Three Kinds of Testimonials

Making Money from a Book No Responses »
Oct 242012

Direct response writers know that testimonials are powerful. But not all testimonials are powerful in the same way. Here are three kinds of testimonials and how to use them.

Celebrity testimonials are when someone who is well known endorses you or your work. Many book jacket blurbs fall into this category. Use them for general marketing to get people to look at your blog or book.

Customer testimonials are actual customers making statements about how your book or product or service worked for them. The more specific, the better. The statement that “This is a great book!” is far less powerful than “I used the three point checklist in this book and dramatically increased my sales.”

The most powerful customer testimonials have a person like the reader describing how you solved a problem for them. Use many testimonials to increase the possibility that one of them is by a person that the reader identifies with.

Expert testimonials are statements by recognized experts about the quality of your work. An example is marketing professor endorsing your marketing book. Use expert testimonials to make the case that what you uses proven techniques or is based on proven principles.

Posted by Wally on October 24, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

Book Recommendation: POP!: Create the Perfect Pitch, Title, and Tagline for Anything

Writing Skills and Tools No Responses »
Apr 062012

Author Sam Horn (an old friend) tells you early on that POP!: Create the Perfect Pitch, Title, and Tagline for Anything has two purposes.

  • It will help you quickly capture interest and
  • It will help you “break out, not blend in.”

For that to happen, you have to read the book and then use one of many suggestions to help you improve or craft a message with POP, which stands for Purposeful, Original and Pithy. The book is organized around those three standards.

First comes Purposeful. To help you boil your idea down to its essence the author asks you to answer the 9W questions about it. They give you a foundation to build on.

You’ll go back to those nine questions and your answers time and again. You may even change some of your answers. That’s a very good thing.

The second section helps you make your communication Original. The ideas here will help you turn your idea around so you can see it from the other side and then massage it into different forms. You’ll learn how to do your own take on common sayings, advertising slogans, and pop culture phrases.

The third section helps you create Pithy communication. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “pithy” as: “having substance and point – tersely cogent.” If it’s short and carries a big message, it’s pithy.

This was the most helpful section for me. You’ll learn how to use alliteration, rhythm, and rhyme to make your statement more powerful and more memorable. I’ve seen all this before, but never in a single place.

The book closes with “Seven Secrets to Keep Their Interest Once You’ve Got It.” Don’t skip this section.

I got incredible value by working through the exercises as I read. As advertised, they helped me craft a POP statement. More importantly, for me, this was a powerful exercise in understanding my business offering and what is unique about it.

I recommend this book to you if you want to craft POP statements that present you or your business or idea to others. I also recommend it if you want exercises that will help you think creatively about what you do.

I’ve been a professional speaker and writer now for over a quarter century. I found help and ideas here that will help me tell my story and the story of my business more effectively. That’s the promise of the sub-title: “Create the Perfect Pitch, Title, and Tagline for Anything” and it’s a promise kept.

Click here for a list of other Books I Recommend.

Posted by Wally on April 6, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

Lazy Thinking Causes Crappy Writing

Writing Tips No Responses »
Apr 022012

I loved the headline in Megan Hustad’s Fortune article: “No, business writing doesn’t need to stink.” I loved the teaser copy even more: “Put something in plain language and if the basic idea is fatuous, its stupidity has nowhere to hide.”

This is the writing equivalent of the old saying that: “It is better to close your mouth and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.”

There’s a tidal wave of crappy writing out there. There’s lazy thinking buried in jargon and bad ideas smothered in adjectives, but you don’t have to be part of the problem. Here’s how to stand out from the crowd in a good way.

Think it Through

Spend some time thinking about what you want to communicate. Sometimes drawing a diagram will help.

Write a Zero Draft

The Zero Draft is the one before the first draft. When you write one you’ll discover what you don’t know and what you can’t explain well. Fix the problems.

Explain it to Someone Else

Find someone to explain your idea to. Pay attention to what they think you’re saying and to what they don’t understand. When you catch yourself saying, “You know …” take it as a warning. Try explaining what you think your listener knows.

Revise It

Make it shorter. Make it simpler. And do those things without changing the meaning. See if you can get it to fit on a single page. Let it sit overnight, if you can, then review it again.

Repeat Until Done

Revise until you’re only making the piece different, not better. Then, stop revising and send it on its way.

Posted by Wally on April 2, 2012 Tagged with: , , , ,

Book Recommendation: Words that Sell

Uncategorized, Writing Marketing Copy, Writing Tips No Responses »
Mar 012012

“Nothing happens until someone sells something” is as true today as it ever was. And an awful lot of selling happens through the written word, in marketing pieces and sales letters and on your web site.

The odds are that you’re not a professional copywriter, but you still have to sell with written words. That’s why you need Words that Sell by Richard Bayan.

The subtitle of the book is, “The thesaurus to help you promote your products, services and ideas.” That’s a great description of what’s inside, even though you’ll find collections of both words and phrases under various headings.

Part 1 is “Grabbers” with lists of “Heads and Slogans,” “Salutations and Invitations.” and “Snappy Transitions.” There are also thee sections devoted to openings.

Words and phrases for “Descriptions and Benefits” make up Part 2. There are forty collections of words and phrases with titles like “Authentic,” “Exciting/Stimulating,” “Experienced/Expert,” “Informative,” “Reliable,” and “Results.”

