In this article I’m about to give you free and easy ways to develop your marketing copywriting skills.

The first tip is that to become a good marketing copywriter, you have to become a good marketing copy reader.

This means you have to invest time reading and learning from good copy and good copywriters. When I’m surfing the net, or when I get an email that I just can’t stop reading, I keep a copy of it.

I keep it in what I call a “swipe file”.  So this is where all the “good copy” goes that I receive. When I then come to writing copy or when I’m stuck on copy, I’ll go to the swipe file and look for inspiration.

Over time you start to notice what works for your audience and then less and less of your copy is written from scratch… because when you see what works for your audience, you repeatedly crib your own best copy, making adjustments based on what you’re offering.

So this is a free and easy way to start learning what sells.

A second free and easy way to become a better copywriter is to know who your customer is.

So many people forget – or resist – clearly defining who the customer is. In coaching sessions I’ve seen people wriggle and squirm on this issue or even tell me it doesn’t work, or their market really isn’t like that.

Personally, I believe you honour, respect and show love to your potential buyers when you take the time to get to know them by defining them.

If you never define who your customer really is, how will you ever really know what your customer REALLY wants – which isn’t always what you offer, or at least not the way people often offer it.

When you fail to define your customer what you do is end up pressuring or shoe-horning someone into buying your product or service and that never feels good, for you or them. But when you define them and what they want, it becomes easy and natural.

Interestingly when I spoke to one of the world’s top marketing copywriters about writing copy for us, guess what his first question was?

“Who’s it for?” Now if that’s a question he asks right up front, who do you think you should be?

When we really defined who a particular event was for and created marketing for that niche, 77% of the people who hit that web page took the offer we were making.

Later when we tested the same page against less targeted people, the conversion fell to 38% (which is still good – but can you see clearly the difference in what happens when you are more specific?).

Honour, respect and love your customers today by defining who they are and what their real needs are.

Good wishes
Neil

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Would love your input: Have you made it a point to get to ‘know’ your customers? How does this help with your marketing copy?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I want you to give your clients more “Perceived Value.”

This doesn’t mean that you’ll actually be giving more, but you won’t be underplaying the value of what you offer.

Let me give you an example. When you’re writing copy for a product on your web pages, you might add in some extras and you might call these “FREE GIFTS”.

The perception you create when calling something a “FREE GIFT” is that you are offering something that has little or no value. What this will do is get you people who only like something for nothing!

Whereas if you call something a “Special Gift”, or “A Life Changing Bonus”, you immediately create a very different impression and you will attract a different crowd through your marketing.

How the phrase “Special Gift” is important too.

After a recent event, we were offering a “de-brief session” – and this sounds more like something you do before heading into the shower than it does like something you do at a business event.

Again, what’s being perceived in terms of value is important. Saying: “We will discuss the all-important tweaks that make the difference and ensuring you walk away able to write marketing copy that packs a punch” is very different to saying, “We will have a de-brief session.”

Can you see that?

Perceived value isn’t about piling on more goodies to an offer. It’s actually showing people how working with you will create a transformation for them, but what you do is you choose your words carefully, because of the resonance they have with your potential audience.

By changing the words you also change your clients’ expectation of what you are offering. If you told me you were giving something for free, I’d expect you would try to sell me something – on the basis that no one does anything for nothing.

Whereas if you told me I was getting a “Life Changing Bonus” with my purchase, I would immediately sense that I was getting some additional value that would enhance my experience.

Enjoy adding value,
Neil

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Have you had any positive or negative experiences with offers that are ‘FREE’?  Have you been successful at initiating perceived value? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

One of the reasons a lot of people struggle is because of poor marketing copy. If you look around the Internet you’ll see lots of sites that are poorly written.

You can spot the poorly written websites very quickly because they mostly focus on the web site owner… their experience, their knowledge and how their product or service works.

Some of this is important information, but unless you relate this to how all that knowledge and experience or how your product or service is really going to make someone’s life easier or better, it’s not going to compel someone who is interested in becoming invested in your product or service.

The example here is websites, but it could just as easily be any other aspect of marketing.

As a customer, when you or I read something, we’re subconsciously hunting for: what’s in this for me? Can I get what I need? Can this person or business solve my problem?

