Eugene Schwartz was a copywriter that many in my field consider to be the greatest ever (and trust me, most of us think we’re the greatest ever!). Schwartz, who died in 1995, specialized in direct mail marketing and shared his insights in about 10 books, including a classic called Breakthrough Advertising. ShockMarter.com provides free downloads of it, which is in the public domain. At least, we hope so.
I like Schwartz because he didn’t overthink, which is a problem for many writers and students. Whenever I find I’m out of ideas, I use one of his very useful techniques to get my imaginative mojo back on track. The best one asks: what kind of copy should we write?
Five Levels Of Awareness In Writing Copy/Content
Professionals like lawyers, CPAs, and physicians have expertise and insights that just don’t occur to most normal people. For this reason alone, each and every one of them should blog or at least host a weekly podcast.
But what should you write about? One way to determine this is to examine where pockets of your clients fall within your services. Chances are, they can be persuaded to come to your office more often through communications in which they can relate.
Schwartz identified five levels of awareness that can help professionals focus on different audiences they want to reach. For professionals who provide a service like law, accounting, or medicine, awareness is often relative to how often their clients contact them. Some clients might be quite knowledgeable about the service they receive, while others would benefit from additional services. Then there are those who are not (yet) clients or patients but should be:
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- Think of people who always owe a lot of money to the IRS or get huge refunds every year. Clearly, they don’t understand tax withholding.
- Lots of parents haven’t made a will, thinking that it’s only for rich people. Or worse, they think all lawyers are criminal lawyers or divorce lawyers.
Within these two extremes, you have different levels of what Schwartz called product awareness, solution awareness, and problem awareness. This is where you can really target your message to specific audiences. Consider this:
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- Few people bother to review or update a will established years ago.
- Smart patients understand that antibiotics won’t help a cold, but may not be aware that pertussis is on the rise and need to recognize its symptoms.
Blogs and website content can be targeted to address clients in specific stages, or situations, where they will consider getting professional services. They can also reach out to those who are not yet clients. Professional marketing services can help ensure that these blogs are linked to websites that attract this kind of potential client.
Use Social Media To Link To Specific Messages
Once you’ve found your voice and started writing these blog posts, you’ve got to let people know. Social media is going to be a key tactic for you to use to let people know you’ve written a post and what it’s about. Use your Facebook and Twitter pages to get the word out. If appropriate, update your connections on LinkedIn and tell your Google+ circles that you’ve written a new post. Spread the word to drive traffic to your blog and hope that these people share your work with their networks.
Schwartz would have been a great blogger and tweeter had he lived to see modern marketing. ShockMarketer pays tribute to his headline development skills. Here are a few to read and envy:
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- If you’re over 30, this is the best exercise you can do for your face, heart, and body
- Turn yourself into a learning machine
- You will lose up to 100 pounds per year
Just imagine what he’d do for your practice!
