Content Wheel Blog: Writing Copy and Content

You’re connected with hundreds, maybe thousands of people through Facebook and Twitter. How do you get them to raise their hands and say, “please market to me!”?

You can take the lead in the conversation when they give you their e-mail address, phone number or both. The trick is to ask for this information in the right way.

1. Develop a compelling offer.

Attract those you can help by offering to share the secrets of solving a painful problem—the one you’re an expert in solving—as a free gift from you. You’ll need to package up those secrets in an information product you can deliver electronically, like a special report or audio recording.

2. Get a landing page just for the offer.

You risk losing your visitors’ attention when your social media links to your blog or home page—they’ll be tempted to browse around and might forget your offer. If you don’t have a blog or website yet, all the better! This landing page is a great “starter home” for your internet business. Give it a unique domain name that reflects your offer.

3. Create page content that converts.

Make the offer clear and irresistible with persuasive copy, graphics that lead the eye, a strong call to action, and an easy-to-use opt-in form.

4. Plan how to handle the leads.

Connect your opt-in form to your list management system, or prepare your team to smile and dial. Either way, prepare a second offer that helps prospects reveal their needs even more clearly. You might offer a choice of an alternate, more targeted report or training via an auto-responder series.

5. Test, invite and monitor your results.

Put the word out through your social networks—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and all your groups. Add the URL to all your profile pages and to your e-mail signature. For a reliable stream of traffic, you might even consider a pay-per-click advertising campaign.

All the traffic you can wish for won’t help if the content of your page doesn’t convert. Be sure to:

Make your headline sync up with whatever drove her to click—your social media blurb or advertising headline, for example. This keeps your visitor oriented and engaged, ready for the next step.
Remind her of the terrible trouble she’s in. Make the consequences of living with the unsolved problem so vivid and personal that she’ll be uncomfortable with the status quo.
Paint a beautiful picture of the wonderful things that can happen when the problem is solved—the best case, dream-come-true, “that’s what I really want” scenario she wants to move towards.
Offer to share the secret of getting there. Give her a hint… what’s the trick you’re going to reveal?
Tell her in no uncertain terms to fill in the opt-in form. Ask only for the information you need to take the initiative in the conversation. Promise not to spam or share her info.
Do all of the above in 200 words or less. Use “you.” Avoid “we,” “I,” or any other subject. Make this about your visitor!
Lead her eye through this sequence with strong graphics and white space. She should be able to see all of it without scrolling.
Test your opt-in box—the input fields and Submit button. (Submit is just its function. Please name it something tempting, like Get the Report.) Make sure the form delivers the information you need, and that any validation errors (“Hey! You forgot your area code!”) are consistent with the image you want to convey online.

These tips can get you started, but they’re just a map. As you actually travel the terrain, you’ll want to dig deeper into developing your offer, page design, copy and traffic. Get the support you need: seek out someone who’s done it before and been successful. The journey is better with a friend!

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You Don’t Have to Write a Book to be a Successful Author

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Susan Raab

Will authoring a book make you happy? With 20,000+ books being published every month so far in 2009, a lot of people must think so.

Imagine your future as a first-time book author. You may enjoy writing, but what happens after that? You must promote your book, whether you have a publisher or not. Book marketing is a wonderful lead-generation opportunity for those who already have a business. But if you don’t have a business, where will your satisfaction come from?

Choose the right form for your content. A form other than a book might be more satisfying for your first authorial effort. Answer these three questions to discover to the form that’s right for you.

1. “How do you see yourself interacting with the people you want to help?” I asked one budding author recently. “I see myself in front of a classroom, presenting the material and helping people apply it,” she replied. “Then wouldn’t you be happier if you created stand-up training materials? Then instead of promoting a book, you could schedule and promote classes, which may be a more profitable place to start.” To create the lifestyle you want, put your content in the form that supports it.

2. “What are your communication strengths?” Most people know they can hire a ghostwriter if their writing skills are weak. But real success comes from making the most of your strongest communication skills. When you’re at your most persuasive, what are you doing? If you’re talking on the phone, consider audio recordings and podcasts. If you’re charming in person, you can probably charm on video too. For many, creating and publishing audio and video products is much easier and more effective than printed materials.

3. “Where are you leading your readers?” Can you tell them everything they need to know in a book? When you’re serious about helping people solve an important problem, you quickly realize they need more guidance than a book alone can provide. Lay out a shining path to your solution through a step-by-step series of products and services. If you’re successful, you’ll have a business that’s worth writing a book to promote.

Start with something small to test your market and promotion skills. Writing a 300-page book is a big investment and a big risk. You’re gambling that it will connect with an audience. Reduce your risk by creating something small, like an audio recording that’s inexpensive to reproduce on CD, and sell it at a low price. If you’re a good writer, create an e-book or special report. If the market responds, you’ll have more confidence in developing more expensive products like training materials, home-study systems, and yes, books!

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For Business: When do I stop giving content away and start selling it?

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Susan Raab

When you’re rushing to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon, you may search frantically for content to throw into its ever-devouring maw. You have to write articles. You have to come up with blog posts. You have to be timely, relevant and interesting. You have to “build relationships” by promoting links to your content.

In your haste, you might wonder, “How will I ever make money from this?” How can you give information away one minute and sell it the next? If you give too much away, how will you ever have enough left to sell in your information products?

You have an information architecture problem. Can you imagine how confident you’d be if you knew where to draw the line? You’d be able to look at your vast expertise and tell in a moment which facts are more valuable in your promotional material than they are in your book.

The solution is to build a content structure that “gives away” engaging and enticing content, while charging for content that actually produces results.

Usability provides a vital clue. Jakob Nielsen, the godfather of website usability research, doesn’t advocate quick blog posts. He says “Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they're definitely easier to write. But they don't build sustainable value.”

So use your blog for what it’s good at: promotion! Talk about the terrible consequences of the problem your products and services solve. Find news articles about people who are in a terrible predicament because of those consequences, and write your own releases in response. Revel with the people whose lives have been changed forever by getting the problem solved. Provide tantalizing tips and pointers. But don’t reveal your solution!

Create a unique, proprietary system that delivers your solution. Test it. Gather testimonials and other evidence that prove it works. Publicize the testimonials, but never reveal the secrets of your process in promotional materials.

Do your process justice with a more comprehensive treatment: an information product. Nielsen says paying customers are attracted by detailed information “because systematic and comprehensive coverage is more actionable. It protects them against the risk of losses caused when something important is overlooked.”

Build anticipation and excitement for your expertise. Follow these guidelines and you’ll build traffic and demand for the results you deliver through your products and services.

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Profit from the Leap: Self Publisher to Business Publisher

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Susan Raab

“Should I find a publisher or should I self-publish?” Emerging authors often anguish over this question. Caught up in the mass-market dream of traditional trade publishing, they’re blind to their own power to publish, accepting without question the demeaning “self publishing” label.

Wake up to your true power! A book publisher is limited to publishing books for the retail channel. But you can publish your expertise in many media types, in many channels—a book of course, but also audio CDs, articles, your blog, your web site, special reports, e-books, information products, speeches, workbooks, videos, home study systems, webinars, mentoring systems... the list goes on and on.

You have the power to build a business around your content, so recognize yourself as a business publisher. Then leverage the publishing forms and technologies that work for your business—that work for you.

“How do I want to interact with people?” What kind of interactions do you enjoy? If you enjoy standing in front of a classroom, maybe your first product is a training workbook. If you enjoy coaching one-on-one, maybe it’s a series of audios with a workbook.
“What’s the easiest way for me to reach people now?” If you work face-to-face with local clients, you probably want a physical product. If you work with people nationwide, you probably want a product they can download from your web site.
“What are my strengths?” If you’re a great writer, by all means create books, e-books, blogs and reports. If you’re an ace at thinking on your feet, audio interviews will show off your quick wit. If you’re a spellbinding storyteller or speaker, video will convey your dynamic physical presence.

Once you’ve created the products, you have to market them.

Emerging authors often balk at the idea of becoming business builders. “I want a publisher to do the marketing.” But the truth is, publishers don’t do enough marketing to make you successful. In fact, they prefer to publish the work of those who’ve already proven they can market themselves!

Marketing is a skill you can learn. It opens the door to true financial freedom, where you hold your destiny in your own hands. With so many inexpensive and cost-effective ways to reach out over the Internet to those hungry for your content, creating a business around your expertise is easier than ever before.

Don’t wait for a publisher to magically put their confidence in you. Be confident in yourself, and put your power to publish to work creating the business and life of your dreams.

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For Business: Measuring how fast your ideas roll

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Susan Raab

“Is it worth it?” As an entrepreneur wondering whether to invest the money to “up” the production values on your content, you need to know what difference it will make. But metrics that prove the value of good writing get more and more scarce as you move down the product funnel.

When you’re trying to attract new leads and prospects, good marketers carefully track the results of campaigns. Although there’s more to a campaign than copywriting (notably, the offer and list), internet marketers especially leverage their power of split testing to isolate the effect of each factor. What they’ve learned makes them rabid about the quality of their copy. They know it creates results, whether clicks or sales.

Small business owners setting up their websites, if they think about measuring results at all, hope to avoid the costs simply by adding experienced marketers to their team—marketers whose experience includes measuring results. In this way, they get the benefit of knowing “what works” on a small business website without paying for the research.

When tackling the development of an information product, a speaker, coach or other content expert rarely seeks metrics that prove “what works.” As life-long learners, content experts all too often have a blind spot—they assume they already know what works and don’t go looking for metrics or experts. Instead, they treat writing and editing as commodities: something to bid out on eLance.

And they don’t measure the results. Seeking testimonials, they structure their exit surveys around the results their ideas and content produced. They don’t measure what percentage of their customers “got it” or at least got enough of it to attempt to produce results. Unless they track how many failed to complete their programs, they’ll never know how clear content improves completion, customer satisfaction and revenues.

Does anyone measure these results? You betcha. Remember a decade ago, when personal computer software came in boxes? I worked for a software company whose biggest, most reliable payday came when releasing a new version to be snapped up by eager repeat customers. To increase that payday, we gathered the metrics that revealed what made customers loyal.

Satisfaction came from increased productivity, which depended on speedy knowledge transfer. You might have heard, “nobody reads the manual.” But in our customer base, almost half of them did.

We discovered “those who read” were more profitable customers than those who didn’t. They were more likely to read promotional materials, find success with the demo versions and buy the product. They were less likely to call for support and more likely to figure things out on their own. They were more likely to share what they’d learned with other customers and become product champions.

Sales went up, support expenses went down and loyalty abounded because we gave readers clear content at those critical points. We saw the difference editorial excellence makes over adequacy, and measured the results in revenue.

Are you measuring how fast your ideas roll? Your marketing campaigns are the best place to start. But don’t stop there. Build your information product revenues with editorial excellence that makes your content clear and accessible to a larger percentage of your target market.

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To make connections: Help them achieve their goals

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Susan Raab

Having trouble getting people to read your stuff or take action on your web site? Remember, one factor unites all the content disciplines: the human condition.

All content consumers are human. We all have problems. We need help and solutions. When I’m reading along wondering, “what’s in it for me?” I’m looking for something that will help me make progress towards my goals.

So show me you understand my predicament! Once I know you care about it, I’ll be ready to listen. You’ll have credibility.

Here's how to apply this in your business today.

In social media, find groups of people who have problems you can solve. Go hang out with them and sympathize, then send them to your site to discover the shining golden path to successfully achieving their goals.

On your web site, show your visitors how well you know the problem, how expert you are at solving it, and how delighted your clients and customers are with the results. Then offer to put them on that shining golden path… via your product and service funnel.

In your product and service funnel, GET YOUR CUSTOMERS TO THEIR GOALS AS QUICKLY AND RELIABLY AS POSSIBLE. It doesn’t matter whether your funnel includes coaching, online presentations, live events, information products or web applications. Getting them to their goals—getting results—is the key to building loyalty. Good design and communication speed up the process.

Your action: go back and review the last piece of content you created. Does it grab your audience by their goals? Let me know!

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3 steps to an easy-to-scan paragraph

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Susan Raab

Build paragraphs that get your point across fast. Site visitors scan until they find what they're looking for; only then do they start reading. To keep them happily zipping along:

Make your point in the first sentence. That's all a scanner reads, so don't build an argument with your conclusion at the end. Put your conclusion first.
Keep sentences short. Use action verbs and speak directly to the reader.
Keep paragraphs short. Two or three sentences should do the job. If not, chunk your ideas down.

Brevity builds loyalty. Keep it short and sweet and they'll be back for more.

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For self-publishers: Google v.s. Amazon in ebook distribution

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Susan Raab

Google announced that they're partnering with Sony to compete with Amazon's Kindle. A worthy partner: Sony has a long history with e-books and readers, with development going back to their joint venture with Gary Kildall the early 1980's here in Monterey.

Google vs Amazon seems a worthy fight for us all to follow, but I'm pretty sure Google will win on this one. Their goal is to scan and index everything ever written. If they're successful, the world will never again suffer a tragic intellectual property loss on the scale of the burning of the Alexandria library because all knowledge will be secure on redundant servers. No lack of ego there.

But what does this mean for self publishers? This week Patricia Hamilton of Park Place Publishing invited me to speak to the Central Coast Writers. So many of the writers there are still trapped in the "But I need a publisher!" mindset. Bless Patricia's heart, she was there to deliver the news that self-publishing is a viable option.

I was there to talk about Social Media Marketing, and so I did. But I wanted to scream at those people:

In the future, the only way you'll get to control your intellectual property is if you publish it yourself! Trade publishers are in thrall to Google. Google wants us all to create as much FREE content as possible, so they can index it and sell advertising.

Publishing used to be about a media type: This is a book publishing company, a magazine publishing company, a TV channel, or a radio station. Nowadays, anyone with a personal computer (thanks again, Gary) can do any of these things. Publishing is reorganizing around EXPERTS and their CONTENT.

An expert who self-publishes retains control of his or her IP. Each media type—books, videos, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and on and on—becomes a profit center or income stream. Yes, in social media, we give away a lot of content. But remember to keep control of the core. YOU need something to sell!

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