Choose a niche, any niche.
Now open up your favorite browser and type that niche into Google. Plumbing, photography, massage therapy; whatever niche you choose, if you start opening up the websites that appear high in the rankings, you’ll start seeing trends very quickly.
Plumbers all offer “high quality service”. Photographers will all “offer great customer experiences”. And massage therapists will all “be the best in the industry”.
But what they say and what they do are two completely different things. If you’ve believed in someone enough to hire them, only to be thoroughly disappointed by the final service, you know exactly what I mean.
By looking at a website that uses generic phrases over and over again, its hard to tell one apart from the next. Because as a new visitor, I have:
- No reason to trust you
- No proof you will live up to your claims
When you copy what everyone else is saying, you very quickly blend into the way everyone else is presenting themselves. Nothing sets you apart from the good or the bad. And therefore nothing will ever allow you to rise to the top of your industry.
Because you simply can’t tell people who you are or what you have to offer, you have to give them a reason to believe it as well.
And that’s a little harder to do on your website and throughout your marketing. Its something that takes more time than most small businesses are willing to dedicate to the cause; which means its one way you can quickly begin distancing yourself from the pact.
Some of the best copywriting comes from asking the right questions. Start with these 3 to help you develop your own irresistible offer.
1. What do your customers really want?
By adding boring, average descriptors, you are setting your business up to look like everyone else.
If you wake up early and are ready to jump into the shower to get ready for one of the most important business meetings of your life, what would a stream of cold water do to your day? At that point, with all the things going through your mind, would you start the hunt for a plumber by looking for a “high quality plumber”? Probably not. In most cases we would like to assume that anyone in business, anyone that offers plumbing services would provide a high quality service.
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Instead, we want our problem solved quickly.
“We can repair or replace your water heater in hours, not days.”
“24 hour service – we can be there in minutes.”
These speak directly to the problem and starts giving us the answers we need to get what we want … now.
Keep in mind its important to ask the question and find the right answer for your product and your clients expectations. Sometimes what you think and what your customers think are two different things. When in doubt, ask them why they chose you and what makes you the better choice over all else they looked at. Very quickly you’ll see a pattern develop; therein lies your answer.
2. What are your customers feeling?
People don’t buy products or services; they buy into relationships that can help them create a better version of themselves. You don’t hire a photographer to take pictures or to hand over 8x10s; you invest in the experience of taking the photograph and the memories you’ll have every time you look at the image.
For a photographer, that’s a very important distinction. Most photographers spend too much time focusing in on what type of equipment is used, the price of a session, and the final delivery of print sizes. Yet most are willing to pay whatever you charge if you make the experience like none other.
That doesn’t stop at photography; its something that’s incorporated into every business out there. They don’t buy a product or service; they buy into the feeling they will have when the decision is made and they are living with the results.
3. Why are you the best at what you do?
There is a reason you do what you do. That’s what people look for; they want to buy into the why you do what you do more than what you do.
Because the why gives us power. Its what sets us apart from the competition. Its what holds your beliefs and values in place, and gives people a reason to trust in doing business with you.
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Your why is your story. Its in the way you care; its in what you do for your clients. Many businesses start out without a story, but that story is what will quickly move you to the top. Because the person that started a business with a core belief is much more appealing than one that started it for the money. You can see the difference. You can feel the difference.
It shows.
The next time you find yourself writing “we offer high quality service”, stop. Find out what truly sets you apart instead. You’ll be rewarded by a much stronger – and profitable – business overall.