copywriting

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    How to Direct – and get more sales!

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    You‘ve been with me for the last few weeks as I’ve explored how my youth work superpowers can boost your business (in what we’re definitely NOT calling my copywriting philosophy).

    We started with how making your audience feel listened to can build loyalty.

    Then we moved on to the power of empathy in building a connection with your customers.

    Now we’re at number 3 on my list: directing.

    Now, fair warning, this one is the hardest to get right and the easiest to get terribly wrong (both in youth work and in marketing).

    While the first 2 superpowers involve putting your target audience in the driving seat, you’re in charge of the wheel for this last one. So, strap in, check your mirrors, and pay attention to your blind spot. Let’s go!

    What is a Critical Friend?

    In my youth work training, one of the most interesting things I learnt about (aside from the fact that a teenager’s brain is literally rewiring itself while they deal with Math and English lessons) was the concept of the critical friend.

    A lot of youth workers want to be friends with the young people they work with. We want to be seen as cool, hip, with it, accepted. Sometimes that stems from not being accepted as a teen themselves, and sometimes it stems from a well-meaning wish to make life lovely for everyone.

    The thing is, young people have enough friends. And they’d rather hang out with someone their own age and talk about video games/politics/how annoying Mr Stevens is than listen to you try and make a conversation about Fortnite as if you’re one of them. 

    The one thing young people are short on, however, is someone to fill the middle ground between their friends and their parents. They don’t want someone to tell them what to do, and they sometimes need more than a mate who will just agree with them. 

    A critical friend is someone who cares about the person, and asks provocative questions or introduces new information to help them see things from a slightly different perspective. 

    Let me give you an example: 

    Owen is trying to decide which A Levels he wants to do next year. 

    His parents want him to be a doctor – respectable, honest, well-paid profession. So: physics, chemistry, biology, maybe maths. He thinks that he might be really good at developing video games. So: graphic design, art, IT. Home is currently full of massive arguments over ambition and “wasting your life” and “you don’t understand me”.

    As a youth worker, it’s not my job to tell Owen that he should listen to his parents because they know what’s best for him (as much as his parents would like me to!). It’s also not my job to go “sure, whatever you want”. My job is to help him look at the situation from a different perspective, and to make sure he has all the information. Has he researched game developer career paths, why is he sure this is the job for him? Has he discounted medicine just because it’s what his parents want? I can help him research all these things, and maybe point him in the direction of game developers and doctors so he can make his own decision.

    How to be a critical friend to your customers

    As business owners, sometimes it can be too easy to focus on trying to get everyone to like you (literally when it comes to social media engagement) or on constantly selling your stuff. But if you only use social media to try and sell (or for “behind the scenes” photos of your dog) then you’re missing a trick. 

    Teenagers don’t want to be told what to do. It makes them instantly feel like doing the opposite. They can’t help it, it’s wired into their brains. But they are open to learning from someone else’s perspective.

    Your customers are the same. They don’t want the hard sell, but they are open to being convinced that what you sell can improve their lives. They want to be directed, to be shown a different path.

    You do this by gently leading them to helpful sources of information or a different perspective. This can make all the difference in the world between being a business that is just trying to get their money, and a brand they connect with.

    Blog posts and emails play a big part in authentic directing. Use them to tell your audience about you and your brand, sure. But also use the opportunity to widen their perspective on relevant issues, to expand their knowledge on topics related to your product or service, and to introduce them to interesting people. 

    Hazards on the road

    (It would appear that I’m sticking with the driving metaphor…which is weird, considering I could have gone the whole orchestra conductor route…but here we are, I’m not rewriting it all now, I have a baby to put to bed!)

    As great as “telling people what to do” might sound to you (“you need to buy this…”) it’s important to remember what directing is NOT:

    • Bullying your audience. Just because you’ve positioned yourself as an expert, doesn’t mean you get to harangue them.
    • Using your influence over your audience to manipulate them (the “friend” part is important: you should care about their wellbeing).
    • Making your audience feel “less than” if they don’t buy from you (all these new subscriber pop-ups that say “Subscribe” vs “I don’t want to hear about cool stuff” are not kind, and will not build a community. They’ll just piss people off. 

