Is it a secret?
Probably not. But it does seem like a hidden truth. Under wraps. Or camouflaged.
We worry about correct grammar and impeccable spelling.
We work on our tone of voice.
We check whether our web pages are scannable.
We apply copywriting techniques to make our web copy more persuasive.
But let’s be clear.
Grammar, spelling, voice, and copywriting techniques are the cherries on your cake. They make your cake look better, but they won’t sell your cake if it’s made of cardboard.
The “secret” to shockingly good copy is making a cake that everyone loves, a cake that people want to buy for the price you offer it for.
Imagine you’re a butcher setting up your business…
For your grand opening you decide to break the bank and ask legendary copywriter John Carlton – the most ripped-off writer on the web – to write an invitational leaflet that you’re planning to drop off door-to-door.
Your town is not so big, so on a sunny Saturday afternoon you and a couple of your friends walk around to drop off the leaflets. You’re excited. Your opening is going to be great. You can’t wait to start selling your customers the most delicious organic chicken in the country.
But something goes wrong.
Apart from your mother and your mates, nobody turns up.
You’ve paid one of the most expensive copywriters to use his most persuasive tricks to write your leaflet text. You even promised a 20% discount on all your delicious chicken on the opening day.
But nothing happened. Why?
Well, maybe it’s a town full of vegetarians? Or maybe you’re selling organic chicken, but your customers prefer lower-priced chicken, or maybe they like to eat pork, or beef, or game. Or maybe the other butcher in town is such a lovely guy, you need to do something exceptionally special to lure people away from him.
Sounds like a silly story? Here’s a real life example:
Carelogger is an app that helps people with diabetes keep track of health metrics like blood glucose. The headline on their website used to be: Keeping tabs on your diabetes just got a lot easier.
Seems like a good headline, doesn’t it? It clearly targets people with diabetes. It’s easy to read and to the point. It highlights a benefit. So what’s the problem?
Making it easier to track metrics isn’t an important benefit for people with diabetes. What they really want is to improve their health.
So, when Carelogger changed their headline to Maintain your optimal health by keeping tabs on your diabetes, conversions increased by 30% (source).
Your all-important value proposition
Your value proposition is the promise of what you offer to your customer. How will you make him or her happier, healthier, or more productive? Which problems, pain points, or hassle will you take away? And what will it cost to buy this from you?
Getting your value proposition right is the most important part of copywriting, but it’s also the most difficult.
You need to define who your customer is. You need to understand exactly what you can do to make him feel better. You need to learn what problems you can help your customer overcome. You need to figure out his objections to buying from you. And it’s probably useful if you know what questions he’s asking about your products, too.
It sounds obvious. Pretty straightforward. It’s basic marketing.
But I see people struggling with it time and time again.
I struggle with it, too.
Should I write persuasive web copy and e-newsletters for small businesses so they can win more customers?
Should I teach small business owners how to write web copy so they can win more customers and make more money?
Should I widen my scope and teach small business owners how to market themselves so their business can grow and they can have a more balanced life?
Should I target a specific segment of small business owners such as coaches or creative freelancers or marketing agencies?
These are big questions. And it’ll take me a while before I figure out the answers. Until then I happily muddle through with a fuzzy value proposition. 🙂
One more important question…
Does your value proposition need to be unique?
Marketers often talk about Unique Selling Points (USPs). A USP is a value proposition that is so unique that nobody else offers the same.
Big businesses need a USP to position their products as different from their competition. M&Ms, for instance, distinguish themselves from other chocolate products with the slogan: melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
As a small business you don’t need to rack your brain to come up with a USP. YOU are the USP of your business. Your customers choose to work with you because they know you, like you, and trust you. You don’t need an extraordinarily special selling point.
You need to focus on the value you offer to your customers. Exceed their expectations. And let your personality shine through so customers can get to know you, and love you.
Be YOU.
Recommended reading on copywriting:
9 simple tips for writing persuasive web content
11 tips for writing seriously persuasive copy
Why most copywriting formulas stink
You are so right about “self” being the USP.
Speaking of a very small business, when my sons were teens, they earned extra cash by mowing for neighbors. They got their gigs because all the neighbors had seen our sons out mowing our yard and loved the way they worked and the way our yard looked. They did no marketing at all, except the appearance of our yard, and their young selves out there working hard.
One of them also landed a job at a local grocery because our neighbor managed the store and liked the way this son worked hard at mowing and did a good job.
If you are not aiming for world-wide recognition, you only need a great resume or job record or recommendations or product that folks cannot resist.
Yep, so true. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tactic. Sounds like your sons are on the right track!
Good to see you, as always, Katharine 🙂
Henneke,
I found you today through Zen Optimize and have enjoyed your site for the last 3+ hours. Your writing style is easy and your advice is right on. Thank you for your instruction – I will begin to put it to practice, NOW!
3 hours?
I guess I’ve written too much in the last two years 😉
Great to hear you’re enjoying the website, and appreciate you’re stopping by to let me know. Thank you, MJ.
