How To Make Your Customer Desire Your Content At Just The Right Time

March 13, 2017 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

I have a friend in e-commerce who assigned his Paypal alert — “You just received a payment” — it’s own specific sound. When his phone makes that sound, he knows his website has just made a sale.

“That’s my favorite sound,” he says, and while it’s wonderful making a sale, especially to a brand new customer, we all know it’s not as easy as that “DING” would imply. There was a complex process that took place before the customer clicked the BUY button and entered her credit card number.

For a professional in real estate, or any complex sale that hinges on relationship, you don’t get a sweet chime on your phone. It’s a little more involved than that, and the paydays are less frequent.

In both cases, however, the purchase of a digital product and the purchase of a house, the process generally follows a time-honored formula, beloved by all sales people. Maybe you’ve heard of it.

The AIDA formula is the process by which a customer moves from total unawareness to the moment where she takes action and buys the product.

Your content’s job is to track and speak to the customer at all four general points of the AIDA formula. Ultimately, that action you want them to take is to make a purchase, however in today’s marketing environment, you have to consider any action taken – a click to download an infographic, a view of a video, an agreement to participate in a live chat – a step in the right direction toward a sale.

In a sales relationship, your content has a purpose. Your goal is to create and share content tailored to help answer, explain, or reveal new information needed to get to the next step.

AIDA is the acronym for the customer’s state of motivation, as she gets closer to a decision to purchase:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

It’s almost springtime in North America (if not now, then soon!), so it’s fitting to focus on DESIRE as it relates to your buyer’s decision-making process.

It’s also the season when home sales start to pick up. It’s not uncommon to see several open house signs in any neighborhood you visit. What is it about spring?

The Season of Desire

Until spring actually arrives in full color, it might be nature’s ugliest season. The remains of winter reveal bare branches, gray skies, melting, sooty snow banks, and oozing mud everywhere. Parking lots, soccer fields, bare patches in the lawn… all of the exposed parts of the ground are dark and slick with mud.

But underneath all that sledge and rotting decay are the seeds of beauty and growth. With a little sun, the mud will harden and plant life will shoot through the earth, forcing it’s mighty way into the world with wild abandon and limitless excess. In what seems like an instant, the gray mess turns vibrant, green and new.

It’s nature’s season of desire, and it’s a great way to think of the term, Customer Desire. It’s your customer’s need for the right message as they move from casual interest to a decision to act.

Desire is the tipping point in a decision to buy.

Desire is a high contrast state of being. It’s the moment when people realize they lack something they want.

And once they decide they want it, they want it now.

If we look at desire from the lens of a love story (take the opera Aida, for example — I couldn’t resist), the best love stories take place amidst war or conflict. The potential for loss due to circumstances beyond our control make the desire for the beloved that much more intense. On a lesser scale, your customer is in the throes of a similar heightened emotion. They’re feeling a lot of tension, maybe even with an elevated sense of passion and drama.

Some of these thoughts may be swirling in their heads at this point in the buying cycle:

It’s now or never.
I’ve waited long enough for this.
This problem is only going to get worse if I don’t do something.
The change is exactly what I/we need right now.
This is what I’ve been searching for.
This makes sense to me. Everything is becoming clear to me.
This has now become a priority.

Interesting how those same thoughts could belong to a tiny green (personified) shoot as it finds its way through the earth to the sun?

Remember this desire phase comes just before the action step.

It’s like pulling back a spring or rubber band to the point just before you release it. That pent-up emotion will find a way to push through. Just like that seedling uncurling from the dark earth.

The desire to change must be greater than the comfort of staying the same.

I’ve heard it said a different way: “The desire to change must be greater than the desire to stay the same.” But that’s wrong. No one desires to stay the same. No one desires stasis.

Humans — at least the ones who buy, invest, contribute, and/or actively make a change in their lives because they are finally so uncomfortable that they have to change.

Desire can only be linked to something that causes or relates to change.

So as you decide what kind of content to use to reach the folks who are feeling desire, you have to remember that you are addressing a different person than the one who is just becoming aware that he has a problem. You may try to reach this person on different channels, possibly through different social media sites, and certainly with a more urgent, deeper message.

Now that you know the types of thoughts they’re having concerning the issue, you will want to make sure you’re providing the right information they need to make a decision. The glut of information on the Internet causes a consumer both confusion and empowerment, which is another source of tension you can ease with helpful content and a consistent presence.

