Watching the world go by also provides a never-ending supply of blog fodder, which I absolutely love sharing with others. Whether it’s motivational, inspirational, educational, or entertaining, I enjoy it all.
For example…I was just standing on my balcony overlooking the dunes on Myrtle Beach from our 14th floor unit (where it snowed 1-2 inches the other day - see photo for proof!).
This winter (January - April 2010) is our 2nd winter down here, and I found myself thinking about last winter when we stayed in the Cherry Grove section of North Myrtle Beach.
As I stood on the balcony, overlooking the beautiful dunes (and watching the resident cats run around in the world's largest litter box), my mind travelled back to the last few months of our stay last winter. At that time, the city of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina sent out crews to improve and protect the fragile sand dunes. (Now, stay with me, because this story weaves into an important
web copywriting concept that we need to understand.)
Ok. So, I’d watch these guys work the beach for hours and hours over the course of several weeks. First they put up hundreds of small protective fences in front of the dunes up and down the beach for a stretch of at least a couple of miles.
Then, they came back and drilled tiny little holes – lots of them – into the sand behind the fences.
After that, they took tiny baby dune grass plants – probably a gajillion at least, and carefully planted them into their tiny little holes.
You couldn’t miss ‘em. Really. Anyone walking out onto the beach from any point of entry would have to stop at the fences and marvel, “Wow! Look at all those tiny baby dune grass plants! What a lot of work must have gone into planting those! I’d better keep off these dunes!”
But just in case the newly planted dune grass somehow escaped one’s attention, the city was prepared. The crew came in yet again. This time with signs. They put signs – dozens of signs in front of the dunes, politely asking us to refrain from messing up the restoration work.
As if
that weren’t enough, there are signs – big signs – at the beginning of every public beach access walkway informing people of the rules of the beach and telling them to protect the dunes (again, see photo for proof).
At this point, one would think that people would reverently avoid walking behind the protective fences to – well, help protect the dunes and respect the restoration project.
So why is it that as I stood on my balcony in Cherry Grove, I saw people in the dunes? And guess where they just plopped their beach chairs?
Right smack dab on top of all the little baby dune plants.And get this… They were sitting RIGHT BEHIND THE SIGN. The very sign that is asking them to please protect the dunes by leaving them the heck alone. I am not joking. This was for real.
Right behind the sign that was now obscuring their otherwise lovely view of the ocean.
Sigh. I mean, c'mon - look at the photo - and if you look closely enough, you'll see lots of footprints in the sand.
So. What has this got to do with
web copywriting? A lot! Consider this:
It is obvious that the signage and new plants did not get the visitors’ attention.Let me say that again:
It is obvious that the signage and new plants did not get the visitors’ attention.
How can that be?
Well, two thoughts come to mind:
Either the people damaging the dunes just don’t care and/or can’t read (in which case it doesn’t matter how much the city of North Myrtle Beach tries to protect the dunes)…
Or…
The signs are not written or presented using proven copywriting techniques.Getting someone to your website is one thing. Getting them to pay attention to what you have to say is something else entirely.
So. Let’s get back to our dune protection scenario. The signs look a lot like most “Do Not” signs. You know the type: Do not do this, do not do that…blah blah blah.
This particular sign reads: “Dune Protection…Please Do Not Walk On, Cut, Break, or Destroy Vegetation.”
What’s missing? Keywords!
These signs contain no keywords at all.
Not a single eye-catching keyword that people care about. No sense of urgency. Nothing unique. Nothing appealing to the visitors’ emotions motivating them to respond (translate: “buy”).
The city of North Myrtle Beach evidently does not employ
copywriters to write and design their signs.
Let’s analyze the situation. Do you know how many people searched the term “Do Not Walk On The Dunes Sign” that month? Four. That’s right. My keyword reverse-search tool indicated (last spring) that four people in the whole wide world searched that term. Ok. Maybe that phrase is too narrow.
So, I entered the phrase “Protect Dunes,” and ONE person searched for “How To Protect Sand Dunes” last month.
Pop in the keyword “Dune Protection.” Only eight searches.
Obviously, a sign begging people to help protect dunes just isn’t going to cut it.
So, contemplating a fitting punishment for disrespectful dune tramplers, I typed in “Let’s Go To Prison,” and behold! 345 people searched that phrase that month! (You can see that I was in a research frame of mind.)
Even the misspelled, “Lets Go To Prison” got 1,104 hits. (Ok, maybe it’s a movie title, but I knew I was on to something!)
As I watched adults (who should know better) destroy the baby dune plants, additional phrases came to mind. The thought, “Why don’t you people grow up?” was among them. Believe it or not, 4,923 people searched the term “Grow Up” that very month. Hmm.
So, instead of the current sign, I submit to you the following sign:
Please Help Our Dunes
GROW UP!
Stay Off Them or You Can
GO TO PRISON!
($1,000,000 Fine, and Please Note:
People in the Condos are Watching You!)
Whaddaya think? (Ok, maybe they won’t go to prison or get a $1,000,000 fine, but I kind of liked it…)
So, when
writing web copy, 1) use terms people are looking for, and then 2) place them strategically in the text so that people actually notice them when they do see them.
Otherwise the website will not attract qualified visitors, and those who do visit won’t stay.
Oh… I had one final idea to help the City of North Myrtle Beach help protect the dunes:
How about pointing an identical sign INWARD towards the dunes? Even if people miss the sign from the outside, they can’t miss it when they plop themselves down in the chair that looks right at it.
Just a thought.
PS: What do you think of my little snow man? He lasted just a couple of hours here on the deck (see photo for proof.) :)
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