I used this technique when I was demonstrating kitchen products. I’d make my pitch, get the audience smiling and nodding, lay out all the stuff they were getting, then state the offer.

Then pause for 2 seconds.

Then smile broadly: “But here’s what I’m going to do…for the first five people who lay out a $20 bill – I can only do this until noon – I’ll add a second GizmoDelight!”

So how can you apply good closing copy to your website copy? And not sound to “salesy”?

One of my favorite ways it to break up your services into component parts, imply great value for each service, and then state the benefit.

Service = Dog Grooming:

“Our dog groomers use the FancyFrancoise Method ™to trim all our poodles, so you know your poodle is getting expert care.
We only use all-natural hypo-allergenic “Golden Locks” shampoo, to ensure a lustrous shiny coat.
For your dog’s comfort, we play soothing Baroque music, and offer professional massage treatments prior to grooming.
Of course, each poodle gets an organic vitamin-packed “CoCoCookie” when they’re finished, for a joyful finish.”

See how that works? Valuable service + “invaluable” benefit. 

Throughout your copy you’ve talked about your pet salon, used testimonials, case studies, pictures. But now you’re hammering home the offer. The key is to equate the product with the desired benefits, just as the prospect is deciding if you’re the right service. Don’t give away the store at the beginning – entice and lead through the copy until you hit the right moment to open the curtain and lay it all out.

Next time we’ll talk about laying out an irresistible offer…

I hear that all the time – “Looks great”, “Pretty”, “Nice graphics,” “Professional.” I don’t know what any of that really means, it’s so subjective. I think people are saying it doesn’t look like their nephew did their site.

But websites are so easy to build these days – everything looks pretty. And frankly, I wish my nephew did my site – he knows about 10 times more than I’ll ever know about WordPress.

Websites aren’t supposed to look pretty.

It’s nice if they do. It’s really nice if they don’t assault with a crazy color scheme or flashy graphics that never load. But looking professional isn’t the point. A good looking site can attract your reader’s attention and maintain their gaze – for  a moment.

Then you have less then 10 seconds to prove your site is interesting.

Why should anyone invest time reading your copy?

My friend’s site was all about her as an artist. She tried to make the argument that she was her product. I didn’t buy it. Unless you’re a top-selling artist, photographer, editor, pizza maker – you have to show your reader why you matter.

Irrelevancy is your default.

So how can you demonstrate your value to your reader?

Stop talking about yourself.

Focus on your prospect’s problems.

I did some work recently with an animal communicator. She’s booked solid for a full year.  She says she just did it through referrals. Sounds easy enough, but her reputation was built over 15 years of doing speaking gigs, writing, and working with clients. When she meets someone she doesn’t talk about how incredibly intuitive she is. She focuses on what her client is asking for, and apparently she gets great results.

A great reputation will gain you respect, but it won’t guarantee clients or income. Establishing yourself as an expert is step #1 – not the final outcome.

Clients will always want to hear more about the results you’ll help them achieve then how effective you are. That’s why Angie’s List and Amazon reviews are so popular. People are more ready to believe their peers and colleagues who are struggling with the same problem. Results for your client will always speak louder than words.

Of far greater interest, it turns out, is talk about them! Specifically, what they do, what they want to do, and how they can do it better.

But how do you figure out WHAT your readers want from your website? That is, without spending thousands on market research? Good news, it’s already been done for you!

Three Fun and EZ Research Tips:

• Look at Magazine Headlines and Table of Contents. Health, women’s issues, sports, decorating – you name it, there’s a magazine for it. You want to go for the high-production value – Cosmo, Prevention, House and Garden – they hire writers just to do titles. That’s millions of dollars of research, development, and targeting for free.

• Look at your High-Ranking Competitors. What are they doing with content, layout, design, SEO, color, graphics, audio, video, and offers? They’re doing something right to rank highly, so study and implement.

• Watch the News. Any news event can be relevant to your market. I don’t care what it is. Let’s take the very recent example of a certain Congressman asked to resign for sending inappropriate tweets…

Your Market…The (sometimes inappropriate) Reframe

Health…How Mr. C got the abs to land so many hotties!

Women’s Issues…Mr. C’s secrets of attracting women, and how your hubbie can learn from him.

Sports…How to fit a grueling training regimen into a 14-hour workday.

Decorating…When Harry met Sally – How does The Bachelor adapt to a new wife’s decorating whims?

You get the idea.

Bottom Line: Do your research. It doesn’t have to be a drag, it can even be fun, and in about 3 hours you can find out exactly what your market likes and what they’re responding to.

