Never is this more true than in content marketing.

The tone of voice you choose in your blog posts, sales pages, or promotional reports can damage results if it doesn’t suit the style of your reader. Watch this week’s episode of Content Marketing… Stripped! to find out more.

How do you talk to customers face-to-face?

It’s easy to forget when you’re writing, that content marketing is a conversation with your customer. When working with clients who are struggling to find the right tone of voice I ask them to describe how they would talk to that customer face to face.

Well, they’re young students, and their English isn’t great so I have to make sure I speak clearly and simply.

Our engineer customers are pretty straight-forward. They want you to get to the point and talk to them clearly and directly. They like to know within seconds that the software can do what they need it to do.

My coaching clients are often quite unsure, even nervous so I have to be gentle, soothing and give them lots of reassurances that trying out coaching with me will be fun.

Straight away we can see how we might use individual writing styles with these different customer groups.

But why is it so hard to achieve this in writing?

Why business marketing struggles with tone-of-voice

What makes writing so difficult is:

1. Your customer isn’t in front of you
2. Your writing skills were developed at school and work

When you write your content marketing materials it’s just you, your head and a keyboard or pen. Your customer isn’t with you actively responding to your words as they would be if they were sitting opposite you having a chat.

What’s more, most of us learned our writing in school or at work and so we’re used to being rewarded for content that looks like an essay or a formal report.

As a result many business owners find it difficult to shake their previous ‘corporate voice’ developed from writing internal memos. But as we’ve already mentioned, your marketing is not a memo, it’s a conversation.

And unless you can mimic the style of conversation you would have in person with your customer, your blogs and content marketing pieces will miss the mark.

Using a personality ‘snap-shot’ to help

I’ve already talked about how having a quick version of your customer profile to hand can help you write marketing content that addresses the needs of your reader. It’s also useful to do this to stay on target with your tone-of-voice.

Take an index card and split it into the following 4 columns:

• Who is my customer?
• Personality traits? 
• What are they looking for?
• How would I talk to them face-to-face? 

For example:

Having this snapshot reminder shows you what to focus on when writing your content so in the above examples we might write:

Our ERP software increases efficiency on average by  25% in all our retail customers with each client experiencing increase revenue as a direct effect… 

We’re getting straight to the point. We’re not asking this particular client to “imagine a world where your ERP software integrates beautifully…” it just wouldn’t work for this style of client.

However, for our life-coaching client we would want a less-direct, more emotionally in tune style of writing:

Not knowing which way to go when you’re facing a big decision can be scary, but you don’t have to make it alone… 

Here we’re not jumping into the facts and figures, but spending a little more time on reassuring our customer as our snapshot suggests we should do.

What about your customer? Are you using the tone of voice they need to hear or do you need to tweak your content to match their personality? Let me know in the comments below!

You're reading CMS! Episode 6: Choosing Your Tone of Voice in Content Marketing which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

Can you take them down the rabbit hole with your writing?

Want to grab your reader’s attention with the first line of your next blog post?

Have them pause… forget their to-do list and get lost in your words?

Then read this:

The power of an opening line

There’s plenty of copywriting advice out there on how to write an attention-grabbing headline, but once you’ve got that licked, it’s the first line that pulls your reader into the meat and potatoes of your article.

And having something to help you write a gripping first line isn’t just for the benefit of your reader, it can save your sanity as a writer too. Hands up who loves to stare at a blank screen?

Exactly.

So, next time you’re writing a blog post for your business, here are 10 different approaches you can try to have your reader at ‘hello.’

1. The ‘pull them to one side’ 

The abstract approach is like an interruption. It doesn’t always tell you anything specific, but it sounds like it’s going to get juicy.

Here are some examples of abstract openings:

Listen…

There are some things that knock you for six when you hear them

I would have never guessed that this would ever happen to me

It’s one of the weakest approaches because of it’s lack of relevancy or specificity to your audience’s interests but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. It’s a style you see often on blogs that already have a loyal audience but it might be worth trying out on your own blog.

2. The blockbuster beginning– explode or simmer

Blockbuster films always open dramatically. Whether it’s explosive or quietly dramatic, something ‘big’ happens at the start and you can do the same with your writing.

So a personal trainer might have a story that starts with an explosion:

Excruciating pain ravaged my body as my vision was replaced by flashes of light. I stumbled, and that’s when they said I passed out just moments from the finishing line. 

Or a content creator might choose a slow simmer:

I remember pausing before clicking the publish button. I didn’t know it then, but this was the post that would change everything… and not for the better

3. The curious case of…

Curiosity can be a powerful tool for opening lines, but you have to use it right. For more info on curiosity writing you can read this article I wrote for Copyblogger.

