear authoritative in your field without any content of your own. Want to find out more creating shareable content for your business?

Our team of professional copywriters can help you create content you’ll be proud to post on your LinkedIn. Get in touch with us today to find out more.

5 Elements For Product Descriptions That Sell

close up of a hand holding a black android smartphone

Writing product descriptions that sell is a skill. And while not as attention-grabbing as a clean image or sleek video, product descriptions are an essential element of your product sales funnel.

A good product description will have the following elements in check:

  • A clear buyer persona
  • Focus keywords (for SEO)
  • Strong body copy
  • Slick bullet points
  • A clear call to action.

We’ll step through each of these elements and provide some examples. But first things first: you must know who you’re targeting in the form of a buyer persona.

1. A clear buyer persona

When you’re writing your product description, you want to keep your buyer persona in mind. Some questions you can ask about your ideal buyer before writing your product descriptions are:

  • Is your buyer the end customer?
    • Are they a customer buying for themselves?
    • Or are they a wholesale customer?
  • What is their demographic, age, and interests?

For example, if you’re selling fashion to a teenager, then you’re going to use a different tone than if you were selling overcoats to a retiree, right?

See one of our prior articles for more on fashion content writing tips that will help you drive online sales.

When you sit down to write, keep in your mind specific things like:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Interests
  • Education level
  • Income level
  • Language.

These items will help give you the right words to use when selling to your customer. Now you have a good foundation to write a persuasive product description. Let’s look at the second element.

2. Focus keywords (for SEO)

It might seem that taking the time to place keywords in your title will make an impact on SEO rankings for your product. Does that mean you need to place keywords in your title and then go put your feet up? No.

You should also add keywords to:

  • Meta descriptions
  • ALT tags
  • Body content (your product description).

Ideally you would use the same keywords in your meta description as you do in your product description. Don’t overdo it though – focus on a maximum of 1-3 keywords to ensure you’re not keyword stuffing and being penalised by Google. Remember, you’re writing for people, not search engines.

To cover all bases, include keywords in your product description and title to give yourself the best chance of reaching your ideal customer.

3. Strong body copy

Highlighting benefits in addition to features is a good way to bolster your body copy. A list of features can be a little dry after all. Pick three major features and list those. Now focus on the benefits of those features.

For example, an “EVA midsole shoe” doesn’t sound as good as an “EVA midsole shoe that provides exceptional comfort and flexibility.”

Or take a men’s trimmer: is it just a “precision trimmer” or a “precision trimmer for accurate edging?”

And the first iPod had a “5GB hard drive” but Steve Jobs sold it as, “1,000 songs in your pocket” – which sounds better?

Emphasise the benefits in your body copy and highlight the problem you’re solving for your buyer.

4. Slick bullet points

We live in the age of the information tidal wave, so make sure your product description can convey useful information when your reader is skimming. Bullet points are great way to do this.

Short, sharp, and concise bullets will lead a potential buyer to the bulkier parts of your product description.

Bullets are especially good when your product doesn’t need a lot of descriptive text. You can also use bullet points to add a visual element to an otherwise vanilla product description.

5. A clear call to action

This element goes without saying but is sometimes forgotten. What are the next steps for your buyer when they’re ready to click and buy?

Can you provide clear information on delivery and returns, plus a sizing chart perhaps?

Remember: you can get creative with button descriptions as well. For example, “Add to Bag” has a whole different tone to “Add to Cart.”

Consider your buyer persona and the language they might use when customising button text and providing more info.

Exceptions to the rule

Of course, there will always be exceptions to the elements listed above. But for the most part, product descriptions should be short, sharp, and punchy.

Know your customer back-to-front. Try to include words that are SEO-friendly. If you can’t fit them in, put them in the product title instead. Focus on benefits over features in your body copy. Make it scannable with some sharp bullet points. Finally, give your shopper all the information they need to click and make a purchase.

If you’re still uncertain about writing product descriptions that sell, then get in touch with one of our team members for a friendly chat. We’d love to show you how good product descriptions can attract customers and keep them coming back time and again.

4 Set-And-Forget Tools For Your Small Business’ Digital Marketing

close up of a hand typing on a laptop

If there’s one thing small business owners lack, it’s time.

