Copywriting Archives - Page 3 of 48

Why lists dominate marketing. And why you really should use them

Ever wondered why so many articles, blog posts, videos and newsletters are based around the idea of a list?

Yes, you’re right. It’s because they’re extremely popular. People love them. And it’s easy to see why.

Lists promise lots of ideas. And fast!

List-based content promises a number of bite-sized ideas or suggestions. And quickly! So when we see “15 Things you really should be doing right now. Yes you. Yes now!“, we’re not expecting an in-depth examination of 15 urgent commercial activities.

No.

We’re expecting ideas. And we hope that at least one of those ideas will help us in some way. If it does, it will repay the 3 or 4 minutes we invested in reading it.

This begs the question: Does your marketing mix contain list-based content?

If not, I suggest you give it a try. Lists are perfect for sharing, which makes them ideal if you want to expand your reach on social networks. New readers who discover your work through list content, will then get the chance to see your more detailed work. Others will follow you on the social networks, where they see your lists shared. Almost all of my most shared blog posts are lists.

Lists can also be very powerful, when it comes to increasing your email marketing open rates. Email marketing that has a list in the subject line, can result in massively increased open rates.

Here’s why.

Most small business owners are not expert copywriters. As such, the subject lines they use for their email marketing tend to under-perform. And poorly written subject lines result in low open rates. This means no matter how good their marketing message is, very few people will see it.

Using an average list title as the subject line of a marketing email, will always, always out-perform an average, regular subject line.

So, should you focus exclusively on lists?

No.

No you shouldn’t.

Seriously.

Don’t!

Allow me to explain.

True, there are Youtubers making a fortune from creating only list-based videos. And yes, there are sites that attract millions of page views, who rely very heavily on list-based content. The business model behind both of these examples is primarily advertising. If your business sells ads based on open rates, keep churning out the lists.

However, for every other kind of business, relying exclusively on lists is a bad idea. And they should be used sparingly.

For example, I could have written this post as a list.

It would have taken me a lot less time to write.
It would have been shared a lot more on social networks.
And the email version of the post would have been opened by a lot more people.

However, I wanted to dig a little deeper into one thing… the marketing effectiveness of lists. I didn’t want to weaken that focus with “10 Reasons why lists dominate the internet”.

Going a little deeper

Sometimes, you need to offer more substance around one subject. Other times, an issue could be impacting your readers and you need to address it. And there are times when you want to share one really useful idea, which wouldn’t work if you broke it down into a list of sub-ideas.

In short, the surface-level approach that makes lists so popular, renders them ineffective for anything that requires depth.

So mix it up.

If you haven’t already used list-based blog posts, articles, videos, podcasts or newsletters, give it a go. Experiment. Test different types of list. Measure the feedback. Check things (metrics) including; sales, client enquiries, open rates, social shares and new subscribers, etc.

Because you could be missing out on a huge opportunity.

The pandemic: Why your marketing needs to change

Written by Jim Connolly

Obviously, the marketplace you serve has changed during the coronavirus pandemic.

So in today’s post, I want to help you successfully adapt to these changes, so your business absolutely thrives.

Let’s go.

Ask most business owners how they’ve adapted to the pandemic, you’ll hear very similar replies. They’ll tell you they’ve switched as much of their business online as possible. If they’re in hospitality, leisure, offline retail, construction, etc, they’ll tell you about social distancing measures, too.

Whilst those are important considerations, they’re missing a HUGE part of the picture. And it could lose them a fortune.

I don’t want that to happen to you.

Feelings

The big brands have a very different and more effective focus. Agile owners of small and medium-sized businesses do too.

Their focus is on the dramatic change, in the way their clients and prospective clients are FEELING during these most difficult of times. As feelings are what drive decisions (and sales) far more than logic, this is something you need to be aware of. And focused on.

With that in mind, think for a moment about your clients and prospective clients. Consider how they have been impacted by the pandemic. Now ask yourself, how has the past 13 months changed things like:

The way they feel about their immediate and long-term future?
The way they feel about money?
The way they feel about credit, debt, investments?
The way they feel about the people in their lives?
The way they feel about risk?
The way they feel about the value of their time?
The way they feel about their health?
The way they feel about travelling?
The way they feel about donating to causes?
The way they feel about long-term results?
The way they feel about short-term results?
The way they feel about various types of loss?

