Today, how to choose the power words that make headlines work harder.

Okay, show of hands.

Who wonders if their writing might be just a teensy bit boring?

No, you’re not as boring as your high school math teacher (let’s face it, that lady could put an amphetamine addict to sleep.) But you do go off on tangents on occasion, and you have a tendency to get so wrapped up in giving people valuable information that you forget to make it fun.

And so you get ignored.

Not because your content sucks, not because you stink at SEO, not because the universe hates you and gleefully ruins everything you do.

But because we live in an ADD world, and if you don’t grab people, they pass you by, bebopping onto the next shiny, noisy spectacle and forgetting about you forever.

It’s a shame, really. The world shouldn’t be this way.

But it is.

So, smart writers adapt. Smart writers learn how to command attention. Smart writers create spectacles of their own, hypnotizing readers with words so interesting they can’t click away.

Let’s talk about how.

Not all words are created equal

There’s this great scene in the movie Analyze This where the FBI asks Billy Crystal’s character, who is a psychotherapist treating a mob boss, if his patient has mentioned anything about an upcoming bloodbath.

He tells them no, and when they ask if he’s sure, he says,

“Yes, I’m sure. A word like ‘bloodbath’ really stands out in a conversation.”

And it’s true. It does stand out.

In fact, if you think about it, there are a lot of words that pop out at us and grab our attention. “Sex” is one of them. “Lies” is another. The word “taxes” may very well send your blood pressure sky high.

Why?

To use a term from neurolinguistic programming, some words have strong emotional “anchors.” We associate them with a certain emotion, and anytime we hear those words, we feel that emotion again. It’s essentially the same effect as Pavlov’s dogs salivating when they heard the bell.

Like it or not, each of us are programmed the same way. If you hear the word “sex,” you probably can’t help feeling a spark of lust (especially if you’re a teenager). And if you hear the word “lies,” you probably experience just a touch of anger.

Either way, these types of words are hard to ignore, and so the smart approach — “smart” is another power word, by the way — is to deliberately use them in your writing.

And the best place to put them is in your headlines.

You only have half a second to grab their attention

You’ve probably heard you only have seven seconds to grab the reader’s attention.

That might have been true once upon a time, but it’s not anymore.

According to my own informal research, it’s closer to half a second. The majority of readers decide whether or not your content is worth reading based purely on the headline.

And it’s not even a conscious decision.

They don’t read the headline two or three times, considering the content and deciding whether or not it’s relevant to them. They scan it, subconsciously glossing over the words and making a gut-level reaction.

So, if you want them to read your content, you have to punch them in the gut.

Because of the half-second rule, you don’t have time to educate them, get them to think, or even help them create a new connection.

All you have time to do is trigger an anchor that’s already in place.

Here’s how:

Stuff your headlines with power words

I don’t know if you noticed, but the headline for this post has four power words in it.

Sex, lies, commanding, and attention are all words with strong emotional anchors.

The same goes for many other popular posts here at Copyblogger. For instance, take a look at these headlines, where I’ve marked power words with an asterisk (*):

• 11 Smart* Tips to Brilliant* Writing: “Smart” evokes feelings of either pride or shame, and everybody wants to be “brilliant.”
• The Most Dangerous* Threat* to Your Online Marketing Efforts: Anytime we hear “dangerous,” we immediately go on red alert. The same goes for “threat,” and by pairing the two, the fear factor is magnified.
• On Dying*, Mothers*, and Fighting* for Your Ideas: “Dying” is scary, everyone either loves or hates their “mothers,” and “fighting” gets your adrenaline pumping.
• Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants*: anything about underwear is fascinating, and the fact that it’s “women’s underpants” paired with a man’s name sends the fascination level through the roof.
• Five Grammatical Errors* That Make You Look Dumb*: A word like “error” makes you nervous, and nobody likes to be called “dumb.”
• 5 Crippling* Beliefs That Keep Writers Penniless* and Mired* in Mediocrity*: “Crippling” has both a strong fear and disgust factor, as does “penniless.” “Mired” evokes frustration, and nobody wants to be “mediocre.”

See what I’m talking about?

Now, take a look at those same headlines with the power words stripped out

• 11 Tips for Better Writing
• Don’t Do This with Your Online Marketing
• My Life Story, and Why I Care so Much about Writing
• Why a Woman Changed Her Name to Make Everyone Think She Was a Man
• Five Grammar Tips Everyone Needs to Learn
• 5 Beliefs That Make It Harder to Write

Nowhere near as compelling right?

In fact, I would even predict these posts wouldn’t have become popular without the power words that drive them. Or at least not nearly as popular.

The same is true for your headlines.

Go back and read the last few headlines you published, and ask yourself if they seem a little lackluster. If they do, try stuffing them with a few power words and see what happens.

My prediction:

You’ll be stunned at the difference.

The ultimate formula for writing great headlines

Of course, power words aren’t everything.

If you really want a great headline, you need to combine them with a strong structure (like one of the proven headline models I gave you in Headline Hacks), as well as write about a topic that keeps your audience awake at night.

The equation goes something like this:

Proven Headline Structure + Important Topic + Power Words = Great Headline

For instance, the headline for this post uses “The Art of [Blank]” template. For the topic, I chose commanding attention, a topic many a marketer tosses and turns over. For the power words, I began with “The Art of Commanding Attention” and then expanded the headline slightly to “Sex, Lies, and the Art of Commanding Attention.”

