Celebrate Valentines Day alone because nobody cares about you
Posted on | February 11, 2010 | 10 Comments
If you’re in business for yourself, celebrate Valentines Day even if you’re single. Go buy yourself a box of chocolates because…
Here’s the hard truth:
Nobody cares about you.
Sorry, did I upset you? If I did…
Get over it dude.
To avoid a broken heart in business, you have to learn this golden rule in copywriting.
Your customer is only interested in WIIFM – “What’s in it for me?”
In marketing speak, your headline, subheadlines and body copy have to be benefit driven. You have to be able to answer the “Yeah, so what and who cares?” question. In other words, the WIIFM test is about selling the benefits of your widget or service.
How will you save them money? Make them money? Make their life easier? Make them look good? Get them out of trouble with their wife?
If you’re saying, “I know this stuff, what’s with the Marketing 101 lecture?”, then you tell me why businesses – and major companies – continue to commit this marketing sin all the time in their copy.
Take a look at some random websites. See how many start their home page with something like:
“We’re Cat Shavers & Co. We have 50 years combined experience in shaving cats. Our mission is to be the number one cat shaving company in the world… blah blah blah.”
Friggin boring.
And people wonder why they can’t get a first date with their prospective customer, let alone celebrate Valentines Day and have a long-lasting relationship with them.
Imagine someone coming into your shop and you bombard a potential customer with your whole business story… You wouldn’t. Most people are smart enough not to do that.
Yet when it comes to their website, brochure or other marketing materials, their copy’s full of this stuff.
Yes, people might want to know about you… eventually… That’s why the About page, testimonials, your experience are important. But they’ll only go to those sections if you first give them a reason to want to know about you.
To get to first base, tell them – upfront – what you can do for them.
So, instead of the above example, you might instead have:
Who else wants a hairless cat for half the price of an expensive Sphynx… And never have to shave your cat again!
Okay, so now I’m being a real smart arse and my animal rights friends hate me… But I hope I’ve made my point.
Here’s a simple red flag that indicates you’re talking way too much about yourself: Your copy uses too many first person personal pronouns and not enough second person personal pronouns.
Basically, too much of “I, me, we, us, our” and not enough “You”.
Maybe you have a blog and a lot of it is about you. People may be coming to your blog to read about what you’re up to. Even then, they’re really reading about you because there’s something in it for them:
A lesson, information, ideas, gossip, getting out of doing their work, the ability to escape their lives for a brief moment…
Answer the WIIFM test and you’ll have customers begging to give you their money and celebrate Valentines Day with you!
Lina Nguyen © 2010
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February 11th, 2010 @ 9:39 PM
WoW Lina – At first I thought you were being a little harsh, however reading on I thought it was a great introduction to your post
Your are certainly right in that many people and companies always seem to talk about ‘themselves’ and yet forget to focus on proving their customers the real details on what value they can provide for them.
Cat Shavers & Co – great example
Cemil´s last blog ..Best Internet Marketing Plugins, Extensions and Tools using Firefox
February 11th, 2010 @ 9:55 PM
Hi Cemil
I don’t know why people do it. I think one reason is because our main experience of selling ourselves – before going into business – comes from job application days, resume writing and business plan writing, perhaps? And we get it in our heads that we need to focus on ourselves when writing about our own business. It’s probably natural, when I think about it that way – but it’s not the way to write copy. Even going for job interviews, first dates or initial sales meeting with a client… If you find you’re doing all the talking (about yourself), then that’s a sign to change direction and ask the person more about them.
Lina
February 11th, 2010 @ 11:06 PM
Thanks Lina – point well made. Need to focus on the wants of the hungry crownd rather than the wants of the marketer.
Tom´s last blog ..Demo Post
February 12th, 2010 @ 11:40 AM
Yes Lina so true.
It never ceases to amaze me how some companies(highly paid executives)seem to think that they can bull…. their way to a sale and then wonder why it didn’t happen.
There is not enough of concentrating on the value they can give.
Gee´s last blog ..Affiliate Marketing Forums Help Build Success
February 13th, 2010 @ 6:52 PM
Great headline, Lina! That definitely caught my eye.
Very true what you say. People really are caught up in their own thoughts and that leads to why worrying about what others think will always only be your own thoughts being projected out onto someone else.
Excellent reading, great information. Looking forward to the next one!
Rob
February 13th, 2010 @ 8:18 PM
@Gee – I write this blog post coming from the (maybe naive?) position that people don’t realise they’re talking way too much about themselves in their sales copy. Hmmm, I haven’t even considered those who do it deliberately, on or off the page!
@Rob – Ah, copywriting from an NLP perspective! Love it!
February 14th, 2010 @ 10:28 PM
Great post Lina,
A good reminder to all of us as blog writers to keep the WIIFM in mind.
The interesting thing about people who talk about themselves constantly is that they don’t pick up on the cues and then they wonder why they don’t have a valentine.
I think more of us should tell them in a tactical way by sharing your blog post Lina. hehehe…
Regards, Eileen.
Eileen´s last blog ..The Failsafe Cookbook review
February 18th, 2010 @ 4:55 PM
How about: “Impress your man! Shave your pussy for Valentine’s Day!”
+ catchy/memorable
+ humourous
+ attaches the service to a popularised occasion.
- message could be misconstrued.
- offensive to some clients…
February 19th, 2010 @ 9:04 AM
@Eileen – What a great idea! “Sorry, I gotta go, but you should check out this blog post I wrote” *hint, hint*… heehee…
@Dave – That’s hilarious!!! I can’t believe you picked up on that… ROFLMAO…
Dude, did you spend Valentines Day alone???
March 10th, 2010 @ 9:30 PM
I am really happy to find some interesting information from your post, i am sure going use for my reference purpose, thank you very much.