Four things that I believe
(This originally appeared in my newsletter. Sign up now to get content like this, for free, every two weeks.)
Lately, I've been reviewing and updating my website. This is something I end up doing every year or so (I try not to tinker with it much more than that, as mucking around with a website is an easy way to eat up a bunch of time without adding any value at all).
Last week, I wrote a new "about" page, which is the page nearly every visitor checks out after they read the home page.
The problem with last year's iteration was that it didn't really differentiate me. If you put it up against any other copywriter's "about" page, you could cover up the names and not be able to tell who is who.
So I did two things. First, I made it way longer so I could get into the details of who I am and what I do. Second, I structured it four principles I apply to my work. These are opinions I've developed over the course of my career, and I think these four opinions tell any prospective client a lot about who I am, what I value and how I'd help to solve their problems.
I thought I'd summarise these principles in today's newsletter.
1: There's tons of untapped potential in the middle of your sales funnel
I feel like every marketer I talk to is laser-focussed on one thing: new leads for the top of their sales funnel.
While it makes sense to get new leads, I also think that new leads get over-prioritised at the expense of nurturing the leads you already have.
Reality is, very few of your leads are going to be ready to buy. Some of them don't understand the value of your product. Others don't understand the problem you solve. And others still just haven't had the stars align in their life to need whatever it is you're selling (real estate agents' leads are a great example of this - most of the time, people just aren't buying or selling a house, no matter how much they like their agent).
Getting the right information to these people can get them ready to buy, faster (if they're in one of the first two categories), or it can keep you top of mind for when they do need your help (if they're in the third category).
A good lead nurturing programme makes everything a little bit better. It makes your top of funnel activity more efficient by turning more leads into paying customers. It also makes your sales activity faster by helping deals close faster. It can even reduce churn because customers who have a clearer idea of what they're buying are much less likely to leave.
Only problem: it's not exciting. A case study with some solid proof points, delivered by email, is not as exciting as a big glitzy report with lots of media releases and CEO interviews with journalists. But that case study is just as - if not more - valuable.
2: Give your content the energy it deserves - no more, no less
Too many businesses spend too much time sweating over small potatoes content.
Social media feeds are a great example. I've seen businesses have approval processes with 10 senior people or more for each individual tweet. If each person spends just six minutes looking at and correcting a tweet, that's a full hour of senior time wasted on each one.
Not worth it - in a situation like this, you're better off just deleting the Twitter account and focusing your energy on something higher-impact.
(Or you might get found out, and embarrassed in the media).
And the opposite is just as true. If you're putting together a landing page to support an expensive campaign driving 20,000 viewers per week, it makes sense to take your time, do some customer research, do some a/b testing and get it right.
So make a real assessment of how valuable the content you're producing actually is for your business - then spend time and energy in proportion to that value. No more, no less.
3: Your copy is less important than you think (but it's still pretty important)
People love to agonise over word choice and spend ages finding the perfect turn of phrase. And there is some value in this - but only if you meet three preconditions:
1) Your offer is compelling to your audience.
2) Your audience knows, likes and trusts you enough to be interested in your offer.
3) Your content is positioned around something your audience cares about.
Once you've nailed these three things, it's definitely worth making sure your copy is clear, persuasive and has a good "hook" to convince your reader to take action. But I see lots of businesses put the cart before the horse, and obsess over the copy without giving much thought to these three things.
That's a mistake - because if you get these right, they can cover for bad copy. If you get them wrong, the best copy in the world won't save you.
4: Great content is useful
Getting your content to resonate with people is actually fairly straightforward: you just need to make it valuable.
This is why lots of food ads come with recipes. An ad for food is fairly boring, forgettable and not that useful. A recipe is something useful that adds value to your life - it gives you something to cook!
And "useful" doesn't have to mean useful in a utilitarian way. It can be interesting or thought-provoking. It can help someone solve a problem. It can even be something that helps someone make a buying decision. It all depends on where someone is in your sales process, how much they know about you, and what they're trying to achieve.
That's it
This newsletter went on for a bit, so good on you if you've made it all the way down this far.
I hope you found it interesting. I find myself applying at most, if not all, of these four principles with every client I work with, so I think they give a good view of how I work and what I think is important.
In the "about" page itself, I tied these principles to various points in my career. So if you're wondering what I've been doing for the last ten years, take a look.
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Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash