Using sensational headlines to trick people into opening emails or reading content, is a super-fast way to lose the trust and respect of your marketplace.

People hate being taken for a fool

If the content of a blog post, article or newsletter, etc., fails to deliver on the promise of its sensational headline, the author has just broken a promise to the reader.

Headlines and titles are important. Extremely important. A great headline will attract attention and encourage people to start reading. However, the headline needs to accurately reflect what the content delivers.

Otherwise, any success gained from getting more traffic will soon be lost, as people realise they were duped.

People respect honesty

With Content Marketing, using honest, well crafted headlines is the only way to attract and retain the attention of your marketplace.

It builds trust. It earns credibility. It’s worthy of you and your business.

Tip: Read this – Are you building a tribe or writing drive-by content?

A key factor in every failing business I have ever studied, is that the business owner dabbles.

Rather than get the professional help they need, they decide to crush their chances of success, by dabbling with their marketing.

Some common examples include:

• People dabble with promotional offers: They make unattractive offers, to the wrong people, at the wrong time, using the wrong message and the wrong medium.
• People dabble with social networking: They set up accounts, usually on too many social networks and then copy what they see other people doing.  They spread themselves too thinly and have no effective strategy.  As a result, they miss all the great opportunities.
• People dabble with blogging: They set up a blog, with no clear idea of what they want to achieve.  They then fill their blog with “me too” posts (posts that simply repeat what millions of other people are saying) and then quit after a few months, because (it) didn’t work.
• People dabble with email marketing: They buy a list or add people to a list (without their consent), and email them sales messages.  They waste months angering people with unwanted email, that the recipients never requested, and wonder why it didn’t work.
• People dabble with advertising: They place the wrong message, in the wrong area of the wrong publication, at the wrong time.  They use the wrong typography, the wrong call to action and then proclaim; “advertising doesn’t work!”
• People dabble with mail shots: They send a marketing letter, written usually by themselves rather than a copywriter (to save money), to a list they bought or built from contact data they found.  The mixture of amateur copywriting, bad targeting and no compelling reason for the reader to do anything, makes this a total waste of time.

Then there are enlightened small business owners

These business owners decide to build a successful business, so they invest in the professional marketing help they need.  They do the right things correctly and enjoy the rewards.

They have figured out that in the most challenging economy in living memory, the dabblers are simply dabbling their way out of business.

Do you want more client inquiries from your marketing?  Would you like to make your marketing more compelling, so it encourages more people to take action when they read it?  If you would, then read on!

Most marketing content is written to capture the attention of, and then inform, a targeted group of people.  Great marketers add a 3rd element.  They capture.  They inform.  They compel!

Compelling marketing

Average marketing leaves people thinking, “so what?”

Compelling marketing encourages people to take action.

Compelling marketing is focused on “them” not you. It’s about their needs and solving their problems and making their experience of you and your business as good as possible.  Them, them, them.

Compelling marketing messages

One of the reasons small business owners find their written marketing far less effective than they want, is that it fails to inspire the reader enough, to motivate them to take the desired action.  Here’s an example of compelling copy, which I wrote for a marketing company that had been really struggling to get enough people to subscribe to their newsletter.

Boost your sales and profits starting today, with a free subscription to our marketing newsletter.  Subscribe now and I’ll send you a FREE…..

Previously, they were doing what 99.9% of newsletter providers do; simply asking people to:

Subscribe to our marketing newsletter and receive a copy of our marketing check-list

The new message, which out-performed the old one by over 850%, was all about the reader and giving value.  It starts with a promise, to help them make more sales and increase their profits.  It then gives them a direct request to take action now.  If you want people to take action at all, ask them to take action NOW! It then finishes with the promise that if they take action now, as well as all that valuable newsletter information, they will also receive more great value, in the form of a marketing check-list.

Compelling marketing: 6 quick tips to motivate your prospective clients to take action

Here are some ideas to make your written marketing more compelling:

1  Scarcity: Whenever possible, give people a reason to take action now rather than later.  This comes from the principle of scarcity.  The fear of losing out on something is an extremely compelling reason for people to get moving!

2. Study your target market: The more you know about what’s important to them, the easier it is for you to understand what’s most likely to motivate them.

3. Avoid the use of generic terms: Generic terms simply wash over people.  The most overused word in this category is the word “solutions.”  It’s OK to use the word in context within a longer message (such as a blog post.)  However, using it on your “about” page, social media bio or profile will hurt your response rates.

Telling people something like; “we provide solutions to the XYZ industry” means nothing and is not compelling in any way.  If you build websites, which make companies look fantastic online and helps them attract throngs of eager clients – TELL THEM!  Don’t say you “offer integrated website solutions.”

4. Headlines matter most: This one is simple.  No matter how amazing your marketing message is, if no one reads it, it can’t convert.  The headline or title of your marketing is what compels people to read it.

Why do you click certain links on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin etc?  It’s because the title makes the link sound compelling enough to check out.  The title sells the link.  Why do you open certain emails and not others? Again, the title or subject line compels you to open it.  I recently blogged about how to attract more traffic from Twitter using attractive headlines.  That post has some useful headline writing tips.

Tip: Keep a list of the next 50 links you click via social networks and study them to see what compelled you to take action.

5. Add to your marketing vocabulary: Having a limited vocabulary and trying to inspire people with your messages, is like having half the ingredients missing from a recipe and trying to make the meal taste right.  Business owners always seem to assume that they have a great vocabulary.  The reality, as you see every day for yourself, is the exact opposite.  Most small business content and general marketing is written using an extremely limited palette of uninspiring words.

