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What’s just as important as the quality of your product and the organization of the site it’s located on? The copy that sells it, of course!

Consider your copy the same way you’d consider yourself before going on an interview for a job. You’d be clean, you’d look professional, and you might even rehearse a little bit about what you were going to say. Your copy should present itself like it’s going in for an interview as well – this is your business speaking for itself, after all!

What are the cornerstones of good copy? Well, let’s start off with the obvious – good copy is first and foremost well organized and free of grammatical errors. If your copy is hard to read and misspelled, it looks unprofessional which sets off red flags in the mind of your customers. Don’t let the incorrect usage of semicolons drive away potential revenue. Also, if nothing else, be sure to run everything through spellchecker before putting it up.

But if you want your copy to truly pop, you’ll need to do more than make sure that you cross your Ts and dot your Is. Good copy can accurately describe the product or services that you sell, as well as inform the customer why your product and services are better than what’s offered by the competition. It paints you, the seller, as credible and honest, and it adds a touch of urgency to the transaction, convincing the customer that it’s in his/her best interest to make a purchase as soon as possible. Good copy is convincing, but not overbearing.

There are two obvious ways to go about getting good copy for your online business. The first is writing it yourself. The second is outsourcing. The first is definitely the cheaper way to go, and even if you are utterly incapable of designing a website, it’s likely that you know how to work a word processor and use spellchecker. You could write your own copy very persuasively and well.

But this is another area in which potential online business owners should not scrimp. Be honest with yourself. Will you be able to represent your services and products to the extent they deserve – and need to be represented in order to be profitable – with your writing abilities?

Many people opt to outsource their copy just as they outsource their web design. Just as there are people who have dedicated themselves to the art of making web pages, there are those who make a living out of writing the copy that fills these pages. Many of these places are also versed in writing copy that will make your website appear higher in search engine rankings, which is a worthy consideration as well.

Either way, be sure not to forget about spellchecker.

One of the most valuable assets an online business can have is an opt-in list. What’s this and how does it work? We’re here to help!

An opt-in marketing list is where a customer (or potential customer, but it’s most often somebody who has purchased something from your site) gets an option to include themselves in on an email list that your company sends out.

This is very different from spam, which is where unscrupulous business owners go “phishing” for random email addresses that they find on the Internet and relentlessly pelt these poor souls with emails. Spam does nobody any good and basically ends up costing a business a lot of money only to irritate people.

An opt-in list, though, is a brilliant for business because the people who receive your emails are actually interested in receiving them. You can send this list of people who are interested in keeping constant correspondence with your business occasional emails – no more than twice a month, usually, and only when you have something of worth to say or offer – which can detail everything from the current goings-on of your business to deals and offers and promotions. Many companies offer special promotions to those who join their opt-in list as an incentive to, well, opt in.

Opt-in lists give customers who are interested in you your attention. Even better, the effect of an opt-in list is entirely traceable, as if you start offering promotions through your list you’ll be able to tell how many of them get redeemed. Opt-in lists are also another great way to get out more of that free expert content you offer, specially designed for those who wish to follow you. Many smaller businesses offer Q and A sessions through their opt-in list, where followers can ask specific questions that can be answered through the general forum of your email.

These lists are also the digital equivalent to having “regulars” at a store and engaging them in casual chat. Through an email list you can develop more intimate relationships with customers as compared to the normal “anonymous buyer” that hops into your site to pick up a few items, and then hops out without you knowing anything more about them other than what they bought. Close relationships with customers generate brand loyalty, which is a hot commodity.

Want another bonus? Email marketing can also be entirely free if you manage it yourself. Even if you choose to outsource your email marketing or leave it to an employee to handle, it is much cheaper than print advertising because of how targeted it is. Individual customers make specific requests, and you fill them by sending out the information direct to those who asked for it. It’s a very simple, yet incredibly effective method of advertising that is guaranteed to optimize conversions and get people talking about you, particularly if you make your opt-in list a plum deal to join.