(Second in a series)
When it comes to writing persuasive copy, set aside your ego and focus on the customer. They don’t care about your experience, your awards, your family or your plans for the future. They just want to know how you are going to meet their needs, satisfy their wants and solve their problems.
Persuasive copy gets inside the head of your specific audience and anticipates their questions, their doubts and their concerns. Persuasive copy deals with those issues by focusing on the customer.
If you were selling a health insurance plan to small business owners, which opening do you think would attract more attention: “Let me explain the Smith-Johnson Employee Health Benefits Plan” or “Are you tired of getting inferior health coverage for outrageous premiums that threaten to put you out of business?”
Obviously the second approach is far more attention grabbing. The first approach is focused on the seller; the second touches on an important issue that affects hundreds of thousands of potential customers.
A great way to ensure you are focusing on the customer and not yourself is to count the number of time you use “you” vs. “us” or “we” in the copy. Two “yous” for every “us” or “we” sounds about right.
In writing persuasive copy that focuses on the customer, it’s essential to understand their point of view. Conduct focus groups, attend trade shows and talk to your current customers to get to know the way they think, what’s important to them, and what motivates their decisions. Speak to those points in your copy and you’ll push the buttons that trigger them to do what you want.
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