HATZ COPYWRITING

Yesterday, I wrote about sales letters that achieved results.

Would you like to know how to write your own sales letters that bring in clients and help you achieve resutls? 

No, it doesn’t necessarily involve hiring me to help you, but it could. 

I’m going to give you the exact template I’ve used for years.

This template has allowed me to write sales letters that move people to take action. 

To get your own copy of this template visit — Sales Letter Template

Start writing better sales letters today!

I was writing sales letters and emails for a real estate investor - Jason.

Due to those letters, he met with a family selling their parent’s house. The house had been vacant for a year and the children were taking care of all the maintenance and utilities for this empty house.

The letters piqued their curiosity, and they wanted to talk with Jason, who claimed to be fair and transparent. So he met with them, answered their questions, and got the house under contract. 

What you need to understand is these siblings shopped around. They received information from other investors. 

You know the letters, they say things like: 

“Please allow me to offer my condolences on the passing of Jane Smith. I’ve experienced the loss of a loved one and I know first-hand this can be a very difficult time. I am sincerely sorry for your loss.”

“The reason I am contacting you is that I understand you are the Executor of the estate.”

Or this: 

“The probate period for the estate of Jane Smith should be nearing the end, assuming, of course, there were no legal snags along the way which is often the case here in Florida. I was wondering if you had decided whether or not to sell the property located at 652 Harding Place in Tampa?”

These two letters are probate examples which are one type of letter. These examples are insincere and full of what’s in it for the investor, not the benefit to the seller. 

With refocused content in his letters, we help sellers see past the situation and focus on the benefits of working with Jason. He won the deal. He continues to use the letters today to earn clients. 

How about you? 

• Are your sales letters and emails speaking about the real-world problems your clients are having?

 

• Are they all about your investing company without stating the benefit to the seller?

 

• Or do they placate their feelings like talking to a  2-year old? 

 

• Do you provide solutions? 

 

• How about the next steps they can take to make those solutions a reality? 

They should. 

If not, you need to speak with your marketing director to see what you can do differently to start helping people. 

Or call me and we can write some great emails and letters together. You can also visit my website for my list of other services. 

Social media posts are polished and perfected before posted. At least, that is how the majority of people publish their content; cleaned up, edited, and blemish-free.  

There are a few people out there who are willing to wing it. I admire them for putting themselves out there. 

While I'm not willing to shoot a video on this topic, I will share some of the business insights I've had in the four years I've been a copywriter. 

It's hard. 


When I first started, I thought I could learn the craft, practice, and become good enough for people to hire me on the spot. While my writing has been spot on for some clients, I will admit I've had a couple of challenges along the way with a few as well. 


Respond to challenges


When those challenges arose, I took them for what they were, the feedback I received and took a good hard look at what they were saying.  In both cases, I missed the mark.  I did.


I didn't dig hard enough to portray the brand voice in a way that my clients wanted and needed. 


So I did what any good copywriter does, I continued learning. I read more books. I participated in more personal development. I became a better copywriter. 


Keep on Keeping on


The next hurdle has been marketing consistently. Most of my clients are project-based. We work together on their website, or direct mail letters or email follow up messages, and the project is complete. 


I touch base to see if I can help them with any other writing projects, but for the most part, when the first project is over, they do not need my services. They are bringing in more clients, and the new marketing is working to their advantage. 


However, I keep following up. Not necessarily to see if I can help them, but to learn about the results they've had since we worked together. This is the only way I can verify that the piece is performing and bringing results. 


What now? 


As in any business, repeat clients and retainer deals are the best forms of consistent work. I send out new marketing messages to find new clients daily — I follow-up with past clients monthly.


And until my calendar is full, I do everything I can to keep current clients happy. If that means I learn more, or I edit a piece based on my client's instructions, or I work on a customized retainer deal. Happy clients = happy business. 


Four years has taught me that it's not easy and can be very challenging. But it's how we respond that can make all the difference.


I'd love to say it's been sunshine and roses, but the fact is, it has often been partly cloudy with a chance of crabgrass. However, I will keep helping businesses improve their marketing and content writing, and I will continue to grow in the process. 


What pain points have you had in your business, and how did you handle them?

It’s true when your clients are happy they will tell everyone about you. They’ll tell their friends, their family even their hair stylist how pleased they are with your products and services. 

The problem is that people forget. 

When it comes time for them to look for those product and services, finding the right company to help like is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It's especially confusing when most companies sound like others in their industry. They are saying the same thing as their competitors and offering the same services. 

Now imagine this, your client sharing a story about how they had been looking for over a year to find the perfect house but they kept coming up empty-handed. 
They were about to give up when they met you at an open house. You hit it off and understood their plight to find the right home.

They decide to give house hunting one last chance. They schedule a day to talk about what they’re looking for, and you ask the perfect questions to uncover their wants and needs in a new home. 

