As someone who does content marketing, I'm always looking for new tips to learn how to improve my writing and the ROI on these efforts.
I like to pass these lessons on, specifically to the realtors we work with at AgentFire and on our list so that they too can get more out of their real estate websites and content marketing. It's not easy to build a "tribe." That's why I constantly lean on my friends for advice.
As fate would have it, I picked up a friend of mine, Alon Shabo's eBook the other day.
As I started to read, I realized something. Every sentence made me want to read more. It was like I was hooked.
I knew that Alon was a copywriter... But I never knew how powerful these tactics were. It was like a magnet drawing me in more with every word I read.
From that moment on I knew I wanted to figure out how he was doing it and apply it to my own writing.
Luckily Alon is a friend.
So he said "yes" when I begged him to give me the low-down on how he was controlling me so strongly with just his words. Now I want to pass these lessons onto you. Hopefully you get some value out of them too.
1. Do The Research
"The most important part of copywriting isn't the writing - it's the research. Deep, dark research into the hearts and minds of your target customer." Said Alon
"You need to know things like what their biggest fears and desires are, what motivates them, what keeps them up at night, what kind of books they read, what products they own, and what their daily life looks like.
When you do your research properly, your sales letter pretty much writes itself."
Alon explained to me that "you must enter the conversation your audience is already having within themselves". When you do this, you can craft the exact content that will get you get you leads.
Why? It speaks to them directly about their problems AND allows you to position your service as the logical next step.
2. Make Your Content Your Best Stuff
"I would recommend that your free content be some of your best content - as this is what people are judging you on. When your free content is super high value, people wonder to themselves 'hmmm, I wonder what the paid stuff is like'" Said Alon
"A good piece of content should be high value information (and also have a voice that is unique to the brand --- too many people are publishing boring generic stuff -- you need to be not be afraid to be as unique as possible)"
Applied to real estate content, this means you need to be leading with juicy 'secrets' about the market, how you're going to sell a home faster than any other realtor etc. Use any information that you can to get your audience hooked.
This leads into the next piece of advice.
3. Create a hook.
"A 'Hook' is what draws someone into your content, and leads them all the way to the sale.
Once you understand your readers pain, and describe it better than he could... trust is established. You can consider the reader "hooked" into reading the rest of your content.
From there, you want to trigger more positive emotions, using the hopes, aspirations, and motivations of your reader.
With this, you can move into painting the picture of your services' benefits, and how much better your service will make the life of your reader"
If you were targeting FSBO's for example, you may sympathize with the fact that "most realtors don't know what they're doing." Or don't know how to sell a house.
Using this connection, you can build trust and hook them with your content about why they SHOULD use your services, and why you won't fail them like their last realtor did.
4. Make a call to action.
"Each piece of content should have a relevant call to action, which is the next logical step for your reader."
If your article was about selling a home for top dollar, you could offer a downloadable checklist that homeowners must follow to ensure they maximize their listing price potential. This will ensure you generate a targeted lead, build more goodwill and create an excuse for follow-up.
You can also go the route of simply asking that the homeowner get in touch with you.
Simple stuff right?
In Conclusion
As a person who basically writes for a living... this is powerful stuff.
You can have the world's best product or service, but if you can't communicate your ideas properly, you have nothing.
The ability to produce attention grabbing, desire building, and persuasive sales writing is a critical element of starting (and scaling) any business. And that's exactly what I learned from this interview with Alon.
You can grab the eBook that inspired this article on his website at AlonShabo.com.
It's called "Write Well and Seduce Profitably" and will show you exactly what goes behind powerful and persuasive sales writing (with real world examples).