Why “Blending in” is a BIG Mistake for Your Brand

One of the biggest reasons why businesses struggle to grow and bring in new clients and customers is because they pay too much attention to their competitors. You’d be surprised at how many people suffer from copycat syndrome.

Imitation is Not Flattery

Let me explain — whether a new brand is just starting out, or an established brand is going through some difficult times of struggle and stress, they tend to turn to their competition to analyze what their competitors are doing.

These business owners look at their competition, track their steps, and end up copying what they’ve done whether they mean to or not. They think their competitors have figured it all out so why not save some time and do what they’re doing?

Here’s the Issue…

From a customer’s point of view, this is one of the biggest mistakes any business owner can make. Why? Because you make it a hundred times harder for your potential customer to choose you.

If you end up imitating what your 10–15 competitors are doing, you lump yourself into the sea of similarity. Suddenly, your customer is forced to sift through all these identical businesses to decide which one is best for them.

Not only does it make it extremely difficult for your potential customer, it means you’ve lost your brand’s mission, clarity, and what ultimately makes you the best possible choice.

Head in the Opposite Direction

I’m not saying don’t scope out the competition to see what they’re doing — instead, look at what they’re doing and head in the opposite direction! You need to position your brand in a way that is completely unique and will set yourself apart from everyone else.

By doing so, you place yourself in a league of your own. You’ll make it so easy for your customers to pick you and not your competitors. You separate yourself from the herd, no longer having to worry about your competitors.

So keep an eye on your competitor, but don’t fall for the imitation trap. Instead, use that information to help you create a unique and engaging way to connect with your audience. Grab your visitors’ attention and appeal to them in a personal way, cultivating the know, like, and trust factor.

Position yourself in a way that helps you break through the noise and clutter, leaving your competitors in the dust — making it easier for your customer and clients to always choose you.

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A Simple Trick for Writing Winning Headlines and Sub-headlines

Headlines and sub-headlines are incredibly important. For starters, it’s the first thing most prospects and potential customers read before even getting into the bulk of your copy. This is your one shot to grab their attention and compel them to keep reading. You want to make sure you get this right. A bad headline and subhead will turn a reader away even before you get a chance to communicate the benefits of your product.

To help you make the process of writing a headline and subhead complex easier, here is my favorite formula for producing a captivating, effective, and winning headline and subhead.

A Simple Approach

This formula keeps things simple. Instead of wracking your brain trying to decide what it is you want to put in your headline and subhead, this formula makes it easy.

It focuses on the most important elements needed to capture your prospect’s attention, ignite their curiosity, and get their desire burning before you even dive into the meat of your sales letter.

The Big Promise

Right off the bat, your headline should present the big promise or claim that is the driving force behind the promotion. This is a surefire way to capitalize on your reader’s main burning desire. If they are your target audience, their attention and interest will be captured immediately.

You can further strengthen your headline by introducing a unique mechanism. All the best promotions, especially in the health supplement industry, have a unique mechanism. Why? Because it acts as a differentiator. A unique mechanism will help your product come across as fresh, new, and exciting — ensuring that your product stands out from the crowd.

Once you’ve presented a promise that creates desire, pair it with a unique mechanism that cranks up curiosity to create a show-stopping headline.

On to the Subhead

One of the most common techniques most copywriters use when writing the subhead is to double down on the main claim of the headline. The subhead, more often than not, simply elaborates on the big promise.

This is an effective technique when done correctly.

However…

Embellishing your main claim can work against you due to the skepticism of your audience. If the promise in your headline is so big that it has the potential of coming across as unbelievable, elaborating and doubling down on it can actually hurt response and scare people away.

Keep in Mind

If you’re writing copy for a health supplement, it is important to remember that some of these consumers have ultra-sensitive BS meters. Especially in saturated markets with a bunch of gimmicks, such as weight loss.

A big portion of your audience is jaded and skeptical after being burned many times before.

Do This Instead

If you make a big, grandiose promise in your headline, your subhead needs to back it up with a strong proof element.

You can expand and elaborate on the headline if necessary, but providing a very strong proof element in the subhead will maintain the attention of skeptics, getting them to stick around to keep reading your sales message.