If finding time to get your digital marketing in order is tough, it might be time to consider a few tools you can set and forget. These tools require a small amount of setup, but they provide big returns in efficiency and time saved.

As well as saving you time, these digital marketing tools can help you better understand your audience and reach them in a more impactful way.

1. Google Analytics

You might think you know your audience, but Google Analytics knows them even better. Google’s Analytics platform is still the most popular way to get a good visual on audience traffic. It can help you learn:

  • when someone visited your site
  • what pages they visited
  • how long they spent on certain pages
  • the web browser they used
  • the device they used to access your site.

Analytics can be used to learn more about audiences, make better business decisions and create targeted marketing campaigns. But that doesn’t mean all Analytics data is useful. Information you’re interested in as a business owner will be unique to your business, and this is where set and forget saves the day. Google lets you set up dashboards in Analytics that only show information relevant to your needs. This can save you time that’d otherwise be spent sifting through confusing and unnecessary data every time you use the platform.

2. Hootsuite

Social media is a great way to engage with people all over the world, but managing social accounts can be harder than it looks. Social media requires consistency, so posting at the wrong time or failing to regularly share content can amount to time wasted. Hootsuite solves this by neatly packaging your social media accounts on a single platform and making it easier than ever to share your content.

As well as letting you manage your social media in one convenient place, one of the big advantages of Hootsuite is the option to schedule your posts. Just let it know when you want certain social media posts sent out, and it’ll do all the hard work for you. As well as being a time-saver, scheduling can also lead to more strategic content. Being prepared means you’re already ready for the days or periods of the year where your audience is more likely to engage with your small business.

Hootsuite also offers a nifty analytics tool to give you insider information and grow your social media following.

3. MailChimp

Email marketing is another reliable way you can connect to your audience on a regular basis. The trouble is, creating and sending emails on the regular can be difficult. For example, if Google Analytics told you your overseas customers are most active when you’re sound asleep, manually sending off emails might be tricky. Thankfully, Mailchimp has made a name for itself as an email marketing tool for exactly this reason.

Like Hootsuite, MailChimp offers you the option to schedule emails to reach people at just the right time. It also offers a great range of email templates, making it an ideal resource for time-poor business owners still wanting engaging material.

4. Canva

Good visual design isn’t just eye-catching. Investing in quality design can quickly lend a sense of professionalism and trustworthiness to your brand. But good aesthetics don’t come easy – or cheap. Learning design basics can be time-consuming and hiring a graphic designer can be put an unnecessary hole in your pocket.

Canva solves these issues by letting you quickly create impressive designs with clever templates and user-friendly drag-and-drop text visual elements. Whether you need infographics, business cards, brochures, or social media materials, Canva lets you create and save templates you can use and update in the future.

Ready to simplify your digital marketing?

If you’re still uncertain about using tools to set and forget, you should know that saving time is cheaper than you think. The above digital marketing tools are often free for smaller businesses, or at least offer free trials you can take advantage of.

If you’re looking for another time-friendly way to get more out of your digital marketing, get in touch with our team. We’d love to show you how good content can attract customers and keep them coming back for years to come.

 

The 5 Best Marketing Platforms For ROI

'Welcome, we're open' signage

When it comes to small business marketing, good return on investment (ROI) is key to success. In a nutshell, good ROI is about getting the most out of your marketing budget — connecting with your customers where they spend time and making an impact.

Once you’ve got your budget, the next step is allocating it to right channels for results. Read on to discover our 5 best small business marketing platforms for ROI.

1. Google My Business

Let’s start with one of the best free marketing tools out there, Google My Business. According to Google research, businesses with complete My Business profiles are twice as likely to be considered trustworthy.

Potential customers can discover your My Business account via Google search or Google Maps. Your profile gives them a snapshot of:

  • Who you are and what you do
  • Your contact information
  • Your business hours
  • Photos of your team or work
  • Customer reviews (aka social proof you’re good at what you do).

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your digital presence, spend some time optimising your profile. You can do this by checking it has the best information, images, and description to represent your company.

