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Copyright © 2007, SoftwareCEO Inc. Reprinted with permission.
Why talk to a copywriter? Why not a CEO, or a sales whiz?
Why does copywriting matter to your results for 2007?
Let's face it, selling by e-mail and the web is all about the words.
So if you plan on pitching anything to prospects this year — from a free download to a webinar — you
need good copywriting to do it.
California-based Ivan Levison
has been writing direct-response copy
for software companies for more than 27 years now.
How good is he?
Never mind the glowing testimonials on his Web site from
firms like ACCPAC, HP, Intel, Intuit,
Microsoft, and Rational,
not to mention authors Geoffrey Moore and Seth Godin.
I can tell you that I've worked with Levison myself, and he's great.
Ten years ago, I was VP marketing for a software firm based in Montreal
with a typical problem: How to stand out from the crowd.
We sold bar code software for ERP systems like Oracle Applications and Baan,
and resold hardware from Intermec. On every deal, we were up against two
or three competitors.
I sought out Levison for help creating some print ads, since both Oracle and Intermec
published magazines at the time.
Musing about what we could do, he asked, "How about offering some sort of guide called
something like, 'How to Unlock the Power of Your ERP System'?"
This crumb from his table grew into one of the most powerful marketing campaigns we ever did.
Using his title, I planned a 48-page full-color guide. The text was as simple as a children's book.
The story featured Victor the VP and Martin the manufacturing manager
(our decision-maker and technical recommender) walking through their plant,
chatting about the benefits of bar coding.
The resulting booklet was packed with photos and short enough to read in a few minutes.
But no competitor had anything like it.
Our total cost was about $25,000, mainly for printing. What kind of return did we get?
Our West Coast sales manager put it best.
"Whenever I go to a meeting and put out copies of our handbook for everyone at the table," he said,
"our company shoots right to the top of their vendor list!"
That little booklet helped us sell more than $20 million of software over the next two years.
Then the company itself was sold to a much larger competitor who got tired of us eating their lunch.
And much of this success flowed from a casual suggestion that Levison dropped in a phone call,
with no thought of any further return to himself.
So let's dive into some tips from the master on how to improve your copy, generate more leads,
and fulfill them more effectively.
First of all, what do you want to accomplish with your lead-gen campaign?
Most B2B software firms want a fresh crop of worthwhile suspects — prospects not yet in your
sales funnel — who've indicated interest and given enough contact information to trigger
some follow-up marketing.
The real issue is, how much energy do you expect your suspects to put in?
Levison says software copywriters have many arrows in their quiver.
And you can arrange each type of campaign on a scale according to how much commitment
they demand from a suspect.
On the low-commitment end of the scale is the instant gratification of downloading something
like an ROI calculator, or a guide with a compelling name that promises some helpful insights.
Toward the middle are the information kits that could contain a CD, brochures, and any
other item a company cares to include.
A webinar requires somewhat higher commitment, with the average taking 40 to 60 minutes
from a busy prospect's life.
And the high point of the scale is what Levison sees as the ultimate:
a letter that is "literally asking for an appointment with a person in their office."
"With this kind of letter" — and he says don't even think about trying this in an e-mail —
"you want to avoid making the prospect feel that they're going to have the sales force knock
down their door, come in, and sell them."
So Levison positions the request for an appointment as a "high-level briefing" on an important
area in the industry.
In a table, these options would look like this:
|
Level of Commitment from Prospect
|
Low
|
Medium
|
Medium-High
|
High
|
Free download:
ROI calculator, special report, or useful guide
|
Information kit sent by mail, or podcast |
60-minute webinar |
Appointment for briefing in prospect's office |
The trick, of course, is to match the right campaign to the appropriate target audience.
Naturally enough, the less commitment you ask for, the more prospects you will likely attract.
So most marketers start at the low end of the scale, build up a pipeline, and
gradually increase the commitment level as they find out more about each prospect.
Let's look at how we might develop a campaign for a free download, with Levison at our shoulder to help.
Levison recommends working hard to come up with a great, original title for whatever you use
as your fulfillment piece.
"If the offer is an information kit, don't even use that label. I always give it a name," he says.
"Saying 'information kit' is like saying 'white paper;' people's eyes just glaze over.
I feel the term 'white paper' in the software industry is so over-used and so dry,
I like to call them 'guides.'"
Here are some titles he created that worked well for his software clients:
"Making E-Commerce Pay!
