Copywriting - Write to Done

How To Create The Next Step For Your Readers

When you’re writing an article, inserting The Next Step should be really simple.

And it is, if you are clear what you want the customer to do next.

But hey, we all know what we want the reader to do next, and yet there’s still a bit of doubt. Are we doing the next step right? Or not?

So here are three methods for implementing the ‘Next Step’

Method 1: Editorial Next Step
Method 2: Sales Next Step
Method 3: Embedded Next Step

Let’s examine all three of them a little closely, shall we?

Method 1: Editorial Next Step

In every article your core goal is to get the reader to experience a new world. The reason the reader reads your article at all, is because you’re taking them on a new journey. This journey depends on what you’re covering in the article. You may be showing the reader ‘how to increase prices without losing customers’. You may be showing them how to ‘fix a roof on a garden shed’. You may be asking them to watch the video on ‘One Man, One Cow, One Planet.’

In every case, you set out to change, or at least nudge the customer into doing something. That was your goal right from the start, or you wouldn’t have written the article in the first place.

So your final take on most articles would be to nudge a reader to move to the next step.

And this is what I’d brand an ‘Editorial Next Step.’ In effect the editorial nudge has no sales activity in it at all. It’s just saying something like:

a) Read more articles on pricing strategy.
b) Read the continuing series on how to create more durable roofs.
c) Watch the video on ‘One Man, One Cow, One Planet because it will help you understand what’s happening to our soil.

The Editorial Next Step is just the push to get the person reading the article to do something. And in a way, the nudge is what the reader is expecting to get that nudge. It’s a signal that the article is done. So when you look at the ‘moral of the story’ in fairy tales, you notice the same nudge.

The story ends and there’s a moral

That’s an example of an Editorial Next Step. Which is all very fine, if all you want to do is ‘complete’ an article, or get the reader to read or do something. But what if you want the reader to buy something as well? Ah, that’s the ‘Sales Next Step’.

Method 2: Sales Next Step

The Sales Next Step is simply a call to action to buy something. Or do something that is more than likely to lead to sales. But how would you know if the nudge is leading to sales or editorial? Well ask yourself this: Will the customer feel a bit of resistance when they go to that next step? If so, then it’s a Sales Next Step.

So if the customer has to fill in a form, opt-in, jump over some barriers, sign up, pay for something etc., then it’s a Sales Next Step. The Editorial Next Step feels like friendly advice. e.g. “Hey see this movie, or you really should read this book, or go read other articles, or watch this YouTube video”.

The Sales Next Step is different, and you know there will be at least an iota of resistance when the person reads your message. And it’s more than likely that your message will be ‘salesy’ e.g. Sign up for this course; Sign up for the workshop, etc. Which leaves us with just one last method to the ‘Next Step’: The Embedded Next Step.

c) Method 3: The Embedded Next Step

You noticed the ‘One Man, One Cow, One Planet’ nudge didn’t you? And you did feel curiosity when I mentioned it once. Then I mentioned it again. And then again at the start of this paragraph. Now imagine I never once told you to see the documentary, you’d still be slightly eager to check it out. And the reason was that the information was embedded as ‘editorial’ content.

For instance, if I’m writing an article on Pricing Strategy, and I give examples of how we did the 5000bc.com pricing strategy, then I’m embedding a next step. When I’m writing an article in 5000bc and give you information about how we conduct The Brain Audit workshops, I’m embedding that next step into the article.

And the embedding is clearly a sales pitch? Or is it? Some people may not see the sales pitch in it at all. It may appear to be 100% editorial. And that’s the beauty of the Embedded Next Step. It has no next step involved. It’s not asking you to buy anything, there’s not a link in sight anywhere, there’s nothing. But part of, or the entire article revolves around the product or service.

Time for some examples…

a) How We Consistently Increase Prices Without Losing Customers (And this article may contain the strategy of how we’ve increased The Brain Audit prices from $20-$119. And how it’s actually increased sales).

b) Will Customers Buy On Trust And Reputation Alone? (And this article may contain the story of our product on ‘Blackbelt Presentations’ and how we generated $30,000 on the weekend, without a sales page—and on trust and reputation alone).

So as you can see, the Embedded Next Step is kinda like a case study in the article. It doesn’t have to smother your article. It just has to be reasonably prominent.