And these days… when you have so much competition… and it’s all easily accessible… especially via the Internet… it’s the people writing the most engaging, compelling copy… that draw in the crowd.

And you’ll know how well you’re doing with compelling people to buy from you based on how your bank balance looks… and I say that with lots of love and I say that because what you put down on paper, or on a website, is probably also a fair reflection of how you verbalise the difference you make…

There are no short cuts to writing good copy. It is an art. But there are three options open to you as I see it:
1. You can invest in getting someone who knows how to write marketing copy – I charge £1000 for a web page (to give you an idea)
2. Get someone who does marketing and says they are a copywriter, (usually a few hundred pounds)
3. Learn how to do it yourself

Whatever you do, don’t take short cuts with your marketing copy… it’s your lifeblood.

Best wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

When you know who your market is, you know what they need. When you know what they need, you know how to package it in a way they want that makes it easy for your client to buy from you.

This really is the holy grail of marketing and it’s what leads to more clients… more referrals… and more hits on your web pages…

Before creating any new product or service or before ramping up your marketing, take a step back and ask yourself, “Do I REALLY know who my market is?

Next you want to be asking, “What does my market really, really want?” Being able to answer that question is the key to growing your business. By focusing on what people want, rather than on what you want to sell them, you’ll begin to see the kind of results you really want.

If you think you’re wasting time by marketing something people don’t really want, here is something to ponder:
People buy when they feel understood. They buy what they want, not what you think they need, they like to feel good about their purchase.

Let’s break that down a little more…

No matter what logical explanation you give someone for buying a product, underneath it is the want to be understood. So when someone buys from you it’s because you showed them that you knew enough about who they are to make a product that fits them.

I call this an “appreciation of a client”.  In the same vein as “What you appreciate, appreciates”, when you appreciate who a client is and what their issues are and then package something for that need, you show your understanding.

If you offer what you think a client needs rather than what a client wants and you try to shoehorn clients into buying something they don’t want it, doesn’t matter how amazing you make the benefits, they just won’t respond to your efforts, if they don’t want the product. To continue doing so is a lot like speaking a different language and shouting to be understood.

If you’ve done a good job of pinpointing a target market, you should be able to learn these things easily. Until you do, you’re marketing will only limp along because you don’t yet know what products they’ll feel good about buying.

Find that appreciation for whoever you are serving and the numbers you serve will grow.

Best Wishes
Neil

www.communitysoul.co.uk

Do you want people to become your clients, but too often they don’t become your client?

This is where so many people come unstuck. And there is a reason why…

You only have to look at many of the websites on-line to know why. The trouble is, so many people write websites that are about themselves and what they offer and the history of their service since the year dot.

They write this even though that’s not what the prospective client wants to know.

What the prospect wants to know is what’s in this for me? They want to know you understand their problem… they want to see how they can benefit from buying into a relationship with you.

The part that’s missing is the gratefulness – the great-fullness – the appreciation of who the client is and what their real needs are.

So the great-fullness you want to show your customers is a great… appreciation of who they are and what their needs are.

This is where knowing your niche becomes so important… it really helps you narrow down who someone is and what their biggest problems are. From there, packaging a solution becomes quite easy.

When you know who your client is, you get a clearer idea of what they want. If you don’t know who, your package and your marketing is aimed at no-one in particular and that’s often why no-one buys and so many people struggle to attract new customers.

Let’s say you’re about to go along to a networking meeting and you don’t have a niche. So when someone asks you what you do, you say “ERM… errr…” And immediately you’ve sent out a vibe that will make people ask questions about you.

Now imagine the same scenario and now the answer is say: “I show entrepreneurs with principles how to make profits.” Can you see how it sends out a vibe of clarity.

People will then be able to see you have your act together. They will trust you. They will be more likely to refer their best friends and best clients to you. You will also leave them with a very vivid picture about what you do, so you will pop into their mind the next time they meet someone and you then get referrals.

Simple. Get simple! Know who your client is and what they want.

Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

The more you niche the better it gets.  You could be a coach to anyone… or better, you could be the coach to small businesses. Better than that is being the coach to small businesses based in the UK. Better than that is the business coach who helps small businesses in the UK get new clients on tap.

