Every successful business strategy has professional copywriting behind it. However when it comes to local business marketing often times business owners think that just getting traffic and having a website where they offer their products is good enough. Many businesses expect prospect to purchase products by seeing the value in the product and by the customer needs it. Unfortunately people are more complex that and that's why having good Copywriting on any of your promotional material is one of the most important business strategy you can have. People by emotionally and they rationalize it by having make sense, and that is the purpose of having great sales copy on your website or any promotional content as part of your local business marketing.
Here are 10 steps to creating good copy quickly and easily
1. Do Your Market Research: I say this many times in my article so if you read any of them I hope you are getting the message. This is the foundation for everything so if you have not done your market research get go do it. Your goal is to discover what problems your market has. Don't worry its quick and painless and you can see how to do quick, simple market research watching my "Doing Your Market Research" video.
Ask yourself these Question:
- Who are you?
- What do you sell?
- Why are you in this business?
- What do you do for your customers?
Imagine this is your "Elevator Chat" with a potential customer.
2. Know your ideal customer, his/her needs: You can find out exactly who your customer is by doing market research. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. Ask yourself:
- Who are you selling to?
- What are his/her needs, where does it hurt...
- What does he/she need to hear from you to feel good about buying your product or service?
Avoid hype and pitching. Just really think about your customers and relate to their needs and pains.
3. Your Uniques Selling Proposition: This is a way to set up interest and get your foot in the door. This is where a lot of local business owners get confused and go horribly wrong. It is not about "what" you sell but about "what" you sell DOES for your customer.
Also keep away from cleaver slogans. Being non-cleaver and giving specifics is what works best. In other words, keep off the BS. For example "I help small and local businesses brand and market their business on the Internet effectively by creating measurable results and to get more leads, customers and make more money than using traditional marketing strategies."
4. Your List of Features and Benefits: A list of the things that your product or service does and what benefits does it hold to your customer. An example of feature is: downloadable e-book. The benefit of this feature is: your customer can read it instantly, no need to wait for it. Thse will be your bullet points for your sales letters, ads, or website content where you talk about your product/services.
5. Titles & Headlines: Your titles and headlines should be catchy, but true without hype. Somethng that will peak the readers curiosity of and them want to know more. Here's one example "How Build a Luxurious Deck Without Lifting a Finger" if you are carpenter. Here you are targeting the busy professionals who want a luxurious deck but doesn't have the time or desire to do it themselves. This type of hook headline could very well speak to that audience. How about this one, "The Smiths Got $20,000 Over Asking On Their House By Doing This One Easy Step" for a real estate agent who has a track record of over asking sales. This type of headline could very well speak and peak interest of a person looking to sell their house. One thing to note here is that every word in the headline must earn its place.
6. Your Story and Voice: This is an important part not only for professional copywriting but also as a business strategy. This is where you expose your credibility and create your voice. This is also where you would identify with your customer and hint, without bragging, why you are the one that will help them.
7. Making a Huge Promise: This is where you make a big promise to your customers. The trick here is to have a good balance, right between hard cold reality and magic. For example the cold hard reality that to get rich you need to work really hard to make the money you dream of and the magic promise is that you will get rich while you sleep because you wished it, in other words winning the lottery.
8. The Guarantee:
9. Shaking Things Up: This is where you rattle the cage a little, by creating hand wringing urgency and scarcity . Offering limited time offers, limited number of products/seats available or while quantities last, products. There is a reason these are so widely used... they work. People fear of being left out or not getting something someone else has. This is where you reach out and grab people by their greed. This is were you would also sweeten the deal and offer money saving bonuses or extras to sweeten the deal and get their mouths really watering.
10. The Close: Here is when you tell people how to order or contact you to get their sweet deal. Tell them
Copy writing speaks to the psychology of why people buy they buy emotionally but they need to rationalize their purchase logically to others. Well written copy will do just that and make the customer unable to refuse any offer that you put in front of them especially if your previous product and offers were of great value to them.
Professional copywriting is what separates the successful business strategy from the unsuccessful. It can be quick and easy if you understand your ideal customers and follow these 10 steps. Write your draft quickly and then make at least 6 other edits to get the perfect copy. Each word in the Sales letter, website copy, blog post or video should have a reason and earned its place in the copy.
A fast and easy way of getting killer copy for a website, blog or a video is to hire professional copywriter. You can do that by requesting a consultation with me by filling in your contact information on the form on the top right hand of this page.
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