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How you can write words that sell without being salesy

Image of woman at a desk writing words that sell.
Photo by Judit Peter: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-writing-on-a-notebook-beside-macbook-1766604/

I wish I had a pound for everyone who’d ever told me that they didn’t want to be salesy. It’s completely understandable; we’ve all had our brushes with pushy salespeople who wouldn’t take no for an answer and didn’t care whether we needed what they were offering. The trouble is, it’s far too easy to go the other way. We don’t want to be pushy, so we end up not selling anything. The good news is that you can write words that sell without screeching ‘buy this now!’ in your customers’ faces.

Here’s what you need to remember.

You’re not selling, you’re helping

You’ve created a product or service that helps people to solve a problem or otherwise makes their life better. They’ll buy if they need or want what you offer. There might be all sorts of other reasons why they do it, but that’s the big one. The things you talk about in your marketing show them that you understand what they want. That’s it. You’re only talking to the people who need you, not trying to bully the ones who don’t into buying your stuff.

What’s the difference between copy and content?

When you’re trying to write words that sell there’s more than one kind of writing. It’s the kind of terminology that gets thrown around in copywriting groups because it’s a useful shorthand but is generally meaningless to anyone who doesn’t work in marketing. Broadly speaking, copy is the highly focused writing that’s written to make a sale. Content is the stuff that takes you by the hand and leads you there.

Build relationships with content

At the risk of going a bit meta, this blog post is an example of content. I’m not trying to sell you anything, I just want to gently encourage you to book a call with me to chat about the copy or content you might need for your business. My blog posts help you learn more about marketing, content writing and let you get to know me. Anything you write that isn’t sales-focused, whether that’s a blog or a social media post, can be classed as content.

What is copy for?

Copy is designed to motivate people to buy straight away. It isn’t necessarily pushy – it’s just focused on reasons for taking the step now rather than thinking about it for a bit longer. Part of this process involves creating urgency. This could be for practical reasons, for example, you’re running an event and this is their last chance to get a ticket.

The urgency could come from your customer; they’re exhausted because their baby doesn’t sleep or they’ve put self-care to the bottom of the list for too long. Your copy needs to show them why it’s time to change that.

The things you need to show your customers

Writing words that sell means showing your customers that you understand the problem and have the solution. Your content does the groundwork then your copy brings it all together.

You might want to talk about product features that you’re particularly proud of. The trouble is your customers don’t care unless they understand what’s in it for them. Don’t just tell them that your travel mug has double-layer insulation, tell them that it’ll keep their coffee hot through their whole commute and they’ll be much more interested. Do you need to build relationships with new content or create copy that convinces your audience to buy? I can help with that. Book a call here and let’s have a chat.

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