Funnel Fallacy #2 | Compelling copy

In the last newsletter we covered the WHO and HOW (Component #1) when it comes to creating a massively successful lead generation funnel. 

After gaining a crystal clear picture of WHO your ideal client is, it will be easier to nail down the second component…

Writing compelling copy for your funnel that resonates at a high level with your target audience. 

Resonates? 

Resonating is the feeling that develops when someone trusts, believes, and connects with who you are, what you stand for, and what you offer (you or your company). 

This piece is extremely important to mention, as it sets the tone, theme, and positioning when writing each copy element for your funnel. 

In other words, when your copy resonates at a high level with your ideal prospects, you can ultimately increase your conversion rate. 

So yes, this is important!

If you want to resonate with your audience, you must first become crystal clear on what it is you are selling AND how exactly it benefits your audience. 

First, let’s get clear on what the problem is. Only then can you get clear on how you, your product or your service solves that problem. 

So what is the PROBLEM you SOLVE? 

One clear sentence is all it takes. 

Next you want to identify the pain(s) that are caused by that problem. 

I want to make sure I clearly differentiate pain from problem, as oftentimes these are readily interchanged, and they shouldn’t be. 

Problem and Pain Example: 

Problem: My car keeps breaking down

Pain Points: 

• I’ve been late to work 7 times this month
• Every time it breaks down I have to tow it
• I don’t feel safe in my car

Make sense? 

The pain points are the supporting elements that help you demonstrate that you truly understand (and empathetic in most cases) to your prospect’s problem. When someone feels understood, they start to resonate with your message and lean in to find out more.   

Jay Abraham said, “The more accurately you can describe your prospect’s problem in terms they can relate to, the more they instinctively feel that you must have an answer to that problem.” 

A Few Vital Copy Elements…

Your Headline 

You’ve got about two seconds to grab your prospect’s attention with your headline at the top of your funnel page. 

That’s it…

About two seconds for someone to decide whether they are going to keep reading or not.  If your headline doesn’t grab their attention within those first couple seconds, it doesn’t matter how compelling your copy is that follows…They won’t even see it because they will be gone. 

The ONE job of your headline is to get your prospect to continue reading. 

If you really want to be effective with your headline, always START with what your target audience wants or doesn’t want. Always be thinking what’s most important to them. 

People are always thinking “What’s in it for me?” They really don’t care about you, your product, or your service, however, they DO CARE about what your product or service is going to do for them. 

Use Dan Kennedy’s Great Headline Test if you want to see if your headline is strong enough for your ad…

Simply take the headline you wrote and and add a call to action to the end of it. Then ask yourself, “If I ran this headline alone with nothing else but a call to action as a classified ad, would anyone respond to it?”

If NO, you’ve got more work to do on your headline. If YES, make that your “control” and create one or two more that pass the same test, and split-test them until you determine a clear winner. 

If you want to study great headlines, simply pick up a few tabloids or magazines in the check out aisle in your local grocery store…If you can get your hands on a few National Enquirer issues, you have all you need to learn how to write effective headlines. 

Bullet Points

Bullet points in copy are used for a reason. They work. They are easy to read, they’re short, and your prospect can gather a lot of information just from scanning them. 

People never read everything at first. They are going to see your headline and determine if they are interested enough to skim and scroll the rest of your copy. Their eyes will scan for anything that interests them. Bullet points create the curiosity you want your prospect to feel which entices them to want to know more. 

Social Proof

Another vital element to incorporate in your funnel to support your compelling copy is social proof. 

Testimonials lower the resistance of your prospect, as they provide third-party validation that your solution really does what it claims to do in solving their problem. 

Testimonials will increase your credibility, as well as enhance believability of your product or service. And the more, the better!

Videos are the best forms of testimonials, however, written testimonials can also be super effective, as long as you include a picture of the person and at least their first name and last name initial. 

The power of using testimonials in your marketing in your copy is absolutely priceless, and not just for your funnel. Testimonials can be leveraged in so many ways…

If you haven’t been asking your clients to give you testimonials, start NOW! And start by asking your best clients.  

In the next edition I’ll cover another “ASK” (but to your prospects instead) as I reveal Component #3 to creating a massively successful lead generation funnel.   

Stay tuned! 

David

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague… 

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business. 

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for? 

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution. 

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.

Business Nitrogen

What’s your story?

30 days. 

I want you to imagine that you have 30 days until you lose everything. Your house, your cars, your family…Everything. 

That wasn't supposed to be me... 

But it was. 

I'm gonna tell you how I got there (so you never have to). 

In my 20’s they called me the “golden boy” because everything I touched turned to gold. At the time I was working in sales for a 50 year old plastic packaging company. I got an idea for a new division. I brought it to senior management. They said yes. 

And we moved forward.

I grew that division to 45 million in annual revenue in less than five years.

From there, I became the CEO of the first digital portrait studio chain in the United States. When we brought it into franchising, things really started to take off.

Before long, I became known as one of the young guns of franchising.