In Part 3 you’ll find three collections of “Clinchers.” Different ways to express “Terms and Offers” are in Part 4. Part 5 has “Special Strategies” including “Justifying a High Price” and “Using Demographics.”

And, in the “but wait, there’s more” department, Bayan also put together a helpful appendix. My favorite part of the appendix is “Puffspeak—and Its Alternative.”

Bottom Line

If you need to write to boost your business or career, Words that Sell should be right next to where you work.

Click here for a list of other Books I Recommend.

Posted by Wally on March 1, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

This Post is for Ed

Writing a Business Blog 1 Response »
Jan 042012

I tell blogging clients to write to real people. I wrote this post to Ed.

Ed’s just getting started blogging to his customers and he does what a lot of bloggers do. He writes to a generic demographic description of a generic target customer. You won’t get power into your posts that way.

Write to an individual person, one with a name and a history and bad habits. You’ll get more energy and purpose into your posts. You’ll be more likely to answer the questions and solve the problems that real readers have, too.

The only danger is that you’ll put in some personal details about the actual person you’re writing to. I do that all the time. When I edit, I take those out, just like I did today.

Bloggers Bottom Line

You’ll get more business-building emotion into your blog posts if you write each post to a specific person about a specific issue.

Posted by Wally on January 4, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

A Formula for Profit-Building Web Pages

Writing Better Web Copy, Writing Marketing Copy 1 Response »
Oct 292011

If you’re a copywriter or a marketing student, you’ve probably heard of the AIDA formula. The formula was originally created by advertising pioneer E. St. Elmo Lewis in the Nineteenth Century to reflect four stages of selling. In the original and most common version of the formula, the letters stand for the following things.

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

I’ve been using the formula for decades, but I modified it to reflect some of what we’ve learned about how human beings think and buy. Here’s my version.

Attention. You get attention with your headline. The headline should stop the reader and inspire them to read your copy.

Involvement. Establish emotional involvement with stories or examples or engagement devices like quizzes.

Data. Support your claims with data. Great copy mixes emotional involvement with facts that support the feelings.

Action. After you’ve made your point emotionally and logically, ask the reader to do something. It might be asking for more information or buying a product or anything you choose. Asking the reader to take a specific action is the best way to increase the odds that they will do it.

Bottom Line

AIDA is a copy formula that’s worked for over a century. Use it to make your web pages and marketing copy better.

Posted by Wally on October 29, 2011 Tagged with: ,

One at a Time, Please

Writing a Business Blog, Writing Better Web Copy, Writing Marketing Copy No Responses »
Oct 252011

“How many ‘friends’ do you think will read that?”

Ed’s soft voice cut into my writing concentration. “Well?” he demanded.

Ed was my first real writing mentor, my boss on a job where I was writing direct response letters. I didn’t get the point and I knew the best course was to ask Ed what he meant, so I did.

“You just wrote ‘Dear Friends’ as a salutation.” Ed said. “How many personal letters have you ever gotten that started with a plural greeting?”

Suddenly, I got it. Only one person reads your copy at a time, whether it’s in a letter or in a blog post or on a web page. So write as if you were writing or talking to one person.

Forget “Hello everybody” and “Dear Friends” and write for a single person, your reader. That person is reading your copy all alone. Write like you understand that.

Bottom Line

If you want to write effectively, write to a single person.

Posted by Wally on October 25, 2011 Tagged with: , ,

What You Will Find Here

Basics No Responses »
Oct 232011
  • Do you want a book with your name on it that will boost your career?
  • Would you like to write better business blog posts?
  • Do you want to be sure that the copy on your web site is doing everything possible to contribute to business success?

If you’re a businessperson who answered “yes” to any one of those questions, you’ll find answers, ideas, and support on this site. Here are some of the topics I cover.

Writing a Book

A book with your name on it is a great career builder. But writing isn’t your main business so you need to know the options that are available. Return here to learn about how a coach can help you through the process so you create a better book and how ghostwriting works. I’ll include information on why writing a book is probably different from any writing you’ve ever done and on what it takes to create the best possible book.

Publishing a Book

Every day there are more and more publishing options available. For physical books you can use Print-on-Demand (POD) publishers or short-run publishers, who offer a confusing array of services and a stunning range of fees. Of course, you can always go the traditional publisher route, but then you’ll use a different process. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of it all.

I won’t forget the electronic options, either, from Kindle versions to PDFs. I’ll cover how they fit into the book publishing process and when they make sense as stand-alone products.

Profiting from a Book

The sad fact is that hardly anyone who writes a book makes serious money from book sales. But, and it’s a big but, a book can be the credential that pries open the door to higher consulting and speaking fees. It can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. And it can be the centerpiece of a product system that pours money onto your bottom line.

Writing Better Business Blogs

Most business blogs fail in two ways. They fail as blogs because the writing is simply bad and readers leave, never to return. And many also fail as business tools because they don’t help build your business.

Writing Better Web Pages

Your web site is the face you present to the outside world. Quality web copy helps you tell your story and inspire people to contact you. But great web page copy does more than that. It’s both human-friendly and search engine friendly.

If you want to know more, check back here to see how the site grows and develops. Sign up for the RSS feed so you won’t miss a post. I look forward to helping you learn to create or acquire the writing that will build your business.

Posted by Wally on October 23, 2011 Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,
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