Tag Archives: copywriting

How to create more effective calls to action

By Aaron Hoos on April 11, 2013 in Business

Any interaction you have with a lead, a prospect, or a customer will likely have some kind of call to action or desired outcome attached to it. Those calls to action or desired outcomes are key to how well your business runs today and how successful it will be in the future.

Here are some desired outcome examples: It might be about educating them about your amazing product or service so they them further down your sales funnel. As they get closer to buying something, your desired outcomes might be to take action and buy now. Once they are customers, you might interact with them and end with desired outcomes of deepening your understanding of them or perhaps asking them to refer you to someone else.

Calls to action help to propel your prospects and customers forward and, ultimately, they help to propel your business forward. So doesn’t it make sense to improve your ability to create better calls to action? In doing so, you’ll improve how your marketing and selling abilities, your networking, your copywriting, and more!

Creating an effective call to action is about understanding what your audience is looking for and showing them how the desired action you’re describing will help them find it. (This is really basic sales stuff and you probably know this part already).

But there’s another aspect to creating effective calls to action that I never really thought about before now: You also need to understand exactly what you are asking the person to do — what behaviors you are asking them to change. Are you asking them to take action once (“buy now!”)? Are you asking them to hire you for some service (“let’s work together!”)? Are you asking them to make a permanent change (“stop smoking!”)?

I stumbled across a really useful tool about this. The tool is called the “Behavior Grid” and it was created by BJ Fogg of Stanford University. The behavior grid is useful for many applications (and I first noticed it in an article about improving the user experience in web design). But I realized that this tool is really useful to help you create powerful calls to action in your marketing and sales efforts (including interactions and copywriting).

Click here to check out BJ Fogg’s Behavior Grid (opens in a new window).

Screenshot of Behavior Grid websiteThe Behavior Grid shows the 15 different types of behavior changes someone could make. Down the side of the grid are the three possible scopes of change — one-time, over a period of time, or permanent (from now, on). Across the top of the grid are the 5 possible types of change — do a new behavior, do a familiar behavior, increase behavior intensity, decrease behavior intensity, and stop existing behavior.

So when you are thinking about the call to action you want to ask your lead, prospect, or customer to do, you would figure out the scope of the change you are asking them to do and then you would figure out the type of change you are asking them to do. “Buy now”, for example, is a one-time new behavior if you are asking a prospect who has never bought from you before.

Once you’ve figured out the scope and type of behavior then click on the intersecting square in the grid to get more information about the change and tips about triggers and motivation to help you compel the action.

Click here to check out BJ Fogg’s Behavior Grid.

Copywriting as storytelling: A reinterpretation of a TED video

By Aaron Hoos on January 16, 2013 in Business

One of the biggest challenges in copywriting is capturing the attention of your prospective buyer.

And once you have that attention, the next biggest challenge in copywriting is keeping that attention. (Hint: After keeping their attention, the last biggest challenge in copywriting is getting them to act!)

How do you do those things? In the past few years, I’ve been increasingly fascinated with story as an element of copywriting because I believe story-telling is one of the best ways that we can grab and hold attention and compel someone to act.

In my sales letters and other copywriting, I’ve been experimenting with various types of stories and I’m seeing stories — overt and subtle, and in many different forms — evident in all kinds of marketing.

So when I found this TED video, I couldn’t help but watch it through more than once and take many notes. In this video, Andrew Stanton (of Pixar Animation Studios) talks about the power of story. He breaks down why stories are so powerful and he briefly touches on some of the elements that draw us in.

To be honest, I almost didn’t post this because we tend to think that stories are sacred and it seems almost sacrilegious to suggest that we can co-opt stories for copywriting and ultimately for monetary gain.

But stories are powerful and we use them all the time so I’m posting this video to inspire your marketing efforts

Here are some highlights from his talk that storytellers AND COPYWRITERS should adopt:

