Copywriter | Marketing & Optimization Consultant | Customer Advocate
Inspiration comes from many places. Many might even say they’re “swiped,” depending on how it’s done.
You’ve probably heard this quote before:
Good artists copy, great artists steal
Pablo Picasso
However, it has been done for centuries by many famous artists, including Shakespeare.
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I’ve decided to start a semi-regular blog post category of small business tools and resources for small business owners. (We need to stick together, after all.) Eventually, all of these recommendations will be added to a Resources page. But for now, I’m going to start with this short list.
These are the tools I feel every business needs to have so they can grow their email list and create a solid customer base. I have used, or currently use all of these. Yes, I do have affiliate links for these tools, so you will be benefitting me if you click on the link and buy.
But that’s not why I recommend these small business tools. I recommend them because they are easy to use, easy to understand, well supported and will help you grow your business. That is what this post is all about, growing your business.
Everyone will have their own opinion on which small business tools are the best. This series of posts simply reflects my opinion. Agree or disagree, try them, don’t try them. The most important thing is to find what works for you and your business.
Now that I’ve made my disclaimers, here’s my list of the top 3 small business tools you must have to grow your business exponentially.
Leadpages is an excellent landing page and lead generation software suite. It’s SaaS (software as a service) based, so you purchase a monthly or yearly membership. I recommend getting the Pro yearly account, which works out to $49 a month.
With Leadpages, you can quickly and easily grow your email list and promote your products. I use these 3 Leadpages’ features regularly:
Leadpages began as landing page template software. The company provides over 200 landing page templates (some free, some available for purchase through their Marketplace) for you to use as a base to create your own landing pages. (I wrote a post about why you need more landing pages last week, just in case you missed it.)
Templates range from very simple squeeze pages that take about 5 minutes to set up, to long-form sales pages, where you can include video, pictures and lots of text. You can also create your own templates with their new Drag and Drop builder.
Leadpages integrates smoothly with over 20 email service providers (ESPs) and can be integrated with just about any other ESP, with a bit of effort. Once your ESP is integrated, all of the contact information you request on your landing pages will be instantly entered into your ESP lists.
All of the Leadpages templates are optimized for conversion in terms of location of call to action buttons, photos, videos, etc. You can set up automatic delivery of a file (Word doc, PDF, etc, MP3, etc) when someone gives you their email address on a landing page. It all goes through the Leadpages system, so you don’t have to worry about having an additional service to manage this.
Leadpages lets you publish your pages in 4 ways:
Here are a few landing pages I’ve created for myself with Leadpages standard templates or the Drag and Drop builder:
For those of you wondering, “what the heck is a ‘Leadbox?’” It’s that little pop-up box that appears when you click on several of the buttons along the right side of this page. They look like this:
Leadbox from the “Follow My Journey” button to the right.
Leadboxes are an easy way to add a form to any web page. You create a Leadbox in the Leadpages software, then copy the HTML code and paste it wherever you want it on your web page in the “Text” view.
I use them all the time to capture email addresses on the blog posts where I give away checklists, guides or other content upgrades. Again, Leadpages will automatically deliver whatever file I attach to the Leadbox directly to whoever gives me their email address.
I get analytics for each Leadbox, so I know how many people have clicked on it and how many people have actually given me their contact information.
You can put as many Leadboxes on a page as you want to. I usually have 2-3 on my pages (depending on whether I’m giving something away on a blog post) but I’ve seen many more on other websites.
Leadpages has a built in SMS Text Message system. It only works for incoming lead generation, so you can’t use it to send text messages to your customers. However, it’s an amazing tool to use anywhere people have their mobile phones.
It’s a pretty simple system. You choose a unique identifier for your campaign. Then you set up your Leaddigit to deliver a lead magnet to anyone who texts your unique identifier to a specific phone number or short code, then texts you their email address.
The text conversation looks like this:
So if you text the word HARPMUSIC (all one word, ignore your autocorrect) to the short code 44222, you’ll get a free song.
It takes less than a minute to set up a Leaddigit, and I find them incredibly useful at conferences, performances, live events and speaking engagements. There are hundreds of ways to use Leaddigits. Here are some ideas I’ve seen in action:
Leadpages has other great ways to collect leads and make sales. They’re coming up with new lead generation tools all the time. Their entire platform is incredibly easy to use. (I’m a copywriter, not a tech person. I can use everything in my Leadpages account.)
Leadpages has an exceptional customer support team. If they can’t answer my question right away, they get back to me as soon as humanly possible. They’re also excellent problem solvers and can find work-arounds for most issues I, or anyone else, comes up with.
Leadpages does not offer a free trial, but they do offer a 30-day guarantee. If you don’t like Leadpages, just tell them within 30 days and they’ll give you a full refund. If you cancel after that, it will be pro-rated, according to your plan.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I used to work for Leadpages. But that’s only one of the reasons I recommend this tool. It really is an awesome small business tool.)
