“Natalie Khoo is the perfect freelance writer. She gets back to you on time, does the work on time and bills accurately. Perfect for a design studio churning out last minute magazine articles, website layouts, and everything in between. A gem. Keep her on your radar – once you work with her, you’ll know exactly what I mean.”

-Karishma Kasabian, Creative Director, Miss Kish

“From a web designer’s perspective, working with someone as experienced as Natalie makes the copywriting process much easier and streamlined. She quickly grasps an understanding of the requirements of the job, and gets the right information to make the copy work hard.”
-Alex Price, Director, Luce Marketing

“I think you may just be one of the first freelancers I’ve worked with who has come through with the goods! Will definitely be back for more!”
-Angela Lucciardi, Director, Lucid Concept

“When we got our website designed we had our own great textual content ideas. However, the site was missing that punch that was needed to help sell our fantastic parties. This is where Nat helped us greatly! She read through all our text and identified areas that could be improved. These improvements, both great and subtle, have increased the effectiveness and professionalism of our site”
-Michael DeWilt, Website Designer, Magical Happenings

“I’ve had quite a few people tell me that there are typos and bad grammar on my website, but I just didn’t have time to go through every page looking for mistakes. Instead I left it to an expert! Thanks Nat, now my website is 100% typo free and reads much more professionally!”
- Chris Peters, Director, CP Design 

“Natalie Khoo worked with me on the WinterVolume project as the website’s main writer. She was directed to cover all subjects concerning the winter marketplace ranging from sports to lifestyle for all ages and all income brackets. This was a very large ask, with short deadlines and high volume delivery expectations and Natalie delivered on time, every time. On future projects she will be the first person on my list to contract due to her reliability, initiative and ability to deliver large quantities of quality editorial with a rapid turnaround. A pleasure to work with.”
-Richard Hegarty, Editor In Chief, www.WinterVolume.com

“Nat is extremely popular with her friendly and fun personality, and is able to quickly form strong relationships with existing clients, as well as find and establish relationships with new clients. Nat performs extremely well in any task, bringing with her a high level of professionalism and organisation. Highly valued, Nat is able to take on difficult jobs with enthusiasm, and is adept at multi-tasking, performing a variety of tasks under pressure and to strict deadlines.”
- Tom Calderwood, Managing Editor, Wake Magazine

“Thank you for all your work, your releases are great! They were really well written. Thanks a lot for including all the TTR information too. We look forward to working with you next year.”
- Verena Bossman, PR Europe, TTR World Snowboard Tour

“Natalie can always be counted on to turn around amazing stories in no time at all. She has a knack for writing riveting features and her proofreading and grammar skills are second to none. She would be an asset to anyone who has the privilege of working with her.”
-Kimberly Gillan, Editor, Waterski Magazine

“Natalie has a great personality and it was good to have her working with us because she was highly intelligent and hard working.”
- Claire Ridley, Journalist (Fashion Department), Cosmopolitan Bride Magazine

As first seen on the Digital Pacific blog

Customers make purchases when they see something they want

This is one of the most obvious and well-known business principles known to man. Yet, it is amazing how many businesses fail to take this simple statement into consideration when trying to drum up sales.

If you’re just getting started, you need to identify what customers are looking for. Alternatively, if your company’s sales are falling, you need to identify how you can revamp your business and put your brand back on the map.

So how do you do this? Easy – the answer is ‘research’. It is up to you to find out as much as you can to ‘hit the nail on the head’ and provide exactly what customers want, boost your conversion rate, and make sure that you’re always one step ahead.

Using the internet to your advantage

The internet is not just a place to list your business. The internet is an infinite resource of information where you can carry out endless market research. Best of all, you don’t need to be an expert to figure out what you need to know.

Not only can you scope out your competition and see what other similar businesses are doing, but also more importantly, you can check out what customers are saying about certain products and services online.

Find out what people are saying

There are many different ways that you can discover what people are saying online. The easiest of all these ways is to sign up for Google Alerts. Google Alerts monitors specific search term(s), and sends you email notifications on your chosen topic directly to your inbox. You’ll be sent coverage across all media forms including blogs and video. As a subscriber, you don’t have to worry about time spent on independent research – the news will come to you.

But don’t stop there – there’s always more to check out. There may be some useful discussions happening under the radar. Search online for community-oriented websites where users can post comments and share ideas and reviews. This is forum crawling – you can find some really valuable information that you’ll want to use when thinking about your next advertising campaign. A good place to start looking is magazine-based websites. For example, if you’re interested to see what people who like kickboxing are saying, check out the forums on International Kickboxer Magazine.

