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How to talk about politics without pissing people off
- July 8, 2022
- 1 Comment
- by allwordsbypeta
Your audience cares what you think…

And your political beliefs are a huge part of that story. You’d love to stand up for what you care about. You’d love to use your platform to make a difference in the world. But, the problem is, you don’t know how to talk about politics as a business owner. And so you avoid it.

You might have noticed some of my own politics woven into my content. (And if you didn’t then a quick scroll through my social media will get you up to speed)

And you may have thought:

“Well done her! There’s no way I have the confidence to do that. And what would I even say? What if I put off potential customers? What if the social media gods decide they object to my values and throw my posts into the darkest depths of the algorithm, never to be seen again?”

All valid concerns!

And none of them a reason to keep your content politics or principle free.

Why should I talk about my politics in my business?

You see, the professional/personal divide we carried with us from the office to the online world is dead.

That’s why you get people posting selfies on LinkedIn (to massive engagement), and why behind-the-scenes content does so well on Instagram.

It’s also why companies have spent the past month telling everyone how wonderfully accepting they are of LGBTQ+ rights (whether they are the other 11 months of the year is a conversation for another day).

We expect people and brands we buy from to have principles, to have opinions, to be made up of actual people with principles and opinions.

So it’s not a “nice to have” for people (like me) who don’t mind putting themselves out there. It’s a necessity if you’re running a business in the 21st Century. (You can read more about my thoughts on this here)

But if you’re not used to putting your political and personal beliefs out there (even amongst your Facebook friends) then how do you talk about politics as a business?

*theatrical flourish *

I’m here to help with…

My framework: How to Share Your Politics Without Pissing Everyone Off

(disclaimer – you will piss people off if you’re honest about what you think. And that’s ok. There will always be people who disagree with you. But there will also always be people who have been waiting for someone to speak out. They are your people.)

Follow all the steps and you’ll feel confident and comfortable telling your audience what you really think – without worrying that they’ll all run for the hills.

SPOILER ALERT: They won’t.

Step One: Get comfortable with the space

We’re taking baby steps, because this is a big deal.

So, before you jump in and write a mini-essay on LinkedIn about everything political you’ve ever thought, you want to get the lay of the land. And giving your audience whiplash is never a good marketing strategy. So, here’s where we start:

Write down 3 things that are important to you (there may be more than 3, but it’s a good start). These could be abortion rights, LGBTQ+ equality, child poverty, or climate change. Anything that you’re passionate about.

And then start sharing what other people are saying about these 3 things on your Stories, or in your Feed. You don’t even have to comment, and you don’t need to make anything up yourself. Just start sharing.

Why? Well, this gets your audience used to seeing you and these issues in the same space. And get’s you familiar with the current discourse on your chosen issue.

Baby steps, remember?

Step Two: Honing your message

You’ve dipped your toe in the murky waters of political social media, sharing content from other people that you agree with. But you don’t just want to be a parrot. You want to use your own words to share your passions.

So Step Two is working out what you really think. Vague rants coming from hot white anger at the latest news are not your message. They are the source of your message, the passion you can feel through your posts. But they are not enough.

If you are going to put your politics, your principles, whatever you want to call them, out into the public sphere as a business, then you need to nail them down. You need to be able to articulate what it is you believe, and why you believe it.

Because people are going to ask. And the quickest way to lose people is to be vague (that is literally why people hire me to work on their copy – well…one of the reasons…I’m pretty talented…).

Imagine you were sat opposite your ideal client here, and you had to explain to them why microplastics were so important to you. Or why you are so passionate about Early Years nutrition. Take the 3 issues you picked yesterday and lay out your thoughts, your reasoning, and your argument clearly. Put together the jigsaw pieces.

And write it all down.

That’s a message that you can start communicating to your audience. Ready for questions or objections that come your way.

Step Three: Bring people with you

This is where you actually start sharing that message with your audience.

But, and here’s the key, not in a preachy “this is the final word on this subject and if you have nuances then you can go follow someone else” way.

The most effective political conversations – the ones that have the potential to change hearts and minds, to inspire action, and to impact the world – are just that – conversations.

Two-way dialogues that invite questions, agreeable disagreements, and new ideas.

If you’re sharing your politics in your messaging as a way to use your platform, and to connect more authentically with your audience, then you need to encourage this sort of conversation.

You can do this on social media with question stickers, polls, invitations to send you a DM, or even Lives where you share your platform. You can do this through your email list, giving your subscribers an opportunity to reply – and replying back!

