Blog Topic: Copywriting

Regardless of which Social Media, Social Networking or content sharing website you’re involved with, they all have user profiles, settings and options to configure that can help you make it easier for connect with you online.

Make it a point this week to revisit your profiles on the social media sites you’re involved with to make sure you are taking advantage of their options and you have a keyword-rich compelling profile.  Start with YouTube, Twitter, Facebook profile and company pages,  LinkedIn personal and company profiles and remember that “keywords drive traffic”.

Social Media Marketing Profile Tips:

Duplicate website content… This is a simple concept, mostly misunderstood and easily fixed.  I’m going to approach this from a few perspectives and give you the links and tools that can help you.

First, understand that it’s the search-engine’s goal to provide the best search results for the user.  While Google, Bing and Yahoo rank website pages a bit differently they all have the same outcome of a positive and relevant user experience.  That experience comes from listing unique pages on their search result pages (SERPS).  

For this blog posting, I’m just going to use Google as “the search engine”.  

Duplicate content generally refers to blocks of text or entire pages that are virtually the same.

90 Ways to Attract Customers with Magnetic Copy

90 Ways to Grab hold of Your Customers’ Emotions and Move them to Take Immediate Action

90 ways to Relate to your Customers so Well You Freak Them Out

90 ways to Seduce Prospective Customers and Get them to Go On a Second Date

90 ways to Use Emotional Charm to Sweep Customers Off Their Feet

90 ways to Break Down the Wall Between You and Your Prospective Customers

90 Ways to Slay the Emotional Dragon and Win the Heart of Your Customers

90 Ways to Hook Your Prospective Customers Using Emotions as Bait

Clients are always asking me, “How do you get customers to buy more?”

My answer:
You must connect with them on an emotional level. People make purchases based on their emotions, and once you have created an emotional bond with a customer you increase chances of getting repeat purchases from that person. If you tell a prospect your product or service will make her so attractive that nobody – man or woman – who passes by will be able to stop themselves from staring at her in awe and amazement (or with eyes full of envy) you will turn that prospect into a customer. Then, if you deliver enough added value to that customer, she will come back again and again and will become a loyal customer who will even refer her friends to you.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling or what industry you’re in…if you selling online or offline you can only stay in business if you’re making a profit. That profit comes from either increasing sales or reducing your expenses…

This blog is about both, because when you make your marketing materials more effective — you’ll increase your bottom line.

I’ll reveal strategies for designing attention getting marketing materials that will motivate your customers to take action!

Whether you’re an actual designer, the CEO, Marketing Director, Entrepreneur or on the team, I’ve got success strategies for every stage in the development process. I am going to assume you already know who you target markets are, and have a clear understanding of your products and services… If not, that’s the first thing to put on your list of action steps.

Using Relevant Keywords is the Most Important Element to Increase Your Site Traffic

Everyone I talk to as an Internet Marketing Consultant wants to know how to get more site visitors from search engines.  It starts with a basic understanding of how the search engines work-or rather what their responsibility is to their user-the searcher.

The search engine’s job is to provide the best and most relevant results to the person using their search engine to find solutions to their searches. To do that they need to catalog a site’s content and while there are every-changing algorithms for top rankings a critical element for search engine optimization (SEO) is the content, which of course is made of WORDS.

Those words when filled with your “keywords” make up your content.  Knowing which words to use and where to put them on your site is a huge element of SEO to get more traffic.   Keywords and keyword phrases are the same thing.

Here are a few tips for keyword success:

1. Make a list of the main types of prospects you want to attract.

Create a marketing profile for the typical prospect and customer for your business in a word doc. Get as specific as you can so you can put yourself in the “mindset” of the type of people you want to attract.  Ask yourself and evaluate what keywords you think they would type into a search engine to find you, your products or services.

2. Do your research.

Look at your website statistics because that will show you what words people are using now to find you. It doesn’t mean they are the best words, but your stats will show you what keyword phrases they are using now.  We use “Google Analytics” for sites. It’s a free service, easy to implement and offers a ton of benefits.

You want targeted traffic that will convert into customer leads and sales.  Many years ago I optimized my Internet Marketing Speaker website for my name “Ford Saeks” but because my first name Ford is also a major automotive company I was receiving tons of spill over traffic for people looking for Ford cars and Ford car parts, and not my professional services to help people improve their marketing results and profits.  The keywords we use now are related and relevant to what our prospects and customers are searching for to find our solutions.  The research results, our site statistics and usage of the popular keywords research tools all help us optimize our sites for top rankings.