6.  Embrace brevity: The fewer words in your marketing message, the more impact you can create.  Most of the marketing copy I see is at least 50% too long; often 75% or more.  A targeted, information rich message that is packed with value, will out-perform a long winded, meandering message that drags on, which few people even finish reading!  In today’s marketplace, where people have more to do than ever before, short marketing messages have more impact than ever.

The bottom line

If you want people to call you, email you, buy from you, subscribe to your blog or newsletter etc – YOU need to motivate them to do so. If you get it right, the potential to attract more inquiries, clients and sales is enormous!

Today, I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand new service, my Content Marketing Program.

The program runs for a whole year.  During our year together, I will show you how to attract high quality clients and inquiries, based on the incredible power of content marketing.  Working with you on a one-to-one basis, I will show you how to use tools like blogging, newsletters, and email marketing etc; to attract targeted inquiries from your ideal profile of client.

It works – Look!

The very fact that you are reading this right now, along with thousands of other business owners, proves how successfully you can reach the right people, with content marketing.  Notice how I knew you were a business owner? That’s because when you use content marketing correctly, as I do here on this blog, you ensure that your messages reach the right people – LOTS of them too!

What kind of tangible results are possible?

In February, I wrote a short blog post, regarding a place that had unexpectedly become available on my Marketing Mentor Program.  In less than 24 hours, that post generated 92 genuine inquiries for the remaining place!

Based on my typical conversion rate, I could have generated at least £90,000 in fees; if I had enough places to fill, just from that single post!

On my Content Marketing Program, I will show you exactly how I did that and how you can put the same super-powerful strategies in place for your business!

I will also show you how I used Content Marketing to generate almost £130,000 in client fees and product sales from this blog last year.

Just imagine what a difference that could make to you and your business.

By the way, if you are the kind of person, who prefers to attract business inquiries, rather than chase people for business, you will find this program especially valuable.

How it works: A quick overview

The program is tailored around your unique needs, resources and goals, so we start off with an initial fact-finding meeting.  This meeting is conducted like all our meetings, via Skype or phone.  We look at exactly where you are right now and then examine what you want to achieve; your goals and business targets etc.

Then, I work with you over the following 12 months, to develop a Content Marketing strategy, to get you from where you are now, to where you want to be.  I will provide you with all the guidance, coaching, support (and clarity) you need; all included in the program’s price.

That’s right: One set fee which covers everything, for the whole year.

Find out more

If you genuinely want to start attracting high quality clients, the way I do here on this blog, I’d love to hear from you.

Simply email me on jim (at) jimsmarketingblog.com (with your contact details) or call me on (+44) 1427 891274, and I will happily answer any questions you have, in complete confidence. Obviously, there are a limited number of places available, so get in touch as soon as you can, to avoid disappointment.  My full contact details are here.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Do you prefer to attract client inquiries and leads, rather than having to sell your services?

If you do, then content marketing is exactly what you and your business need.  Content marketing is where you use blogs (like this one) or newsletters, podcasts or webinars etc, as a way to deliver valuable information, which gains the attention of your prospective clients.  Then, over a period of time, you get to position yourself as an expert in your field, to thousands of prospective clients.

Content marketing is extremely effective, it costs very little and the results can be amazing, life changing even!  Moreover, the results get better and better over time, as your audience and influence increases.

In today’s post, I am going to share one of the secrets behind the world’s most successful content marketing.  To begin, I am going to answer the 2 most common content marketing questions, which people ask me.  Here they are:

1. How much free information should I give away?
2. What quality of information is “just too good” for me to blog about or include for free in my newsletter, webinar or podcast?

Here are the short answers to those questions:

1. You should give away as much free information as you can.
2. You should give away as much value as you can.

Allow me to explain!

Content marketing and me

Back in 1995, my fellow marketing professionals said I was crazy for giving away so much marketing information for free.  This was before the Internet went mainstream, so I delivered my free content marketing via; radio shows, magazine articles, public speaking and networking groups.  I then established an enormously successful marketing newsletter, before moving on to blogging.

In short: I gave and gave and gave.  Then, I gave some more.

The more I gave away, the more I was accused of committing commercial suicide.

The more I gave away, the more high quality business I generated!

Here’s one thing that has not changed, over my 16 years in content marketing:  Most people only give snippets of information away for free, or information which they believe is not good enough to charge for.  Their belief is that by giving “the good stuff” away for free, it will reduce their income.  This is the exact opposite of what actually happens!

Here’s why.

By putting a diluted version of their content out there for free, they showcase themselves as being less effective than they really are.  The marketplace positions them in their mind as an average provider, because the free information they give away is average.  They are under-marketing themselves and their abilities.  For content marketing to work, your free material needs to be good enough to inspire people to subscribe to you, get in touch with you and link to you.  It also needs to be compelling enough to motivate people to share your blog, newsletter or whatever, with their social network. People will only do that when the information they receive is valuable enough.

I have never held back information from this blog, in case it’s too valuable to give away for free.  You know what though?  I do the opposite all the time.  I often refuse to publish posts here, because they are just not good enough for you.  That’s a fundamental of successful content marketing.  Give away as much high quality information as you can, and attract the attention, interest and respect of your marketplace.  Show them what you know.

Content marketing and your business

If you like the idea of attracting clients (rather than pursuing them) and want to know more about content marketing, I have some GREAT news for you!  I shall be making a very special announcement shortly, regarding an exciting, new content marketing program.  This is NOT the typical; ebook, premium blog content and a few webinars – It’s the chance for you and I to work together, 1-to-1, on the development of the perfect content marketing strategy for you and your business. 

If you want to know more, keep an extra close eye on the blog over the coming days!