Take a moment to think about the current focus of your marketing. Include things like your messaging, promises, guarantees, benefits, deals and payment options, etc.

Then ask yourself the following question.

Is it speaking to the need and wants of your pre-pandemic marketplace or their ACTUAL, current needs and wants?

Because if you’re using your pre-pandemic marketing strategy, (with Zoom calls and social distancing bolted on), your agile competitors could suddenly sound a lot more attractive.

However, by aligning your marketing with the way your clients and future clients now feel, you cut through the noise. Your messaging will strike the right chord. Your words will be more compelling.

And your products or services will sound a great deal more relevant to their exact needs. That’s marketing gold dust, right there.

Give your best ideas away for free. Here’s why

Written by Jim Connolly

What I’m about to share with you may sound a little counter-intuitive. It isn’t. In fact, it could help you achieve breakthrough results.

Allow me to explain.

I come across the following problem a lot. Mainly from service providers, who are struggling to attract new clients with their content marketing. Their primary concern looks something like this:

I know I need to provide good, free advice via my content. Surely if I give my best ideas away for free, no one will pay to hire me?

I’ve already explained why you should be stingy with your time, but not your ideas. However, there’s another, excellent reason why you should provide outstanding, free advice.

And it’s this…

Think for a moment about the alternative. Imagine you publish a newsletter, videos, a blog or a podcast. Now let’s also imagine that instead of sharing great advice, you share weaker information. Average free stuff. Nothing special. Nothing that really stands out.

Guess what?

You’ve just given your marketplace a weak, low-impact insight into your work. You’ve painted a lousy picture of how good you are. So, not only will people be highly unlikely to hire you, they’ll also be unlikely to share your newsletters, videos, podcasts, blog posts or subscribe to you. That’s a huge lose, lose. (Actually, that’s wrong; it’s a lose, lose, lose, because you’ll also be damaging your reputation as a knowledgeable professional. Ouch!)

Here’s what really happens when you give great free advice

Yes, freebie hunters will certainly gobble up all your free advice. But that doesn’t lose you a penny. Why? Because they were never going to hire you anyway. Freebie hunters are the dabblers. The DIYers. So, they were never a prospective client.

Yes, a subset of genuine prospective clients who take your free advice will do (whatever) themselves. Of course, if they find your ideas so powerful that they actually use them, they’re highly likely to subscribe to you and share your work. That’s how every successful resource spreads. Also, I know from experience that many of them will later hire you.

However… there’s also a hefty subset of prospective clients who will find your high quality advice extremely valuable. Now, this subset of prospective clients are the ones who value their time. They love the peace-of-mind that comes from getting expert help. They value professionalism.

These prospective clients will hire you, so you can do the job properly for them. And yes, they’ll also share your newsletters, videos, podcasts, blog posts and subscribe to you.

How do I know for 100% certain that this works?

Simple: It’s how I grew my own business!

It’s why I get enquiries from prospective clients, multiple times, all day long, every day. And if it works for me, it can work for you too. Just make sure to offer as much value as you can, as often as you can. Hold nothing back.

P.S. Here’s that article I mentioned earlier. It’s well worth a read: Be stingy with your time, but not your ideas.

Regularly create content your marketplace will love, with these 3 ideas

Written by Jim Connolly

Image: Tony Hand

If you’ve ever wondered, how some people are able to regularly produce effective content marketing; (newsletters, blog posts, articles, podcasts, etc), and how you can do the same, this post is for you.

I’ve divided it into 3 core ideas. So, let’s get started!

1. Is this useful?

There’s a sign on the wall in my studio. It’s a small sign, containing just 3 words: “Is this useful”. That’s the mark I set for everything I create. Nothing gets published unless I believe you’ll find it useful. I don’t try and be clever. Just useful. And as long as I think you’ll find an idea or observation useful, I share it.

Some small business owners are put off creating content, because they try and make everything as close to perfect as possible.

The thing is, your prospective clients or customers want something useful, not perfect.

Once you stop aiming for perfection you’ll find it a lot easier. You’ll also get massively better results.

2. Don’t let crappy ideas block you

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find that most of the ideas you get are pretty average. But maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 are good enough, to be turned into a valuable piece of content marketing.

The challenge is that in order to get that 1 useful idea, you need to allow yourself to have the crappy ones… without getting disheartened.