  • “Make me care” — that’s what audiences (and prospects) demand. Good copywriters deliver it in their copy and, in doing so, they rivet attention from the beginning through to the offer.
  • Promise something. Make a promise that you will fulfill through your story. I don’t just mean that you should promise something and deliver it in the product (that’s important but not what I’m talking about). Rather, you should make a promise and then deliver it in the story that makes up your copy. Then, for the reader to have the same promise fulfilled in their life, they can buy the product.
  • You don’t have to close all the gaps. “We’re born to deduce“, Stanton says. People want to complete the sentence. This goes along with what Derek Halpern of Social Triggers suggested in a webinar in which he recommends setting up an information gap that your audience will feel compelled to close, and they will be willing to click a link or take some other kind of action in order to close the information gap.
  • To help connect with your audience, Stanton suggests that you use what you know. “Express values you personally feel, deep down to your core.” This is ultimately the reason that I don’t mind equating copywriting with storytelling because ethical copywriters will sell ethically through story.
  • The best way to capture and hold your audience’s attention in story — and copywriting — is to invoke wonder. “To hold them still for just a brief moment in their day and have them surrender to wonder… The best stories infuse wonder,” Stanton said.

Great stuff for copywriters, marketers, advertisers who want to level up their effectiveness.

Copywriting and sales ideas for when your prices are higher than your competitors’ prices

By Aaron Hoos on January 8, 2013 in Business

There is so much competition on the web that it becomes almost too easy for entrepreneurs to become the low cost provider. That choice seems like that fastest, easiest, and most logical way to gain marketshare. But it’s a scary path to take and it’s one that can be hard to come back from once you’ve started in that direction.

If your business sells products or services that are more expensive than your competitors, you don’t have to lower your price to sell more! Instead, here are some ways to sell even when you are higher (or even the highest) price provider in your market.

Incorporate these ideas into your marketing activities and content, into your copywriting, into your advertising, into your sales, and even into your overall brand image.

  • Specialize. In my opinion, the easiest way to charge more is to narrow your focus and become an expert to a small group of people. Tighten up your niche so that you are not longer the high priced service provider in a competitive market but rather the ONLY service provider in a small market.
  • Keep the conversation focused on value. There’s a reason your charge more and it is probably related to the value you provide. Chances are, you provide a higher value or a better experience or premium service compared to your competitors. Get your buyers to stop thinking about the dollar figure and to start thinking about what they end up with.
  • Educate the buyer. I’m starting to see this as a marketing technique among photographers and wedding planners (and a couple of other service providers). When buyers choose the low-cost provider, they do so because they don’t know what goes into the price. But let’s be honest: Those low-cost providers won’t be around next week, will they? Probably not. I saw this when I was a freelance writer. At first some people balked at my higher prices… until they learned that the low cost provider was also holding down a full-time job to pay their bills. Then people realized that they could pay slightly more to hire me — someone who is a full-time writer. Educate your buyers by telling them about what goes into the price… and even warning them that the lowest cost providers appear and disappear overnight.
  • Gather horror stories about low cost providers. These are almost “anti-testimonials” (and they don’t even have to be about your direct competitors) and include them when presenting your price.
  • Promote exclusivity. Make it appear difficult to visit your store, keep fewer products in stock, have customers jump through hoops to buy from you. Yes, this might sound counter-intuitive if you’ve been serving a mass market but people are attracted to things they can’t have or that are hard to get. So play hard to get!
  • Become the luxury provider. Elevate your brand to position yourself as the luxury provider for the discerning and wealthy buyer. You’ll work with a smaller segment of people but they’ll be willing to spend more. (Note: This choice has its own challenges; you’ll need to invest in a higher level of consumer experience and, if possible, get endorsements from top tier celebrities in your category)
  • Don’t bring your competitors into the conversation. Maybe businesses set up a comparison between them and their competitors by saying things like “we’re the low cost option” or “we’ll beat the competition”. However, depending on where in the sales funnel that your customers are thinking about price, you might be able to avoid talking about your competitors at all. Instead, just position what your price could be (i.e. much higher; perhaps have you’ve charged in the past) and what it is.

Brand new entrepreneurs tend to think that their prospective buyers are solely focused on price as the make-or-break element of a sale. I used to think that too. Now I realize that it’s pretty far down the list and, the more effective your marketing is, the less important price becomes.

3 tips every business should know about copywriting

By Aaron Hoos on July 20, 2012 in Business

Most online businesses understand the importance of strong copywriting: They know that strong copy grabs the fleeting attention of prospects and then slowly builds credibility and desire and urgency until the prospect desperately wants to hand over their money to the business in exchange for the value promised.

Businesses know that. Unfortunately, we don’t see it in practice as often because there are other important copywriting truths that online business owners don’t realize.