Example, Example…

Let’s take the example of: Will Customers Buy On Trust and Reputation Alone? In that article I can write about the concept of trust, about the concept of what causes people to trust, give them examples about the ‘Black Belt Presentations’, but also give them examples of how Jack Johnson fans will buy the next album based on an announcement alone. Or how Apple will sell a new product without really having the product on the shelves yet.

We’ve covered a lot, so let’s just summarise and then see where we can use these three ways to use the ‘Next Step’.

Summary:

1) The Editorial Next Step is to get you to do/read something.
2) The Sales Next Step has more resistance involved. And involves some sort of sales pitch, no matter how minor.
3) The Embedded Next Step has no links, no call to action, nothing. But it becomes the focus of the article. It becomes the primary case study, possibly secondary case study as well. And sure it can share the spotlight with other case studies too. But there’s no call to action. That’s why it’s called ‘embedded’.

So where do we apply these next steps?

1) The Editorial Next Step is usually placed inside the article itself. Often just after the summary. It’s more than likely to be the last few sentences of the article, though it can appear before the summary from time to time—but that’s rare. (You’ll see an Editorial Next Step at the end of this article as well.)

2) The Sales Next Step has a clear demarcation. It sits away from the editorial, and it’s clearly a sales-based nudge. Anyone looking at it should be able to tell it’s a next step leading to some product/service offering. (You’ll see a Sales Next Step after this article.)

3) The Embedded Next Step is embedded in your article itself. The ‘One Man, One Cow, One Planet’ could have been an embedded next step, if I had any financial gain, but I don’t. Besides this article is long enough, without having to bear the weight of a few cases studies as well.

So there you have it.

Three ways to get the customer to the next step. Now insert it into your articles. You can insert just the Editorial Next Step or both Editorial and Sales. Or all three.

Be clear what you want the customer to do, and they’ll do it. Because you’re the one who provided the next step for them to take.

A guest post by Sean D’Souza who is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. To read more articles by Sean, and get a very useful free report on “Why Headlines Fail”, go to PsychoTactics.com

How to Get a Grip on Plots and Sub-Plots When Writing

Imagine you’re having a discussion with a hyperactive, talkative teenager.

And the conversation goes like this…

“We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the cinema, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this—because that’s not the best part. The best part is the Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they ran into each other in the street…”

When we, like, write copy for our website, we like, sound a lot like that teenager

What we tend to do is go all over the place with our copy. First of course, we’ll try to stuff in about five concepts in our headline. Then we’ll try and fill in a whole bunch of sub-heads that we want to drive home.

And then our first paragraph tries to cover all the possible points. And like that teenager, we have the entire story in our heads, but nothing quite gets across to the client. And that’s because you’re trying to cover way too many points too quickly.

And as you’ve worked it out for yourself, this bounce and jumping around is exhausting for the reader or listener, and hence is a big mistake.

So let’s see how this mistake unfolds when we write copy by examining an actual piece of copy.

Headline: Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …
Body text:
That don’t call you back or even show up?
Are you done with contractors that lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner?
Or run away from problems that crop up during and after a project?
Are you over dealing with the hacks of the world?
Have you enough of sitting home babysitting people that are you uncomfortable with?

So what’s wrong with that sequence?

Technically, nothing. The headline is perfect. It gets my attention without too much of a fuss. But then I go to read and I get between three-five main plots and no sub-plots. And how do we know they’re main plots? Because we can list them out and see for ourselves. They all want to take centre stage.

Main plot 1: Don’t call you back or even show up
Main plot 2: Lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner
Main plot 3: Run away from problems that crop up during and after a project
Main plot 4: The so-called professional is nothing but a hack.
Main plot 5: Discomfort. Having to babysit people that are you uncomfortable with

Just like that teenager’s story, it’s possible for us to jump from one to the other, without so much as pausing for breath. So now that we know we’re creating bounce, how do we get rid of this bounce? And how do we still use all of the point we want to cover on our web page?

Here’s how you do it.

Just like a movie, you have a main plot. And you have sub-plots. So what’s your main plot? It’s the client’s most pressing problem. That’s obvious, isn’t it? You’d want to get the client’s attention by driving home the biggest, scariest, buggiest problem, wouldn’t you? And here’s how we go about it.

Headline: Write your headline. Let it cover ONE big problem (that big, buggy problem)
Body text 1: Drive home the problems involved with that ONE point.
Body text 2: Drive home the consequences of that ONE point.
Body text 3: Drive home the solution to that ONE problem.
Move to the next point.

So how does this look when we put the teenager’s story in this format?

