In the early stages of any business, there are many items that simply can’t be purchased due to lacking funds. Copywriting is unfortunately often listed among these items.

Can’t afford a pro copywriter but need some well-written content up on your site?  Well, if you have the determination and the patience to experiment, there are a few key ingredients to writing great copy that anyone can follow.

All it takes are basic grammatical concepts and some hard work behind the keyboard.

If you think you’re up for it, here are some great copywriting tips to tide you over until you can afford the real thing.

Think Headlines: If you don’t have a powerful headline, your article is already at a disadvantage. Be simple but effective, Tell the audience what the article is about and why the need to read it…but do it in less than 60 characters or so. Also, use numbers. The headline 12 Ways to Earn More Money Today is much more effective than Earn more Money Today!

Don’t Get Wordy: Let’s face it…attention spans today are a joke. This is why you need to write short sentences. More than that, you need to write articles. It seems that 350 words or so is the sweet spot. If you venture over 500 words and aren’t writing for an online magazine, your readers probably won’t make it all the way through your articles.

Be Active: Always remember that in writing, the subject of the sentence needs to be carrying out the actions…not the thing being acted upon. We want to see: “He kicked the chair across the room,” not “The chair, unsuspecting and innocent, was the recipient of a swift kick across the room.”

Keep it Simple: Don’t say “facilitate” if you mean “help.” Depending on your sort of brand, you should also never say “lacking any sort of merit” when you can say “it sucks.” Writing copy for a blog, even for your own business, is no time to pull out the thesaurus.

There are tons more of these sorts of tops lying all around the internet, most of which were written by copywriters that have earned their stripes. While the skills of a great copywriter are incredibly valuable, learning from the best is always a good option if finances are tight.

These days, a company’s website is one of the most pivotal features of their business.  There is a very good chance that new clients will see their website before stepping foot into the business doors.

So what do you need to do to ensure that your website will grab a viewer’s attention right away? Well, there are a few ways you can enhance your website to get results. Of course, some tactics vary from industry to industry, but there are a few key concepts that are the same for every business.

Know Your Audience: Knowing the interests and tastes of your target audience is a must for designing a website that will show results. From design to copy, knowing the identities of your target audience will help shape your website dramatically.

Be Unique With Your Design: Notice that we said “unique” and not “busy” or “complicated.” While it is perfectly fine to draw inspiration and even ideas from other websites, you need to make sure yours isn’t a carbon copy. You’ll also want the design to be tied into your industry, even if it’s just in subtle ways. You want a website that seems fresh to your target audience—not a clone of everyone else’s.

Be Bright: If possible, use bright colors (bot not one’s that clash) throughout your design. Bright colors tend to attract attention more so than others. This is because when it comes to websites, readers often scan and not really read. Bright colors serve as a hook that keeps them on your page.

Motivate Your Audience: If you have properly identified your target audience, it should be a bit easier to direct the copy on your site. Make it informative but inspirational as well. Your audience doesn’t want to hear about how great you are (although it could come in handy from time to time). They’d rather read posts about industry news or how they, as consumers, can benefit from your brand.

So how is your website faring? What are some tips and strategies you have used to take your website to the next level?

One of the most important things you can do in order to better build an awareness of your brand is to have an appealing and recognizable logo.  Your logo is, in many ways, the face of your business. It’s on your business cards, your promotional materials, and maybe even tee shirts.

You want people to see your logo and instantly know not only who you are, but what you do.  If you can pull off something like this as a small business, you’re already a few steps ahead of your competitors.

But what exactly makes a great logo? We can learn quite a bit from just looking at well-known logos. And this is more than just taking ideas from popular brands; in most cases, these are logos that are designed by people who know how to grab an audience’s attention and help build a brand.

Three key elements in a successful logo are:

Make it Timeless: Think of the “I Love New York” logo. It’s so simple but is one of the most well-known logos there are. This is a timeless logo because it tells a very simple and quick message without using gimmicks. If your company has a message or service that can convey this sort of information easily, you might consider this approach. When you don’t have to rely on many creative factors, your logo stays relevant for a very long time.

Make It Simple: Sure, the example above could be listed here as well. But by simple, think more along the lines of McDonald’s, Nike, or even Apple. These are all very simple one-object logos that don’t even have the name of the company anywhere to be seen. Granted, you truly need to have great brand recognition for this to work, but the simple logo helps, too. People tend to remember simpler logos more so than overly colorful complicated ones.

Make it Creative (But Not Too Much): Think about Apple or Starbucks. These are logos everyone knows but, as logos go, have nothing to do with the product the company represents. The Starbucks logo doesn’t have coffee beans or even a cup of coffee. There’s no computer or anything at all technological about the Apple logo. So think of something that means a lot to you—one single object—and see if there is a way to make it work for your business.

