Ronit-Shahar

Posted By admin on March 14, 2012

More great work from copyblogger.com here:

Have you noticed how indifferent you are to most things you read? You may start reading but stop a few sentences in. You might only skim sections. You might not even make it past the headline.

Given the way people consume content, it can be tough to truly capture your readers’ attention.

If you want to know how to capture and keep attention, you need to study who’s already doing it incredibly well. And the answer to what makes people return to your content can be learned from one of the longest-running reality TV shows: The Bachelor.

Of course, we realize your content marketing is much smarter and classier than The Bachelor. Maybe you didn’t join the millions of people who watched the season finale last night.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a thing or two.

Say what you will about this train wreck of a show, but it’s held an engaged audience for 16 seasons of over-the-top drama.

Examining this series closely over the years, I’ve picked up on what keeps its viewers so captivated. Read on to find out how you can use the five most alluring elements of The Bachelor to keep readers coming back …
1. Lead with the end

While the journey sure is entertaining, The Bachelor is all about the ending.

People keep watching the show to see how it ends, when the bachelor proposes to his future ex-fiancée atop a mountain or equally outrageous location.

Additionally, every episode ends with the ritual of the bachelor sending home one or more women in a melodramatic rose ceremony.

The ending is drilled into viewers’ minds during every episode: the contestants discuss it, every pre-show recap touches on it, and the previews for each episode reminds us that Yes, this is all leading up to something big.

What is the pay off for reading your entire post? Are readers rewarded for making it to the end?

Consider crafting the ending of a post first. This will help guide the beginning and middle toward the well-conceived conclusion.

Keep the format of your posts consistent, but make the ending better than anticipated.

To do this, state where the post is going in the beginning, then overdeliver on the promised ending. If you say your post will teach 10 ways to do something, sneak in an extra tip or two.

Take away: Make the purpose of your posts clear right away and follow through with a worthwhile ending.
2. Don’t make them think too hard

The Bachelor is, arguably, one of the least intellectual shows on television. Which is probably why people love it so much.

No, we’re not asking you to write stupid content. But when they’re reading your blog posts, readers shouldn’t feel like they’re working their way through a molecular biology text. (Unless, of course, you’re publishing content about molecular biology.)

Consuming your content shouldn’t feel like work. Keep it light, entertaining, and above all, make the value obvious.

Here are some tips for making posts clearer:

Can you simplify your language? Switch out big words when a smaller word will suffice.
Do you want readers to do something? Tell them exactly what that is with a call to action.
Are you leaving too many questions unanswered? When necessary, supplement with links to additional resources and use visuals to aid your text.

Take Away: Don’t be coy. Spell things out for your readers.
3. Develop your character

The Bachelor casts the same characters season after season, including The Naive One, The Villain (there are usually several of these, actually), The Desperate One, and The One Who Drinks Too Much The First Night.

Why do archetypes work? They’re familiar.

If every contestant on The Bachelor had a hard-to-define personality, it would be too difficult for viewers to remember who’s who (see #2, above).

The best writers have such a defined voice, their writing can be identified even without their name attached.

Become familiar to your readers. Develop your character by giving a consistent portrayal of your personality.

Establish your voice and use it in all of your posts. Be as narrow as possible in defining your tone: “funny” isn’t enough. What type of humor do you use: self-deprecating, snarky, corny, puns?

Take away: Don’t just write what you know — write who you are. Your readers will feel like they know you and appreciate your authenticity.
4. Edit to your advantage

No one would watch The Bachelor if they showed hours of the women blow-drying their hair and sitting on the couch waiting for their dates.

The show’s editors select the best footage, then splice it together to tell a compelling story.

Editing is more than fixing typos and grammar. The best writers stay emotionally distant from their writing and edit mercilessly.

Here are steps to take when editing a piece:

Remove redundancies.
Experiment with moving around sentences and paragraphs.
Don’t be a Fancy Nancy. No matter how vast your vocabulary is, limit flowery language.
Get rid of your first sentence.
Better yet, get rid of your first paragraph.

If you struggle to remain objective about your writing, have someone else edit for you. It also helps to put a piece aside and come back to edit it later, instead of writing and editing all in one sitting.

Take away: Leave the mundane scraps of your writing on the cutting room floor.
5. Tease the audience

The commercials and teasers for The Bachelor are often much better than the actual episodes. How can anyone pass up anything billed as the “most dramatic____ ever”?

Are you writing a series post? Tell readers what they can expect in the next installment.

Have a great post in the works? Leave compelling “commercials” for your audience at the end of your posts, on your social networks, and in your email newsletters.

Kerry Jones @KerryJonesFTW

I’ve figured out how to write about The Bachelor in an educational way. My life’s work is complete.
23 Feb 12

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See what I did there?

Take Away: Close your posts with cliffhangers and use your other platforms to build anticipation around future posts.
Make it work for you

While I would never encourage you to write anything as mindless as The Bachelor, the techniques above can make readers not only return, but anxiously await your next post.

The Bachelor’s secret for attracting and keeping an audience comes down to this: being predictably unpredictable. Pairing the familiar with the unexpected will leave readers with no choice but to see what happens next.

Are you using any of the above techniques to lure readers? Better yet, what do you think makes trashy reality TV so compelling?

About the Author: Kerry Jones works in online marketing at BlueGlass, where she also manages the blog. Yes, she’s really watched every season of The Bachelor. Follow her on Twitter here.

As usual they deliver compelling and interesting food for thought for those who would want to influence people and get them to buy something or do whatever you want them to do.

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Posted By admin on December 13, 2011

I am re-running a great post from CopyBlogger.com:

12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”

Many copywriting and marketing gurus teach simplistic ideas about psychology. They insist (like a SWTOR Sith Inquisitor) that people can be fully understood and manipulated with a checklist of motivators or pyramid of needs.

What nonsense! I can’t even figure out why the guy at the pet store puts 75 cat food cans in one bag and a tiny box of treats in another so that I lurch to my car leaning to one side. How can I possibly summarize human psychology in a few bullet points?

People are highly complex and often mysterious, so we all struggle to understand our fellow humans. However, now that you’ve gotten over being afraid to sell, here are a few basic psychological tidbits that can help you write compelling copy.

1. People make decisions emotionally. They decide based on a feeling, need, or emotion, not though a logical thought process. That’s why intangible benefits are the keys to persuasion. When you’re writing, you should ask yourself, “What is the emotional hot button here?”
2. People justify decisions with facts. Example: a man sees an advertisement with a photo of a sports car and instantly falls in love. However, he can’t bring himself to buy the car based on a feeling, so he reads the copy for technical details about the powerful engine, safety features, and low maintenance. He wants the car because it makes him feel good. But he buys it only when he can justify the purchase rationally.
3. People are egocentric. The word “egocentric” means centered around the ego or self. We all see the world in terms of how it relates to us personally. So when your copy asks someone to do something, it must also answer the unspoken question, “What’s in it for me?” On a deeper level, the question might be “How does this give me feelings of personal worth?”
4. People look for value. Value is not a fixed number. Value is relative to what you’re selling, what others charge, what the prospect is used to paying, how badly the prospect wants it, and how the prospect perceives the difference between your offer and others. You must demonstrate a value that seems to be equal to or greater than the asking price. The greater the value relative to the price, the more likely people are to buy.
5. People think in terms of people. The human brain is not a computer, calculator, or information processor. Scientists have shown that its primary function is to deal with social interactions. Remember how some mathematical questions in high school were stated as real-life situations? They were always easier to understand and solve than abstract problems. Your copy, therefore, should feature people through names, personal pronouns, quotes, testimonials, stories, golf swing tips, photos of satisfied customers, etc.
6. You can’t force people to do anything. When people buy, it’s not because you wield some magical power over them. You can urge. You can push. You can entice. But ultimately, people do what they want to do. This means your job is to show how what you’re offering meets your prospect’s needs.
7. People love to buy. Some say people don’t like to be “sold.” Not true. People love to be sold. They love to discover wonderful new products and experiences. What people don’t love is to be cheated or tricked. Therefore, it can be helpful to change your analogy of the marketing process. Instead of “selling” to people, try to “help” them. Sell good products, make appealing offers, and treat people fairly. That’s a surefire formula for success.
8. People are naturally suspicious. It’s true that there’s a sucker born every minute, but most people are moderately skeptical of any offer. They seek to avoid risk. You can never predict the level of suspicion any particular person has, so it’s usually best to back up all claims with evidence, such as testimonials, survey results, authoritative endorsements, test results, and scientific data.
9. People are always looking for something. Love. Wealth. Glory. Comfort. Safety. People are naturally dissatisfied and spend their lives searching for intangibles. At its simplest, writing good copy is a matter of showing people how a particular product, service, or cause fulfills one or more of their needs.
10. People buy “direct” because of convenience and exclusivity. If people could easily find the things you offer at a nearby store, that’s probably where many would buy them. So if they are not buying from you directly for sheer convenience, they’re doing it because they can’t find the item elsewhere (or just don’t know where to look). That’s why it’s wise to emphasize the convenience and exclusivity of what you wish to sell.
11. People like to see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it before they buy it. Some people never buy online because they can’t examine the merchandise. Some items, such as books and CDs, are tangible and familiar enough to sell easily online because there is little doubt about the physical quality. Other items, such as clothing or food, may be a harder sell — at least until people have a satisfactory buying experience — because quality may be variable. Think about how people buy things in stores and ask yourself if there is some element of that sensory experience that is missing from your sales message.
12. Most people follow the crowd. Most of us are imitators. We look to others for guidance, especially when we are uncertain about something. We ask, “What do others think about this? What do others feel? What do others do?” Then we act accordingly. This is why testimonials and case histories are so influential.

Of course, this barely scratches the surface. Psychology is a deep and eternally revealing line of study. And while I don’t believe in making things more complicated than they have to be, I think there is great benefit in knowing not only what people do, but also why they do it.

This is the path to copywriting mastery.

About the Author: Dean Rieck is a leading direct marketing copywriter. For more copywriting and selling tips, sign up for Dean’s FREE direct response newsletter or subscribe to the Direct Creative Blog.

 

As you can see this is a very relevant piece of information and can certainly help you on your way in business.

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