One thing’s for sure; once a person reaches the point of desire, they’ll begin to research solutions.

Take note, however. Yours may not be the only resource they consult, even if you were the one that got their attention in the first place.

Because the desire phase immediately precedes the action phase, the one who gets the sale/listing is often the one who’s been most helpful and trustworthy at the Desire stage. But not always…

The sale or contract is naturally always awarded to the one who’s there at the end, or the Action phase. If you’ve done all the work to groom a buyer through all the phases of a purchase, you must never take it for granted that the business is yours. You must be there at the Action phase. But that’s another topic for another time…

Now picture yourself seated at a table with this person. Hopefully you’ve already done the buyer persona work, because you need to describe him or her accurately. You’ve discussed all the issues related to the choices before them. In terms of content this means you’ll offer different types of content from what you showed in the Attention and Interest phases. You’ve already anticipated specific questions they might have.

Now you’re getting into the nitty gritty – and of course showing lots of benefits to working together or using your product.

Some types of content you’d send in the Desire phase would be:

Case studies of satisfied customers.
Papers and stats that clarify distinctions between you and everyone else.
Introductions to people they would be working with on your team.
Steps they need to take, as they get ready for the next step — the purchase, listing, inspection, deal, etc.

Can you see why you would never send this type of content to someone who isn’t ready to receive it?

Someone who is just beginning to learn about your industry, service or product needs a series of broader, less explicit content. You don’t want to scare them or come off as too pushy, either. Consumers are sophisticated researchers, and when they decide to act, they will make moves indicating that.

Be sure your content strategy allows the customer to take small steps in your direction. Things like chat boxes and personal webinar opportunities, even a simple tick box letting them know you will call them at their convenience; all go far toward educating your customer and allowing them to feel like they are in control of their decision making process and ultimately, their purchase.

Possibly the most important thing associated with this desire phase is just being there. Remember that coiled spring. You want to be there, ready, when that coil is released.

The Desire phase is when you reach out and offer the most personal experience to date.

Is it appropriate to make a phone call and listen to your customer’s concerns? Send a personal email? Make sure your content marketing team and sales team are coordinated now (that’s another blog post, for sure) so that when your customer is ready with desire, you can assist them with a clear call to action.

An effective content marketing plan includes content for all phases of the AIDA formula.

By the time your customer reaches the desire phase, she will have probably been exposed to earlier content of yours, and will recognize you and your brand. She probably has a sense of how you stand out and why your offer is unique. “Desire” is the moment to wow her. If you do, you may hear that lovely sound that tells you your content strategy is working: The DING that alerts you of another sale, or in the case of a more complex deal, at least a move by your client in the right direction.

People in real estate don’t necessarily get that satisfaction. The point of sale is less frequent, as I’ve mentioned before. The sale is just as gratifying (more so!) even though you might not hear bells when you get a house under contract.

you can call me flower — “You can call me flower.”

Would you like to get a clearer picture of your business’ content marketing strengths — and places where you could be wasting time and money? You probably already have a lot of pieces in place to deliver great content to your perfect audience.

Find out by taking The Content Quiz… It’s a fun and quick way to spot gaps where you can step up your digital marketing strategy. My treat. Contact me and I’ll send it right out.

How To Hook Your Readers With Specifics

March 9, 2017 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

Getting to the point — the real point — with specific details is the only you can bring clarity to a problem your customer may be having.

Insightful copywriting shows you understand your customer by revealing a new level of depth in an issue they might not be able to see clearly.

A guy called in to the Kim Komando show once with a complaint. He was looking for an IT solution for his school district, and all his IT people were scratching their heads because they couldn’t solve it within their tight budget.

Kim’s answer was pretty simple. First she sympathized with the prices, and then explained how she also always gets sticker shock when her IT people at the show reveal a solution that seems over the top. She says, “How can personal laptops do all this stuff for consumers, but then when the show needs it on a larger scale, we can’t just buy 10 laptops and string them up together and make them pull their weight?” I’m paraphrasing, but she ended with this: “Well, they can’t. That’s just not how it works. This stuff is expensive.”

See, the caller was comparing his imagined solution to the wrong thing, He couldn’t accept the price because he was comparing the solution to a consumer’s price, not a B2B, or institutional price.

He was frustrated because in his mind he assumed it was an IT problem instead of a budget problem. He had simply framed the problem incorrectly.