How’s your logo fare when compared to these tips? Are you good to go as you are or should you be thinking about alterations?

With Earth Day upon us again, it’s time to hunker down and start to really evaluate the ways in which your small business can do a better job at being environmentally responsible. The term “going green” is more than just a slogan that makes people feel better about their contribution to helping the environment; when you can incorporate green practices into your business approach, it gives your brand a  whole new level of respect and loyalty from your customers.

If you aren’t already, consider these simple green business practices:

• Turn off all electronic equipment after hours to save on energy costs and consumption.
• Be more intentional about recycling. Set up bins for paper, cardboard, aluminum and so on for your employees to use.
• More and more businesses are allowing their employees to telecommute from home. This not only knocks down your energy consumption, but it also takes one more car off of the road—consider this doing your part to reduce pollution, too.
• Did you know that paper makes up more than 35% of most waste from small businesses? Try to print less material. Of course, for some industries, this is next to impossible. However, even when you do need to print, there are many brands of recycled paper available.
• Try to use as little packaging material as possible when sending things out in the mail.
• Start looking for partners that also incorporate green practices into their business. Working together, two small businesses can make quite a difference on an annual basis.
• Use the same energy conservations strategies you use at home: cut the lights off when they aren’t in use, don’t run more water than you need, and don’t leave appliances on.

Remember that as a business owner, a lot of your brand practices are going to be heavily considered and scrutinized by potential clients. By incorporating green practices into your business, it shows that you care about more than just making a dollar—you’re also ding your part to help the condition of the planet.

If you have decided to take on your own copywriting—whether it’s simple blog posts or writing articles for industry publications—there are a few rules you need to follow. One of the most crucial rules of copywriting for your own business is to force yourself not to write inwardly.

If you have no idea what this is, chances are you have already done it and didn’t even know it.

Inward thinking is, put simply, talking too much about yourself. When taken to extremes, it can seem boastful and narcissistic. Sure, you are proud of your business and all of your accomplishments, but the world really doesn’t want ot hear about it over and over again. Sometimes these sorts of things get interwoven into your writing when you don’t even intend for it to show up.

So what can you do to stop this? What can you do to make sure you write outwardly? Admittedly, it can take some practice, but there are a few strategies you can undertake to get into the outward state of mind.

• Rather than focus the writing on yourself, your copywriting should instead focus in your target audience and customers. After all, you’re writing to convince people that they need your service or product—not how awesome you think you are.
• Stop with the personal anecdotes. If you need to tell a personal story to sell a metaphor, make it short. But even this should be done very rarely.
• In any copywriting for your own business, you should be more focused on the experience the customer will take away from working with your business—not about why you are the best at what you do.
• Outline everything you write. If there is an abundance of “I”s and “Me”s in there, scrap it and start over.

Just remember…in business, it’s not about you at all. It’s about the customer, how you can serve them, and how you can keep them coming in your doors. Speaking endlessly about yourself (even if it is subconsciously) is not going to do either.

All of those clichéd saying about first impressions are actually true—it’s the one cliché in marketing that you should actually believe.

During your first introduction to someone, there are usually three reactions that we, as humans, will feel:

• Distrust and skepticism – we’re not sure why this person rubs us the wrong way, they just do. There’s something about them…
• Awe and  joy – this is for people that strike us with their positive attitude, their looks, their manner of speaking, the way they carry themselves and so forth
• Neutrality – we don’t really care about this person, as they didn’t register on either of the above scenarios. Chances are we won’t remember them in a week.

The questions for you, as a business owner trying to build your brand, is How do I make sure I fall into the right category? How can I make a lasting first impression?

Sadly, there is no science to it. A lot of it is in how you carry yourself. If you have a positive reputation that proceeds you, that helps as well. The truth is that a person’s personality and preferences have a lot to do with how you will be perceived during that first impression, meaning that you actually have very little control over it.

Here’s a scary science fact for you…humans are so judgmental that we have usually made up our minds about a person within four seconds. It’s just the way we are programmed.

If you really want to nail that first impression and present a great face for your brand, you have to flip the script. Think about how a person would impress you when you first meet them. Try to integrate that into your first-impression strategy.

Studies and polls conducted over the years have indicated that there are a few key factor that tend to weigh heavily into first impressions. They are:

• Attire and physical appearance
• Political affiliation
• Religion

This is why it is never a good idea to discuss politics or religion unless you are very specifically asked. As for the attire issue, you should always dress in a way that reflects your brand whenever you are meeting someone for the first time.

What other first-impression strategies do you have for your brand that seem to work?

Have you ever been in a job interview where they asked “How would you describe yourself?”