1. THE MESSAGE IS ONLY PART OF THE EQUATION

Good copy is vital but good copy directed toward the wrong audience won’t convert prospects into frothing-at-the-wallet buyers. It’s just wasted money. Businesses that want to grow successfully by using copy need to first target their marketing messages to the right audience. (Check out these 55 questions to help you determine your target market). Once the right audience is identified and thoroughly scrutinized, only then can the most effective copy be written that will actually work to generate more prospect-to-customer conversions and, of course, more sales.

2. GOOD COPY IS NOT A CURE FOR POOR VALUE

Imagine that you find a great product that promises to do everything you need it to do. You spend your hard-earned money to own it. You put it to use. But if falls far short and doesn’t solve the problem you originally bought it for. All the good promises in the world won’t correct your disappointment at being “duped”. If your business is struggling to provide good value in the product or service you sell, getting a good copywriting is only a short-term fix. The good copywriter might be able to make your products or services look good… but if your business doesn’t back up that “talk” with the promised value then the long-term outlook isn’t good. You could end up losing money on returned merchandise and even negative word-of-mouth. Here’s a blog post about how to improve value so you can sell more.

3. COPY IS NOT THE SILVER BULLET YOU’RE HOPING IT TO BE

All too often, entrepreneurs who want to grow will look around at their struggling business and decide that better sales copy will solve their struggles. So they commission a high-priced copywriter to write their sales copy for them and then they sit back and wait for the money to roll in. They wait and wait and wait. What they’ve failed to realize is that good sales copy is only part of the equation. (Find out the better way to construct an offer). Businesses need to still drive prospects to their sales copy and they need to constantly test to make sure that the copy they’re using is the most effective copy.

Copywriting is an effective (even essential!) tool in the growth of a business. But hiring a copywriting to write a sales letter is only part of the formula for running a business. Next time you need expert copywriting, keep these tips in mind and ensure that you know your market, you provide good value, and your copy will be integrated into a larger sales funnel.

9 steps to identify the benefits of your product or service

By Aaron Hoos on July 17, 2012 in Business

Every marketing and sales expert everywhere advises that you use benefits to sell your product or service. After all, people buy stuff because it benefits them so businesses should outline what those benefits are.

But throughout my work as a writer, copywriter, marketer, sales person, and entrepreneur, there have been many times when I’ve wanted to list the benefits of a product or service but have been left with far fewer than I would like.

Here’s an easy step-by-step way to find all the benefits of the product or service you’re selling. So get a blank piece of paper and get ready to fill it up with more benefits than you know what to do with!

STEP 1. LIST THE OBVIOUS BENEFITS

You can probably list a few benefits already. These are the ones that spring to mind for you. I call these the “pet benefits” because they’re the ones that are at the top of your mind.

STEP 2. TURN FEATURES INTO BENEFITS

Turning features into benefits is a classic sales technique. Here’s how to do it: List all of the features of your product or service and then complete the sentence “that’s great because:”

So the feature “long lasting” you might write: “that’s great because my customer doesn’t have to replace it ever year”; or if the feature is “inexpensive” you might write: “that’s great because my customer can save their money to spend on something else”.

STEP 3. THINK ABOUT YOUR TOP CUSTOMERS

Your top customers – the ones who come back again and again, and who tell their friends and family about you – they buy for a reason. What is that reason? What conditions exist in their business or their life that compels them to return again? (Note: The answer to this question isn’t a benefit. You’ll have to translate it into one or more benefits).

STEP 4. THINK ABOUT BRAND NEW CUSTOMERS

The very first time someone clicks to your website or walks into your store, they are tentative and curious and have questions. What questions are they asking? Their questions are a hint at the type of benefits they’re looking for. Use your secret decoder ring to reinterpret their questions and your answers into benefits.

STEP 5. CATEGORIZE YOUR CUSTOMERS

Customers can be categorized into groups. Demographics is one of the easiest and most obvious ways to categorize customers but there are other ways as well: Why do some customers buy at certain time? Why do some customer group specific products and services together? Why do some customers come back again and again while others only buy once? Why do some customers spend more in one sale while others spread out the same number of purchases over a longer period of time? There are many ways to categorize your customers. Each category of customer buys for different reasons. What is it about your product or service that appeals to each category of customer?

STEP 6. THINK ABOUT THE PICKAXE FACTOR

If your product or service wasn’t available and your customer had to fend for themselves, what would they have to do? What makeshift alternate solution would they use? How much time, money, and effort would be required? I call this “the pickaxe factor” because your product saves them from the hard work of doing it themselves.