Two of my favortite Keyword tools are:

If you want to increase your sales, then improve your copywriting and target marketing skills. 

Start by putting yourself in the mind of your prospect.  Think about what they want and why they would take action.

Most importantly, target your message to each type of specific prospect.  This applies to your website, print materials, and multimedia.

Sending the same marketing message to multiple markets waters down the message and will most likely reduce responses.  Aim for sending specific messages to specific audiences.

Can anyone write great copy? I get asked that all the time. I tell them all the same thing: You already know how to do it! Because you already know how to tell stories. I just have to teach you the proper structure, and UNTEACH you all the stuff your elementary and high school teachers taught you.

If you ever made up a story for your children, you’re a copywriter. If you’ve ever gathered with friends as a teenager and told ghost stories, you can write copy. Great copywriters simply paint visual pictures of events. Events that happened in the past, events that may happen in the future, or events that won’t ever happen, unless you buy their product. You either paint the picture of the joy the prospect will get using your product, or you paint the picture of the hardship he will continue to endure without it. Why?

What if I told you there was an easy way to dramatically help you increase your sales without spending a dime… you’d be interested, right? Of course. And better yet, what if it was easy to implement?

In part one of this article I posed the question, “Can anyone write great copy?” I get asked that all the time, and I always say the same thing:

Yes. Most people already know how to do it!

That’s because most people already know how to tell stories… and storytelling is was great copywriting does. The reality is that if you can talk, you can write great copy. In part two, we continue our journey into the psychology and copywriting strategies that are used by the pros to generate millions of dollars in sales. We’ll explore more of the secrets that will help you craft compelling copy. One of the most critical – if not the most critical – elements you must master to be a great copywriter is the headline. Did you know that on average, five times as many people will read a headline as read the content of your copy? Unless your headline sells your product or service you may have wasted 90% of your money!

Why? Because it doesn’t matter how great your offer is, how compelling the body copy is, or what a bargain your price is. If you have a lousy headline, no one will read further to discover the other stuff. The headline also sets the tone of the copy, and puts the reader in a certain mindset before she even begins to read.

Let’s suppose your headline is something like:

How Badly is Your Lawyer Ripping You Off?

The reader is likely approaching the copy with an expectation of finding out something her lawyer doesn’t want her to know, with an expectation of uncovering ways that she can save some money.

So assuming your product can address these issues, your prospect is already predisposed to your offer before she’s read the first sentence! And that’s a pretty strong position to be in.

Your job is to grab your prospect’s attention. Anyone who is not a prospect isn’t important to your copy. For example, let’s say you are selling some kind of insurance for motorcycles. A good headline for you might be something as simple as:

ATTENTION MOTORCYCLE OWNERS!

Naturally anyone that doesn’t own a motorcycle will likely skip your ad. So what? You aren’t writing for everyone – you’re writing for qualified prospects.

Headlines and subheads help you get the prospect’s attention. They entice to into reading the rest of the message. This is more important today than any other time in advertising history because prospects have never been so distracted before, so bombarded with information, and so overwhelmed with stimuli.

There are probably as many different permutations of headlines as there are copywriters. But I believe that they can be grouped into some major categories. Each of these types serves its own purpose, depending on the product, service, concept or idea you are promoting.

You will likely find a type that you gravitate to, and it works well for you. That’s fine; you are naturally going with your strength. But be open to using other types occasionally, as the situation calls for them.

Types of Headlines

The Question Headline: Do You Make These Mistakes in English?

The News Headline: Amazing New Medical Breakthrough for Fat Loss

The Benefit Headline: Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days!

The Scare or Fear of Loss Headline: Act Now or Miss this Chance Forever!

The Intrigue Headline: Can You Pass the Prosperity Test?

The Testimonial Headline: “My Hair Started Growing Back in two Weeks!”

Headlines are not the only assault weapon in your arsenal of attention-grabbing actions. Subheads allow you to expand what you’re doing with your headline. You can bring in other elements, or simply continue what you started with the headline. Here’s a couple examples using some of our earlier headlines, but adding a subhead this time around:

Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days
Wear your new bikini next month!