    It’s a journey

    There’s a reason that directing is superpower number 3. It has to come on the back of superpowers 1 and 2. In order to direct in a way that is authentic, empowering, and ethical, you need to have listened to your customers and spent time empathising with their situations. When you’re directing you’re showing them how their lives could be better in some way if they worked with you. But you won’t know if that is true unless you’ve done the first 2 things. 

    If you want to build a deeper relationship with your customers, to increase their loyalty to your brand, and to make them your biggest advocates (walking Facebook ads that you don’t have to pay for), then you need every step in the process.

    And if you’re struggling then I’d love to help, because I want more authentic businesses out there, connecting with their audiences and enriching their lives.

    Why not come and chat over on Instagram – I have kitten photos!

    Carry on reading

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    Cancel the Time Management Gurus!

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    I started my business when Erica was 8 months old, and 8-year-old Ethan was homeschooling because of the pandemic.

    As it often does for mothers I’ve discovered, my copywriting journey began by starting my own blog about the trials and tribulations of motherhood. In my case, I started the blog (http://www.secondtimearound.blog it’s pretty good, you should totally check it out) to talk about the weirdness of my situation: widowed with a 2-year-old son at 31, now remarried and expecting another child. A friend reached out and asked if I’d like to write some blogs for her sustainable fitness brand about keeping fit and being a mum. She paid me £40 and I was pretty chuffed that someone else wanted to read what I’d written. 

    How I found copywriting

    Before Erica was born I was balancing 10 hours a week of bookkeeping from home (that I was terrible at) with the part-time position of Chief Exam Invigilator at a local secondary school (which I was awesome at, but wasn’t exactly inspiring). Neither of these were going to work once Erica was born, especially when Covid hit and finding childcare was an impossibility. I was going to have to think of something else.

    Nick was listening to a business podcast and heard about this thing called Upwork, where freelancers could find paid writing opportunities. It suddenly dawned on me that I could actually get paid to write things. 

    This is a pretty familiar story on the copywriting podcasts. People who have always found writing easy, through school, college, and work. People who get asked by their friends all the time to “just take a look over my CV”, or “what do you think of the wording in this essay paragraph”, don’t necessarily think this is a skill that others will pay for. Surely everyone finds writing fairly easy? 

    It seems not. It seems that I had a marketable skill just sitting there, only pulled out for heartfelt messages in birthday cards and wedding speeches. So in I jumped, going from zero in September 2020 to July 2021 and my first $2k month. I’m incredibly proud of my progress so far, but I’m not going to pretend it’s been easy.

    Why time management tips don’t work for parents

    I’m an all-or-nothing kind of girl. When I decide to do something new I want to find out everything I can about it. I’ll read all the books and scour all the websites until I know all there is to know. These days it’s all about the podcasts. Partly because they’re so very in right now, and partly because I haven’t had the time to crack a book since January 2020 (can’t think why).

    There are about a million (at a conservative estimate) podcasts about running a business, and a million more about copywriting and digital marketing. I’ve been binging them all on the school run and in my earbuds while I feed the baby to sleep, clean the kitchen, make dinner and sort the washing. 

    As you’d expect, among the common topics of conversation, time management features quite heavily. For a lot of freelancers, or solopreneurs, their business starts of as a “side hustle” that they fit in to their evenings and weekends, once they’ve got home from their regular jobs. So time is a factor. 

    But not all busyness is fixable.

    I was listening to one particular podcast the other day, where a time management guru asked the listeners whether they valued entertainment or learning more. And challenged them to look at whether the way they spent their time reflected this. Basically, if you say you value learning, but you spend 3 hours every evening watching Netflix instead of working through the digital marketing course you bought or starting your novel, then you’re kidding yourself. 

    As I drove along the road from school I realized why this particular podcast episode was making me cross. It was because I’d consistently heard from business guru after business guru that we all have time to do the things we want to do (workout, learn a skill, start a business); we’re just not looking hard enough. 