Tip: Good and bad reviews are an opportunity to show current and potential customers who you really are. If someone gives you a positive review, show your gratitude! Or, if someone leaves a negative (or potentially fake) review, respond thoughtfully and professionally.

2. Social media

Social media is an affordable and low-commitment way for you to connect and grow your digital presence. Unlike other platforms, it provides a unique opportunity for two-way, real-time interactions on your posts. This can help humanise your brand and build a relationship with your customers.

Some of the most popular platforms for small business include:

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter.

The best one (or few) for your business depends on where your customers like to spend time, and your industry. For example, if you’re a florist or landscaper, Instagram’s image-based platform is the perfect place to showcase your artistry.

On the other hand, if you sell products to white-collar customers, LinkedIn could be the best place to show off your expertise.

Each social media channel has in-built analytics for you to track your posts. For example, it’ll tell you demographics information, best time of the day for posts, and your most popular content. These metrics can give insight into what your customers are loving, and how much traction your posts are getting.

3. Website

Your website is a go-to place for current and potential customers to find you online. That’s why it’s so important to get it right. Ensuring your website is accurate, up-to-date and captures who you are as a business is essential — it could be make or break for new customers.

On your checklist, consider if your website is:

  • A good representation of your company and services
  • Easy to find on search engines such as Google
  • Simple to use and get information
  • Informative and engaging

Helping you get more customers and keep the ones you have.

As experts in small business website copy, we know how to capture your brand and get you in front of more customers. Whether it’s writing a killer about us page, highlighting your services, or a homepage that’ll stop them in their tracks, we can help make your website a poster child for your business.

Our small business copywriting packages deliver professional content, without costing the earth.

4. Blogs

Blogging is another fantastic low-cost way to promote your small business. To make sure your website stays relevant to Google, you’ve got to update it from time to time. Blog posts are a great way to do that, and weave in relevant keywords or phrases that help you get more traffic to your site.

Having professional blog posts on topics in your industry can position you as a thought leader, which could help boost trust. Plus, you can share your blog articles across your social media channels, helping you get even more out of it.

If you’d prefer to leave the wordsmithing to the experts, our small business blog package is a surefire way to get great value for money and ROI. We’ll help you craft articles that improve your SEO (search engine optimisation), build your brand, and position you as the best in your industry.

Using Google Analytics, you can track how much traffic you’re getting on your blog posts, so you can keep on top of your results.

5. Email marketing

Having return customers is a big part of business success and growth. Email marketing can help entice your clients to make another purchase or booking with you, and keep you top-of-mind.

You can use email marketing to:

  • Thank customers for their support, and ask for feedback
  • Encourage them to spread the good word, for a word-of-mouth boost
  • Offer exclusive deals and discounts

Share educational content about what you do or know best, through blog posts, newsletters, or more.

Want to know the icing on the cake? You can automate and review your ROI on your email marketing efforts with a free Mailchimp account. According to Mailchimp, their platform can generate up to 6 times more orders than bulk email alone.

Just make sure you don’t bombard your customers ­­— nobody likes receiving emails from companies on the daily!

Make your dollar go further with professional web content

Helping small businesses make the most of their digital marketing efforts is our bread and butter. Get in touch with our team of Melbourne-based copywriters for quality content on a budget today.

How To Create Effective SEO Content Without Keyword Stuffing

close up of a hand typing on a laptop

Over the years, Google’s search algorithm has undergone some significant changes. As a result, the way people write to get their content ranking has changed (which we think is for the better!). There’s been a shift from old SEO techniques like keyword stuffing to creating higher quality content serving audience needs first — not Google’s algorithm.

If you haven’t heard of these updates, read on to find out why outdated techniques such as keyword stuffing could be doing you more harm than good.

What is keyword stuffing?

Keyword stuffing is basically what it sounds like – stuffing too many keywords into a short amount of copy. It’s often considered a black hat SEO practice, as it gets pages to rank highly, but only for a short amount of time.

Keyword stuffing is defined as an overuse of keywords in comparison to the rest of the content. Not only is there an excess of keywords, but they disrupt the flow of your content, making it sound forced and unnatural.

Why is keyword stuffing bad?

Keyword stuffing is bad because it creates a poor user experience — your content becomes harder to read. Key information gets drowned out by too many attempts to insert keywords for the sake of SEO.