Found you through Slideshare. You’re great and I am looking forward to benefit from your content! Thanks for sharing so much of your work 🙂
Matthias
Welcome, Matthias. And thank you so much for stopping by. Glad to hear you’re enjoying my work 🙂
Thanks for this great, realistic article. You sum up the small business USP very well. Oh and you make sales seem easy (from a non-salesman viewpoint!). 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
Henneke
I got hooked here, and very inspired to boot!
here is my simplistic process
I start with a reference sheet:
persona, problem, feeling, benefit, solution and goal
I create an outline for
headline, intro, point of view , bullet points and summery, call to action
then set out for brevity and some semblance of coherency,
I am just a person writing for a niche, and not a copywriter or even a good typist! but I do enjoy your posts
Yes, that’s a good process you’re using!
Thank you for stopping by, Jan.
Henneke,
I’m Murray (Neo in your Matrix) trying to sign up. I loved your guest blog at Firepole on “ABOUT” pages, although my highlighter doesn’t care for you much.
Regarding this dilemma regarding the small town butcher shop I can tell you I never went to one until I moved to Windsor, England for a year. Unlike grocery store shoppers here in the States, people who go to butcher shops have a much different persona or avatar as we’re calling it now. They enjoy the process of cooking and feel more like a chef if they hand pick their food … and they socialize. I would suggest finding out some of the better self-proclaimed chefs in town and personally give them a chicken ask them for a recipe to post in the store if they liked the results. I would give some to some of the better restaurants in town as well and try to get their regular business. I would give the town a couple of weeks to let the gossip get around and then repeat the flier including the recipes displayed at the store and a 10% off the chicken dinners (funded by the restaurant), but distributed at the butcher shop. Sometimes face-to-face beats byte-to-byte. But I sure would have a website and host a cooking blog for the folks in town.
Welcome, Murray. Glad to have you on board 🙂
Yep, those are all great ideas. I’d also start an email list and email weekly or monthly recipes to draw people back into my butcher shop.
Thank you for stopping by to add your thoughts. I look forward to hearing more from you! Let me know if there’s anything in particular I can help you with?
That’s so true about small businesses and their USPs.
It’s the personal connections and relationships with clients that differentiate you.
I’ve personally made the mistake of feeling our USP was more important to our customers than it was in reality.
We often want to feel different but it’s not always what is attractive to the market!
I’ve been the same, Mark. I’ve been trained as a traditional marketer and I’ve always been told how important a USP is. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that that’s not always true. We’re different enough as we are!
Thank you for leaving a comment. I appreciate it! 🙂
Really good post. After reading it I had to subscribe. 🙂
Now I have to figure this out.
That’s great to hear, Andrea. Welcome!
Let me know if there’s anything in particular I can help with 🙂
Yes: “full stops”! Very good! (I gotta get it together with “my” British lingo. Huh, and to think I call myself an Anglophile.)
And your two examples sum up my point perfectly. Thanks.
Perhaps I’m just a stickler but it ought to be “Web” and not “web” because “Web” is a stand-in for the “formal” entity “World Wide Web”. Sorry to be annoying. This also means I side with the style used at The New Yorker and The New York Times: Web site, not website. Again, I’m annoying. I’ll stop now.
No, you’re not annoying, Barry. My spelling is a bit schizophrenic. I’m UK-based and tend to follow the Guardian style guide (which stipulates “web” and “website”), but then I’ve adapted my spelling to American-English as most of my readers are from the States. It probably doesn’t make sense and I should pay more attention to these details. Thank you for pointing it out!
It’s odd how these little things can be different, isn’t it? Keep in mind that several American publications use “website” but it’s not across the board.
By the way, I support the British style of putting a period on the OUTSIDE of quoted material: “like this”. I never liked the American style of putting the period “inside”. The British style seems logical: you have a sentence that ends with quoted material — and then the sentence comes to an end with the punctuation mark. Why, in the American style, is the period on the “inside”? Madness! (I live in NYC, by the way.)
I could go on all day with this but I’ll spare you.
Ah, but the Brits use “full stops” not “periods” 😉
“If I’m quoting a full sentence, then the full stop or period goes inside.”
If I’m quoting just a phrase, then the full stop or period “goes outside”.
Agree. Putting the period inside quote marks has never made sense to me. So I refuse to do it. It’s inaccurate – as there was no period in the original text.
Henneke, thanks for confirming what I have always believed. Namely, that we are the USP.
Have a lovely day.
Hey, Louie. Thanks for stopping by again. I appreciate it. I hope you’re well!
You know I was thinking – what if 30,000 web developers or 20,000 freelance writers all had to have their own unique selling point. Their USPs would get pretty crazy, eh? Glad you agree that we can just be our own USP 😉
I Love You, Henneke! You’re Great! 🙂
You’re making me blush, Cinzia. 🙂
Oh Henneke. You are really really fascinating person. I love your writing. So persuade. So helpful. And almost every blog posts you write solved my problems.
Thanks Henneke.
Keep it up. I always support you 😉
Glad to help you solve your problems, Danial. Thank you for stopping by. I really appreciate your support!