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FAQs: The Key to Fast, Easy and Effective Copywriting

By Alex Mandossian

Want to write better marketing copy … and practically eliminate writer’s block? Write your Frequently Asked Questions first.

According to legendary copywriter Robert Collier, the secret to successful copywriting is “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” FAQs are like taking a shortcut into the heads of your website visitors and prospective customers.

When copywriting, many people think first about the benefits or headlines. This puts the pressure on you as the copywriter to figure out what will connect most with your audience.

But if you know what your prospects’ questions, challenges or barriers, and/or problems are before you start writing – as you will when you start with FAQs – you’ll gain valuable insights into how to write the rest of your marketing copy.

A good FAQ list will mirror the conversation in your first-time [Read more…]

Leverage the Principle of Recommendation

By Alex Mandossian

The most powerful persuasion tool is the principle of recommendation. It’s a principle that all entrepreneurs should incorporate into their marketing, because we’re in the midst of what’s been called the Recommendation Age.

The principle of recommendation is not the same as the principle of referral. Recommendations are more active. You’re not just referring; you’re putting your reputation on the line by recommending it.

If you look at the Internet and you go to Amazon.com, what are you allowed to do? You’re allowed to rate a book. When you go to You Tube, what are you allowed to do? You’re allowed to rate a video. When you go to Ted.com, you’re allowed to rate a speech. When you go on social networks, you’re really rating each other just in your commentary.

When writing marketing copy, this means that the new call to action is not Order Now, Buy Now, or Opt-In Now. The new call to action that you want to use is getting people to comment and share.

By getting people to comment and share, you get them to [Read more…]

Pavlovian Principles for Copywriting

By Alex Mandossian

When asked how to distinguish persuasive web copy, I have a two-word answer: Behavior modification.

Behavior modification is what powerful and persuasive words do. They modify behavior. In fact, that’s how I define good marketing.

The person who taught me the importance of behavior modification in marketing is the late Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who made behavior modification history in the late 1890’s.

In his revolutionary experiment, Pavlov put a slab of meat in front of dogs. As the dogs started salivating, he rang a bell. Over time, the dogs became conditioned to salivate whenever they heard the bell – whether or not meat was present. Their nervous systems had associated the bell with red meat.

What does red meat have to do with writing copy? Simply put… [Read more…]

Want Greater Influence? Smuggle Donkeys

By Alex Mandossian

Do you want prospects to take action more quickly? The fastest, easiest and most reliable way to influence your audience to take immediate action is to be transparent in your marketing.

Whether you’re writing a sales letter, a video script, an email or even meeting a prospect in person, nothing is as persuasive as the truth. People can sense the truth. And when you’re not telling the truth, they can sense that, too.

Master salespeople are magicians of persuasion. They’re transparent. They tell on themselves. They show you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s so natural, so organic, and so seamless that you often don’t notice.

When teaching my students about this elusive aspect of truth, I like to share the 13th century Turkish fable about a merchant named Nasraddin Hodja.

Hodja crossed the Turkish border every single day on his donkey, which always carried a big load of straw on its back. The border patrol knew that Hodja was smuggling somethinginto the Far East, because he was [Read more…]

How to Spot Vendors Who Are “Drivers”

By Alex Mandossian

Outsourcing is one of the best ways to increase your productivity as an entrepreneur. But the type of vendor you choose can make or break the gain you realize. The wrong vendors may save time in performing certain tasks, but require you to invest additional time in supervising and motivating them.

For best results, I look for vendors who are “drivers.” The fastest way to describe a driver is to borrow a definition I once saw on Wikipedia for entrepreneur: “Someone who boosts productivity from a lower to a higher level.”

Here are four ways to spot a driver when evaluating vendors:

Drivers initiate. They self-start without extra supervision. In fact, they don’t have any supervision. They just drive. If they can’t contact you in phone or by person, they don’t get discouraged. They just keep driving.
Drivers don’t get discouraged if other team members – in other words, their own colleagues – fail to meet their deadlines. It doesn’t matter to them. They just keep driving.
Drivers report, question, and update you on their current progress, and they [Read more…]

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

By Alex Mandossian

One of the easiest ways to identify high-quality vendors when outsourcing is to evaluate the questions they ask you. Top vendors ask, “What is your chief complaint?”

Why does a great vendor look for your chief complaint? The French have a term, raison d’être, which is “reason for being.” Most vendors know that their reason for being is to solve problems.

If there’s no complaint, there’s no reason to serve you. If you have no problems, then a vendor has no place in your life. You won’t have anything to outsource to them.

Reliable vendors approach the challenges they uncover with what Earl Nightingale called [Read more…]

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

By Alex Mandossian

When choosing vendors, many people think that the most important attribute to look for is accountability. But I believe that deadline sensitivity is more important, because it protects your business and automatically guarantees a higher-quality vendor.

If someone is deadline sensitive, they’re not only reliable, but they’re also accountable.

For example, imagine that you are meeting someone for lunch, and the person is late. If he’s accountable, he’ll own up to his mistake and say, “Sorry, my bad.” If he’s late again, he says, “Oh, sorry. My fault.” When he’s late a third time, he’ll say, “You know what, I just can’t seem to meet the deadline.”

When the deadline is a lunch meeting, you may be inconvenienced and irritated. But what if the deadline is for delivering sales copy, putting up a web page, or shipping your product? The result may be [Read more…]

Outsource to the Right Team

By Alex Mandossian

When outsourcing your weaknesses, it’s obviously important to assemble the right team of vendors and/or employees. But what many entrepreneurs don’t realize is that timing is key.

As Jim Collins explained in his international best-seller, Good to Great, the executives who ignited transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. Instead, they first got the right people on the bus – and the wrong people off the bus – and then figured out where to drive it.

They said in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. but I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

So before you figure out where your company is going or who will do what, you need to first get the [Read more…]

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

By Alex Mandossian

When trying to increase productivity and improve results, most people mistakenly try to improve their weaknesses. A better, easier and more reliable approach is to strengthen your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.

Trying to strengthen weaknesses only results in a lot of strong weaknesses, which is not the way to have a world-class company. It puts your focus on what you are not good at or don’t enjoy, and a universal truth is “What you focus on expands.”

It’s OK to have weaknesses; everyone does. By the time you were three years old, your brain had all of the synaptic connections it will ever have. Where you’re most densely connected, those are your strengths. Where you’re not densely connected, those are your weaknesses. You are who you are, so don’t try to fix you.

Instead, fix the role you are trying to live into. Take an inventory of [Read more…]

Using Instagram – Content Creation Apps For Business

By Alex Mandossian

Are you using any of the free content creation mobile apps that exist within the iPhone/iPad app store and Android Market for your business?

2012 is all about sharing high-quality, unique, and original content on social media. And it’s all about visuals.

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you should be using your mobile device to create and share valuable content with your communities on social media. It’s never been easier than it is now to take photos or record videos that can help spread the word about your business.

I recently started using the mobile photo sharing/editing app Instagram as a way to share news and interesting content with my communities online. Instagram is one of the most popular iPhone photo app that individuals AND brands are using this year (about 27 million users total), and it was recently announced that the Android version is set to be released soon.

Here’s an example of a photo I shared as a way to get the word out about [Read more…]

FAQs: The Key to Fast, Easy and Effective Copywriting

Leverage the Principle of Recommendation

Pavlovian Principles for Copywriting

Want Greater Influence? Smuggle Donkeys

How to Spot Vendors Who Are “Drivers”

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

Outsource to the Right Team

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

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