Making your home page work well to keep visitors on your website is a real art.  And no one knows this better and has more experience doing it than Nick Usborne.

Much of my webwriting basics I got from Nick’s course Web Copywriting 2.0.  In this course, Nick taps into his expertise garnered from writing for the web since it just started going commercial. He’s written online copy for Disney, Intuit, MSN, and many more significant clients with success to show for it.

In this course, Nick starts with the basics and then builds with specifics.

He explains thoroughly why web copywriting is different from other writing.  And starts off with important basics like how to research your audience and how to do some basic search engine optimization.

Then he gets into brass tacks on writing web pages that sell. Starting with the home page, Nick goes through sales pages, subscription pages, information pages, landing pages, emails, enewsletters, and blog entries.

But then he ramps up the value of this course with oodles of tips for writing better websites, emails and better copy in general.

Now, in and of itself this course is value-packed and a sure-fire way to get started with successfully writing for the web.  And certainly worth the $497 I paid for it when I purchased it.

But now you can get it for $100 off at $397.  (BTW, this is a bit less than half of what I charge for one product page on a website.)

But better yet, starting next Tuesday, Nick is going to walk you through writing different web pages in a series of 4 live webinars.

Nick is going to show you how he wrote specific copy for a home page, a sales page, a lead generation page and an email promotion.

You’ll get a brief from Nick for each page so you can try your hand at writing them.  And then in the live webinar, Nick will walk through step by step how he wrote each page.

It’s a fantastic learning opportunity.

And keep in mind that this webinar series is probably just the beginning of the extras you’ll receive since AWAI has made this one of the “living” courses they offer.  They are continually updating it and adding webinars and other learning opportunities to enrich it.

So it’s really like enrolling in a webwriting school for years to come by paying only $397.

If this sounds like a good deal to you – a great opportunity to bring your online copywriting to another level or get it started, don’t wait.

This discounted offer is only good until midnight June 21.  And Nick’s first webinar is on the 22^nd.

Here’s my affiliate link:

Copywriting 2.0: Your Complete Guide To Web Copywriting That Converts

I’ve already got the dates of the webinar written in my calendar.   I hope you’ll join us.  I know if you’re interested in writing online, this will be an invaluable boost to your writing skill development and your business as a result.

It’s really pretty funny.  I’ll be walking back to the house from releasing the crackens, ehem I mean chickens, and if I stop a moment inevitably I’ll feel a bump against the back of my foot.  I know who the culprit is.  Roo Roo, as my children call her because of her rooster-like cockfighting moves, is always tailing us around the yard.

While the other chickens keep a relatively wary distance from us unless we have food, Roo Roo just sticks right behind us, bumping right into us if we stop suddenly.

She’s one of the chicks my kids hatched last year in an incubator.  And we speculate that she may have imprinted on us.  By imprinting, I mean the way that baby birds take the image of the first creature they see when they hatch and stick it in the box in their brain labeled “Mama”.  And from then on that creature is their mother hen.

The way Roo Roo tags along and jumps onto my kids’ laps and shoulders indicates a level of familiarity beyond the average chicken-human connection.  Imprinting is the only explanation, short of a bizarre chicken quirk of personality.

Now, as usual, there’s a great web writing lesson here.

Just like Roo Roo imprinted on us and follows along diligently, you want your website visitors to do the same thing.

You want to imprint your company – your image – in their brains in such a way that they place you in the box labeled “beloved source of vitamins” or “my home for healthy products”. Or best of all, “the only place I’ll ever go to buy . . .”

And then they keep coming back to you to shop.

How do you do this? Two things:

1. Imprint on Your Visitors With Good USP Use

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is key to your success.  It’s what defines you from the rest of the crowd.  It’s what makes your customers love you.  It also may be what makes some people decide you’re not what they’re looking for.

And that’s okay.

You want to figure out who you’re selling to, who you can really help solve a problem and then focus on them with laser-like precision.  When you do so, when you get specific about what you offer, you’ll make them feel like you really understand them and can really help them.

Inevitably some people won’t quite connect with what you’re saying.  And the nice thing with the web with 1/5 of the world’s population buzzing around is that you can still find enough ardent fans to do very well.

So to define your USP ask yourself these questions:

-         Who is my ideal customer?

-         What is their primary pain I can help soothe or their burning desire?

-         How does my service or product help them do this? Which features help it do this?

-         How does my company do things differently?  How do we make the shopping experience more successful, more of a pleasure, less rife with obstacles?

-         How do I do this differently or better than my competition?

-         How is my competition articulating the way they help and how can I define myself from this?