It’s a loaded question, really. How do you answer without seeming conceited or insecure? There has to be a happy medium, right?

If you’re trying to establish a brand, you should really be able to answer this question. Not only that, but you need to be able to answer it in a boastful way that doesn’t come off as being too in love with yourself.

This is because, like it or not, you are your brand.

The way you represent yourself individually has a lot to do with how people will see your brand. Or, if you are more of a behind the scenes sort of business owner, those that you choose to represent your brand will provide that reflection.

Think about Subway and their spokesman, Jared. Jared has lasted so long as the face of the Subway brand because he is a) an everyday sort of guy and b)he is an actual living testament to just how healthy Subway can be. Therefore, he is the perfect embodiment of the Subway brand.

Now imagine that Jared is a grungy sort of guy that wears baggy pants and has roughly a dozen piercings in his face. That is not going to be the best representation of Subway no matter how his personality is spun.

So yes, your personality is going to represent your business and your brand. Because of this, you need to do some self-reflection and ask yourself what sort of brand attributes you want to build. If you are naturally funny, maybe you want to inject some humor into your band in the form of advertising or marketing. On the other hand, if you’re known for being more of the level-headed serious sort, chances are that humor won’t really translate well into your brand attributes.

The key is to remain honest. Even your most appalling of character flaws can be spun into brand advertising, as long as you present it honestly and with integrity.

What sort of interesting aspects could you inject into building your personal brand?

Sometimes, success can go to a company’s head. This usually equates to spin-off products or services, as businesses venture out into other industries, hoping to get into the mix of things in other markets.

Believe it or not, this is very rarely a good thing. Getting too involved in too many different markets can cause brand dilution. This can be one of the biggest obstacles that a business will ever have to overcome. Not only does it result in the loss of money and time, but it can also make your brand looked foolish or even confused about its identity.

Here’s an example. When you hear the name Harley Davidson, a certain picture comes to mind. Beautiful, hulking bikes. People—mostly men in their 30s-50s—out on the open road, experiencing freedom on their motorcycles. It really doesn’t conjure images of men primping in the mirror and making sure they smell great.

Regardless, not so long ago, Harley Davidson thought they could get into the perfume and aftershave market. Sales were okay but not great. One might think that Harley Davidson would venture into motor oils or spark plugs before jumping into the toiletries market.

While there was no serious backlash, there was an obvious dilution here. Men that considered themselves as biker hard-asses would not be caught dead in the mall buying cologne or fancy aftershave, no matter what name or logo was on the bottle. Luckily for Harley Davidson, they had established a strong enough brand recognition that this failed experiment didn’t cause them much harm.

But here’s the thing…your business doesn’t have the luxury of unbreakable brand recognition. The lesson here is to focus your brand on your one specific service or product. If you are an ad agency, do not confuse yourself by also becoming a small printing company. If you are a bike repair shop, don’t get wrapped up in collectible bike-related toys.

Stay focused on what you know you are good at and out all of your time and energy on that. Don’t get distracted by other ventures and make the mistake of diluting your brand.

With movie-goers, crossovers are a huge deal. Look at the success of The Avengers. Sure, the comic book fans knew it was coming, but The Avengers was still one of the first movies ever to involve such a heavy crossover of characters from several movie franchises.

As of late, some businesses are wondering if similar crossover action would work out in advertising.

It’s nothing new, really.  In 2010, Xerox created several print and media ads that featured prominent figures from other brands. These figures included mascots such as Target’s cute white dog to Mr. Clean. The ads were successful for Xerox, as it showed their ability to help large businesses. In the case of Target, their ads centered on Xerox’s ability to customize Target’s direct mail program; for Mr. Clean, the ad revealed how Xerox had digitized all of Proctor and Gamble’s documents.

Very recently, another crossover had occurred, but in a different sort of tone. Some of you may have seen a Geico commercial featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy. The Doughboy is involved in Geico’s recent humorous campaign (others have featured bodybuilders and Dracula). IN the ad, he is seen walking through airport security; Geico’s two guitar-playing troubadours say that those switching to Geico are “Happier than the Pillsbury Doughboy on his way to a baking convention.”

In both of these examples, the addition of another brand in the ads is powerful because the other brand’s presence exists solely to convey the strengths of the brand the ad is promoting. Surely there were advantages to the secondary brand as well, which brings about the question of whether or not such brief partnerships are truly effective or are simply a fun temporary gag.

The truth of the matter is that in small businesses, cross promotions such as this is a great way to get new exposure to markets you may otherwise not be able to penetrate. Given that, the next time you find yourself hitting a creative wall when trying to come up with new ad campaigns, ask yourself how cross promotions with other small businesses in your region could help.

The added networks with business owners and consumers alike can be a great way to bolster new growth for your business.