The way I overcame this, was to deliberately give myself permission to think of lots of crappy ideas, knowing that something useful would come from it.

When you view lower-value ideas as essential steps in the development of better ones, they switch from being disheartening to highly motivating.

3. Give your work the respect it deserves

We often overestimate the ideas of others and underestimate the value of our own. Here’s a great example of what I mean.

A business owner told me how she was taking some files off a computer for archiving, when she discovered an old documents folder. It contained loads of articles, which were really interesting. She looked to see who wrote them and found they were all her own work, from 6 years earlier!

She didn’t publish them at the time, because she thought they weren’t good enough. It was only when she thought they were written by someone else, that she saw them for what they really were. Your work is almost certainly way, way better than you think.

So get it out there.

In short, if you’re looking to improve your content marketing, focus on being useful. See your average ideas as necessary steps to your useful ideas. And give your work the respect you deserve.

The business experts you absolutely must avoid in 2021

Written by Jim Connolly

In life there are certain people who you absolutely need to avoid. The same is true in business.

Some are easy to spot

The web designer whose website is a piece of crap.
The marketing expert, who embarrassingly needs to pester people on Linkedin because their own marketing doesn’t work.
The consultant or adviser who claims to be in high demand, yet offers free consultations.
The self-proclaimed leadership guru, who clearly isn’t leading.
The copywriter whose content is poorly-written and lacks impact.
The creativity expert who’s just like all the other creativity experts. (Think about that for a moment).

Others are trickier to spot

The marketing consultant, who used tricks to attract a million social media followers.
The accountant who understands numbers, but can’t clearly explain what they mean to their client’s business.
The strategist whose own strategy is failing.
The business development adviser who has never built a successful business of their own.

Protect your business from bad advice

The personal recommendation of a trusted friend is usually the least risky way to find an expert provider. Just make sure the friend has recent, first-hand experience of the quality of the provider’s work.

Another option is to hire someone whose work you’re already familiar with. For example, if you subscribe to a provider’s podcast, YouTube channel, blog or newsletter and they regularly share useful information, they’re giving you some powerful clues.

The fact they have turned up consistently, demonstrates a degree of reliability. This is especially the case if they have many years worth of material available.
You get to experience first hand, how knowledgeable they are from the quality of information they provide.
In addition, you’ll know in advance if they share information with the clarity you need.
You also gain an insight into their personality and mindset, which can help you determine if they’re the kind of person you work best with.

With an attractive looking website and some testimonials, anyone can claim to be an expert at anything. And that’s why you need to look deeper.

The cost of taking bad advice is far, far higher than the person’s fee. And the importance of getting the right advice has never been greater, if you want to successfully navigate your way through 2021.

The customer is not always right

Written by Jim Connolly

That old saying, that the customer is always right, is bogus. Worse still, if you believe the customer or client is always right, it will damage your business.

Allow me to explain!

That saying still persists, because fearful service providers are scared that if they say the customer is wrong, they might take their custom elsewhere. So, generations of business owners have worked under the erroneous belief that they should simply agree with their clients all the time.

That’s a really bad idea

It fails the client and it fails you. Here are a few examples.

Designers end up producing ugly work, because the client made terrible design demands. The client is left with low quality design, which won’t work for them. The designer will never get to work with that client again.
Copywriters end up writing junk, because the client demanded uninformed changes. So, instead of a professional piece, the client gets something amateurish that they could have written themselves. The copy fails to work. The client ends up unhappy. The copywriter is never hired again.
Coaches and mentors end up delivering a poor quality service, because the allow misguided clients to dictate what happens. The client then ends up hearing what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear in order to succeed. It fails the client. And the provider is never hired again.

No, I’m not suggesting you argue with your clients. That’s a terrible idea and extremely unprofessional.

I am suggesting you need to guide your clients.

As a professional, it’s your job to help clients make the right decisions, so they get the very best results. That means providing the client with your informed, expert guidance. It means steering them away from mistakes. It means responding with advice and ideas, which lead to a successful project and a delighted client.

In short, your clients deserve your very best work. Agreeing with a client, when you know they are making damaging mistakes, doesn’t help them and it doesn’t help you. So give your clients your very best. That’s what they pay you for. That’s what they deserve.

And you cannot, on any level, afford to give them anything less.