Is it a great headline?

Well, it depends on your standards. I’ve written better, but it’s pretty good. Better than most.

And most of the time, that’s good enough. Using the above formula, you can write a good headline maybe in minutes, certainly in less than an hour.

If you’re busy (and who isn’t?), that’s important. You probably don’t have time to invent everything yourself, and so you need a system to make sure you’re hitting the key elements.

This is that system.

So give it a shot.

Write some great headlines.

Get yourself some traffic.

And if you need some more help, don’t forget about the free live headline clinic today at 4 PM Eastern, 1 PM Pacific. Sonia Simone and I will be there to help you create a killer headline for a blog post, sales letter, or special report, and we’d love to help you out. If you haven’t registered yet, you can still sign up here.

Look forward to seeing you later today!

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

Today, sign up for our free headline clinic, coming later this week.

Do you ever have trouble with headlines? Most content marketers do, from time to time.

Well we have good news.

Continuing the theme of yesterday’s Headline Hacks announcement, Sonia Simone and I are getting together and holding a Copyblogger headline clinic.

That’s a webinar where we rewrite your headlines for blog posts, articles, and other content. No charge of course … it’s totally free and our way of saying thanks for being the best blog readers on the web.

Got a killer idea for a blog post but can’t think of the right headline?

We’ve got you covered.

Planning to release a free report next year but stuck on the title?

We can handle that too.

Feeling totally lost but strangely attracted to the idea of watching us rip apart other people’s content and put it back together again?

We can dig it. Come enjoy the show. (But Sonia did make me promise we’d be nice.) We’ll be on the line for two hours, and we’ll tackle as many headlines as we humanly can in that space of time.

How to attend the free headline clinic

The clinic will be held live via webinar.

What to do now: Register for the headline clinic here.

Where to show up: After you register, you’ll receive email (from our friend Chris Garrett) with a link to the webinar. Just click that link this coming Thursday at 4:00 PM Eastern. Don’t wait until Thursday to register or you may not get in.

When to show up: This Thursday, December 15, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Eastern (U.S.) Time

What to bring: A headline you want to make stronger. Or even a thin, vague, wispy idea for a headline. We’ll help you make it great.

There is absolutely nothing for sale. You don’t even have to believe in Christmas to attend. All you have to do is click here and register.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

P.S.

If you’re looking for something to do until then, go read the announcement from yesterday and download Headline Hacks. It’s not required reading, exactly, but a lot of the stuff we are saying will make more sense.

P.P.S.

The clinics we’ve done at Copyblogger in the past have been insanely popular, and this one should be as well. So don’t forget to register. It’s a good idea to show up a few minutes early so you know you’ll get a spot.

If the webinar is maxed out, just wait a few minutes and try again. I know that sounds a little hypey, but we’ve seen it happen before, and people get really cranky disappointed when they can’t get in.

Up first, a stellar special report for immediate free download.

Some people say Merry Christmas.

Others say Happy Hanukkah.

Still others believe the holiday season is a massive conspiracy created by corporate America to part you with your money.

Whatever your orientation though, one thing is for certain:

You love free swag.

In past years, Copyblogger Media has been a little chintzy around the holidays, in my opinion. Sure, we’ve given you our regular — albeit awesome — daily content right up until Christmas. But we’ve never prepared an actual gift for you.

And that’s wrong. Because … well … we love you guys. And that’s not just the eggnog talking.

So this year, I begged indulgence to do something special. I asked if I could give away maybe the greatest report I’ve ever written, and Sonia agreed.

It’s 55 pages long.

There’s nothing for sale at the end.

You don’t even have to give me your email address to get it.

All you have to do is click here.

So what’s the free report about?

In short, it’s a cheat sheet for writing blog posts that go viral.

About two years ago, I developed it for internal use at Copyblogger, passing it to writers I was mentoring to help them with their posts. Later, I transformed it into a bonus for my Guest Blogging class, and it became even more popular than the class itself.

It’s not a book. It’s not even really a report. It’s a collection of some of the best headline templates ever written, along with a few examples and my thoughts on what makes them work.

What’s special about it, though, is how simple it is.

No, it’s not going to make you a successful writer all by itself, but it will increase your traffic, assuming you have anyone at all reading your work. It’s the closest thing to a magic bullet I could possibly give you.

And besides, it’s free. So go grab it:

Get the report at HeadlineHacks.com

Of course, you might wonder …

Won’t these headlines stop working once everyone starts using them?

And while it’s a common concern, it’s actually not something you need to worry about. Chances are that yes, you will start seeing them everywhere, but that’s like buying a Honda Civic, and then everywhere you go, you see Honda Civics.

There aren’t more of them. You just started paying attention to them.

Your readers, on the other hand, are oblivious. (Read this if you don’t believe me.)

Every publication in the world could start using them for every article, and it wouldn’t even register a blip on readers’ radar. Not because readers are blind, but because, while readers definitely respond to good ones, they don’t care about headlines.

If it works though, you will find yourself caring very much. Like some of my students, you might even decide to use nothing else but this template.

So give them a try.

It’s free … for now

Oh, and don’t forget to download the report itself. I’ll be leaving it up for free until Christmas day, but after that, I’ll require an email address to download it.

For now though, it’s totally free. There’s no benefit to me, unless you count making you fall madly in love with me for doubling your traffic.

This is about generosity. This is about saying thank you. This is about cutting through the BS and getting you some results.

Happy holidays to you and yours,

Your Friends at Copyblogger

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

P.S.

If you want to write some really great headlines for your content in 2012, keep checking in to Copyblogger this week. I’ll be writing about headlines all week, and presenting a free webinar to help make your content much, much more successful next year. Stay tuned!

Welcome to The Lede.

Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.

Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.

No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may (or may not) be worth.

All right then, on with it …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse. Get him on Twitter.

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we steal them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.

Ever.

What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark recently wrote:

You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to the moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.

Research. Read. Steal.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It’s all there, right in your pocket.

And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.

So use it. Don’t let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70% of the finished copy was composed of his client’s own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.

It is all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

Steal.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.

Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse. Get him on Twitter.

Imagine you’re having a discussion with a talkative, hyperactive teenager.

The conversation goes something like this …

We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the movies, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this — because that’s not the best part. The best part is that Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they ran into each other in the street …

Annoying right? Then why do we so often write our web copy just like that teenager talks?

Is there a better way to write a landing page?

When we write copy for our website, we sound a lot like that teenager

We tend to move all over the place with our copy.

First, we’ll try to stuff five different concepts into the headline.

Then we’ll try and fill in too many sub-heads that we want to drive home.

And then our first paragraph attempts to cover all the possible points.

And — like that teenager above — we have the entire story in our heads, but nothing quite gets across to the client.

We’re trying to cover way too many points, way too quickly.

And, as you’ve worked out for yourself, this bouncing and jumping around is exhausting for your reader.

How this mistake unfolds in an actual piece of copy

Let’s take a look at our “teenage talk” problem using a real-life example:

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors?

Body text:

• Contractors that don’t call you back or even show up?
• Are you done with contractors that lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner?
• How about contractors that run away from problems that crop up during and after a project?
• Are you completely over dealing with the hacks of the world?
• Have you had enough of sitting at home, babysitting the people you’re paying?

So what’s wrong with that sequence?

It gets off to a good start. The headline gets my attention without too much of a fuss, particularly if I’m having this problem right now.

But then I start reading and I get between three and five main plots and no sub-plots at all.

How do we know they’re main plots? Because we can list them out and see for ourselves. They all want to take center stage.

• Main plot 1: Contractors don’t call you back or even show up
• Main plot 2: They lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner
• Main plot 3: They run away from problems that crop up during and after a project
• Main plot 4: The so-called professional is nothing but a hack
• Main plot 5: You are tired of having to babysit these people

Just like that teenager’s story, it’s possible for us to jump from one to the other, without so much as pausing for a single breath.

So now that we know we’re creating bounce, how do we get rid of it? And how do we still use all the persuasive points we want to cover on our landing page?

How to say exactly what you’re trying to say

Just like an exciting movie or a bestselling novel, your article needs a single main plot. One primary storyline that the reader or viewer is most interested in.

You can also have sub-plots — additional points that make the story more complex and interesting, and continue to hook that reader.

So how do you know which point is your main plot? It’s the client’s most pressing problem.

That’s obvious, isn’t it? You want to get the client’s attention by driving home the biggest, scariest, buggiest problem.

Here’s how we go about it:

Headline:

Write your headline. It should only cover one big, buggy, nasty problem

Body text:

• Body text 1: Drive home the problems involved with that one point
• Body text 2: Drive home the consequences of that one point
• Body text 3: Drive home the solution to that one problem

Move to the next point.

So how does the teenager’s story look in this format?

Headline:

We went to the mall and there was a fire.

• Body text 1: What happened next at the mall?
• Body text 2: Then what were the consequences?
• Body text 3: How did we escape the fire?

With the teenager, she’d complete one story, and move to the next.

And the next …

But you may have made your point with a single story.

So what do you do with the rest of the stuff that you so badly want to get across? You bring it up later.

Let’s see how. But first let’s get back to squaring this in our original example.

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …

• Body text: … That don’t call you back or even show up?
• Body text 1: Talk in detail about the problems created when the contractor doesn’t call back or show up.
• Body text 2: What are the consequences? Describe the emotions that the client feels — again, in detail.
• Body text 3: What’s the best way to avoid this wretched scenario?

And then you present your service:

• Body text 4: Presenting XYZ contracting company.
• Body text 5: Drive home the point of how you handle calling your customers back. Describe in detail how you do it — when you show up and how you follow up.

Notice we haven’t gone to Point 2 yet. And yes, I know, you’re itching to drive home that point.

But first, do you notice something?

The customer doesn’t care about your itch. They’re locked in to what you’re saying.

You’re the first person they’ve met who isn’t like that teenager, jumping from story to story.

The customer’s biggest problem is ‘unprofessional contractors that don’t call back or show up’ and you’re talking about exactly that. The customer wants to know more about that story in detail, before they’re ready to move to the next story.

So after you present your company and how it brings that one solution to their problem, you can move on to the next “subplot,” the secondary stories in your copywriting plot.