For opening lines, use these 2 rules:

1. Make it specific to your audience
2. Challenge their beliefs

For example, if you’re selling security software to WordPress website owners you might open up with something as simple as:

“There are 5 things you need to do to protect your WordPress site from hackers…

And they’ll go against everything you know about website security”

One more important rule about using the curiosity opening - you must follow through on your promise  otherwise your credibility as an expert will be shot.

4. An opening named desire…

Very simply, state what you know your customers wants:

You want to be a better writer, right?

You need more sales

You’ve got to crush this diet and fitness regime once and for all

It gets to the point, it’s specific to your reader and it implies very quickly that you’re going to spend the rest of the article explaining how they can do what you’ve just mentioned.

5. Hey, what’s the problem? 

The flip-side of the above is simple. Tell them what they don’t want and you’ll also get their attention.

“If you have to take one more snotty request from your boss you’ll kill him with the stapler…”

“You’ve just hired a wedding planner… and you hate them” 

As with number 4, follow this up with a promise that you’re going to give them the answers they need if they just read the article.

6. Ask a question

Another simple one is to ask them a question you know will catch their eye:

Would you know what to do if your caravan broke down on the motorway?

Can you build a successful blog by writing just once a month?

How do you get more people to read and share your content?

You can follow this up by explaining how you’ll answer the question in your post, or even add in a layer of curiosity with a line such as “the answer might just surprise you…”

7. The downright bizarre

Sometimes the bizarre gets people’s attention so it may be worth experimenting with. This plays along the curiosity route because the idea is your reader is left thinking “what the heck is going on here? Let me click through and find out.”

For example:

I don’t know how it happened, but because of a mouthful of almonds and one unexpected sneeze I was marched out of the hotel by armed guards, banned from ever entering a sci-fi convention in the state of Arizona again. 

There is a caveat with this method. Your audience has to either care enough about you, or about the subject to keep reading. Lots of bloggers have built their fan bases through their personalities. James Altucher is a favourite of mine and a lot of his blog posts start with unusual or shocking openings.

One other rule, if you start out shocking, the rest of your post needs to justify it. If you can’t tie in a relevant point to your opening story you’re going to disappoint your audience and they won’t be back.

8. Make them a promise

Be bold and make your audience a promise.

After you read this article you will be able to pick locks

Read this to have a simple, powerful marketing system for your craft stall

Just make sure you can keep it of course.

9. Once upon a time…

One way you can hook your reader is to set the scene and tell a story. Unlike the downright bizarre approach this should be related to your subject:

My first time public speaking I was so nervous I knocked over my water glass and the organiser complained about me. One week later I got a standing ovation and an invitation to speak internationally. What had changed in 7 days? Read on to find out…

If you’ve got an interesting story to tell in your blog post let people know up front (without giving the game away).

10. The truth flipper

Take a commonly held truth and then find a contradiction or a surprising angle that your readers might not be aware of:

Having a child is one of the most joyous occasions in the world… and it can also be your worst nightmare.

Running your own business takes time, effort and perseverance. So what if I told you the really successful entrepreneurs only relied on luck?  

Regular exercise boosts your energy and immune system but it might just be killing your sex-life. Read on to find out how. 

So there we have it, 10 tips for gripping your readers attention after curtain call.Can you think of any more?

You're reading 10 Ways to Hook Blog Readers With Your Opening Line which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

An eBook to wow crowds

A few years ago when businesses realised that a good eBook could be sold online there was a lot of excitement.

Tales of 5 figure launches, bazoodles of copies sold and overnight internet fame created quite a buzz.

During that time I heard excited chatter in the hallways and corridors of the internet (hallways exist in the internet… you have to smash through a wall somewhere to find them – a bit like getting to Hogwarts)

Just gather up a few blog posts, bundle them together and sell it as a $47 eBook. Shift 100 of them and you’ve made over $4,500 for a few hours work!

Obviously you know it’s not as simple as that, but if you were online at this time you saw a lot of eBooks being released and launched. Some businesses had a new eBook every few weeks. And there’s nothing wrong with releasing frequent products if the quality is good and it solves a problem for your customer.

But the problem was that this made a lot of businesses feel they had to be churning out eBooks left right and centre. A lot of crap eBooks were produced at a rapid rate at the expense of the business owner’s credibility and perhaps even sanity.

There is another, less stressful and more dignified way

I want you to think about your favourite band or artist.

How many albums have they recorded?

