A lot of brands do it and it seems to work.

Influencerscan be a very profitable way to promote your product or service.

The socials are their element, they are used to public exposure and have cultivated a close relationship with their followers over a period of time.

These factors don’t necessarily apply to you as the mind behind your brand. Remember, you don’t have to do it all yourself.

Letting influencersuse their power of appeal to advertise your brand can be a very smart strategy.

But as every time you consider investing in a new advertising medium, you need to take several factors into account to ensure that your investment pays off.

Many brands have done it really well and without investing lots of money; but for that you need first a good strategy, and that’s what I’m going to explain here.

Shall we start?

Choose your influencers wisely so your campaign makes sense.

Influencers are now also called “content creators”, because that’s what they do.

They create content that entertains, informs and engages their followers.

Some people don’t value this type of activity but the reality is that creating consistent, quality content is a full-time job.

Whether we like it or not, this type of character has gained unparalleled prominence and you as a business owner that wants to grow can gain a lot by working with them.

The key is to know how to choose the right content creator for you and the type of content you want them to produce.

There are several factors to consider when researching which content creators you’d like to collaborate with:

• Type of content: their content is in line with your brand and what you sell.
• Demographic group: the profile of your buyer persona matches that of their followers. This applies not only to age and economic level, but also to tastes and interests.  
• Brand image: their communication style matches your brand values and personality.
• Engagement: there’s genuine interaction with your followers, rather than just lots of likes, which could be from fake accounts..
• Frequency of publication: Do they publish often? Or only occasionally?

How many followers should the influencer have?

There’s a common misconception that the more followers an influencer has, the more profitable their campaigns will be.

This is not always the case.

Before explaining why, let’s first look at the different types of influencer based on their number of followers.

1. Macro influencers

They’re basically celebrities. We’re talking about influencers who have amassed between 100,000 and one million followers.

They’re content creators who appear in mainstream media and run campaigns for well-known brands, which are the only ones that can afford their fees. They’re often known to the general public because they are talked about outside their own communities of followers.

• Micro influencers

These are content creators with between 5,000 and 100,000 followers. While they may not have celebrity status, they are considered celebrities within their community.

They are often authorities in their field (fashion, marketing, entertainment, etc.), but are not well-known to the general public. They can charge affordable fees for promotional campaigns.

• Nano influencers

These are content creators with up to 1000 followers. These influencers often have higher engagement than macro influencers because they are more real and feel closer to their followers.

This is why nano-influencers can be very profitable.

Their followers trust them and when they recommend a product or a service, they throw themselves into the campaign, taking great care of their audience.

As creating content isn’t their day job, they can run campaigns in exchange for products or very affordable fees.

How to work with and how to pay influencers?

Content creators want to develop long-term relationships with brands, rather than just earning 200 euros here and there.

The more you involve them as partners in a campaign or initiative, the better. Greater collaboration has advantages for both parties and can be more cost-effective for your brand.

You can work with content creators to cover events, test products, collaborate on promotions or create discount codes.

Alternatively, you can run campaigns to promote each other through temporary actions, such as managing each other’s Instagram accounts for a while.

In the latter two cases, remuneration is not necessarily required; it all depends on the conditions negotiated with the influencer.

Influencers will often be willing to collaborate in exchange for free products or to gain more visibility, particularly if your socials have a considerable number of followers.

Your influencers may ask for any of these different forms of payment:

• by CPA (cost per action) – every time a person performs a certain action, be it a purchase, or hitting the subscribe button.
• by CPC (cost per click) or traffic – the number of people who click on the link that leads to the page you want to reach
• fixed price – regardless of clicks or conversions, you are charged a fixed price per post, reel or story.

Make sure that the price you pay makes sense for the type of campaign you want to run and that it is within your budget.

For example, if what you are doing is a brand awareness campaign, it makes more sense to pay them a fixed price per publication, or depending on the traffic they bring to your website.

Analyse the profitability of your influencer campaigns

Make sure their fees make sense for your strategy and that the investment pays off. On most platforms like Instagram or TikTok you can analyse the number of clicks and engagement on your posts.

Analyse periodically whether your investment in influencer marketing is paying off in the short, medium or long term.

You can ask influencers for such reports, or collaborate with them to see these reports directly in your Instagram or TikTok account.

Instagram collaborations work like this:

1. Before sharing a post, tap the ‘Tag people’ option.

2. Click on ‘Invite collaborator’.

3. Find the account you want to add and click on its name.

4. Tap ‘Done’ to confirm.

Oversee the entire process

To ensure that your influencer campaigns align with your brand and objectives, maintain clear communication and agree on every detail of their publications.

While it is important to give them freedom as they are the experts in content creation, if you feel that something is not right, you have the right and the obligation to discuss it — after all, it is your brand image.

This is why it is so important to work with influencers who share your vision and whom you trust to represent your brand.

You should agree in advance:

1. Number of publications
2. Format
3. Date of publication
4. Proposed content (text, location, visuals, duration)
5. Price and method of payment

Where the influencer makes the video or takes the photo is very important. The background can either enhance or ruin a post.

Use a ghostwriter

While there are influencers who are very good with images, such as those specialising in fashion, beauty products and travel, many of them struggle with words.

As we know, the message is as important as the image. If you’re working with influencers who struggle with words, hire a ghostwriter to write the post texts and video scripts.

You’d be surprised at how many famous influencers don’t write their own content, even though they give the impression that they do.

The aim is to make it seem as if what they say has occurred to them.

A ghostwriter adapts to the influencer’s personality and their audience to determine the type of content that will generate the most engagement.

Many copywriters write for influencers and celebrities behind the scenes — I do it too; it’s common in our profession.

Where to start

Finding the right influencers to collaborate with can be time-consuming.

You have to search and compare, and make sure that the audience is real and not bots.

This is where platforms that simplify the process of finding the ideal content creators for your brand come in.

One such platform is Upfluence, which uses software that indexes and updates influencers’ profiles in real time, analysing all their content to determine their reach and level of interaction.

Its Live Capture tool finds the best influencers for your brand.

Another such platform is Later.

A different alternative: Organic ads – what are they?

They are going viral with well-known brands such as North Face.

Organic ads are ads created by real customers.

Brands find customers who are already fans and encourage them to create a post recommending the brand’s products.

They don’t have to be professional publications with expensive effects or graphic design; the simpler, the better.

The truth is that we are all a little overwhelmed by the constant stream of beautiful and seemingly perfect influencers.

That’s why organic ads from ordinary people work: they’re honest and relatable.

So go out there, find creators who are authentic and share your vision, and let them be themselves!

How can I highlight a negative aspect of my product?

Everyone out there is trying to prove their products are the best of the best!

Yes, but you wouldn’t be the first nor the last to use a negative aspect of your offering to set yourself apart.

It’s a technique that savvy copywriters throughout history have used in their campaigns at one time or another, and it proved to be the missing piece for those brands that were struggling to finally take off.

If you think about it, the idea is not that far-fetched.

By embracing a not-so-positive aspect of your product, you demonstrate that:

• You are an honest brand
• You are so confident in your ability to deliver what you promise that you aren’t scared to expose everything, both the good and the bad.
• You know how to turn something negative into something positive.

Furthermore, you not only accept what you lack or what is not so perfect, but you expose it for all to see.

Because in the end great advertising is- as the copywriter Andy McLeod rightly says –

“Expressing a truth about a product in an arresting way.”

This advanced copywriting technique is called “reverse psychology“

Do you want to learn how to use it?

Stay with me for this copywriting class in which we’ll look at several ways to exploit a disadvantage of your product.

1.   Admit that you are not the best in the market

Admitting that you are not number one in your niche can work in your favour.

Let’s see this with a great example.

The rental car company Avis was going through a hard time.

Hertz, the competitor, was gaining market share by leaps and bounds, so much so that Avis was losing literally millions of dollars.

They understood that they needed a powerful campaign to turn the situation around and hired the agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.

The agency then decided to turn the tables and make the most of the fact that Avis was number two in the market.

This truth was the perfect argument to convince their audience that with Avis, their experience would be smooth sailing.

These ads have made history because they helped Avis recover from its financial slump.

Doyle Dane Bernbach’s advertisers were able to use this disadvantage to convince audiences that they would get better service and a smoother experience with Avis, which is ultimately what everyone wants when they rent a car.

Think about how you could apply this advanced copywriting technique to your business.

Not being a big, well-known brand may mean that you offer a more personalised service, that you are cheaper, or that the buying process is easier.

Let’s now look at another way to use a disadvantage to your advantage.

2.   You are not the first choice your customer had in mind.

You may be the alternative they haven’t considered, and you may turn out to be even better.

I know this is a bit complicated to grasp, so let’s look at an example to help you understand.

Vespa, the Italian motorcycle brand, wanted to penetrate the U.S. market.

They were not fools.

They knew very well that it was not going to be easy to convince a country where every member of the family has their own car from the age of 18 to get on a small and fragile-looking motorcycle.

(Picture a Vespa next to one of those huge pickups that abound in the USA).

Vespa then hired the advertising agency Carl Ally and it was copywriter Ed McCabe who came up with this extraordinary campaign.

Pay attention to the header

“Maybe your second car shouldn’t be a car.”

It’s masterful because you’re already planting doubt in your ideal customer’s mind.

But the lead is even better:

“Don’t laugh. It makes a lot more sense to hop on a Vespa than it does to climb into a 4000 lb automobile to go half a mile for a 4-oz pack of cigarettes.”

Notice how it already plays on the fact that the average American has never considered a scooter, and therefore goes right into making the most robust argument for owning a motorcycle, but preceded by a “don’t laugh”.

McCabe goes on to strengthen that argument by outlining all the advantages of a scooter, for parking, for getting around traffic, and, course, there is also the economic issue, “you can buy one of them with the money you’d spend to insurance and fuel the average second car for a year”.

Think about how you could apply this advanced copywriting technique to your business.

Are you a cheaper but equally (or more) advantageous alternative to a more obvious choice?

So make the most of it and make sure you create headlines that already sow doubt in your audience’s mind.

Do they really need that more expensive option, or can they get a similar result with yours plus other advantages they hadn’t considered?

Let’s take a look at another very clear way to use reverse psychology. 

3. Ask your audience not to buy your products

Sounds pretty idiotic, doesn’t it?

If you want to sell more, how can you ask your prospects not to buy?

And yet that is what Patagonia did

You will know Patagonia for its clothing made with quality materials for hiking in the mountains or just walking around the neighbourhood.

In 2011 they ran the following ad in the New York Times for Black Friday:

Of course it was a campaign that attracted a lot of attention.

Patagonia is known for its environmental advocacy and campaigns to protect the planet.