Roll out the remaining subplots in slightly less detail, in a feature/benefit format that looks like this:

Feature 1: Benefit 1. Describe the benefits of Feature 1 in strong, vivid terms.

Feature 2: Benefit 1. Now write more copy vividly describing the benefits of Feature 2.

And so on with Features 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — adding benefits, of course, to every one of those features.

You can have as many as 8-10 paragraphs rich with details of the problem and the solutions you bring to the customer.

Having locked into the main problem and seeing how you bring that solution, the customer will happily trundle through the rest of the points, and become more convinced by the word about your ability to solve their problem.

In short, you must have a main plot, then drive it home

Later, pull in the sub-plots, but without the same level of intensity as the main.

Just remember to pick the point your customer cares most about as your main plot. ‘Sylvie dumping Josh’ has more drama than ‘no popcorn at the cinema.’

From there, you’re simply re-telling your story on the landing page.

One plot at a time

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

Sure, you want comments.

And subscribers, and shares, and likes.

But you don’t really care about any of these things. You want what they will eventually lead to …

Money.

Yes, traffic is good, and so is reader engagement. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’re running a blog with the intention of marketing a business and making some money.

Now, that could be a bit distressing, because most bloggers are broke.

Some bloggers don’t have traffic or reader engagement, and some bloggers have lots of both. But most bloggers aren’t making any money.

Here’s why …

The chain of conversion is everything

We tend to think of conversion as a single event, but it’s really more like a chain of events.

If you market a business online, several conversions need to take place:

• A stranger has to convert into a lead by being exposed to your message for the first time (in the online world, we call this traffic)
• A lead has to convert into a prospect by liking what you have to say (this is often done by opting in to your email subscriber list)
• A prospect has to convert into a customer by buying something from you
• A customer has to convert into a repeat customer by turning a single purchase into an ongoing buying relationship

This entire process is called the chain of conversion.

Does that sound like a tall order?

It should, because it is — for your blog to make money, you need not one, but many people to smoothly move through this entire process.

And if your blog is like most, then that probably isn’t happening.

Let’s explore all the reasons why that might be, and what you can do to fix it.

Problem #1: You’re a billboard in the desert

The most common problem that bloggers face is that strangers aren’t converting into leads.

In other words, there’s no traffic.

And if there’s no traffic, then it doesn’t matter how well-optimized the rest of your funnel is, because nobody is feeding through it.

So the first order of business is to get traffic flowing to your site. Here are some of the reasons why that might not be happening, and how you can fix it:

1. Build it and they will come. Yes, content is king, but without an army of marketers, the king can get pretty lonely! The truth is that while epic content is critical, it won’t go viral all by itself without an existing audience to start the ball rolling by seeing and sharing. If you don’t have traffic, you have to go and get the word out about your content.
2. You just tweet to your followers. If you’re Guy Kawasaki, then your marketing can consist of tweeting to your followers, and calling it a day. But for the rest of us (who don’t have 400,000 followers), you’ve got to get out there and promote. Build relationships with other bloggers, write guest posts, put viral campaigns together, and apply any other strategy for blog growth that you can think of — just get out there and do something!
3. Marketing in the wrong place. We love to fall for the promises of magic strategies that will get us tons of traffic — the kind that showcase the success that somebody else had. The problem is that you aren’t going after their audience, and your audience may not hang out where theirs does. If you’re marketing in the wrong place, then your audience will never find you! Of course, to market in the right place, you have to know who your audience is …
4. No clearly defined audience. Obviously, you can’t market to your audience if you don’t know who your audience is. It isn’t enough for you to have a general idea that you’re marketing to “bloggers” or “writers” or “stay at home moms” — you’ve got to get way more specific, to the point that you’ve created a profile of the ONE person that you’re targeting.
5. Asking for the wrong action. If they haven’t heard of you, then don’t start by asking them to buy — it isn’t likely to happen. Remember that your goal with each piece of messaging is to get the audience to take the single next action. When you’re talking to strangers, the goal is for them to become leads (visit your site) and then prospects (opt in to your list). So don’t even mention whatever it is that you’ve got for sale.
6. You don’t hook their interest. Yes, I’m talking about headlines. For your blog posts, for your ads, and for the teaser links to your content. They all need to hook your audience’s interest. And you happen to be reading the world’s best blog about copywriting. So go read all about headlines!

Problem #2: Selling ice to Inuits

The second problem is that you get traffic, but they all bounce — no subscribers, no customers, and you’re on a constant treadmill to generate more traffic.

In other words, leads aren’t converting into prospects.

Here’s why that might be happening, and what you can do about it:

7. It’s all about you. Yes, that’s right — all of your posts are about your news, your products, your company. And you wonder why nobody signs up for more? Forget about your subject area, and think about your customers. What are their problems? What matters to them? That’s what you need to be writing about.
8. Your content is “me too” content. If you’re just writing generic, bland content of the “6 tips everyone already knows about productivity” variety, or (gasp!) going so far as to actually spin articles, then the truth is that there’s no reason for people to come back to your site, because you haven’t impressed them yet. So pull out the stops and write some truly compelling content!
9. You don’t draw them in. You get them to start reading your stuff, but their attention wanders, and pretty soon they’re gone forever. You need to draw them in and keep them going, section to section, until they reach the action that you want them to: subscribing!
10. You don’t make it explicit. Yes, that’s right. If you want your visitors to opt in to your mailing list, then you have to say so, in so many words: “Sign up for my list to get all sorts of goodies. Do it now. Click here.” Put those words, or words like them, near your opt-in box, and make sure to include a call to action in your posts, too.
11. You don’t optimize. No matter how good you are, and how well you’ve done everything else, there’s always room for improvement — and improvement is had by split-testing, split-testing, and then split-testing some more.

