What can a well-run shoe store teach you about your own online business?

Well, everything.

If you’ve ever bought anything from the mega online shoe store Zappos, or if you’ve so much as heard them mentioned, the word that comes to mind is probably service.

But there’s more to the Zappo’s secret sauce than free shipping and some nice people on the phone.

They embody three important lessons that any blogger, online marketer, or small business owner can learn … and start finding customers that don’t just like you, they love you.

Let’s look at each, and how you can apply them to your business.

1. It all starts with passion and purpose

You might think it would be hard to imbue a shoe store with meaning. But Zappos does it.

A lot of companies have a mission statement. Nearly all of them are lame. Instead of another dreary statement about “synergy” and “excellence,” Zappos lives what they call their core values, which include things like “create fun and a little weirdness,” and “be humble.”

It all originates with founder Tony Hsieh’s insatiable curiosity and penchant for doing work he loves.

What Zappos does comes from their culture — and that culture is grounded in those core values. The two cannot be separated.

Without their core values, Zappos is just one of a million e-commerce sites. With them, they become something remarkable.

We have an environment where we empower our employees to do what’s best for the customer with minimal policies and hoops to jump through in order to do it. It’s about giving them a purpose to their job as opposed to just answering questions and taking orders.
~ Maura Sullivan, Senior Manager of Zappos’ Customer Loyalty team

Whether you’re running a company of one or one hundred, you need to have some values beyond “I need to book three new clients this week.”

Integrity and a sense of purpose are highly attractive to customers, and they make your business a lot more enjoyable to run.

2. Everything is customer service

Every action you take — the design of your web site, your content, how you answer email — communicates something to your customer. About serving her. About helping her.

It’s about under-promising and over-delivering.

At Zappos, the customer loyalty team is empowered to regularly go above and beyond to make the customer feel important and special.

This can mean a care package, random freebies thrown in with your order, or anything else they feel like doing.

Again, Sullivan says,

Our employees don’t have to be passionate about shoes, or anything else we sell, but they need to be passionate about service and helping people. That’s where great customer experiences come about — being able to help someone, it can change their day — even if it was just a pair of shoes.

When you bake surprise and delight into your business model, people talk about that. A lot. This is the secret to being a truly remarkable business. Accomplishing the unexpected is the norm.

When you see everything you do as service (and therefore, as marketing), everything you do will become just a little better. And customers will notice.

3. Keeping a lean state of mind

Some web startups are run like the former Soviet Union. Lots of rules. Lots of processes. And not much reward for going outside the lines.

And then there are those Fortune 500 companies that function like family businesses. (Some of them still are.)

The difference is mindset.

Unencumbered by organizational bureaucracy, Zappos’ employees are free to do the work they signed up for. Sure, they’ve got manuals and policies, but those only exist to help employees help customers.

Being this nimble is a choice.

And, admittedly, it can be a challenge at times, especially for a company the size of Zappos.

So how do they do it?

Communication is key, especially when making a change or something that will affect the day to day. In a company that is constantly reinventing and redefining itself, making sure everyone is up to date and on the same page is crucial.

Stay nimble. Stay flexible. And as you reinvent and redefine yourself, communicate with the people who need to know about it — your customers, and your employees if you have them.

You may even want to go the Copyblogger route with your business plan, and start talking to your customers before you have something to sell.

Make sure those lines of communication are open. This is as important on the day you start as the day you sell your business to Amazon for umpty million dollars.

What’s compelling about Zappos is their focus on connection. From the “top” down, it’s all about relationships.

They make sure passion and purpose are the fuel for all the work they do, and they never forget that the business lives or dies on how well they serve the customer.

You can do the same.

How about you?

Is there something you admire about Zappos that you’d like to do more of in your business? Let us know about it in the comments.

About the Author: Jeff Goins is a writer, idea guy, and online marketer. You can connect with him on his blog Goins, Writer or follow him on Twitter @jeffgoins. He is currently working on his first book. To read about his journey from blogger to book author, check out his eBook Every Writer’s Dream: How to Never Pitch Your Writing Again.