That’s why on Black Friday they wanted to launch a message against the fanatical consumerism typical of these dates.

They even have a page on their website explaining why they decided to run this ad.

I copy here the most relevant messages:

…to lighten our environmental footprint, everyone needs to consume less. Businesses need to make fewer things but of higher quality. Customers need to think twice before they buy.

Why? Everything we make takes something from the planet we can’t give back. Each piece of Patagonia clothing, whether or not it’s organic or uses recycled materials, emits several times its weight in greenhouse gases, generates at least another half garment’s worth of scrap, and draws down copious amounts of freshwater now growing scarce everywhere on the planet.”

Of course, many branded them as hypocrites, because they knew that with this ad they were actually giving more publicity to their products.

They had foreseen that this would happen, so on their website they also face this truth without any hints:

“But we’re in business to make and sell products. Everyone’s paycheck relies on that. Moreover, we are a growing business, opening new stores and mailing more catalogs. What do we tell customers who accuse us of hypocrisy?

It would be hypocritical for us to work for environmental change without encouraging customers to think before they buy. To reduce environmental damage, we all have to reduce consumption as well as make products in more environmentally sensitive, less harmful ways. It’s not hypocrisy for us to address the need to reduce consumption. On the other hand, it’s folly to assume that a healthy economy can be based on buying and selling more and more things people don’t need—and it’s time for people who believe that’s folly to say so.”

Patagonia is actually doing here what it always does – selling a concept rather than a garment itself.

Patagonia not only sells quality clothing but above all presents itself as that brand with scruples that really cares about the planet.

People who buy Patagonia garments do so not only for the quality of its products but also to be seen as a person who loves nature and wants to help protect it.

That’s why this ad makes so much sense, it’s the pure essence of their “buy less but buy quality” marketing strategy.

In other words, don’t buy from Decathlon and buy from us.

Think about how you could use this technique in your marketing strategy.

If your brand is also environmentally conscious, invite your audience to buy only if necessary.

Encourage them to repair, reuse and resell when possible.

Your entire marketing strategy has to take the environmental factor into account if that is how you have decided to differentiate yourself from other brands.

And above all, be consistent with what you preach.

Let’s take a look at one last example of the marketing technique of making a negative thing positive.

4. Your brand doesn’t do everything

Specializing can be a double-edged sword.

When you only do one thing, people may decide to go for another brand or service that offers them more possibilities.

But specializing in something can also be positive because it differentiates you from other businesses and gives you that expert aura.

In the 2000s, the Umbro brand was dedicated to apparel and footwear for one sport: football.

It now also makes rugby and training apparel, but its biggest market is still football.

And it is this speciality that this campaign highlighted:

Copywriter Andy McLeod exploited the fact that all the other brands were making everything, from skateboards to yoga mats, to emphasize that Umbro only made football apparel and nothing else.

This campaign focuses on making their ideal customer – people who play football – feel proud to wear a brand that differentiates them from the rest of the crowd.

Wearing Umbro they say to the world “I play football”.

This kind of emotion is often used in advertising – the feeling of belonging to a group and being perceived as a member of it.

Because it works.

Besides, a brand that specializes in only one thing has to be better, right? This was the other message they wanted to convey.

Think about how you can use this type of message in your marketing campaigns.

Are you specialised in only one thing and that’s why you do it better than the competition?

What is the emotion you want your audience to feel?

Pride in belonging to a group?

Remember, one of the most important goals of your copy is to create an emotion that makes your audience want to get your product.

Summarizing

That not-so-positive aspect of your offer can become very effective in differentiating your brand.

Don’t be afraid to discover that disadvantage that can make you shine brighter than you thought.

Perfection is boring and too flat.

The flaws in business – as in people – are what make us memorable.

I invite you to discover them and share them out there.

See you soon!

In most cases, B2B sales take a little longer because there is no impulse buying as there is with consumer products such as clothes or gadgets.

B2B sales involve a more rational choice, taking into account various factors such as functionality, price or a company’s reputation.

Different offers are usually compared and a decision is made in a face-to-face or online meeting.

But in order to get to that meeting, you must first attract the interest of the person or persons who will make the decision to hire your service or buy your product.

And to capture the interest of your target audience, there is nothing better than content marketing.

While in the case of consumer products, advertising on platforms like Instagram or TikTok and influencer marketing work best, in the case of B2B, content and media are very different.

And that is what we are going to look at here.

Stay with me for a few minutes if you want to learn what content you need to create for your B2B business.

First step: educate and inform

Owning a business or running a department means having a lot of knowledge in different areas, and this can lead to feeling overwhelmed by all the information that is out there.

In addition, the speed at which technology is advancing forces business owners and managers to keep abreast of technological developments in their industries.

So one of your goals when creating valuable content for your B2B audience is to provide them with the information they need to be up to date, chewed and digestible.

There is nothing people value more than content that helps them quickly understand complex issues that they need to do their jobs.

Your target audience spends at least an hour a day consuming content related to their industry that provides them with valuable insights for their work.

Having a blog with informative articles is a very powerful weapon when it comes to making your brand known to your potential customers.

A well-written and well-researched blog will keep people reading, and the longer people stay on your website the higher up Google will place it on the results page.

Recommended reading How to increase organic traffic to your website

As well as raising awareness of your brand, you have the opportunity to educate your target audience about your solution.

Your prospects may not even know that a solution like yours exists for their problem, and when they read about it, they may realise that they need your solution.

But maybe they didn’t even know they had a problem!

Therefore, you need to know what stage of awareness your target audience is at and write a variety of articles targeting each stage.

For example, if your prospect has not identified a problem or need, talk to them about the consequences of that problem and the benefits of meeting that need.

Let me give you a real-life example.

I write content for a global pest control company.

It’s called Anticimex and it’s the first company in its sector to develop pest control solutions that minimize the use of toxic substances that harm the environment.

Most organisations today are very aware of the importance of sustainability in their operations, not only because customers demand it, but also because of increasingly stringent legislation.

Many companies are unaware that there is such a thing as “Integrated Pest Management” (IPM), which is a way of effectively managing pests by maximising new technologies to minimise the use of toxic substances.

For Anticimex I’m creating assets like eBooks, customer stories, LinkedIn posts and blog articles that talk about the existence of this system and the advantages of applying it, not only to protect the environment, but also to avoid loss of materials, product contamination or loss of reputation, which has an enormous economic impact.

In short, we are educating and informing our target audience about the options available when it comes to pest control, which is a huge and growing problem for many, many companies.

But not only can you provide information in the form of articles or e-books, you can also create videos.

Ann Hadley is the mind behind Marketing Profs, one of the longest running and most experienced B2B marketing platforms.

These are the findings of a recent study into the best formats for sharing B2B content.

So concentrate mainly on these 4 formats.

In the next point, we will focus on customer success stories, as these are the ones that will really help you differentiate your company.

Step 2: Differentiate

As well as informing and educating, you need to be able to differentiate your solution.

Once your prospects are aware that they have a problem and need a solution, they will compare several options before choosing one, so it’s at this point that you need to give them compelling reasons to choose your solution.

And a great way to demonstrate that your solution works is to create customer success stories.

You can create them in video or slideshow format.

The most important thing is the content, which needs to convey the transformation your client has experienced by working with you.

The structure is always the same and is very similar to those used in film scripts:

• Situation – who the customer is (sometimes you may not be able to mention the name, but you can mention their industry and size. “A pharmaceutical company with 5,000 employees“).
• Problem – Describe the problem they had in their own words. Don’t forget to mention if worked with other companies and they couldn’t help solve the problem.
• Your Solution – How you helped them solve the problem. Describe the key steps and progress if it was a long project.
• Results – Compare where they were at the start and where they are now. Make sure these results are desirable and relatable without exaggerating their benefits.

This structure is very similar to the transformation experienced by the protagonists in most commercial films.

In this article I explain in detail what elements should not be missing from your success story and analyse several real-life examples, so you can learn what to emphasise when creating yours.

Customers might not want to appear on video, even if that’s one of the best success story formats since we can hear and see the customer explaining that change.

If they don’t want to appear in the video, but don’t mind their company appearing, it’s also ok. You can use pictures of the workplace and a voice-over.

Another way to highlight your solution is to create posts on LinkedIn that gradually convince your target audience about your difference.

Keep in mind that this is a lengthy process, as posts that are directly sales-oriented will not normally get a lot of traction.

On LinkedIn, you need to gradually build your audience and gain their trust by showing them that they have a lot of good reasons to trust your company.

These are some of the posts that work best on LinkedIn:

• Presentations that explain a specific topic
• How-to videos that show how your tool or process works
• Fun videos from your workplace to show your company culture
• Longer articles to explain more complex issues that need clarification
• Images of you and your staff to show you are real people
• Success story presentations or videos

Do’s and don’ts of targeting B2B audiences

The person who watches your video or reads your e-book is just that, a person, not an entity.

Therefore, just as we do when creating B2C content, we have to imagine a specific person with a specific problem if we want to be convincing.

Imagine that vendor, HR or IT manager and talk to him or her.

To make sure that the message you want to convey reaches that person and is relevant, imagine your prospect asking you these three questions:

• What do you mean by this?
• Why should I choose your solution and not another?
• How does it benefit me?
• Really…?

Answering these 4 questions is crucial to differentiate your solution and gain your prospect’s trust.

Before you hit the “publish” button, stop for a moment and ask yourself if what you are writing is: clear, differentiates you, puts the customer at the centre and is credible.

Be transparent

Exaggerating benefits and talking only about successes is not going to bring people closer to your company.

Most of us don’t believe in meaningless miracles, but in coherent solutions.

Humility and honesty have been shown to be more appreciated than that business jargon that only talks about triumphs and say things like “we are proud to announce…”.

Communicate in a simple way, without resorting to those hip business jargon that ultimately say nothing and make messages sound empty.

Avoid overused expressions like:

“Holistic service tailored to our customers’ needs”.

“Market leader”.

“Customer satisfaction is our priority”

Surely you have much more interesting messages to convey than these clichés that do nothing to differentiate your brand.

Understand what your customers need and what they value most about your service and communicate it clearly and persuasively.

One example of a company that does it very well is Miro, a collaboration platform.

They do an excellent job of explaining the benefits of using their platform, and the advantages are clear from the moment

you start reading.

Give priority to clarity over originality.

Yes, you need to differentiate your business, but not at any price.

Let me explain.

If you’re thinking about a headline and you want it to grab people’s attention so they read on, don’t use a weird phrase that people will struggle to understand.

All content needs to promise value.

So that the investment of people’s time will bear fruit.

Either because they learn something new or because they satisfy their curiosity.

