Category: Business Dev

Stop Making It About You

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Liam Atkins

I did this, we do that, I’m the bee’s knees’ at XYZ…

Take a step back, look at your own website, your own social media profiles and your latest advertising pieces. How many often are you talking about yourself?

I mean, you may well think that’s what you need to be doing when promoting your business and services. Your spending money on promoting yourself…so make it about you, right?

Take a minute and have a good look at printed adverts and online promo’s that do this and ask yourself – ‘who cares?’

Who cares?

Genuinely, who gives a flying f-bomb, if your business has been around for 100 years, or that you’ve invested tonnes of cash in super-duper machinery, or your team are trained to XYZ standard.

The average reader is only interested in how any of these things that are essentially just features of your business or service, actually impacts or interests them – their own lives, their business or their pocket.

Within the copywriting and marketing world, many of the top experts ensure every single statement published by their clients pass the ‘So What..?’ test.

They demand their clients are honest and brutal with every sentence published, asking them – ‘So what?’

So what…your business has been around for 100 years?

So what…you’ve invested heavily in machinery?

So what…your team are highly trained?

If your reader finds themselves saying ‘so what’ to a statement, you’ve lost them. Instead, try accompanying a statement (if it’s really needed) with a clear, tangible benefit to the reader.

So, the above features behind your business can easily turn into clear benefits which pass the ‘So what’ test…

Clear benefits

You can relax knowing that, with 100 years of expertise behind everything we do, your widget is in safe, capable hands.

Get your products produced faster and for less with us. Thanks to our investment in the latest, quickest and most efficient machinery in the industry.

Don’t let technical queries slow down your production. Solve your post-production questions immediately by calling our highly trained staff.

Most of the time, we couldn’t care less about you…especially if your advert / cold call / email is interrupting our day. We all only really care about ourselves, so keep it about US.

P.S. Weirdly, as I’m doing my own research on copywriters and competition across the UK, so many copywriters just talk about themselves vs. their client, or how they can solve the clients problems.

Baffling really, but if it works for them and they’re bringing in the clients they need – good for them.

Next up, more research – I’ve been reading loads into John Carlton and Dan Kennedy’s work. I really enjoy the more ‘Americanised’ direct response side of copywriting, so I’m hoping to be able to adopt it, and perhaps tone it down / hone it more to a UK audience for my own clients.

A New Client + Working For vs. In

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Liam Atkins

Being busy is great, but a problem many business owners face is that they’re working for the business, being the marketer, secretary, admin and service professional. This is how individuals, despite being busy, stifle their earning and income potential. So, given this, onto today’s post…

…with excitement about my first real local business signing up for some copywriting!

New Copywriting Client

A local hair salon owner has contacted me about ideas to drum up new customers. At the moment the owner is the main stylist and – while often fully booked, she wishes to 10x her business and start running it vs. working in it.

There’s lots of things off the bat which we are going to be looking at improving; her website design in general, consistent social media usage and – the lack of digital client database.

Which means that we’re starting from scratch with a few things – not ideal, but if i can successfully turn results for her it’d be a great case study to add to my copywriting and marketing portfolio.

We will be looking to also do a longform piece of direct mail with road, by road personalisation + plus a few extra bits of secret sauce I’m hoping will convert.

I’ll post a proper update once the game plan has been confirmed with the client and, after implementing – the final results.

Liam.

Scrolling Like Social Media Zombies

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Liam Atkins

Another day, another post.

I used to be one of those people who, as soon as I woke up – eyes still crusty, and the smell of morning breath in the air – instantly grabbed my phone to check social media.

Constantly glued to my phone, not only instantly responding / reacting to the latest Facebook notification, but also aimlessly, in a daze, scrolling through social feeds simply ‘cos it was there.

It had become a habit.

After selling my cryptocurrency business, this really hit home. I had loads of new time on my hands, which should be filled with exciting adventures with Archie (I look after him full time), but instead – I was having Cbeebies doing the child caring while I sat, aimlessly, scrolling thru ‘the feed’…

(Archie was also grabbing my phone at times and copying the ‘scrolling’ action; that’s not good for a 22 month old right?!)

This was the stark wake up call for me. Social media, for all it’s positives, connecting people across the globe, enabling brands to market directly to consumers etc – is, most of the time, let’s be honest… a massive waste of time.

Too many of us accidentally get sucked into the void and become social media zombies.

Instead of living in the moment I was scrolling through Facebook, reading threads on Twitter about subjects I couldn’t give a fuck about, and becoming more and more envious of everyones perfectly PR’d lives on Instagram.

And you know what, social media drains you.

It doesn’t make you happy, it just makes you more and more unhappy. Constant reminders of what you don’t, can’t or will never have / be like.

Picking up your phone, again – one more time, is like mindlessly stubbing your toe over and over hoping for a different reaction to ‘shit, that hurts’. It’s dumb.

It becomes an addiction.

After letting the likes of Hey Dugee and Mr Tumble be Archie’s caregivers for all too long, I deleted every social media app from my phone.

Image source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/something-special

And it felt like a giant relief!

A massive weight off my shoulders – and now, two months down the line, I couldn’t care less.

I’ve not deleted my social profiles, I just have to manually log on to my laptop to be able to use them.

Sitting upright with a laptop isn’t as convenient or as enjoyable as scrolling thru in bed, or on the toilet – so, like checking your email, it’s a quick mooch around on each channel, and then I log back out.

Doing just this simple action has made me far more comfortable and grateful for what I have around me, the people and material things, and I’ve got loads more done – and I’m now no longer glued to my phone.

Meaning a happier Liam and a more entertained Archie.

Don’t get it twisted though, like any addiction – going cold turkey like this – although it sounds ridiculous, was hard. I reinstalled Instagram a few times…and then deleted it again after getting ‘my fix’.

So I can completely see how we’re now seeing genuine mental health problems related to social media use, selfie addiction etc.

But, as with anything, social media usage, like alcohol – even chocolate, coffee – is fine, in moderation. It does boast a truck load of positives, but there is the dark side which we all have to be wary of.

What does this mean for marketing?

Despite the recent Cambridge Analytica / Facebook data issues, it merely reinforces the point that data works. Social media can be used by businesses and brands to get their messages in front of their audience.

The audience endlessly scrolling, ready to be sold and marketed to, on the 4.5inch screen in their pocket – all from the comfort of their bed, sofa…or even toilet.

…this wasn’t meant to be an overly cynical post. Social media has a role and is important in today’s world, especially for business and brand relationships. This is just my personal experience tbh, and may be completely different for you.

Received the mind map of content from the crypto client today ahead of their big launch. Eager to get started on their content this week.