Do you want to increase your marketing success? You can do it by making sure that your marketing messages are on-brand. Your brand is at the core of everything you do, so marketing materials should be created with this in mind. This article will talk about how you can write copy that sells without being “salesy.”
If you're a freelancer or entrepreneur looking for a leg up against the stiff competition, having strong marketing skills could make all the difference between being able to live off your work and barely scraping by. But writing effective content isn't always easy – especially when you're marketing a product or service that isn't life-altering.
In marketing, there's something called the KISS principle – Keep It Simple, Stupid. You should try to present your brand as simply as possible. If people have to think too hard about what you're saying, or what they need to do next, then it becomes less likely that they'll act on your marketing messages. It’s the main reason you need to create your sales letters with your StoryBrand BrandScript in mind. The BrandScript helps give an overview of all of these types of concepts and how they work together for improved marketing success.
Go Beyond Catchiness
You should start by crafting a concise, clear marketing message that captures the essence of your brand's USP (Unique Selling Proposition). After which you'll need to write copy that glides easily off readers' tongues when sharing and discussing your brand with others.
However, it goes beyond just what marketers mean by “glide-off-the-tongue.” Your sales letters must also be written in a way that is easy for customers to understand and act on immediately. Your marketing messages should instead evoke emotion and be clear enough for people to understand on a gut level.
In marketing, you're often told that the most important marketing message is the one thing your brand can be known for – your USP or unique selling proposition. This is because marketing campaigns tend to require a lot of components and messages, which can make it difficult for consumers to remember everything they've been sold. But if you have one marketing message, then go with one marketing message only, they'll likely be more inclined to “get it” and buy what you're selling.
Create Brand Messaging Made for Sharing
So how do you create sales letters that encourage readers to take action? There are several ways. One way is by writing sales letters with clarity in mind from start to finish – from the headline right down to the call to action.
The marketing message should also be written so as to invite readers to take action – and no sales letters offer a greater potential for inspiring your audience than sales letters. Sales letters are marketing messages that allow businesses (and marketers) to tell the whole story of their brand in one marketing piece, which means that they can connect with customers on an emotional level.
What this means is that marketing messages should be copywriting that's designed to be shared and discussed. Even if people aren't always reading your marketing messages verbatim, they will still recall and repeat certain parts of it if it's interesting enough. This is why your copy should never sound like you're making a “hard sell” because sales letters that are designed for this purpose will automatically be seen as spammy marketing messages.
The marketing agency StoryBrand has been making rounds in marketing circles with its story-based approach to marketing. In fact, a few marketing agencies have adopted the brandscript process in order to market themselves.
Your favorite movie or TV show follows basic story elements that make a great story engaging and easy to follow, StoryBrand suggests that marketing campaigns must do the same if they want the best chance at success. This is because a story walks a familiar path in the human brain. When your sales letter is built like a story, it's easier to understand and it enables your customers to get to the solution you're offering faster.
Let's take a look at what a BrandScript is, why marketing agencies are obsessed with the brand story, brand messaging, and how you can use StoryBrand brandscript to achieve success.
Start With a StoryBrand BrandScript
“StoryBrand marketing is about helping you find clarity and focus so that the marketing you do – with your words, logo, design, and website – will be more powerful and effective.”
- Donald Miller
When we talk to clients about marketing strategy and brand messaging, we start with a simple question: “Who is your target audience?”
Most companies vaguely answer that their target customer is “everyone.”
We then ask how they communicate who they are as a company.
The typical response includes phrases such as “cutting edge,” “innovative,” or "we're problem solvers." Sometimes it's an even vaguer term like "trustworthy" or "reliable."
If your marketing language sounds like everyone else's, you can't realistically expect to stand out. Most companies haven't clearly defined who they are and who they serve, which means their marketing efforts are also vague.
They may even be having conversations that don't resonate with customers. We call this “talking in generalities.” It happens when a company doesn't know empathetic specifics about its target audience. Again, there's nothing wrong with marketing to everyone, but if you want loyal lifelong customers, you must know more specific details about the people within your market. This is where your StoryBrand BrandScript comes into play.
Your StoryBrand BrandScript is your brand's guide in developing marketing, enhancing copy, and perfecting sales letters, among many other things. A completed BrandScript gives everyone behind your brand a simple reference to help them tell the same story with every word they use when marketing for you. Brands that embrace their BrandScripts learn how to attract their desired customer within specific market segments by speaking with clarity and focus. It follows the StoryBrand Framework, a 7-part roadmap inspired by the common elements of the greatest stories ever told.