However you choose, give your people opportunities to talk to you, to share their thoughts, and to offer up their stories.

Step Four: Walk the talk

It’s time for a little reflection. Because it’s one thing to tell people what you believe, but you also have to take a look at the way your business acts.

Authenticity is a word that gets thrown about a lot (and I do it too!), but in this new online world it is so important. To build a long-term connection with your audience, to bring them along with you, you need to build trust. And so your business’ actions need to align with your business’ principles.

So here are some questions to consider:
- Do your business practices match your principles? (do you talk about climate change but bank with someone who invests in the oil industry, for example)
- Are you open to criticism? (not trolling or vitriol, but people pointing out where you could improve)
- Are you always learning? (there’s always room for learning more on any issue, so are you making an effort to stay informed?)
One last point. While we strive for perfection, we never reach it. You need to be realistic – and open about this. Not all of us can completely ditch plastic, we might want to leave some social media platforms, but right now our business relies on it…

Being open about where we’re still working is an important aspect of that authenticity.

Step Five: Be in it for the long haul

And here we are: the final step.

This will not be news to you, but in marketing as in exercise – consistency is key.

Take Pride month, for example. I’ve been revelling in the rainbows all over my feed, the marches popping up all over the country, and the opportunity it has given some people from the LGBTQ+ community to speak about their experiences on social media (yes, even on “This isn’t Facebook” LinkedIn).

We’ve also seen a LOT of companies jump behind the Pride banner. Adding rainbows to their logos, donating proceeds of particular products to supporting LGBTQ+ people, and highlighting policies that help the community.

And then we’ve seen some other companies pop up, spray rainbows and “love is love” quotes all over their platform… only for it to disappear from their branding (and the way they actually do business) for the rest of the year.

If you jump on every international month, only to not mention it for another 12 months, those people you’re trying to draw to you will be confused, annoyed, and even betrayed.

Step Five involves staying the course, and being true to the principles and politics you’ve identified as important to you. Because if they are important to you then they should be on your radar all year round.

Now, a little disclaimer. I don’t mean that you have to be inserting them into your content plan every week. But you do have to think about how they fit into your content plan! If you’ve chosen to use your platform to speak about your politics, then you need to carry on doing it – not just when everyone else is, and not just when there’s a tragedy/SCOTUS judgement/Daily Mail trending article.

What next?

So, there we have it. My gift to you. 5 easy steps for when you need to work out how to talk about politics as a business owner. Or, come to think of it, as a human being.

Now, go forth and tell the world what you believe!

Need some help? Then let me introduce you to The Soap Box.

It’s a community of business owners with a social conscience who are using their platforms to champion the causes they care about.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can find out more here

Discover The Soap Box

Carry on reading
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How to show up authentically online without oversharing!
- October 22, 2021
- Comments Off on How to show up authentically online without oversharing!
- by allwordsbypeta
This is my preferred selfie!

Authenticity is the big buzzword in the world of small businesses right now. Especially how do you show up authentically online?

You need to be showing up as your “authentic self” on your social media channels (cue “hilarious” reels of me pointing at invisible words on the screen trying to game the algorithm. Not really, I’m never doing that.).

Maybe it’s because of my naturally cynical British brain (yeah, it’s probably that).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that we’re slowly moving away (at least in some corners of the internet) from the performative posts online where we show off the tidy side of our perfectly arranged “home office” whilst ignoring the bit behind us where we’ve hidden all of the kid’s drawings, empty water bottles, crayons, and crumbs that are usually on the table.

But I’m always wary of just swinging the pendulum from one side to the other, where I feel a little like I’m letting down the sisterhood when I post a picture of my kitchen in the rare moments it’s actually clean. Or when I find an image of my kids in which they’re not trying to sit on each other’s heads.

And the thing is, buzzwords usually start off as great ideas with logic and analysis behind them. As a business owner or entrepreneur (pick the title that feels more “authentically you”!) being authentic online is good for engagement. Your potential customers see themselves in you, they relate. And this makes them more likely to buy from you and work with you.

As well as that, the drive for more authenticity was meant to make it easier for people to show up in the online space. You didn’t have to fit into a certain box, follow a certain formula, speak in a certain way, or build your website with a certain tool. You could be yourself.

But it turns out being yourself authentically online is still bloody hard.

Which “self” are you going to be?

How much of your life/principles/ethos/beliefs/personal vocabulary/mad earrings are you going to put out into the public domain for your potential customers to see?

