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You + This Copywriting Concept = More Sales

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Understand your prospect’s 5 stages of awareness to write more effective copy

Copywriting. Looks easy, but it’s not.

As marketers, we have problems when we write marketing copy, whether we do the writing ourselves or hire a copywriter, we agonize over this issue:

What do we say?

and

What does our prospect need us to say?

But a concept used by experienced copywriters can help us. Let me share the concept and show you how I applied it to website copy.

What’s the Concept?

The 5 Stages of Awareness of your prospect.

How to get inside a prospect’s mind

Before we write, we think about what we need to say. We know we need to focus on the reader.

We need to determine their point of view to persuade them to take action. So how do we do that? By listening to the prospect, which includes understanding the prospect’s stage of awareness.

The 5 stages of awareness is a scale. It shows how much your prospect knows about your products and services. The concept also shows how much the prospect knows about his needs, pain, and problems.

The concept was coined by renowned copywriter, Eugene “Gene” Schwartz. And he wrote about this in the book, Breakthrough Advertising. The book was published about 50 years ago, but don’t discount this idea of its age. The framework is foundational to good copywriting.

So you need to measure your prospect’s awareness level to write to him or her.

How to Write a Great Testimonial for Your Vendor

Posted on by Shannan Seely

Show your support for a local business and boost the economy

Love it when you receive a recommendation? You appreciate the customer taking the time and effort, right?

You’re a customer too. How about you pay it forward?

Has a company provided outstanding service recently? Happy with a vendor and want to support their business? Let’s show our appreciation.

Why not write a customer testimonial on their behalf?

Andy Crestodina inspired me. Andy, cofounder of Orbit Media Studios, suggested asking loyal customers to give testimonials. Of course, he has tips on how. And you can apply this to giving testimonials as well.

Let me share tips I’ve gathered to ease the burden of writing a testimonial. You can nip the hesitancy to start. Drafting an effective testimonial won’t take you more time to write than an average one.

Plus, you can use your influence for good. You’ll help your vendor grow. And that’s gotta feel good to contribute to another’s success, right?

Get Persuasive-worthy Testimonials with this Makeover Formula

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Use this formula when you or your team need to gather and optimize testimonials quickly

You want to add social proof to your sales emails. Good idea! If you need something fast, I suggest using customer testimonials. Compared to other forms of reviews, customer testimonials are different because they are sought and selected by you.

You can:

Choose the customer who gives the testimonial
Control what message is displayed
Decide where the testimonial is placed in the email

Word-of-mouth and third-party reviews don’t allow that flexibility.

Use customer testimonials

“When value is demonstrated rather than described it immediately becomes more relatable … Showing is more powerful than telling because it reflects the customer’s desire, problem or dilemma (alongside your potential solution) back to him. This is why success stories build trust in a way marketing copy never can.” Bernadette Jiwa

Your prospective buyer is bombarded with choices. As he considers what product or service to buy, inner tension builds. He’s looking for reassurance. Good testimonials minimize the friction a prospective buyer experiences inside his head. When he reads other customers’ opinions, he instinctively views this feedback as fact.

Good customer testimonials add credibility to your offer.

So read my tips and learn how to enhance your customer testimonials. If you act on these ideas, your testimonials will resonate to your prospective customer.

Reexplore Using Testimonials in B2B – 8 Facts to Know

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Have customers tout your company’s distinct benefits

Hey, you. Person in charge of your company’s marketing. B2B marketer extraordinaire. You’re good at what you do. And I think one reason you stay ahead is you’re always on the lookout for the next best marketing trend. A better way to get more leads, gain more customers, you know, make more sales.

But there’s a marketing tactic you’re not using.

Or not using enough.

Customer testimonials, a form of social proof.

Why use customer testimonials?

They’re versatile and unique to your company.

Doug's Fish Fry restaurant bumper sticker

“Testimonials are sought and selected by you. This means you have full control over which testimonials are used, as well as where and how they are displayed.” Sujan Patel, owner of five SaaS companies

Why you need testimonials

Use This Highly Irresistible Idea to Cut Through Marketing Clutter

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Image: Hersheys.com

Convey your message in tempting mini-candy bar style

What’s your snack of choice these days working from home? For me, I love mini-size candy bars. Did you know the tiny confections have been around since the 1930s?

Let me back up. I can’t say eating a fun-size candy bar is by choice. A more precise phrase to describe my behavior is giving into a snack of temptation.

So why are these so irresistible? What’s their appeal? And why do I bring up the topic?

Mini-size candy bars by Mars, Inc. — CandyFavorites.com

1) Mini-sized candy bars = bite-sized chunks of information

If you think about it, eating a “junior” candy bar is a complete package. The bite-size sweets still contain the chocolate, the caramel, the peanuts – the value of a regular-size bar — but they’re also encouraging you to want a little bit more.

They’re a ready-made “grab and go” dessert. Tempting to devour. And people do. I do.

So when you’re trying to convince a prospect to buy your product or service, think about conveying your message in a mini-candy bar style.