We were growing… millions upon millions in revenue, ranked one of the top 15 hot franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine by year five.

I had this formula for success all figured out. I felt unstoppable.

The only thing is, I wasn't.

At one of the board meetings, I did what I usually did, and I laid out my plans for the upcoming quarter. Everyone usually got excited, and I went off and implemented the plan… Everyone's happy.

But this time was different. The board said no to my next quarter plan. I was confused. I asked why, and one board member said, “Don’t forget, you work for us.”

I wasn't blazing my own trail as I had convinced myself I was. At that moment, I said Dave, it's time to start something on your own. The voice in my head was screaming, “Speak up right now, resign and give 90 days' notice.” I took my own advice, and the golden boy became a real Entrepreneur. 

I was so excited to finally be able to live my life on my terms to do what I want. When I wanted. I was free of the red tape. I was free of obligations. 

I was also free of revenue. 

Now, I started out with a sizable safety net. I was putting all the time in and the creativity was there. The focus was there. But the income wasn't.

One month became six months. Six months became 18 months. And before you know it, I went from having everything, to being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Credit cards got canceled. The creditors started calling.

And when I stopped answering their calls, my dad called to let me know they were calling him looking for me. Things got pretty bad…

I had to go to my young daughter and ask her for money from some of the babysitting she did just so we can pay our mortgage. Talk about utter shame as a parent.  When your daughter's asking you if you intend on paying her back. This entrepreneurship thing wasn't working. 

It came to the end of the line, and I had 30 days to turn it all around or else. I knew something had to happen. I just didn't know what it was.

Ok, so I’m going to stop here. If I still have your attention, hopefully you are now intrigued and wondering what happened next for me…

That’s because I integrated one of the best secrets to communicating a message in a compelling and memorable way. 

I used storytelling. 

People and brands that tell more about themselves, their brand, their products, or their services through story formulas resonate at a higher level with their audience. 

Storytelling has been used in marketing for decades, and for good reason… It works. (BTW: I’ll share a perfect example in a bit, which also happens to be one of the most infamous ads created to use storytelling). 

In fact, studies have shown that integrating storytelling in marketing and communication makes the information much more memorable and meaningful.  Psychologist Jerome Bruner discovered human beings are “22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has been wrapped up in a story.” 

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business did a study and found that “when people listened to pitches, either containing facts and figures, OR a story, only 5% recalled a statistic given, but an astounding 63% remembered the stories.”

Here’s the scientific explanation behind it if you were curious…

Basically, stories are not complicated for our brains to compute. When things are complicated, our brains find it harder to process the information. The more predictable the information, the easier it is for our brains to absorb it. 

Stories put everything in order for our brains so we don’t have to put much effort into trying to understand what’s going on. This allows our brains to retain the information a lot easier.

Plus, the brain also releases dopamine into our system when we are emotionally charged (stories cause this charge), which further allows us to remember and recall stories we hear or read.  

If you are unfamiliar with this concept of storytelling in marketing and other communication, simply think of it as using a narrative to get your message across. 

The purpose of telling any story really, is to make your audience feel something. When you can do that, an emotional connection is made. 

Emotional connections create resonation.  

When your audience feels connected to you, they are more inclined to do something, or take an action of some sort (purchase something perhaps). 

As human beings we are more likely to make our purchasing decisions based on the emotions the product or service stirs up inside of us (i.e., how does it make me feel)? 

As extreme as it sounds, that’s actually how most of us make our purchasing decisions… Just think about a few of the last purchases you’ve made. As far as buying decisions are concerned, our logic informs, but our emotions persuade.

Here are a few more benefits of using storytelling in your marketing, branding and other communication… 

• Stories allow you to “humanize” your brand (again, allowing you resonate at a higher level with your audience). 
• Storytelling is a great way to describe the problem and the pain it causes in great detail that your audience CAN relate to–it helps your audience feel understood. 
• Most marketing copy out there screams “advertisement” and our brains are programmed to dismiss or ignore anything that might even come close to. Storytelling gets around this.   
• Storytelling helps you attract the right people…These are the raving fans and people who cultivate a fierce loyalty around your brand. 

IMPORTANT: In order to really utilize story elements in the most effective way copy wise, always keep your audience in mind and choose a story that your audience NEEDS to hear or read (as it needs to be 100% relevant to them). 

Here’s that great example of an ad I mentioned earlier that successfully uses story to draw in the reader… One of the most infamous ads created by John Caples: 

They Laughed When I sat Down By the Piano, But When I Started to Play!  

As far as the rest of my story… Was I triumphant in turning it around in 30 days? I’m sure you can figure out I was. But how I arrived there is the invaluable part… 

You can catch the rest of my story HERE by viewing my TEDx. 

To your success, 

David

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague… 

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business. 

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for? 

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution. 

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.

Digital Marketing Expert

Does Your Lead Magnet Check These Boxes?

The last two components I’ve outlined definitely pave the way to reach your ideal clients, but how do you successfully use your lead generation funnel as a vehicle that ultimately leads to a sale?