When you’ve put yourself out there – the honest, real-life you – how do you cope when some people don’t like it? Now they’re not just rejecting your product, it feels a lot more personal.

And then, along with that, comes a whole heap of self-image issues that we like to think we’ve parked because we’ve “done the work” (read: liked the Instagram posts). Do I have to be in my photos? I can’t possibly do a reel right now because I didn’t wash my hair this morning. What if my kid walks into the background of my Story and pulls a funny face?

As messy as it gets!

Ways to show up authentically without making everyone within 5 feet roll their eyes:

If all that is running around your head then grab a cup of tea, and keep reading. Because it’s going to be ok…really.

Think about your audience: this can be pretty basic customer research, or you can geek out over it. But coming up with a customer avatar (ok, sorry, marketing speak: an image in your head of your ideal customer…excellent, the rash has gone now) can help you think about the sort of photos, captions, emails, and adverts that they would relate to.

Think about your style: If you’re a put-together person then a full face of makeup might make sense for your photos and videos, but if you can bring yourself to be a little less coiffed then you can own that and make it work.

If you’re pretty straight-laced (hey, no judgement, if everyone was punk we’d run out of safety pins) then coming out all guns blazing in your emails and marketing material is going to feel a bit weird, and be pretty hard to sustain.

Your authentic voice needs to contain some of you.

But don’t feel like you have to include it all: You might be really into Japanese anime or building bug hotels in your spare time. You might run a business making hand-pressed floral soaps but listen to thrash metal while you do it.

If you’re comfortable showing that side of you to your customers then that’s great! But if you’d rather not then that’s fine too. Your online “authentic self” doesn’t mean handing all elements of your life and personality over to the Facebook police. Pick what you want to share, and stick with that.

Look for the trends: Nope, not what everyone is dancing to on TikTok. Start noticing the patterns in how you speak when you’re comfortable and “in your flow”. That’s your brand/business voice. So if you can write and talk in that way, then your message will be that much more relatable.

People love consistency. They want to know what they’re going to get when they scroll your feed, or visit your website. No one likes surprises when it comes to their digital diet.

Get some help: writing about yourself is hard. You’re not being rubbish – it’s psychologically proven to be difficult for us to get our brains around. Our brains find it harder to recall things we’ve done well and much easier to flood us with all the things we’ve sucked at.

As well as this, when you sit down to write about your brand or business you’re doing it from the perspective of the expert and it’s difficult to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. So you end up with a whole page of text that makes sense to you. But your audience has no idea why they should care.

Finding a copywriter and strategist who can give you that sense of perspective, help you relate to your audience, and pick out all the things that are actually awesome about you and your brand, is golden (I know, I would say that, but my clients say it too, so I have actual proof!).

So, if you’d like some help to work out what your “authentic” brand voice is (or you know a fellow entrepreneur who’s struggling), then I can help you with that!

Let’s chat.

Carry on reading
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8 Tips for Entrepreneur Parenting
- October 8, 2021
- Comments Off on 8 Tips for Entrepreneur Parenting
- by allwordsbypeta
Me and my gang!

You might have heard (if you follow me on social media, subscribe to my email list, or read this blog – yeah, I’ve banged on about it a lot, sorry), that I was on the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast this week.

I talked with Nikki and Kate about how I started my copywriting business from scratch with a tiny baby and a homeschooling 8-year-old. We also chatted about how most time management tips seem to forget the responsibilities of those of us who are caring for children full time.

You can catch the episode here, or watch it on YouTube here to see my smiling face (and yes, I am in a van. We were at a summer festival in the UK and it was the quietest place I could find!).

As with all great conversations, there’s always more to say. So I wanted to collect my best practical tips and mindset hacks here. Some we covered on the episode, and some we didn’t get to. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and not all of the ideas will apply to everyone’s circumstances. But I hope you find them helpful whether you have children to keep alive or you’re balancing other responsibilities.

Be realistic about your time

Don’t feel as if you have to do all the things. Yes, your Facebook groups and copywriting communities have Facebook Lives, and Study Hall hours. There are summits and live coaching and it’s all great, but be realistic about how much you can be involved in an online community. And don’t be tempted to feel as if you’re a 2nd-class online citizen because you literally don’t have time. Also, catching up afterwards (if you can) is just as beneficial.

