3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells
- 3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells Items
- 3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells At A
- 3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells Directly
- 3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells A House
This column is excerpted from Guide to Literary Agents, from Writer’s Digest Books.
The more complex the product, the more need you have for a detailed product description that adequately addresses fears, concerns, and buyer barriers. Your product description exists #1 to inform, #2 to persuade. Thou shalt always provide photos. Create an overview. Eventually, you should have a useful overview, which will be a great help in your SEO copywriting process. It helps to create a table of your keywords to summarize the information. Try to come up with combinations of keywords as well, then order the keywords by some kind of priority.
3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells Items
GIVEAWAY: Chuck is giving away a copy of his book, Create Your Writer Platform, to a random commenter. Comment within one week to enter! (Must live in US or Canada to win.) (UPDATE: Marjorie won!)
Increasing your author visibility through different online channels allows you to meet readers, cultivate an audience, and increase your discoverability to sell more books. But finding your ideal social media channels is not the easiest thing to figure out and implement.
That’s why I’ve reached out to some experts for advice. I asked six different platform-heavy writers — three nonfiction, three fiction — for their best general advice in terms of using social media. Here’s what they had to say:
Do you have any general advice for writers looking to market themselves and their work via social media, promotion and platform?
Mignon Fogarty: Creator of Grammar Girl, @GrammarGirl
“I think you really have to enjoy interacting on social networks or you won’t do it well or stay with it. You can’t force yourself to do it; you have to find the things you like and do those even if they aren’t the most popular. For one person it might be Twitter, for another LinkedIn, for another YouTube, for another podcasting, and another blogging.
Also, I think some authors are too afraid to ask people to buy their book. I spend hours (and hours and hours) of my time answering people’s questions without compensation, so when I have a new book out, I don’t hesitate to post about it. I believe I’ve earned the right to market my products.
On the other extreme, I see a lot of authors jump into Twitter and immediately start doing nothing but push their book. They haven’t earned the right to market their products, and all they do is turn people off.”
Mary Kole: Former literary agent and author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, @kid_lit
“I have gotten flack for saying this before, but I am sticking to my guns: do it well or don’t do it at all. There are billions of blogs and websites out there. On the Internet, if you build it, they will not automatically come. You have to give people a good reason to spend their precious time on your real estate.
Don’t blog or tweet or Facebook because you think you have to. Your reluctance will ooze from the screen. Don’t engage if you can’t keep it consistent, both in terms of timing and in terms of quality.
Figure out what you’re best at, then do that well and forget the other stuff. You should have some online presence, but you don’t have to jump into everything all at once, especially if you’re going to do it badly or irregularly.” (Like this idea? Click to tweet it).
Dr. Lissa Rankin: Author of Mind Over Medicine, @Lissarankin
“Stay true to your integrity. I can’t tell you how many times I have said no, even though it sounded like such a good platform-building opportunity.
Listen to your gut (which I call your “inner pilot light” — that wise part of you that really knows what’s best for you, your body, your relationships, and your business). Don’t let fear rule the show.
In the beginning, I said yes to everything because I was afraid I’d miss an opportunity, and I wound up quickly burned out, depleted. But you can’t lead or heal from a place of depletion. You must heal yourself first in order to change the world. That’s the one lesson I’d share with aspiring authors/visionaries/healers.
Don’t let platform building spiral you downwards. Fill yourself first. Learn to say no. Create healthy boundaries. Raise your vibration. Attract others who share this vibration. Avoid the temptation to get sucked into doing everything for everybody. You are enough doing exactly what you’re doing. Resist the urge to continually do more.”
Billy Coffey: Author of Snow Day, @billycoffey
“Whether fair or not, getting your good story into the hands of the public now depends in large part upon your reach, and your reach depends in large part upon your savvy with blogs and social media. That can be a scary thing.