A 'How-to' Guide for Nonprofits"
"Information Security:
An Action Plan for Senior Management"
"How to get out from under the thumb
of your payroll service bureau!"
"E-Mail Alerts: An Exciting New Tool for HR Professionals"
"Straight Talk About Bar Code Data Capture and Wireless Networks:
A Guide for Manufacturers"
"A VAR's Guide to Higher Profits"
And let's not forget the one he did for my firm:
"How to Unlock the Power of Oracle Applications."
Notice how each title pushes the benefits and the usefulness of the information included.
Also note how many indicate the intended audience, explicitly saying "for ..."
This is the frame of mind to be in when you come up with your title.
This is a mistake that software people often make — especially technical people.
"The goal of lead generation is simply to get the prospect to raise their hand
so that you can capture information to get them in the sales funnel," says Levison.
"You want to make your offer so exciting, so irresistible, that everybody will raise their hands."
And what is motivating?
The benefits that the prospect is going to get out of your fulfillment piece
itself — not your software.
"The way I always position it is to say, 'Your free guide was created by Acme Software.'
And indeed, I do talk about the company, 'creators of XYZ Software' a little bit,
but that's down below," says Levison.
"The product will come later in the sales cycle, but first always get their hands up
with the benefits of your offer."
This is critical. When people give you their e-mail address, you have to deliver on your promise.
You must fulfill their request with something valuable.
"If you tell them you're going to give them five reasons to pay attention to something,
or seven mistakes to avoid, you've got to give them a good piece, or else they will
feel ripped off," says Levison.
As an example of a truly effective fulfillment piece, Levison points to a campaign dreamed up
by Kathleen Litschgi at Best Software (since acquired by Sage).
Litschgi found people at a certain level of business always had to go "into the lion's den" to
convince their superiors about the value of her HR software. So she imagined a kit with everything
a middle manager could use to sell their bosses.
"She brought me this idea, and I translated it, and it was tremendously successful,
because her thinking was so good," says Levison.
They wound up calling it the "HRIS Management Buy-In Kit." This free kit included all these
items (as Levison described them in the letter):
An easy-to-read brochure called "Building a Competitive Workforce,"
designed to provide management with a quick look at the many benefits of an HRIS
A "must-read" APA Employer Practices article titled "Determining the Business Impact of HRIS"
(It's worth requesting your free kit for this article alone!)
An ROI Estimator that quickly estimates just how much money [product name]
might save YOUR company
An interactive CD that provides comprehensive product information including interactive
tours of [product names]
A (fun) "smart" pen that has quick answers to management's toughest HRIS questions.
You can see his entire letter on this page of his site.
Always try to think on that highly imaginative level, he advises, and not put together
just another same-old package for your prospects.
In fact, Levison says one of the worst things a software company can do to fulfill a request
is to cobble together a clutch of existing materials pulled off the marcom shelves.
"People say, 'Hey, we've got this thing from 1927!' and they just write a dead-end letter
saying, 'Thank you so much for your interest in our product...' and it goes out into the ether,
and that lead is never seen again."
You've probably received packages like that. They don't generate much excitement, do they?
The secret is to write with more flair, and not be afraid of speaking like one human being to
another.
Often the people who do copywriting in a software firm are product managers,
and they do what feels like a nice, clean job, says Levison.
"The problem is, those jobs often don't have the whole dimension of motivation that really
makes the sale, the enthusiasm, and the looseness of the writing that has personality.
And quite honestly, when people see personality, they like it."
Levison is a master of the friendly, conversational style.
For an example, look at any of his newsletters;
he has seven year's worth of them on his Web site,
and each one is a little gem.
This is the tone you want to achieve in your own copy.
You don't want to say "free" and get blocked by the spam filters.
Instead, Levison often tries to work the title of the download into the subject line.
Another tip is to mention the job title of your target audience right in the subject line.
"And if they see IT, or security, or CFO — if they see themselves — you've got a real shot at getting that e-mail opened."
This might yield a crisp subject line that reads like this:
"Attn IT Security Pros: 8 Secrets of Protecting Your Network from Hackers."
Notice how this subject line almost writes itself... and is both powerful and concise
at the same time.
Let's continue with our example of a downloadable guide.
Levison says there are some common elements that work well both in HTML e-mail
and in a printed letter.
"If I'm doing the paper version," Levison explains, "the envelope would definitely
show a picture of the guide, and the guide should be designed so that the print
on the cover is big enough that you can read it in a Post-It-sized picture."