Asking for testimonials can be tough, like asking for a favor. But it might help to remember that your client is actually getting something out of it as well:

1) If they’ve liked you, they’ll feel good about writing a recommendation.

2) It encourages them to review the value they got from your help, possibly inspiring more gains.

3) Testimonials with a live link to their site can promote their business.

So don’t fool yourself – testimonials benefit both parties.

MOST TESTIMONIALS ARE USELESS

But let’s face it, most testimonials are not that effective. They’re kind of generic…

“Jane was great to work with, I’m so happy we met!”

“Tom really helped our company a lot. He really knows his stuff.”

Though well meaning, this type of testimonial is too general to inspire the reader to contact you.

Of more help would be a results-oriented testimonial:

Jane helped us increase our ROI 33% in 2 weeks!

Tom helped us bring in 12 new clients!

Definitely better. These provide specific results that readers can identify with.

“Increased ROI” and ”new clients” are common objectives. But these kind of testimonials still seem vague, and almost fake. Like something you’d see in a cheesy advertisement.

Why don’t we get more specific?

5-STAR TESTIMONIALS

We were opening up a new division of our business, and after 14 years of being the greatest widget maker in Middletown, we figured we were ready to sell to the Korean market. Not a chance. Jane showed us how to market to different cultures, and helped us increase ROI 33% in 2 weeks.

After 8 years at Company X, I felt stuck and was dreading going to work. Tom was able to help me realize my passion, and within 6 months I quit my job and I’m now making just as much money with a lot less stress.

Even though these are very specific they present scenarios that most clients can relate to. But they have to be real – that level of specificity is easy to disprove. Also, they’re not easy to get. It’s hard enough to ask for a testimonial without providing a list of guidelines.

So, how to get them? One idea is to follow up with your clients regularly, like every three months or so. See how they’re doing, get an idea of what results they’ve achieved, and offer them something they’d be interested in, like a new product you’ve developed, a discount, or a sample. Your clients will keep you top of mind, you’ll improve the results you help them achieve, and you’ll get some kick-ass testimonials.

So many sites are guilty of this infraction, that I decided to write a quick post about it, and more importantly, how to fix it.

I’m going to outline a simple home page structure for above-the-fold.

Above-the-fold is what your visitor sees upon landing – it’s the screen right in front of them.

They’ll spend only a few seconds there before deciding if they want to scroll further, so it needs to be quite engaging.

Here’s the E-Z formula:

First, you’ll probably have some kind of banner or logo at the top. That’s fine – just make sure it’s pretty.

Next, probably below the navigation bar, you’ll put your headline. Your banner is not your headline – it’s your branding and no one cares that much about it so you’ll need a headline.

What kind of headline?

Not “Welcome!”

Not “Hi, my name’s Jane and I’m a copywriter.”

Not a reiteration of your banner.

One of the most interesting kinds of headlines is a question. People read questions, and then they try to answer them.

“Would you like to learn how to effortlessly save 10% of your income, starting with your next paycheck?” Sure!

Questions engage readers. Then they read on to see if you’re really the one to solve their problem, or even, just maybe, this time, the answer is in the copy.

So try asking a question for your headline.

Next include a short paragraph, not more than four lines, explaining who you work with and what problem your typical client has. Why so short? Visually, short paragraphs are less intimidating. If you’re asking a prospect for a time commitment, make it as easy as possible for them to comply.

Lastly, add a few bullet points. Visually, they’re fun to read. And they communicate the benefits you offer concisely and clearly.

Pretty good bullet points aren’t difficult to write, by the way. Great bullet points take years to master. If you want some resources on the greatest bullet point writers in copywriters, just ask me below.

As for the rest of the Home page, keep it simple and clean. The most important tip I can give you is…

Well, first let me ask you a question. What makes the most sales for you?

Your copy? Sadly for me, no.

Your website? No.

You? Unfortunately not.

Your offer? No again.

It’s your prospect. Whatever persuasion, assurance, convincing, or even coercion you perform, ultimately they’re the ones that make the sale. And they can be damn good salespeople if you let them.

So what’s the big infraction? Too much information. Don’t deluge your website with every detail about you and your business.  Make an elegant and compelling argument why you can provide the solution to your reader’s most pressing problem, and then let your prospect take over.

Typical responses:

“Well, let’s see…we really focus on the client’s needs.”

“Oh, you know, I’ve been doing this for years and…”

“I’m a really good listener. I get right to the client’s problems.”

“We have XYZ process – a proprietary system that targets a company’s weak areas blah blah blah.”

These comments represent about 80% of the answers I get. And there’s nothing terribly wrong with them, except they’re dreadfully dull and generic. After all, who doesn’t focus on client’s needs?