Now, there are some artists who are incredibly prolific. Elvis, Paul McCartney, Prince… Total rockstars, dream lifestyles and insanely rich.

But there are a great number of successful bands who have created much fewer albums and they still have pretty enviable lifestyles.  Let’s be honest, between Paul’s love life, Prince’s peculiarity and Elvis’s… well you know, would you really want to be any of them?

Guitar? Check. Great Voice? Check. Gritty Songs? Check. Flippin’ Rockstar? Chickety-check!

Last night I went to see the unbelievably cool rockstar that is Lucinda Williams at Brighton Dome. She filled the venue, and she filled the hall with her gravelly voice and gritty dirt-road country blues.

Lucinda’s breakthrough album came in 1998.

Her first album was in 1979.

5 albums in 19 years. Not a huge amount you might think.

But in that time she toured, she promoted, she sang, she built up local audiences around Los Angeles and when her 98 album was released things got bigger from there. Her songs have been covered by Willie Nelson, Tom Petty and Mary Chapin Carpenter and now she’s touring, playing music to fans around the world doing what she loves. As a songwriter, she has a huge amount of credibility as an expert. 

The real rockstars we see (and love) on stage today aren’t scrabbling together old songs to repackage them as new albums. Instead they’re taking their time, putting their passion and talents into the product, and then taking them on tour to build their fan base.

So why not do that with your eBook? 

eBooks are a fantastic way to build your business. When you do it right. 

• They bring in direct revenue from sales
• They can work in your sales funnel to lead to higher-priced sales that might not have happened if your reader hadn’t bought your book
• They get people talking about your business
• They can increase your subscribers and online “fans”
• They give you credibility
• They can make you stand out to the media

What’s more, if you take the effort to do it right first time round, you can develop a solid, high-quality product that you can promote for years rather than something you might be embarrassed by in a few months.

I’m not saying you only have to do an eBook every 4 years, but taking the slow and steady approach to this piece of your content marketing can pay dividends.

Create a rockstar eBook and then take it on tour

If you’ve been thinking about creating a whole heap of eBooks to promote your business, why not think about creating just one instead? For now that is.

Wondering where to start?

Look at your customer profile, then think about the problem your customers have, or the questions they ask and try to create a ‘signature’ book. One that will be useful to previous, present and future customers.

Spend time creating it, make it easy-to-read and use beautiful design to show how professional you are.

From there you can host a launch to a big fanfare and build your following by selling it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Apple’s iBookstore.  You could also use it as a promotional teaching resource. For example holding a guest webinar for someone’s website, and making an offer of your eBook at the end.

The point is that if you take time to craft something you’re really proud of, you won’t get tired of promoting it, you’ll be excited and proud to spread the word.

And you can watch your business grow as your creative ‘baby’ goes out into the world.

Interested in creating a polished and professional eBook? Read this:  

One of my friends has created a very successful business by focusing on quality products that last.

Rather than spit out a flurry of ‘okay’ content, Pamela Wilson from the Big Brand System spends time developing products, updating them and relaunching periodically.

Recently she re-released her eBook Evolution product that she created with Kelly Kingman.

What is it? Well it is a bumper pack of digital guides that teach you how to plan, write and launch an eBook. AND it gives you specific design tools and templates to make sure your eBook doesn’t look like a Microsoft Word document that had clipart thrown up on it.

Oh… and you don’t need to know any design or tech skills. If you can read and follow instructions you can do this.

Because of the high-quality, and urgent need most business owners have for professional-looking, affordable marketing materials this is a popular product  with a lot of loyal fans.

And even though I know Pamela and Kelly personally, and might have been able to annoy them into getting a review copy, I bought my own eBook Evolution, so I’m only recommending what I am currently using.

I’m not going to overstate the benefits here because to be honest the product is killer, the ladies have integrity and the sales page does a great job of explaining whether or not it’s for you.

What I will do is ask you a few quick questions to see if you should find out more:

• Are you thinking about using eBooks as marketing tools / revenue sources in your business?
• Do you want to create an eBook that you’d be proud to promote?
• Do you have no / some / lots of knowledge about writing eBooks?
• Would you like some help and ideas on marketing and launching your eBook?
• Do you want to sell it in an eReader format – NEW (this has just been added to this version)

Sound like you? Then click here to read the sales page (quick aside – this sales page is great, so I’d take a peek anyway and stick it in your copywriting swipe file)

What do you think? Create a handful of products and take them on tour or be prolific and crazy like McCartney and Prince? Let me know in the comments!