Throughout the week, you send them suggestions based on their criteria.  You took the time to narrow down the properties you felt would fit them, and you knew there was a winner in the bunch. 

You were right. After visiting each home, they had a hard time deciding which of the three they wanted to offer. They chose the house closest to their children’s school. It had all the amenities they're looking for and room to expand. They submitted an offer. 

The next day you hear back from the listing agent, and your client’s offer was accepted with a clear closing date set. 

Your clients close on their new home, and they can’t stop raving about the fantastic service you provided. 

Why wouldn’t you share that story?  Why wouldn’t you ask your client to take a few minutes to walk through their experience? ​

You don’t have to be a real estate agent or broker to take full advantage of the social proof client success stories can create. Every business should be using client success stories in their marketing mix. 

You may have asked for a testimonial.  However, testimonials are not the same. They leave out all the good parts, like the emotions they felt when talking with you, the problems they faced looking for someone with your products and services, and the overwhelming satisfaction in working with their “favorite” business. 

To best capture those picture-perfect moments, you need a “client success story.” 

These stories are social proof that covers the problems your clients faced, and the solutions and results your service provided. Your “client success stories” can be used on your website as an article, or all across your social media platforms.

Publishing it allows other potential clients not only to see that the closing was successful but step into the shoes of your satisfied client and imagine themselves as the client.

Let's turn your happy clients into a "client success story."

Set up a call to talk about how you can utilize client success stories to your advantage and raise the bar on testimonials and referrals for your business.

You can reach me at 920-858-5105, or email me, eva@hatzcopywriting.com

In a couple well visited networking groups I attend, there are a small percentage of business professionals using LinkedIn. 

​But out of the active users, the actions they describe are still only scratching the surface of what they could be doing. 

I’m guilty of not harnessing the potential of LinkedIn. I’m still using a BMX bike. My training wheels are off but I haven’t graduated to racing yet.

You may be thinking that you don't have time to make changes, contact people and chat with people.

You're right.

You don't have time. 

Which is why you need to have a few pieces in place and schedule of when you will be on LinkedIn to utilize it correctly.  

By ignoring LinkedIn and social media in general, your results won't change. You might be saying it has never brought you leads or grown your network. 

With comments like these, I often find, it's because you are not active on the platform. So let's help you get active and create results. 

The most important action you need to take is just to start! 

First- Take a look at your profile. Do you have an updated-professional headshot? Professional background picture with clues as to your product or service? Does it contain contact information?

Second- You need to update your summary. This should speak to the benefits of doing business with YOU, as a person, with your company being a second string player. Utilizing the right keywords people are using to search for you and your industry in your summary is crucial. 

Third- Are you sharing media about your company? A video? A report? Case study? Any form of education? 

Utilize the networking capabilities!

There are strategic messages you should send when you connect with people. Message showing them you understand their company, sharing how it relates to you and how you can help. 

After they connect there are strategic messages to keep the conversation going. Start by viewing the exchange as a real conversation over a cup of coffee. Use it to learn more about each other and how you each can benefit from each network. 

By using a contact schedule with both individuals and groups you can how your connection base and opening up opportunities.

Share your network with others, after all that’s what LinkedIn should be for—networking. On a monthly bases help someone in your network by sharing their information in a post. Highlight their position and benefits of working with them. This opens them up to others in your network and theirs. 

LinkedIn is powerful if you use it. Even if you’re not perfect with timing, connecting or messaging the key is consistency. Update your profile, make a connection schedule and start your online networking today!
​
To chat about a LinkedIn profile update, comment, message me or connect. Let’s make your profile work for you.

Now social media isn't just about direct selling, however you can do that, of course you can do that. But you should have these eight things in mind when you're ready to post on social media, or make up your messages.

First is reaching a wider audience. Sharing a message that then gets shared by lots of people and gets lots of eyes on your information. That can lead to a broader reach throughout all of your marketing content.

The second goal is building your brand. Now I'm not huge on brand building, but I know that it is really important for your marketing, and so I don't deny that is what we tried to do when we are working with companies is build their brand. But don't let that be a sole focus. You don't want it just to all be about you, you want it to be about the benefits
for your clients.

The third goal is engaging your readers. so you actually want to try to start a conversation. That's what social media is all about, starting a conversation and actually you know interacting with people online just as you would offline.

The fourth part is influence. Now when you are in a position of authority,  you're an expert in your field you have influence. You can teach people things that they need to know. You can tell them about current events or other things that affect your industry. So make sure that you use that influence wisely and broadcast it on social media.

Now part 5 is driving people to places and what we mean by that is  your social media
should then lead to your website where you have other educational pieces that
lead people to learn more about you, your company, your values, how you can help
them, and why they should work with you.