Consider the tone of voice, the personality you want to establish for your company.  And what kind of relationship you want to establish with your visitors.

And then try to put this together in 3 sentences at the very most. Whew! That’s the tough one.

By doing so, you’ll define your USP.

But once you figure your USP out, don’t just rest on your laurels. Get it out there.  Online conversion expert Bryan Eisenberg notes that one of the main strategies top converting websites use is making sure their USP is highly visible not only on their home page but on their internal pages as well since these may be the landing pages people come to first.

So scan your home page and make sure that in those 3 seconds you’ve got to make an impression on a visitor you can tell them why they should stick around.

And then look at your internal pages for similar references that keep your visitors with you.

2. Develop content that supports your USP beautifully.

Not only do you need to state your USP up front, but make it ring true.  Now I’m not going to get into product formulation or customer service here since that’s not really my area of expertise.

What I can talk about is how you underscore your USP by providing information that both defines you and makes your customers and visitors happy and satisfied.

Solicit feedback from your customers, research keywords diligently, keep a close eye on Twitter and then simply make sure you provide quality, interesting, helpful, entertaining content on your website.

A couple months ago a potential client asked me, “With content, isn’t it more about quantity than quality?”

Unfortunately, grey hat SEO folks have pushed things more in that direction by using optimized content mills to get Google rankings.

But that’s changing now.  Too many people were frustrated with searches that ended on top ranking web pages filled with semicoherent optimized babblings with no substance.  Google picked up on this and shifted things with the new algorithms they introduced in May.

So be prepared to see better results for your good content from Google.  But better yet, happy visitors who decide to buy from you and customers who keep coming back.

When you provide this kind of service that connects people to your solutions and their happiness, you make your USP more than just a few sentences. You make it your way of doing business and your presence on the web.

So develop your USP, make it visible and then substantiate it with more solid content.  Before you know it you’ll feel a bump bump bump of all the visitors and customers who have been following you around and are lining up to do business with you.

Just like Roo Roo, our besotted cock-fighting hen does when the objects of her affection pause to look around.

If you want to improve your copywriting for both homepages and content in general, check out this great web copywriting course that helped me get going online.

What are your ideas about developing a USP?  How has it helped your business and conversion rates? And if you have a Roo Roo-like story, please share it!

True confession time – I’ve been so excited about this new tool that I seriously considered keeping it to myself and not telling anyone about it.  I felt like it was my secret weapon . . . and I couldn’t help but want to keep it close for a while.

On the other hand, I also felt so excited about it that I was bursting with the news.  And I think you’ll be pretty excited about it, too.

It’s a keyword research tool offered by some friends of one of my favorite search engine optimization go-to resources, Stompernet.  It’s called Market Samurai.

I’ll let you get to the sales page to get the full gist of what this amazing tool does.  But let me tell you how it solves one of my major problems with keyword research – researching the competition.

See, it starts out like many a keyword tool – generating a list of keywords related to your initial keyword and then telling you what the search volume is for these.  And like WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, it will tell you how many websites you’re competing against.

But after these initial bits of data are listed, you can start to narrow things down easily by creating filters for search volume minimums, phrase broad match percentages, adwords values and search engine optimization competition.  BTW, if this sounds like a bunch of gibberish to you, don’t worry, they do a great job explaining the terms.  They’ve had plenty of people new to SEO use it with success (according to testimonials).

Suffice it to say, with just a few buttons you can start whittling your keyword list down very very strategically.

But then it gets even better . . . Just like the fabled ninjas, Market Samurai not only gives you a broad scope of the battlefield, but helps you to really know your opponents intimately so you can map out a stealthy plan of attack.

After you’ve honed down on a keyword, with another couple of clicks you can get a list of all the top 10 websites ranking for this phrase with an extensive evaluation of each one – looking at the age of the website, backlinks, .gov/.edu backlinks, page volume, etc.

Then it goes on to help you find sources of content for these keywords or find the best place to put content so you can develop good backlinks.

And can you believe it?! The list goes on with what it can do . . . This is a beta version but later this year they have programming coming that will hook you right into affiliate programs to monetize your site, help with adwords and a rank-tracking system.

It’s very comprehensive.

Right now, while they are still furiously updating it and working on it, Market Samurai is only a onetime fee of $149 if you get in on it while it’s in the beta stages.

That’s right.  It’s a one-time fee.  No subscription costs – none of that.  With Wordtracker you have to pay $59/month or $399 per year.  Other services have similar pricing.  This offers much more for a single low one-time fee.

Once they finish developing it and launch it for real . . . well, I’ll let you think about where the price may go . . .

I have to confess, I’ve just started using it – so I can’t vouch for the results yet.  It does have a few programming quirks.  I have to update it often since things are changing so frequently in the programming.  But the customer service has been great – even though they are all the way in Australia.  I’ve gotten email responses within a day.

But so far I’m loving it.

If you’d like to take a look at it, here’s my affiliate link to the free trial.  The free trial doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it’s a good place to start and you can move right through to purchasing the whole kit and kaboodle from this web page.

http://www.marketsamurai.com/c/sarahcla

Not only will Market Samurai help you do keyword research efficiently,  it will also help you speed up and succeed in implementing your entire SEO  battle plan.

It was almost impossible for my husband to contain his excitement Sunday. His eyes glowed and you could tell something big was up.  I got the feeling this was no ordinary Mother’s Day gift.

At his urging, we quickly put on our coats (can you believe it was in the 50’s in May?!) and followed him quietly through the woods, avoiding sticks in the path that would give us away.  Fortunately the same wind that whipped around our ears stole our noise as well.

And there – on our little pond, (which is not more than a home for goldfish and a snack stop for our local great blue heron) – they were.

Not one, but two sets of Canadian geese parents, carefully shepherding their little grey-yellow puffball gosling as they explored the waters.  Twelve in all!

Not many things could beat this for a Mother’s Day gift – two families deciding our little pond was safe for their babes.

But as the wonder of the moment began to settle, I started thinking – how did they get here? Were they hiding in the rushes in nests while we walked blithely by?

Hard to say – maybe they waddled (do geese waddle too?) through the culvert under the road and found the pond after their eggs hatched.

In any case I was both thrilled by the unexpected visitors and intrigued with what signs I may have missed over the last few weeks . . .

Hmm. Just like search engine optimization (SEO) . . .

In wildlife watching, I’ve learned that sometimes it helps to lose your center focus a bit (the way we tend to usually look at things) and let your vision widen and relax into peripheral vision.  This way you can pick up little movements around you with a wider lens.  It’s like you kind of let your eyes unfocus and your scope expands.

Tactical SEO requires doing the same thing. While it’s important to be strategic, start with a focus and a plan, you have to be prepared for the unexpected and open to opportunities you may have no clue are hiding there in the rushes, so to speak.

To find that sweet spot of keywords, you often have let your focus drift so you can see things you may not notice on the periphery.  You have to look beyond the expected and be prepared to embrace the unexpected.

Here are 3 ways to do what I mean with some concrete examples:

1. Watch your analytics.

Just like those geese, visitors you aren’t expecting often show up.  A great place to see this is in your analytics reports.  For example, you may be optimizing your site for “menopause help” but find that because you have so much content about women and hormones, you’re also getting younger women dealing with hormonal imbalance finding you through Google. Even though you weren’t originally planning on targeting this market, you may decide it’s worth pursuing further.

1. Go deep into your keyword research to find unexpected niches

Keyword research always starts with brainstorming.  And it can be very frustrating when you start with what you think is your target audience and hitting dead end after dead end . . .   Not enough traffic for this phrase . . . Too much competition for this one . . . Aarrgh!

But if you keep going, digging deeper and deeper with a good keyword research tool, you may find nuggets that you can really work with.

For example, I started a website about family fitness based on some initial promising keyword research.  But as I finessed my techniques, I realized that I was up against some tough competition with these words.  However, as I kept going with my research, I found lots of promise with specific activities that involved kids and parents.  These keyword phrases did not include “family” nor “fitness” but provided lots of opportunities for talking about how families can exercise together.  And they had solid traffic with a lot less competition.

If I hadn’t keep unpeeling the layers of keywords and looking for new angles, I might have had to slog it out with “family fitness”. Or, even worse, give up and go watch my chickens peck for ticks outside.

1. Add qualifiers to keywords that may have too much competition and turn them into longtail keyword phrases.

This last one is pretty similar to the example above. Except it doesn’t abandon the initial phrase you’re working on.  A classic example is the monster keywords “lose weight”.  Now this is a tough place to get rankings since it is such a competitive market.  However, if you qualify it a bit, you may be pleasantly surprised.  Keyword phrases like “healthy ways to lose weight” or “lose weight in the winter” will most likely have a lot less competition and may also get some good search traffic.

So if you’re hitting a dead end in keyword research, try adding some qualifiers to your phrase and see where it goes.  You may find the devil is in the details – and your success as well.

Who doesn’t love pleasant surprises, especially ones that even make you giggle and slap your forehead because they were hiding right under your nose.  Just like the two families that mysteriously appeared in our freshwater haven, keywords and the markets using them may suddenly appear in your optimization process if you relax your focused vision a bit.

The key is to be ready to take advantage of them when they show up . . . and widen your perspective sometimes so you can see them.

Enjoy discovering some great market niches!  And check out my latest favorite keyword research tool here.

Last Saturday, we took a family bike ride.

Sounds ordinary enough – but it wasn’t.  See, winter still had us in its clutches – instead of bike helmets we donned snowboard helmets.  Mittens and parkas kept us covered.  And while the skies only looked leaden when we started out, by the time we were well into our route, snow was falling.  The frozen bits stung our cheeks as we cruised down our first big hill.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that we’d been without power for two days?

But as the trip progressed, our moods went up as well.  We stopped by various friends in the neighborhood, checking in to see how they were fairing with the power outage.  Talk of freezers and generators and wells speckled with a few jokes about the weather.

By the time we reached home, we were feeling quite merry.  In fact rather than racing inside, the kids engaged in a wrestling match in the snow while C and I walked the backwoods to check our sap buckets and assess next year’s wood supply brought down by the recent storm.

When we finally dipped in to our soup near the wood stove we were feeling pretty good.

What we did that is an essential lesson for right now.

When it snows and the power’s out, go biking!

What do I mean?

I mean that when the economy is in the dumps and continues to dip; when things look rough, go deep and push harder.

That’s what I’m doing with my writing business.  I’m investing in more learning opportunities, jazzing up my website (I’ll let you know about this more), developing some more info products (to be announced), and putting some steam in my marketing.

If you’re a health publisher, a supplement business, a health provider, a marketer or a writer, now’s the time to push.  Now more than ever.

Now remember, I didn’t send my kids out without warm helmets, mittens and deeply-grooved mountain bike tires.  Nor should you leap without looking and careful assessment.

But the history of business is this.  The businesses that continue to invest in the future – in infrastructure, innovation and especially marketing – are the ones that take up some space and speed into the front runner positions.

If you’re a health product manufacturer or retailer or a health service provider – health needs never go away. And now, more than ever, people are looking for more DIY solutions, preventative tactics – information and products that can help them gain control over this most immediate part of their life while so much spins out of control.

Find them.  Help them find you.

And here are some ideas to focus on that will help you get the most bang for your buck:

1. Work on search engine optimization and marketing.  PPC and adwords allows you to quickly and relatively cheaply test marketing materials to get the best conversion.  SEO gives you even more credibility with people who find you this way.
2. Work on your list-building.  Make your PPC campaigns, your PR and as much of your marketing materials as possible focus on driving traffic to optins.  Once you have them as part of your “captive” audience, you can really sit down and have a conversation with them and convince them to check out your offerings.
3. Do everything you can to capture any traffic that comes to your website with strategic optins.  A slideon registration box that comes on as people are leaving your website is a great way to avoid being boorish but still grab people’s attention.
4. Create some strategic free tastes that will entice people to sign up.  Videos are all the rage and seem to be working.  But I still think an info-packed report does wonders – easier to skim through and download than a video. And give free tastes with good blog entries, good articles in your newsletters, good info in your marketing materials.
5. Get social.  I’m still learning my way through this one.  But here’s what I’m doing so far: Identify one or two places to focus your efforts and work on them (I’ve chosen Twitter and Linkedin). Develop some strategies to get more efficient and focus in on your goals and then stick with them.
6. Learn and Adjust. Use the data from your website analytics, your email service, etc.  But just as important seek feedback from your customers and use it, too.  And really finetune your marketing and offerings.

As it happens, I’m offering a couple of nice get-to-know you intro services at a nice price (under $1000) with a very nice bonus for the next two weeks.  They’re a good way to strategically boost your natural health marketing and I’m hoping I won’t have to market too much once the farming season hits, my kids are home for the summer and I’m super busy.

What tactics are you using to ride face first into this snowstorm and still keep smiling?

My life as a farmer started decades ago when I apprenticed to a small biodynamic farmer at 18.  And I distinctively remember the day I really knew in my gut how much I wanted to have farming a permanent part of my life.

It was a rainy April day, temperature in the high 40’s.  And we’d been working in the field for a few hours transplanting broccoli.  This is on top of getting up early to milk the cows and process the milk.  We were cold and wet. A warm, generous lunch in the farm kitchen was still close to an hour away.

And at that moment I had never felt so much a part of life.

As I sat there in the muddy field with chilly fingers and several long rows of work ahead of me, I could feel in my bones and sinews how all the work I had done that day was going right into the food that would in turn keep me fueled for my afternoon chores.  I felt utterly content.

This desire to stay connected to the realness of farming never left me.  So years later, when my oldest was 3 years old and I was expecting our second child, my husband and I decided to “escape” Brooklyn and move to the country.  It took several years more to get to a place where we could have a garden and even more time to plant fruit trees and start with livestock.

But here we are.  And no matter what happens in cyberspace with my business, we still have our farm.  Every day, it gives me perspective when I take a break and stand outside and look down towards the pond through the line of trees to the next field.  This is what’s important – being alive.

Now I could go on for a bit on this topic, waxing philosophical. This is not the time or place.

But there is a marketing secret here. Your market is yearning for the same thing.  Now it may not be milking cows or playing in the dirt.  Not everyone wants to be a farmer.

But most people – just about everyone in the natural health market – are looking for something that makes sense to them at this real, tangible level.

Something they can get at a gut level.  That they can really hold in their hands and say this helps me live.

Something that in turn makes them feel more human, more real – not just a figment lost in the infinite scope of the universe, time and the internet.

It’s why so many people are turning to natural health over conventional medicine.  Something that grows in the soil seems to be a better fit for our bodies than something dreamed up in a lab.

So here are a few tips for keeping it real in for the natural health market:

Don’t just talk about the science. Science is good, it answers the logical part of our brain.  But also talk to the instinctive part, the part of us that wants to taste, hold, touch, smell and see what we’re getting.

Even if your product uses a powder or extract, bring in some descriptions of the original source – how it’s grown, what it looks like, how it tastes or smells.  And describe the product as well.  Describe your capsules, packed with light brown antioxidant-rich powder, for example.  Or the light watermelon flavor of the drink mix.  Or how your shampoo’s minty-lavender scent will make showering an experience in itself.

Focus on the benefits, the deep benefits that your prospect can connect to.  If your supplement lowers blood pressure, okay, you can refer to that (in FDA-friendly terms, mind you).  But no one really feels when their blood pressure is high or low.

What people do feel is the anxiety about how healthy their blood pressure is.  What people do feel is the sense of relief and pride that they have healthy blood pressure.  Talk to those very real experiences.

Make yourself and your business real. Most recently I worked on an email campaign for a client.  In this campaign, we transformed the company’s communication from a business-tone to a personal tone.  We designated a spokesperson in the emails (his wife and co-founder) and we spoke to the recipients person-to-person, acknowledging foibles, excitement, concern, pride and more.

The heartfelt, personal responses plus the sales pleasantly surprised my client.

This last one is particularly important when it comes to internet marketing.  Cyberspace puts us all in space suits, longing for some security. We’re looking for some guarantee that we’re still tethered to earth. When you show prospects that your business has real people behind it, real technical challenges, office politics, etc., you convince people that you’re for real.  That their money and the hopes they invest in your product will not disappear – poof – into the wide world of the web. They feel more security, more trust and emotionally more connected to you.  The perfect mix for a sale.

Bottom line – make it real for your customers and they will make your business.

What are your ideas for making internet marketing more real, especially when it comes to the natural health market?  Leave your comment to get this discussion going.

Lies!

My daughter was caught lying.

It was a simple issue – she had gone online to look at videos when she was supposed to be working on her Japanese.  But instead of fessing up, she concocted a story about using Google to find a definition for a Japanese word.

Now it’s a small thing in some ways.  Kids are notorious for playing when they’re supposed to be buckling down.

 But it’s huge in its ramifications. The major transgression here was her lie.  And trust isn’t something you can play with.

For years, she’s trumped her younger brother in many a dispute because she has a reputation for honesty.  Often we’ve used her spotless record to prod him to be more forthcoming.  He’s had to work hard to make his arguments hold water since he has such a tendency to embroider the truth.

But my girl – she’s been reliable . . . until for some fluke – today.  Or maybe not . . .

See that’s the terrible consequence she faced when she stepped into the world of fabrication.  She no longer has that credibility with us.  All the past was left in doubt.  And even more significant . . .

Everything she said from now one would have to be backed up with evidence.  We couldn’t just take her on her word.  She’s going to have to work hard to regain this trust that took so little time to disintegrate.

This is the importance of truthfulness in advertising. 

As people get to know you, they begin to trust you.  And that trust transfers over not only to the immediate sales letter you just sent them . . . but to the next one and the next one.  It builds up.  It makes selling easier.

But be caught lying – even in one small bit – and that trust is shattered.  You’ve got mountains to climb to get back there.

Garden of Life’s Jordan Rubin hit this when his Ph D was questioned.  Tiger Woods’ sponsors faced this when his integrity showed some cracks.  I’m sure you can come up with plenty of examples yourself.

Now, I bring this up for a very specific reason.  As a copywriter, I work to create rapport between the market and the person I’m writing as (the company CEO, health expert in residence, etc.)  As a copywriter, I’m used to putting words in people’s mouth.  It’s like being a speechwriter when you write a sales letter for somebody.  I don’t fabricate any of the info I put together – but in some ways I’m putting on a façade as I write in someone else’s name.

But what happens with social media?  What happens when you hit Twitter or comment on forums or blog in another person’s name?  Can you still do this?  Is it a breach of trust?  Does the public assume that some tweets are carefully crafted by professionals-for-hire?  Are they okay with that? Or if I write in someone else’s name is that a lie?

And I’ll add an even stickier layer with a recent large online revelation.  Copywriter James Chartrand revealed that he was actually a she.  She had taken a male penname because she found she got more, better-paying clients when she presented herself as a man.  In the Copyblogger blog where she told the truth, her self-disclosure was taken with a warm round of applause.  But how about her clients?  Was there fallout?

Plenty of copywriters (like Michael Masterson) take pen names – I’ve thought about it myself to protect my privacy.  (Full disclosure:  I don’t.) But how does this factor into the age of social media, transparency, and relationship-building.

As James (or Jamie, now?) made it clear:  It’s only a matter of time before someone uncovers the truth if they really want to.  You’ve got to be prepared with an explanation.

On one hand, I feel that if the idea of using a professional writer in social media makes you feel conned, you’ve got a certain naivete about the world.  As much as we feel buddy-buddy in chat rooms, it’s not the same as really getting to know someone.  Face to face.  And to expect that it is the same is not understanding that we’re still communicating through the safe distance of our machines.

But as copywriters, we also write to tap into people’s emotions – again, building trust and asking people to let down their defenses.  And it’s not something to take lightly.

I don’t have a conclusion here.  I’m trying to sort through this myself.  I’m working on marketing projects that require tweeting and intimate-feeling emails.  And so much of this is new, it’s hard to find tested results and best-practices.

 But it’s an important question for us copywriters to broach as we move online and then into the social realm.   I’m asking you to help me and all of us tuning in here to sort through this.  What do you think?  What guidelines do you use for online honesty?  I’m all ears.

You know, on the ski slopes, it’s a lot about looking good. 
The equipment . . . the sharp turns . . . 

the sharper threads . . .

It’s a real spectacle sport.

So it was with some mixed emotions that I found myself on the bunny slope. 

Actually, the “all about looking good” thing may be stretching it for me.  I’m not really a gear head. My alpine skis are a used package from a warehouse in Utah. 

Nor am I a fashion maven although I do have a new parka I think I look pretty good in.

But I was beginning to feel a little confident on the moguls (the really bumpy, technical runs)  Starting to feel a bit of that satisfaction that comes with looking . . . well . . .pretty good!

So what was I doing on the gentle beginner grades?

I was learning to telemark ski.  Telemarking is the free-heeling turning style developed by cross-country or nordic skiers to get down hills.  Instead of being completely clamped down to a ski, your heel is free allowing you to bend your legs in a deep lunge as you turn.

I’ve been intrigued with the style for a while.  But when I met a woman at an Appalachian Mountain Club lodge who was about to tromp into the backcountry with her telemark skis, unfazed by hills and ready to take them in stride, I was hooked.

And so I ended up on the easy trails I had thought I’d long abandoned, making careful, deliberate turns.  And occasionally eating snow.

But this is not really about telemarking or skiing.  It’s about marketing and copywriting.

The point is that I was trying something new.  Just as I started to gain confidence and some bit of mastery in alpine skiing, I had placed myself back in the throes of newbi-ness.

But I did it for a reason.  I knew it would open new territory to me to explore and enjoy.

Now as a web writer, this is slightly off-kilter feeling is something you have to get used to.

The web is an exciting place to be – full of opportunities as a marketer or copywriter.

But it’s also incredibly dynamic.  Changing every second with the inventiveness of people as new needs are identified and new problems solved.

As web copywriter Pam Foster describes it, it’s kind of like being in a roller derby.  You’re constantly moving, the immediate area around you is in flux and you have to survive drawing on a mixture of skills and the ability to adjust to the situation.  If you’re not sharp enough, you might get an elbow in the ribs.

So while there are some basics to marketing and copywriting that never change and can be mastered, much of your work will be on that anxiety-laced edge of something new.

There are three tactics I’m using to learn to telemark ski that work for learning to navigate the world of web marketing and web writing as well.

1.  I take lessons.  I’ve tapped into some good instructors and invested time and money into learning.

2.  I watch people around me who seem to be doing pretty well at this.  That’s why I store up all kinds of marketing emails that come into my inbox.  I follow twitter aficionados like Michael Stelzner as they tweet.  And I study websites that analysts like Internet Retailer or Grok.com report are doing well.

And finally,

3.  I bring my own experience and foundational skills to bear.  As much as telemarking is new, I also have a good amount of body wisdom from alpine and cross-country skiing that’s helping me learn. 

So build on the skills and experience you have.  But stretch yourself, try things that make you a little nervous, study and learn from watching.  Your success on the web is a combo of that balance between solid competence and intrepid explorer.

A few good FREE resources to start with:

One of the online areas I’m really snowplowing through (a beginner form of skiing) is social media.

So here are a few places where I’ve found some great info on social media marketing:

1. Michael Stelzner’s Social Media Examiner. A daily e-magazine covering social media marketing.  Great stuff tapping into a wealth of expertise.  www.socialmediaexaminer.com

2.  On Feb 4 HubSpot and Marketing Sherpa are putting on a one hour webinar “MarketingSherpa’s ROAD Map to Social Marketing Maturity” that will go over a practical method for mapping an effective social marketing strategy. http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-webinars/marketingsherpa-phases-of-social-marketing-maturity

3. TODAY!  January 21, 2010 at 1:00 pm ET, HubSpot is putting on a webinar about Twitter and marketing.”There is a lot of talk about Twitter, but many marketers don’t realize that Twitter is a worthwhile marketing tool for their business.” I’m intrigued . . .
http://www.hubspot.com/webinar-how-businesses-are-using-twitter/?source=targetmktg-dedicated-howbusinessesareusingtwitterwebinar-20100119-hspd
4. Target Marketing and Lyris are putting on a webinar titled, “Social + Email Marketing: The Dynamic Duo: Using Email Marketing to Convert Social Media into Revenue”.  It will be held Thursday, January 28, 2010 | 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT
http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/webinar  scroll down to third webinar

Here’s a good start – and I’ll be putting more of my favorite web resources down in future newsletters.

Have any insights or favorite spots to add?

1. Nick brings a world of experience in writing for the web.  He’s got 25 years of copywriting under his belt, 11 of those years devoted strictly to writing for the web.  I’ve witnessed his expertise firsthand as one of his coaching students.  I know how much insight he brings to the topic.
2. This course allows you to build on something you’re passionate about – whether it be growing fruit trees, singing, sci-fi books, whatever!  You can build a site – or several sites – around just about any interest. 

WHAM!  My husband, C, hit the floor with a resounding thump. 

Before he could even recover he found himself trapped between his assailant’s legs, his windpipe and the arteries to his brain only a few muscle clenches away from a deadly squeeze.  His face was contorted with the effort of resisting, his deep brown skin taking on a slightly maroon tone as the blood rushed to his head.

 And then with a tap of his hand, it was over. 

 Quickly disentangling her legs, his ruthless opponent leaped lightly to her feet and grinned down at him as he lay there recovering,

 ”Dad . . . ” chortled my daughter as she took in the full extent of her victory.

 Now my husband is no pushover.  He’s a rock-solid 180 pounds.  He easily benches 350 and uses his 18-inch biceps to chop cords of wood, move feedbags and wrestle pigs on a regular basis. 

How could this 12-year-old girl – barely 100 pounds – topple her dad so easily and then with a few deft moves put him at her mercy?

Keep reading and I’ll tell you how.  But not only that, I’ll show you how this works in copywriting and marketing as well.

Jiu Jitsu and Marketing – It’s Not About Muscle

Okay, without question it takes some muscle to do these moves.  But if muscle were the deciding factor, my husband would never be in the position he was.  (He’s not one to placate – he never lets our kids win at cardgames!)

When my daughter brought him to the ground, she used moves from one of the most effect martial arts – jiu jitsu.  She did three things:

1. She got close to him by stepping forward and pulling him into her . . .
2. She angled him just the right way . . .
3. And finally, the best of all, she called on gravity and used his weight against him.

 When she puts these three elements together, all of C’s mass, bulk, and power meant nothing – in fact they even worked against him.

To win your prospect over, you have to do the same thing in your copywriting and overall marketing plan.  Here’s how:

Marketing Jiu Jitsu Move #1: Get Them Close To You

The first thing you need to get from your prospects before they give you their money is their trust. 

Trust can be earned in a number of ways, from putting your house up as collateral to spitting on your palm and shaking hands.  However, a more practical alternative – and more socially acceptable than spitting – is simply by building familiarity.  Allow people to get to know you.

And for this, the recipe is simple:

1)      Communicate a lot and

2)      Communicate as a real person.

It’s why I’m trying to write to you more often.  Why I’m working on my blog and twittering (something I thought I’d never do!).

It’s the kind of marketing referred to in Copyblogger’s seminal blog The Harpoon and The Net about the difference between a one-time shot of a sales letter and the gradual build-up of relationship-marketing. 

Rather than coming out of nowhere, grabbing someone’s hand in a firm handshake and opening up your spiel about how you’d like to sell something to them, you start slow.  You start by introducing yourself and sharing your thoughts, stories from your life, some useful insights, etc.

You invite the other person to share as well: Ask them in your blog to comment, use surveys in your email campaigns or create a forum.

You get to know each other.

Even in a one-shot sales letter or landing page, you reveal yourself up front to build credibility.  Perhaps you refer to some vulnerabilities, let it get a little personal. 

Let your prospect get to know you.  Get close.

I can’t count the number of business transactions I do with a business simply because I’m familiar with them. 

People buy familiar brands.  You take your car to the guy you know down the road because he’s always done right by you.  And you know he’s a good guy because he coaches your kid in soccer. 

You buy your piglets each spring from your friend because you trust each other and you know the friendship insures that you’ll each do right be each other . . .

Okay, we’re not all buying piglets.  But you know what I mean. 

 Jiu Jitsu Marketing Move #2:  Angle Them Just The Right Way

Okay, as nice as the first part sounds, you’re still wearing the salesman jacket – even if it’s stuffed down beneath the fuzzy pink sweater of relationship-building you put on over it.

You need to have a plan with your relationship-building communication.  Because, sure, it would be nice to hang out and muse about the weather all day.  But you’ve got a business to run.  And truth be told, your prospects have needs, problems, desires that need to be taken care of.   Urgently.  They can’t stay and chat either.

So you angle the conversation – you direct it.  You talk about your prospects’ worries and desires and focus the discussion on solving that problem. 

You draw their attention to that wonderful solution you present.  Address their questions and doubts.  And keep them focused on how much your solution will help them.

You put the your finely honed jiu-jitsu skills to work.  You know just where to push and where to pull so that with the right move your prospect is ready to topple over into a sale.

Jiu Jitsu Marketing Move #3:  Use The Weight of Their Desire to Close the Sale

I had plenty of reservations about getting into marketing.  As a skinflint, I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of pushing people to buy stuff.

But then I realized I wasn’t going to be twisting people’s arms and manipulating them to buy something they’ll never use.

No, marketing a good product is making sure that the people who are desperately looking for a solution like the one you offer can find it. 

We all have problems.  And the desire to fix them can chew at your insides mercilessly. 

So when you build up that momentum to close a sale in your marketing process, you’re not pushing your prospect up a mountain as they’re flailing away at you and yelling, “Help!”.

Au contraire.  Once you’ve angled them right and established some trust – if you develop the rest of your sales process right – they’ll almost be pulling you along.  They will be so anxious to get this solution that will change their lives.

How do you do this?  Focus on the benefits of your product.  Focus in particular on the deeper benefits, the ones that really transform their lives. 

Not the way that a bone-health supplement will strengthen their bones.  No, talk about how they can keep biking and ice-skating without worrying about a fracture taking them out from out of nowhere.

With your supplement, they don’t have to worry and give up the activities they love to do.

Paint a vivid picture of the benefits.  Describe the scene of their problem solved so they can really envision a tangible reality in their future if they choose your project.

And make that picture even more real by providing ample evidence that your product can bring them there.

By the time you finish painting the picture of the benefits your product brings.  Once you make it feel realistic, close, possible by providing good support for your promise, your prospects’ desire for your product becomes a powerful force.

It is now their own hope for a solution to a problem combined with their own belief that you can provide it that brings them to order page.  You’ve just set it in motion.  But the weight of their desire drives that conversion.

My daughter didn’t have to struggle to lay my husband out flat.

And you shouldn’t be struggling with your prospects to get them to buy.

It’s a simple 1,2,3 move.  Performed right, you easily bring your prospect toppling over to the “Order Now” button.

1. Get close.
2. Angle.
3. Use their weight against them.

Now -  for the marketing lesson in the windpipe-squeezing triangle hold that my daughter finished off with  –  hmm.  I’ll have to give that some more thought and get into that another time. 

So what do you think?  Any markeing jiu jitsu moves to share?