The good news is it may not matter much. I think Unique Positioning Statements are over-rated, because prospects can rarely match the tagline to the business name anyway.

Clever taglines have NEVER caused me to choose one vendor over another. Domino’s Pizza used to promise to deliver hot pizza within 30 minutes or it was free. Great tagline, but far more important to me was the easy phone number…1-800-Dominos. Convenience trumps clever.

Bottom Line: Don’t sweat over clever headlines, mottos or even positioning. The much greater challenge is to prove your worth.

You want to tell your reader EVERYTHING about your business, but that’s no better than telling them nothing. People don’t want to know everything about you and your business. You’re lucky if they stick around for more than 10 seconds.

I was watching a director in rehearsal today. Yelling, screaming, running around flapping his arms…quite a performance. But he wasn’t directing. He was showing, doing, peacocking.

He scared the wits out of me, and the actor was reduced to mimicking.

Do you shadow your housekeeper around telling them how to clean? Would you explain proper snaking technique to your plumber? Do you follow your child around the playground? Or do you leave them alone and let them do their thing?

Let your visitor know how you can help them, and then let them do their thing. Guide them, but do it gently. Allow them to make up their minds about you (and make it really easy).

To find out how to look like the expert sans swagger, join our free webinar this Wednesday, “My Website’s Not Working Hard Enough!”

Details can be found at:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/294333190

So as a writer I struggle with the sizzle and razzle dazzle of crazy graphic design. I’ve learned to talk the language and when I work with designers I get my way about 50% of the time. That’s pretty good, since I work closely with someone who designs a lot of stuff and who’s crazy about “image”.

Image Image Image.

Well, I got my comeuppance yesterday. I’m beginning to see that there’s something to be said about pretty packaging. She reworked some PowerPoint slides I’ve prepared for a presentation. They look nice. Maybe they’ll make me look good. I don’t know.

If you want to judge for yourself, and get some really great ideas on how to make your website start paying you back, join us for a webinar entitled “My Website Isn’t Working Hard Enough” on March 16th. It’s free, and there are prizes, special offers, and dazzling content.

One of the simplest tools is the Google Keywords tool, which allows you to enter a search term and compare its popularity to similar terms. For example, if you sell rakes for gardening, Google will tell you that “Gardening Rakes” is a much more commonly searched term that “Garden Rakes”. It may seem like a tiny distinction, but it can dramatically increase the amount of traffic you get.

When you’re compiling your list of keywords, another factor to keep in mind is your competition. You can also find some information here on Google, although it’s a little difficult to interpret.

What you’re looking for is a popular search term with low competition. The trick is that in Google, the competition is a factor of the number of sites that use that key term. This can be misleading. “Gardening”   has a huge popularity number as you can imagine. Millions of people type “Gardening” into their search box.  But it’s also listed as a low-competition site. Why? Because the competition figure is relative to the number of sites using “Gardening” as a keyword.

Another popular free site is KeywordDiscovery.com. In this much simpler site you can get an idea of how many times a keyword has been searched for in the past 12 months. There are many other free keyword analysis sites, most of which are very straightforward. But note that there are also subscription sites which will give you much more sophisticated information.

Bottom Line: Start small with your keywords, and gradually add them to your pages, posts, and articles.

Dan’s not the most likeable guy in the world. He’s arrogant, curmudgeonly, and opinionated. I would guess that most people are turned off when first introduced to his material. It’s challenging, in-your- face stuff that isn’t often concrete but is always loud.

The book I read is called the “No BS Business Success in the New Economy”. I strongly recommend it if you believe, as I do, there’s a new economy emerging, with a more cautious and savvy buyer. A prospect that researches, bids out, and demands.

Kennedy discusses how to approach and close the new client / customer/ buyer. It’s not enough to be just a copywriter, salesperson, film editor, graphic designer, ______ anymore. He suggests we need to position ourselves as broader strategists, able to bring much more to the table than our label suggests.

I have a colleague who charges $400 to create a logo. She’s having a lot of trouble getting her fee anymore. Part of that is the recession…but I suspect that even when the economy turns around it still won’t be easy. The buyer’s mindset has changed permanently.

It’s become too easy to outsource design, writing, editing, administrative and website services. It’s  unrealistic to try to compete with the global market on price. Indonesia and Romania have you beat. You need to revamp your marketing strategy to target exactly what your prospect wants, and it’s rarely what they ask for.

Bottom Line: It’s not enough to slap a price list up on your site or send a proposal that lists cost of services.  Stay focused on your prospect and how you can help them – not what you do, how you do it, and what you charge.