Pharmaceutical Copywriter? Maybe?
So you are just getting out of college. You want to earn your living as a writer, and you decide on a career as an advertising copywriter. Naturally everyone wants to write the next great sneaker ad, or be the brainchild of the newest 20-year Vodka campaign, right? Not so fast.
While a career in "consumer" advertising has always been the benchmark of the industry, more and more young copywriters are finding their way in the growing world of pharmaceutical advertising. So why would someone want to write about a depression drug rather than a soft drink?
Here are three major reasons for this trend:
Stability:
With Job security as low as it has been since the crash of 1929, young creatives in general consumer advertising on Madison Avenue are finding themselves out of work an alarming rate. Pharmaceutical advertising is generally a bit more stable, as the market is simply smaller.
Money:
Initially, the salaries earned by consumer and healthcare copywriters is roughly about the same. That is to say, not very much. However, successful healthcare writers see larger salary increases and title promotions sooner than their consumer counterparts.
Sense of Importance:
At first glance the content, regulations and demographic would imply that pharmaceutical advertising wouldn't allow for as much creativity as a general consumer advertising. And while your "creative box" may be a bit smaller in pharmaceutical advertising, the work does allow and lend itself to a more dramatic and strategic end result. Furthermore, many creatives in pharmaceutical advertising love the fact that the message matters, and feel that their work truly is important.
So while writing the dream sequence spot for that new video game is fun, at the end of the day you're simply marketing a video game.
Pharmaceutical writers are asked to really devour the product; it's chemistry and most importantly how the condition for which the pharmaceutical product is indicated affects patients. In many cases, writers are asked to interview and meet patients to talk about their condition(s). It has been debated ad nauseam if medication is truly the best therapy. And while I'm smart enough to not opine on that topic, there is no arguing that awareness and education for both patients and healthcare professionals are necessary.
In any case, we can be certain that medicine has historically done more for society than any sneaker, soft drink or video game ever has.
To learn more about a career as a pharmaceutical copywriter please feel free to email me at anthony@dolagroup.com
Anthony Hemsey is a Sr. Trainer/ VP Placement Specialist at Dola Group Professsional Development. Dola Group is a consulting and executive search firm dedicated soley to the medical pharmaceutical advertising and marketing arena. To learn more about Dola Group's current program and job openings please visit dolagroup.com
To begin a dialogue with one of Dola Group's professional consultants please send an email to chat@dolagroup.com-– and mention this article!
in Copywriting
Source: http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Copywriting/Pharmaceutical-Copywriter_63_-Maybe_63_
Showing posts with label in Copywriting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in Copywriting. Show all posts
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Web site copywriter in the 21st century
Web site copywriter in the 21st century
The process of keywords search is well-known. However large the company can be, whatever industry it operates in there are usually some persons at the company who can perform this task. However, once the keyword search has been performed one should start working these keywords phrases into the text of your web-site. The person who performs this task is a web site copywriter.
Apart from being creative and have an aptitude fro producing appealing, memorable and attracting content the professional web site copywriter should be able to write the text in easy-to-read, convincing and action-driven style. He should also be able to perform thorough web site analysis and understand how the web site maintained by you should be changed or adjusted in order to get higher conversion rates. But even if he has these qualities it may not be enough. It today's highly competitive and ever-changing online world it is indispensable for him to understand current marketing trend, what customers want to purchase as well as what expectations they have. Apart from this he must also analyze marketing and advertising strategy of the main competitors of the company and propose effective adjustments in the content of the web site to countervail them.
If you are hiring experienced web site copywriter it is advisable to look through his portfolio in order to get an insight into his experience. Experienced web site copywriter who has already provided some copywriting service should indicate what type of copywriting he has been working on and what results he has achieved. Moreover he must also understand modern marketing techniques such as writing press releases and writing article. The web site copywriter should always keep himself abreast of the latest changes in marketing in order to produce high-quality content. If the web site copywriter you intend to hire matches the above mentioned criteria, than he will be able to bring high results for your company.
in Copywriting
http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Copywriting/Web-site-copywriter-in-the-21st-century
The process of keywords search is well-known. However large the company can be, whatever industry it operates in there are usually some persons at the company who can perform this task. However, once the keyword search has been performed one should start working these keywords phrases into the text of your web-site. The person who performs this task is a web site copywriter.
Apart from being creative and have an aptitude fro producing appealing, memorable and attracting content the professional web site copywriter should be able to write the text in easy-to-read, convincing and action-driven style. He should also be able to perform thorough web site analysis and understand how the web site maintained by you should be changed or adjusted in order to get higher conversion rates. But even if he has these qualities it may not be enough. It today's highly competitive and ever-changing online world it is indispensable for him to understand current marketing trend, what customers want to purchase as well as what expectations they have. Apart from this he must also analyze marketing and advertising strategy of the main competitors of the company and propose effective adjustments in the content of the web site to countervail them.
If you are hiring experienced web site copywriter it is advisable to look through his portfolio in order to get an insight into his experience. Experienced web site copywriter who has already provided some copywriting service should indicate what type of copywriting he has been working on and what results he has achieved. Moreover he must also understand modern marketing techniques such as writing press releases and writing article. The web site copywriter should always keep himself abreast of the latest changes in marketing in order to produce high-quality content. If the web site copywriter you intend to hire matches the above mentioned criteria, than he will be able to bring high results for your company.
in Copywriting
http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Copywriting/Web-site-copywriter-in-the-21st-century
Friday, November 26, 2010
Top 10 SEO Copywriting
Top 10 SEO Copywriting
What would happen if…? I'm a person to always ask that question. I love testing and tracking to see what factors can improve or worsen a situation. So, it was only natural for me to track the moves of a little experiment I did involving SEO copywriting recently. I'll gladly share my findings with you.
Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear. The outcome of this experiment will not be the same for every keyphrase on every page of every site. There are too many unknown factors at play in the overall SEO equation. Not to mention, all keyphrases are not the same, and all sites are not the same. In addition, this experiment takes no account of link popularity, which is a huge factor in achieving high rankings. With that said, let me show you how I took the home page of one of my sites - that didn't even rank in the top 50 - and caused it to rank in the top 10.
First of all, I'm not a big fan of checking rankings on a regular basis. I don't run ranking reports for all my sites to be sure they are all in the positions I want them in for every given keyphrase. I'll do it from time to time just to satisfy my own occasional curiosity. This experiment began when I noticed the home page of one of my sites was ranking highly for a keyphrase that didn't seem to appear anywhere in the text. Upon further investigation, I saw that the keyphrase was included in the ALT tags (a.k.a. image attribute tags) and that it was also included in the title tag.
I knew ALT tags previously carried a lot of weight with the engines, but had been downgraded in importance because site owners had badly abused the tag. Had ALT tags been reinstated in their level of importance? I decided to find out.
Keyword #1 was currently in the ALT tags and the title tag, so I decided to eliminate the keyword in the title tag. This would let me see if the ALT tags alone could hold the position in the search engine results pages (SERPs). To make things more interesting, I also decided to research and find a keyword that was a little more competitive and insert it into the title tag. On the same day I removed Keyword #1 from the title tag, I inserted Keyword #2. My home page was not ranked in the top 50 at that time for Keyword #2.
A few days later, the Googlebot came by and boosted my home page to position #18 for Keyword #2. Not bad! The page fell one spot (from #17 to #18) for Keyword #1 since the removal of the phrase from the title tag.
Keep in mind, these are not the most competitive keywords ever known. They each got between 100 to 200 searches a day. Also, the home page of this particular site had been (and still is) well ranked for years for other keyphrases and had a positive legacy with Google
Five days later, Keyword #2 was moved up three notches to a ranking of #14 while Keyword #1 stayed the same. Things remained in their status quo for roughly 10 days and then began to shift again. Keyword #1, the original that was previously in both the ALT tags and the title tag, vanished completely. It was not found in the top 50. Keyword #2, that was only found in the title tag and nowhere else, dropped to position #25.
Four days later, Keyword #2 was back up in the rankings and was now at #16. To see if I could improve rankings further, I began to make small tweaks to the page attributes. I added Keyword #2 to the ALT tags (taking the places where Keyword #1 had once been), and I also added Keyword #2 to the body copy. The keyphrase was added to one, bold sub-headline and at three places within the body copy: none of which were above the fold. It was not added to any primary headlines that used tags, and no keyword density formula was followed for the body copy. No other pages on my site used this term as anchor text in links pointing to the home page. That gave the page keyword placement in the:
· Title tag
· ALT tags
· Body copy
Seven days later, the home page hit the top 10 for Keyword #2!
So, what does all this mean? Simple. There is no single primary factor in search engine rankings. It takes balance, testing and tracking to find out what works for your particular pages. Your best bet is to do exactly what I did… begin one step at a time and track your progress. Did something cause a positive movement? Keep it. If something causes a negative shift, take it out.