There are many types of proof elements at your disposal, such as quotes or endorsements from celebrities, experts in the space, statistics, or compelling study results.

If you want to kick things up a notch, use the names of recognizable and reputable universities (Yale, Harvard, any of the Ivy League schools). Nobel prize winners are another irresistible proof element that give instant credibility. If you take the time to do this research, it’s usually easy to find a link between one of these proof elements and an ingredient in your supplement. If this turns up nothing, look for a connection with your unique mechanism.

Simplicity Wins Again

Sometimes, the shortest body of text can be the hardest to write. Headlines and subheads do a lot of heavy lifting but can be tricky to write when you have so many options.

By sticking to this simple formula, you’ll eliminate a lot of time spent trying to decide how to craft a winning headline and subhead. This formula will ensure that your prospects are intrigued while minimizing skepticism.

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How to Use the Fear of Loss to Write Powerful Copy and Advertisements

Watch the video below to discover how to use fear of loss to write powerful copy. This applies to virtually all content you produce, including your website pages, blog posts, social media posts, sales pages, and advertisements.

 

A Cool Tool to Figure Out What Your Audience Wants….and GIVE It to Them!

We’re all competing for the attention of our audience, of our ideal customer. No matter how obscure your industry or market, the fact is competition still exists and always will exist. Consumers today are relentlessly bombarded with advertisements and marketing campaigns.

This is the case throughout all advertising mediums, but especially true in the digital world online. Email is the cornerstone of relationship marketing, sequentially leading consumers through the journey from prospect to buying customer.

But how do we go about getting members of our target audience on our email list in the first place? The short answer, is we need to give them something of VALUE. Basically, we need to give them an ethical bribe.

The most effective way to do this is by offering something that helps solve a glaring problem or provides a specific benefit. Lead magnet is a common term you see used in the marketing community. This can be delivered many ways: an eBook, video, email series, podcast, webinar and the list goes on.

Ok, so we know what type of media we can provide as our “ethical bribe” to get someone on our email list, but what content should we provide in the process? This is where things can get tricky. In our minds, we may “think” we know what our target audience wants, what content they crave and will ravenously devour. But assumptions are not enough, and they can be downright dangerous. Why waste hours of time and hard earned dollars creating content that our audience could give two hoots about?

If you want to maximize your chances of success and hitting a home run right out of the gate, you need some data to support your ideas. A great tool to quickly gather some of this data is BuzzSumo.

Here’s how it works: you type in your niche/topic and hit search. BuzzSumo then pulls up popular pieces of content relating to your niche that have been widely shared on social media. It even gives you an estimate of how many times each piece of content has been shared. Obviously the more shares, the more popular the content.

And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if something is popular or goes viral on social media, it’s probably something that your audience actually cares about or enjoys. Did the light bulb in your noggin just turn on? I sure hope so! Because now you can use this data to create your own content. You know what specific topics or information resonates with your audience. The guesswork is gone.

Let’s take a look at an example.

I went over to BuzzSumo.com and searched the phrase “dog training tips”. Below is a search result for Top 10 crate training tips that’s been shared 9,500 times on Facebook:

 

If you’re targeting people interested in “dog training tips”, this is an article you want to pay attention to and borrow from. You can click the link to open the article right up.

“Dog training tips” is still pretty broad. So let’s try getting more specific, and search for the term “stop barking”. Here’s an interesting result that turns up:

As you can see, this article from the Humane Society about how to get your dog to stop barking  was recently published and has already been shared over 7,000 times on Facebook. You would simply read the article, and take note of what topics and information they talk about. If you’re creating a lead magnet targeting people who want their dogs to bark less, you’ll want to swipe info from this article for your own content.

It goes without saying you never should plagiarize or just “copy and paste”. Instead, put your own twist on their content using your own words and in a context that applies to your specific audience.

Creating a savory lead magnet or “bribe” to entice people to sign up to your email list doesn’t have to be torture. Thanks to simple tools like BuzzSumo, we can know with certainty what type of content our audience loves to consume.

FYI, this doesn’t just apply to creating a lead magnet for email subscribers. You can use tools like this to create products to sell too. With a little thought and creativity, the possibilities are endless! Are you excited yet?