This is the third and last installment of the 3-part video tutorial “The Missing Ps: How to take your copy from just okay to Ooo la la!” The first video of this series can be found here. The second video can be found here.
If you’ve got copy that’s a bit dull and lifeless… if it doesn’t have the spark, soul, and sizzle it needs to grab and hold people’s interest so they hang on every word and want to know more, you need The Missing Ps! Once those missing Ps aren’t missing anymore, your copy will move from lukewarm to piping hot and fire up the interest of your ideal clients.
Today’s Missing P is… Personality! As in your personality.
Watch the video and discover why your personality is key to writing super-engaging copy.
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Here’s the Video Transcript:
Welcome to the third installment of the 3-part video series, The Missing Ps: How to Take Your Copy From “Just Okay” to “Oo La La”. Each of the missing Ps in these videos is designed to help you when you’ve got copy that’s just alright – clear, but kind of dull and lifeless. It just doesn’t have the spark, soul, and sizzle it needs to cut through the noise and engage people’s interest and get them excited about what it is you have to say, or what you offer.
Once you put these three missing Ps into your copy, your copy will move from lukewarm to piping hot and fire up the interest of your ideal clients.
Last time in Video Two we talked about the second P, which is passion. How to pump up your passion. How to hook into your why and connect with your passion and excitement for what it is that you have to offer and infuse that passion into your copy. Before that, the first P was promise. Your promise. We talked about how to perk up your promise to get people excited about the possibilities you offer. Today, we’re talking about how to pour your personality into your copy.
You do have a personality, don’t you? Of course, you do. But is your personality in your copy? Are you in your copy? Or did you strip yourself out of it because you were filling in one of those fill-in-the-blank templates, or you were trying to be so concise that you basically made yourself absent?
The cure for the boring copy blues is you. Your personality, your sense of humor, your corniness, your quirkiness, your love of gardening, your fascination with cooking shows, your messiness, your obsessiveness, your obsession with Johnny Depp, despite the fact he’s turned out to be a disturbing creep.
Do not for a minute think that all this you-ness has nothing to do with your copy. It does, because no one wants to hear another dry, heard it a million times message from an automaton. But we all want to hear from unique quirky individuals who have something cool to say and a unique way of saying it. If your copy is kind of drying up on the page, pour more of you into it.
There are so many cool ways to do that.
The first way is with your language, the way you talk, your words. You do have a unique way with words, you do. It’s encoded in the way you talk. There are certain exclamations, turns of a phrase, adjectives that are unique to you and they come out when you’re speaking. It’s like my friend Diane, who every time she’d get angry would always say, “Oh, that really burns my butter.”
This is why one of the top 10 rules of writing great copy is to write like you talk. You’ll hear that a million times. Now, this doesn’t mean to write long rambling sentences full of ums, awes, and like, you knows. What it does mean is to simply say what it is you have to say in a way you would normally say it with the words you would normally use… as if you were talking to a friend.
Another way to pour in your personality is with story snippets, or examples, or references to your life. It can be something that happened yesterday or 40 years ago. It doesn’t matter. It just gives people a glimpse into a little bit more of you. It could be something as simple as just a reference to an activity or a place. For example, “Yesterday as I was driving to my ukulele lesson, noticing that the leaves have already started to turn, I was struck by blah, blah, blah.” I can go on and make my point from there. Just by adding that little peek into my life, into a certain place and time, I’ve taken my copy from same-old same-old boring nothing, to something that’s alive, and fresh, and revealing, and personal. I’ve just given it a little bit of spark of personality.
Use examples, and metaphors, and similes from your own life. For instance, if you’re a skier you could use something like, “It was as irresistible as a mountain full of fresh powder,” or it would be “a mountain covered in fresh powder?” I don’t know, I’m not a skier. Or if you’re a cook, use references to your cooking, like, “It was as disappointing as the time I took out my perfect cheese souffle and it fell within two seconds.”
If your copy is a little draggy and droopy, put more of you in it, in how you describe things, and in how you compare things. In the points that you make, in your word choices, in how you phrase things. Also, reveal more of who you are beyond the business person by sharing stories that come not just from your business life, but from your personal life.
Once you pour more of you into your copy, you’re sure to take it from dull to delightful.
If you’re trying to write a piece of copy now and it’s just not coming together the way you hoped it could, or should… or maybe you have copy that’s just not converting or getting people excited about what it is you’re saying, or what it is that you have to offer, you should come talk to me. Sign up for a free Copy Confidence Clarity Call and together we’ll shake down your copy and give it the spunk, soul, and substance (and a little bit of sass) to cut through the noise, attract your ideal clients, and get them really excited about what it is that you have to offer.