It’s true that the unusual attracts more attention, but people don’t have time to try to decipher riddles.

Clarity, above all.

Don’t forget the human component

The most common problem with B2B content is that there’s a palpable fear of being unprofessional and a preference to stick to the boring and trite.

Just take a look at LinkedIn and see what most companies are posting.

They robotically repeat formulas a thousand times over, business jargon and insincerity that make their content boring as hell.

So never forget that you are writing and creating for a real person, not an inanimate entity.

Most of us want human connection, emotion and entertainment.

And these 3 things aren’t necessarily at odds with professionalism.

As long as you use correct language, show that you know what you’re talking about and don’t lapse into cheesiness, your content will come across as professional without boring people to death.

The digital media that works best for B2B

LinkedIn is the quintessential B2B social network.

A company without a profile on it is a nobody.

If you don’t already have one, create a profile and publish regular posts that educate, inform, differentiate and entertain.

Your website also needs to be well maintained, as it’s your digital identity and the trustworthiness of your brand depends on it.

Keep it up to date and make sure the landing pages where you sell your product or service are really well written and designed.

These landing pages are extremely important for giving your prospects that final push they need to schedule a meeting or download a demo.

These pages give you the time and space to present all your sales arguments that explain why your solution is what your prospect needs.

You can include explanatory videos, customer testimonials, features, etc.

Finally, if you have an email list of prospects, you can gradually educate, inform and persuade them.

To grow your contact list, you need to create valuable downloadable content in exchange for an email address, or what we also call lead magnets.

If you need help with your B2B content strategy contact me and we will look at what kind of content works best for your business so you can finally start to see tangible results.

I’m talking about those direct messages on LinkedIn that you don’t even read because you know in less than a nanosecond that they’re trying to sell you something.

And you just ignore them.

You don’t want to be one of those ignored messages.

Neither do I, which is why I’ve spent a lot of time and practice perfecting my DMs.

LinkedIn was created to facilitate networking and job searches.

Now it’s the social network that freelancers and businesses use to promote themselves and get new clients.

But who said it was easy?

I certainly didn’t.

Look, I’m not here to rub your nose in the hundreds of clients I get on LinkedIn by sending a template message that took me 5 minutes to write.

Truth: I’m not good at lying.

Out of maybe twenty or so messages I send, two work, but those two have already paid for the time I’ve invested.

As you can see, my method is not infallible, but it has a pretty high conversion rate, and that’s what counts.

Want to know how I do it?

Then stay and pay close attention.

Waste your time posting every day or invest it in strategic messaging? It’s up to you

Do you feel depressed when you open LinkedIn and see your competitors’ daily posts and the truisms 🥱people comment on each other’s posts?

Well, don’t, because most people spend a lot of time doing this and get very little return on their precious time.

Let me explain.

These posts only appear in the feeds of the people who follow them, and in most cases these are not their target customers.

So they may get a lot of interaction, but in the end, they get minimal results for the time invested.

The reality is that your potential customers are also busy feeling depressed by the rate at which their competitors are posting, and in the end it all becomes a Catch-22.

To break this vicious cycle, you have to be prepared to take some action.

And that’s what we will see here.

But first, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

The almighty personal brand

My motto is: Less personal branding, more sales.

We are all obsessed with becoming social media celebrities.

But the reality is that only a few achieve real results from all the time and work they put into recording videos, creating presentations, interviews, etc.

If that’s what you want to do, go ahead, I won’t be the one to stop you.

But if you’re someone who doesn’t like competing for people’s attention all the time, and you prefer to invest your time and effort in getting flesh-and-blood clients who will pay you for a gig, then you need to go straight for them.

And one way to do this is with direct messages on LinkedIn and a well-thought-out strategy.

Here is the first step you should take.

Create a list of prospects

LinkedIn is an invaluable source of information.

There you can find those key people who work in the companies or agencies you want to collaborate with or those clients to whom you want to sell your services directly.

LinkedIn is the most effective social network if you sell to other companies (B2B).

If you sell consumer products (B2C), you’d be better off trying other channels such as Instagram or TikTok.  

Here we will focus on B2B.

First, you need to be very clear about who you want to sell to.

Who are those companies that are closest to buying your products/services.

And you know that after having done in-depth research on your buyer persona.

Only then will you be able to search LinkedIn for the companies and contacts within companies to send direct messages to.

Try to write to contacts who have decision-making power within the company.

For example, purchasing managers, marketing managers, HR managers, etc.

Once you have your list of contacts, create an Excel file with the following columns:

An Excel spreadsheet like this will help you easily track your interactions with leads.

In the column that says LinkedIn, copy the link to the person’s profile so you can always find them.

It’s important to note whether they have responded to you, and whether the response was positive or negative.

If you haven’t heard back after three attempts, forget the lead.

Same if you get a negative reply.

Don’t be a nightmare.

If they’re not interested, don’t bother.

I leave at least a week between attempts. Don’t overwhelm them by sending messages every other day.

And don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a reply the first time, I have often received a reply on the third attempt.

People are busy and don’t have time to respond to everything that comes their way. Also, many people don’t check LinkedIn every day.

How to send DMs without paying LinkedIn Premium

LinkedIn Premium is not cheap and I understand if you aren’t planning to pay for it.

Without this mode, you won’t be able to send direct messages to people you aren’t connected to.

Use the free months of LinkedIn Premium to send more DMs, and if you have the basic version, send contact invitations to the people you’ve identified as potential customers.

Ideally, you should have already exchanged comments on their posts, although this isn’t strictly necessary.

My experience is that most people will accept your invitation as long as you’ve added a personal note.

A successful contact request note should have the following ingredients:

• Say that you have similar interests or work in the same industry
• Comment on something positive about the company or person
• If it’s someone very active on LinkedIn, say that you like their posts
• Introduce yourself without trying to sell anything (yet)

These contact request notes have a maximum of 200 characters, so you won’t be able to go into much detail.

This is where you need to use your summarising skills to the maximum and say what is important in very few words.

See a real example of a contact request:

“Hi John,

I saw your post with your own headline for Purple – what a great idea!

I want to see more of your posts 😊

Greetings

Elena”

I wrote this note to an executive of a marketing agency.

We all love to receive positive feedback, with a message like this no one will ignore you.

Now let’s look at an example of a contact note for someone who doesn’t publish, so we can’t comment on anything they’ve posted.

“Hello Carmen,

I have seen that you are involved in personal development, this is a topic that interests me a lot and I thought it would be great to have you as a contact.

Best regards,

Elena”

As you can see, they are simple messages, written in friendly language and without any element that smacks of salesmanship.

If you try to sell too early, they’ll ignore you because they don’t want any more messages from people trying to sell abruptly from minute one.

Not to mention the scams that are so prevalent on LinkedIn!

Now that you have them as a contact, get a little closer.

Most people who contact me on LinkedIn to sell me something try to do so almost immediately after I have accepted them.

This puts me off, so I ignore them. You probably do the same.

Don’t make this mistake when you’re the one approaching people.

Let at least a few days pass before trying.

First, you need to get to know your target customer and think about how you want to approach this second contact.

You might consider that offering your service straight away might work.

And the truth is that many people appreciate getting to the point rather than beating around the bush.

Another way to engage them before sending a sales message is to comment on their posts or send them links to content they might be interested in, such as an article or video on a topic related to their industry.

If you have a lead magnet, it might be a good time to send it to them.

But don’t fool yourself, lead magnets are all the rage and people know very well that they are a preamble to a sale.

And that’s fine.

I mean, if the lead magnet offers value to your prospect and you make them see it that way, they’ll want it, but you have to “sell” it very well, even if it’s a freebie.

Examples of direct messages designed to sell

If you decide to send a pure sales-oriented message, you need to prepare it in advance.

Identify a specific problem that the person or company may have.

Go into detail. Generalities are useless, unconvincing and boring.

Sit down and think about what this person or company needs.

Most want more sales.

Or if it’s someone who is doing pretty well, maybe what they need is more time and you can help them tons of it with your software or service.

Perhaps what they need is more structure in their business, and you help entrepreneurs have more clarity in their goals so they can grow.

Think about the problem your product or service solves and focus on selling them a concrete solution to a concrete problem.

It is also very important to identify what differentiates you from your competitors.

What you have that they don’t or aren’t talking about.

To do this, you will have done your competitive research beforehand, which is essential to building a marketing strategy that works.

If you still don’t know what your unique selling proposition is, don’t miss this article where I guide you step by step to find it.

To understand all this better, let’s look at an example of a message I sent to a Spanish company.

Hello X,

I have seen that (company name) is growing and that you are opening up markets in India and Korea.

Congratulations, it is always a source of pride when a Spanish company does well abroad.

I am writing to you because I have helped several Spanish companies, such as (name and company), which also export abroad, to communicate in English and, as a result, they have seen an increase in their portfolio of clients abroad.

I have helped them to get more leads by using

– Cold emails to prospects

– Persuasive copy that differentiates the product for the web, social media and explanatory brochures.

– Video scripts 

One of the companies I worked for landed two major clients in China, resulting in a 30% increase in their business.

All thanks to the emails and website I wrote for them and, of course, a masterful closing of the sale by the salespeople at the meeting I arranged for them.

I have a lot of experience working with international companies operating in different countries, which helps me find ways to convince and interest potential customers who aren’t familiar with the product.

This is my number- +XXXXXXXXXX

I can also help you get more customers outside of Spain.

Give me a call and I will tell you more about how I can do this.

Best regards,

Elena

I have marked in green the part where I offer my solution and proof of authority by mentioning the names of companies I have worked with.

And in blue the part where I state my Unique Selling Proposition, which is having experience with companies abroad, something that not all copywriters have.

Now you might be thinking, “But, what happens if I’m starting and can’t show or mention any examples of work I’ve done before?”.

Don’t worry. You too can get clients through direct messaging on LinkedIn.

In these cases, you need to highlight your unique proposition even more and try to convince them by showing confidence in your skills.

Let’s take a look at an example of an email (I didn’t send it via LinkedIn, but it would work just the same) that I sent at the beginning of my copywriting career to an international school here where I live in The Hague.

They hired me to write the copy for their website without me having much experience.

I knew they were looking for more students because I saw some posts on Facebook advertising the school.

Their web copy was pretty bad, so it was obvious that they were not working with a copywriter.

This is what I wrote to them:

Email subject: An easier way to get more students

Body of the email

Hello,

I saw that you were advertising your school on Facebook. I clicked on one of the posts and it took me to your website.

That’s when I saw something that caught my attention!

But before I tell you what it is, let me introduce myself.

I’m Elena and I write compelling copy that helps businesses grow.

