4 Steps to Writing Content that Makes “Selling” a Breeze (even if you offer woo-woo stuff)
If your business offerings fall in areas that are considered “vague”, “out-there” or “woo-woo”, you probably find yourself banging your head against the wall every time you go through some marketing training and were told to “list out the benefits” that are concrete, solve an urgent problem, or just plain “sellable.”
Or maybe you have gotten dinged too many times during those 5-minutes-of-fame coaching calls and sent back to the drawing board to twist yourself into the “come up with something the sells” box.
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What if… you can get your clients to buy whatever YOU want to offer?
What if… you can get them to ask you for it?
Wouldn’t that be sweet?
Let me tell you my story…
What I really do for my clients is pretty darn vague – when you get to the bottom of it, I sell CLARITY, and the expression of it.
I help my clients turn the Soul of their businesses into communications that sell.
I am borderline woo-woo, and I wear a “Mindset + Psychic Twist” badge. Hmm…
I Was Going Down the Wrong Path, Selling To the Wrong People…
Like all good students of marketing, I used to go about digging into the pain points, challenges, desires and what-not’s most business training programs tell us to.
Add salt, twist the knife, they said.
Writing about and selling programs on online marketing, list building, sales funnel, and copywriting etc. got me somewhere… like, a 6-figure business. I was good at it, but it never scratched the itch.
Something was missing, big time.
I sounded like everybody else. I suffered from Entrepreneurial Boredom.
Even worse, when I talked about things that didn’t tap into my WHY or my superpowers, I got potential clients who wanted things that didn’t excite me.
As a result, I spent a load of time and energy trying to convince these people why they need to build a solid foundation with clarity, mindset and conviction before they can effectively implement the strategies and tactics.
I was putting myself in an uphill battle.
There was a mismatch between what I was selling, and what my potential clients were expecting and willing to pay for.
No fun. I got the wrong people talking to me. What I wanted to sell was not what they set out to buy! I had to do a lot of convincing.
Even when I got them as clients, I had to speed through the parts I know to be most valuable and most enjoy doing in order to get to the bit they “paid money for.”
One day I said SCREW IT!
I stopped writing sales copy that sounded just like everyone else. In fact, I restrained myself from going into “sales page therapy” (which is my way of hiding behind busy work so I don’t have to face my own shit.)
I stopped putting out those “5 simple ways” and “7 easy tips” blog posts, just for the sake of getting eyeballs.
I started to write a lot… a whole freaking lot on my blog. It started with a selfish intention of needing to figure out where the hell I was going with my business.
Business as a form of self-expression. Business as a manifestation of my WHY.
The added challenge of hitting “publish” and putting it all out there – the good the bad and the ugly – was me daring myself to overcome my own fears and step up to own what I stand for.
A few months into writing MY way (and releasing the fears and attachment behind banging out sales pages to make a quick buck,) something magical happened.
When I got on the phone with potential clients for “sales conversation” and asked in what way they thought I could help them, they would answer, “I need to find clarity and purpose for my business” or “I like the ‘soul’ aspect of your work” or “I need to do the inner work and find the clarity to support my outer work” or “I need to work on my mindset and fears.”
Clarity, inner work, finding the “soul” of a business – that’s my Superpowers, the stuff I really want to help clients with, the stuff that makes my heart sing.
These potential clients were basically asking me to sell them what I wanted to offer. And they were ready to pay for it.
How To Get Your Potential Clients To Ask You For What You ReallyWant To Sell:
If you want to have clients coming to you asking for the “vague, out-there, woo-woo” stuff those business coaching programs tell you to tip-toe around, then you need to make it RELEVANT to your potential clients.
I like doing it through educational content as part of a biggest marketing strategy because good content builds good will over time, increases the “like know and trust” factor, paving the way to an easy “sell.”
Let’s illustrate with what I did:
I started to blog a lot as a way to find my own clarity. Because everything I wrote was published for the world to see, I had to make it relevant for my readers. After all, what’s the point if no one is reading it??!
One of my Superpowers is to get people to look at ideas we “take for granted” and approach them from a different perspective.
I started picking topics that are “popular” in the business and marketing arena and turned them on their head in my articles. I questioned the rules from a different perspective.
The content quickly went from some “popular” topics, to getting the readers to approach them from a different angle, to going into what I believe to be the most important foundational components in business – our conviction, mindset, and courage – and how to translate them into effective marketing communication.
Everything I write about – no matter how diverse the “entry points” are – all circle back to what I want to be known for.
These articles “scoop up” readers from where they are at, starting with the obvious problems they experience as “symptoms” my offerings can “treat.” Then educate them on how these “symptoms” are related to the solution I offer (i.e. finding clarity.)
Here are a few examples:
This article hits on the “symptoms” of time management and overwhelm, then proceeds to show the readers how their challenges can be solved by finding clarity, upgrading money mindset and overcoming fears.
This article uses “selling” as the “entry point” to lead into a deeper exploration of fears, money mindset, and self-worth issues.
This article starts with “niche” – a topic somewhat beaten to death in the business coaching world but also a term people know to google, and moves onto my expert areas of clarity, innovation, and intuition.
Now It’s Your Turn –
- Consider your ideal clients, and write down a list of their problems and challenges in relation to the area of your expertise. Identify the “symptoms” you can help them solve with “the thing you want to be known for.”
(If you need help identifying your schtick and define your niche, this can help.) - Come up with a catchy title that speaks to that urgent symptom your peeps want solution for – this will get them to click through and read your stuff. Doesn’t hurt SEO either.
- Map out how to transition from relating to your readers’ circumstances, building rapport and talking about their symptoms, to educating them why “the thing you want to be known for” is THE solution to their burning issues. Bam! You have your article outline!
- Write your article, spread the word!
Want to use content to support your marketing effort, get your ideal clients in the door, and more?
About the author: Ling Wong
Ling is an Intuitive Brainiac. Through her unique blend of Business + Marketing coaching with a Mindset + Psychic Twist, she helps the multi-talented and multi-passionate maverick solo-entrepreneurs distill ALL their big ideas into ONE cohesive Message, nail the WORDS that sell and design a Plan to cut the busywork and do what matters, through her intuitive yet rigorous iterative process born out of her Harvard Design School training and 10 years of experience in the online marketing industry.
Ling helps her clients optimize the space between individuality + originality vs. “tried-and-true” marketing so they can express their WHY unapologetically and profitably without reinventing the wheel.
Find Ling and grab her free “How to Find YOUR Winning Formula” Training Series here.
