Whether youâre writing email pitches, sales copy, newsletters, or any other form of writing that sells your product or service, sometimes it can feel like a painful slog.
One simple question that’s really helped me get better and more comfortable at writing sales copy:
Am I writing this sales email or sales copy to convince someone to buy or to help them?
I used to labor over the words I was typing and wonder why it felt so icky and uncomfortable. I realized I was trying to convince people to buy something, instead of simply sharing how my product or service could help them.
I know itâs not just me, either. Iâve heard from so many people over the years that a mental block appears when it comes to writing anything sales-related. These questions tend to pop up too:
- How do you come off as a genuine human being?
- How do you position your offering as something of value?
- How do you avoid the selling tactics that feel disingenuous to you without limiting the success of your business in the process?
3 Ways To Challenge Mental Blocks When Writing Sales Copy
#1Â – Invest in building up your writing confidence
Itâs hard to sell as it is, but itâs even harder when you have a mental writing hurdle to overcome before you even get to the selling part. Creating a daily practice for writing is a great way to build writing confidence (just sit down for 30 minutes every day for two weeks and write at least 500 words). This will help you find your writing voice and have your writing come off as genuine and natural. (Yes, even for sales copy!)
#2 – Focus on how the thing youâre selling makes someone better
What is the outcome your customer can achieve with the thing youâre selling? If youâre creating an online course, your instinct will be to write about the lessons and bonus content included. Instead, you should be focused on the subject of the course and how your potential customer can improve in that area of their life or business.
Example (wrong): Buy my course on starting a podcast. You’ll learn what microphone to buy and what podcasting host to use.
Example (right): If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of starting a podcast, this course will break podcasting tasks into bite-sized pieces that you can knock out without any previous technical knowledge.
#3 – Write better sales emails by using a writing formula
If you’re anything like me you might not even know that writing formulas exist? Apparently, I was using a writing formula a few years ago and I had no clue. My editor Chantel surprised me one day and asked me if I knew I was using a formula (you can imagine her surprise when I said “nope!”). I stumbled into using a formula through tons of trial and error, you can avoid all the stumbling and learn about three writing formulas in this video:
(That video is a lesson within a course called The Imperfect Writer. If you like that lesson, and feel overwhelmed when it comes to writing sales copy, our course might help you!)
Use these âHeadline Mad Libsâ the next time you need to highlight important parts of your sales copy
These can be used if you need a boost of inspiration on what to write and how to position your sales copy for your potential customers.
When It Comes To Selling, We Are Our Own Worst Enemies
When we stay in the world of convincing, we will always feel a tinge of inauthenticity. Itâs almost as if our words are trying to pry someoneâs wallet out of their pocket or purse with a crowbar.
When we shift to the world of helping, it feels genuine (both to us and our potential customers). The crowbar is gone and the wallet emerges on its own terms.
Since 2008 Iâve sold thousands of things: Sponsorships, consulting calls, public speaking, books, courses, software, etc. I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and often times my sales emails and sales copy fell flat. But after doing the exact (simple) things Iâve shared here, Iâve stopped being my own worst enemy and stopped letting my writing hinder my success.
Nowadays Iâm very proud to hear comments from customers like: âI can tell you care about the people you are selling to and thatâs why I boughtâ or âI appreciated that you werenât selling the dream, you were telling me how your course could actually help me learn a skill.â
You can become better at writing sales copy and attracting people who resonate with the way you sell. Like anything else, you have to be willing to put in the time and effort.
Your words arenât going to go out and write themselves. Itâs time for you to take action.