(Notice how I emphasized "ultimately"? I will explain this a bit later).

My answer is always the same when it comes to any lead generation activity.

It begins with Value Creation. When you lead with VALUE, you can never lose.

Leading with value means doing what you can to add value to someone’s life before money ever exchanges hands.

When you lead with value, your results are more consistent, predictable, and you create a bigger impact.

Value creation allows you to successfully differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You know as well as I do, your prospects have many options. Our world these days offers endless access to such a vast array of products and services (especially online). And the more choices we have, the harder it is to make a decision.

Where does that leave you trying to sell your product or service in such a fierce and competitive marketplace?

It leaves you with a BIG opportunity.

An opportunity to capture your market and make your company, product, or service the only choice in your prospect’s mind.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the term lead magnet. Lead magnets are used in lead generation funnels, and when done right, they can make or break the success of your funnel. Your lead magnet has more than one job when it comes to your funnel.

A lead magnet is nothing more than a value creator that incentivizes a prospect to give you their personal information in exchange for providing them something of value in return.

But not just any prospect… Your lead magnet’s first job is to identify the most qualified leads and get them to raise their hand. When you lead with value in your lead magnet, you’ll get more consistent and predictable lead flow of the right ideal prospects…

The second job of your lead magnet is to CREATE VALUE for your prospect. In most cases, your lead magnet will be something that educates your prospect on a topic that directly relates to the product or service you have to offer.

We call this education based marketing.

Education based marketing is a huge competitive differentiator in the marketplace, no matter what product or service you offer.

Most businesses focus strictly on the end result… The sales transaction itself. Not necessarily the prospect, their needs, and their timeline.

Education based marketing provides immediate value (your prospects learn something they didn’t know before), and therefore gives them the confidence to make a more informed, intelligent decision.

When you build someone’s confidence by leading with value, trust is developed.

TRUST established with your potential clients and current clients is vital to the sustainability and growth your business. Trust me on that.

Education based marketing also allows you to establish yourself as an authority and builds your credibility as the "Expert" in your field.

Educational based lead magnets come in many different forms:

1. Guides and reports

2. Ebooks

3. Courses

4. Case Studies

5. Tools or Resources

Here’s an example of one of our lead magnets:

This lead magnet is a downloadable book, designed to educate the business owner that is currently running traffic and may not be satisfied with their ROAS or lead conversion.

You tell me… Does it check all the boxes?

Does it allow a specific target audience to identify themselves and raise their hand?

Does it offer that audience something of value–and teach them something they might have not known before, giving them more confidence?

Is it absolutely FREE?

Does it build trust and credibility, and establish us as an authority?

First, we are targeting a specific audience…People who need help optimizing their ads. First box, check.

In this book, they will learn some of the biggest and costliest mistakes businesses make with their ads and how to rectify them. Some business owners have have saved thousands of dollars just rectifying one of these mistakes so we know it’s worth its weight in gold for prospects. Creating value, check.

It’s free. Check. Lead magnets are free for a reason. Free is hard to resist IF your lead magnet is valuable enough in the eyes of your prospect.

Free lowers the resistance of our prospect, and then reciprocity kicks in.

Most times we feel inclined to give something back to someone who has given us something. When your lead magnet creates value and is something that helps your prospect, they will have no objection in giving their name and email address to get it.

Lastly, because we’ve educated our prospect, they are now more confident and can even apply what they’ve learned to optimize their ad spend and either make more money, save more money, or both (positioning us as experts and building our credibility). Check.

But it doesn’t end with the lead magnet….It only begins there.

Remember at the start when I mentioned how to use your lead generation funnel as a vehicle that ultimately leads to a sale?

After your prospect gets your lead magnet, this next part is the pivotal component YOU CANNOT skip (like so many others try to shortcut).

Bottom Line: Your buyers will buy when THEY are ready, NOT when you are ready.

Did you know that 30-50% of leads are not ready to buy when they first inquire about your product or service?

They are in the "gathering information" phase.

Three quarters of those leads will become "sales ready" within 12-18 months.

Lead magnets give you the opportunity to open the door, but nurturing the prospect to establish even more trust, and build rapport is how to develop a relationship with a prospect. It’s how to play the long game and be the only one that picks up those sales when all of your other competitors have given up.

Think of your lead magnet as the stepping stone to building relationships with future clients.

Relationships lead to sales.

Relationship building starts with ongoing communication and value creation with your future clients.

Simple follow up sequences or subscriptions to newsletters are often used to continue building that relationship with that prospect and letting them know you are always there WHEN they are ready.

By continually moving your prospects up the value ladder you’ve designed, you also indirectly create a more confident buyer. These confident and educated buyers are exactly the type of clients you want.

Building a lead generation funnel is hard work and it takes a lot of commitment and strategic thinking and implementation to make it massively successful.

Building and optimizing funnels is just one thing we help our clients with at Business Nitrogen. If you are curious how it works, let me know and we’ll set up a time to chat.

Talk soon,

David

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague…

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business.

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for?

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution.

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.

Digital Marketing Expert