Tim Robbins’ Ultimate Power is a powerful read for content marketers and copywriters. If you havent’ read it, or you think it might be too “out there,” I challenge you to give it a try. Our minds try to hold us back from success by filling our consciousness with generalities that are off-the-mark to begin with. We can only understand a problem in terms of our current awareness. In other words, we can’t know what we don’t know.

Your customer is in the same boat. When she states her problem, you can understand her, based on the context of the situation, or simply because you’ve solved a similar problem for others like her. But in her mind, she just can’t see the problem clearly. And that’s half the problem! That’s where you come in.

Next time you’re in a problem/solution situation, help your customer by applying details — details she’s provided, even! — to her problem.

People simply don’t have the time or space to be less than their best if they think about problems in specific, accurate terms. This is where copywriting comes in, so consider these concepts as if you had to write an exploratory paper about your customer’s dilemma. You’ll quickly see how easy it is to address the problem, come up with a decent solution, and encourage your client to see it from a new vantage point.

As a work-from-home mom with a business to run, I remember many summers when the kids would whine that there was “nothing to do!” Quickly coming up with a list of specific things for them to do was my solution.

In a similar way, what I’m suggesting here is not to offer your customer a list of specific options to choose from; but rather to pose their questions as specifically as possible so that they can easily come to the same conclusion as you and see the ease with which their problem could be solved.

When you show you understand, by merely reframing their problem with specific details, then you’ll be seen as an expert with an answer.

I have some ideas for you today — ideas that can improve the way you put into words how your products and services help your customers.

Here’s the thing. For most people, when something is bugging us, and especially when we haven’t quite decided to do something about it yet, we tend to linger around the problem like we’re lost in a cloud. It’s almost as if we enjoy being lost in the muddle.

Next time you’re really frustrated, notice your thoughts. Does that voice in your head start uttering negative-talk? If you’re human, your mind may start coming up with generalities which are definitely not going to bring you any closer to a solution. When you’re really down and out, it’s almost impossible to see your situation in specific, solution-oriented terms! Instead, your inner voice says things like:

I always get within 10 pounds of my goal weight, then stop losing weight. Why try?
I have no time for that project.
How can I be so forgetful?
Every time I attend that meeting, I end up frustrated.
That class is too expensive.
Writing code is hard.
I can never hire the right person for the job.

Can you see the relationship between all these phrases? At their core they hold no power because they are nebulous by nature. When you find yourself thinking about problems in this vague way, inspect them more closely to find the real hooks inside the issue.

To show you can really serve your customer — and relay that with your copywriting, let’s rephrase each of the above complaints with a specific clause. Where, exactly, does the person get snagged up?

I always get within 10 pounds of my goal weight, then stop losing. Why try?
- Should be: When I reach 125 pounds, I start adding old friends like chips and ice cream to my diet. How can I stay on target and resist those things?
I have no time for that project.
- Should be: I would need to drop this other thing from my schedule if I were to work on that. Or I really don’t want to make time for that project, but maybe I can find someone who can help.
How can I be so forgetful?
- Should be: I’m great about remembering to-do items for projects, so why do I forget the names of the clients at that company? How do I retain them?
Every time I attend that meeting, I end up frustrated.
- Should be: Who or what is it about that meeting that frustrates me? Can I avoid feeling frustrated by doing or saying something different?
That class is too expensive.
- Should be: That class is expensive compared to this other one. What is the added value I would get from it?
Exercising is hard.
- Should be: I find it difficult to stay on task when I’m studying. Once I settle into my work I’m ok, so how do I get rid of distractions so I can focus?
I can never hire the right person for the job.
- Should be: Either my ads are attracting the wrong candidates or we don’t have an interview process that screens people well. Where can I get information about that?

Now think about some of the common problems of your customers.

Are people coming to you with a perceived problem that is unsolvable in their minds? It could be because the wording is intrinsically formatted in “loser” terms. I’m not saying that out of disrespect. You must show empathy by listening and repeating the things that are bugging them.

Finally, don’t merely imagine your constituents’ problems. Verify your guesses by making yourself available on social media, in your communities, and through face-to-face networking with REAL people. In order to truly understand how to serve people better, you must engage in a real conversation with them.

As you begin to offer help, that’s when it’s appropriate to define problems with specific words and phrases.

Specific terminology — rather than general fog — defines the problem and gives it real teeth, so you can get in there and fix it.

If it weren’t for all the preconceived notions, and non specific ideas tumbling around in our heads, just imagine how productive we could be and how quickly we could come up with answers to our problems! Learn to let others help you when you can’t define a problem with certainty, and then learn to help others when you can see clearly through their brain fog.

