Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

4 Ways To Dramatically Increase Your Copywriting Effectiveness

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copywritingThis is a guest post from author and copywriter Mike Shreeve of MikeShreeve.com.

Copywriting is fundamental to business – whether online or off.

Being able to communicate, persuade and connect with others through the written and spoken word is a skill that is worth mastering.

Here are 4 things that you can start to include right now in your own copywriting to get immediate results:

Reciprocity

In the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, author Robert Cialdini cites a series of landmark studies in which subjects were shown to respond to kindness with an almost automated response of returning the favor.

This might seem obvious, and even a little trite to be spending research funds on, but the studies proved that no act of kindness goes unseen.

To write copy without taking advantage of this rule, would be to miss out on a massive tool for increasing effectiveness of the words that you write.

But how do we simulate giving in our writing?
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Pithy Marketing and Selling Sayings

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marketingLast week I found a list that I’d created on my iPad called: “10 Marketing Things You Already Know – But May Not be Acting Upon.”

These might fall into the category of “Pithy Sayings” that teach essential truths. I’m no Confucius, but I’ve been involved in marketing so long, that I can assure you, the following lessons are amongst the most important you can learn if you want to attract more of your ideal clients. [Read more…]

The Terror of Asking

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This is a guest post from Robert Middleton, and it really resonated with me. I can empathize with Rose. When I started my business I had a very hard time asking. But unless you are able to ask–for the meeting, for the sale, for whatever you need–your business can not succeed. Read on to get insight into your terror of asking and start working toward your breakthrough.

Rose is a talented and determined consultant and coach who works with medical professionals to help them become more balanced in their work and their lives, overcoming stress and burnout so common to the medical profession.

She’s worked with a number of doctors who have completely transformed their practices, along with their degree of fulfillment and satisfaction as medical professionals.

When Rose came to me she had some good written marketing materials but her website needed a lot of work, and she needed to re-package her services to be more comprehensive.

I gave her directions to improve her website and packaging and before long she was presenting her business powerfully both though articles and on her website.

Rose had the kind of clients who were not easy to reach through networking or giving speaking engagements. She was getting calls from her website, but we determined that a good approach for her would be to call hospitals directly and talk to program directors, send her materials, and follow up for meetings.

With her impressive track record, Powerful message, quality materials, and numerous case studies, I felt that this would be an excellent way to connect with her prospects directly. And in the past she had been called by these same program directors who in turn referred her to their burned-out doctors.

And then she hit a wall. 
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Customers Are Like Vampires

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vampireNo, customers aren’t bloodsuckers (well, maybe a few are!) and they don’t come out only at night. According to legend, vampires don’t come in until they are invited. And that’s true of customers, too.

You may think you’ve invited your customers. After all, you put up signs identifying your store, got a web site, placed ads, sent press releases, networked, put out fliers, etc.
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The Math of Marketing

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mathTara Hunt recently wrote an interesting blog post about influencers and it got me thinking about how many businesses approach marketing and publicity. Marketing is a numbers game, but are you looking at the right numbers?

We all want to get the attention of the bloggers who have huge followings, have feature stories written about us in major publications, and be on Oprah’s show. Some people and companies direct all of their efforts toward those goals.

The problem is that everyone is trying to get the attention of the biggest media. That means that it is hard to get their attention and even harder to get them to cover you. However, there are lots of other media that would love to have your story. Would you rather have 1000 people read about you on a few blogs, or 0 people see you on Oprah? [Read more…]