Once you’ve gotten all of your lead generation campaigns up and ready, you do need somewhere for all of those exciting new leads to go. Drip is an email service provider, or ESP. Drip integrates with lots of different apps and programs, including Leadpages.
I like Drip as a small business tool because it’s incredibly easy to use, but it gives advanced options for automation. You can set up a sophisticated email follow-up sequence without having to know absolutely everything there is to know about automation and coding.
Drip also gives you the option to resend an email a specified number of days later to people on your list who haven’t opened the original. They’ve got some other spiffy features that I haven’t really played with yet, but I’m looking forward to learning more.
Again, full disclosure, Drip was recently bought by Leadpages. Drip offers a free 21-day trial of their full service. After that, it depends on how many subscribers you have. You can have up to 2,500 subscribers to get their basic plan, which costs $45.
Square is the original independent, low-cost, no monthly fee credit card processing company. A lot of other companies have come in and offered the same services, but I still really like Square as a company and as a service.
They’re already in compliance with the new credit card regulations, offering chip card readers. One of the nice things about Square is that you can either order a card reader directly from Square, or pick one up at Best Buy, Office Max or other, similar big-box stores. That way, if your reader goes out in the middle of a busy day, you can pick another one up right away.
Their system is easy to use and easy to manage. You get paid for whatever credit card charges you accept the next day, via direct deposit to your bank account. You can send invoices, set up loyalty programs, and manage your employees’ time cards and payroll.
Square even offers marketing tools, including a website builder, an email service provider and a calendar scheduling system. (FYI, I use different small business tools for many of these functions, but Square does offer these services.)
Again, there are many other companies that offer card readers and credit card processing. I recommend that you use the one that works best for you. But I really like Square.
I’ve given you three of my favorite small business tools. I’m sure I’ll give more in the future. But I’m curious to know what you use. Some of them may help me out. Tell me about them in the comments.
Good heavens! I was so excited by the video post I wrote last week, I totally forgot to write my monthly freelance copywriter update.
So here we are at the sixth month since I started this blog and this process of becoming a full-time freelance copywriter. It’s been a very interesting journey so far. (The clovers both came from my yard, they’re for luck.)
Note, I say “so far.” I expect this to be a long journey, one that I sincerely hope will last for years. I expect these posts to morph into something else as my career progresses.
For now, I can honestly say, I haven’t reached my goal. And that’s okay.
This freelance copywriter thing is a journey. As noble and exciting as my goal of reaching the point where I was earning $6000 a month in 6 months was, it’s not how things turned out. The nice thing about goals is, they’re something you strive for. If you don’t reach them, you keep striving. When you do, you set another goal.
So I’ll keep striving to reach my goal.
The good thing is, it’s becoming more realistic. I’m getting more contacts from potential clients. I have a meeting with one today. Part of that is because I’ve passed the final tests and become a Leadpages Conversion Marketing Certified Expert. I’m listed in their directory now and I’ve had several potential clients contact me through there.
I’m also getting better at marketing myself as a freelance copywriter. I swear, that’s one of the hardest things to do. I’m great at promoting other people’s businesses, but talking about myself feels…weird. I feel like tooting my own horn is inappropriate. It’s not. I love being a freelance copywriter and I’m really good at it. So I’ll keep working on that.
I’m working on projects for current clients and some of those may become regular work. (At least, that’s my goal for them. These clients could use the help so they can run their businesses and not worry about their marketing.)
I’m reaching out to new potential clients through these blog posts and with two new landing pages. One is a free report offering 5 simple copywriting tricks that will engage your customers and get them to buy. The other talks about how a landing page can get you more customers and grow your business. (Yes, I linked to both of them. Please feel free to share.)
I’m attending 2 conferences in one week, because I’m insane. One is the Leadpages conference, CONVERTED, the other is a conference for freelance copywriters, AWAI’s Bootcamp and Job Fair. I expect to make more potential client contacts there as well, and to convert some of those folks into clients.
Despite the fact that I haven’t reached my goal, I’m not upset. I’m quite happy. I may not be where I wanted to be by this time, but I am making money doing what I love. My business is growing, I’m getting new clients and learning lots along the way.
If you’re traveling along this same path with me, I hope you’re not discouraged if you don’t meet your goals. Instead, I hope you keep striving to meet those goals and when you do, you get to celebrate, just like I will when I meet mine.
As always, thank you for following along on my journey. Please do comment below. I love to hear from you about what you think of my progress and how you’re doing on your own journey.
Cheers,
Tanya
“Be conversational. What does that even mean?” I hear you ask.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary it means:
I’m going to focus on that second definition: “Something that is similar to a spoken conversation.” Obviously, you and I aren’t talking right now. You’re reading words on a screen that I wrote earlier. But because of the style and tone of my writing, you may feel like we’re having a conversation.
Why?
Well, to start with, I used a question I thought you might ask as the opening line to this blog post. Second, I’ll use the words “you” and “I” a lot in this post. Third, I assume that you’re interested in what I have to say. So I write about the topic as though there was a back-and-forth rapport between us.
What does this get me? Well, a few things. It gets your attention, it keeps you reading, and a conversational style makes it easier for you to digest and process what I’m trying to get across.
Think about the last time you had to read something written in a formal writing style: It was probably very dry, boring and hard to wade through. Your attention probably wandered a lot and you had to drag it back to focus on the page, as much as you didn’t want to. You probably wanted to be just about anywhere else than sitting there, reading that thing, whatever it was.
Now think about the last time you read something written in a conversational style, like this blog post. It probably grabbed your attention and lead you through the entire piece. You probably really enjoyed whatever it was you read. You probably mentioned that piece to a friend later on, because you enjoyed it and you remembered the point it made.
You received a benefit from reading that piece.
Now turn that around and look at your current marketing. How do your customers view the tone of your marketing? If your marketing tone is formal and dry, your potential customers may not be getting the benefit you’re trying to give them. They may not hear that you have the solution to their problem, so they may not become customers.
If your marketing tone is conversational, your potential customers are more likely to get that benefit. They’re also more likely to become your customers.
So how do you make that happen? Here are a few techniques you can use.
I wrote a different blog post about this a few weeks ago, but it always bears repeating. You’ll notice I do that throughout this blog post. I’m talking directly to you, not at you.
More importantly, I’ve made this post about you. You are the focus. You receive the benefit. You find the solution to your problem.
Notice a pattern here? The word “you.”
Use it throughout your copy and your potential customers will feel like you’re interested in them and their problems. (Which is what you want, since you have the solution to their problems.)
For more on this subject, please check out the other blog post, I think you’ll enjoy it.
I know. It goes against every rule of grammar you learned in grade school. But when we have a conversation, we use contractions all the time. I’ve used them throughout this post. (See, I just did it again.)
Using contractions does two things:
“What does that mean?” I hear you cry.
This is another one of those weird grammar things that you probably internalized in grade school and don’t even realize you do (if you do it).
Here’s an example of writing in the active voice:
Sarah is the focus of this sentence. Sarah takes action in relation to the ball.
Here’s an example of writing in the passive voice:
The ball is the focus of the sentence. Sarah, though she was the one kicking the ball, is passive.
What does this mean for your marketing?
Active language sounds more compelling. Therefore, it’s more likely to get your customers to… well… take action. And since that’s what you want them to do, write in the active voice.
As I’ve mentioned before, I used to write marketing copy for lawyers. The most common complaint I heard was, “This isn’t sophisticated enough. My clients are smarter than this, and other lawyers will think I’m stupid if this is on my website.”
Okay. I agree, to a point. If your audience is particle physicists, write to particle physicists. They’ll get what you’re trying to say.
But (to use the lawyer example again) if your audience is people who may or may not have a high school degree and need a lawyer because they’ve been arrested, you need to write in language they’ll understand. They won’t understand legal jargon and complicated ideas. They’ll skip right over your website and go on to someone who “gets them.”
“Okay, so how do I write to my audience’s reading level?” You ask.
“How do I figure out my Flesch-Kincaid score?”
Well, if you use Microsoft Word, it’s easy:
From now on, you’ll see this box after you run your spell check:
The readability statistics are at the bottom of the list. The higher your Flesch Reading Ease score, and the lower your Flesch-Kincaid grade level, the easier it is to read your writing.
If you don’t use Word, I recommend the Hemingway Editor. It includes the readability statistics and it points out which sentences are hard to read. It also helps you remove adverbs and complicated words, and it shows where you’ve used the passive voice.
“But isn’t writing to my audience’s reading level like talking down to them?” You may wonder.
No. Not at all. Most marketing copy is written at a 7th grade reading level or lower. People are busy. They’re not going to take the time to read something they can’t understand right away.
Ernest Hemingway wrote at a 4th grade level. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote around the 6th grade level. Seth Godin writes at the 7th grade level. Don’t believe me? Check out this chart of Flesch-Kincaid scores for various writers.
Now that you have a bunch of tools to improve the tone of your marketing, go use them! I’ve put together the Conversational Language Checklist for you, so you remember to include each of these tools in your writing from now on.
As always, if this seems like it’s too much for you to handle, I’m happy to help you with your marketing projects. As you can see, I have the conversational language thing down.
Do you use conversational language in your marketing? If not, why not? Tell me about it in the comments section.