When writing and creating content for your audience, hook your readers with specific concepts that redefine their main problem.

Want to take this discussion further? Let’s connect on Facebook. What’s the hardest part about finding the root of your customer’s nebulous problem?

[Updated from a 2013 blog post]

How To Kindly Address Your Customer’s Fear

September 1, 2016 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

No one actually signs up to have his life turned upside down. Most people don’t even want to look at the things that scare them.

I know I don’t. If there’s something that’s worrying me out there on the horizon, I can always distract myself with things that I’m pretty sure I can easily handle. Peeling back the layers and looking underneath into the dark and hidden scary stuff isn’t my cup of tea. I certainly don’t go seeking it out.

Why Most People Would Rather Change The Subject…

Unfortunately, most stuff that disrupts a person’s life or causes pain is junk that they know deep down they could have (might have) avoided. But since it’s not causing immediate pain, they push it down to the bottom of their consciousness.

Often, things that scare us are already on our radar, but we avoid looking directly at them. Some examples:

You might fear that a sedentary lifestyle is making you unhealthy. It’s causing you to gain weight and lose muscle.
You might fear that you’re not teaching your child how to managing money, or use allowance wisely. You know you need to get some kind of system in place to help them learn about personal finance before they grow up, but time slips by and you never do.
You might fear that you’ll make a fool of yourself at the next golf outing with your boss if you don’t practice and learn the game.
You might fear your child’s car seat is not installed properly, or that your tires are unsafe.
You might fear you’ll have to work the rest of your life and never retire in comfort.
You might fear that you won’t pass an upcoming exam you need to graduate…

See what I mean? People can put off a lot of situations because they are not urgent today. Yet these things are taking up precious mental space, and causing a riot of worry beneath the surface.

If you never address your customer’s fear you’ll never sell a thing.

Copywriters are trained to understand the motivational power of fear, yet some fail to use it effectively in their copy. A lot of small business owners who write their own copy don’t even want to “go there.” They think it’s not nice to “scare” their customers and may view this copywriting technique as a strong-arm tactic. Some even worry that they’re being impolite by drawing attention to others’ fears!

If you’re one of those business people, you won’t be in business long unless you start looking at sales differently. This post will help you see the “fear factor” as something that actually serves your customer… it doesn’t trick them into doing something they never intended to do in the first place!

If that’s your intention, or you’re not sure if you should be selling whatever it is you’re selling, then stop now. Go back to the drawing board and improve your product or offer — or find something different to sell that you can feel good about.

Never use fear of loss to get people to do something they don’t really want to do, or that will ultimately harm them. Never.

But I’m assuming that you truly believe in your products or services, so today I want to walk you through how to use fear in your copywriting without worrying about taking advantage of your customer.

Use (Never Abuse) Fear To Sell Your Products

Copywriting is a form of selling. Ultimately, you are educating a potential customer about the benefits of your product and (hopefully) persuading them to buy something from you. I know people rarely talk about web copy that way anymore. It’s all “helpful and entertaining content,” etc. The truth is, though, that’s what content marketing ultimately does, and it’s what all effective marketing copy does… It motivates people to act.

Consumers are very smart. So don’t think you’re going to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, or simply write some magic words that work like voodoo to get someone to do something. It doesn’t work that way.

The only reason you use words that might make a customer uncomfortable is because that discomfort is what causes people to act!

If you don’t touch a nerve, why would your customer bother changing anything at all? It’s human nature to simply carry on, or to pretend a problem isn’t that big a deal.

So how do you kindly address your customer’s fear? How do you show that you feel their pain without sounding slimy or blatantly sales-y?

FACE THE FEAR.

First, step into your customer’s shoes. See the situation from their point of view and show that you understand by using the customer’s words to describe it.

Now, if you’ve been in business long enough, you probably know how the problem feels because past customers have told you, or you’ve experienced the fear yourself. I know so many business people who go into business because they have solved a problem that used to vex them like crazy. Now that their problem is solved, they want to share it with others.

REVEAL HOW IT FEELS.

Give your customer space to really feel the discomfort before you jump to solving it. Use a few sentences to get into the sensory aspects of the discomfort. Are your palms sweating? Is your heart racing? Do you have that dread that comes with the feeling that your heart’s in your throat? Can you hear a voice in your head telling you what you should do?

LET THE CUSTOMER OWN IT.