But apart from lowering the quality of your content from a user’s perspective, Google can actually penalise sites for keyword stuffing. So while it may seem like a quick fix in the short term, using keyword stuffing will hurt your rankings in the long run.

Not only is this bad for your website rankings, it’s bad for business. People aren’t going to stay on your page if your content is littered with too many keywords and they can’t find the answers they’re looking for.

There’s no point to your customers being able to find you in search if they don’t want to stay on your page.

How can you create SEO friendly content without keyword stuffing?

There are a number of alternative strategies you can use that’ll not only benefit your SEO, but improve user experience as well.

Choose a primary keyword

A primary keyword is the main keyword you’ll use throughout your content. For example, if you’re writing a page about compression leggings, your primary keyword would probably be ‘compression leggings’. This is usually chosen from looking at the most popular search terms for similar items and picking the one with the highest number of searches or high growth.

Select some secondary keywords

Secondary keywords are options that maybe didn’t receive as many searches as your primary keyword, but still ranked quite highly in search popularity. They might be terms that are commonly searched as an alternative to your primary keyword. For our example of the compression leggings, some secondary keywords may be ‘compression tights’ or ‘compression pants’, or even ‘workout leggings’.

Google’s algorithm has evolved and is better at recognising users’ search intent. This means it can recognise semantic search terms i.e. the overall meaning of a search term, rather than the exact keywords used. These terms can be used like secondary keywords, helping you express the same idea in a different way.

Use keyword tools

There are a number of keyword tools you can use to help you find the best keywords to target in your content. Some of these include SEMrush’s Keyword Magic tool, Google’s Keyword Planner, or Alexa’s Keyword Difficulty tool. These tools can show you everything from keyword volume to cost per click, how your chosen keyword is trending, its competitive density, and more.

Make use of page elements

Page elements include the page title, meta description, meta title, subheadings, and image alt tag. You should also pay attention to your page’s URL slug. The slug is the part of the URL that describes the content of the page. Take a look at this page’s URL — the slug is a clear description of this blog post.

Check your keyword density

Keyword density is the number of keywords per overall wordcount of your content. The ideal keyword density is no more than 2%. This means you should have around 2 keywords per every 100 words of content. Any more than this and you risk falling into keyword stuffing territory.

To learn more, check out our blog post on how great content can improve your SEO, or contact us to find out how our team can help optimise your content today.

How Much Does A Website Cost?

close up of hand using a calculator

If you’re looking to create a website for your small business, you’re probably wondering how much it’s going to set you back.

While we’d love to give you some simple figures and call it a day, website costs are more nuanced than this. Needs differ so much that it’s pretty much impossible to throw a one-size-fits-all website quote out there — but that doesn’t mean we don’t have answers for you.

Read on to get a better idea of what to expect when working out your website budget.

You’ll need to factor in basic annual costs

There are a few costs that come with any website. They are:

Domain name

You’ll usually buy a domain name (your website address) before you build your website. Prices can vary depending on the popularity of the address and domain (e.g. “.com” or “.com.au”), but you can expect to pay between $10 and $80. You’ll also need to renew your domain subscription annually — otherwise someone else might take your URL name!

Website hosting

Someone will need to host your website in order for it to stay online. This can cost between $5 and $30 a month, so this is a regular expense you’ll need to take into consideration. This’ll usually be taken care of by whoever builds your website. But if you’re unsure, it never hurts to ask.

SSL certificate (optional)

If you’ve always wondered what the green padlock is that sits next to a website’s URL, it’s basically the site’s security certificate. Any website storing financial details, usernames, and/or passwords on your website, will need security in place to prevent hackers from stealing this information. An SSL certificate offers you this protection. Expect to pay between $100 and $200 annually for your certificate.

It also depends on what your website is for

When you’re working out your marketing budget, a good first step is to understand what you want out of the end product. Understanding your website’s functionality, design needs and overall complexity can help you to develop a ballpark figure.

To give you a clearer idea, below are some basic website types and related costs for complete builds.