Part 6 Social media shouldn't just be all about your fun time in the office, or all about your pets, or kids, or anything like that. You should also be sharing the reason that they need to visit your website, and why they need to download your report, or why they need to contact you for more information.

Part 7 is customer service. People are ruthless online they're gonna share the best and the worst, but more likely the worst. So be sure that if here's a comment that you deal with it not only publicly, in the correct way, but then privately. Make sure that the internet world knows that you're helping people with the problems customers bring to the table.

The last one is direct sales, so if you are a direct sales company be sure to you share the benefits of your products, all of that can be readily available online through your social media and then leading them to the website to take further action. 

To learn more about social media and how it can benefit your business check out my Social Media Management services.

The algorithms change, but one thing stays the same…relevant, consistent content. 2019 is bringing a renewed focus to domain longevity, review weight, and original, relevant, content.

​Most of the tactics being employed are not new: reviews, keywords, direct mail funnels, follow up autoresponders and videos have been used to increase website visibility for years.

However, most companies, real estate agents, brokers, investors, builders, and property managers are still not utilizing these methods to boost their ranking. If you have a local business and are struggling to get found online here are some of the methods currently being employed to combat the slow slide from page one of Google. ​

Claim your Google My Business listing-This seems obvious. Google wants you to be a player in their ranking games. Over time they want you to rank and pay for ads to drive more traffic. They offer every business a Google My Business listing.

To optimize this listing, claim it, add a relevant, key- message in the description (similar if not the same as your website) and fill in all pertinent information. Google is where you’re going to want to start collecting reviews but more on that in a minute. 

SEO and keywords-If you’re a DIY company and didn’t pay for a platform to start your website on, you will probably be behind in keyboarding and search engine optimization. The longevity of your website also matters but you can create excellent website copy and content to help you rank better in google.

There are some great tools to use to figure out keywords you should be adding to your website content. I prefer SEMrush.com, but you can find a list of free tools at ahrefs.com. Don’t forget to add meta descriptions to your pages and posts, categories and tags. SEO is not a one and done or a quick fix for ailing websites. However, over time with new, relevant and consistent content, good SEO practices will win out, (until the next algorithm change). 
​
Start using video-Video still holds weight in ranking. The use of video is severely underutilized as a way to create relevant content and get found. Your videos don’t have to be long, a couple minute video will produce 300-800 words of content you can pull and utilize in many ways.

You can repurpose a video a minimum of nine times. Check out my repurposing guide for ideas on how.  The more authentic your video, the more your clients will connect with you. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge and educate your clients. 

Direct mail funnels-No direct mail is not dead. It would be best if you were changing up your outreach depending on what you see happening in the market. If you’re seeing more online ads, everyone else is too. The mailbox is always a direct option to contact your client. However, you want to make your letters not only relevant and persuasive, but you also want a couple of clear calls to action.

Lead them to an opt-in form if you have a report or online giveaway. You can also lead them to your educational videos that explain more about why they should do business with you. Don’t give them calling you as the only option. Clients who are not yet ready to buy from you but want to learn more about you won’t call. They want to be able to do some research and find out more.  

Follow-up autoresponders-Do you have someone contact every prospect who calls you, emails you or fills out a form? You should! Think of all the money you’ve spent on acquiring the lead. Then to throw the lead out the window because you didn’t have a timely way to follow-up with them. Ouch! If you receive many phone calls but repeatedly miss them, you’ll want to hire an answering service.

Give them someone to talk to who has a script and can answer simple questions about your company and services. Try to get an email address. If you have their email, keeping in touch is simple. You can set up segmented autoresponders which go out at scheduled intervals to keep in touch with your prospects. 

The key is still in the content. You don’t want to keep asking if they’re ready to buy. You want to give them small educational pieces on the benefits of working with you. An email campaign can stretch out as long as you want and as long as they stay subscribed to your list.

There are some cold email systems out there as well which are still General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant and won’t get you thrown into the spam folder or fined. I like Mailshake, but google cold email systems to find others. 

Reviews- We discussed getting Google reviews to help your ranking. It would help if you also were asking for reviews on Facebook and the Better Business Bureau. Especially for businesses who deal with the public and have a reputation to uphold. The Google algorithm is looking for reviews as a way businesses stay transparent with their clients.

When you have satisfied clients, ask for a review and if possible have them enter it on all three websites. Social proof helps others to decide to work with you too. 

By utilizing these pieces together as a system will make all of your content and marketing more effective over more extended periods.

If you’re looking for help to write your website, content marketing with blogs and social media posting, direct mail letters, marketing emails or autoresponders and video scripts contact me at Hatz Copywriting today. On my website, you can see some of the base packages that I customize for each client.

Take advantage of online and offline marketing systems with content and marketing that speaks to your target audience and persuades them to do business with you.