You're reading How to Create a Rockstar eBook Worthy of Fame and Fortune which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

If you think your content is scaring away customers too soon, watch the show below:

Every time you publish content you are potentially starting a conversation with a future customer.

But as we’ve seen in the video, making small talk can be tricky.

If you don’t say anything relevant (or say anything at all) you’re never going to build a relationship. But if you push for the sale too soon, you might scare away potential customers.

So you want to create content marketing materials that open the possibility of future conversations.

In Daniel H. Pink’s book “To Sell is Human” he mentions a study on Hollywood film pitches. The most successful ones were the ones that gently pulled in the other party. He writes:

The purpose of a pitch isn’t necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it beings a conversation... – Daniel H. Pink ~ To Sell Is Human.

Which is exactly what you want to do with the content you publish.

What topics make great ‘starter conversations?

Let’s dive back into your customer profile. 

In this document you’ve spent time pulling together information about your customer. There is a wealth of possible subjects you could pull out for starter conversations, but here are 3 to get you started:

1: What’s their problem?

First up, you can create compelling content around the problem your customers has.

For example. Let’s say you are a personal trainer and you want to build up your private clients. Looking at your current clients you know that they tend to have the following problems:

• They want to get fit but have little willpower
• They think exercise is boring / painful
• They don’t know how to fit exercise into their day
• They’re embarrassed to go to a gym
• They hate going to a gym and prefer the outdoors

Those would be pretty easy for our fitness instructor to list and each one makes a great ‘starter conversation’ blog post if you turn it into a “how to…” or “how do you…?” format:

How to get fit in 4 weeks – no willpower required

How do you replicate a gym workout… outdoors without equipment? 

Remember, we’re not pushing the product yet, so your blog post isn’t all about the serviceyou offer (though you could link to it at the end). Instead you would focus on tips readers can use to overcome a lack of will power, or show them a simple workout routine they could complete in a park.

Next up we have:

2: Why is it important to solve this problem?

Another area that makes great content to start a conversation is to understand why it’s important for your customer to solve their problem.

In the above example, our personal trainer might find reasons such as:

• They want to look good at their next family reunion
• They hate being sluggish and unfit
• They’re overcoming a health issue
• They’re training for an event

I’m certain that with your own customer you can list dozens of reasons why it’s important for them to get the results you can offer. Once again, we can take these subjects and turn them into useful blog posts:

Need to ‘Wow’ Crowds at a Red Carpet Event? Follow This 6-Week Plan

The 15 Minute Work Out To Raise Your Energy Levels

The Exercises You Need to Know When Training for a Triathlon

These are all compelling subject areas that we can use to get our customer’s attention, and by offering valuable advice, you’re building trust and credibility by proving you’re an expert in your field at the same time.

Finally, we have:

3: What questions do they have about you?

I’ve written previously about how answering questions is an excellent way to generate compelling content topics. But it’s worth looking at again.

The previous 2 sections consider the problem our customer has and why they want to solve it, but what if what’s standing in the way of them being a customer are unanswered questions?

Specifically they might have questions about using a service like yours. I love talking to clients about this because it takes minutes to list the questions and it’s usually a topic that’s been overlooked in previous content creation.

Yet the questions your customer has are probably what they’re typing into Google… For example:

How do you choose a good personal trainer? 

What’s the price difference between a personal trainer and gym membership? 

What results can a personal trainer get me? 

How does it work when you hire a personal trainer? 

Whether you design web sites, offer life-coaching or sell software, you can guarantee that potential customers have questions about working with you. This is a gentle way to talk about the service you offer without focusing on the sale.

Remember in the video how our executive was turned off by the idea of ‘hiring’ a web designer, but was happy to ask for tips and advice?

That’s because the second option was low-pressure and high value which is exactly how you should use your content to open the door to further conversations and future sales.

Now it’s over to you – what do you think makes a good conversation-starter with potential customers? Let me know in the comments below. 

You're reading CMS! Episode 5: How To Start A Conversation With Your Customer Using Content which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

I grew up in a tiny village, attending a small Church-of-England primary school. We were helpful to others, considerate and sensitive.  At 11 we all moved up to ‘big school’.

From 250 pupils to 1,600.

And I learned a painful lesson:

Ginger kids really stick out. 

October 18, 1994

Today was a bad day a boy pinched my bum and I was really embarrassed then some boys called me monkey features and that upsets me. Do I really look like a monkey? Maybe it’s just because of my hair though I think not

For 7 years the taunts were relentless. I did envy friends who took the shortcut through the park at lunch while I had to walk through town (where it was safer). However I also figured this was just my lot, on account of my bizarre features and ginger hair. I wasn’t the only kid who had a hard time so I just sucked it up.

