If you’re struggling to sell your services or events or wondering why your marketing copy isn’t converting into sales, this blog/video is for you.
If you’d rather just watch the video, skip to the end and do that, or read the blog here….
Why your marketing copy may not be working
You may wonder why your post isn’t getting the likes and comments you hoped for, why no one is clicking through to your website or event or why, when they land on your sales copy, they’re not reading past the first couple of sentences.
Or maybe you don’t wonder any of those things you just don’t know why your marketing copy isn’t working!!! Which I know is really frustrating, its not easy because there’s no one, ‘correct’ way to do marketing copy or marketing in general.
While there’s several elements that may not be working, in this blog I’m going to focus on one aspect of your copy, because you could be missing out a crucial element of the copy formula… and that is the why!
Most people explain the what or talk about the how and completely miss out the why!
The what is what you do or the topic you’re talking about, ie what the service or event is that you’re promoting, the point you’re making or whatever, the how is how you get results for your clients, so it could be a methodology, framework or process.
Why should they care?
If people don’t know why what you’re about to share could be important or useful to them or that they may need what you have, then they will totally miss your point as they won’t read/listen further. If they do keep reading, they could read your what and how and literally NOT KNOW that its for them, that your service could help them, that you have the solution they may need.
The WHY establishes relevance and is essentially explaining why they should care and continue to read or watch.
For example: in a mastermind session this morning with a web design company talking about a new service they’re planning helping people understand how secure their website is. If they only talked about the benefits of having a secure website such as peace of mind and no problems, the people they’re trying to target will likely switch off. They need to be shown why they should care about their website security, why it is important to them, such as what a pain it would be to have their website hacked and not functional for 4 weeks plus the expense of getting it fixed.
Start with that and you’d have their attention!
Short attention spans
People skim read massively, especially online. Human attention spans are now shorter than that of a goldfish apparently (on average just 8 seconds)!
[ctt template=”11″ link=”d8Ab7″ via=”yes” ]Attention spans now shorter than goldfish! Create attention-grabbing #marketing #copy with this formula[/ctt]
So you need to tell them why this issue is important to them, why they should keep reading, why this is relevant for them. We think its obvious but we have to point it out. I know there’s a LOT more to copy than just this, but keep this simple formula in mind and it will help steer your copy in the right direction.
This is why I include headers (that and for SEO!) and bolding/highlighting – because people skim-read. I bet you’re doing it right now!
The formula
#1 WHY (to establish relevance & importance)
#2 WHAT (to explain the topic)
#3 HOW (to outline the process)
It needs to be in that order! Put the why first, then the what, then the how (if necessary). If you don’t put the why first, people may not ever get to the rest.
Even in this video I’ve followed the same formula, first I established why this is important to you (essentially using what’s not working and saying that I have a solution for you – hopefully I’ve grabbed your attention). Then I explained the what which is that most people focus on the what and how and miss out the why. Then I explained the how of the simple formula so you can go away and implement it!
So, that’s it, sounds simple but it is powerful – I promise.
Use this formula when writing copy (blog or sales copy), presenting or at any time that you want to get people’s attention.
Leave a comment
I hope that’s been useful, if so, please share and please comment with the why, what and how or your main service, program or event or blog.
Practice using this formula now or you will forget it.
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