Avoid rescuing. The only one who can really transform a negative situation into something positive, is the person who experiences it. If you position yourself as a miracle worker, you’re in a dangerous position. Let your customer own it the problem and the fear, not you.

It’s human nature to come up with all sorts of excuse to tamp down the fear and pretend a problem really isn’t much of a problem. The skilled copywriter can walk a reader through this murky territory and show their prospect how much control they really have to change their situation. Simply state all the reasons a client might avoid a real solution. (Is it too expensive, too difficult, or too late?) Then reveal the peace, the freedom, or the confidence that comes from owning the fear and taking action.

CONTRAST THE FEAR AND THE SOLUTION.

Contrast the fear and what life would be life without it. Help your reader see what’s possible, what the removal of the fear would really look like in her life.

Imagine a blurry image or word coming into focus, as if you’re a patient in an eye exam viewing a line of text through two different lenses during an eye appointment. You know how the optometrist asks, “Which is better? A or B?” and then you make your choice? Now that’s instant clarity! Click.

Focusing on something negative doesn’t mean elevating it above the positive. It’s simply putting two things side by side and showing the differences.

“Focus” simply means bringing clarity to the negative state. Acknowledge the negative, or the fear, and then flip the lens. Once you do that, you don’t need to “sell” anything because the clearer perspective sells the product for you.

MOVE ON.

Don’t wallow in the problem. Spending too much time in that zone of fear and loss creates more worry on the customer’s part. Address concerns and move on. You want to spend more time showing your customer the good life, so don’t carry that negative baggage around for too long.

The key here is a smooth transition. You’ve already shone your spotlight on the problem, and then contrasted it with a clear difference.

Now you must quickly and decisively put the problem to rest. Switch to the obvious solution — the one you provide via your product or service.

BE GENUINE.

Finally, care. It’s not about convincing someone to do something they don’t want to do. A strong-armed “yes” practically guarantees that you’ll have an unhappy and resentful client. Concern yourself with getting customers who are 100% on board. The only way to get that all-in effect is to show real empathy toward your customer and the problems you claim to solve.

Understand fear, but don’t let it permeate your message. You don’t always have to be talking about it. Let this knowledge quietly work for you.

Here’s a little tip: Why not work through some of these points today? You don’t have to write a blog post, or to even use these points in your marketing copy right now. But trust me, when you take the time to understand what might be keeping your customer from buying your product, chances are it boils down to something they’re afraid of.

You don’t always have to mention it, but if you spend some time figuring out possible fears, and it will transform how you deal with clients and prospects, even when your message is in keeping with a positive vibe.

The really great thing about tackling a customer’s fear in your copy is that once you wrap your head around the transition that must be made in your customer’s mind, you can easily conquer her fears and doubts in a few bullet points.

I was trained long ago to write copy for the long sales page, telling a story that gets someone reading through to the end. On the web, though, you may only have room for a few sentences. Consumers don’t always have time to read every word.

If you understand the progression someone goes through to get from a place of fear to a feeling of genuine calm without worry or doubt, then you’ll be able to write copy that moves quickly, or that can be doled out in small bits and bites over time, as on social media, or in short pay-per-click ads.

Don’t avoid touching your customer’s pain, worry and fear. It’s a necessary part of the sales process. Use the fear appeal to your advantage. Your ideal customer will benefit, and your conversions will skyrocket.

Get more copywriting tips!

Want to learn more about converting customers and making better sales online? I’ve put together a series of 21 very short videos highlighting the top converting copywriting techniques…

8 Ways To Make Your Clients Love You

August 1, 2016 by Elizabeth Leave a Comment

.Wouldn’t you just swell up in pride when a client delights in you and says, “We appreciate You” or “Good to have you onboard!” These are not polite diplomacy remarks. These are real comments, given by some genuine clients, for being awesome.

Now look at these compliments – How would you feel if you get one of these – ?

Because you are a star!!! Thanks for your work on this. 🙂
Look forward to some more excellent work from you 🙂
You were a soldier in this.

These are just some of the compliments from my clients. Don’t assume it may take a long time for you to make your clients love you. For me, I have delighted clients from the first project on! I have been freelancing only about a year and in this (very) short span of time, I have managed to create a great rapport with all my clients.

Follow these simple tips if you want to get more and better freelance jobs.

Tip #1. Be Passionate

About your work.

Maybe you got into the freelance business out of necessity. I know I did. I wanted to be a full-time parent and it was only after I started writing, I discovered my passion for it.