Communicate clearly

Working part-time is ok, as long as you communicate clearly and realistically, with your clients and with your family. When it comes to your family, managing expectations is really important. You might not be able to read every bedtime story, and you might have to work the occasional weekend. But making sure everyone knows this is happening can stop frustrations

With your clients, communicating boundaries and turnaround times in advance as clearly as possible keeps everyone happy. If you can’t get a sales page written until Friday then tell them that. It doesn’t matter that you’ll be spending time watching your child play football and ferrying them to dentists appointments, rather than ploughing through a project for another client. Your clients don’t have the right to a 24-hour turnaround (unless you can do it and they pay you accordingly!). They’re here for your writing, not your attention 24/7.

Make the most of podcasts and audiobooks

You’re not going to have time to sit down and devour all the juicy marketing books everyone posts on social media. But you can listen to some brilliant experts while on the school run, cooking dinner, feeding the baby, and sorting the washing. There are so many great podcasts out there that, whatever your sphere of interest, you’ll find something you can learn from. Earbuds are a must though unless you want your baby’s first word to be “metrics”.

Realize your superpowers

Yes, you might be up through the night, but this means you are able to check and reply to messages from those in other time zones. When 2 am is a regular reality for you, why not embrace it and nab those jobs everyone else is sleeping through?

Also, as a parent (or someone with other caring responsibilities) you will have incredible powers of listening and understanding. You’ll be able to have a conversation and discern exactly what is actually going on behind it. Sure, your son might be talking about how he hates maths because the teacher is too strict. But he might actually mean that he’s struggling to understand and is embarrassed to say anything.

You can use these powers of discernment to get to the root of your client’s problems. Sure, they might be talking about how their sales page doesn’t convert, but they might actually need help developing a brand voice that sounds more like them.

Get a voice recorder on your phone

With a button right on the home screen. That way, if you have a great idea, or you remember something, you can note it down without having to move the baby and get to a piece of paper. I write some of my best copy via this app. You can also use transcription software like Otter to get it onto the page afterwards.

Ditch comparisonitis

Some people have entire afternoons to work through training modules or write 25 pitches in one go. You don’t. And that’s fine. There is enough work out there for everyone, and you bring things to the table that no one else can. Your journey may take a little longer, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive.

Also, you’re often comparing your everyday reality to someone else’s highlight reel. You have no idea what sacrifices they had to make to get to where they are, or what help they had along the way.

Someone else’s success isn’t your failure – it’s just more success.

Be more open and honest about your reality

This is just as important with clients as it is with your fellow freelancers. I’m not talking about sharing stories of exploding nappies (there is still such a thing as TMI), but the more people stand up and say “I’m running my business while feeding my baby”, the more parents sitting at home will realize that it is an option for them too.

And the more clients will realise that the image of a professional freelancer/business person, is more varied than it used to be.

Get help where and when you can

If you have the option of childcare, even if it’s just a family member taking the baby out for a walk for an hour, then take it. Any opportunity you can find for uninterrupted writing time is worth its weight in gold. Also, bite the arm off anyone who offers to help with cooking, cleaning and laundry until you are doing well enough in your business to pay someone to do them!

And if you’re tempted to feel guilty for delegating, remember that your time has value. If you can earn more by working that you pay someone to do your ironing, or go through your accounts, then it’s worth it.

So, these are my top tips for how to run a business while keeping a baby alive.

I’d love to know yours…

Carry on reading
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Build Your Copywriting Business – The Family Edition!
- October 6, 2021
- Comments Off on Build Your Copywriting Business – The Family Edition!
- by allwordsbypeta
When I started my copywriting business there were a few podcasts that I binge-listened to while on the school run, cooking dinner, sorting laundry, you know the parenting drill. One was Filthy Rich Writer‘s Build Your Copywriting Business.

Nicki and Kate always had great advice and really interesting guests.

And now I’m one of them! *screams a little*

You can listen to my episode below, hear me giggle too much, and say “um” a lot, but also talk about:
- How I got started as a copywriter
- What I think abot Upwork (spoiler: this might surprise you)
- How big a part laundry plays in my day
- How I manage client expectations
- How my previous career as a youth worker helps me deal with comparisonitis
- What time management tips really help when you have small people you’re meant to be keeping alive.
I’d love to know what you think, and if you have any tips you could add.

Raising a Family and Building a Business: Peta’s Story

I’ll be sending out another blog post later in the week with some of the things we didn’t manage to cover on the show.

See you then!

Peta

Carry on reading
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When you can’t see the wood for the trees
- September 21, 2021
- Comments Off on When you can’t see the wood for the trees
- by allwordsbypeta
Today’s blog is a little different. I’m sharing a little bit about how I work with my clients, and what I bring to the table.

