Top DIY Copywriting Tips for Social Enterprises

Write for people, not search engines – that’s the current advice from Google. Stuffing your text with keywords doesn’t work any more. Search engines will relegate your site and you will alienate your readers. The biggest driver of search engines now is links generated back to it from other sites, and the most effective way of all to achieve this is by other people recommending your content and referring others to it. Fortunately, SE forums and groups are naturally open to this open, collaborative approach to sharing content, and if you also do the same for others you won’t go wrong.

Use everyday language The third sector – like all others – has its own jargon, which is fine for specialist discussion forums but won’t mean anything to non experts. You should seek to influence a whole mix of decision makers in the private, public and third sectors, and you will gain credibility by encouraging all of them to talk to each other.

Reach out to business Despite all the talk of the big society, successful social entrepreneurs are looking beyond their traditional public and voluntary sector clients, which not only means their communications need to speak a different language, but also tackle a more fundamental problem. Business decision makers won’t necessarily be interested in your structure or nonprofit status, so you need to create separate pages for businesses and state directly the commercial benefits to them of what you are offering. However…

Remember you are a social enterprise. A recent survey found that third sector businesses are now overtaking conventional small to medium companies in growth, confidence and innovation. They are also more likely to be active in the most deprived areas, involving those affected by their decisions, and changing their communities for the better. Business leaders are starting to take notice, and want to tap into this dynamism, so if you’re an SE you need to shout about it and explain what makes you different. Put your values at the heart of your message – you will find that you’re not alone, and it could give you a competitive edge.

The web doesn’t stand still, and if you’re not updating your content regularly then no amount of SEO tricks will keep you visible. Either set up a standalone blog with links back to your site, or set up news pages on your main site. Use Twitter and LinkedIn to announce new developments, again linking back to your site.