Confessions, Word Choices, & Websites

This is a little out there and something I noticed this morning when I was doing my morning reading. (I read at least 30 minutes every morning to stimulate my brain. Remember, I’m a learnaholic, so this fuels me and my day. 🙂

When I was reading, I noticed how this writer used the word “but” a lot.

I mean, “but” is an ok word yet in my somewhat limited grammar experience, (Grammarly.com is my friend.) ”but” is a conjunction (i.e., a linking word) that’s used to introduce a contrast. So it always negates what comes before it. (Yeah, I did have to look that up to get the right wording.)

I have a confession – you won’t ever find a “but” in my weekly emails or any of my writing from the past two years. There I said it! whew…

I know you might think this is strange. Two great men I worked with closely – Rob Berkley and Alex Mandossian taught me to use the word “and” or “yet” instead.

I know, strange, right?! And — it works for me.

A friend of mine a while back told me how she stopped using the word “just” in her writing because of an article she read. It talked about how women ought to stop using it because it comes out as apologetic and puts them at a disadvantage.

It was interesting, yet, I still use the word “just,” and I am ‘just’ a bit more careful of how I use it. Hmmmm…

As you can see, I could go on for a while with words, yet this is a weekly email about marketing, mindset, and launches.

So….

Now you know some of my writing quirks.

Let’s get into some content!

I promised to give you some juicy tips from the Traffic and Conversion Summit I attended in San Diego.

There was much talk about funnels, (I personally do not like that word – I use Online Dream Client Experiences) and tactics – like the latest on how to use Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Clubhouse, and more.

You need to know that I don’t get caught up in the hype of all the media tools like Facebook because it’s only part of the puzzle of getting more sales.

In my experience, to create a successful business, you have to have these 3 things all humming along nicely – 1. Right Message – 2. Right Market – 3. Using the Right Media.

If you’re not making the sales you thought you would, it’s because one, two, or all three of those things are off. I could write a book about this, and if you’re interested, I can write a more lengthy post about it. Hit reply and let me know.

Check out these things I learned (or re-learned as I talked about last week. 😉 at the conference from John Jantsch – Duct Tape Marketing—

The dream client customer journey (some say funnel) is not linear. We go to great lengths to create this very sophisticated online dream client experience, yet there are so many ways for people to find out about you.

Let’s focus on one way — Here’s a fascinating statistic that John shared in his presentation — 92% of people will go to a website NOT to buy something.

Hmmm… That’s a pretty interesting stat and one worth paying attention to.

So what does that mean for you?

Your site needs to give them some specific information for them to decide to reach out or not.

Remember when someone goes to your website, they ask themselves these questions unconsciously:

Is this interesting?
Can I trust you?
Is this right for me?

They’re looking for evidence to see if you understand them if they can trust you, if you are in line with their persona, values, etc.

Then, take this a bit further – when they come to your site, all of that above needs to be above the fold. (This is an old publishing term used for content that appeared on the top of the front page of the newspaper when it was folded.) For your website, It means the top part of your home page that’s visible on a device screen.

Essentially your home page needs to convey 3 Things – 1 – Know – how they get to know you and/or your business, 2 – Like – see if they like it, and 3 – Trust – see if the site helps show how they can trust you.

Some things you can do:

Make sure your website, social media, and outreach communicates how you know your dream client’s frustrations, challenges, and issues and how you have a solution for them.
Remember, your website is about THEM, not you.
Be honest, authentic, and transparent.
Make sure you have social proof – Testimonials, logos, etc. of folks, media mentions, businesses you’ve helped, reviews, so they can trust you, etc.
Build your list of Dream Clients – Always offer them something for free – to give them value and get to know you. Then when you reach out to them, always give them lots of valuable content.

Ultimately – It’s not about selling, it’s about using your site to connect and show how they can know, like, and trust you.

Then John shared another big idea, that you can use – that Know, Like and Trust are three stages that will create relationships in your business.

He shared this slide, which I thought was pretty perfect. It shows HOW you can do this on your website and in your marketing.

Yep, there’s a lot of info on this slide.

And, I do think you get the idea – when you look at these three terms as stages, then look at what you can do in each of those stages when it comes to your website and your marketing, it will really help you increase and improve your business.

Next week, I’m going to share how The Ad Girls made a million dollars from a VERY simple ad and basic online dream client experience (aka – funnel).

That’s it for now.

If you have ANY questions, please hit reply and ask away – I’m happy to help you however I can.

NOTE 1: Have you ever read the book Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz? It’s a classic for copywriters. And I just started a Breakthrough Advertising Boot Camp with one of my favorite people – Brian Kurtz, who wrote the book Over Deliver. It’s a hands-on boot camp where I’m learning all the specifics about how to take the copy gold in that book and use it in my business and for my clients.

The book’s been out of print for years and the copies that are out there are big dollars. So Brian worked out an agreement with Eugene’s widow to get the reprint rights and he gives her the proceeds. How cool is that?!

Want a copy? Check it out here. I’m not getting any referral fees for this – I’m just helping Brian spread the word. Also know it’s not a usual book price – it’s $125, yet the going rate for the rogue copies is over $300. Based on all my calls this week and the number of people I gave the URL to, I thought you might want it as well. 🙂

NOTE 2: If you are enjoying my content, it would be a huge compliment to me if you felt inspired to share it with like-minded folks. I would be immensely grateful – thank you

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