I’ve just wrapped a fun project with a UK-based client (which makes zoom call scheduling a lot easier, I’m not going to lie!).

When you get to see your work in real life (or on a screen) there’s this little shiver of excitement. A lot of what I do as a copywriter feels abstract and amorphous most of the time like I’m drawing in the air. The moment when all my hard work coalesces and appears in front of me on a snazzy webpage with a funky design still gives me butterflies. It’s also quite nice to have something to show to my father-in-law to help explain to him what a copywriter actually does!

One of the reasons that this project was so much fun was the big picture thinking I was able to do.

Some clients just need you to write words.

They need a description of a product or a blog about why mums should buy their baby bottles. These things are important, don’t get me wrong, and they take skill.

But, while jobs like that do involve a lot of Listening, Empathising, and Directing (you can find out more about these 3 Youth Worker superpowers of mine on my blog), the client has probably already sorted out who they are, what they do, and how to communicate this. I’m just helping them speak more effectively to their ideal customer.

But occasionally I get to work with clients on a higher level, and it’s hands-down my favourite thing about my job.

This client was an established stationery company who was relaunching, with a new website and messaging. This gave them an opportunity to rebrand and be clearer on their marketing message.

But they were lost.

They’d spent hours and hours trying to come up with one strapline that explained everything they did. But they sold loads of stuff, so this didn’t seem possible.

They needed another way to stand out and get people to stay on their home page, rather than wandering off because it was all a bit vague.

So, what did I bring?

How could I help when they’d already been struggling for so long?

Well, a few things:

An outsider’s perspective:

You know when you’re doing a massive jigsaw and you’ve been looking for one particular piece for AGES? And then your partner/child/mother comes along and immediately picks it up from the pile of loose pieces? Annoying, isn’t it? But they looked at the problem from a different angle.

We’ve all been there. Stuck staring at a blank page for so long that you can no longer see any possible solution. Going around and around in circles. The issue? You’re too close to the problem. Grab an outsider (preferably one with some understanding of your field or business, don’t draft your dog walker in to look at your sales page unless they’re your target audience!) and explain the issue. They can help you find solutions you hadn’t even thought of, because their perspective is slightly different.

I helped the client look at his webpage from a different angle. We looked at how you could use it to take the reader on a journey that fit with their needs, rather than just focus on showcasing products.

A strategic overview:

Was finding this one phrase really the most important thing? Perhaps focusing on the feeling that you wanted to create on the page could draw people in more effectively than making sure that a reader instantly knew everything you did after reading the headline of your home page.

Strategically, this client operated in a fairly crowded marketplace. It made more sense to find a different way to engage their customer. So we settled on creating the feeling of a tribe, finding people like you and products that fit with that feeling.

That way, the company stands out, there’s no need to try and fit hundreds of different product lines into a single magic sentence, and you end up with intrigued visitors who turn into loyal customers.

********************************************

So, I’ve ended up with a very happy client, and they’ve ended up with web pages that will bring them more traffic and more sales.

Fancy some help with your bigger picture?

If you’re a business owner and you’d like to work with me then fill in my contact page here.

Or, why not send me an email and tell me what your business is struggling with right now. I’d love to lend you my outsider’s perspective!

Carry on reading
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How To Market With The Seasons
- September 2, 2021
- Comments Off on How To Market With The Seasons
- by allwordsbypeta
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

I don’t know if it’s because I’m a stationery nerd, but Septembers always feel more like new starts than Januarys.

It probably is the stationery thing, you know. On my first date with my husband, we spent about half an hour bonding over the Staples catalogue. (Yes. I am aware of how sad that makes us sound, but we’re very happy so we don’t care!)

Having moved my task management system online over the summer, this is the first year since I was, ooh 11, that I haven’t swanned around WHSmith or Paperchase picking out my school year planner. It’s only the 2nd of September, and I’m already debating buying one anyway, just for the new paper smell.

This is when my new year starts, when I gear up for change and re-imagine what my life looks like. It’s in September when I’m feeling energized, optimistic, and fresh. January, when I’ve spent all my money on Christmas and it’s all dark and gloomy outside, is not my time.

But wait, this is a blog about copywriting and marketing, let’s not get too hung up on me, shall we? I promise, there is a point to this post and it will help your business.

“What is it?” I hear you cry in exasperation as you scroll through new productivity planners on Amazon.

Well, just like me, your customers think seasonally. And so should you.

Why should you think seasonally?