Headline: We went to the mall and there was a fire.
Body text 1: What happened next (at the mall)
Body text 2: Then what were the consequences?
Body text 3: How did we escape the fire?

With the teenager, she’d complete one story, and move to the next. And the next. But you may have made your point with a single story. So what do you do with the rest of the stuff that you so badly want to get across? You bring it up later. Let’s see how. But first let’s get back to our example.

Headline: Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …
Body text: That don’t call you back or even show up?
Body text 1: What’s the problem with not calling back or showing up?
Body text 2: What are the consequences? Describe the emotion that the client feels, in detail.
Body text 3: What’s the best way to avoid such a desperate scenario?

And then you present your service

Body text 4: Presenting XYZ contracting company.
Body text 5: Drive home the point of calling back. How you do it. When you show up. How you follow up.

Notice we haven’t gone to Point 2 yet. And yes, I know, you’re itching to drive home that point

But notice something? The customer doesn’t care about your itch. They’re locked in to what you’re saying. You’re the first person they’ve met who isn’t like that teenager, jumping from story to story.

The customer’s biggest problem is ‘unprofessional contractors that don’t call back or show up’ and you’re doing just that. The customer wants to know more about that story in detail, before they’re ready to move to the next story.

So once you present your company and why you bring the ONE solution, you can now move on to the next story.

Except you don’t have to tell the next story in as much detail. You can now roll out the remaining stories in slightly less detail in a feature/benefit format that looks like this:

Feature 1: Benefit 1. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and more blahdee blah, blahdoo, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and more blahdee blah, blahdoo, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and more blahdee blah, blahdoo, blah, blah, blah.

Feature 2: Benefit 1. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and more blahdee blah, blahdoo, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and more blahdee blah, blahdoo, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and more blahdee blah, blahdoo, blah, blah, blah.

And so on with Feature 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8—and so on. And add benefits to every one of those features

You can have as many as 8-10 paragraphs rich with details of the problem and the solutions you bring to the customer. And having locked into the main problem and seeing how you bring that solution, the customer will happily trundle through the rest of the points, and get more convinced by the minute about your expertise and professionalism.

In short what you have is a main plot. And you drive home that main plot.

And then later, pull in the sub-plots, but without the same level of intensity as the main. Just remember that you can pick any plot to be the main plot. (e.g. ‘Sylvie dumping Josh’ has more drama than ‘no popcorn at the cinema.’ And then re-tell your story on the sales page.

ONE plot at a time :)

By WTD contributor Sean D’Souza who is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. To read more articles by Sean, and get a very useful free report on “Why Headlines Fail”, go to PsychoTactics.com

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Three Core Elements of Storytelling (And Why You Need To Write Stories Right Away)

By Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics.com

Think of a story.
Any story.
Maybe just Cinderella, for instance.

What does it bring up right away to your mind?

1) Sequence
2) Suspense and
3) The roller coaster

Stories are like magic lamps. They have a sequence, there’s suspense and sure to be a roller coaster.

So if we examine Cinderella’s story we see:

1) There’s the sequence of the daughter who is mistreated and made to work in the kitchen.

The other daughters romp about doing what spoiled daughters do. And they fancy their chances with the prince. But things don’t go their way, and in turn, Cindy manages to get a fairy godmother. And blah, blah, blah.

And there’s a sequence of events each building into each other. But a good story must have some drama, some suspense.

2) The suspense

Suspense follows us all around the storyline. Cinderella’s mother dies and she’s doomed to sleeping near the fireplace (which is how she gets the name, Cinderella). But then the godmother appears from the blue—and suspense builds up—because now Cinderella has a chance like everyone else. Will she make it? Won’t she? She does. And then just as Cindy’s hitting it off with the Prince, the clock goes nuts and her life is miserable once more. What on earth is happening? What’s with this girl? Is she just going to be a loser? Yup, that’s all suspense.

3) Then there’s the roller coaster

Good times, then bad. Then good, then bad. Your story doesn’t have to swing wildly, but it helps to have contrast, because contrast changes the pace of the story. So just as things are really yucky, along comes the knight in shining armour. Or just as things are looking great, an avian flu threatens to kill the entire population. Cinderella’s fortunes seem to bounce up and down, which keeps the interest in the story.

Now let’s head to your story…

Every story you write tends to have sequence, because without sequence a story has no meaning. But suspense? You have to insert a certain amount of suspense. It’s always there in your story, but when you insert a ‘what the heck is happening’ factor, you instantly build suspense. And finally the roller coaster. If your story has been coasting with the fairies for a while, then it’s time to bring out the ogres—and vice versa.