Writers are notoriously withdrawn and even shy. The idea of having to ‘put yourself out there’ can be tantamount to having to tap dance in front of a firing squad. But it can be done. I promise that, and I offer myself as proof.”
Amy Julia Becker: Author of A Good and Perfect Gift, @amyjuliabecker
“My biggest warning is that you can’t do it all. I’ve tried to approach platform building like organic farming. I’m cultivating what grows (my audience, hopefully), but I’m trying to do so without gimmicks and with integrity and respect for the writing itself. I hope that this is a sustainable method that will also bear fruit, so to speak, with a faithful and steadily, if slowly, growing audience.
I think a lot about limitations and possibilities. If I limit my time platform building, I open up time for family or exercise or working on a larger project. If I focus on the possibilities of platform building, I limit my time for those other things. I try to keep it all in balance rather than thinking that I can, or should, do it all.”
If you could go back in time and do it all over again, what would you tell your younger self in terms of platform?
Mignon Fogarty: Creator of Grammar Girl, @GrammarGirl
“I knocked myself out for a year doing my email newsletter every day and for one quarter doing my podcast twice a week — and in retrospect, I don’t think it was worth the effort. Weekly is enough. The benefit from publishing daily and podcasting twice a week was minimal.”
Mary Kole: Former literary agent and author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, @kid_lit
“This may sound like bad advice but: Blog less! I was killing myself trying to blog three times a week at Kidlit, then I added two extra blogs and tried doing those twice a week, too.
The result? I’d travel or freak out and let the blogs go to seed for a while, and that was altogether worse than blogging less frequently because dead blogs and silence are the ultimate online networking sins.
It’s very possible to have a platform with the ‘less is more’ philosophy, as long as you focus on the absolute quality of your efforts.”
Gina Holmes: Author of Crossing Oceansand Dry as Rain
“I would tell myself that helping others succeed would translate into the biggest personal success. I would tell myself to go ahead and build my wings on the way down, and not to stress over every little number, setback, or failure.”
Dr. Lissa Rankin: Author of Mind Over Medicine, @Lissarankin
“Oh, if only someone had told me to put a free opt-in in the upper right corner of OwningPink.com three years ago! After two years of great traffic, we had only 1,200 people on our newsletter list. (The sign-up was buried way down on the page and there was no free gift to entice people to fill it out.)
The minute someone told me to offer a free gift, we got 5,000 new sign-ups in a month! Free teleseminars and telesummits (I’m about to do my first) are another great way to grow your newsletter list quickly.”
Billy Coffey: Author of Snow Day, @billycoffey
“I would have definitely started building my platform earlier. My younger self was stubborn and ignorant. I was one of those people who thought I could buck the system. And yet everything I’ve been able to achieve to this point is the direct result of finally understanding the importance of platform.”
Amy Julia Becker: Author of A Good and Perfect Gift, @amyjuliabecker
“My greatest success has been my blog. I’ve wasted time speaking without pay, especially when there is travel involved. I’ve also wasted time (and money) creating a website. Don’t get me wrong, I needed a website, but I should have been far more realistic about how much time it would take and what that time is worth.
In addition, I would have begun blogging and writing short essays from the start. Not only would I have gained readers (and perhaps a book contract) much earlier, but I also would have benefitted as a writer from blogging.
Blogging has improved the quality of my writing, and it also gives me a place to try out ideas. Most days, I write something, and two or three people comment on it and a few dozen share it through social media. But every so often, I write something and it provokes dozens of comments and hundreds of shares. I pay attention to that type of reaction because it means I should possibly write more about the same topic.”
Special thanks to those writers who chimed in with answers.
Don’t forget to comment to be in the running for Chuck’s book giveaway! You could win a free copy of his latest book, Create Your Writer Platform.(UPDATE: Marjorie won!)
Other TWL Guest Posts by Chuck Sambuchino:
3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells At A
This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!