You’ll find fresh angles, new approaches, and compelling ways to deliver your message.

If you run a yoga studio, you can often learn more from an auto body shop or a roofing company than from your fellow yogis.

If you’re in technology, take a look at what artists are doing. If you’re a musician, borrow from accountants.

Allowing yourself to cross-pollinate will make your ideas stronger. And it gets you out of the tired “same old” marketing all of your competitors are doing.

If I were a betting woman, I’d put folding money that none of our readers is competing in the very weird niche I’m going to talk about today.

Chris Christensen owns a business that manufactures and sells high-end beauty products … for dogs.

Not just any dogs, mind you. Christensen pretty well owns the market for high-end beauty products used to style the winners (and the also-rans) for dog shows. He was featured recently in a fascinating article in Inc. magazine, and the lessons from his business practically jumped off the page at me.

So here they are: five lessons from the dog beauty product industry that you can steal today and start applying to your own marketing, no matter what product or service you offer.



1. Success comes at the intersections



Christensen started out as a rep in the more traditional beauty product business — the one for human beings.

There are billions of dollars to be had in that business — but there are also thousands of competitors.

Through a chance encounter (keep a sharp eye out for these), Christensen realized that he could take his considerable expertise and connections in the beauty business and translate them to this underserved market.

How you can apply it: If your market is too crowded, look for a profitable intersection. Know what you can do incredibly well, then look around for what types of customers might benefit from that in an unexpected way.

Which leads us directly to #2.

2. Go where the customers are

If Christensen had jumped into beauty products for reptiles, he probably wouldn’t have seen the success he has.

Not every niche market is a profitable one.

Instead, he sells to the people who compete in dog shows. And show dog breeders are motivated by three factors that often point to excellent, high-profit markets.

First, winning dog shows boosts the status of the winners. (The human ones, not the canines. I don’t think the dogs care all that much who wins the ribbons, they have their own concerns.)

Status is a superb motivator if you’re trying to sell a product or service. Boost the status of your customers and your business will probably thrive.

Second, winning dog shows boosts customers’ financial well-being. If you’re a dog breeder, winning shows is good for business.

Help your customers make more money and your business will probably thrive.

And finally, dog people are crazy about their dogs. People who buy the cheapest generic shampoo for themselves will spend top dollar on special shampoo for their “babies.”

Cater to the intense desire some humans have to pamper pooches and your business will probably thrive.

So by landing on the dog show market, Christensen won a trifecta … a market driven by three ultra-powerful motivators.

How you can apply it: You don’t have to have that many factors to find your own delightfully profitable niche.

But you do want at least one powerful motivator in your market … whether it’s status, sex, love, wealth, or a passionate hobby that makes people temporarily suspend any tightwad tendencies.

Golf, weight loss, professional education, dating, and dogs are juicy markets where there’s a lot of profit to be made.

Frugality, recycling, house cleaning, the Occupy movement, and naked mole rats tend to be a lot less profitable — even though there are people who are quite passionate about those topics.

3. Focus on where you can deliver exceptional results

Christensen wasn’t just some guy selling shampoo — he really knew the beauty business. He knew the products, and he knew the chemists who manufactured products.

Anyone probably could have achieved some success by pouring cheap drugstore shampoos and hairsprays into bottles and saying those products were specialized for dogs. (See Lesson #4.)

But Christensen knew that to create a lasting business, he’d have to get obsessive about creating quality products — products that got his customers the results they craved.

Products that made those dogs look fantastic.

Now over 70, Christensen still goes to dog shows all over the country to watch and listen. He’s grown his line of products by observing what his customers need, then creating it for them.

The growth of his product line, incidentally, is one of the many reasons his business hasn’t even blinked at the recession. Once he had found a great market, he kept going back to them again and again to see how he could deliver additional value.

How you can apply it: Start with a strong product that delivers the results your customers crave. Perfect that product, until it’s so magnificent that you’re creating legions of raving fans.

Then, if you’re satisfied you have a strong, solid market of buyers, start watching and listening.

What else do they need? What other problems can you solve for them? Are there sub-niches within your niche that need an even more specialized product?