Can You Pass the Prosperity Test?
Or are you destined to remain poor your whole life?

This next technique comes from my colleague and master copywriter, Bob Bly, to help you Rate and improve your Headlines using the 4U’s.

Please write down the words: Urgent    Unique    Ultra-Specific    Useful.

Then write these two headlines: “Free Ezine Subscription”

Leave a couple spaces… then write: “Get Targeted Traffic And Higher Sales …In Less Than 27 Days”

Now, using a scale of 1 through 4, with 1 being the weakest and 4 being the strongest, rate each headline according to the 4U’s.

“Free Ezine Subscription”
Is this headline Urgent? On a scale of 1-4? Nope. I give it a “1.”
Is it Unique? Hardly… another “1.”
Is it Ultra-Specific? Maybe a “2″ because you know it’s free and
an ezine, but what is it about? Probably a “1″ or “2.”
Is it Useful? Score another “1.” It’s not useful because you don’t
even know what it’s about.
The total score for this headline is only a 4 or 5 out of a possible
16. Not very good.

Repeat the process on the other headline…

“Get Targeted Traffic and Higher Sales… in Less Than
27 Days.
Is this headline Urgent?
Is it Unique?
Is it Ultra-Specific?
Is it Useful?

Sure it’d be great if all of your headlines scored 16, but it’s not about having all 4U’s in all categories. Use them to help improve your headlines and you’ll get better results.

Practice writing headlines using the six different types of headlines. Add subheads if you’re feeling especially creative!

Then look at your current marketing materials and website. Review your headlines and go rate them using the 4U’s. They don’t have to score all 4U’s, but this method will help you see were you can improve your headlines.

Easing Prospects into Your Body Copy

You need headlines that make the prospect read your subhead. And you need a subhead that makes them want to read your opening paragraph. And you need an opening paragraph that makes them want to read the next paragraph and the next. Every paragraph has the same function; to pull the reader through to the next one.

For most copywriters, the opening of a sales letter or ad is the hardest part. Once they get into the flow of the copy, they do fine. Many copywriters take a few paragraphs getting “warmed up.”

Unfortunately, those few paragraphs are likely to be the ones that drive away a large percentage of prospects.

No matter what medium you’re working in, your prospects are busy, skeptical, and distracted. Many open your sales letters over the trash. They scan a page in a magazine or newspaper before they commit to reading it. Their fingers are on their computer mouse ready to click or on the TV remote, just waiting to punch a button.

You don’t have time to warm up. You’ve only got a few seconds to grab them by the collar, throw them up against the wall, and shout, “This is important to YOU! Pay attention now!”

So that has to happen first with your headline – and then in your copy lead-in.

What’s the best way to cut right to the chase, and grab the prospect without meandering around, warming up?

I learned this secret from legendary copywriter and my business partner Randy Gage. You’ll want to start with one of his six body copy lead-in templates. Use any one of them, and you are immediately into the copy narrative. Once there, the copy will flow naturally. All are effective; it’s simply a case of deciding which one is appropriate for the offer that you are making.

Randy’s surefire body copy lead-in templates are:

• The Burning Question(s)
• The Invitation
• The “Behind the Scenes” Story
• The “YOU” approach
• The Take-Away

Here are some examples:

The Burning Question(s): “First, two questions, if I may…”
You can use one or more questions… but no more that three in most cases.

The Invitation: “You’re invited to be one of the first in your area to receive…”

The “Behind the Scenes” Story: “It was 8:00 on a Thursday morning. I arrived at my office to find…” or “Well it happened again. I proposed a marketing strategy to a new client who told me it wouldn’t work.”

The “You” Approach: “Executives like you are a very special breed. You’re the kind of person that…”

The Take-Away: “Odds are that you don’t even qualify for the offer I’m about to make. But on the slight chance that you do…”

So let’s review. First, if you’ve ever told a story to your friends or family, you have the makings of a great copywriter. Use these simple techniques to help paint a mental pictures of the joy the prospect will get by purchasing your product, or the hardship he’ll continue to endure without it.

You have a system now for writing effective headlines, subheads and lead-in body copy templates. Use the 4U’s to rate and improve your headlines too.

You don’t have to have a degree in English to be a copywriting pro! Practice, evaluate, and keep on practicing! You’ll know you’re copy is working when your prospects convert to customers.