by Brad | Aug 20, 2019 | Blog
If you’re a business owner who writes his or her own copy, this is for you.
If you’re a pro copywriter… this is also for you! (But hopefully more of a reminder to keep you on top)
One thing I’ve noticed recently is a disconnect between the product being sold, and the message being used to sell it. All in all it’s not terrible across the board, but I’ve been seeing a lot of products just miss the mark.
I’d like that to end and for everyone to sell more…
So I’m sharing a strategy I’ve developed to make sure that my copy CONNECTS with buyers!
I use this strategy when I’m writing emails for sales funnels, sales pages, and squeeze pages. It’s how I’ve been blessed to work with some of the top players in our industry, and how more keep coming!
And again in my quest to help everyone sell MORE… here it is:
No. 1: Create two ideal buyer characters that you can ‘speak’ to each time you write for a product or service.
At first glance this might seem like a lot of work but the reality is each product is going to speak to a different type of consumer and their current goals/fears (both of which drive sales). We might say that an options product might cater more towards an engineering mindset versus a penny stock offer that’s more interested in the get rich quick angle.
Now the reason I have two is to cover both the goals/fears angle of a buyer depending on the MARKET! Here’s where financial copy is special because it’s so driven by the stock market and it’s volatility. I mean honestly, you can have new/fresh copy almost WEEKLY!
Then depending on market conditions, you cater the copy to fit the market and your ideal buyer.
Note: Sometimes the customer will be different depending on products and services. So analyze the products benefits and problem solutions and see how that speaks to your buyer character.
No. 2: Know the market conditions and political news that could influence your buyer!
Even living in Africa, I always read the news for a general sentiment of what’s happening in the world. It may seem simple but checking in on the news helps me to speak directly to the people who I want to reach by knowing what’s actually affecting their everyday lives.
To use the options product example from above, we have an engineer type as our generalization of our customer… now the news breaks that Trump is approving 10X more HB1 visas in 2020 than in 2019. You and I might read over that, but our engineer who’s moving towards the end of his career but has 2 kids in college that he needs to pay for, that GUT CHECKS HIM!
He’s thinking the worst. He’s potentially panicked that his job could be on the line and how will he pay for his kids college…
See? Kinda simple if you’re paying attention and can see those opportunities in the market and your product.
No. 3: and this one is crazy… Talk to customers!
I would encourage every copy writer or somebody who wants to do persuasive marketing in any capacity to do customer service and actually get to know the people who are buying your products.
Again it seems so simple but being able to read customer emails, respond to customer emails and just in general interact with customers will give you a much better sense of how to solve their problems, help them achieve their dreams and how your product fits into those two categories.
Simple right?
But deep enough that if you make the above into your writing strategy whenever you write copy…you’ll improve 10X!
Good luck,
Brad
P.S. If you’d like a free copy consult, just ask. I’d love to help you tighten up your copy and get to know your two buyer characters!
Have a great one!
by Brad | Dec 4, 2018 | Blog
Speed…
Anytime I think of the word speed the scene from ‘Cars’ comes to mind when Lighting McQueen is in this trailer hyping himself up before the big race…yes you can blame my kids lol.
But what ALSO comes to mind is speed in marketing.
So the question becomes how fast are you?
Can you change out pages within a day or two in order to try to improve conversions?
How quickly can you write an email funnel or TWO? 3 days or 15?
If a strategy you work hard to build turns out to be a flop, are you able to pivot to a new strategy using existing assets or build NEW assets? 1 week…3?
What I’m getting at is the difference between success and struggle.
“If you’re able to make changes quickly, then you’ll stay ahead of the curve in your OWN business cycle.”
If it takes you 4 weeks to change strategies how much time has been lost making revenue due to a delay in copy, or a new page not coming together quickly, or something like actually TRADING gets in the way?
Copy delay, page issues, life…those are all NORMAL things that slow down the success of your marketing.
So the question you have to ask yourself is this…
See what I’ve seen a LOT of recently is the inability to get ahead of the curve after getting SO far behind…then the strategy they banked so much time, effort, and capital into, turns out to be a flop simply because the market has changed.