Although my greatest value is not in the writing…

What really helps my clients sell more is that, after studying their service and that of their competitors, I’m able to bring out that unique value they offer that their competitors don’t.

And not only am I able to identify this key value, but I also express it in an original and convincing way that helps my clients multiply their sales.

This is exactly what struck me about your website.

That although you are the only school in The Hague to offer Mandarin Chinese lessons, you don’t advertise this on your website.

I know this may not appeal to all parents, but it is certainly an important point of differentiation!

I’m sure you have other unique values to emphasise and I can help you identify them and express them in a compelling way to attract the attention of those parents that are looking for a quality school for their children.

Contact me on XXXXXXXXX or reply to this email and I will give you more details on how I can help you attract more students.

Best regards,

Elena

The day after sending this email they called me and I worked with them on the website and Facebook posts.

Why did it work?

Because I used several copywriting techniques that never fail.

1. An email subject line that arouses curiosity. Because if they don’t even open the email, it will be difficult to convince them.
2. An introduction with a hook. I mention a piece of information that interests them at the beginning but don’t reveal it until the end so that they read the whole email.
3. I don’t forget to explain clearly how I can help and I already give a clear example, so they can see that I have spent time researching their school.
4. I create another hook by telling them that I have more details on how I can help them but that they will have to contact me to find out.

You can use the same model also on LinkedIn.

To sum up

Don’t get overwhelmed every single day thinking about what are you going to post on LinkedIn.

Also, don’t spend an inordinate amount of time creating presentations or videos in Canva just to get a “like” from your former co-worker, your childhood neighbour or a peer who is actually relieved to see that you’re not doing better than her….

Spend your time connecting with the people who could be real customers.

If you do it right, the time you spend will be much more profitable.

You can also do both.

I mean, one doesn’t take away from the other.

If personal branding is very important to you and your goal is to become a celebrity in your niche, then go for it, I won’t be the one stopping you.

But if you are frustrated of all the nonsense people post online and want to get real customers faster without wasting your time entering the “look-at-how-wise-and-successful-I-am” game, give DMs a try!

Are they doing it right?

Most of them aren’t, that’s the truth.

It’s very common to tend to navel-gaze and come across as pedantic or cheesy.

“Our mission is to turn the world into a cotton candy where everyone is happy eating strawberry ice cream while gazing at unicorns and rainbows”.

• Excuse me?!

Many other businesses would like to write an original, clear and compelling mission, but nothing decent comes out.

Because everything they try sounds empty and boring and they are afraid of sounding cheesy or pedantic, like those other businesses.

It’s just not easy, that’s all.

However, when you write with your heart, but using your brain, something good comes out.

Even very good!

Maybe after 10 tries, but hey, it’s worth it.

Not every business needs a mission

I’m sure you’ve come across the typical business that sells parquets and the cousin who made their website has added a grandiloquent mission that sounds ridiculous.

“Our mission is to revolutionise the world of the traditional parquet”.

Just because you have a business doesn’t mean you set out to revolutionise the world.

Not all businesses need to include their mission in their website.

Judge for yourself.

Perhaps simply writing an interesting About page is enough.

Nor is it necessary to explicitly mention “our mission”.

But let us first clarify something important.

What exactly is the mission of a business?

I’ll bet that the idea for your business started to form in your head when you began to notice a need in certain people and that it was linked to something you like and are good at.

You thought about how you could meet that need and came up with the idea for your business.

Well, that’s exactly your mission.

It’s your main objective: satisfying your ideal customer’s need while exceeding their expectations.

In other words, you won’t only cover that particular need, but also improve many other aspects of their lives as a direct consequence.

You already have the idea, now the hard part is to express it in a relevant, original and honest way.

But that’s what you and I are here for. To help you writing your mission.

Let’s take it one step at a time.

A relevant mission

For your mission to be relevant, your ideal customer has to see themselves reflected in that journey towards your goal.

And for that you have to make your goal exclusively about him or her.

Let’s look at this with an example.

Project Fearless is an NGO that helps girls from 9 to 14 years old feel more confident through after school activities that push them out of their comfort zone and face their fears.

They teach them to skate, dance, box, draw, etc. and with those activities they help their self-esteem and the strength to overcome obstacles.

Their mission statement reads as follows:

“Our Mission: Girls, Going Places

To enable more girls to become scientists, engineers, builders, makers, creators or to get to the top of any ladder they wish to climb.

We want to equip girls with the tools to succeed in any aspect of their lives by plugging the gap currently left by society. By empowering girls to define how they see themselves from scratch, we will, in turn, rewrite how the world views girls.”

Their mission is clear and relevant because if you are a woman, or if you have daughters, you will immediately feel related.

You will want to be part of that journey to transform girls’ destinies.

Therefore, your mission has to be relevant to your target audience.

“OK – you may think – writing the mission of an NGO is much easier because it’s always about something laudable and with a vision of wanting to change something in society that is not working.”

True.

However, we can easily extrapolate this to your business, which has nothing to do with NGOs.

Let’s look at an example of a “for-profit” business.

Sunsama is a SaaS platform that helps people organise their day.

It’s aimed at those who don’t have enough life to do everything they have to do (99% of the population in the so-called First World) and who want to be more productive.

On their About page their mission statement (although they don’t explicitly call it that way) says:

“Most of our waking hours are spent working.

And we don’t need to suffer through it.

Work should bring fulfilment and meaning to our lives but we often feel overwhelmed, overworked, and overcommitted.

We deserve tools that help create a healthy relationship to work, ensure our time is well-spent, and that we can do good work, day-in and day-out, without burn out.

We built Sunsama to be that tool – to help us work with focus, calm, and harmony.”

This is a SaaS, nothing to do with an NGO, and they exist to make money.

But they state their mission in a compelling way, transforming their goal into something laudable: “to help people work with focus, calm and harmony”.

Look at the expressions they use:

“We deserve tools that help us create a healthy relationship to work”.

At all times they are trying to make people like you and me feel part of that mission.

This objective speaks directly to us because we also want to have a healthy relationship with our work.

So write a mission that is relevant to your ideal customer’s needs and make your objective go beyond your own interest as a business.

An original mission

To be original is not to be funny or irreverent.

Nor is it pretending to be someone you are not by trying to be as flamboyant as possible.

It’s being afraid of what people will say but doing it anyway.

It’s trying to express the same thing in a different way.

It’s telling a story that hasn’t been told before.

Or not in the same way.

Because you tell it from a different perspective, a different place, with other characters, other experiences, other emotions.

No need to rack your brains trying to be groundbreaking.

Express your mission in your own way and stop mimicking what others do.

I must admit that I haven’t always been brave. Not at all.

I’m scared to expose myself, that’s why I don’t use social media that much.

But for my business I like to do things my way.

When I started this and sat down to write my mission, it didn’t come to me the first time.

In fact my real mission only came to me 3 years after I started my copywriting business.

It’s OK.

There is always time, what matters is that your mission is clear.

I called my mission: “crusade against zombie copy“.

So I asked my illustrator to draw me surrounded by dying zombies. We had a blast at the photo shoot!

When I saw it published on the website I loved it but then I had moments of doubt.

Is it too informal and can it come across as unprofessional?

I was sure it wasn’t going to resonate with many people.

But in the end the clients I’m interested in working with are those who have a sense of humour and who aren’t afraid to be different.

If your mission reflects you, it will reflect your ideal customer too.

And if your mission reflects you, it will be original because no two people and no two businesses are exactly alike.

An honest mission

Now that greenwashing is on everyone’s lips, being an honest business is more important than ever.

If you don’t know what greenwashing is, it’s the name given to the widespread marketing practice of companies trying to claim that they are doing much more for the environment than they actually are.

Most of these companies have had to rectify and change their marketing messages because they were giving misleading information about how green they were when in fact they weren’t green at all.

So you have to be very careful not to exaggerate your mission and to be as honest as possible because we are facing an increasingly informed audience.

It’s one thing to embellish a mission; it’s another to lie.

The difference is the crux of the matter.

But what’s embellishing?

It’s finding that different perspective that sounds better than it really is but at the same time is real and true.

Let me explain.

An example makes everything easier to understand.

Frida is a brand of baby products.

In their About they tell us this:

They are just an ecommerce for baby and pregnancy products but they embellish their mission by saying that they are the most needed help every struggling parent needs.

Is this exactly true?

No, they won’t be on the phone for you to call them in the middle of the night.

But with this gracefully expressed “exaggeration” they imply they are there to help you.

To summarise

Now that you have seen several examples of how to write a business mission statement, sit back and reflect.

Why did you start your business?

Apart from earning a living, of course.

There is a clear reason and you know it better than anyone.

Now you just have to express it in a compelling way so it is:

• Relevant – make it important to your ideal customer and help them see themselves as part of that journey to their main objective.
• Original – tell it from your perspective and it will be different from all the others.
• Honest – Exaggerate gracefully to embellish your mission but don’t overdo it or lie.

I hope this copy lesson has helped you to get some clarity in your mind.

So now sit down and write your compelling mission!

And yes, it’s great because it saves you a lot of time and gives you ideas that might otherwise be hard to come by.

But there are 2 not-so-positive aspects of using AI for everything:

1. We lose the habit of thinking and expressing ourselves in writing.

2. Our texts will look like everyone else’s.

But what are the real consequences of these 2 negative aspects?

Regarding the first aspect, I think it’s clear.

If we don’t have to work hard to come up with new ideas, our brains become lazy and lose their ability to create something original.

Human creativity is not only the driving force behind the world’s most beautiful works of art, but it’s also the reason why such revolutionary and important inventions as the aeroplane and the washing machine have come into our lives.

Creativity is important for mental well-being.

Humans need to create.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the lyrics of a song, a delicious meal or a wooden box for your bits and pieces.

Creating makes you feel good about yourself.

But let’s look at the second of the negative aspects, the one we’re going to focus on correcting in today’s copywriting lesson.

How can it affect you if something you’ve written using ChatGPT looks too much like what others are doing?

The answer is blunt: your text won’t help you stand out.

You can draw your own conclusions from this when we’re talking about a CV, a product page or a LinkedIn post.

In this copywriting lesson we’re going to learn how to turn a text written with ChatGPT into an eye-catching and memorable piece of copy.

Replace boring words with less common words

I know this goes against all the copywriting advice you’ve read a thousand times on the internet.

(Although if I were you, I’d only believe half or less of the advice people give on social media).

A lot of copywriters will tell you that it’s better to use common words that everyone uses, and that you need to write like you speak.

This is not entirely true.

A study found that the average 45-year-old knows the meaning of 30,000 words in their mother tongue.

On the other hand, the average person uses 300 words in everyday communication. 500 if they are highly educated.

We are not talking about the words a person knows, but the words they use in their everyday life.

This narrows down the possibilities considerably.

However, you don’t have to avoid using words that people don’t use every day.

What’s more, those words we understand but don’t use every day stay in our minds longer and make our brains pay more attention.

Because they are no longer background noise.

Let’s see some examples.

Isn’t it more memorable to say “shrewd” than “smart”?

Or “natter” rather than just “chat”?

Or “obstruct” rather than “complicate”?

There are so many words you could use that better describe a situation or a characteristic!

The better a word describes something the easier the reader will picture what they’re reading in their minds.

But we will dwell on this in the next section, because it’s crucial if you want to sell more online.

For now, I want to make this first point about making your sales copy more eye-catching and memorable very clear to you.

Just because your reader uses an average of 300 words a day doesn’t mean that they won’t appreciate or understand words that they don’t hear a thousand times a day.

In fact, the opposite is true.

Don’t you find that when someone repeats themselves too much, you stop listening?

That’s why I encourage you to let go of the fear these media gurus have instilled in you and use all the words you know or like and that you think best describe what you want to say.

Paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

Selling online is not easy. Prospects can’t touch or smell your product.

Nor can you have a conversation with them -initially – to convince them that your service will solve their problem.

So you have to help them visualise themselves having your product in their hands.

Or, if you provide services, put all your arguments on the table to convince them that your service is what they need.

And to do this, you need to describe the transformation your prospects will experience: from where they are now to where they want to be, and how your product/service will help them get there faster.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a dress, a financial investment newsletter or a holiday in Kenya.

Most of the copy I see online fail to describe this transformation.

Because they just stay in generalities when it’s the details that matter.

What helps you imagine a scene better?

If I tell you: “Soak in your private jacuzzi”.

Or: “Soak in the perfectly tempered waters of your private jacuzzi, rest your neck on the soft edge, sip your favourite drink while listening to the exotic and evocative sounds of the jungle.

When could you better picture that extraordinary moment?

Don’t listen to what the copywriting gurus say on LinkedIn:

“Your copy should be short and crispy!”

The truth is that copy needs to be as concise as possible, yes, but without skimping on the details that will increase the reader’s desire to buy what you are describing.

And now you might be thinking, “well, a photo will do”.

Not always.

Let’s take the example of the jacuzzi.

You see a picture of a beautiful young woman smiling – as usual-  as if she were having a sexual experience (how predictive some advertisers are 🙄).

This image won’t be as powerful as a well-crafted description of how your prospect will feel.

Seeing a picture of someone so different (and unreal) can make it harder to imagine yourself there.

But when you tell them the details of the experience they could be living, they will picture themselves perfectly in that jacuzzi.

Do you see what I mean?

If not, here is another example.

Have you ever watched a film based on a book you have read and been totally disappointed to see that the main character has nothing to do with the person you imagined?

You had imagined her in a completely different way from that actor whose acting skills make you cringe.

And you think to yourself, “Oh boy, they’ve screwed it up”.

You are not alone.

Science tells us that it’s much easier to identify with a character in a book than in a film.

There are several reasons for this, but the one that concerns us in this case is this:

A book focuses more on a character’s feelings and thoughts, so that we can feel what they are feeling, and this helps us to relate to them.

Whereas in a film you can’t help but look at the actor and focus more on their physicality and actions and less on their inner self, their essence.

I’m not saying that you can’t relate to a character in a film.

Of course, this is possible.

But it doesn’t happen as deeply as when you read a book.  

If something is well written (and it could be a book, an article or a post on Instagram), you identify with it and make it your own.

You imagine the scenes, put a face to the characters and make the story your own.

That’s why you’re often disappointed by a film or a video because it’s not what you imagined and it doesn’t touch you as much because it’s not “your story”.

This is why you need to make an effort to paint the image you want to create in your prospects’ mind as well as you can.

Steal the voice of customers

This may sound a bit heavy, but I’ll make it clear right now.

The first thing I do when I start a copywriting project is spend hours (if not days) reading reviews, opinions, testimonials, interviews and anything else I can get my hands on with words spoken directly by customers who fit the profile of my buyer persona.

They can be your own customers but also those of your competition.

They are the ones who will give you the best clues about what benefits they crave, what drawbacks they see, what problems have been solved after the purchase, what could have been better.

Often you find real gems.

People who perfectly describe the transformation we talked about in the previous section and who will help you attract more customers.

Use their expressions, their examples, the way they describe their emotions.

Spend as much time as you can reading and listening to customer reviews because it’s the only way to find those gems.

Sometimes you have to read 40 reviews to find one that contains that perfect description of the person’s transformation, or that invaluable information you needed to differentiate your product or service from the competition.

Steal these expressions from your own customers and those of your competitors’ and use them in your copy.

To close

Don’t be afraid to write longer copy, or use uncommon words and focus on describing in vivid detail all the good that your product or service will bring to people’s lives.

ChatGPT is fine as a base, but if you want to stand out you have to turn that flat, repetitive information into something three-dimensional that transcends the screen and connects with all those people with attention deficits.

Go for it!

3 high effective tips for writing eye-catching copy #copywriting #copywritingtips
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There are too many stimuli and too many brands fighting for the attention of your potential customers.

So before you spend a penny on TikTok, Meta or LinkedIn ads, make sure you understand the principles of persuasion.

A well-crafted ad will grab attention and hold it long enough to persuade your prospects to click on the link that takes them to a product sales page.

Too many social media ads fail to attract attention. It’s sad to see people throwing their money away.

That’s why I want you to learn the techniques the advertising pros use to create ads that get real results.

Knowing these principles will make it easier for you to create ads and SM posts that will make your prospects stop scrolling and pay attention.

Let’s see them all.

The (almost) foolproof formula for creating attention-grabbing social media ads

I learnt this formula from the copywriting group I belong to, The Fix, the teachers like to mess around so they called it D.I.E.

It’s a great name because it’s memorable, and that’s precisely what we copywriters are always looking for: Words that evoke emotions that stick in people’s minds.

D.I.E. stands for DISRUPT – INTRIGUE – ENGAGE

We will look at this formula step by step and with examples so that you can see very clearly how to apply it to your ads and posts on the socials.

How to shake people so they stop at your ad

We are so blinded by so much content and silly videos that almost nothing surprises us anymore.

But surprise is important to shake people out of their lethargy and make them pay attention.

That’s why you need to do everything you can to surprise your prospects with your ad.

And this is how you do it:

✅With a statement, promise, question or image that is completely unexpected or out of the ordinary.

You need to disrupt the pre-determined schemas that people have in their heads so that their brains get a (metaphorical) shock and pay attention.

It isn’t easy to come up with that unexpected or unusual idea, but if you want your ad to get noticed, you have to take the time to find it.

Don’t worry, in this copy lesson I explain several exercises you can do to get to that unusual idea.

They don’t have to be super clever ideas, often the simplest ones work best.

What can help you arrive at your big idea is to think about the end result your prospects want which your product can deliver.

For example, if you sell after-school tutoring, an ad that would work well would be a child saying:

– Dad, I passed!

That’s every parent’s dream: their children doing well at school.

Let’s look at another example to make it clear.

One that proves that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on dazzling images or videos.

With that headline, everyone will pay attention!

Because it shocks and makes us stop in our tracks. Even if we don’t have a husband!

After that headline, the ad goes on to say that this brand of shirts has different sleeve lengths because that is what often goes wrong.

Hence your husband being in another man’s arms.

Michael Gluck was the copywriter who created this ad and I’m sure it took him a lot of discarded ideas to come up with this great one.

A tip to stand out

Do the opposite of what your competitors are doing.

If they’re making videos, make static ads.

If they take themselves too seriously, try being more loose and approachable.

Once we have the attention of our prospect we now have to get them to stay with us so we can tell them why they should buy our product or service.

Intrigue, the most effective hook

Why are series so addictive?

Because they manage to hook us with the old (but super effective) method of intrigue.

We want to keep watching them because we NEED to know what will happen.

The same goes for an ad.

If you want to intrigue your prospects you should ask yourself the following question:

– What is it specifically that makes it essential for my prospect to find out more about this and why?

And this is the solution:

✅ Offer them an interesting fact they didn’t know or a new way of getting a desired result.

Often the novelty of that new way of getting something resides in how you explain it and not really what it is.

Let me clarify this concept with an example.

You would never have guessed that this ad is about a bank because it doesn’t follow the same ad style as all the other banks.

But why is it intriguing?

Because it starts with a very everyday question, especially in the lives of British people:

How long does it take to make a cup of tea?

The comic format of the ad makes you want to read more.

About the same time as it does to open a current account that pays 9% interest.

The above formula consisting of demonstrating the ease of a formality by comparing it to an everyday routine is tried and true.

What’s different here is that we’re more used to seeing this formula start with the action you’re trying to sell.

Like this:

It takes as long to open a BBXA bank account as it does to make a cup of tea.

But Steve Henry – the copywriter who created this ad – knows that this formula neither surprises nor engages, and has set out to turn it on its head.

He starts with the routine action we all identify with (making a cup of tea) and then moves on to the product’s main benefit, that 9% interest.

Notice that they don’t even mention the name of the bank until the very end, in big letters and with a phone number (call to action).

The difference between good copy and poor copy is that good copy emphasises the benefit to the customer, not the product itself.

The third step. Engage your prospects to take action

Engage is a buzzword in all things marketing and sales.

Its real meaning is to stimulate your prospects by giving them a powerful reason to take the action you want them to take.

And you do it by:

✅ Giving them clear instructions on what they need to do to get the benefit they’re looking for and reassuring them that they won’t regret clicking on the link. 

Think about the objections your prospects might have that prevent them from buying your product or service.

Is it the price?

Do they think they won’t use it and feel like they’re throwing their money down the drain?

Show them that they’re buying more value than what they’re paying for and remind them how your product or service is going to help them become a better version of themselves.

Remember, we all buy things to be more attractive, clever, successful, rich, free, in the eyes of others.

Let’s look at an example to clarify this point.

This is not an ad per se, but it could be the last part of one.

Ampliance is a platform that helps online shops sell more with simple tools.

In the image above, they encourage their prospects to book a demo by reminding them of the big benefit they get:

Bye-bye bad shopping experiences.

And by reassuring them that they have already helped more than 400 brands win.

This image sums up the final principle of our Engage formula:

Give prospects compelling reasons to take that action – book a demo.

Wrapping up

Many brands are now embracing video, and yes, it works.

But a well-thought-out static ad that follows the D.I.E. formula can work much better and it often implies a smaller investment.

Think about it.

To make people want to buy your product or service you first have to grab their attention, intrigue them and engage them to take that action that will benefit them.

If your message is attractive, they will listen to you, and whether it is attractive or not depends on how well you communicate that benefit they’ll get if they buy.

Remember:

You aren’t selling what a product or service is, but what it does and the result it brings.

So always think about the benefit of the benefit.

As Happy Ears has done here

This ad follows the D.I.E. formula to the letter.

Disrupt – It looks like an ad for a sex toy, but it’s not.

Intrigue – What saved their marriage?

Engage – it implies a powerful reason to take action – You’ll sleep better with them on. You’ll be less irritable with your partner. Or they’ll be less irritable with you.

I hope I’ve helped you to think better about your next SM ad or post.

Get started now!

You’re looking for an agency to help you with your social media and you stumble on a LinkedIn post from an agency that caught your eye.

You click on the link to their website and as soon as you start reading the content, you can’t help but roll your eyes 🙄

You don’t believe a thing…

Because they just repeat what you’ve heard a thousand times before, without any charm.

Like this piece of copy from a website of a real agency…

“We manage your community, starting with the planning and development of a content strategy that projects your brand values to your potential customers.” 🥱

And after that wishy-washy opening, they just go on talking about themselves and you get the feeling that they don’t give a damn about what their customers really need.

So you just close the window and invest your attention in something more worthwhile.

But what about your own website and what you post on the socials?

Are you sure they are compelling enough to convince your prospects that what you offer is precisely what they need?

How can you make sure your copy won’t make people roll their eyes?

This is what we are about to see.

How to check your web copy and SM posts are persuasive

For a piece of copy to engage, it has to be:

• Clear
• Specific
• Valuable
• Reliable
• Actionable

Let’s look at this with an example.

Clear

Let’s say you sell office cleaning services. 

The first thing you need to do is make sure that as soon as someone lands on your website or Facebook page, they understand that what you are offering is actually office cleaning services.

You may be thinking “This person is discovering America for me”, and you’re not wrong, but when we see a LOT things like:

“Dream Mongers” for a company that organises parties, or “we only offer quality” as a catch-all for any kind of business…

Clarity always comes first

So make sure there’s no doubt about what you are offering.

❌ Broom Ninjas

✅Office cleaning services

People don’t want to solve puzzles when they’re in a hurry to find the service they need.

7 quick ways to make sure your copy isn't crap 💩💩💩#copywriting
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Specific

There’s nothing worse for boring people and failing to convince than being too vague.

Generalities are neither interesting nor believable.

That’s why you need to add details that make your offer interesting and unique.

❌We meet your cleaning needs

✅Offices that look, smell and feel clean

The second headline solves a problem for your prospect and helps you stand out from the competition.

If you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ll know that many companies clean so superficially that you hardly notice they’ve been there.

Valuable

The information you provide about your service must be of value to your prospects.

Information is valuable when it resolves a doubt or need.

In the example of the cleaning service we’re using, valuable information could be the price or the type of contract.

There are cleaning companies that have inflexible fixed contracts.

A difference in value could be:

✅ No commitment on duration, month to month, with the option to stop at any time.

There may be many companies that offer this flexibility but don’t make it clear in their communications.

Don’t expect people to guess.

Be transparent about the value you offer to your prospects and then emphasise this in your communications.

 Reliable

People are tired of hearing the same thing over and over again and have become very wary.

If you want to convince your audience that they can trust your company, show them how confident you are about the quality of your service, without going overboard.

One way to do this is to describe in detail how the service will be delivered.

Details make a concept more tangible.

They make it easy for your prospect to imagine what it will be like to have a clean and tidy office.

✅In the first week, we estimate the time it will take us to leave your office spotless. We take care of waste disposal and recycling of materials such as paper and packaging. Depending on the number of employees, we will clean the fridges 1-2 times a week.

These details will reassure your prospect, who will always doubt whether your service is worth it.

Details turn an intangible concept into a reality and they dispel objections.

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Actionable

Always remind your audience what they need to do to get the result they want.

✅Send us a message with your number and we will call you back within 24 hours.

Make the step they need to take easy and quick.

Don’t make them fill out a form with lots of questions because people don’t have patience.

Make it simple.

The ultimate litmus test to make sure your copy will work

When you’re revising your copy before publishing, always ask yourself these 3 questions to be sure you aren’t about to publish a 💩

1. Am I losing the reader?

You may have gone too far by giving too many confusing details and the reader (or viewer, if it’s a video) feels confused.

Imagine this person looking completely lost 😵‍💫

For example:

❌We don’t use EDTA products and we follow instinctive refinishing methods, i.e. when there are areas that need it more than others, blah, blah, blah…”.

Here your prospect is about to close the browser window…

To solve it:

Re-order your ideas and don’t overcomplicate things in an attempt to sound more professional.

Turn those complex concepts into easy-to-understand words.

✅We use environmentally and health-friendly products. We follow intensive zone cleaning methods. One day we clean the kitchen thoroughly, another day the stairs, and so on. This way all areas are clean at all times.

Always try to put yourself in your reader’s shoes who isn’t an expert in your field.

2. Is the reader thinking… “So what”? 🤨

Sometimes we don’t realise it and we talk too much about ourselves and not about our customers who should be the real protagonists.

Don’t make that mistake.

Every word you use must have value to your audience. Your copy needs to:

✅ Entertain them

✅Answer a question

✅Give them useful information that they didn’t have.

If you think what you’re saying doesn’t fit any of these characteristics, think again and fix it.

Add a personal anecdote, give them an easy-to-implement tip, let them see themselves in your words.

❌We are a leader in our industry. We use the most innovative cleaning processes and operate in 20 countries.

✅Did you know that more and more people suffer from allergies? In 30 years, 50% of the population will be allergic to something. A clean office with special products to kill dust mites is the key to the well-being of your employees.

3. Am I being called into question? 🤔

You’ve listed all the benefits of your product and you’re happy with the result.

But when you look back over your copy, you realise that you haven’t provided enough evidence to prove what you’re saying is true.

Can you see the reader rolling his eyes again?

It’s time to prove your point.

❌ We are the number one company in our industry

✅9 out of 10 customers stay with us after the first week of trial.

To prove your case, not only testimonials and case studies work.

You can also be credible by being honest. Not everything has to be perfect.

In the example above, we didn’t say that 100% of customers stay with us, there are 10% who don’t.

You can give reasons why they do not, such as price or relationship with another company.

You can also provide data, statistics, and cases that support your arguments.

Remember: People recognise and appreciate honesty in a world full of companies promising to 10x your income 🙄

See you around!

7 quick ways to make sure your copy isn't crap 💩💩💩#copywriting
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You don’t see yourself uploading posts every single day proclaiming how great you are and how much you know.

It’s a way of being exposed and that’s not fun for many of us.

It seems to me that social media has become an annoying hubbub where the presumption reigns that she who makes the most noise is the most right.

When this isn’t the case at all.

Often the opposite is true.

Those who seem more sure of themselves and of what they say, either only state the obvious, or simply repeat what others have said before, only louder.

You might be thinking… Not everything in the socials is negative.

I do use them to find out about events happening near me, have a good laugh or read a post from those people who really have something interesting to say (they’re often the least loud).

When you’re a freelancer – or have your own business – you feel obliged to use social media for promotion.

Everyone says you should be there, adding your voice to the constant chatter.

But you procrastinate and grudgingly post something once in a blue moon that only your friends and family ‘like’.

You don’t want to think too much about it, still, you feel that daily burden on your shoulders…

But there’s something they never say in the socials and it’s that…

There are better ways to get clients without social media.

And you can do great. I’m a living proof!

In fact, I’m convinced that for most small businesses the socials are a waste of time that could be better spent on more effective techniques to find new projects.

Let’s take a look at what techniques work when it comes to finding clients for those businesses that hate don’t like social media.

5 ways to find customers without social media

1.      Blogging and SEO

When I started my copywriting business I decided to invest time and energy on my blog.

I wrote 4 articles per month and searched for the keywords my prospects used in their Google searches.

After 8 months my website was in the top 10 on the Google results page for keywords such as “copywriting examples” or “freelance copywriter“.

And I keep writing articles because it works for me.

80% of the clients I work with have found me on Google.

And I’ve never paid for ads.

Now I don’t have so much time to write 4 posts a month because I’ve got more work than when I started (thank goodness!!!) so I write 1 or 2 posts a month.

Even so, my website is still very well-placed.

Once Google places you in the top search results, you just need to keep your website active by refreshing it with new content and updating the existing one.

Is it an investment of time (or money if you pay someone to write the articles for you)?

Yes, it is.

But one that delivers real results in the medium term.

I read a lot about SEO and keep up to date with Google’s algorithm changes by reading blogs from people who are experts.

And so I apply what I learn to my website to make sure it’s always up to date.

If you want to learn how to place your website in Google’s top results, in this post I explain several SEO techniques. Although I wrote it in 2020, all of them still work today. Check it out!

5 ways of finding clients when you don’t like social media. #marketing #blogging #SmallBiz
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A lot of people are now using AI with tools like ChatGPT to create content, and I think that’s great because it saves a lot of time.

But you shouldn’t just upload the content ChatGPT has come up with because it will lack personality.

ChatGPT is great for giving you ideas on what to write about and finding structure, but you need to add your personal vision to make your content original and interesting.

Uploading poor quality, duplicated or boring content won’t rank well on Google because people won’t stay to read it and then your bounce rate will be too high.

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website as soon as they land on it because they don’t see anything interesting.

Use ChatGPT to generate many different headline options, new ideas for articles or service pages, but then add your vision with examples, anecdotes or references, so it’s not just a robot spitting out content that already exists somewhere else.

If you manage to be consistent and write engaging articles on your blog, Google will reward you by ranking you high on the search results page and customers will be knocking at your door without you having to go looking for them.

Recommended reading: 5 straight-forward ways of attracting organic traffic to your website

2.      Build a mailing list

When I started blogging I also created a lead magnet to get more subscribers to my mailing list.

My lead magnet is a free guide with some basic copywriting techniques to attract international customers to your business.

If visitors want it they need to leave their email address and subscribe to my list. Then they receive an email every 2 weeks with relevant and useful copywriting tips.

Email is a way to reach out to those prospects who haven’t yet taken the decision to hire you or buy your product.

These prospects need more information since they’re still not ready to buy. (Warm audience = they’re interested in your offer but are still on the fence).

Maybe that subscriber won’t hire you right away, but you show up in their mailbox on a regular basis and if someone asks them for a therapist they’ll recommend you, or if one day they decide it’s time to invest in the future of their business, they’ll hire you.

Besides, sending emails is cheap.

Much cheaper than paying for SM ads. And it tends to work better because it creates a closer and more personal relationship.

