Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry and working in the stone sector for more than a decade. In this column he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market. This time he concludes his consideration of what makes good copy.

This is the concluding part of a three-part exploration of copywriting. If you want to read the previous two articles, or any of my previous articles, they are available on the NSS website (www.naturalstonespecialist.com) by searching for ‘marketing’ in the news archive section (bit.ly/1gEPhlZ).

The reason I’ve dedicated so much space to this subject is because good copywriting is essential for successful marketing and, as most of you probably know, good marking is essential to grow your business. But even with three articles, I’ve still barely scratched the surface, so feel free to contact me if anything is unclear or if you have a specific question that I haven’t covered.

Last month I gave you a few quick tips on writing headlines, the use of images and your language. This month, I’ll cover the other five topics: appeal to emotions, different types of motivation, call to action, long v short copy and writing for print v writing for the web.

Appeal To Emotions

Although most of us operate in a business-to-business environment and we’re often dealing with professional buyers, we’re all still people and emotions play a part in our decisions.

So find out what’s important to your customer and address it.

Greed and fear are the two big emotions affecting a lot of buying decisions – which could be looking forward to a bonus at the end of a contract or the fear of being sued by the client if things go wrong.

Different Types Of Motivation

This is related to emotions affecting decisions. Some people are goal oriented, motivated by what they will gain from something – like someone losing weight to look good on their wedding day. Others are motivated by loss aversion – like someone losing weight to prevent possible illness such as diabetes? Write your copy to cover both.

Call To Action

Whether you’re writing an advertisement, a press release, an email newsletter or the pages on your website, you should always have a call to action (CTA). Decide what action you want your reader to take. It might be to contact you, or to place an order. Or something else. Whatever it is, ask them to do it.

Long Copy v Short Copy

Personally, I prefer shorter copy because of the industry we’re working in, although the marketing gurus say that long copy always out performs short copy. The theory is that if your prospect is interested they’ll read it; if they’re not they won’t, however short it is.

If you write long copy, break it up with subheadings and bullet points. Don’t waffle or exaggerate. Don’t look for long words where short words can be used. And be specific. If you fixed 400m2 of Travertine, say so. The people you are addressing are not somehow dif

ferent from you, so think how you would react if you received what you have written.

Writing For The Web

On a website, readers are far more likely to scan your copy than read it in detail, at least initially.

Detailed eye tracking studies reveal that eye movement resembles an F-shaped pattern. Subheadings and bullet points will help your readers to scan to a section that interests them, which will help keep them on your website and off your competitor’s (a bit of loss aversion thrown in there).

There’s so much more to say about each topic, but space is limited so I’ve only been able to give you a few key points to consider to point you in the right direction. Send me an email if you want to explore some of these ideas in more detail.

One final point: I’ve reviewed the copywriting on my own website (www.keystonecm.co.uk) where you will see most of the points made in these three articles put into action. Feel free to take a look and give me your feedback.

If anyone makes a suggestion that I use, I’ll return the favour by providing you with a free evaluation of your website.

Alan Gayle has worked in sales and marketing roles in the construction industry since 1993. Following a successful career with some of the UK’s leading building product manufacturers, he has worked in the stone sector more than a decade. He now runs Keystonee Construction Marketing, a marketing agency specialising in the construction industry. The agency works with building contractors, subcontractors and building product suppliers to help them increase their sales and improve their margins.