Straight Talk - An Open Letter To You

"How To Write Articles/Sales Copy That Gets Read"(Continued)

by John Glube, © 2003, all rights reserved of
Head's Up - A Copywriter's Journal

Surf's Up - What the heck do people do while online?

You have identified a market need and want and you know who is your target market. You also want to know what people do while online. This will allow you to "frame your message" to ensure your presentation generates the highest conversion rate.

Pew Internet & American Life Project is a non-profit initiative of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. Andrew Kohut, the head of the Pew Research Center, serves as an advisor to the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the chair of its board. Support for the project is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Tides Center in San Francisco administers the Project's grant from Pew.

Information Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Three of the reports by the Pew Internet & American Life Project are of interest, the first being called "Daily Internet Activities" - containing a chart detailing the percentage of Internet Users who do a specific online activity on any given day.

Information Source: Daily Internet Activities

The second is called "Internet Activities." This chart details the percentage of Internet Users who have ever done a particular online activity.

Information Source: Internet Activities

And on July 16, 2003, a report was issued called "Internet Health Resources: Health searches and email have become more commonplace, but there is room for improvement in searches and overall Internet access."

Information Source: Internet Health Resources

The information which is most interesting is the first report. This report shows on average about 72 million Americans go online every day, or about 59% of all those with Internet access.

Of this number, on a daily basis, about:

* 6% go online to look for health or medical information;

* 5% go online to buy a product;

* 4% go online to a website which provides support for a particular medical or personal condition; and

* 3% go online to look for weight loss or general fitness information.

And here is something interesting. According to a recent Nielsen report issued on August 11, 2003:

Online traffic for back to school purchases increased dramatically this August, which means more and more people are turning to the Internet to shop.

Information Source: Nielsen-Netratings (Clicking this Link will open a PDF Document)

Oh yes, one other intriguing fact. According to a recent news release by Nielsen-Netratings, United States at home broadband usage continues to increase dramatically, with a 49.2% increase from May 2002 to May 2003. As of May 2003 there was a total of 38,957,000 Americans using broadband at home to access the Internet. However, there are still 69,647,000 or roughly twice as many Americans using narrowband at home to access the Internet.

(These numbers are different from the United States Census numbers. The Census numbers counted households with Internet access. Nielsen-Netratings count individual Americans with access.)

Information Source: Nielsen-Netratings News

This means you still have to look at the load speeds for your web site, based on the real possibility your potential customer is using narrowband access and not broadband access. This means you want to keep the amount of graphics and pictures on your web site to a minimum.

Let's frame your message

The point of all this? Do your home work. Figure out what people want or need, who you are going to be talking with about their needs and wants and how people are using the Internet. With this understanding you can start to craft your message.

Now can you see why exaggerated statements turn your 'average' online consumer away.

Who are you going to be talking with?

Using your research you can make some choices. Do you want to target "stay-at-home" women or "working" women? What is you objective? Are you marketing the product, or are you looking to build up a sales force?

From the statistics, on average, were both members of a household work, the household earns more money, the income level drops were there is only one person working in the household and were the woman is living alone, there is a significant drop in income level.

Why am I asking these questions? Greed or need for money is a motivating trigger, which is why "Dare To Be Rich" and variants on this theme can be strong marketing approaches. Another motivating trigger is fear of loss, in this case the loss of good health.

You also know from reviewing the classified advertising in some of the e-zines you receive, business opportunity advertising is much more competitive than listings for "health products."

Let's decide to market the product, using fear of loss as an underlying motivating trigger and approach those who buy the product with the option of joining your sales force to market the product themselves.

Choices, choices - Two more choices:

Our statistical review shows the customer you want to be writing too is a woman, living in her own home with her "significant other." But which age group to focus on? And do you want to focus on a woman who is working, or a woman who is staying at home?

As an aside, I could easily have used the statistics and noted the racial make up of the potential audience. However, my objective is to show you how you can bring your message into strong focus, based on certain preferences without getting bogged down in any extraneous racial or political debates. Therefore, I have decided to ignore certain racial skews, being a higher percentage of poor people from minority groups are overweight or obese.

Some of you may not like what I am saying. Fine. I am not advocating marketing only to white women, black men, heterosexuals or homosexuals. I am simply observing the information is available to allow you to hone you’re message.

Looking at the numbers, you observe the largest number of households is made up of those were two or more people are working. Since the age group of 45 to 54 is almost as large as the age group of 34 to 44, but growing faster, earning more and more likely to be concerned about health due to age and still confronted with the need to have more than one person working, you decide to target this age group.

Why? The fear of loss of health is a strong motivating factor, due to the age of this group, and the dream of having financial independence will likely be just as strong.

How do you want to frame your message - to everyone or one person?

Remember the old adage, two is company and three is a crowd? You want to write your message as though you were writing to one person. Why? Which is more powerful, speaking to a person as though she were the only person in the room, or speaking to her simply as part of a large crowd of people. The beauty of the Internet? You can be having lots of one on one conversations at the same time. Because when a person reads your message while online it is just you, through your message and the person reading your message.

Who is this person? A woman between 45 to 54 years old who is over weight and so prone to certain health risks. She lives with her "significant other," who are both working. There is a reasonable commute time to work. Her employer runs a small business with less than 100 employees. She lives in her own home, likely being a single dwelling. There may be one child living in the house and she has likely lived in this home for more than 5 years. She lives in the South or Western parts of the United States, has at least a high school education, maybe some college and the family income is around $60,000 a year.

Since you are marketing this product on line, you want to stay away from an obvious "pitch." Why? Do you go on line looking for advertising or information? Information. When you read an email, which one are you more likely to read? A pitch or one giving you information?

What is going to appeal more to a woman between the ages of 45 to 54? A message which is stiff and formal or personal and informal?

You don’t want to talk over the head of your prospective customer. So write your message at around grade 10 level as most people have a high school education.

As people are looking for information, which allows the reader to make the decision to buy, you will want to use an advertorial approach. And you will want to use "fear of loss" of health as a triggering factor.

Telling a story is a good way to get around a reader’s barriers. To take advantage of this, you will want to cast your message using a story. To keep it informal, you may want to use some humor. Candor can often be a useful weapon, while speaking from "the heart" and using emotion.

Based on all your research, I suggest this "frame" will allow you to strike the right chord with your potential customer, triggering the response you want. Then test, test and test.

Let's wrap it up

To take a leaf out of Chapter 11 of Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins on the importance of "Information," can you see the value of doing some research before writing your message?

Also, do you see the importance of keeping up todate with ongoing trends to ensure your underlying approach is current?

Now with the information you have gathered, you can hone your message, writing to one person, your "ideal customer" and with the knowledge you have gained and applying your copywriting principles, know your "ideal customer" will reward you many times.

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John Glube, Toronto, Canada, Publisher and Editor of Head's Up, A Copywriter's Journal. Not yet subscribed to the Journal? To get the details, plus your Free Courses "Discover How Anyone Can Get More Buyers" as your reward and learn how you can place your 400 character business to business ad Click Here.

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