Problem #3: “Just the free sample, thanks”

Sometimes you’ve got traffic, and you’ve got subscribers — but you still aren’t making any money.

In chain of conversion terminology, prospects aren’t converting into customers.

This might not sound so bad (“at least they have the traffic and subscribers”), but without the money, you’re just sinking more and more work into what might be a dead-end project.

The good news is that when you’ve got an audience, you can usually find a way to make some money — let’s explore why they might not be buying, and what we can do to fix it:

12. You’re selling what they need instead of what they want. As an expert in your field, you know exactly what the customer’s problem is. I don’t mean the symptoms, or the issue that they want to fix right now — I mean the real problem that lies deep down at the root of it all. The trouble is that they don’t know that, and so they aren’t looking for that solution. Start by selling what they want, and then you can deliver what they need along with it.
13. It’s in the wrong format. Maybe they love what you’re offering, but they just don’t like the format. I mean, really, how many more e-books can someone buy? Try a different format — like audio, video, a virtual conference, live workshops, infographics — or something else entirely.
14. The price isn’t right. Maybe your product is great, but the price doesn’t fit. You could be asking for way too much money, or you could be asking for way too little. Remember that not only does the price have to fit with the buyer’s budget, but it also has to communicate the right thing about how valuable your offering really is. So test different prices, and find the price that works best.
15. You don’t ask for the sale. Yes, this comes back to being explicit. Don’t just have an “Add to Cart” link on your site — you’ve also got to tell people that you want them to buy your stuff. Tell them why they should do it, and what they’re going to get. And tell them when they should do it (right now!), which leads us to the matter of urgency …
16. There’s no urgency. Why buy today when I can buy tomorrow, right? You need to give your audience a reason to take action now. Make sure the constraint is real — maybe you’re raising the price after a certain date. Maybe the first 50 people to sign up get a special bonus. Or maybe you’re closing your program on September 1 (hypothetically speaking, of course …).
17. No social proof. Nobody wants to be the first one to arrive at a party — you want to know that other people are there, and having a good time. So who’s already bought your product or service? What was their experience like? Were they happy? Were they a lot like the person who is thinking about buying today?
18. No guarantee. There’s something comforting about a money-back guarantee. It provides a safety net, and shows how much confidence the seller has in whatever is being offered. Most companies offer guarantees, to the point that it looks sketchy if you don’t. So you have to offer a guarantee. But don’t just offer a simple “if you’re not satisfied we’ll give you your money back” guarantee — go over the top. Give them 110% of their money back. Donate $100 to charity. Set it up so that it’s not just about satisfaction, but about results (we guarantee that you’ll add $1,000 to your bottom line in six months, or your money back).
19. You don’t optimize (again). Yes, it applies here, too. If you want to make more sales, then there are a lot of things for you to split-test: your headlines, the placement, text and colors of your opt-in boxes, the style of your introduction, your product imagery, your trust seals and their placement on the site … and the list goes on.

Problem #4: Once is (apparently) enough

Okay, if you’ve made it to this point in the chain, then you’re probably doing all right — you’ve got traffic, you’ve got subscribers, and you’re even making sales.

But customers aren’t converting into repeat customers.

Which means that you’re always scrambling to find new customers, and to keep that wheel in motion. Wouldn’t you rather have the wheel sustain itself?

Here’s why your customers may not be buying from you again, and what you can do to change that:

20. You don’t deliver. This is a HUGE problem; if you promise something, your customers sign up, and then you don’t deliver, then you are doing irreparable damage to your reputation and business. In the words of my marketing professor, “marketing is a promise that the organization has to keep” — and you should never, ever break a promise. This probably doesn’t apply to you, but if it does, stop reading this article, and fix it immediately!
21. There’s nothing else to sell. This is a more common problem: you’ve worked so hard to build and sell your product, that by the time they’ve bought it, there’s nothing left to sell. This is worth taking the time to fix; think about what else they might benefit from — an easy add-on is some consulting to help them get the most out of what they’ve already bought. Remember that a customer who’s already spent money with you is 8 times more likely to buy from you again, and you’ve already spent the time and money to convert them the first time!
22. You don’t communicate. This is sad to see, but easy to fix; you’ve got happy customers and more great stuff to sell to them, but you don’t communicate with them after that first purchase. This is terrible — you should be communicating with your customers on a regular basis, both to collect feedback about their experience, and to keep the lines of communication open so that you can sell to them again. An easy way to do this is to build follow-up directly into your product, for example with automated follow-up emails and surveys.
23. You don’t ask for the sale (again). Yes, you’ve got to ask for the repeat sale, too — periodically reach out to your existing customers to see if there’s more that you can do for them, and have a specific offer ready if they do have a need.

Fixing your blog, one link at a time

Every blog has holes in its chain of conversion — and most have lots of them!

So where should you start making repairs?

The answer depends on whether you’ve already got a functioning funnel:

If you’ve already got traffic, opt-ins, and customers: Start at the end, and work your way backwards. First get more customers to buy again, then get more subscribers to buy from you, then get more website visitors to subscribe, and only then get more people to visit your website.

If you don’t have any of that stuff: Then start at the beginning — start by getting traffic to your site, and once you have traffic, work on getting them to opt-in, and then buy from you, and then buy from you again.

Now, a question: how long are you willing to wait before your blog starts delivering dollars to your bank account?

Having realistic expectations is important. If you try to run a marathon as though it were a sprint, you’ll end up exhausted on the side of the road. And if you try to run a sprint as though it were a marathon, you’ll finish dead last.

So what kind of race do you want your blog to be running?

If you’re willing for it to take 2-3 years to get your blog to where you want it to be, then a good strategy is to read business books for bloggers, along with the best blogs in the industry.

But if you want to see results sooner, then get some help. For example, you could click the link in my bio and read about our marketing training program, that just happens to be closing to the public on September 1.

About the Author: Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the program that teaches non-marketers to fix their chain of conversion like expert marketers. Get his free video course on how to get more money out of your business, website or blog, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.

Well, why not?

They are the problem, right?

Here you are with a blog or a product or a charity you believe will change the world, and yet no matter how excited you are about the possibilities, no matter how much faith you have in yourself, you can’t help being worried:

• If you ask a popular blogger for a link, will you get a reply?
• If you ask a partner to email a product offer to their list, will they agree?
• If you ask a friend for a donation, will they write you a check?

You don’t know. You can’t know. And it bothers you.

Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just close your eyes, pop over into their mind, and seize control?

Yeah. Too bad it’s not possible …

Or is it?

A Brief Introduction to Mind Control

As it happens, mind control is possible. Sort of.

No, you can’t turn your customers, partners, and in-laws into mindless zombies, but you can influence them.

In fact, there’s a science to it.

Back in the 1980s, a researcher by the name of Dr. Robert Cialdini wrote a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. He outlined different principles scientifically proven to influence people, as well as suggestions for how to do it.

Since then, it’s become maybe the most important book in the field of marketing. If you haven’t read it, you should, as well as the sequel.

Here’s the bad news:

Mind control isn’t about magic powers, arcane arts, or even shaving your head and gallivanting around in a wheelchair (although, I’ve been tempted). The truth is it’s about something that makes a lot of people squeamish: marketing.

The Truth about Marketing

The core of marketing isn’t customer profiling or market segmentation or any of the other complicated nonsense taught in most business schools.

It’s infinitely simpler than that, and it can be encapsulated in one word:

Yes.

You ask a blogger for a link, and they say, “Yes.” You ask a partner to promote your product, and they say, “Yes.” You ask a customer for a testimonial, and they say, “Yes.”

If you get enough yeses, your blog/business/charity succeeds. If you don’t, it fails. It’s so simple, and yet so few of us really understand how to do it.

The good news?

You can learn.

What follows is a marketer’s guide to mind control. Use these seven strategies wisely.

1. Do all the thinking for them

The worst mistake you can make when asking anyone for anything is telling them to “Think it over.”

Here’s why: people already have too much to think about.

Between their jobs, their family, and their own hobbies and friends, their mind is already stuffed, like a suitcase bulging at the sides. Add one more sock, and the whole thing will explode.

To avoid it, they “forget” about things that aren’t very important to them, or if they do think about you, they don’t think very hard. It’s not because they are lazy or stupid. They’re just busy, and you’re probably not very high up the priority list.

And so the best strategy is to not ask them to think.

Do it for them.

• Instead of expecting them to see how your blog post will benefit their audience, explain it, and offer examples of similar posts that have done well in the past
• Instead of asking them to host a webinar for you, setup the webinar, landing pages, and emails yourself, and send them as part of your pitch
• Instead of begging a customer to write a testimonial from scratch, send them a dozen different examples to use as a guide

Be specific. Explain your reasoning. Offer proof. Tell them what to do next and why.

If you do it right, it won’t feel like asking at all. It’ll be more like advising.

And they’ll say yes. Not because of magical powers of persuasion, but because you’ve thought through everything, and it’s a no-brainer.

2. Start an avalanche

Creating a successful marketing campaign is a lot like starting an avalanche.

First, you climb up the mountain, and then you find the biggest boulder at the top, and then you sweat and grunt and strain to push the boulder over, and then you sit down and watch happily as the boulder goes crashing into other boulders, eventually bringing the whole side of the mountain down.

The lesson?

The first big yes is a pain in the butt to get, but if you get it from the right person, then getting all of the subsequent yeses is easy.

For example:

• Getting a popular blogger to tweet your post is hard, but once they do, dozens or maybe even hundreds of people will retweet them
• Convincing a leader in your niche to promote your product is tough, but once they do, everyone else will want to promote it too
• Persuading a celebrity customer to give you a testimonial can be tough, but once you do, sales skyrocket, and getting further testimonials is easy

Of course, a lot of marketers recommend taking the opposite approach.

They tell you to start from the bottom and work your way up because it’s easier.

But really, it’s just an illusion. Yes, pushing over a small rock is easier than pushing over a boulder, but the boulder is a lot more likely to cause an avalanche. So while it’s more work in the beginning to get top people to help you, it’s actually less work in the long run, and the results are far, far greater.