Then it’s either a quick business death…or a slow painful one.
Either way, it can happen to you.
So…
Are you fast enough?
If yes, AWESOME! Keep it up and you’ll keep driving revenues forward!
If no, why?
You KNOW that you need to, so why aren’t you? Not enough time? Think you can’t do it? Not your area of expertise?
I totally understand.
Here’s your solution: Give me a call.
Let’s jump on a quick call so I can see if I can help you get to the WHY and then the HOW of the solution!
No obligation to work with me if we chat on the phone. And frankly you might not be the right fit.
But that doesn’t mean you should miss a FREE opportunity to put my 11 years and millions of dollars in revenue generated to work for you.
Email me or Farra directly to setup a call so we can see if make your 2019 THE BEST ONE EVER!
Brad@bradstafford.com Farra@bradstafford.com
Hope to chat soon!
Brad
by Brad | Nov 27, 2018 | Blog, Featured
Raise your hand if you’re on like 50 or more email lists…
Right…so was I until about 9 months ago.
That’s when I cut the ‘fat’ from my inbox and my writing, my funnels, and my REVENUES exploded!!
Before you say ‘ok Brad I’ll get off a couple of email lists, adios!” Please hear me out…
Because if you want to TRULY make more money and save time, you need to follow my SIMPLE plan.
Cool?
Ok, so for me, and you, and probably everyone else, you’re on those lists to actually learn something. See what others are doing, and testing it on your audience.
You saw an ad at some point that you said ‘oh that looks cool’ and clicked. And you thought that you might be able to glean some new methods to apply to your own business!
Years ago it was an AWESOME source of ideas of how to improve!
But today…not so much.
It really started when I realized I was spending about a hour or more a day, just DELETING emails that were either old, or from people I don’t follow anymore, etc etc.
Such a time suck!
But I didn’t opt out of everything at once, I had to have a plan that actually allowed me to still get premium content that challenged me, and improved my revenues.
Here’s the PLAN I executed a while back:
This is step one in your journey to make more money, save a TON of time, and improve your business.
When you’re watching a horse race, do you watch the horses at the front or the back?
THE FRONT!! That’s right!
Same is true with your inbox.
If you know I’m working with someone, and that person is making a TON of money…READ THEIR EMAILS! We’re doing something right!
We’ve got the messaging, timing, content, sales pages, squeeze pages, ads, etc etc that ARE WORKING!
And if you know someone who’s struggling, and their content isn’t great, and the sales pages aren’t compelling…CUT IT! Trust me you won’t miss it.
The ‘WIN’ here is two part:
First, you’re putting QUALITY INTO YOUR MIND and cutting crap out. If you read books by bad writers, will your writing improve…or get worse? You get it.
Second, by cutting junk you’ll free up a TON of time. Because you don’t always ‘delete’ the email right away. You might linger and see if what you’re expecting has improved…and when it hasn’t…you delete. But you’ve wasted 5 minutes.
See??
Never steal. Never. You’ll get caught and you’ll look like a fool.
Trust me. I’ve been doing this for 11 years (HOLY COW REALLY!?!?) and when someone steals they get busted. Never steal.
You analyze and adapt.
You HAVE to do this simply because YOU ARE UNIQUE!!
Just because Fernando and Palm Beach Letter are launching a huge webinar with a celebrity, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you.
Jeff and Jason with RagingBull sharing their winning trades is KILLING it for them…but might not work for you.
HOWEVER…they’re doing SOMETHING right, so analyze what they’re doing and how it COULD be adapted to YOU.
It takes a lot of time and introspective analysis to crack the code of why something is working for someone else, and how that code could be applied to the assets that YOU have.
And it’s often more than what you would classify as ‘assets’ like ebooks, videos, products, etc etc.
Often you’re not even aware of the intangible assets that you have! Sometimes you need a third party to clarify what makes you…YOU. Those are the assets you need to leverage and apply to the parts of the decoded success plan that you get by following the quality people.
Make sense?
Little confused?
Probably. But that’s ok.
If you ask me ANYTHING about a straddle option trade I’d be drooling on myself trying to wrap my brain around it!!
HOPEFULLY you’re not overwhelmed with step two as that’s the hard one. But the idea is that you’ve cut out so much junk from your inbox you’re only reading Pulitzer Prize winners.
So your inbox will only leave you the golden nuggets to analyze and ADAPT.
Then start SMALL.
Start with what you can do.
If it’s a headline style/font, then try it.
If it’s the timing on the emails…adjust yourself.
Is it messaging that’s more positive? Try it.
But keep a close eye to make sure that your baseline numbers do not DIP BECAUSE OF YOUR TESTING!
Numbers should be improving with these tests, that’s why it’s small, and manageable.
If you’re doing it on your own, it’s gotta be small.
But if you’ve got a dedicated person/team (like ME!) working with you, you can do a LOT more and cut right to what SHOULD really be working for you.
Because if you’re working with someone who’s focused on marketing, then success should come faster simply because that person/team can analyze YOU and apply the things that SHOULD work based on their own testing…vs you testing a bunch of stuff based on your gut.
I’ve got 2 openings for consulting clients for 2019…contact me TODAY for guarantees and costs.
No obligation, FREE, one hour phone consult.
Brad@bradstafford.com or Farra@bradstafford.com
Talk soon and good luck!
Brad
P.S. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are…YOU CAN IMPROVE and I can help you. But you’d better contact me ASAP!
by Brad | Jun 6, 2018 | Blog
This week I had a great conversation with a group that, in my eyes, is ROCKING!
Their funnels are great, they have awesome products, and they’re actually helping traders.
But the conversation wasn’t all good as they shared with me a PAINFUL stat:
$55,461.00 spent on Facebook
$4,200.00 in sales.
Now, they’re generating a TON of organic traffic and leads, as well as YouTube where they’re getting ROI’s that allow them to continue to invest DAILY in those channels.
But they’ve tried everything to make Facebook work as they know that it’s a source with massive potential.
They told me how they tried running campaigns internally…with little success…and have outsourced their FB ads to 3 different agencies…with NO success. After chatting for a while, I shared with them a couple secrets that I’ll share with you now.
First, if their funnels and offers are converting on OTHER ad channels, then that’s not necessarily their problem. They have the EPC/EPL data to show they’re making positive ROI on all other advertising channels, but Facebook keeps missing.
As my friend Justin Brook has taught me: analyze the data and path the prospect. This company IS pathing well…but the data from their FB campaigns is showing failure.
I recommended that they test multiple funnels and squeeze pages, as well as price points on their Facebook traffic to see if that moves the needle. Often it’s just messaging and pricing that could make a difference.
But I told them, quite frankly, that this would only make minimum impact on their bottom line. Their BIGGEST issue lies elsewhere.
Here it is: If they have funnels and offers that are converting on other channels…why not Facebook? Simple: it’s the AUDIENCE!
Ads are being shown to an unqualified, unengaged, and downright crappy audience! They tried all the ‘tricks’ suggested by the agencies, but still kept coming up short.
They might have gotten more clicks…but those clicks never materialized into results.
This is one thing we at TradersNewsMedia learned…it’s ALL ABOUT THE AUDIENCE!!
If our clients have decent funnels, we can find their buying audience for them…but it’s taken YEARS, literally millions of dollars, and LOTS of headaches to build the best trading audiences.
So here’s the takeaway for YOU:
Facebook is a channel that we’ve mastered for the trading niche and our clients results speak for themselves (Click here to read our CLIENT REVIEWS).
We do not work with dozens of clients…so if you don’t have a goal to SCALE, AND know your conversions please just continue to read my articles and apply what you can.
HOWEVER…
If you want to SCALE into Facebook, know your numbers, and want to prep for a HUGE Fall then contact today: brad@bradstafford.com.
To everyone else…HAVE A GREAT DAY!
Brad
by Brad | Apr 17, 2018 | Blog
This last quarter has been very busy for me and I’m sorry I haven’t shared more! Coming back from CapeTown in November and jumping into business just kept me too distracted and busy to clear some head space to share with you. I’ve traveled a LOT, worked with some awesome clients, and have finally been able to come up for air to actually report back to you especially about marketing!
Sorry for that, but I’ll be back in the saddle moving forward to give you more insights in the future!
OK so let’s dive into what KILLED in Q1 and what will work in Q2:
Advertorials
Sometimes they’re called ‘sponsored’ articles, but the point is the same – content with a call to action (CTA) that pretends to be an article. All the big players are using them and using them WELL to generate leads and drive sales.
The CTA being used can be a video sales letter (VSL) or a lead generation offer, but if you want to reach more people then you’d better figure out advertorials asap. One big reason why they’re getting even more popular is that the advertorial itself actually warms up prospects better than straight to lead generation offers or sales videos/letters.
But you’ve got to do it RIGHT in order to win.
First. You need to determine WHAT you want to offer. What product or lead generation offer do you want to promote? If you’re pushing a lead gen offer, consider that you’ll want to educate people and solve their problem with your lead gen. If you’re pushing a VSL or straight to order, then consider that you’ll have another page to really hype them and sell them.
Second. You’ll need to produce content that’s UNIQUE and ‘scroll worthy’. When I say ‘scroll worthy’. I mean that your content is good enough, and draws the reader down/deeper into the content…therefore closer to your CTA and better informed about the topic problem that you’re about to solve for them.
Third. Your goal should be to educate the audience so WHEN (not if!) they click on your CTA they’ll be a warm lead. The content should educate in order to get the prospect open to whatever your offering. If it’s a sector, an idea, or whatever, the better you can educate your potential prospect the better they’re going to convert on WHATEVER you offer them.
This will take practice, guidance, and patience as it’s gonna be hard! You’ll spend a good bit of money during your testing phase, but do not quit on it.
Working with a new client who’s been able to share a TON of research and data with me and what he found (spending 50k per day) is that your key performance indicator (KPI) will vary depending on SOURCE of traffic hitting the advertorial.
Psychological Pathing of Funnels and Products
This is more of a get back to BASICS…but at higher levels…topic.
Recently I let that muscle weaken while working with a client and thankfully got a slap upside my head to see what I was missing! Psychological Funnel and Product Pathing…It’s a muscle that you just have to work on in order to stay in the mindset of your prospect to best guide them down the path that YOU want them to go.
From the start of my career I learned to always make a ‘mental mock-up’ of my buyer and speak DIRECTLY to him/her. Get into his brain, his fears, his greed, and really speak your product into that gap in their lives to encourage them to buy. Because our goal as marketers and funnel builders is to help guide the prospect towards the solution of their problem (that’s inside the product we’re selling).
But here are two NEW ideas that I want you to now take into account:
- HOW are they getting into your lead gen marketing funnel. It depends on what offer you have out there that’s generating the lead. If it’s an ebook on ‘options basics’ then it makes NO sense to try to sell them your highest level options course…right? But if they come in on a ‘delta trading strategies for intraday profits’ course then that high level options course makes sense.
- Next, you need consider HOW they first BUY. If they are buying your intro options product then you want to step them up (or across or down) from there appropriately based on their purchasing history knowledge. Most of it is assumption, but it’s safe to assume that if they’re buying an intro product, they’re not YET ready to buy your highest level product. They might need another product sold to them BEFORE they can get to that level.
Think about what’s going to help them GET to that high ticket item you have. It depends on HOW they enter the lead funnel, and HOW they enter the buyer funnel.
One of the best I’ve seen do this is Justin and his wife Chaunna at AdSkills.com. Their whole product/lead gen focus is on pathing customers towards high-end buyers. And frankly if you want to become a master of ads then BUY HIS STUFF…yes, it’s an affiliate link and yes, you should buy it because it’ll help you.
OK now I need YOUR feedback…what do YOU think will work in Q2 that you can use in your own marketing?
Different types of lead gen? New product ideas?
Let’s keep the insight train going!
Best,
Brad
P.S. I have two phone coaching slots open if you’re interested in having me help you and your team with a specific project get from start to finish in the most cost effective way possible. Contact Farra@bradstafford.com to set-up the first FREE phone call to see if I can help you reach your goals.