In his book The Direct Mail Solution, direct marketing expert and entrepreneur Craig Simpson provides easy-to-follow solutions for creating direct mail campaigns that work! In this edited excerpt, the author describes how to write a direct mail piece that captures your readers' attention.
Good copywriting creates exciting pictures in the reader's mind. Here are some easy tricks to producing copy that sells.
1. Make it easy to read. When people pick up a sales piece, they'll start by quickly glancing through it. To grab their attention, your copy must be interesting, and at the same time, it should be easy to read.
- Keep paragraphs short.
- Don't use convoluted sentence structure.
- Use bullet points so they can easily see your main benefits and features.
- Keep repeating the main point in different ways. That way the message is sure to sink in.
- Guide the reader with subheads that tell a story.
2. Use images and magic words. Draw pictures of how the reader will feel with that beautiful new car. How they'll feel on their luxury vacation and how relaxed they'll be. What they'll look like with fewer wrinkles and youthful skin. Offer specific images but not so specific your readers won't be able to tailor the images to their own fantasies.
Certain words are proven to sell: Free, New. Use them wherever you can. Stress benefits, not features. Tell readers how their lives will be improved with your product.
3. Have an angle. One day you receive two sales pieces in the mail. The headline on one says:
'My Course Will Teach You Everything I Know About Trading Stocks'
The headline on the other says:
'Learn the Stock Secret I Used to Make Six Figures in Six Months'
Which piece are you more likely to read? I'll bet it's the second one. Why? Because it has an angle--a clever way of presenting the information that makes it clear what the unique advantage is that the seller has to offer the reader. The first one just says
'I'll teach you how to trade stocks.' But who am I and why should you care?
In the second headline, the angle is that the information I have to share is 'secret' and it made me a sizable amount of money in a short amount of time.
3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells Directly
You need a hook that will get attention and appeal directly to your target audience. What is it about your product that makes it of special interest and value to them? That's the point you want to stress throughout your piece. With the right angle, everything else about your piece will fall into place.
3 Tips For Writing Content That Sells A House
4. Have a story. Long sales pieces can be great. Long, dull sales pieces can be a complete waste. To be successful, your sales piece has to keep the reader's interest.
One technique to make a sales piece interesting is to play up 'the story.' It could be the story of the person who developed the product. Or the story of someone who used the product and whose life was changed as a result. The idea is that the reader identifies with the person in the story, becomes involved enough to keep reading to find out what happened, and comes to the conclusion, 'I'm just like that person, and there's no reason I can't have the same experience using this product.'
People especially love a rags-to-riches story. 'I was poor (sick, lonely, etc.). Then I learned this secret, and now I'm healthy, happy and rich. And now I'll share everything I learned with you.' Some of the most effective sales pieces have taken that exact approach.
This is your opportunity to sell yourself (or whomever created the product). Why are you an expert? Why are you the one to provide the solution to the reader's problem? Often a personal story about the individual who created the product makes for a very compelling sales piece.
Of course, the story isn't really about you. It's about the product and what it will do for the reader. So always bring it around to that. What is it about this product that is so unique and so much better than anything else out there?
5. Keep them guessing.It helps to add a touch of 'intrigue'--you want the reader to feel compelled to keep going, wondering what great revelation is coming next.
Your task is to get the reader interested and keep him moving through the piece, all the way to the close. You don't want to lose the reader along the way. One method is to keep hinting at what's about to be revealed, so the reader keeps following the 'trail of crumbs.' For example, maybe you want to make sure the reader gets through a relatively boring part, so you keep him involved by saying, 'I'll tell you about how I had my big breakthrough in a minute, but first, I have to give you some background information so you can understand the genius of it.'
Another technique is to structure the piece around a series of subheads. The proper use of subheads acts like that 'trail of crumbs' and pulls the reader along nicely. Before the reader sits down to read the piece word for word, he'll likely flip through the piece and read the eye-catching subheads which, by themselves, will tell a story. If that story sounds related enough to the reader's interests and goals, the motivation will be there to read the entire piece.