One of the most undervalued resources online is Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers is a great way to see the latest questions that people are asking each other. If you are in the business of providing customers with financial planning advice, navigate to the Business & Finance category of the site to discover what people want to know. You can even go one step further and address their questions, answering them on the spot – you may even generate some additional leads!

Ask people what they think

On the other hand, Yahoo Answers is also a great way for your business to do research by posting questions online, such as, “What bothers you the most about..…” “What do you think is the coolest product and why?” or “How would you know where to look for…..?”

Doing this kind of research encourages discussion and helps you identify what consumers think about when purchasing your products. You can also find out what other factors affect your sales. Use these comments to your advantage when figuring out how to market your business.

Another way to compile objective market research is to send out questionnaires. Used by some of the biggest companies in the world, Survey Monkey is an easy (and almost free) way to collect data. Survey Monkey sends out your own customised questionnaires into cyberspace and collects responses for you!

Lastly, there is one crazily obvious and easy way to generate discussion: social media. Twitter is a great way to interact with other enthusiastic professionals online, perfect for those who want to source feedback and get ahead in the business-to-business field. Alternatively, if you have a Facebook account, quiz your own friends by typing out questions in your status update; sometimes finding out what customers really want is as simple as asking your friends and family.

Conclusion

By researching what people are saying online, you can address exactly what your customers want, and develop your products accordingly to meet market demand. Furthermore, you can quash any doubts or concerns that your customers may have about your products by listening to their feedback and providing them with solutions.

This simple but effective idea will increase your conversion rate and drive your sales figures in a positive direction. Best of all, it costs your business practically nothing other than time.

As first seen on the Digital Pacific blog

Successfully marketing your business involves more than just having a website. Traditional (but still effective!) ways to promote your business offline include printing brochures, advertising in magazines, distributing email newsletters and sending out direct mail.

To push people to your website, these offline marketing methods are ideal. They help get people talking and generate traffic, increase page views and, ultimately, increase sales.

Streamlining your web copy and offline marketing strategy

For this reason, it’s incredibly important that your offline marketing material and website work in tune with one another. Effective offline marketing will drive potential customers to your site like a ‘hook’; it makes people curious to find out more. When someone sees a brochure or an advert for something they like, their first reaction will be to visit the company’s website for more information.

Consequently, what the customer then finds at your website becomes extremely important. Not only does it reflect your business and make a lasting impression, but more significantly, it is usually the deal-breaker as to whether a customer chooses to contact you or not.

So while maintaining good design and user-friendly navigation, you MUST make the copy on your site as informative, engaging, useful and web-friendly as possible. A bit of a no-brainer really, but it is unbelievable how many businesses get this wrong.

FAIL: How to NOT write copy for your website

A huge mistake that many companies make when creating or revamping their website is that they rerun text from existing brochures and ads. This is a big no-no. You should always use your website as an opportunity to elaborate on your existing offline marketing material.

Don’t take the easy route and just copy and paste what you’ve already got. Add to it; back it up with valuable information. Write about your business, what you do, your product, or any related topic – anything to help convince the reader why they should buy something from you, or simply make contact.

If your site is almost identical to your brochure or printed advert, it adds nothing to what the customer has already seen. Remember that one of the core objectives of offline marketing is to drive customers to your website for more comprehensive information. If there’s nothing else on there for them to read, they’ll most likely lose interest and look elsewhere. A plain and uninteresting site will bore your potential customers and they’ll exit immediately, unlikely to return. Your chances of making a sale disappear, and their valuable visit turns into a wasted opportunity.

Make that sale! The benefit of capturing your reader’s attention

The exciting part for businesses is that if you are successful in generating (and maintaining!) a customer’s interest online, there is a huge chance you will make a sale. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, at least 61% of internet browsers purchase goods and/or services online. Furthermore, 71% of these online buyers are between the ages of 25 and 34, the bracket with the highest level of disposable income – perfect if your target market happens to fit this demographic.

So next time you’re thinking of writing copy for your website, don’t cut corners and rerun what you’ve already got. Double check what’s written on your offline marketing material and build on it.

When executed properly, an optimised website combined with offline marketing can work brilliantly together. Just make sure you add valuable information to nail your customer’s interest if you want to make a sale!