STEP 7. LOOK AT YOUR COMPETITORS

Although every business’ products and services are slightly different and offer their own unique benefits, there will be some common points between your offerings and your competitor’s offerings. So look at your competitor’s products and services to figure out why people buy. It’s sometimes easier to look at your competitors than your own business anyway, since you’re so close to your own business. (By the way, here are some other ways you can use competitive analysis to grow your business).

STEP 8. EXPAND YOUR LIST

Now that you have a list of benefits, it’s time to expand the list. For every benefit, rewrite it in two or three different ways. Rewording benefits in different ways is a great exercise because it helps you look at the benefit from different angles. A classic example is the benefit of “saving time”. I used to write that down as a benefit to the products or services I sold. But saving time is only one way to express the benefit and it’s not really the best way to express the benefit. Rather, “having time to spend on other activities” is a better way to express the “saving time” benefit. Once you’ve reworded your benefits, you don’t have to get rid of the original benefit; it’s good to have both.

STEP 9. QUANTIFY YOUR LIST

This could be the most difficult step. Where possible, quantify your list of benefits. If one of the benefits is “save time” then figure out how much time they save. If one of the benefits is “save money” then figure out how much money they save.

BONUS STEP

If you’re really anxious to make these benefits work for you, check out my blog post How to construct persuasive sales benefits to turn this list of benefits into a list of magical, eyeball-gripping, wallet-producing benefits.

As you go through these steps, build up a big list of benefits and save that list somewhere as a source document for all of the marketing and sales efforts in your sales funnel. You’ll end up pulling these benefits into your marketing copy and sales presentations. Schedule ten minutes a month to revisit the list and see if you can come up with any more benefits.

The 7 qualities that make SEOmoz’s content so darn bookmarkable

By Aaron Hoos on June 5, 2012 in Business

It’s hard to sift through the sheer volume of content that you and I are exposed to every day.

I have more feeds filling up my Google Reader than I have time to read, I have more email newsletters filling up my inbox than I have time to read. And let’s not forget about tweets (and other social media streams), ebooks, magazines, books, and client-recommended research.

So. Much. Stuff.

And every day, there’s more and more of it flowing in.

Since I can’t possibly read it all, I scan the headlines and I bookmark stuff that seems like it’s worth coming back to later.

I’m pretty selective when I bookmark, with one key exception: I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS bookmark SEOmoz’s email newsletter (of their blog content) without first reading it… because I know it will be good.

It’s weird because in the scope of my business, search engine optimization (which is SEOmoz’s focus) is only a tiny fraction of my work. I don’t call myself an search engine optimizer or an internet marketer, and when I promote my services, SEO and internet marketing are secondary benefits that comes after prospect/client engagement. And SEO does play a part in helping me promote my businesses, but it’s still only a part of the much bigger picture.

So even though I don’t have time to read all of the content flowing to me, I bookmark the stuff that looks like it will be helpful but I also always bookmark stuff from SEOmoz.

Weird.

So I’ve been trying to figure out why their content is SO bookmarkable… even to someone like myself who might only get some relevance from their content.

I try to provide good content on my blog but I wouldn’t define my work as “bookmarkable” so I’m hoping to reverse-engineer what they have achieved. Here are the qualities that describe SEOmoz’s content, which makes them so darn bookmarkable:

1. ENGAGING

Their content is always engaging. They have truly mastered the art of copywriting for an email audience (great headlines that get opened, great links to other content that beg to be clicked-through). Their content is highly readable and even when I’m scanning, I can’t help but read all the way through. There’s a good mix of text and graphics, stories and instruction, step-by-step and bullets. Their copy is riveting.

2. PRACTICAL

Their content is practical: It’s useful, it’s easy to read and follow, the benefits are clear and obvious and I can draw a straight line from their content to the benefits my business and my clients’ businesses will receive.

3. LONG

I’ve never done a word count on SEOmoz’s content but it seems long. At least, longer than some of the other stuff in my inbox. And because of that, it’s more bookmarkable. I scan it and think “this looks helpful but I can’t possibly read it all right now.” So BAM I hit the little star in Firefox and come back to it later.

