On a scale of 1-10, how well do you feel your website or social media content really connects with your ideal customer? honestly?
When someone lands on your home page, are they reading generic copy or is it written for a specific person?
Have you ever landed on a website and thought to yourself “it’s like she’s reading my mind”, or you were so in tune with what you were reading as if it was written just for you?
You can’t write for everyone because your message gets so diluted, that it doesn’t stand out. So how do you work around this?
Do You Know Who You’re Writing For?
Be specific and visualize who you’re writing for.
For example, if you sold hand-crafted candles with inspirational quotes for new Moms. At first glance you might think your ideal customer profile would be the new mom right? What about other people that would buy the candles? your ideal customer profile might include grandmothers, fathers, sisters, or even best friends and extended family.
Looking at the ideal customers above, can you visualize how writing to each profiles would look very different? Try to imagine how diluted your one message would be if you tried to write to all of them.
What Problem Are You Solving?
It doesn’t have to be a huge problem. It can be as simple as what they’re looking for. Do they have questions? Is something really bugging them?
If we use our candle-making business as an example, let’s choose the Mom of the new Mom (grandmother) as the ideal customer and here are some problems that she might have:
- her daughter is going through post-partum depression, so she’d like to find something to help cheer her up, reminder her everyday that things will get better and to make her feel safe
- she’s trying to find a one-of-a-kind gift that would stand out from the others
- she’s looking for an inspirational gift that doesn’t look or sound cheesy
Brainstorm some ideas and put yourself in your ideal customers shoes. Picture them sitting at a computer and searching for answers to their questions or a problem they have. Pretend you are the ideal customer, what would you search for?
Continuing with pretending to be your ideal customer try this: you’re at the home page of your website…what are you looking for?
Choose Photos that Enhance What You’re Saying
If you’re writing about how the scent of your newest candle is perfect for baby-yoga, posting a picture of a group of guys zip-lining across a river might be confusing to your reader.
Think of images that you can use?
- candle photos of course
- new mom in a yoga pose with candles in the background
- mom and baby with candles in the backgrouns
- baby looking at the candle
Even if you can’t take your own photos, there are some really nice website where you can get free (legal) and premium stock photos.
- Unsplash (free)
- Social Squares (premium)
- Pexels (free)
- IvoryMix (free and premium)
- Kaboompics (free)
- Canva (free and premium)
- Haute Stock (free and premium)
- Deposit Photos (premium)
- StockUnlimited (premium)
- YAYImages (premium)
Why Are You Writing This?
Of course, you want to shout from the roof-top how amazing your new candle line is…but posts that are only written for sales can look a bit boring. Can you think of a different way to put a spin on it?
What about writing a blog post or social media post on
- toxic ingredients on imported candles
- the top 5 scents that could affect your sleep
- scent combinations to help you focus? (helpful for a new Mom)
- scented candles and allergies
- how to colour co-ordinate a group of candles
- fire-safety tips you would never have thought of
Putting a spin on how your product connects with your ideal customer can give you so many different topic ideas.
What Do You Want Your Reader to Do?
So you’re going to get a super crash course on conversion copywriting. At the end of every single blog post, social media post and even on your website pages and landing pages, you want to have a call to action (CTA). By asking your reader to do something, you are much closer to converting them to engaged readers. Highly engaged readers have a much better chance of converting to customers.
What type of CTA can you use?
- Ask them a question: what is your favourite scent?
- Run a poll: do you prefer candle A or B?
- Ask a more personal question about how they use the product: Do you light candles when taking a bath?
- Ask if they’ve done X before: Have you ever forgotten about a candle and got stuck cleaning up melted wax on your beautiful wood coffee table?
- Ask them to subscribe to your email list: Would you like a list of 5 non-toxic ways to clean up melted candle wax? Enter your name and email below.
Note: blog post comments are rare these days and from personal experience, when I’m reading a blog post on my phone, I’ll rarely comment because I hate long-form typing on my phone. So knowing your ideal customer critical here…if she’s a mobile phone person, your CTA’s should be easy to answer.
Although you can ask a question in a blog post, you can also send out the first part of that blog post to your email list and ask them to click on a link to read the rest of the post on the website or ask a question in the email. Word it in a way that they can reply to the email even if they don’t go to your website to read the whole post.
These questions can also be used for product research. They don’t have anything specifically to do with your candles but could be something your ideal customer is very interested in which in turn is important to you and your business.
It all comes down to:
- knowing who you’re talking to
- what problem you’re going to solve/what question you’re going to answer
- choosing the right photos so they are aligned to what you wrote
- knowing why you’re writing the blog post, social media post or website content
- asking your reader to do something
If you’re stuck for ideas on how to use these tips for your specific business, please share your questions in the comments below.
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