3. Ask for an inch, take a mile

You’ve probably heard the expression, “Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile,” right?

It’s supposed to be derogatory. It’s supposed to be a warning against appeasement. It’s supposed to protect you against getting taken advantage of.

But it’s also great marketing.

Whenever you’re asking for anything, never start by asking for everything upfront. Instead, start small. Make it easy to get started. Reduce the risk if it flops. Let them see the results for themselves.

And when it goes well, ask for more. And more. And more.

You might think that’s unethical, but if everything is going well, why not push for more? It’s not manipulation. It’s common sense.

For instance:

It’s not psychological trickery or anything like that. It’s smart business. No one likes to risk everything upfront, and by offering progressive levels of commitment, your chances of getting them to say yes go through the roof.

4. Always have a real deadline

The keyword is “real.”

All of us have had salesmen tell us, “Well, you’d better get back to me fast, because I have three more prospects coming this afternoon, and I don’t know how long it’ll last.” It’s BS, of course.

There are no clients, and there is no urgency. The salesman is just so desperate he’s willing to lie, not only costing him your trust, but probably the sale too.

And it’s not just salesmen.

How many times have other people handed you completely artificial deadlines, thinking it will motivate you to act? Our teachers do it, our bosses do it, our family does it, and without thinking about it, you’ve probably done it too.

Stop.

Not only is it ineffective, but it’s totally unnecessary. Real urgency is easy to create. With a little thought, you can build it into your marketing. For example:

• Instead of leaving a free report on your blog forever, tell everyone it will only be available for seven days, and then you’re going to start charging $7 for it. Not only will you get a lot more downloads, but other bloggers will be a lot more likely to promote it during the window
• Instead of letting JV partners dictate when they will promote your product, schedule a launch, announce it to your list, and then forward partners the announcement, inviting them to participate
• Instead of asking customers for testimonials whenever they get around to it, show them the timeline for an upcoming launch, including a specific date to send out testimonials. You need it by then, or you won’t be able to include it

Will some of them bow out, saying they are too busy right now, and they’ll catch you next time?

Sure, but it’s better than never getting started it all. And if you let other people dictate timelines, that’s exactly what will happen.

5. Give ten times more than you take

You know you’re supposed to give before you get, right? But what you might not know is how much to give.

A lot of marketers mistakenly assume it’s a 1:1 ratio.

Before you ask for a link, you should give a link. Before you ask for promotion, you should give a promotion. Before you ask for a testimonial, you should do one thing that deserves a testimonial.

But that’s wrong. Smart marketers use a 10:1 ratio, and not just in action, but in value:

• If you want 100 visitors, send them 1,000
• If you want $1000 in product sales, sell $10,000 of their products first
• If you want one testimonial, do ten different heroic acts of customer service worthy of a testimonial

This isn’t about “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” It’s about generosity so overwhelming they can’t say no.

Yes, it’s a lot of work, but that’s the price of influence.

6. Stand for something greater than yourself

Imagine there are two homeless guys standing on a street corner.

The first guy has a normal, run-of-the-mill sign saying, “Spare a few dollars? God bless you.” The second guy, on the other hand, has a much more unusual sign: “Can’t afford to feed my family, and it’s tearing me apart. Please help, so I can stop feeling like such an awful Dad.”

Which one would you be more likely to help? The second one, right?

Forget giving him a few bucks. With a sign like that, you’d take him to the grocery store and buy him $200 worth of groceries. I know I would.

That’s the power of standing for something bigger than yourself. It makes people care.

And it applies to everything:

• Instead of writing yet another how-to post, take a stand on an important issue, arguing with both passion and unassailable logic
• Instead of starting yet another me-too consulting business, create a movement, working tirelessly to change the lives of your customers
• Instead of selling yet another step-by-step manual, sell a philosophy, filled with heroic examples to inspire your customers

Those are the types of things people want to talk about. They feel grateful just for having the chance to help you spread the word.

7. Be completely and utterly shameless

You want to know what separates a great marketer from a mediocre one?

Shamelessness.

I’m not referring to a lack of conscience, having a gregarious, extroverted personality, or any of the other ways we traditionally look at marketers. For the most part, those stereotypes are myths.

No, by shamelessness, I mean this:

An unshakable belief that what you are doing is good for the world and the willingness to do anything to bring it into being.

When you believe in your content, you don’t publish it and forget it. You promote it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, working tirelessly to spread the message to everyone who needs to hear it, and refusing to rest until they do.

When you believe in your product, you don’t balk at sales. You revel in it. Not because you’re greedy or desperate or egotistical, but because you know your product will help them, and so it’s your duty to get them to buy. Whatever it takes.

When you believe in your charity, you don’t beg for donations. You demand them. You grab people by the shoulders and look them in the eyes and tell them what you’re doing is changing the world, and it’s time for them to step up and do their part.

It’s not about money. It’s not about glory. It’s not even about legacy.

It’s about falling in love. It’s about being enchanted. It’s about seeing a vision so beautiful you can’t help but fight to make it real.

Do you have a vision like that? Something worth getting up every day and fighting for?

If you do, you can accomplish damn near anything.

And if you don’t, well …

What’s the point?