    Trust me. I’m looking pretty hard. And, unless you want me to stage my client calls at 3 in the morning while I’m breastfeeding a baby, I’m a little confused as to where all these magic pockets of time in my day are. Because I do actually value learning. But the last time i sat down to look through the digital marketing course I bought I realized that there were two loads of washing to put away, one to put in the machine, and the breakfast things still hadn’t made it to the dishwasher. 

    2 weeks ago I downloaded a 14 day bootcamp from a very well-known copywriting business that rhymes with snottypackers. Now I appreciate a no-nonsense tone as much as the next impatient person. But Day 1 focused on setting up your workspace, and argued that unless you had a specific area that was just for you to work in, with a door you could close, and scheduled times that you coud go and do that work with no distractions, then basically you were playing at this whole business thing and no-one would take you seriously.

    Life doesn’t work like that if you have kids, especially small ones. 

    Copywriting and kids – the reality

    This blog post for example. I was meant to write it after Erica went down for her afternoon nap. But she didn’t. After I’d spent 45 minutes trying to get her to drift off. So it was written in 3 minute blasts between getting her food, getting her to eat the food and not throw it all over the dining room, changing her nappy, explaining to her that eating chalk was not sensible, and finally giving in and finishing it off later in the evening.

    But I am a freelance copywriter. I have regular clients who pay me for work and give me glowing testimonials. My earnings pay bills. And I’m serious about growing my business. So where does that leave me in this story?

    Maybe there are a whole bunch of people sat on their bottoms watching Schitt’s Creek who just need to be told to get up and work towards their goal. But I reckon that (especially during the pandemic) there are even more people who are trying to follow their dream of a small business or a freelance career whilst teaching their daughter long division, battling zoom parents evenings, and bouncing toddlers who suddenly decide sleep is for losers at 18 months old.

    I want time management and business tips from people who are making it work while balancing a baby on one hip. I want to hear their top tips for how to deal with a pile of client work when they were up every hour the night before. 

    I really don’t want to hear fresh-faced and groomed women on Instagram lives talking about how getting up an hour before their children has been the best thing they could ever do for their business, as now they can get their workout/meditation/journalling/scheduling of social posts done before they embrace their cherubs over breakfast.

    I want to hear from the parents typing blogs one-handed (not that I’m doing that right now, obviously….) whilst holding a poorly preschooler, hoping little hands don’t lean over and delete the last paragraph. I want to hear from the business owners who arrive at school 15 minutes early for pick up so they can answer emails while the baby is contained in the car seat.

    And most of all, I want to hear from them because I’ve spent the last year struggling with my brand voice and communications. I didn’t want to post about the realities of running a business as a Stay at Home Mum, because I was worried clients (and potential clients) would think I wasn’t a professional. I didn’t want them to think I was half-assing my work. 

    But, if anything, I work harder because of my limitations. Just because a blog post might be concepted while I cook spaghetti bolognese doesn’t mean it’s any less of an effective marketing tool. Just because I might be answering their email at 2am while I’m feeding Erica doesn’t mean I’m “phoning it in”. Just because I’m not at my desk (or in a hipster coffee shop) from 10 till 4 doesn’t mean I’m not a credible business woman. I’m just slightly more covered in humus than business women tend to be. 

    So, podcast hosts: bring on the mess and the honesty, and lead me to the women (and men) who I know are knocking it out of the park while literally holding the baby!

    And if you need a copywriter with great time management and multitasking skills (who may or may not be covered in humus) to give your website a polish, your emails the relatable touch, or to inject new blood into your blogs, then give me a call!

    EDIT: You can now find my 8 Tips for Entrepreneur Parenting here. And listen to me talking about all this with the Filthy Rich Writer team on their podcast here.

    Carry on reading

  • Marketing, Business

     7 Voice of Customer Best Practices to Make Your Audience Feel Seen & Heard

    How voice of customer best practices bring you and your audience closer together.

    Voice of customer best practices in action. A white woman in her 30s wearing a dark green jacket and whiite top sits at a table smiling at another woman, who can be seen parshly from behind.

    My copywriting philosophy is…..

    Hang on, that sounds a little pretentious, doesn’t it? A little like I’m standing in front of a lecture hall wearing a jacket with leather elbow pads, pushing my glasses back up my nose, and asking you all to “take a journey with me”.

    Let’s not do that, shall we?

