Nobody Cares
That’s the advice I recently gave a friend when he asked me about copywriting.
It may sound cruel, but the fact is nobody cares about your business. They don’t care about how many employees you have, whether it’s your birthday, or how long you’ve been in business.
They don’t care if you have the latest technology or who the employee of the month is.
Ok, fine. Maybe your mom cares. And perhaps your grandma.
Your customers care about one thing: What’s in it for me?
In our economy, you get paid for adding value to others. You get paid for solving someone’s problem or meeting someone’s need.
And any successful business does just that. It helps meet a need. Chances are, you’re already doing that with your business – otherwise you wouldn’t exist.
But most business owners miss this when it comes to writing sales copy. They don’t mean to mess it up, but they are just too immersed in their own business.
I don’t know how many bad sales pages I’ve seen, but it’s at least a couple thousand. And they all pretty much have one thing in common: these businesses focus on themselves.
I recently received an email newsletter from a local company. This company talked about their newest hire, the new office, the latest website upgrade they completed, and their expansion plans for the future.
After a quick skim, I deleted the email.
It’s not a bad company. I love what the company does and what it stands for. I love that they are taking the time to write a newsletter.
But the newsletter is all about them. It’s about their growth, their opportunities, and their latest changes.
It doesn’t add any value to me.
In your business, you can add value in many ways. Here are just a few:
- Education – Teach me something
- Sales – Give me a deal
- Information – Give me some information to help make my life better
- Solve My Problem – Show me how your product or service can solve my problem
- Inspiration – Inspire me to do something bigger or better
- Entertain – Make me laugh or cry or have some sort of emotional response
Good sales copy shows that you’re going to add value in the future. It address the need and shows how you can meet that need.
Your sales copy shouldn’t be about the product or service. And it certainly shouldn’t be about your business. It should be about how you’re going to make someone’s life better.
So next time you sit down to type your email newsletter or write sales copy, remember this: nobody cares about your business. They care about how you can solve their problem. So tell them how you are going to do just that.
