Editorial Services

(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.

(Next: Stress Benefits)

Popularity: 42% [?]

(First in a series)

Imagine the power of the written word. Simply be arranging nouns and verbs, with a few adjectives and adverbs judiciously sprinkled in, you can get people you’ve never met to do things you want them to do.

Pretty awesome tool, huh?

The problem is that most people don’t – or don’t know how to — make full use of this amazing power. Their marketing communications are a mish-mash of convoluted ideas, poorly constructed sentences, vague promises, and ill-conceived offers thrown together in a sales letter, web page or email. The unfortunate result is an well-intentioned campaign that falls flat.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll examine some of the key concepts that can quickly and easily turn your boring, ineffective copy into a money-making machine.

Step 1: Gain Attention

If you can’t gain attention in your marketing communications, the battle is lost before it even starts. With so many forms of media competing for your prospects’ attention, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. If people don’t notice you, they won’t ready your copy. If they don’t ready your copy, you don’t get a chance to mold their perceptions. If you don’t get a chance to mold their perceptions, you’ll never make the sale.

Being as specific as possible is a great place to start. Copywriter extraordinare Bob Bly uses a sales pitch promoting collection services to dental practices as a example of how being specific can help:

How we collected over $20 million in unpaid bills over the past two years for thousands of dentists nationwide

Note the specific items: $20, two years, dentists. They help create a credible, memorable message.

Ypu can also gain attention by making an offer that is free, low in price or unusually attractive. I’m sure you’ve noticed how some life insurance companies frame their offer: “Now…$1 week buys Guaranteed Term Life Insurance for Pennsylvanians 50 and older.” The $1 a week offer seems reasonable and the rest of the pitch is specific (Pennsylvanians over age 50).

Asking a provocative question is another effective way of gaining attention. “Do you want to lose 20 pounds WITHOUT going on a diet?” is sure to grab someone’s attention, in part because it seems so outlandish.

Creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity works, too. Giving your offer a defined time period and limited availability can make people take notice. “This offer expires in 10 days. Act Now!” or “This offer is limited to the first 10 people who call.”

Be careful about trying to be funny or topical. People may not get the pun or the cultural reference may be quickly outdated.

Next: Make sure your copy focuses on the customer

Popularity: 39% [?]

I became aware of “The Elements of Style” as a sophomore at West Catholic High School in Philadelphia in 1970. I didn’t pay much attention at the time; it seemed like a pretentious compendium of archaic rules whose only purpose seemed to be to suck the life out of my writing.

Today, the little book authored by William Strunk Jr., and updated E.B. White occupies a prominent spot on my desk and is consulted often to answer tricky questions of word usage, punctuation, form and composition, even moreso than my trusty AP stylebook. It feels good just to have it next to my computer, as if its contents will clear up confusing sentences and stubborn subclauses by osmosis. I should know the rules by now, but every once in a while it helps to open the book at any page and read for five minutes. Inevitably, I’ll learn something new (or at least refresh my memory).

Brian Scott has an interesting post about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the first publication of “The Elements of Style” over at Write Better, the official blog of LousyWriter.com.An event in New York City on April 16 will mark the momentous occasion.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Did you ever wonder what happens when a customer stops buying from you? One day you have a great relationship, everything is progressing nicely and you’re looking forward to a long-term relationship. And then for reasons you don’t quite understand, your customer goes away. Unless you take the initiative to find out, you may never know why that customer left.

Now, the folks at RainToday.com have come up with some answers, any or all of which may apply to your business. In a new report “How Clients Buy,” the most commonly experienced problems clients have with their service providers is that the vendor:

1. Did not listen to them – 38%.
2. Did not understand their needs – 30%.
3. Did not respond to requests and correspondence in a timely manner – 30%.

Doesn’t sound like a major challenge to keep your customers. Just spend a little more time listening and understanding how you can solve your clients’ problems. Take a few extra minutes to respond personally to an email or phone call from a customer.

Those little things can go a long way in keeping your customers from leaving. In fact, the survey indicates that 96% of them will be “much more likely” or “somewhat more likely” to consider continuing to work with you. And we all know its much easier to get more profit from an existing customer than it is to cultivate a new one.

Popularity: 86% [?]

This week’s Stumbling took me on an interesting journey, with stops focusing on Twitter, blog themes, website tweaks, logo designs, and ad slogans.

I’ve been trying to convince myself to learn the ins and out of Twitter. To be honest,
I just don’t get it yet. 140-character Tweets? How much can you accomplish with that? I know a lot of people swear by Twitter as a social marketing tool and it has a huge following. If you’re like me and want to know more about this fascinating phenomenon, chekc out “Why I Like Twitter and Others Don’t” over at Internet Marketing with Josh Spaulding.

If you blog, finding the right look can be an ongoing challenge. Fortunately, WordPress has a huge inventory of themes to choose from. In case nothing there appeals to you, the folks at Listropolis have put together “35 Free Premium Wordpress Themes You Probably Missed.”And if they don’t do it for you, visit Smashing Magazine’s 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes

Although it might be a bit on the technical side, SEO Hosting’s “50 Simple Tips for Improving Your Website” provides some discussion points with your IT professional. If nothing else, it can make you sound like an expert when you ask questions.

Where do you start in designing or re-designing your logo? So many factors have to be taken into consideration, since it will become a huge part of your identity. Graphic designer Tanner Christiansen offers “45 Rules for Creating a Great Logo Design.”

Imagine boiling down a company or product brand into three or four memorable words. That’s exactly what slogan writers do for a living, and their hard work is often overlooked. Not at Ad Slogans, where the staff has put together a Hall of Fame for slogans.

Popularity: 59% [?]