3 Techniques to Persuade Your Reader to Turn the Page

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Wall of Mirrors painting by Claire Downey

Image: The Wall of Mirrors by Claire Downey

Lessons from Grover in The Monster at the End of This Book

When my daughters were young, we’d pile into the navy blue Honda Accord (a boxlike-design model year) and go to the public library every week for story hour. We’d check out dozens of books and scoop them up into our totes.

I was doing a weight-lifting regimen back then: hauling book totes and childcare bags, and lifting children in and out of car seats, high chairs, bathtubs, tricycles. I swear I had Michelle Obama biceps and triceps. At least back then.

On some occasions, the books they chose as their favorites would be mine too. Such as this one:

The monster at the end of this book book cover — The Monster at the End of This Book
Written by Jon Stone and Illustrated by Mike Smollin

When I needed to find a book for a toddler gift recently, I knew which one to choose. Before I wrapped it, I handed the book over to my teenager. She smiled and said, “Oh, I remember this book.” And we read aloud, “So please don’t turn the page.”

And, of course, we turned the page.

Jon wrote a classic children’s book featuring Grover. It’s not only funny and entertaining, but also steeped in persuasion. You can apply his techniques to update your marketing messages. Here are three principles of persuasion he used:

Welcome Emails Increase Your Open Rates by 82%

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Try an easy technique proven to improve your email engagement (and not everyone does it)

How’s your email marketing going?

I hear you’re focused on growing your email list. Good idea.

Over 200 marketers and 25 leading experts were asked in a recent study, which digital marketing channel generates the most return for your organization?

“About 59% of marketers said email marketing continues to generate the most return-on-investment.” Emma 2018 Email Marketing Industry Report

Email is your gold mine

So you’ve joined your peers in viewing an email list as a big asset.

And you can’t stop once you gain a subscriber. No, you’ve got to win him over to earn his long-term engagement, you know, reading your emails and taking action. Perhaps buying your product or service. Becoming a customer.

Because the value of an email list is the level of engagement, not the size of the list.

Curious to know the technique that will boost your email open rates by 82%?

Optimize Your B2B Content: Use the 5 Stages of Awareness

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When I wrote articles for regional business newspapers back in the day (they were called business journals, i.e., Springfield Business Journal and Lincoln Business Journal), one criterion for the assignment was word count. I needed to stick to that number and get to the point before my word limit was up.

Every two months, my article would make the front page, and it needed to fit in the upper right section, starting above the newspaper’s fold.

Today, we don’t have to squeeze our words into printed newspapers’ limited space. The Internet offers freedom! And yet, as business-to-business companies, we’re still obsessed with word count.

In describing the project’s scope, a chief marketing officer often says, “I only want 500 words.” Why only 500 words?

There is disparity about how long content should be. In a blog post, Neil Patel breaks down the word count for each industry’s content. And he concludes no magic number exists.

“Word count is not a standalone ranking factor. Word count only has merit if the content quality is high!” says Neil Patel

So what do we need to pay attention to instead?

Our reader’s level of awareness.

Consider this report about visitors’ behavior when they go online:

“People are not likely to read your content completely or linearly. They just want to pick out the information that is most pertinent to their current needs.” How People Read Online: The Eyetracking Evidence report, 2^nd edi tion

And according to Kate Moran, a User Experience expert for Nielson Norman Group:

“The #1 biggest mistake in writing for the web is not understanding the people who will be reading the content.”

The first question to ask yourself is:

Why You’re Not Grabbing Your Reader’s Attention

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The nuance of selecting the right word

By Shannan Seely

“See, the best interpreters are part linguists, part diplomats. They have to know the politics behind each word,” Danny Hajek, National Public Radio reporter.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of a prospective customer.

How do you want him to feel when he visits and reads the copy on your website? Like you’re speaking directly to him? So he feels like you understand him, can relate to his concerns and have the knowledge to solve his problems?

Do you want him to think, “These people get me!”

Many writers inadvertently fail to foster these feelings online with a prospective customer. Let me explain the three reasons why and how you can fix it. Continue reading Why You’re Not Grabbing Your Reader’s Attention

Search 10x Faster in Google

Posted on by Shannan Seely

I watched a movie recently about Saroo Brierley, a boy from India who fell asleep and rode on a train 1,000 miles from his home. When Saroo got off the train, he was lost. Only five years old, Saroo found himself in another part of India where a different language is spoken. He also did not know the correct name of his hometown, and encumbered with language barriers, could not return home.

It’s an astonishing tale and one I can’t keep thinking about.

Saroo wrote about his journey from India to an orphanage, then to adoption in Tasmania and eventually his quest, 25 years later, to seek his family in India. The book, A Long Way Home, inspired the movie, Lion, and earned six Oscar nominations.

Here’s a Google Earth: Saroo’s Search video describing his fascinating journey. (Spoiler alert: Stop the video at the 1:30 minute mark if you don’t want to know the ending and prefer to watch the movie or read his book first.)

Saroo’s story also inspired me to share some tips on how to get the information you want faster in Google Search. Let’s be more savvy in our searching, shall we?

1. Simple works best

In Google search, one or two word search terms will usually give you the broadest results. Start with short search terms, then refine your results by adding more words.

Example: sunflowers Continue reading Search 10x Faster in Google