We’re living in fast times and let’s face it, we’re invisible to the majority of our prospects.
Abundance continues to change the way we all do business, it’s getting crowded out there. Those of us who learn to write to get noticed, will increase click rates, share rates and most importantly, sell more.
Here are 5 snippets of advice to make sure you sell more with your writing in 2014.
1. It’s still not about you
I continue to see email after email talking about the product with not nearly enough care for the recipient.
The ONLY thing that will keep your prospects attention is that the message is aimed entirely at them. Their concerns, their pressures and their interests.
Customer centric, NOT product centric messaging, is essential if you stand a hope in hell of getting noticed.
Tip:
Before you begin your campaign, literally draw your recipient and list their pressures. Solve the biggest of these in your writing and you’ll be a great deal closer than when you started.
2. Headlines Headlines Headlines
More often than not, I receive emails with highly deletable subject boxes. This is crazy.
Your buyers will pick out what they want to read from the headline or subject box and it’s what you put here that will appeal to your buyers primal and emotional decision making.
A powerful word to use = You
Get the headline right and guarantee 5 times as many people will click.
Great examples:
Re-thinking tech PR
Your site = working perfectly
3. Tell a story
We’re all hearing this a lot, storytelling is certainly a hot topic but what does it actually mean, why are stories so powerful?
We’re living in what Dan Pink describes as the conceptual age, where right brain thinking is increasing in significance and influence on our decision making.
Turn your sell into a story and you’ll be able to capture context and increase emotional impact, both vastly more important in this conceptual age. Logic tries to generalize, stories capture information, knowledge, and emotion.
To weave events into an emotionally compelling narrative has become an essential aptitude in business.
A Great recent example:
‘Let me tell you about Anna’ was the headline of a smashing piece of sales writing I received recently. The email went on to describe Anna’s experience looking for an employee for her team.
This great example had all the information a buyer would need, wrapped up into a compelling story with huge emotional impact.
Your buyers are extremely busy, storytelling with help them to make decisions.
4. Add value, don’t sell
A central business requirement today involves the constant communication of value to prospective clients. As Richard Branson stated in a recent post on business success “You’re going to have to get out there and sell yourself. Make a fool of yourself, whatever it takes. Otherwise you won’t survive”.
We all want to work with experts and consistent relevant content reassures those near to making a purchase that you and your firm will be able to help. I’m not telling you anything new hear. But I do urge you to take a step back and make sure what you’re sharing is useful and not simply irritating.
9 out of 10 ‘keep in touch’ emails I receive are a pain.
5. Use pictures and words
We are all hard wired to find visualization more compelling than numbers and letters and 6 times more likely to remember a picture 72 hours later (in comparison to words).
Your customers will digest information in different ways and pictures appeal to the simultaneous right side of our brain.
So try using pictures alongside your writing. Make sure the picture tells your sales story and make sure by looking at the picture, the recipient can imagine how your product will solve their problems.
The goal of using visuals is to make the complexity in what you’re selling understandable by making it visual, not to make it simple.
We have designed multiple visual campaigns for clients which have resulted in a significant increase in performance. Try it.
The written word continues to be as powerful a sales tool as ever. I urge you to use it wisely and in turn, enjoy continued sales success. Good luck!
Helen Kensett, Director, The Convince Consultancy
