Disclaimer: The three minutes it takes to read this could change your business outlook forever.
First let me start by being as honest with you as I can. The term “great” is subjective. What one person thinks is fantastic another chucks in the trash. The standards of “greatness” are skewed by opinion. We need a different, more verifiable, parameter.
Instead, let’s focus on writing effective copy.
I cannot stand writing in the convoluted text of corporate-speak. It’s cold and inhuman, faceless and vague. It’s boring and lacks consumer empathy. It’s boiler plate jargon. It doesn’t sell as powerfully as it could and I try to convince all my clients against it. Why?
Who wants to buy a product that bores them? Especially from a company that treats them like an anonymous profit margin rather than an individual full of emotions? How can long-term relationships be built like that? How can you stand out when you sound like everybody else?
Today’s consumer is wicked smart. They’re wary of The Man and His message. They can find the truth by googling your product on the Internet or chatting your product up in one of millions of forums. The online revolution has given the consumer great power: a unified voice demanding quality control. (Which should be embraced rather than feared by the honest company!)
The challenge for honest companies then becomes, letting people know your company is the real deal effectively. Which isn’t a secret, it just takes a bit of knowledge and the courage to think differently.
The Internet has created a global intimacy corporations are still (even to this day) trying to grasp. Going online is like going into a community, it’s personal. It’s where we connect with friends and family, chat groups and instant messages. Where we can easily sort out the truth from the b.s. It’s the place we visit on our own time and don’t want to be bothered, especially by yet another ridiculous ad.
But that doesn’t mean we aren’t willing to listen or mind getting out our wallets. We just hate being sold. We want to be spoken to, not pitched to.
These days you have to talk to consumers honestly and personally if you want them to listen. They want to buy, but they want to buy from the right people.
Nick Usborne, author of net words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy writes, “Being blah guarantees that you’ll never be heard. The mistake many businesses make online is that they display the same caution as they do in the offline world. The result is that they appear completely characterless.”
You can’t get much more safe, more blah, than corporate-speak. If you’re never noticed you will never build relationships. (As of April, 2008, the Internet consisted of 162 million websites and the world spent $700 billion in advertising in 2007. That’s a big crowd.) That’s where I can help.
I write all my copy in a conversational style. Speaking intimately. As if a representative of your company was visiting inside your client’s home or office and connecting with them person to person. After all, where do you think prospective customers are reviewing your company’s information? Especially online? (Where are you right now?)
It’s not an ad, it’s a conversation. It’s how a company can separate itself from the pack.
A good conversation is where original voices can shake the cages of consumer apathy. Where conversion rates can measure the effectiveness of the message. And long-term relationships are the goal.
Now… that’s great. Don’t you think?
Give me a call and let’s talk about your product’s USP. Let’s outline your customer demographics and find out why they NEED your product on an emotional level. Let’s incorporate those tricky SEO keywords if we’re going online.
And, most importantly, let’s write it in a way that will get people to stop and listen. Request your FREE estimate now.
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