There are two reasons why thinking seasonally in your business is a helpful tool:

Youthworker insight alert!

As human beings, we like rituals and rhythms, new starts and seasons. As a species whose lives revolved around when you could farm, when you could fish, when you needed to store food, and when you needed to scrape the ice off of the top of your basket and get gathering again, we are biologically tuned into the idea that things change on a cycle. We like to set moments in our year where we can reflect, plan, remember, or celebrate. And our thoughts and emotions (read: buying habits) are massively affected by this.

In times gone by, most cultures had set moments in their calendar where the changing of the seasons was noted. A harvest celebration, a feast to mark the end of Winter, the first flowers budding. And almost all cultures had rituals involving the passing of time in people’s lives. Initiation ceremonies, first communions, marriages, funerals, all of these mark the passing of the seasons (of life and the year).

In many western cultures, we have fewer and fewer of these universally accepted rituals as time goes on. A lot of the religious rituals have been swapped for secular ones (Easter being a prime example, there are definitely more Instagram posts about egg baskets than there are about crucifixes) and this is fairly normal for a more multi-cultural society. But, because of the way we are wired, we still need some kind of marker.

Now, back to business

From a more traditional marketing perspective, as a business owner, your sales and successes will fluctuate throughout the year. Depending on your specific area – the things you sell and the space you occupy – you may do better in the summer, or in the run-up to Christmas. For example, if you sell garden machinery, you’ll probably be a bit quieter in January when most of us are hiding indoors and not thinking about our lawns. But July is going to be manic!

Tapping into these two reasons for seasonal behaviour can give you insight into the way your customers think and how best to market to them at different points in the year.

How can you make the seasons work for you?

Sure, you can stick to the traditional supermarket cycle of Valentine’s Day, Easter, Summer holidays, Back to school, Halloween, Christmas. But, let’s face it, you’re not going to stand out in a crowded marketplace when everyone else is doing the same thing. And, frankly, it’s boring.

Let’s be a bit more creative, shall we?

Research

The best way to develop a seasons approach to your marketing is to do our favourite thing: research! Consider these questions as a start:
- What seasons do your customers most engage with?
- What stages, in their life and in their year, are they talking about on social media and message boards?
- What seasons (in life or the calendar year) do your products most fit with?
- What seasons do you get most excited about?
Brainstorm

There are so many different seasons that you can tie into your messaging.

Sit down, grab a pen and paper, and think through the year. What events and periods spring to mind?
- Spring cleaning,
- Tax deadlines,
- Summer holidays,
- Back to school (even if your customers haven’t been at school for a while now)
- Christmas.
Then think about life seasons; things that might be concerning your customers right now and affecting the way they think and purchase.
- A new baby
- Coming out of the pandemic
- Finally having an empty nest now the kids have gone to Uni
- Ending a relationship
- Getting married
- Buying their first house.
Tying it all together

So, you’ve got a better idea about the seasons that chime with your audience, now you need to make the connections between your products or services and the seasons you’ve decided to focus on.

Now, a word of warning: shoehorning a “back to school” call to action into every one of your emails, web pages, and social media posts through August and September won’t work (unless you actually are WHSmith, in which case “Hi, thanks for dropping by!”.

Nope, you want to tap into people’s emotions around the different seasons, but you don’t want to hammer it too much.

Think about it this way: If you sell soft home furnishings – cosy throws, inviting cushions, chic bedspreads – then you probably want to connect with the warm cosy feelings that your customers will have around Christmas holidays. Encourage them to fill their homes with tactile fabrics to snuggle up under whilst drinking their mulled wine. Paint a picture of how visiting family won’t be shivering up in the guest room if they have a couple of your bedspreads ready in the airing cupboard.

Alternatively, in September, you might talk about how a little piece of home can help student halls feel less lonely. Thus encouraging every mum of an 18-year-old to buy one of your blankets to pack on top of the IKEA crockery set.

The possibilities are endless.

And, you know, if you’re struggling you could always spend some time talking with an expert…

I promise I don’t bite…especially when I’m feeling all optimistic this time of year!

Get in touch!

Carry on reading
Uncategorized
How to Direct – and get more sales!
- August 19, 2021
- Comments Off on How to Direct – and get more sales!
- by petaobrien
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
Marketing, Business
7 Voice of Customer Best Practices to Make Your Audience Feel Seen & Heard
- July 29, 2021
- 1 Comment
- by petaobrien
How voice of customer best practices bring you and your audience closer together.

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