Often small business owners have little or no formal training or skill in marketing. Whenever they write copy, whether it be advertising, a press release, narrative at the web site, or in answer to client's questions, they tend to be driven by the facts.
Business minds just naturally are tuned in to think in terms of facts, numbers, dates, deadlines, instructions, policies, etc. These are the details that a solo operator has churning around in his mind every waking moment.
Here's the problem, in terms of marketing at least, with this mindset.
Clients, customers, and prospects, those looking at your business from the outside, don't think in these same terms and will have a difficult time relating to your business if all they see and hear are the facts and numbers.
So if you're a solo business owner, and want your copywriting to be readable and engaging, you'll have to adopt a new style – one that concentrates on things that are interesting and educational and motivating (toward a purchase of your product) for the customer.
What do customers typically like to hear? They want to be told stories.
Let me explain.
A humanized story about how you got interested in your niche and decided to get into business is a lot more interesting to your customers than a factual but boring recounting of the business history, by year, including sales revenue, projections, ROI for your investors, etc.
A story about the way your product changed the life of a businessman who was struggling to make ends meet before he became your client is many times more convincing than a list of the clients your company now has.
A real life customer testimonial of how your product enabled the user to go from living in a rat-infested high rise tenement to owning a cottage in the Hamptons will sell a lot more products than a detailed fact-filled description of all the specifications and features found in the new Version 5 of your product.
I hope you're beginning to understand the difference in the two approaches to copywriting. Yes, there is a place for specifications and facts. But laying them before prospects and customers that don't specifically ask to see the facts and features will usually mean a disinterested client.
People prefer to hear real life stories. They are more interested in hearing about how another purchaser of your product went from rags to riches than they are about seeing all the details of the product that enabled the guy to make this transformation.
Why are stories so powerful?
They're easily remembered and easy to pass along to someone else.
Stories are easy to relate to. We have all felt and know how others feel at certain times. We get emotionally involved when we hear a touching or heart-wrenching story, even if it's about a stranger we've never met.
Stories hold and keep our interest. Facts tend to get boring and we lose our concentration and attention to them very quickly. They're in-human and impersonal to a large degree.
Stories can be used to engage and draw a customer into a buying state of mind. Facts and figures can't do that very often.
Copywriting is a real art and there are many things to be learned if you want your copy to stand out and motivate your customers to make a purchase. If you remember to use the story telling approach, you will be way ahead of most other business owners that never think to communicate with their customers in this way.
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