Using stories in your sales letters helps clarify your message. It casts your clients as heroes and your company as the trusted guide. In this story, you will help conquer your customers' challenges and lead them through a transformation. Author and memoirist Donald Miller created this framework after seeing how powerful stories can be in causing triggers in the mind and capture our attention.
When you use stories in your brand messaging, the reason behind the product or service you're offering becomes clearer. The most effective marketing comes from knowing who you are as a company, what problem(s) you solve for customers, and having empathy for buyers - both new and loyal. By creating copy that speaks primarily about the challenges faced by people within your target audience and offering an easy solution, marketing will become simpler and more comfortable for everyone involved.
Tell a Story Through Your Marketing Materials
Donald Miller, the creator of the StoryBrand BrandScript, teaches us that there are 7 parts of the hero's journey. This framework has been used by hundreds of companies and has helped them gain more of their customer's focus.
Let's take a brief look at each of the 7 parts of the StoryBrand Framework to see how it can help you write an effective sales letter. Think of this powerful framework as a mindset more than a format. Because if we're being honest, the sales letter is only a delivery system you use to get your message to your customer.
These days, you'll almost get automatically shunned when you ask people to "read your sales letter." When you can order most of the stuff you need with just a quick swipe of the thumb, why in the world would someone take the time to read your sales letter?
Before this develops into a full rant, let's look at how we can tell a story through our sales letters and marketing materials.
Cast Your Customer as The Hero
In every story, there's a character who needs something. Danny LaRusso needs to beat his bullies, Captain Marvel needs to remember who she is, you get the point.
When customers are looking at your business, do they see a way to survive and thrive? Within five seconds after they get to your website, can they see themselves solving their problems through your product or service?
Take a moment to answer these questions and remember that as business owners, our mission is to provide an experience for them that helps them solve their problems, which takes us to the next point.
The Problem
There won't be much to the story if there isn't an obstacle in the way. You've created your business to solve a problem and your ideal customer is someone who finds these problems so annoying they rippled into an internal problem, an external problem, and a philosophical problem.
How can your product or service solve what's literally standing in their way (external problem)? How does this obstacle make them feel (internal problem)? Why is it wrong for them to have these problems (philosophical problems)?
As they struggle with their problem, what blessedness it is that they bumped into your business. In this story...
Your Company Is The Guide
You are Mr. Miyagi, Samwise Gamgee, you are Master Yoda - you will lead your customers to success through your solutions.
The Plan
The main purpose of a sales letter is to shorten the process between awareness to purchase. StoryBrand teaches us a quick way to do this - create a 3-step plan.
Make the process look easy and quick for the customer and they'll feel like the solution they wanted all along wasn't that too hard to reach after all.
Give us a call, we'll do our thing and solve your problem, and you can sit back and enjoy a better life. Easy as 1-2-3. Make it quick - the best elevator pitches never take more than four steps.
The Call to Action
After laying out the plan, what does a guide do? He encourages his heroes and calls them to action. After you've established yourself as the guide who knows the solution to their problem, it's time for your customers to respond.
If you look at all the ads that worked on you recently - the ones that made you buy something. The common element you'll find among all of them is the CTA.
"Buy Now!"
"Schedule a Call"
"Add To Cart"
If they still aren't ready to take action, their hero's path will end up in a fork, ending either in failure or success. As a guide, it is your responsibility to...
Help Them Avoid Failure
Your sales letter should let your customer know that they don't have to live with the problem they have now. Frustration is a part of life, but it doesn't have to be a major part.
As entrepreneurs showing up to the world carrying the solution our ideal customers need, we have the obligation to...
Lead Customers to Success
This last part of your sales letter paints a picture of what your customer's life will look like after they choose to use your product or work with your service. This is the very reason why they started this hero's journey - to achieve a better life with a solution made perfectly for their problem.
When you have something actually useful to people's problems, your business will be hard to ignore. Just make sure you communicate your solutions clearly and tell a story where your customers can achieve success with the help of your business.
Let's Work on Your Brand Story
Here at ROI Online, we're not in the business of creating flashy websites. We're not out here to make you think about numbers that don't move a needle in your business. We created The ROI Quickstart to give you everything you need to connect with customers, close more deals, and grow your business. The tech involved always evolves. What we're offering is a growth system that will help you build a marketing machine for your business. We called it QuickStart because we can help you build a holistic marketing machine in just 120 days!
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