And there are reasons why this storytelling is important:

1) Most writers are unable to capture the core elements of a story. Even if they do get the sequence right, they rarely build in suspense or the roller coaster. That’s because they aren’t aware of these elements, or just don’t know how to go about it. But you, you can practice and get a lot better.

2) Most articles are almost always how-to or reporter-like. This means that your articles automatically stand out when compared to millions of other articles on the Internet. And because most writers avoid this story-telling, your articles are instantly more appealing—and different.

Does it just have to be a story or can you have a case-study?

Case studies also have the same three elements, but you still have to work in the suspense and the roller coaster. The key factor is to realise that you’re already off to a brilliant start with a story because you have the advantage of sequence. And with a bit of practice, suspense and the roller coaster will become part of your case-study (or story-telling).

Kids sit at rapt attention when listening to the story of Cinderella

No matter how many times you tell the story, they’re keen as mustard to hear it again. Now you know why. And you can take the same elements and use it in your articles.

And then everyone who reads it will have that same mustardy-feeling too.

Sean D’Souza is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. To read more articles by Sean, and get a very useful free report on “Why Headlines Fail”, go to PsychoTactics.com

The Headline Breath Test

By Sean D’Souza of PsychoTactics.com

Do long headlines work? Or are short headlines better?

The answer doesn’t lie in length. It lies in the ability to say the headline aloud in one breath. Let’s assume you sit down and write an absolute stunner of a headline, your next job is to read it back aloud.

Can you read it?

Ok then say this headline aloud: HOW To Recognise Six Difficult Telltale Signs Of Disinterest And Lack Of Motivation In Your Student And Customer.

Ran out of breath, didn’t you? And even if you didn’t quite run out of breath, you’ll still struggle to recall the contents of that headline. And the reason why you need to read the headline aloud, is because that’s what the customer is doing anyway. And if you can’t say it one in breath, you can’t hear it in one breath.

And as a result the headline message gets garbled.

So let’s look at some of the most enduring headlines ever…

1) How to make friends and influence people.

2) Do you make these mistakes in English?

3) They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play…

Ooh, that last one was a mouthful, wasn’t it?

No matter how you try, it’s hard to say: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play…” in one breath. So what’s going on here? How come this headline works when it clearly fails the breath test?

It’s called punctuation

If you have a long headline, all you have to do is punctuate. How you punctuate it is totally up to you. You can use brackets. Or an em dash. Or a comma.

So the same headline can read like this:

They laughed when I sat down at the piano (But when I started to play…)

They laughed when I sat down at the piano—but when I started to play…

They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I started to play…

And a good reason for the existence of punctuation is to have pauses. When you have that pause in-built into your headline, a reader can read it as if it were two sentences. So even though it looks like one big sentence, it’s really two.

There are lots of things that can cause a perfectly good headline to become perfectly useless. And instead of debating long and hard about the length of headlines, just do the breath test. If it fails, add some punctuation. If it still fails, dump the headline and start again. ;)

About the author
Sean D’Souza is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. To read more articles by Sean, and get a very useful free report on “Why Headlines Fail”, go to PsychoTactics.com

Slip-Sliding: How To Get Customers To Read Every Word Of Your Copy

A guest post By Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics.com

Do you know how you flip one page of a novel, not expecting to read the book, and before you know it, whooops away you go, and then you’re reading, and reading, and reading…and may I add…reading.

Copywriting isn’t much different. If you write copy that slip-slides, then your audience will read it to the end.

So let’s analyse a piece of copy that slip-slides

Here’s the copy as it went out in the email and after you read it, you’ll see the analysis below.

Start of Copy

=========================
You are receiving this email, because you subscribed to the Website Triggers Series (where you got the 3 Trigger Audios). If you wish to unsubscribe, you can do so by going to the bottom of this email and removing yourself from this list. Of course, you’d miss the free gift worth $50 that I’ll be giving you in the next email, if you do so). So hang in there a while. It’s worth the wait.

Do weddings make you cry?
Well, they sure make some people cry.

Because for one day of wearing that fancy gown, walking down the aisle, and throwing the bouquet, a couple has to go through months and months of planning.

Of course, that’s not what you’ll see
When you show up at the reception, you’ll see an almost flawless and well-choreographed party. What you won’t see, is all the background stuff that went to minimise all of that chaos.