No-nonsense business website: $2000 – $6000

If you want to convert customers and create product or service awareness, you’ll often just require a clean, simple and informative website. These are the cheapest websites as you won’t need a lot of functionality to connect with people on a basic level. Along with the basic costs, you’ll be allocating money towards things like copywriting, design and building the website itself.

User-friendly e-commerce website: $4000 – $10,000

Selling products or services online requires more functionality than a simple small business website. Shopping setups require a lot of features to manage – and properly cope with – constant purchases and customer demand. You’ll also need to factor in secure payment gateways, a product/customer database and a shipping solution. You might also want to consider useful optional features such as follow-up emails when customers leave things in their shopping cart without checking out.

Custom feature-rich website: $7,000 – $15,000+

Other important costs you’ll need to consider

High-quality website copywriting: $349 – $950

Although it might seem simple, copywriting is an area you don’t want to skimp on. Copywriting isn’t just a few simple words on the page. It’s about tone of voice, brand intention and making a big impact within a small space to entice time-poor and selective customers.

It’s also about the mechanisms behind the writing. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a must in a competitive online landscape. If you want to be found online, you’ll need to ensure your content is optimised to help with visibility on search engines such as Google.

Approachable website design: $500 – $5000

Creating a visually pleasing and highly approachable design is important when you’re looking to appeal to customers and separate yourself from the competition. User experience (UX) and visual design can work hand-in-hand to guide users on their customer journey and make your business memorable. Costs here can vary hugely because of the varied needs of businesses but expect to pay several hundred dollars at a bare minimum.

Ready to create your website?

Thinking about the future is often just as important when it comes to website creation. Ongoing maintenance is also necessary to remedy issues that crop up and guarantee your site stays relevant. This costs money, of course, so maintenance should factor into your budget to keep your website up-to-date.

Looking to build the best website possible? We’ve got you covered. Get in touch with our team of Melbourne-based copywriters today to find out how we can help.

How To Find The Best Free Images For Your Blog

woman using laptop with image on screen

These days, it’s rare to find a blog post, or even a web page that doesn’t have some kind of image included. Whether it’s a simple image under a headline, or multiple pictures throughout a post, using visuals is an important part of your content strategy.

Why are blog images so important?

The impact images can have on your blog is huge. From making your content easier to digest, to increasing engagement through social platforms, there are so many benefits to including images in your blog posts.

Strategic use of images can:

  • Make your post more accessible
  • Make your content easier to read and understand
  • Enhance your messages and ideas
  • Increase engagement and promote shareability
  • Help people find your content through image searches

So, where can you find high-quality images that are free to use in your content?

Explore 6 free stock image sites

There’s nothing worse than finding the perfect image, only to realise you don’t have permission to use it. We’ve made a list of some of our favourite high-quality stock image sites, so you can find the best commercially-licensed images for your content.

Below are some of our favourites.

1. Unsplash

Unsplash provides high-quality images that are easy to search for, and the image tagging is well utilised, making related images easy to find. Unsplash prioritises quality over quantity, so while you may find fewer images than on other stock image sites, you know you’re getting good quality consistently.  There’s also an Unsplash app for IOS.

2. Reshot

Reshot positions themselves as built for freelancers and marketers who are sick of tacky stock photos – and they’re definitely not that. Reshot provides high-quality images with a decent selection. The site is easy to use, with lots of popular categories found in the menu for quick searching. They’re also looking into adding free icons and illustrations in the future.

3. Picography

Picography hasn’t been around for too long, but it’s another reliable source for good-quality, free stock photography. Just keep an eye out for promoted images that can appear at the top of your search. These images aren’t free, and do require a subscription to download.

4. Pexels

Pexels is completely free, and anyone’s allowed to upload images. But this doesn’t mean low quality. Pexels only chooses the best pictures to make available publicly. This means you may find a bit more variety than other stock image sites, but the image quality is still great. The layout of Pexels makes it easy and quick to find the images you’re after. Some photos are limited-use though, so make sure to double check before you download.

5. Pixabay

Pixabay has one of the bigger collections of freely available stock images, graphics, videos, and illustrations. The quality may vary on Pixabay a little more than other sites, but if you’re happy to filter through the options, there’s a great range to choose from. Images can be modified, and you can even donate to the contributors if you wish.

