Good copy is NOT about the templates, the words, the formula or even the psychology of persuasion.
It starts with a deep understanding of YOU and what floats your boat.
YOU are the most important component in your business.
No templates or formula can save the day, if the stuff you plug into them is crap.
Without YOU - the most important input - marketing is a hamster wheel.
You can try all the strategies, tactics and templates under the sun, but you can't create communications that connect, resonate and convert without meaningful input.
Here are 4 steps to get a deep understanding of YOU, and how to fully express your personality, values, convictions and superpowers through your marketing communications:
1. Ask the right questions
Every marketing course gives people similar questions, no wonder we're phoning it in!
There're two elements to take a plain old question above and beyond the same ol' same ol' to helping you dig deep and get impactful answers:
(1) Framing and context
It's not just the questions themselves. How they're framed and given context on what the answers are used to inform are just as important. The answer to a personal question could be very telling and inform how you craft and position an offering, if it's framed to elicit answer in that direction.
(2) Follow up questions
In my experience, the first round of answers tends to be somewhat superficial. Not that they're not valuable, yet it's human nature to spit out answers that we've always used for certain types of questions.
We've to go beyond sound bytes that make things "easy" and help us feel "safe."
Good follow up questions cut through these top layers, uncover what truly matters and get to the core of your message.
This is often the missing piece when folks go through info products or self-guided trainings. They keep answering the same questions, and unknowingly feeding themselves the same regurgitated answers...
Some of these answers don't even come from them! So often we take on what we see on "sales pages" (Location independence! Freedom! Uplevel your business! Leverage your time with automation!) and rehash them without even realizing it's not what will bring us the most satisfaction.
2. Lay it all out
When the right questions are answered thoughtfully, thoroughly and honestly, much is revealed.
It's important that you get everything out of your head and put it down "on paper."
When thoughts and ideas are swirling in your head, they get tangled up and loop around. This makes everything seem more complicated than it is, preventing you from seeing the most obvious connection and the shortest path from A to B.
When you do this "brain dump," don't censor. Don't worry if an answer is "relevant" to the exercise. Don't worry about being smart or giving the "right" answers. Don't worry if an idea will make you money. Don't worry if something seems too personal to be incorporated in the "business" context. Don't compartmentalize.
Part of the power of this approach is to make ALL parts of you feel seen and heard. Unless all of YOU is acknowledged, the final outcome won't be in full alignment with who you are and therefore won't resonate with YOU.
If you aren't excited about your communications, how can you expect your readers to get excited about your offerings?
3. Connect the dots
Once you've everything laid out, you start to see the interconnection among answers.
You get different answers when you ask different people the same set of questions. There's no "right" way to answer them.
The different answers draw connections with each other in different ways.
Seeing the interconnection among answers from a 5,000' view can lead to insights that a single answer to a single question can't accomplish.
This synergy is the seed to your unique selling proposition.
You can see how your message is an extension of your values and convictions. You can see how your values and convictions are mapped to the psychology and emotions of your market. You can see how you can tap into the sentiment of your market with your POV and personal experience.
You can see how your life experience, talents and trainings, combined with your perspective, all contribute to solving a problem in a unique way. You can see how your way of solving the problem matches the needs of your niche.
When all the pieces fall into place for my clients, we can distill the seemingly disparate parts into ONE paragraph that sums up the core message for a business.
This is one of the most freeing moments...
It gives you a powerful platform on which to craft your content so you can deliver a cohesive message that's focused, confident and powerful.
This platform allows you to grow, evolve and add tools and skills to your bag of tricks, without having to revamp everything every 6 months.
4. Articulate your unique positioning and relevance
Faithfully.
Sitting on good raw materials doesn't mean the final product will be good.
So many people get cold feet when they write the actual copy, diluting the message and conforming to what they think "copy" is "supposed to be."
They bury their personality, and muff out their unique POV.
Put energy, conviction and enthusiasm behind your words - they give you the flair that instills confidence in your readers.
Your copy should strengthen the connection between you and your business. Your copy should first and foremost resonate with YOU.
Only after the energy and personality are there, does "editing" make sense. (It's not uncommon for me to send my clients back to the drawing board if I'm not "feeling it.")
Now you can trim the fat, improve readability, make it conversational, and do other things good copywriting does.