    If you’ve read my About Page (And if you haven’t then what are you doing here? Start at the beginning like a normal person!), then you’ll have read about the 3 superpowers I gained from being a youth worker that I use to transform your relationship with your customers.

    If you skipped it (and you really don’t want to go take a look) then here they are:

    1. Listening
    2. Empathizing
    3. Directing

    If your brand wants to build a stronger relationship with its audience, then you should be doing every one of those things on a regular basis. They should be woven through your content marketing strategy (we can talk if you don’t have one of those yet), and written on faded yellow post-it notes around your workstation. Whether you decorate them with doodled hearts or not is your own business.

    Today I want to talk about why listening is important for a brand. The key is this:

    Everyone wants to feel heard.

    Have you ever had one of those nights where you sat down with another person and the conversation lasted until dawn? That evening where you felt you’d found your soulmate? When you told your friends about it the next day and you said things like “It was as if we’d known each other forever”, or “It was like he was inside my head”.

    Why was this different to a normal conversation over dinner? I’m willing to bet it was because you felt listened to. You felt as though someone was paying complete attention to you. In a world where we’re all constantly distracted by phone notifications (I’ve glanced down at about 8 just writing this paragraph), having the complete attention of another person for more than 2 minutes is a rare and intoxicating thing. It makes us feel important; like we matter.

    Your customer, your email subscriber, your website browser, your Instagram follower. They all want to feel important. They all want to feel as if you’ve heard them. They want to know that you read their comments, take notice of their reviews, and pay attention when they unsubscribe.

    The more someone is listened to, the greater a connection they feel with the person doing the listening. And people spend more money with brands they feel connected to (That’s why I love a good About Page!).

    Voice of Customer questions to ask

    Market research should always involve spending time learning about your perfect customer – your avatar if you’re going all “marketing geek”.

    Us marketers call this Voice of Customer research – spending time in real life and on the internet paying attention to where, when, and how people are talking about your brand. Marketers love having fancy names for things, it means you can make up acronyms and have conversations with other marketers where no one else knows what you’re talking about.

    But really, it’s just listening. Jump on the message boards your customers hang out on. Do they love your new product but wish that it had a different name, or handle, or box? How are they comparing it to other brands who do similar things? What problems are they using your product or service to solve (and are these the same problems you designed it to solve)? Do they have nicknames or shorthand for the things you do? Are they recommending it to others, and how are they doing this? What are they complaining about, and is this something you can fix?

    And, if you can swing it, actually talk to your ideal customer.

    The benefits of Voice of Customer research

    Once you’ve done your “Voice of Customer research” (bleurgh: buzzwords), then you have to actually do something with the information you’ve gathered. Otherwise you’re just nosey.

    The simplest way to start is to use similar language in your communications to how your audience talk. If people reading your social media posts, emails and webpages consistently see words and phrases they connect with and recognize, then they will feel a greater connection with your brand. You “get them”. And, you know, they’ll be more likely to open their wallet and throw some cash at you.

    If you’re not sure how to weave this new information into your communications, then give your friendly local (or not-so-local) copywriter a call. It’s what we do best. Give us your reams of data copied and pasted into a Google Doc, and we can give you the words that reach out to your audience like a cup of coffee and a warm hug (if that’s what you’re going for).

    Voice of customer best practices

    You can also use the information to make changes to your products or services. These can be tiny tweaks, like the name or packaging, or adding in an additional element (say a module on time management to your online nutrition course). It could be a wholesale rethink of your product line. As an added bonus, acknowledging that it was feedback from your customers that caused this change, doubles down on the feeling of importance and being heard that they get.

    Want a hands-down fabulous example of a brand that speaks like their customers do? Check out Tom Insurance – and be amazed!

    I’m all ears

    Access to your target audience (whether current or potential customers) is your biggest resource in building relationships. If you take nothing else in from the beginnings of my copywriting philosophy (oh, wait, we weren’t calling it that, were we…), then remember this:

    Be the one that sits down next to them on the skate park wall and asks them how they’re getting on. Then they’ll be yours for life.

    (You can take the girl out of youth work…)

    Want help with your listening? Let’s chat.

    Carry on reading