Your prospect decides to open your email because they’re interested in your content, it’s not like when we feel interrupted with an unsolicited ad on our feeds.

Further reading: How to write an email that won’t be sent directly to the trash folder

5 ways of finding clients when you don’t like social media. #marketing #blogging #SmallBiz
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3.      Networking

We are human and therefore we like to relate to each other.

If you’re introverted you may not always feel like it.

But the truth is that meeting people in the professional sphere opens up more doors and new projects come along.

If you don’t like big events where everyone seems to be a PR expert, there are other ways.

Join coworking groups, or sign up for trainings where you can meet other freelancers or small business owners.

I consider myself a fake extrovert.

When I’m around other people I seem sociable. I talk a lot and I joke around.

But socialising eats up a lot of my energy.

I’m actually quite introverted and most of the time I like to be alone enjoying my own company.

Often my best plan is to stay home reading a book or watching a film.

But I also feel the need to be among other people from time to time. You learn a lot by talking to others.

Some of the clients I work with have met me through other acquaintances or we’ve connected at an event.

Showing your face from time to time at events for entrepreneurs, freelancers, coaches, designers, copywriters, health professionals, whatever it is you do, will bring you business opportunities and also facilitate interesting collaborations.

Although I love working alone and don’t want to be part of a team on a permanent basis, collaborating from time to time on a project with other people fills me with great energy because it’s an opportunity to grow and learn from others.

4.      Send reminders to clients you’ve worked with

Don’t be shy.

Sending a timely email or WhatsApp to your list of clients you’ve already worked with can save your month or quarter.

For instance at Christmas, to wish them happy holidays.

Your email can be the pinch they needed to remind them they want you for a new project.

But you don’t have to wait for Christmas.

Any time is a good time to send them an email asking how they’re doing and reminding them that if they need help again you are their person.

This kind of emails has brought me a lot of joy.

As well as bringing you new projects, they boost your morale since you realise that people value your work and want to work with you again.

But remember the golden rule when writing anything:

Time is precious. Don’t waste anyone’s.

Don’t talk too much about yourself and how great you are.

Better ask them how they’re doing. Personalise the email or WhatsApp so they don’t notice you’ve sent it to 50 others!

Tell them a funny story that will make them smile or give them an interesting piece of information.

5 ways of finding clients when you don’t like social media. #marketing #blogging #SmallBiz
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5.      Cold emails

Instead of blasting messages left and right to an intangible mass of followers on social media who are often not even your ideal customer because they aren’t ready to buy, spend that time and energy on companies or individuals who are more likely to hire you.

First search for those companies or freelancers who may need your services or your product and send them a personalised email.

This kind of email is called a cold email because you’re pitching to people who don’t know you at all, so you need to gain their trust in just one email.

Cold emailing isn’t easy but with practice, it can work really well.

Go through these 5 steps:

1. Make them open the email with an interesting subject line
2. Use the PAS formula
3. Clear up any doubts
4. Prove your arguments
5. Close in style

Let’s look at these steps one by one.

An interesting subject line

We all receive tens of unsolicited emails from brands every day. So to make sure prospects open your email, the subject line has to be interesting enough.

A subject line is interesting when it:

• Promises a benefit
• Arouses curiosity
• It’s fun and different

In this article I break down the formula for writing attention-grabbing headlines and subject lines.

Some of the brands I’m subscribed to use a technique that works great for subject lines and that’s asking questions. For example:

• Are you there?
• Can Spotify make you more productive?
• Do you use WordPress? You need this

Asking questions nudges people to open an email to find an answer.

Nobody likes to leave a question unanswered!

PAS Formula

As soon as readers open the email they should find something of benefit to them. They need to quickly find the answer to the question “Why should I bother to read this email?”

And the PAS formula is an easy way to make sure you answer that question.

The PAS formula work like this:

1. Problem
2. Agitation
3. Solution

You agitate the problem when you describe in detail all the issues that person (or company) is suffering that stem from the main problem.

For example, if you think their website looks shabby and old-fashioned and you’re a web designer you can start by saying:

“Your website is like your business’s shop window. If it looks untidy, cluttered and it’s not clear what you’re selling, no one will come inside.”

Always personalise the email, find a couple of specific problems you’ve found on their website and explain why these problems are causing them to lose money.

Then offer a solution to that problem and list everything that your solution will achieve:

• Your page will load faster and people will stay on page longer
• The design will look modern, intuitive and much more attractive.
• Contacting you will be much easier with a live chat and a direct call button.

Clear up doubts

Doubt it’s only human, especially when dealing with an unknown company.

Convince them why they won’t regret hiring you, and write in a personal, kind and approachable way.

Invite them to take a look at your portfolio, offer them a free demo, invite them to a video call.

The goal here is to get them to trust you.

Prove your arguments

The best way to convince your prospects about how good you are is letting others bolster your arguments.

Add customer testimonials, surveys, a success story of a specific customer, comments from other people in your niche.

These are great ways to prove you’re just not talking b*llocks.

Close in style

At the end of the email, you want prospects to contact you or click on a link to buy a product.

And for that, you need to remind them of all the benefits they get if they do it.

Summarise them in points in a clear and compelling way.

People are eager to know how what you offer can solve their problem.

Be honest. Be clear. And be yourself.

To sum up

Social media can be very useful, I don’t deny that. A lot of people are making tons of money thanks to it.

But it isn’t the only way.

Many businesses are doing really well without having to upload posts or videos all day long.

The 5 ways of getting clients without SM we’ve seen before can also help you sell more.

You don’t need to say goodbye to SM forever.

You can try some of these techniques I showed you and continue using SM if it’s helping you.

When it comes to promoting your business, only you know which techniques work best for your business.

Don’t be too influenced by what others do (not even by what I’m telling you in this post 😋) and choose your own way of doing things.

Any way of promoting your business is good if it’s getting you results and doesn’t make you feel like you’re selling your soul to the devil.

Because being true to yourself is very important!

See you around!

5 ways of finding clients when you don’t like social media. #marketing #blogging #SmallBiz
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It’s so well written that you can’t help but pull out your credit card.

The copy has managed to convince you that what you’ve got before your eyes is precisely what you need and that you need it NOW.

That website is surely written by a copywriter who knows how to apply the 4 Us.

Or at least 3 of them.

The 4 Us make your copy more persuasive and push prospects to keep reading and take action.

First because they attract their attention and second because they increase their urge to get what they don’t have yet.

Once you understand these 4 elements you’ll start recognising them in all good pieces of copy and you’ll be able to apply them when writing your own copy.

The 4 Us are taught in the best copywriting schools and no copywriter can afford to do without them.

These are:

Ultra-specific, useful, urgent and unique.

Let’s look at each of them in detail so you can learn how to use them to elevate your copy.

Ultra-specific

I insist on this all the time.

If you’ve read other of my articles, you’ll know that I hammer on this a lot, but it’s because ultra-specificity is what will make your copy interesting and compelling.

If people don’t stop to read (or listen, if it’s a video) what you have to say, you won’t sell anything, will you?

For a piece of copy to be interesting it must be ultra-specific.

Generalities won’t work because we don’t retain them in our memory, nor do they help us to picture in our minds what we’re being told.

To be ultra-specific, details are very important.

The world is made of details and these details are what people will notice and remember.

When selling online, putting an image in the reader’s mind is super important, especially when selling something immaterial.

A design course, a cleaning service, a facial massage, an accounting software etc.

Prospects cannot immediately see what we’re selling.

It’s not a jumper but something more abstract that doesn’t appeal directly to the eyes.

And therefore we need to paint a clear picture in the reader’s mind of what it’ll be like to enjoy all the benefits of that massage or software.

The 4 Us that will make your copy work 11x better. #copywriting #ads #socialmedia
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If you want them to picture it easily, you must be ultra-specific and bring up the details.

In the book Made to Stick written by the Heath brothers  – which I highly recommend – they explain why some stories stay in the collective imagination and others don’t. They also give many examples.

Instead of telling you one of those stories, I’m going to give you an example closer to me the Heath brothers don’t talk about.

What I’m about to tell you took place a long time ago but I still remember it.

In the 1990s there was a programme on Spanish television called Sorpresa, Sorpresa (Surprise, Surprise) and as the title implies, it was about giving big surprises to people devised by family and friends.

In all of these surprises there was a celebrity involved.

Basically, the programme was about your mother, boyfriend or friend contacting the programme because they knew you loved Enrique Iglesias and then the programme would organise a funny situation to surprise you and have you meet Enrique Iglesias in person.

The Spice Girls, Back Street Boys, Shakira and other celebrities in the limelight at the time, had been on the programme.

So you can imagine what a huge audience the program had.

Then one day in February 1999, a story began to spread like wildfire.

I was still living in Spain at the time and I remember that it was a friend of mine who came to tell me this:

Last night on Surprise Surprise they wanted to surprise a girl with Ricky Martin so they hid him in a closet at the girl’s home. There were hidden cameras around the apartment to film the girl’s reaction when she opened the closet and saw him there. The girl arrived home, went to her room and got undressed. Then she opened a can of foie gras (there were other versions with jam and Nutella) and smeared it on her private parts. Then she called her little dog that was called Ricky! and he started licking it… People went nuts and they cut the emission and went back to the studio and Concha Velasco (the host) was horrified and announced they were going to the intermission.

There were lots of people who assured to have watched it but it was a tremendous hoax. It never happened!

Why did people believe it and why is the story still remembered today?

Because it was full of details.

Ricky Martin in the closet waiting to come out, the girl undressing in her room, the jam, the doggy called Ricky…

The details were modified as the story passed from mouth to mouth, and more details were added or changed, but it was those details that made the story entertaining and credible.

The 4 Us that will make your copy work 11x better. The 4 Us that will make your copy work 11x better. #copywriting #ads #socialmedia
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The takeaway from this story

Add details to your copy and it’ll be more entertaining, memorable and credible.

Don’t be afraid details will make your copy too long. Those details are what will make people stop scrolling and pay attention.

How to apply ultra-specificity.

When talking about people

One specific person’s story is more compelling than hundreds. Talk about one of your customers or about your own experience. Rather than saying “Everybody experienced X”, say “Sarah experienced X” and detail that person’s experience.

When talking about places

A headline written by Nick O’Connor, one of my mentors, went:

“What happened in Room 301 at Columbia University?”

It was a way of appealing to people’s curiosity so he could bring them to read his sales letter with which he was selling a financial product. What happened in that room was that several future millionaires studied there and in his letter, he linked this curious fact with the rest of the copy.

Saying Room 301 at Columbia University generates more curiosity than just saying Columbia University, or Columbia, or the US.

When talking about time

Especially when you talk about the production process, give details about the time it takes to make that product.