But without good input (what makes you, YOU) it's all just a writing exercise.
It starts with a deep understanding of YOU and what floats your boat.
YOU are the most important component in your business.
No templates or formula can save the day, if the stuff you plug into them is crap.
Without YOU - the most important input - marketing is a hamster wheel.
You can try all the strategies, tactics and templates under the sun, but you can't create communications that connect, resonate and convert without meaningful input.
Here are 4 steps to get a deep understanding of YOU, and how to fully express your personality, values, convictions and superpowers through your marketing communications:
1. Ask the right questions
Every marketing course gives people similar questions, no wonder we're phoning it in!
There're two elements to take a plain old question above and beyond the same ol' same ol' to helping you dig deep and get impactful answers:
(1) Framing and context
It's not just the questions themselves. How they're framed and given context on what the answers are used to inform are just as important. The answer to a personal question could be very telling and inform how you craft and position an offering, if it's framed to elicit answer in that direction.
(2) Follow up questions
In my experience, the first round of answers tends to be somewhat superficial. Not that they're not valuable, yet it's human nature to spit out answers that we've always used for certain types of questions.
We've to go beyond sound bytes that make things "easy" and help us feel "safe."
Good follow up questions cut through these top layers, uncover what truly matters and get to the core of your message.
This is often the missing piece when folks go through info products or self-guided trainings. They keep answering the same questions, and unknowingly feeding themselves the same regurgitated answers...
Some of these answers don't even come from them! So often we take on what we see on "sales pages" (Location independence! Freedom! Uplevel your business! Leverage your time with automation!) and rehash them without even realizing it's not what will bring us the most satisfaction.
2. Lay it all out
When the right questions are answered thoughtfully, thoroughly and honestly, much is revealed.
It's important that you get everything out of your head and put it down "on paper."
When thoughts and ideas are swirling in your head, they get tangled up and loop around. This makes everything seem more complicated than it is, preventing you from seeing the most obvious connection and the shortest path from A to B.
When you do this "brain dump," don't censor. Don't worry if an answer is "relevant" to the exercise. Don't worry about being smart or giving the "right" answers. Don't worry if an idea will make you money. Don't worry if something seems too personal to be incorporated in the "business" context. Don't compartmentalize.
Part of the power of this approach is to make ALL parts of you feel seen and heard. Unless all of YOU is acknowledged, the final outcome won't be in full alignment with who you are and therefore won't resonate with YOU.
If you aren't excited about your communications, how can you expect your readers to get excited about your offerings?
3. Connect the dots
Once you've everything laid out, you start to see the interconnection among answers.
You get different answers when you ask different people the same set of questions. There's no "right" way to answer them.
The different answers draw connections with each other in different ways.
Seeing the interconnection among answers from a 5,000' view can lead to insights that a single answer to a single question can't accomplish.
This synergy is the seed to your unique selling proposition.
You can see how your message is an extension of your values and convictions. You can see how your values and convictions are mapped to the psychology and emotions of your market. You can see how you can tap into the sentiment of your market with your POV and personal experience.
You can see how your life experience, talents and trainings, combined with your perspective, all contribute to solving a problem in a unique way. You can see how your way of solving the problem matches the needs of your niche.
When all the pieces fall into place for my clients, we can distill the seemingly disparate parts into ONE paragraph that sums up the core message for a business.
This is one of the most freeing moments...
It gives you a powerful platform on which to craft your content so you can deliver a cohesive message that's focused, confident and powerful.
This platform allows you to grow, evolve and add tools and skills to your bag of tricks, without having to revamp everything every 6 months.
4. Articulate your unique positioning and relevance
Faithfully.
Sitting on good raw materials doesn't mean the final product will be good.
So many people get cold feet when they write the actual copy, diluting the message and conforming to what they think "copy" is "supposed to be."
They bury their personality, and muff out their unique POV.
Put energy, conviction and enthusiasm behind your words - they give you the flair that instills confidence in your readers.
Your copy should strengthen the connection between you and your business. Your copy should first and foremost resonate with YOU.
Only after the energy and personality are there, does "editing" make sense. (It's not uncommon for me to send my clients back to the drawing board if I'm not "feeling it.")
Now you can trim the fat, improve readability, make it conversational, and do other things good copywriting does.
But without good input (what makes you, YOU) it's all just a writing exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment