The expat copywriter, Elena de Francisco, gave us a presentation about the Power of Copywriting. After 8 years working in the corporate arena, Elena discovered copywriting and soon realized that this was a perfect job for her, as it combines her two loves: writing and helping people. Now she earns her living with her business and wakes up happy every morning.
Elena’s presentation
In her presentation, Elena explained that often, when we think of selling, we don’t want to push too hard because we feel embarrassed. However, we are in our business because we’re passionate about it and we have to realize that “selling is helping someone to see the value of something”. Copywriting helps people to see the value of what we sell. There are various channels and methods for selling but what they all have in common is WORDS.
The tricky part of selling through writing is that we don’t see the people when they are reading it; we can’t see their reaction. Yet words are our tool to help our prospects see the value of our product or service.
To achieve our goal, we have to go through 5 steps:
- do research
- find your Unique Selling Point (USP)
- identify benefits of our service or product
- take away objections
- collect testimonials
Research
Research enables us to touch our prospects’ emotions: what are their needs, worries, feelings? Find out how they express themselves: their worries, wishes and dreams. Create a buyer persona with the information you gather through customer reviews/ social media/ blog comments/ google search/ questionnaires / chats with your customers. Have a clear picture of who you are talking to.
USP
Research also enables you to check out the competition: businesses that are similar to yours. Identify your Unique Selling Point, what makes you different from the competition. Consider these points: Unique/desirable/ (easy to remember) memorable/specific (for who this is). In Elena’s case she discovered that being ‘international’ is not that common in copywriting. She offers her skills in International English as it’s specific for customers without borders.
Benefits
Identify the features, advantages and benefits (FAB) of your product. A good exercise is to make a list with 3 columns describing the features of your product, the problem it solves and its benefit to the customer. For example: You produce or sell face cream
Objections
Take away any objections that come to mind. Imagine the customers on your website. They want to trust you. That’s why the conversation has to be very informal. Answer the question “Why should I choose you?” Your prospects might have some hesitations and objections. Maybe you can offer a warranty. If your product is difficult to use, you can upload a video/demo. Address all those objections.
Testimonials
Another way to deal with objections is with testimonials as they provide social endorsement. ALWAYS ask for a testimonial from your customers. Have a little form with questions ready to send to your customers. Example of a question: “what kind of problem/ hesitation did you have before signing up?” In this way you can learn from your customers and is a great way for you to prove the claims you make about your product or service.
One of the big mistakes business owners often make is to put all the testimonials on a separate page. You need to incorporate them through your copy. MIX them in the text.
Discussion
The discussion following Elena’s presentation included many questions and comments. For example, how to communicate your USP to your company’s funders, how to combine text and visuals, how to attract attention, the importance of story-telling, the use of international English. Elena shared her vast wealth of knowledge on all of these matters, inspiring us to take a closer look at our copy.
The final exercise was to write one sentence describing our Unique Selling Point, taking in account that it should be unique, desirable, memorable and specific. We discussed these in the breakout sessions and afterwards with the whole group. This was so helpful and inspiring, that we concluded with the wish to see Elena again, hopefully in a longer workshop.
By Anna Molnár
Blossom Empowering Events
