From headlines to website copy: Use formulas and templates to promote your services

Raise your hand if this is true: you are desperately trying to come up with some kind of content to promote your services. You hate the process and you feel like you get no results.

You have tried everything: doing keywords research, setting up a content calendar. And yet, articles that you publish are not read or commented on, and you lack the motivation to stick to your publishing schedule.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could skip the writer’s block, stop wasting time on rewriting your drafts 10 times, and create online content that will be relevant, interesting, and remarkable?

Enter the copywriting formulas and templates.

They are good for not only writing clickbait headlines (although you can do that if that’s your thing), templates and formulas help you organize your thinking, make your content compelling and save your time, since you do not have to reinvent the wheel every time you open a new Word document.

Who else wants to stop wasting time on writing forgettable online copy?

Start here for a quick introduction to the world of formulas:

Episode 64 of the Hot Copy podcast: Copywriting formulas: Smart copywriting? Or cheating?
Copywrite Matters: Problem-Agitate-Solve Oh My! Classic copywriting formula that converts
Crazy Egg: AIDA: A Proven Copywriting Formula for Generating Leads and Revenue

Problem-Agitate-Solve formula in action on ATA’s website:

Problem: a translation project can easily go wrong (and clients have NO clue).

Agitate: clients might not know your value (!). They might never come back (!!).

Solve: educate your clients. CTA: contact the ATA Membership Services Manager for details.

How you can write headlines that will get your posts read without sounding like a spammer

Let’ go back to headlines for a moment. Very often this is the only part of your article that gets read, unless you can motivate your readers to learn more.

A fascinating research conducted by Conversion XL confirmed that many people do not read to the end (and skim what they read), so your headline is important. Of course, your goal in creating a headline is not to mess with their memory (which, apparently, is possible — read this research for details), but to make sure they remember the main point.

Doesn’t this headline make you want to read the post ASAP?

Here’s the list of websites that you can turn to for headline formulas:

Copyblogger: 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work (with a download)
Crazy Egg: Proven Headline Formulas
Buffer: 30+ Ultimate Headline Formulas for Tweets, Posts, Articles, and Emails

Need more inspiration? Check out The Headline Project. It’s a delight.

Hemingway Editor + formulas = Pretty Fly Day 80 of the Headline Project

How to permanently stop being embarrassed of your website, without spending a fortune on it

Formulas are there to help you optimize pretty much any kind of online content you can think of, from posts to landing pages, website flows, emails, and even social media.

Trying to drive traffic to your website with blogging? Use these formulas for social media success:

Buffer: If Don Draper Tweeted: The 27 Copywriting Formulas That Will Drive Clicks and Engagement on Social Media
Copyblogger:Master This Copywriting Formula to Dominate Any Social Media Platform (more on Problem-Agitate-Solve)

From Tess Whitty’s website — a variation on “The Ultimate Guide” formula, adapted as a value proposition

(This. Website. Is. Everything.)

Ready to get to work? This Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever) from Copy Hackers will help you make it more compelling, persuasive and effective.

Lastly, for a quick-and-easy way to find great examples of copywriting formulas in action, keep reading Lingua Greca’s Translation Favorites:

Links from Translation favorites (January 12-25) that make you want to say YES!

P.S. This post’s structure and all of the headlines are also based on formulas.

Header image source: Pixabay

Author bio

Ekaterina Howard is a marketing translator and a copywriter. She shares her newfound knowledge about the magic of formulas and conversion copywriting with other translators and interpreters here: http://bit.ly/translatorwebsite. You can reach her at ekaterina@pinwheeltrans.com.

March 5, 2018 By Contributor Contributions 1 Comment

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