About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger. If you’d like to learn what it really takes to become a popular blogger, check out his free videos on guest blogging.

Marketers of most stripes know how important and powerful calls-to-action are.

If you want someone to take a specific action, you have to actually ask them to take that specific action.

But, it seems like social media marketers have either forgotten CTAs, or rejected them altogether.

A researcher by the name of Irving Kirsch at the University of Connecticut did an interesting experiment with hypnotically suggestable people.

Half of the subjects were put under full hypnotic trance and given a stack of 30 post cards.

They were given the hypnotic command to mail one card back to the lab each day for 30 days.

The other half of the subjects were simply asked nicely, given social requests without hypnosis to do the same.

Can you guess which group mailed more postcards back?

The second group ended up mailing more cards back. Social requests can be just as powerful as full-out hypnotic suggestions.

So why are social media marketers afraid of them?

The power words of blog commenting

When I studied blogging, I found that blog posts that included the word “comments” typically got more comments than blog posts that did not.

Take a look at this graph displaying the most commented-on words:

This is very simple, very powerful stuff.

If you want readers to comment on your blog, you have to ask them.

The power of the call to action

The most powerful evidence of the power of social calls-to-action is how effective “please retweet” is.

I studied a a statistically significant sample set of more than 10,000 tweets and found that those that used the phrases “please retweet” or “please rt” were much more likely to be retweeted.

In the case of the longer “please retweet” the tweets were four times more likely to be shared by followers.

I’m not exactly sure why there is so much resistance in social media marketing circles to calls to action, but now you know the truth.

Calls to action work!

And here’s one for you: Get more social media data and mythbusting information by registering for the Science of Social Media webinar coming on August 23rd. Register today!

About the Author: Dan Zarrella is HubSpot’s Social Media Scientist. This post contains data from his upcoming webinar The Science of Social Media, taking place this Tuesday, August 23rd. Sign up now!

On the snowy, northeastern Christmas of my 11th year, our parents gathered all five kids around the kitchen table to deliver the news.

We were moving to San Antonio, Texas.

I was devastated. Texas? I imagined what our new home would look like.

We’d be miles from any neighbors — who all walked straight off the “Hee Haw” set — with a dusty, rock-filled front yard punctuated by the occasional tumbleweed rolling by.

If only I had access to the Internet back in those days, I wouldn’t have been terrified at all by the silly stereotypes I believed to be true.

Our customers are terrified, too. They’re operating based on stereotypes, fears, and misconceptions.

But every day, the Internet makes it easier to inform, educate, and connect with them.

Their false assumptions don’t stand a chance when you use these three techniques to get your message out and engage with your prospects.

1. Showcase your product

Web video is ideal for showing exactly how your product works, and why it’s the best on the market.

One company that does this well is OtterBox, whose YouTube channel features lighthearted product demos and user-submitted stories that show customers putting OtterBox technology cases to the test.

Your web video doesn’t have to be fancy. It’s more important to:

• Take the time to develop a compelling story
• Write a script: don’t wing it
• Edit carefully so your video comes in under three minutes: bonus points if it’s under two

If you sell a service, you can still use web video to make your offerings come to life. Interview customers who’ve gotten good results. Show all the benefits of your service by filming before and after videos. And build interest by aiming your camera at the end result, and showing prospects what they can expect.

2. Share your reality

People enjoy doing business with actual people, not faceless corporations.

Show prospects you’re just like them by sharing a little about yourself on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, your blog, and your email newsletter.

Keep it light, tie it in with a topic you know your audience is interested in, and turn it around and talk about them the first chance you get.

If your business is large, you can make your company more approachable by allowing employees to share personal details on your website or company blog.

Let them post photos, share their hobbies, or post short videos that show them outside of work.

Any time you share some of your own reality, your two-dimensional Internet presence becomes more three dimensional, and that makes your company — and its offerings — more appealing to prospects.

3. Shatter your stereotypes

You may be in a business that people tend to stereotype:

• All graphic designers are flaky, artsy types who can’t make their deadlines
• All engineers are nerdy and use pocket protectors
• All web developers spend long days in windowless rooms, and don’t know how to hold a conversation
• All writers are broke and have no business sense
• All accountants think about is numbers

Of course, none of these clichés are true.

If your business is typecast a certain way, accept it and set the record straight online.

• If you’re a graphic designer, post an infographic of how often you met or exceeded your clients’ deadlines
• If you own an engineering firm, post photos of the cool hobbies your employees spend time on outside of work
• If you’re a web developer, host a pool party and invite your best clients, then post a video on your website
• If you’re a writer, blog about how you made money with just your keyboard and your good business sense
• If you’re an accountant, post your music playlist on your Google+ profile

Showing your prospects how those tired clichés won’t work for you and your company is an excellent way to make your business memorable.

Get more customers

It turns out I loved living in Texas — especially after my ears got used to the dialect — and I made many friends I’m still in contact with.

The experience made me who I am today, and I’m grateful for it.

When we ask our prospects to go beyond their ingrained stereotypes, we encourage them to grow and stretch as human beings.

It turns out that’s good for them, and it’s good for your business, too.

About the Author: Pamela Wilson helps small businesses grow with great design and marketing at Big Brand System. Learn the basics with her free Marketing Toolkit E-course. Connect with her on Twitter.