6. Foca

Foca provides not only photos and videos, but also templates, which can be great for creating eye-catching social media posts. The template editor is very user-friendly, and is a great place to start if you haven’t had much experience in this area.

Make use of other media where appropriate

While free stock photography sites have so much to offer, don’t forget you can also make use of screenshots! If you’re writing a ‘how-to’ blog post, using screenshots can be a great way to show the process for users to easily follow along.

Video is another great way to engage your audience and enhance your written content. To find out how to make your content stand out even more, read our blog post on how to boost your audience engagement with video content.

If you would like to find out how we can help you with creating engaging, winning blog content, you can get in touch with us today.

 

How To Set A Marketing Budget For Your Small Business

two women discussing marketing budgets in office

Digital marketing shines a light on your business, showing current and potential customers why you’re the best at what you do. Done right, it can increase your revenue and grow your customer base. But how much money do you set aside for your digital marketing budget? And what efforts are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck?

Read on to find out how to set a marketing budget for your small business.

Understand your market and competitors

A great way to work out where you’re at and where there’s room for growth is researching what your competitors are doing. For example, if you’re a Melbourne hairdresser, you can search online for top-rated businesses in your area and see how you match up.

A SWOT analysis is a handy way to do this. When perusing your competitors, jot down some of your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, compared to other small businesses in your industry.

Strengths

  • What does your business do well?
  • What are your unique skills, resources or offerings you can draw upon?
  • What do your customers love about you?

Weaknesses

  • Where are you currently falling short and how could you improve?
    (E.g. are you solely relying on word of mouth and have no digital presence?)
  • What could stop you from achieving what your top competitors do?
    (E.g. fewer resources.)
  • What may others see as your weaknesses?

Opportunities

  • What are some opportunities open to you?
  • How could you turn your strengths into opportunities?
  • What trends or in-demand products, services or knowledge can you leverage?

Threats

  • What could potentially harm your business? This includes competitors and industry-wide threats.
  • What threats do your weaknesses pose to your business?
  • What’s your competition doing better than you?

Putting these ideas on paper is key to bringing your goals to life.

Lock in your goals

When it comes to setting goals, they’ve got to be within your reach. Having a clear end goal helps you finetune your marketing strategy and measure your results.

We recommend setting S.M.A.R.T goals, which are:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Realistic
  • Time-bound

For example:

Increase web traffic by 10% in the next six months by writing two blog articles per month.

Using this framework ensures you’ve got a goal that’s actionable and attainable. In other words, it’s a goal that can actually get you results.

Research your customers

The secret to any top-notch digital marketing strategy is knowing who your customers are and where to find them.

Ask yourself: 

  • How do your customers typically discover your products or services?
  • What do they need to know before they make a purchase?
  • Where do they spend time online?
    (For example, Facebook, Instagram, searching on Google.)
  • How would they research businesses like yours?
  • What is your target audience’s demographic?
    (For example, their age group, sex and location.)

From here, you can start building out an effective content marketing strategy, even as a beginner. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to use content experts to craft messages that captivate your target audience – hook, line and sinker.

Allocate your funds wisely

Without a budget, you run the risk of spending too much – or not investing in the right places. The good news? You don’t need a huge marketing budget to make a splash.

Start with your highest priority goals and work your way backwards. Remember, you don’t have to do all your goals at once!

Here are some areas you can prioritise in your budget:

  • Website – Get professional web content on a brand-new site, or with a web copy refresh
  • Blogs – Build your brand, drive traffic to your website and reach new customers with blog articles
  • eDMs – Keep your customers engaged and coming back for more with email marketing
  • Social media – Connect with your customers and build trust, and grow your following with social media. As content experts, Shuttle Rocket can help you with killer social media copy
  • Paid search and social media advertising – Allot a budget for advertising on search engines and social media channels. You can pay cost-per-click (where you pay for visibility) or pay-per-click (where you pay for engagement and clicks on your ads).

Lean on small business content marketing experts

Are you ready to grow your business but are unsure how to get the best bang for your buck? As small business marketing experts, our copywriting packages can help you get in front of more people and tell your story. Get in touch with us today and we’ll help your business’ marketing take off.