Bill, the owner of the business, is analysing his business statistics. He can see his revenue has been dropping for several months and this is a bit of a worry for him. Behind that, he can see that his sales have been dropping for just a little longer. His sales people tell him, however, that it’s not their sales ability that has changed. They just don’t have as many leads as they used to.

So Bill looks at the number of new leads that have been generated and he can see that these, also, have suffered a downturn back there just before the sales dropped off. OK, so why are the new enquiries dropping off? It has to be his marketing efforts have stopped working, or something in the marketing was changed at that time.

What’s the purpose of marketing? It’s to get someone to respond to you. It’s to get someone to reach for your product or service. “Reach” could mean anything from a tentative enquiry for information to a request for someone to come and see them about what you have to offer. That’s the whole reason for marketing – to get a response. After that, it is in the hands of the sales people.

So, how do you get a response from your marketing? This is a huge topic, of course, so we are only going to look at how you write your marketing copy. It’s the words you use and how you use them that really make the difference here.

When you get the words right, you can have an impact on your audience and get a response. Try applying one or more of the following strategies.

Get the Core Value

You may have this down pat already, or you may need to do some surveys of your intended public, but you need to be able to express the essence of the value of your product or service. What is the single statement that sums up why people would want to buy what you have to offer? It should be simple and straight to the point and expressed in one short sentence.

The Element of Surprise

Make a statement about your product or service that is unexpected. Tell them something that is “off the wall”, or that “comes out of left field”. You want your audience to read it and do a double-take on the whole thing: “Wow, I didn’t know that!” When you surprise people with your words, they tend to remember what they read and will be more likely to respond.

Use Emotions

If you can excite their emotions somehow, you will have a greater impact. You can do this by delivering your copy with feeling. Tell them about some emotional situation that invokes their involvement and link that to your product or service. People respond to emotional situation, not to logic.

Tell Them a Story

This is a very effective way of getting them involved. Weave a little plot into your words that intrigues them. Tell them about the young girl who tried to save her dog, or something. Build emotion into the story too, of course. And it’s even better if you can tell your story in such way that they do not even realise that it has to do with your particular product or service until the end. People like to be entertained, rather than educated.

If you apply these strategies to your marketing copy, it will get a much better response from your prospective clients.