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Selling gold coins online I’ve just
finished a big web copywriting project for The Royal Mint. It was an
interesting writing job for me so I thought I’d use it as a case study for you.
First a
little background. As well as striking coins of the realm for general
circulation, The Royal Mint also markets collectable coins, collections and
very upmarket coin-derived jewellery.
The primary
market is coin collectors, or, to give them their correct title, numismatists.
(I learned to type that little humdinger of a word REALLY quickly.) But The
Royal Mint also wanted to promote and position their coins as gifts.
That opened
up a new challenge, since the gift-giver might be a numismatist, but, equally,
they could be a non-technical person who’s just looking for an upmarket or
different type of present.
The project
came about because the Mint were relaunching their e-commerce website and
wanted to refresh the copy for their 40-odd flagship products. Everything from
Proof quality gold sovereigns to silver baby rattles enclosing a Diamond
Wedding Anniversary Crown.
What it was like before I am not
telling tales out of school to say that the house style, particularly for print
DM, is a little on the flowery side.
Don’t get
me wrong, these coins ARE special. They are tangible. And they are made of
(struck from, we should say) gold and silver. And it appears the collectors
(typified as men in their mid-sixties) love the fruity, adjective-heavy
language that is as ornate as some of the coin designs.
My brief My job was
to give the copy a fresher feel. To make it more web-friendly. And to make it
work harder to sell coins. For each of the flagship products, the copy had to
follow the new page template developed by The Royal Mint in collaboration with
their web designers.
There are
three main sections: an overview, product information, and background and
history. To these I added “As a gift…” – a short paragraph positioning the coin
or collectable as a gift and using less technical language.
What I did and why Here’s the
product overview section for the 2007 Diamond Wedding £5 Gold Proof.
For only the fifth time in
British numismatic history, the Royal Mint has struck a United Kingdom coin
bearing a conjoint portrait. Here, I introduced three key elements for the collector. The theme, “the monarchy”. The alloy, “22 carat gold”. And the denomination, “five-pound”. Notice those technical words to establish rapport with the collector? “conjoint portrait” – meaning two heads. “reverse and obverse” – meaning back and front. I deliberately used the adjective “knowledgeable” to flatter
the reader. And also, subtly, to suggest that not buying would be an act of
ignorance.
I also used
a set of four bullet points, to break up the text and introduce the benefits.
They use
verbs, which engage the reader and encourage action. And they stress the
exclusivity and rarity of the coin – a big draw for collectors.
The other
two sections go into more detail about the design and minting of the coin and
also the historical background. The latter gave me licence to indulge in a
little more descriptive writing than I normally get asked to write. The results
are pretty good, I think, as you’ll see if you visit the
product page.
The results It’s too
early to tell how the copy is performing in terms of sales, but purely in terms
of the copy itself, we have pages that are easier-to-read, more focused on
benefits and talking directly to the reader. All the copy was delivered on time
and loaded ready for their launch date (which, incidentally, was brought
forward by a week at short notice).
Do you need
copy writing for your website? Either general pages like Home, About Us and
Products and Services? Or hard-hitting catalogue-type pages each dedicated to
selling a particular item?
Why not
give me a ring on +44 (0)1722 413 900 or email me for a quote at
andy.maslen@sunfish.co.uk? You can spend your time marketing your site and
leave the wordsmithing to me.
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“…clear, concise, high-impact…” “…we doubled our response rates…” “…really pleased with the copy…” “…the best opening rate…” “…the copy is fantastic…” “…the pack is a great success…" “…absolutely brilliant…” “…our highest-ever response…"
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