"The envelope might say: 'Attention IT Directors: Yours Free' above the cover picture,
which might say, '8 Secrets of Protecting Your Network from Hackers.'
Then there would be a line underneath: 'Download it now at www.whatever.com.'
"So instead of saying 'details inside' or 'timely information inside,'
people don't even have to open the letter to get the entire message.
You've already said it all right on the envelope.
"And in an HTML e-mail, this 'envelope copy' would go at the top of the message."
Then, in both the letter and the HTML e-mail, the graphic could be followed by
call-outs — just a few words of copy with a little line pointing to the guide.
Levison says he would typically include five or six call-outs listing what people are going to learn.
"When you show them a photo of what they're going to get, and do some
handholding — 'Download it now,' and 'Here's what you'll learn' - you have
visually and conceptually made the sale."
At this point, many of your suspects will already be clicking their way to your landing page.
For those who need a little more coaxing, you can go into some more copy on the second
screen of an e-mail or Web page, or the bottom half of the printed page.
"So when you start to write your body copy about the challenges or the pain
your prospects face, they don't even have to read it.
The envelope or the very top of the HTML e-mail made sure that they already
got the story telegraphed up front."
A picture really can speak 1,000 words, but it has to be good to do it.
"For webinars, I sometimes use a photo of a person sitting at their desk thoughtfully watching the screen," says Levison.
"The trick is to use something human. The clip stuff is so terrible, with all these beaming,
bright, scrubbed people. I've never once been to a meeting in Silicon Valley where the
people looked anything like the ones in the stock photos!"
Sure there are lots of good-looking keeners in Silicon Valley, but they're the ones
actually doing some work, not striking cute poses for the camera.
Find a photo that looks real, not fake. If you have to, take your own.
Hire a photojournalist from your local newspaper to do it for you.
Use your own offices, your own city, and your own people for models; they will likely be thrilled.
It's vital to have a dedicated landing page on your Web site that supports your initial campaign, and it must be simple.
"I think it's very important to have continuity between the landing page and the initial message. You don't want to drop them off at the home page and make them struggle to find what you've promised," says Levison.
The landing page could say, "Thanks very much for responding to the e-mail that we recently sent you. Please fill in this information... You're one mouse-click away from your free download."
Then right below the form, it should say "click here."
No muss, no fuss, and no more selling, because they're already sold.
If you're looking for signups for a webinar, you can attract people by adding drama to your announcements.
Levison says when he writes a webinar announcement, he often uses language like this,
"On January 25th, a group of forward-looking CFOs are going to gather for an online event
that really shouldn't be missed.
"This creates a sense of focus, a feeling of a personal invitation, that an invited group
of your colleagues will be gathering for an event," he says.
"This works very well, as opposed to, 'You're invited to a free webinar, register now
at wwww.whatever.com'."
The copy that follows can be structured like this:
A section on "Here's what you will learn."
A note on "Here's who will be presenting."
Levison likes to show a photo of the presenter to personalize the message.
Then he reassures prospects about how easy it is to take part, saying things like, "You can attend right at your desk" or "There's no software to download."
Levison says for a webinar he often uses a phrase like, "Why should you spend your valuable
time with us?"
The best answer is something like, "This is not a product demo. We are gathering together colleagues like yourself who really need to know about such-and-such."
The principles here are similar to what we've already discussed:
1. Show what you're offering.
2. Explain what they're going to learn.
3. Use graphics and call-outs to make it more real.
4. Explain how they can respond with the URL shown high up.
Follow these guidelines, Levison says, and you'll do OK.
There is one factor that has changed over the course of Levison's career: length.
Shorter is almost always better today, he says.
"Where I used to write four-page letters all the time, now I write two-sides of a page,
that's the default, and maybe four or five paragraphs for an e-mail."
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and for some high-commitment, high-value campaigns, you may need longer copy. But for everything else, keep it short and sweet.
Levison says that underneath all the latest marketing trends, human nature never changes; the same principles of effective copywriting apply.
"Something free is always going to be great. Something that helps solve a person's problem is always great. So whether we're talking about ink on the page or pixels on a screen, it's remarkably the same," he says.
What's the take-away message, as Levison would say?
To generate more leads, do something different.
Offer helpful and practical information to your prospects.
Write it up crisply, package it effectively, promote it properly — and you will
definitely stand out from the crowd of software vendors.
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