I'm not finished with this page yet. I'll keep trying different things from time to time just to see what happens. Maybe I'll add anchor text links from the internal pages to the home page. I might try writing articles with keyword-rich anchor text links to help boost the rankings more. There are many acceptable practices I can implement for this page (or any page) that will allow me to observe the shifts in ranking. As the old saying goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." A diversified approach to SEO copywriting that includes tags, copy and links is always a wise start down the road to top 10 rankings.
in Copywriting
Source: http://www.readbud.com
What would happen if…? I'm a person to always ask that question. I love testing and tracking to see what factors can improve or worsen a situation. So, it was only natural for me to track the moves of a little experiment I did involving SEO copywriting recently. I'll gladly share my findings with you.
Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear. The outcome of this experiment will not be the same for every keyphrase on every page of every site. There are too many unknown factors at play in the overall SEO equation. Not to mention, all keyphrases are not the same, and all sites are not the same. In addition, this experiment takes no account of link popularity, which is a huge factor in achieving high rankings. With that said, let me show you how I took the home page of one of my sites - that didn't even rank in the top 50 - and caused it to rank in the top 10.
First of all, I'm not a big fan of checking rankings on a regular basis. I don't run ranking reports for all my sites to be sure they are all in the positions I want them in for every given keyphrase. I'll do it from time to time just to satisfy my own occasional curiosity. This experiment began when I noticed the home page of one of my sites was ranking highly for a keyphrase that didn't seem to appear anywhere in the text. Upon further investigation, I saw that the keyphrase was included in the ALT tags (a.k.a. image attribute tags) and that it was also included in the title tag.
I knew ALT tags previously carried a lot of weight with the engines, but had been downgraded in importance because site owners had badly abused the tag. Had ALT tags been reinstated in their level of importance? I decided to find out.
Keyword #1 was currently in the ALT tags and the title tag, so I decided to eliminate the keyword in the title tag. This would let me see if the ALT tags alone could hold the position in the search engine results pages (SERPs). To make things more interesting, I also decided to research and find a keyword that was a little more competitive and insert it into the title tag. On the same day I removed Keyword #1 from the title tag, I inserted Keyword #2. My home page was not ranked in the top 50 at that time for Keyword #2.
A few days later, the Googlebot came by and boosted my home page to position #18 for Keyword #2. Not bad! The page fell one spot (from #17 to #18) for Keyword #1 since the removal of the phrase from the title tag.
Keep in mind, these are not the most competitive keywords ever known. They each got between 100 to 200 searches a day. Also, the home page of this particular site had been (and still is) well ranked for years for other keyphrases and had a positive legacy with Google
Five days later, Keyword #2 was moved up three notches to a ranking of #14 while Keyword #1 stayed the same. Things remained in their status quo for roughly 10 days and then began to shift again. Keyword #1, the original that was previously in both the ALT tags and the title tag, vanished completely. It was not found in the top 50. Keyword #2, that was only found in the title tag and nowhere else, dropped to position #25.
Four days later, Keyword #2 was back up in the rankings and was now at #16. To see if I could improve rankings further, I began to make small tweaks to the page attributes. I added Keyword #2 to the ALT tags (taking the places where Keyword #1 had once been), and I also added Keyword #2 to the body copy. The keyphrase was added to one, bold sub-headline and at three places within the body copy: none of which were above the fold. It was not added to any primary headlines that used tags, and no keyword density formula was followed for the body copy. No other pages on my site used this term as anchor text in links pointing to the home page. That gave the page keyword placement in the:
· Title tag
· ALT tags
· Body copy
Seven days later, the home page hit the top 10 for Keyword #2!
So, what does all this mean? Simple. There is no single primary factor in search engine rankings. It takes balance, testing and tracking to find out what works for your particular pages. Your best bet is to do exactly what I did… begin one step at a time and track your progress. Did something cause a positive movement? Keep it. If something causes a negative shift, take it out.
I'm not finished with this page yet. I'll keep trying different things from time to time just to see what happens. Maybe I'll add anchor text links from the internal pages to the home page. I might try writing articles with keyword-rich anchor text links to help boost the rankings more. There are many acceptable practices I can implement for this page (or any page) that will allow me to observe the shifts in ranking. As the old saying goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." A diversified approach to SEO copywriting that includes tags, copy and links is always a wise start down the road to top 10 rankings.
in Copywriting
Source: http://www.readbud.com
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