You’ve been getting into learning about writing copy. The book you read last night said that anytime you want to use I, use you. This connects with readers and people only care about themselves. Getting people to think about themselves and not you is key. Communication by words is a powerful tool and you want to learn it the best that you can in order to wield its power.
I’d never write like that but it shows the strength of “you.” In order to connect with people, what you write has to make them feel something within. Writing about yourself is the easiest thing to write about but it rarely brings out emotion in other people unless there is an emotional story that goes along with it where people say to themselves, “I’ve been there and know exactly how they are feeling.” This is empathy. Empathy in good copy writing is done in the reverse. You think of the other person, then put yourself in their shoes and write to them. First you need to know who you are writing to.
Target Audience
A good exercise is to define the audience. Let’s use this blog.
- 95% of the readers are male and the rest are probably hermaphrodites. Girls don’t read this blog because I don’t write about anything that interests them. It’s always alcohol, running, boobs, and sports and not clothes, food, yoga, and romantic novels. Not one time has a girl come up to me and told me they loved my blog. I secretly hope there is a flock of closet readers but they must be stuck in Narnia.
- Age range is 20-35. My friends are on the high end and I’m sure I get some friends from Sam’s blog who stumble in. Direct traffic is about 70-100 people a day. Upped if I post the link on Facebook. I can count on my hands and feet the amount of people who I KNOW read the blog. That amount of direct traffic is staggering.
- What does this audience like? Probably the same things I do or else people wouldn’t visit. It’s possible they even like me which is the sole reason they come to the blog. Based on current declining traffic, I’m starting to think these are the only people who are actually coming to the blog. Rando’s just see a page from a Google search, read for a few seconds and skip off into the abyss. This should bring us to the ultimate problem with the blog.
Writing to You When It’s All Me
A good website utilizes posts that make YOU feel something but everything about this website is about ME. What I do. What I think. What I care about. Sure I get some traffic on posts about pornstars and hot celebs, but that’s not the website’s theme. It’s a one time post. If I want to keep making headway, I have to start drawing people in with useful information and not cheap thrills.
Here is where everything comes full circle. The posts I have made in the past are not bad posts. Some are informative, some are opinionated, and some are plain ridiculous, but I’m learning what needs to be done with every post. The post has to start with an end goal in sight.
Say I want to review the running shoes that I like so much (and I will probably do). My post has to be phrased not only why I like them but also why you will like them. Then once I get a post that has my valuable insight from so much running while keeping the end goal of the reader in mind, then I start pasting that link all over the place. Runners World Forums. Facebook pages. Shoe company reviews. Anywhere and everywhere. I promise that a post like that (something I know a lot about with the intent of sharing info with other runners) and advertised to hell, will see traffic. I’ll make it my mission and in the next few days you’ll see the post and then I’ll share my results. I know I used I a lot in those last two paragraphs but it’s strictly to inform YOU what I plan to do to make something work. We’ll see if this works.
Any post with Bill Haverchuck is a good one.
I can’t tell if the gifs are well received or not. I presume they are not good on mobile devices but when I preview the post on my monitor, I think it improves the post.