In marketing terms, If I was the ‘product’ it appeared the majority were not my target market.

Now, this is not a story about winning everyone over.

This is a story about targeting your efforts of persuasion.

I wasn’t going to change ‘me.’ So instead I had to find environments where what I had to offer would be better received.

As a result I applied my passions and skills to the following during my school life:

• I started a sweet round. Selling shop-bought sweets for a profit. Within weeks my supplier (the village post office) had to increase their wholesale order because I was taking all their stock. I was shifting around 200 units a day and had pupils approach me in the hallways because I was the girl who could ‘get you cherry drops and refreshers’ (not euphemisms). Eventually I got shut down when the head of year found out how far and wide my operations had spread.
• I loved writing and speaking and won several public-speaking competitions about topics I loved – country music for example.
• I sang in a band for 8 years. We played festivals, PTA dances, and gigged all the time during summer.
• I fronted a gospel choir
• I played in the netball team, the athletics team, tennis tried basketball, jazz club and dance club with mixed success
• I acted in every annual school drama

I couldn’t make the people who thought I looked freaky like me, but I could win over my ‘ideal customers’:

• Kids who wanted to buy my sweets
• Judges who wanted to hand out marks
• Audiences who wanted to be entertained

The product never changed. The passions never changed, but I would modify tactics to make myself more popular within these select groups. 

For my sweets I’d switch the Refreshers if it looked like the Fruit Salad Chews were outselling them. I’d study the competition of other debates and public speakers to see how our team could have the edge. I’d remember the songs people enjoyed and made sure we kept them in the set, dropping the ones that didn’t work.

I didn’t know it at the time but I was delivering what others wanted so I could keep doing what I wanted.

And this mirrors a good online content marketing strategy.

Content marketing and the online popularity fear

A lot of people think  successful content marketing is about being popular online.

You’ve got to have a million Facebook likes, and Twitter followers, and tons of blog comments to run a successful business (this is a myth).

Chasing these things alone can cause you to neglect the very foundation of your business.

• Your passion
• Your product

(For a great example of this, watch the short video on this home page.)

When I started copywriting, I got asked a couple of times to write sales pages for programs that didn’t exist, teaching theories that hadn’t been tested. The programs mimicked other courses and had been developed because this ‘type’ of product seemed to be selling.

They wanted popularity first, without spending time on their product, or following their passion. It wasn’t for me, and I’m guessing it’s not for readers of this blog either.

There’s a difference in capitalising on popular trends to market your product, but if you’re willing to switch and change your core product and principles at the whim of a crowd’s opinion you might find marketing your business very difficult.

And exhausting.

And soul-destroying.

At school I guess could have had a make over, maybe I could have gone blonde (which is what the 3 other red-heads in my year did and yes it drastically improved their social lives).

But changing ‘me’ and my interests in the hope people would like it?

It was much easier to find places I did fit in and build from there, rather than beg a crowd that didn’t want me.

And in content marketing it’s really important to attract people who want to be your customer. 

Passion and product first, popularity second

I never thought being bullied (sometimes creatively – I once had my coat pockets filled with dirty cutlery in the cafeteria) meant I wouldn’t be able to pursue the things I loved.

I just kept doing what I loved and was good at. My passion pushed me through.

Now, writing content to promote your business can be tough.

You worry how it will be received, will you make sales? Will people read your blog? Will they share your content?

When you love your product, when you know it’s special and when your customers love it, those problems don’t go away, but you have no other choice but to figure it out. It doesn’t occur to you to give up.

Passion and product pushes you through.

Passion and product helps you stand out.

Don’t worry what the ‘gurus’ might think of you – they may not be your target market. You may never need to impress a guru in your life.

At the first ever conference I spoke at a few years ago the guru took an instant dislike to me. Guru told attendees in public that I had a ‘potty mouth’ (for saying ‘jeez’), wouldn’t let me sit at the speakers’ table and the post-conference dinner for speakers was not extended to me.

Did it hurt? Yes. But after a 45 minute talk I’d made around £1,500 in sales testing out new products.

That was enough for me. I’d found my crowd in the room, and from there I built on those products and relationships to improve sales further.

You don’t have to win over everyone.