4. COMMUNITY-ORIENTED

This is very powerful and it’s underappreciated. A lot of writers use terms like “you” and “I”… that’s okay but it has the tendency to sometimes feel instructional — like a teacher talking to a student. But SEOmoz writes as a peer to a group of peers. They use “SEOs” as a collective noun for search engine optimization practitioners (“SEOs do this” and “SEOs do that”, etc.) It has the feeling of a slightly-more-skilled-than-you peer who is sharing a valuable insight that you didn’t know. What a great way to get buy-in from readers!

5. TIMELY AND TIMELESS

This is another powerful quality that SEOmoz has mastered that I jealously aspire to. Their content is both relevant to right this moment but it also has good content that will be just as relevant next year. This makes readers WANT to read their content right now and later. Most blogs I read pale in comparison — their timely content doesn’t seem relevant next week, while their timeless content doesn’t seem important to read right now. Frankly, that’s a struggle I face in my writing — I’d love to write more about the movement of the stock market but no one wants to read that on the day AFTER!

6. PUSHES THE READER

Here’s what I mean by this: SEOmoz’s content can sometimes delve pretty deeply into statistical analysis and other types of numbers. They aren’t afraid to push their readers to know more. This is such a huge difference compared to other blogs that assume all readers are at a certain point and stay there.

7. CONSISTENT

SEOmoz’s content is always good. That’s why I always bookmark it. Other sites might produce good content one day and mediocre content another day (hey, I’m the kettle calling the pot black on this one!) but SEOmoz jams out good content always. That’s why I sometimes catch myself just bookmarking their content before I even finish reading the title.

And that’s the ultimate goal for any blogger: Are you writing content that is so good and so consistently bookmarkable that your readers will see your email, open it, and bookmark the the content before they bother to see what it’s about? I don’t but it’s such a great goal to work toward.

Do you have any blogs that you consistently bookmark to read later? What must-read recommendations (besides your own blog of course) do you have? Put it in the comments below…

Using the 7 basic human emotions in your sales funnel: Surprise

By Aaron Hoos on May 7, 2012 in Business

There are 7 basic human emotions: Anger, Fear, Disgust, Contempt, Joy, Sadness, Surprise.

These are root emotions from which all other emotions spring. (Read more about them here). These 7 emotions are at the core of what drives our decision-making.

If you understand these emotions and build your sales funnel around them, you can sell more.

HOW TO USE SURPRISE IN YOUR SALES FUNNEL

I really like that surprise is one of the 7 basic human emotions. It’s so effective when used in the sales funnel. Ironically, it’s not used often enough.

There are two ways that sales funnels can use surprise and both of these ways can have a very positive or very negative result.

Surprise in marketing: When businesses use surprise in marketing, they capture the fleeting, hard-to-get attention of their target audience. Used well, surprise can rivet the attention of an audience member so they stay engaged throughout the entire marketing message.

This truth in marketing was highlighted for me when I got my PVR. I would watch my shows and just fast-forward through the commercials. But sometimes a commercial (even at a high speed) will appear funny and shocking — surprising! — and I’ll stop and watch the commercial.

Unfortunately, surprise is so rare in marketing. Too often, marketing might start out as a great idea but it is pushed through various corporate departments — each with competing agendas — and what comes out on the other side is a mediocre result.

Surprise in sales: This is another area that has huge opportunity for many businesses but they fall short. When selling, businesses barely live up to expectations. They promise all kinds of things when selling and then meet (or almost meet) those expectations. Consumers are left feeling like they got what they paid for… and nothing else. Is it any wonder that businesses can’t figure out why consumers aren’t “extremely satisfied” when polled?

When I bought my furnace/air-conditioner, I was promised all kinds of things. When the company delivered and installed it, the installers told me that what was promised during the sale couldn’t be done because the salesperson wasn’t an installer and wasn’t aware of the peculiarities of my house. We got the issue resolved after A LOT of frustrating negotiation (and after I contacted the consumer affairs ombudsman). And then I pay every year for a 5 minute inspection. Ultimately, I got what I was promised, but nothing more. So, I’ve never recommended their service to anyone else.

On the other hand, they could have surprised me by delivering what they promised… and more. Even with a little extra courteous service and some proactive follow-up.

Consumers who are surprised by the value of their purchase and the company that sold it to them creates a wow factor that people will remember and return to again and again.

If you want to surprise people in your sales funnel, surprise them in your marketing with clever, unexpected, daring, push-the-envelope marketing that they aren’t expecting. And, surprise them in your sales by delivering more than you promised and providing higher value than they were expecting.

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