Nobody would believe in the ‘instant-wedding reception’
But if you listen to Internet ‘gurus’ everywhere, you’ll hear how they made squillions of dollars in one week. And how they can do the same for you.

Yeah, right.

For a simple wedding, you’ll need to learn about etiquette, have checklists, have reasonably detailed wedding plans, have honeymoon plans and God knows what else.

It’s the same with a website. The reason why your website isn’t drawing customers by the hundreds and isn’t able to make as much profits as you think it should, is because you’re missing the background information.

Information such as:
-The precise strategy involved in attraction, conversion and consumption. The biggest mistakes are made when you mix up these three factors. Learn how to segregate them and take customers through a sequential selling system. (Yes, system).

- The way to set up an auto responder system and link all of your messages, so that once it’s set up, your customer automatically gets personalised messages. This is not just another set of auto responders. It’s a sophisticated, yet simple way of getting customers to buy your products/services.

-The exact system that we use at Psychotactics. What we do in the background. How we create sales without any Google ads, strategic alliances, joint ventures or affiliates. And how you can too (if you choose). That alone should save you a bundle!

And you’ll get bonuses worth over $5200
Some of the bonuses are:
1) How to Create A Viral Campaign worth $500
2) Website Strategy Template worth $1500
3) Special Strategic Accounting Session worth $500
4) Client Data Segregation Tutorial worth $100
5) Website Strategy Critique by me (Worth $3000)

Can you really afford to miss this information?

Find out how the course is really affordable, and has installments, so you don’t have to pay everything upfront.

Warm regards,
Sean

P.S. There are only 5 seats left. Don’t wait till too long, or you’ll miss out. There’s also a homestudy version, if you’re interested. :)

P.P.S. Remember this event has a ‘Lawn Mower Guarantee’ which means you can take all the materials and run your lawn mower over them, and you’ll still get your money back. So you have nothing to lose. If you don’t like it, you get your entire tuition fee back. So there’s nothing to lose.

P.P.S. There’s a homestudy version of this course too, so if you can’t make it, you can still get the homestudy version, by clickingon the link above. The homestudy will bring at least 70%-80% of the intensity of the course into your home–yes the live course is always better, but if you can’t attend, this is the best next choice.

End of Copy
=========================

So now for the analysis:

1) Notice how the first paragraph incentives the customer to stay on the list? You can use this tactic from time to time, but not all the time. And of course, you have to deliver the goods you promise.

2) Notice how the analogy did most of the selling? You didn’t actually realise it was a sales letter till somewhere in between. But hey, you were sliding down a very fast slope. And it was impossible to back up. If your copy uses the power of analogies, it can get customers reading and sliding from the analogy to sales copy, without even realising what’s happening.

3) Notice how logic was used to explain the concept that was about to reveal itself. The concept was about the ‘instant website and instant riches’ formula. But the analogy was about instant receptions, and how they don’t exist. When you accepted the idea that an instant wedding couldn’t exist (or is hard to pull off), it was easier to accept the idea that website success was hard to pull off without background strategy and knowledge.

But I didn’t have to convince you. When you bought into the first part of the email, you bought into the second. Cool, huh?

4) Notice the connectors that enable you to segue?
Look at these two sentences carefully. There’s a connection that makes the leap at this point. And it’s done seamlessly and simply. “For a simple wedding, you’ll need to learn about etiquette, have checklists, have reasonably detailed wedding plans, have honeymoon plans and God knows what else.

It’s the same with a website. The reason why your website isn’t drawing customers by the hundreds and isn’t able to make as much profits as you think it should, is because you’re missing the background information.”

The line before explained the background information required, and then jumped to a ‘website’. But the leap wasn’t jarring at all, because the analogy softened the leap.

5) Notice how the bonuses added up?

6) Notice how the objections were killed.

7) Notice how the urgency was created?

8) And the guarantee, ensuring that anyone on the fence would decide to give it a go.

9) And the downsell to the homestudy version?

To think that we ended up with website strategy…

And started with weddings…

Hmmmm…if you want your customers to slip-slide their way into the copy, it’s best to start with an analogy. Then link back to the actual topic.

Slip-sliding away…that’s what you can do with your copy. And now, you have a template! So go ahead and write some slip-sliding copy right away.

Sean D’Souza is a writer, marketing guru and expert on sales psychology. Read more by Sean on Psychotactics.com

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