You don’t have to be ‘popular’

But you do have to:

• Work on something you are passionate about (and talented at)
• Deliver a product customers want
• Put everything into providing an excellent service

And then concentrate your  ’online popularity’ efforts (known as content marketing) into:

• Building a customer profile
• Knowing what problems they have
• Helping them solve some of those problems
• Using copywriting to make your offers stand out
• Using blogging to build an audience interested in what you do
• Using content marketing to get the word out to as many people who fall into your ‘customer’ category

These days I am much more at ease with my chimpy chops, my simian smile and my ape-likeness.

And if I had never gone in search for people who were happy to accept me, I might never have met the amazing people, business owners and customers who make what I do a real joy.

Photo by Tambako

What about you? Have you ever felt forced to please a group online that didn’t ‘fit’ with your business? have you struggled to find the people who really ‘get’ what you do? Have you had success in focusing your powers of persuasion on your ideal customers? Let us know in the comments below!

You're reading “Monkey Features!” Don’t Market to People Who Hate You… which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

Last time we created a thorough customer profile for our content marketing. Now that you have all these juicy details about your customer you can start piecing together 3 of the puzzle pieces in your content strategy.

These are:

• WHERE do you find your customers? 
• WHAT do you say to them when you find them?
• HOW do you say it?

To make sure that we’re keeping our approach to content marketing slow and steady, we’re just focusing on the first point, and we’ll look at the other 2 in the next episodes.

WHERE do you find your customers?

We saw in the pilot episode that content marketing is about leaving a trail for your customers to follow so that they find out about your business, get to like, know and trust you and then buy.

But how do you start setting a trail if you don’t know where your customers are?

Well that’s when we start playing detective. If you downloaded last week’s customer profile guide you’ll be aware that I used to be a detective. And by ‘used to be’ I mean ‘had a business card printed when I was 9′

9 years old and already asking too many questions…

So how do we start finding out likely locations for our missing customer?

Start with their interests, questions and problems

In the customer profile guide we looked at different aspects of our customer including:

• What their problem is
• What their lifestyle is like
• The reasons they want to solve their problem
• Their personality
• How they’re getting by today

Each one of these gives us clues about where we might find our customer.

Let’s say that you offer beauty therapies. You know your customers are interested in staying healthy, looking after their skin, and perhaps a high percentage of your customers are mothers. From there you would then…

Spend a day in their life

Imagine that you are your customer. Knowing what you know, what does their routine look like? Where do they go? What do they do?

• Take kids to school
• Go to work
• Check Facebook on her break – search online for nearby hair salons
• Go to a nearby cafe for lunch, read a beauty magazine
• Pick up kids and go to a playgroup

You can play around with the situation as much as you like. Use your imagination to think about the things they do in their day. Depending on your business you’ll focus on different parts of their lifestyle. It might be their work life, their home life, their dating life. However, don’t just limit yourself to where you can help them, think about what else is going on in their lives.

Look online, offline and go social  

From there we can start to look for places where our customer might be. For example:

Online

What websites does your customer consult in their day to day life? If your customer is a business owner do they read Forbes? Or the Huffington Post?

If your customer is interested in fitness do they subscribe to any blogs, or podcasts related to health and fitness? Are they registered on any forums? Think about your own behaviour online and ask yourself what the equivalent might be for your customer.

Offline

When your customer is away from their computer, what real-live events and social circles do they move in?

Do they attend networking events? Do they meet up with friends at a regular dance class? Do they attend industry events? Do they go to local festivals?

These are all places that you may be able to start your content trail, or build relationships with other business owners who can help refer customers to you. In the case of our beauty therapist, she could team up with a local hairdressing salon and offer an incentive for every customer referred.

Go social

Okay – this technically falls under the ‘online’ section but social media is so vast it’s worth thinking about it as its own category. Social media gives you plenty of tools to find your customers. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all have search capabilities where you can look for people who are interested in ‘health and beauty’ or ‘small business marketing.’ This gives you an opportunities to find direct groups, pages and lists of people who could just be perfect customers for you.

And what do you do when you find these people?

That’s exactly what we’ll be covering next time.

What about you? Knowing what you know about your customer, where could you start looking for them? Getting stuck? Pop your questions in the comments below and we’ll see if we can help you out!

You're reading CMS! Episode 4: The Mystery of The Missing Customer which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

This week we’re looking at the importance of knowing WHO it is you want to reach before you start creating any content-marketing materials.

Don’t forget to scroll down below for details on how to get your free content-marketing customer profile guide

Bonus Video from Episode 3 – The Sexy Carrot Song

When you ‘synergise’ good ideas ‘globalistically’ in a song… this is what happens.You have been warned:

Get Your Free Customer Profile Guide

To get your hands on a 20-page guide that takes you through 13 things you need to know about your customer, simply subscribe to AmyTV. Already a subscriber? Then you’ll be getting an email soon about how to access your customer profile guide.