You could be a psychic. You could be the psychic to anyone. Or better… the psychic to women. Or better… you could be the psychic to women who want to develop intuitive gifts so they can pass on the art of intuition to the next generation.

I once saw a stationer say they were the stationer for left-handed people and around 25% of the room queued up after their presentation. And when you’ve cracked one niche, there’s nothing to stop you cracking another and another.

This is a tactic that the military use. They create a beachhead – a place to launch their attacks from. So in creating your niche all you’re creating is YOUR beachhead… your place from which to launch from.

Big businesses do this too. When Honda opened in the US they’d already been operating in Japan for 11 years. They then took their 50cc moped into the most competitive motorcycle market in the world, taking on the likes of Harley Davidson with a quiet and efficient bike. This first bike was originally only sold in LA, and only sold via one dealership, so creating the beachhead. That bike has gone on to sell 30 million units and is still in production today.

Having secured a beachhead, Honda turned to cars and then went after the same segment of customers. They understood their segment of customers needs and they served them.

You have to know where you want to work. You have to know who your client is and you have to understand their needs and wants and then you have to give them it over and over again.

And when you know your niche… how you advertise, offer incentives and promote yourself all becomes clearer and easier and much more profitable.

With niching you need to know who your client is and you have to understand their needs and wants and when is best to give them it… then you have to give them it.

You can start building a niche just from knowing the answer to four questions:

1. Who – who is the client: age, marital status, employment, family situation
2. What are their big issues and problems – what are they struggling with
3. Where are they based – what’s the geographic radius
4. When is the best time to approach them – end of the month… is it seasonal?… is it…?

From there, creating products and services that match their needs and where to market and when, all becomes so much easier.

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I want to give you an example of how, when you niche, you make it easy for people to find both you and what they need.

For a lot of people resistance to niching is what stands between you achieving what you want. Let’s look at it like this: if you don’t niche, you fail to stand out from the crowd and all the other white noise out there. What happens then is you go unnoticed.

When someone wants to increase their client base the first question out of my mouth will most likely be: ‘Who is this for?’ Often the answer I hear is words to the effect of: ‘Anyone who wants to buy my service.’

The problem with this answer is that while they ‘Could be anyone’… in ‘reality’, “they” are not ‘anyone’. “They” are “someone”.

The marketing message of  ‘Anyone can be my customer’ doesn’t speak to ‘anyone’. It doesn’t touch or move anyone. It’s plain and bland and as a result hardly anyone shows an interest and becomes a customer.

This is a point I’ve debated with lots of people who were struggling to find new clients. Their worry is that if they narrowed down who the customer might be too much, there would be even less chance of someone buying. This isn’t the case. In fact the opposite is true. Let me explain…

If you want to speak to ‘anyone in London’, you might be speaking to five million faceless unknowns who are busy in the City with countless distractions like: the hum and the buzz and of the City, catching a tube home, the stress and long hours of working in the City; or it might be about “Will I make the next connection?” or “Am I going to make my appointment?”

People in the City come from lots of cultural backgrounds and many of them will have moved to the City for work and come from different parts of the world  such as Germany. They might be struggling with the culture and just wishing they could be at home, say in Germany, and speaking their own language for five minutes and have a joke about how Londoners are. And they’re sitting there on the tube rubbing their neck and shoulders and really feeling that tension and feeling a bit lost, maybe a bit frightened, maybe slightly fed up, but maybe also okay with life and slightly enjoying the adventure they’re on working in London.

So, how do you get their attention when you’re say, a masseur?

If your marketing says: ‘anyone who wants me’ it just melds into the wallpaper of the City. But what happens when you bring it to life by saying: ‘Hello I help people from Germany who are busy, stressed and missing home. Come and see me, chill out, relax and let me drizzle the most fragrant oils in town over your tight shoulders… until London fades into the distance and all you can imagine is being back at home.’

You don’t need everyone to be your clients or customers, you just need a few… “someone’s” who love you and become raving fans. 50 clients as a masseur is probably worth around £2500-£3000 a month if you see your clients monthly. If you see them fortnightly then it’s double that. And all you need to find is just 50 people, not hundreds.

All the best, Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

A number of people are struggling to find the flow of clients they want, and they need to learn how to have clients come to them more easily.

Entrepreneurs know they need to niche, but they resist it because they have a fear of narrowing focus to a specific niche and perhaps losing income.

Others may have heard that they should niche, but just don’t know where to start. And that’s okay.

Consider the word gratefulness – that’s two words great-fullness… so this is like an overflowing cup.  And this is an overflowing cup of possibilities.

And you’ve probably heard the saying that what we appreciate, appreciates. So there is a great-fullness and approach to niching as an appreciation – or with a mark of respect.

With great-fullness we appreciate who and what we want to come to us. So through niching we really are activating the law of attraction and we are also beginning from a starting point of abundance, rather than lack.

The person, who truly appreciates and honours the potential customers bringing business, is the person who invests upfront in creating a great-fullness of opportunities for those customers – much the way our Insiders Secrets group works.

Now I know this is where many people come unstuck. You want people to respond to your offers. You want customers to return. You want referrals… And what’s missing is the appreciation and the clarity that attracts these possibilities.

This comes because you need the bit of the puzzle that will help you create that appreciation or because you are stuck, in fear, or coming from a place of lack where you think if you niche you will lose clients or opportunities or income.

The first thing to do is drop your resistance to niching and start with an open and abundant heart that will really serve others.

Love and best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

In writing any good marketing copy there are 7 essentials you have to take care of – without getting overly technical. I’m going to give them to you here, because I want people reading this newsletter to write copy that engages readers and finds them a stream of clients.

So, let me take you through the 7 essentials:

1. Title – this has to make a promise about what you’ll deliver and it must speak to your audience

2. Sub-title – the subtitle builds the picture up more – it expands on the title

3. Rapport/Credibility piece – Speak in the language of the people who will buy from you and let them know why they should listen to you.

4. Benefits – put these in a bullet point list… it makes it easy to read and suggests value, value, value

5. Social proof – testimonials, show other people what they got from you. Use names where you can. Use pictures if you can get them. And the more specific you can be the better.

6. A call to action – this is about telling them what to do next.

7. Contact details (either get theirs using a contact form on your website or give yours if you are using flyers or another advertising method.

For an example of a webpage using these all 7 steps visit: www.communitysoulbusiness.com

When I first wrote the copy in the link above, I had it critiqued by a group of people I mastermind with. Then I rewrote it. I invested around £3500 in hard cash in that copy and then a further £1000 in my own time writing it.

So you can see, it’s not something I just threw together in a few minutes. The title took several attempts and yet when I look at it now it looks really simple. And that’s the way you want it to read. Simple.

The copy was hacked and rewritten. But that page has resulted in around 2000 people signing up for the offer we make.

Just using the seven essentials will give you better results in from your marketing efforts, but that’s not the be-all-and-end-all in copywriting. There is a lot more for you to learn… and it never stops!

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

What are the 3 MUST-KNOWS of writing Compelling Marketing Copy?

First, there’s a saying, that to become a good copywriter, you have to become a good copy reader… that means reading good marketing copy and learning.    This is one of my habits.

Because I have developed good copy habits and a process for writing, I never have to scratch my head and wonder where to start.

In fact in my newsletter to my Insiders Secrets group recently, I mentioned to them that I spent 15 minutes writing copy that sold 3 products in 90 minutes while I prepared a presentation and gave it.

The people on that call know something, though – my marketing copy is never just thrown together. I was able to create that copy so quickly because of the habits I have developed.

The second must know is: know your customer.

And I know that you know this, but I’m mentioning it here, because even though I know that you know, that you need to know your customer, so many people forget this or resist clearly defining who the customer is.

And if you never define who your customer really is how will you ever know the third must know of good copywriting…

The third must know of good copywriting is to be clear on what your customer REALLY wants – which isn’t always what you offer, or at least not the way people often offer it.

And unless you have these 3 Must-Knows clearly in your cells, you shouldn’t even start a website or a brochure, because you don’t know who you are offering to, or why or how to write the copy.

Interestingly enough, I was talking to Alan Forrest Smith a few weeks ago, and Alan is one of the world’s most sought after copywriters, charging thousands to write your marketing campaigns and the the first thing he asked me was “Who is your customer?”

Now if that’s one of the world leaders in marketing and copywriting asking that question, we all need to pay attention.

Best wishes
Neil

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website and register for his free newsletter at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk