What's the No.1 Attention Killer?

Kirsten Back Author

Lacking engagement or conversion? Nothing kills attention quicker than lack of clarity. 4 areas you should fix now!

In a recent interview, my host and I spent some time discussing the trend of writing really long Facebook offer posts.

My host told me that she never reads these posts as she finds them a waste of time. They go on forever and bore her to distraction.

So, she asked me: “Why are these posts successful? So many entrepreneurs swear by them but I and many people I know cannot stand to read them, let alone write a long offer post.”

There are a few angles to look at this question and I will address just one of them in this article:

Long copy still performs better than short copy BUT it needs to be high-quality copy that justifies the time investment.

But what makes copy worth reading? What makes it worth investing your time and even spend your money in the end?

As I said – it’s about quality.

Now how do you create the quality that stops people scrolling past your mile-long offer post?

I’ve reflected on a 4-C concept that one of my favourite copywriters, Andy Maslen, created.

THE 4 C'S OF COPYWRITING

Andy Maslen claims that in order to be interesting enough to read, copy needs to be clear, concise, compelling and credible.I like to add another C at the end – and I believe that you will agree with it.But let’s get to the first C:

Clarity

As complex as our brains are, there are a few things that are really simple. One of them is that if you are given too many choices, you can’t make a straightforward decision.

I’m frequently troubled by this when trying to order in a restaurant. Usually, there are two or three dishes that I’d really love to order.

And the situation can get tricky when two hungry teenagers are giving you the death stare because you’ve just asked the waiter – a second time – to give you a few more minutes.

In that situation, you won’t get up and leave the restaurant, you’ll order eventually but in an online setting, the “X” in the top right corner is just a mouse click away.

Clarity is essential for decision making.

Clarity starts long before the decision-making point.

If you want to communicate with clarity, you need to have clarity about:

• Yourself
  
• Your clients
  
• Your brand
  
• Your offer
  

And here’s why…

Clarity about yourself

Your personality informs your messaging. Who you are as a person has a huge impact on how you communicate with your environment.

People buy from people they trust, and your messaging needs to inspire trust in your audience. You need to build that trust over time.

But how do you build trust? You need to open up to people and show them your authentic self. In order to show your authentic self, you need to know what that is – or who you are as a person and as an entrepreneur.

I like to do the following with my clients to get started:

Finding out your personal strengths, what drives you, and what matters to you.

You need to be clear about your personal values and what you stand for – and you need to be clear about how your very unique strengths enable you to work with your clients in a very specific way so that you serve them better or differently to your competitors.

Knowing yourself is, in my eyes, the best differentiator you have.

I said that you need to open up to your audience and show your authentic self. That involves making yourself vulnerable but at the same time, so much more relatable. Sharing your values and demonstrating how you live your values is part of that.

Telling your stories is another way. And as we all know – stories engage. Knowing which story to tell and how to tell a story to the right audience is essential.

Which brings me to my next point:

Clarity about your clients

I cannot say it enough – intimately knowing your client avatar is so important.

If you cannot envision what drives your clients’ decision-making, you cannot relate to these points in your messaging.

Knowing your clients’ most desperate and lowest points is part of that. Especially if you have had similar moments like those where you hide in the bathroom because you believe that you’ve failed in everything, as an entrepreneur, a partner, or a mother…

Having lived through these low moments allows you to feel genuine empathy for your clients – and that helps you to inject emotions into your messaging.

Every psychological detail that you learn about your clients is important. Not just the sad ones, but also the happy ones – the bright future that they dream of.

I have been talking about messaging quite a bit and some of my clients find it hard to find their “voice”.

Your “voice” is part of your brand, which is the next area you need to be very clear on.

Clarity about your brand

People want to communicate with people. They find it hard to communicate with a brand.

It is hard to communicate with a brand because a brand is quite an intangible thing. Mostly, it is about how we “feel” about a brand.

To make it easy for your audience to build a relationship with your brand, it’s important to give your brand human-like characteristics so that your brand “feels” very much like a person.

A good start is to distil your mission, vision, values, purpose etc. and answer those questions about the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of your business.

Answering those questions bring greater brand clarity.

Another way of making your brand more human is finding your brand archetype(s). These can give your brand an almost human-like personality and also help with finding your brand voice and help you understand what your clients are craving.

But how do you tie all that together?

Here’s how: 

Clarity about your offer

Your offer bridges the gap between you, your ideal client, and your brand. It’s all about how you solve your clients’ problems and help them through the transformation that leads your clients to a happier, better, more fulfilled life.

You need to be able to communicate to your clients that your offer will empower them to lead a better life.

It is essential that you can write about the benefits and long-term outcomes of your service, course or coaching programme in a way that resonates with your clients. Your offer is the key that opens the vault to your clients’ dreams.

And with that, you need to make sure that your offer is not another offer that fails at implementation. There are already too many offers that promise a lot but fall short at the implementation. There are too many people who have worked with coaches or taken online programmes and have no tangible outcomes.

I believe that this implementation gap is one of the major problems in the coaching/teaching industry.

If you make sure that your programme bridges that gap, then you’ve done a great job with your first C.

In closing…

I’d love to know how you think about this and what insights you have to offer that I haven’t mentioned here.

And…

My next part will be on the 2nd C – “concise” - see you then!

Categories: Copywriting, Contentwriting, Engagement, Conversion, Clarity