You're reading CMS! Episode 3: The Customer Profile which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

Have more lightbulb moments when thinking up blog topics

When instead of thinking:

“I’ve got to blog to attract more customers”

You think:

“My readers really seem to struggle with X. I wonder how I can help them with this?”

In the first scenario, it’s all about you and that’s a lot of pressure.

With that kind of pressure, your thoughts can turn to just trying to write popular content. But you might find that as you obsess about viral posts, and high traffic numbers, thinking of what to actually write about feels like an impossible task.

In the second situation though, we have so much more inspiration for ideas!

I know so many business owners who can talk non-stop about the different problems their customers face and how they can help.

In fact if you and I sat down right now I’ll bet you could talk easily about your customer’s problems, the questions they ask, and what you can do for them.

Let’s have a look at an imaginary conversation a life coach might have while chatting about their customers:

“Most of my life coaching clients are at a cross roads, it could be a new job, or a new relationships or just feeling stuck in a rut. Sometimes they’re  hesitant about contacting me because they’re just not sure what a life coach is and some even think only crazy people need a coach! They don’t realise that it’s more mainstream these days, and even celebrities are using them. One of the things I’ll always do before working with someone is to get on the phone  for a free consultation because it’s really important to see if there’s a fit of personalities.”

Already, we have 10 possible blog posts – how many did you spot?

1.  What to do when you’re stuck at a cross roads in life
2.  Got a big decision to make? Here’s 10 tips to help
3.  How to be confident and happy in a new job
4.  Relationships – should you stay or should you go?
5.  What does a life-coach do?
6.  How to know if your problem can be solved by a life-coach
7.  5 Celebrities that use life-coaches (and what they’re achieved)
8.  Is life-coaching still taboo?
9.  How to get the most from a free life-coaching consultation
10.  How to pick the best life-coach for your personality

What about you? Can you sit down, write a brief paragraph on the problems your customers face and see if it kicks up a blog post idea you’ve not yet thought of?
If you want some help hashing out ideas, submit your thoughts in the comments below.

You're reading When Does it Become Easier to Find Blog Post Ideas? which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

Can you quickly catch their eye?

It’s a real killer if you suspect your perfect prospects are reading your copy and walking away because they don’t understand what you offer.

So why is this such a common problem?

More importantly, how can you reduce the risk of it happening to you?

Well, copywriting is like online dating. You’re relying on words to compete for the attention of an ideal suitor. So the tendency is to describe your most positive traits in a bid to give people an idea of what you’re like.

But instead of helping them visualise what it’s like to choose you, you can end up with copy veiled in a bubble of well-meaning words that actually acts as a barrier between you and your ideal customer.

For example:

“We can empower you to move forward in your business and increase potential opportunities through profitable relationships”

This might sound positive, but there are no specific details to show HOW this is done, WHO it’s for and what the RESULTS might be.

And if your readers don’t get this information pretty quickly, they’re going to get all Dionne Warwick on you and Walk On By.

So what can you do instead?

How to make your (dating) marketing copy catch their eye

One of the best ways to catch the attention of your perfect customer, is to give examples of what you’ve done for other perfect customers.

Sounds simple, but the reason it works so well is that it forces you to communicate in a direct manner.

Look at the following examples, in which version do we learn more about the person?

“What’s your personality like?”

“Ooh, I’m pretty adventurous, I love fun, music and enjoy socialising with family and friends”

That looks like pretty much like every other dating advert. And though it sounds positive, it really doesn’t tell a potential suitor if they’re going to get on.

So let’s change the first part:

“What did you do last weekend?

“I went white-water rafting Saturday morning with my dad and then Sunday night played the Saxophone in a Jazz trio…”

Does it tell us a bit more about that person? Of course it does. So, when writing your own copy…

Tell them what you’ve DONE (and do)

Just like the lonely-hearts browser, your customer wants a fast indication that they’ve found a good match without having to go on lots of uncomfortable first dates.

One way to help your customer decide is to provide specific examples for the following areas:

1. What you’ve done
2. Who you’ve done it for
3. What the results were

And in addition to referencing work you have done in the past, also use the present tense to show that your service is current and fresh today.

So for example:

“I’ve helped small business owners improve their networking skills and increase customer leads from events. I currently offer day workshops and 1:1 coaching for individuals and groups.”

Let’s split this up into a few more examples:

1. What you’ve done

Providing prospective customers examples of services you’ve provided helps them visualise working with you.