“This dress takes 52 hours to embroidery by hand”.

Or you can create expectation and curiosity by giving an exact time when an event will take place.

“Tomorrow at 18.45 something will happen that can change the course of the world economy”.

When talking about objects

Don’t spare details of the materials. How is it made and where, where the materials come from, and so on. These details may differentiate you from your competition or justify a higher price.

“The cotton this shirt is made of has been hand-picked in the fields of Urtala, a village in Pakistan, by a women’s cooperative. This cotton hasn’t been treated with nasty chemicals. Instead, we use natural pigments of such and such origin”.

So when doing your research ask:

• When?
• How?
• Who?
• For how long?
• How far?

The 4 Us that will make your copy work 11x better. #copywriting #ads #socialmedia
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Useful

People are quite selfish.

Most of the time we’ll only pay attention if we think there’s something in there for us.

If your prospect thinks what you’re saying could be useful to him, he’ll listen.

But, when is something useful?

Something is useful when it offers a solution to a problem.

When you can empathise with your buyer persona’s problems, you attract their attention because they feel related.

The reader or the person watching the video thinks “this interests me because it perfectly describes the problem I want to solve”.

The solution to your prospects’ problem can be explicit or implicit in your headline or introduction.

Let me explain it.

An explicit benefit would be a headline like this:

“Discover how this hearing aid will help you hear like you used to”.

And an implicit benefit would be for example this one:

“Prevent nasty arguments with your children”

The prospect will no longer have arguments with his children because they won’t have to shout when talking to him.

The second headline is more unusual and nudges people to read on because it triggers their curiosity.

That’s why it’s better to make the benefit of your product implicit.

This is also called “getting the benefit of the benefit”, which I talk about in more detail in this article about how to create original ideas for your social media ads.

But what happens when your product doesn’t solve a problem?

Suppose you’re selling something that doesn’t offer a clear solution to a problem, such as an ornament, clothing or make-up. In that case, you’ll need to concentrate more on making your headline and introduction ultra-specific and unique.

Although in reality everything has a use and solves a problem or desire.

A garment or a piece of jewellery satisfies the desire for status and sex appeal.

Glenn Fisher, in one of his master classes on The Fix (the copywriting network I belong to), gives this example of a headline that doesn’t contain any useful elements but can work very well because it piques our curiosity:

“Elon Musk’s nightmare”

It’s a great headline because it makes you want to know what Musk’s nightmare will be.

But Glenn improves it by adding usefulness:

“Elon Musk’s nightmare and 4 other investment mistakes that can help you save your portfolio”

Yes, the headline is longer, so what?

Don’t trust the greatest untruth in advertising: the shorter the copy the better.

Feel free to add whatever it’s needed to make your copy more compelling.

Urgent

People are quite lazy.

“I’ll do it tomorrow” “I don’t need it right now” “That needs a lot of energy”.

But you know how dangerous this is.

If a prospect abandons your sales page or doesn’t watch your video, you won’t be able to convince them to buy from you.

That’s why you should give them urgent reasons to stop scrolling and click on your link now.

Not tomorrow or in a while.

And for that, you must add urgency to your copy.

You add urgency when you convince your prospects they need to pay attention now, because the sooner they do, the sooner they’ll enjoy all those benefits.

It isn’t just about creating special offers for a limited period of time – which, yes, works very well – but about learning other ways to add urgency.

And that’s what we’ll see next.

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Ways to add urgency to your sales copy

With an approaching date

Dates work really well for financial products, software or courses.

Example:

“On the 8th June, the government will pass a new law that could change forever the way we use banks”.

To apply this way of adding urgency, look for dates when something is going to happen.

It doesn’t have to be drastic, you’ll make it important in the body of the copy.

It can be a summit, the publication of business results, holiday periods, anniversaries, policy changes, etc.

The point is that these dates can trigger an important event in your prospect’s life so they’ll feel the urgency to read it and take action.

With a certain time in the day

Examples:

“Before you go out to lunch this Friday, set aside 2 minutes to get 30, 50 or even 130 € tax-free”.

To add urgency in this way use specific everyday events:

“Before brushing your teeth tonight, take 3 minutes to do this to prevent your teeth from losing their natural enamel”.

“Before you go to work tomorrow, do X”.

With this type of headline, you’re giving them precise instructions on how and when to do something to get a specific result.

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With scarcity

This way of adding urgency is more common but just as valid.

When your prospect knows the product won’t be available forever, they’ll act quicker.

Take the Vinted app as an example.

Vinted is a platform where people buy and sell second-hand clothes.

When you see the shirt you just liked has been also liked by 10 other people, you feel the pressure to buy it before someone else does it.

And that’s why Vinted is so successful.

As we mentioned earlier, special prices for a limited period of time also work well here.

But be careful! If you use this technique, don’t forget to let your prospects know when the special price is over.

And don’t offer it at that special price anymore, otherwise, they won’t believe you the next time you launch a limited offer.

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With implied urgency

Agora is a company that sells financial products. Glenn Fisher, one of my mentors at The Fix, worked there for over 10 years and wrote spectacular sales letters for them.

One of those letters said: “Tell us where you want us to send your £500 cheque”.

If you receive an email like this you’ll open it for sure.

Urgency is implicit in this headline.

It’s not something that will end but people will want to get that cheque ASAP, because it’s something too good to ignore.

This promotion went on adding a specific date “On 10^th January at 9 a.m. I will send you your cheque….”.

It was an offer for Agora customers who had already bought a financial product. They were offered to buy all the other products at a reduced price so they’d get their money back for the product they had already bought. (Upselling).

But be careful, adding urgency for the sake of adding urgency won’t work.

Sometimes it won’t be necessary or maybe you don’t see how to do it.

But try always to spend some time thinking about what form of urgency you could add to your sales copy.

You can also add some degree of implicit urgency when you emphasise your prospect’s pain points.

Pain points are all those emotions, setbacks or problems arising from their current situation that your product solves.

“Welcome to the club of those who sleep soundly without money worries”.

If you get this part right, your prospect will feel the urgency to solve her problems. Especially if you have included the other 3 Us.

And now let’s look at the fourth and final U.

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Unique

People aren’t only selfish and lazy (I’m not being very kind to Humanity, am I?) but also bored with everything.

We spend hours scrolling down on our phones in zombie mode.

Scrolling and yawning as we read and listen to the same arguments, the same inspirational phrases (that no longer inspire anything), the same repetitive stuff…

But when a business knows how to do things differently, that’s when we wake up from our lethargy and start paying attention.

What makes something unique?

The first thing that comes to mind is that something is unique when it’s completely new, so it didn’t exist before.

But this is very difficult.

It only happens with cutting-edge technology like when the first iPhone came out.

So there’s only one way left to make your product unique, and that’s to sell it in a completely new way.

A different, more original way.

Let’s see this in detail.

Something is unique when it surprises us because we didn’t expect it.

Or when something is unclassifiable and therefore cannot be quickly dismissed with the kind of thinking: “that’s yet another online course…” or ” another miracle diet, yeah, whatever…”.

That’s why when most brands follow the same copywriting techniques, with formulas, headlines and promises already seen a thousand times, their campaigns flop.

And the funny thing is that they’re shocked when this happens!

So how do you make your copy unique?

You should always aim at making people stop in their tracks and read/listen to something different and interesting.

And to find that interesting and original thing to tell your prospects, you have to study every detail of your product or service and think about your prospects’ lives until something unusual comes up.

This is what you need to look out for:

Find out what hasn’t been said before

There’s always a different angle you can take on an issue or an ingredient that no other brand mentions or gives importance to.

Claude Hopkins already realised this in the early days of the last century when he created an ad for Schlitz beer that catapulted the brand to the top, being a record seller for years in the U.S.

And all thanks to the way he presented the beer, in a totally “new” way. Something that wasn’t really unique but that only Schlitz beer talked about.

Let me explain.

At that time all beers in the market claimed to be very pure.

Hopkins did a thorough research on how Schlitz beer was made and realised that the purity was the result of careful processing.

All the beers went through a similar process BUT none of them talked about it.

So Hopkins had a light bulb go off and decided to write an ad dedicated to the Schlitz brewing process.

This ad summarised the scrupulous process the grains went through, from their careful selection to the number of months the beer was left to ferment in barrels to obtain its unique flavour.

He talked about how Schlitz beer was purified in glass rooms with filtered air.

How it was left in casks for months in refrigerated rooms so the beer wouldn’t cause bile disorders as ordinary beers did.

And so he gave his product a superior and desirable aura.

The other beers, although they went through very similar brewing processes, had never talked about it, and even when they started copying Hopkins’ ads it was too late, he had been the first one and Schlitz beer remained the best-selling beer for years.

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Name a flaw or drawback of your product or service

It sounds counterproductive: “why should I say to my prospects that there’s something negative about my product?”

But trust me, it can earn you points if you do it right.

You see, several studies show that mentioning a flaw in your sales copy creates the perception that your brand is honest and trustworthy.

And then you’ll be more persuasive when you list the benefits of your product.

Let’s look at several examples of this.

Canadian cough syrup Bukcley’s has spent years saying how awful it tastes.

Some of their ad headlines go like: “Our biggest bottle is 200ml. Bigger than that would be cruel” or “We are committed to making every new bottle of Bukcley’s taste as bad as the last”.

Their tagline is always the same: “It tastes awful. And it works.”

With the first sentence, they give more credibility to the second. “And it works”.

Moreover, proclaiming that it tastes horrible makes them unique and their ads are attention-grabbing because they are unusual.

There’s even a challenge implied:

“Let’s see if you dare to try it”.

This tactic has worked wonders in making their product unique.

Volkswagen used this same tactic when introducing the Beetle to the American market.

Knowing the Beetle was very small compared to the average American car, they decided to turn this shortcoming into an advantage.

Try to think differently

If you want your product or service to be unique you should try to think differently.

For example, imagining someone else is talking.

Just think, what title would Tarantino give this ad? And Wes Anderson?

Or how would Lisa Simpson describe the benefits of this product?

Try to stay away from what everyone else is doing.

If your competition is trying to be funny, try to sound serious.

If your competition is too conservative, try to be more approachable and easygoing.

Only by being unique will your brand stand out in a saturated market.

To sum up

We live in a world saturated with brands thanks to social media.

If you want to attract attention and get people to listen to you, try to make your videos, posts and ads:

• Ultra-specific, so people get a clear picture in their minds
• Useful, so people pay attention because they sense they’ll get something out of it
• Urgent, so people don’t procrastinate and pay attention right now
• Unique, so people see something different in your brand

I hope this copy class has helped you to improve your sales copy.

The 4 Us are your allies to become more persuasive.

Use them!

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