4. Labels matter

Dog shows don’t allow the breeders to use hair spray to style the dogs.

So Christensen doesn’t sell hair spray. He sells “texturizing bodifier.”

Are the ingredients in texturizing bodifier nearly identical to those in regular old hair spray? I have no idea. Maybe. But the label matters, so he labels his product in ways that work for his customers.

How you can apply it: Too many businesses get stuck trying to sell customers what they need instead of what they want.

If you’re a copywriter and your customers think branding is a luxury that’s just for huge businesses, don’t try to sell them something called branding, even if that’s what will help. Come up with a label that works for your customers, even if it’s not how you would refer to it. Whenever you can, use the language they use.

Label your products and services in a way that makes it easier for your customers to buy.

5. Offer a premium version

Christensen recently unveiled a new product — ultra-high end handmade Damascus steel shears.

There’s a lot more competition for shears than there is for “texturizing bodifier.” But Christensen knew that he had created so much good will with customers that they would be interested in seeing what he came up with.

He used his obsession for quality to develop a $500 pair of shears, tweaking the design until they were perfect.

And they sold. But much more importantly, sales of his $200 shears immediately jumped — because now those were “mid-range” shears, rather than the most expensive shears he offered.

How you can apply it: There’s some segment of your customer base — maybe it’s 2% of your buyers, maybe it’s 15 or even 20% — who want the “platinum” version of what you offer.

Create something that fulfills that craving. Add real value — with more valuable materials, with increased access to you or your staff — any way you can think of, as long as it matters to your customers.

Don’t look for how you can control costs on this one — look for how you can create an incredible result for your customers.

Then put that product where customers will see it. Even if you never sold one of your “platinum” products (although you almost certainly will), the fact that it exists will improve the perception of the rest of your line.

Try hard to make your platinum product something you really love to deliver. Make it a celebration, for both you and your customer.

How about you?

Ever find a great marketing idea in an industry totally outside your own?

Let us know about it in the comments.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Follow her on twitter for more thoughts on weird businesses.

You know what you’re supposed to do. It’s not a matter of knowing the next steps — you know them, all right. You just aren’t taking them.

You watch while others pass you by. People who aren’t as good as you. People who don’t work as hard as you do.

Frustrating.

Something is holding you back from taking the next step. From doing the scary part — the part that means you might actually succeed.

Too many of you are waiting for that something. And you know what? It might never get here. So let’s fix that right here, right now.

Too many of us are waiting around for permission to take the next step. For someone else to bless what we’re doing and say it’s OK.

So this post is your official permission slip. Print it out if you need to, and stick it up on the wall.

If you need permission to raise your prices …

Sonia gives you permission to charge what you’re worth.

You have my permission to launch something more expensive than you ever have before. You have my permission to position yourself at the premium end of the pricing scale. You have my permission to quote your prices without apologizing for them. You have my permission to create a more valuable product and charge accordingly. You have my permission to focus on the customers who can afford the best you have to offer.

If you need permission to launch a product to your audience …

Sonia gives you permission to get that ebook, that coaching program, that membership site out in the world where people can benefit from (and pay for) it.

You have my permission to ask for the sale. You have my permission to sell even if it upsets some people. Which it will. You have my permission to ignore these people.

If you need permission to set boundaries …

Sonia gives you permission to focus on what you need to do.

You have my permission to take a break from social media. You have my permission to work in a focused, coherent way on your own project without being interrupted every five seconds. You have my permission to turn off email for awhile. You have my permission to take your laptop to a coffeeshop and work in peace. You have my permission to not answer the doorbell. Or your phone. Or your IMs.

You have my permission to not give a damn what the troll in your comments is saying. You have my permission to ban the troll without feeling bad about it.

If you need permission to take your business seriously …

Sonia gives you permission to think of yourself as a business, even if no one else does yet.

You have my permission to spend as much time and money on your business as you do on your hobbies. Or on other people. Especially people you don’t actually like.

You have my permission to have great site design. You have my permission to get decent hosting. You have my permission to take that really cool business course you’re dying to take.

You have my permission to envision your business being 10 or 100 or 1000 times bigger some day. You have my permission to get there.

If you need permission to call yourself an authority …

Sonia gives you permission to admit that you know your stuff.

You have my permission to speak and write confidently about what you know. You have my permission to teach what you know. You have my permission to stop pretending you’re dumber than you are. You have my permission to ignore the critics and wannabes who will never, ever be as brave as you are.

You have my permission never again to use the phrase, “Well, I’m no expert, but …”

What is it you need permission to do?

There’s nothing wrong with needing permission. It happens to most of us once in awhile.

What would you do if you felt you had the “right” to take the next step? If you felt you had earned some secret permission slip no one else can see? If the business and marketing fairy godmother could give you a blessing?

Let us know in the comments, and if you make a reasonable case, we’ll write you a permission slip on the spot.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is CMO of Copyblogger Media and co-creator of Teaching Sells.

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.

We live a lonely life out here on the internet.

Sure, we’ve got email and blogs and social media and Skype and the occasional contact via an actual phone, but in real-life terms we’re pretty isolated.

We usually live far away from our “work friends.” We swap ideas in small, discreet blocks — a half-hour IM chat with someone here, an email or two with someone else there.

Sometimes, it’s hard for internet work to feel like anything other than a hobby … and why should it, if you never commit to immersion in it?

Why should all this feel like a serious endeavor if you never make it your sustained, total focus?

Why should it grow and expand and become more profitable if you never get together with successful like-minded people and spend some serious time studying your craft?

I’ll tell you why …

Three times a year, I hop on a plane and fly out to blogging conferences — BlogWorld in May and November, and South by Southwest in March.

Traveling is a pain, and the trips are expensive, but I go because being in those environments is totally worth the inconvenience.

It’s necessary to make my business grow.

Attending conferences is nothing short of awesome, and you should do it if you’re able. These are the times to soak up new information, when the innovations and inspiration of others can’t help but rub off on you.

Every time you go to a conference, you return home with new tools that can make your business more profitable.

But what if you can’t quite manage to get to live events? Luckily, there’s a solution.

How to attend a conference you can’t attend

Travel sucks, especially since the airlines began their sadistic sociological experiment to determine how much travelers will put up with before cracking.

You have to pay for your bags. You have to put your deodorant into exactly the right kind of clear baggie or they’ll throw it away. The crappy snack on the flight costs six dollars. On one flight, the man to my left was spilling into my seat and the man to my right was throwing up the entire time.

Transportation is expensive. Hotels are expensive. You’ve got to put the kids in the kennel and send the dogs to grandma’s. (Right?) You’ve got to find a way to put your business on hold … if it can survive being put on hold.

Often, you’ll look at that conference coming up and say, “It’d be so great to attend, but there’s just no way I can make it happen.”

But what if you could attend the conference without the travel and the inconvenience, and for a small fraction of the cost?

What if you could immerse yourself in the best and latest information while still watching the kids and the dogs, while still doing what needs to be done with your business and home, and possibly (probably) while wearing comfortable pajamas and not being barfed on?

What if you didn’t have to spend a few thousand dollars on travel, a hotel, and a full-access conference pass?

This is the part where I tell you about my new gig — working with BlogWorld New Media Expo to turn BlogWorld’s Virtual Ticket into the best you-can’t-be-there-live-but-you-can-attend-anyway virtual event around.

This is not your father’s virtual conference

If you think the idea of “attending” a conference via your computer sounds like a lame substitute for the real thing, I don’t blame you.

Most virtual events focus exclusively on giving you content, but what really makes an in-person conference sing is the experience of being there.

In the redesigned Virtual Ticket, we’re giving you both.

Providing the conference content was straightforward. The Virtual Ticket contains audio/video recordings of all 100+ hours of conference sessions.

Want learning? Want information? Fuhgeddaboudit … we’ve got an avalanche of hot, fresh instruction. (It’s actually more content than you would get in person, because when you’re there live, you have to pick and choose between sessions — something you won’t have to do virtually.)

But providing the conference experience — to bridge that internet isolation we all feel from time to time — was harder.

Try as we might, we couldn’t replace handshakes, hugs, and noogies, but we tried to re-create “being there” as much as possible:

• We set up live recordings during the conference and at the extracurricular events. You can’t be there in person to shanghai presenters into a conversation, but we can and will, and you’ll be watching.
• We’ve lined up exclusive interviews and backstage access that even live attendees won’t have access to.
• We hired a charming MC named Johnny B. Truant to be your virtual host. In addition to giving the Virtual Ticket a cohesive “almost like you’re there” guided BlogWorld experience, I can get you in to see anyone because I’m charming and have credentials — not because I have blackmail fodder, no matter what Sonia says.
• We’ve provided Q&A with the bigwigs. If you’re at home, you can’t stop presenters to ask them questions (“What’s your best social media tip?” “How did you get started?” “What’s this thing on my shoe?”), but we’ll ask them your questions through the beauty of social media.
• Plus, we’ve got other stuff.There’s more social media magic in the works that my project manager hasn’t explained to me yet and that I therefore need to be vague about for now. (Hey, I’m an idea guy. People still have to remind me to tie my shoes.)

Will it be as good as being there in person? Of course not.

Is it the next best thing? Definitely.

See you in (virtual) Los Angeles?

It costs around 1/10th as much, too: Full price for the Virtual Ticket is only $347.

But through this Saturday, October 15th, it’s only $247.

You’ll get access to all of it (pretty much everything about BlogWorld other than the nametags) for way, way, way less than you’d spend to fly out to Los Angeles.

Sign up for the BlogWorld West 2011 Virtual Ticket here.

Copyblogger is a proud marketing partner of BlogWorld New Media Expo, and all of the links in this post are affiliate links.

We only promote things that we believe in, and this year’s Virtual Ticket is something quite extraordinary. All virtual events deliver content (some better than others), but almost none deliver the experience of being at the live event.

This delivers both.

And of course, if you attend the Virtual Ticket, Copyblogger will “see you at BlogWorld” next month. We’ll be there, and you’ll be at home or at work … and that may well mean you’ll be drinking better coffee.

Save us some, okay?

Sign up for the Virtual Ticket here while the price is still $100 off (through Saturday).

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is the host and MC of the BlogWorld Virtual Ticket.

On Stranger Tides is just one more in the long line of big budget Hollywood movies. Or is it?

Actually, it happens to be just another movie that Johnny Depp refused to appear in for anything short of $42,000,000.

He charges that amount because the movie can’t exist with out him.

Johnny’s the star of the show. Pirates of the Caribbean without Captain Jack Sparrow is like an ice cream sundae with no ice cream.

But if Johnny Depp didn’t act in movies — if he were a regular job-holding guy from Kentucky — nobody would care about him. Nobody would pay him.

That could easily have happened, you know.

John Christopher Depp is a high-school dropout from Lexington, Kentucky. He once made a (sort of) living as a ballpoint pen salesman. My cousin swears she once spotted him years ago in a local WalMart.

He was unshaved. His clothes were old and torn. He looked like a hippie. Reclusive. Possibly homeless.

That doesn’t match his public image, does it?

We’re used to seeing Johnny Depp behind four millimeters of stage makeup, in hand-tailored black tie, and signing $42 million Hollywood film contracts.

How does he do it?

How does a normal guy become an A-list star — attracting a raving following and getting paid to do what he loves?

The answer is simpler than you might think.

Johnny Depp knows his audience

On Stranger Tides isn’t about entertaining Johnny.

It’s about entertaining his audience. Johnny isn’t messing around trying to collect his thoughts or share breaking news in pirate technology.

No, he’s giving his audience the content they’re looking for. He’s connecting and delivering.

Here’s what Johnny Depp means to your blog

You’re actually in the entertainment business.

Every byte of data you blast onto the web is a piece of your movie.

Each time you publish a post, you’re broadcasting a scene — a link in the chain — that brings your film to the next level.

It takes work. Some days you feel like retreating to your little hometown …

But remember, when the camera’s running, you have to connect.

It takes focus

You aren’t doing this to become a better writer, even if that’s a sneaky side effect.

You aren’t doing it for the fame or money — though money facilitates the journey.

You aren’t doing it just for you — though you absolutely love what you’re doing.

The moment you focus on those things, you lose your touch.

Like an major league baseball player at bat, your eyes are glued to the ball. You ignore everything else, and you aim for a grand slam.

Prepare your script to match your audience’s deepest desires. Peek around the curtain and listen to the gossip. The tools are before you, pleading to be used.

Get your act together, then freaking deliver.

Like it or not, here they come.

Just ask Johnny Depp.

About the Author: Martyn Chamberlin is a Web designer and copywriter from Two Hour Blogger. He’s also a proud user of the Genesis Framework, and when you see his site, you’ll probably know why.

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.

We deliver a lot of daily advice here on Copyblogger. And yet, in the fast-moving world of online marketing, web publishing, and social media, there’s a lot to know.

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There are plenty of great reasons to write an ebook.

A short, free ebook could be precisely the cookie you need in order for your email list to grow beyond a handful of members.

A big, paid-for ebook could be an important part of your revenue stream — and the first product in your sales funnel.

Being able to say, “I’m an author.” could give your credibility a massive boost.

So what’s stopping you? I think I know …

Maybe you think you don’t know how. Sure, you’re comfortable with writing blog posts, but an ebook is a totally different animal.

Or is it?

Everything you know about blogging applies to ebooks too

Think of your ebook as a series of blog posts.

Content-rich, in-depth posts that readers can’t wait to read and share.

When you look at it that way, your ebook suddenly seems less … daunting.

You already know how to write an ebook. Everything you’ve learned from blogging still applies. Just think of your ebook as a series, and each post as a chapter within that series.

That way:

• Your ebook won’t become a bloated, “everything I’ve ever learned” guide to your whole field. It won’t sell — and you won’t have any room for your second ebook. Pick one topic, just as you would for a post series
• Your writing style can stay friendly, informal and engaging. You don’t have to come across all stilted and academic just because it’s an ebook. Your readers will want to hear your voice, just like they do on your blog
• Your chapters can be concise and information-packed — just like your blog posts. You don’t need to waffle on and on to fill the pages. After all, what would your readers prefer: straight-up information or a ton of padding?
• Your content-creation routine doesn’t have to change drastically. You don’t need to lock yourself away for two weeks in order to finish your ebook. You can just write a couple of short chapters each week — in the same way that you write blog posts on a regular basis

You can use your current blog content too

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you could repurpose some of your existing content for the ebook.

For lots more on this, see Carol Tice’s excellent post, 12 Ways to Turn Your Old, Dusty Blog Archive into Cold, Hard Cash.

For instance:

• You might use one of your popular posts as the introduction for the ebook
• You could turn a “how to” post into a worksheet
• A case study post could become a vivid example
• Your readers’ comments might inspire new chapters or a Q&A section

Formatting matters just as much in ebooks as in blog posts

Some bloggers seem to ignore formatting completely when it comes to ebooks.

They’ll produce dull, grey documents densely packed with text … and they’ll wonder why no-one’s interested.

If your ebook is going to be a pdf (and most info-products are), then you can use all the same formatting features that you’d use in blogging:

• Add images to grab attention, break up the text and show concepts that are hard to describe in words.
• Include subheadings to help signpost the way through the text
• Add hyperlinks so that readers can jump straight to the chapters that they need
• Use bullet-pointed lists to display information more clearly
• Create a style for block quotes so that these stand out from the text

You already know how to do all of this

You know how to write regularly.

You know how to make your style engaging.

You know how to use formatting to hold the reader’s attention.

So let me ask you again: what’s stopping you from writing your ebook?

About the Author: Ali Luke is a blogger, writer and writing coach. She’s just released a brand new ebook in her popular Blogger’s Guide series: The Blogger’s Guide to Irresistible Ebooks. If you’d like to write an ebook that your readers can’t wait to snap up, click here and check it out today.