‘In addition to helping people with their computers when they break down I have also helped small businesses choose the best computer, operating service and software to meet their needs and their budget. (Now to present tense) After a brief phone consultation to find out how you use a computer in your business, I will research options to discuss with you, source the best prices, get everything up and running and then provide ongoing training and support.”

2. Who you’ve worked with

Examples of the different people you work with can also be a useful shortcut to get your ideal customer’s attention.

So instead of saying:

“I can help you with all your computer needs”

You might write:

“I offer services for your personal home computer, students, schools and small businesses, including small shops and offices”

3. What the results were

Oh people do love results of course. We want to be able to see what we’re going to get back after we’ve invested in something, so again, give them a few examples.

Remember, if you’re making any income claims to stay within your relevant advertising authority’s guidelines.

Examples of the results you’ve got for other customers though are pretty compelling:

“Customers love that they don’t  have to waste time trawling computer shops to be talked at by sales people uninterested in their needs. After a 30 minute chat, I can provide a list of options within a day, have you set up within a week and usually save you between £500-£1000.”

So there you go, if you’ve been struggling to communicate what it is you do, think about what you’ve done for others and start your copy there.

Remember, actions you’ve taken in the past are always more believable than what you say you will do.

What about you? Have you struggled in the past to communicate clearly what you do? Does it help to draw on past experiences? Let me know in the comments below.

You're reading A Copywriting (and Dating) Trick to Stop Perfect Customers Walking Away which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.

A competitor releases an avalanche of content and you decide to catch them up.

3 hours and 5 cups of coffee later and you’re still trawling their archives wondering how on earth you can create that much content overnight. The notepad beside you is filled with ideas for blog posts and white papers, and you calculate it should only take you about 9,347 hours to write it all.

If you’re feeling this way you might enjoy…

Content Marketing… Stripped! Episode 2

This week’s Content Marketing… Stripped episode is a short look at keeping a regular, manageable and consistent content marketing effort.

You can watch it here:

Notes from today’s show

So, let’s go over some of the challenges you might face as a business exploring the world of content marketing, and give you some tips to help:

Boost your marketing confidence (stop racing Usain Bolt)

While it’s a good idea to look to others for inspiration and ideas, sometimes this only kills your motivation and momentum. If you are a freelancer, or small business owner and you’re looking at a much larger agency or corporation for content marketing ideas you’re probably going to be overwhelmed.

If you struggle to get out one blog post a week, but feel you need to be writing every day because that’s what the dominant company in your industry is doing, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of misery.

But a little inspiration and looking around is good. So here’s how to deal with the overwhelm if it arrives.

• Don’t run against an Olympian: Instead of looking at the best in your industry, look at someone just 2-3 steps ahead. It might be less intimidating to get ideas from someone who’s just a little further down the road. 
• Don’t be someone else’s second. Instead of copying what another business is doing, look at your unique strengths. You might struggle to write a daily blog post, but find it easy to do a daily podcast, or a daily illustration. Or you might prefer doing a weekly video. If everyone else in your industry is doing dry facts and reports, perhaps you can provide information in a way that is more entertaining.

Don’t think ‘once and done’

Publishing content is like keeping an online marketing savings account. Every piece adds to your investment and grows in value over time. But you have to keep adding to it. It used to be you could set up a website, load it with content and then wait for the sales to come in.

You’ve got to work harder these days, and the best way to do that is to keep adding fresh content.

You are learning more and more in your industry every single day, which means the new content you write will also increase in value. If you want to see quickly just how much you know compared to before, complete a quick content-audit and you’ll see how much you’ve learned since you started your business.

Don’t stop marketing (aka keep brushing your teeth after marriage)

A lot of service-based businesses are familiar with the pattern of going all out with their marketing when client work is quiet. Once the client work starts building up, it’s harder to find the time to market, and the need to create content doesn’t feel as urgent because money is coming in from clients.

Then the work stops, you realise you haven’t had a fresh enquiry for months and scrabble to write some new blog posts for your ideal customer.

Try to keep a consistent content creation effort going even when you feel the work won’t end. It might be holding a monthly webinar, or sticking to your weekly blog post, or sharing useful content via social media.

Things move quickly online, so it helps to keep your content fresh and updated for your audience.

And remember, if you’re looking for an easy button, it’s probably just the switch to the outside light…

You're reading CMS! Episode 2 on AmyTV: Slow and Steady Wins the Content-Marketing Race which was orginally posted on: HarrisonAmy Copywriting. If you liked it, you might want to sign up to Fast Copy Fridays to get free copywriting tips each week.