Pro Tip: Work with all your heart and all your mind, and it will show in your work.

If you have any kind of mind block for your assignment, your client, or maybe you are simply bored — as a ripple effect, all of these aspects will trickle down to your work and that is never a good thing.

Your clients want to work with people who are like them. And if they are passionate about their business, and you are not – it simply would not work.

If you are compelled to freelance but are not “feeling” anything for it, try to be grateful for the many benefits freelancing offers – the flexibility and the freedom is great compared to the million others who have to work inside tiny cubicles, all day, all week.

Tip #2. Treasure Your Clients

So maybe you are passionate about your work and you have great clients to work with. It’s when you start taking them for granted, things start to fall apart. You start missing deadlines or you fail to update them about your impromptu mid-week break. These are simple things that can spell DOOM for your freelance writing career. Don’t do these things to lose your client.

When you treasure your clients, you care about their business. You care how much your work will affect their business. You wouldn’t be in it for the money. That will show your clients what a treasure you are to keep!

Pro Tip: Never Take your Clients For Granted

Tip #3. Be Accountable

When you accept to work on a certain project or assignment, make sure you are 100% committed. If, for any reason, you cannot deliver your best or deliver anything at all – you need to keep your clients in the loop about it. If you work on hourly basis, don’t cheat on your productivity. If you say yes to a client, then be sure to deliver and do it quick.

Pro Tip: Be honest about what you can and cannot do.

Tip #4. Be Quick to Deliver

For clients, time is money. The faster you deliver, the sooner it will help your clients. When your clients give you a deadline and you deliver before time, you earn a ton of brownie points! You get more work because the client appreciates your delivery timelines. When you work with this attitude, your productivity hits the fan and you get more and better freelance jobs.

Pro Tip: Deliver before the deadline.

Tip #5. Deliver the Best

Exercise caution when you want to be quick to deliver. Do it only when you really can. Of course, doing it regularly has its perks, but delivering half-baked assignments will probably get you fired. Quick or not, persuade your soul to deliver only the best work, each time, every time.

Tip #6. Be Dependable

When you only deliver the best each time, and within stipulated timelines, your clients learn to depend on you. Say Yes every time they come to you with an assignment. Even if it means for you to burn the midnight oil, burn it! …and deliver so they keep coming back for you.

Pro Tip: Work extra hours, only if you can.

Tip #7. Be Proactive

When you have completed a deliverable, be sure to be enthusiastic and ask your client if they have more work to give you. You don’t have to wait around for your client, you can take the first step. This will show your client that you are proactive and ready for more work.

Pro Tip: Ask for more work.

Tip #8. Build Relationship

Care to know their birthdays, their children’s birthdays, anniversaries. Be tuned to what your client is feeling. Share some of your personal stories. When there is a real and a genuine connection, your client will never forget you. You will be the first person they think of when things need to get done.

Pro Tip: Get on a video call at least once a month.

Do you have some sure fire ways to make clients love you? Share how you do it in the comments below.

Elizabeth Alex is a freelance content writer for hire. Follow her on her website, Honestliz.com, Facebook and Twitter.

The Natural Reason To Stick To Time Limiters In Your Offer

August 25, 2014 by jennifer mcgahan 1 Comment

“When are you done?”

My 11-year-old wrote on my day calendar as I was on my phone…

This summer I finally internalized the moment I’ve been waiting to realize in 47 years: “I will never be done.”

I will be happy, I will have a few regrets at times (mother’s guilt), I will miss some moments, but I’ll get to witness others. I will carelessly look away from relationships and trust in their ability to survive. They will grow all on their own, and with a little help from me… or not! — and let’s face it, I won’t be there to see every single moment. I can’t control all those moments anyway, if any of them.

And yet, I am holding a place for their growth, and it will take my breath away when I see where these people and relationships end up.

I’m certain of one thing: those strong-as-silk bonds of love don’t unravel, and it will seem like the passing of time had no consequence at all. At least as a mother, that’s how I’m counting on feeling as the years go by. We are all dangerously free — and connected all the same.

The great equalizer is TIME.

Mothers know this, and so do marketers!

I will never, and you will never, be done. No one is ever “done.”

As a copywriter, the element of time limiters is a concept that you always want to think about as you present a promise to your audience.

There is ever only so much time to see growth. Your customer will be able to see it if they “click now” — and you both will enfold the possibility under your wings for just this little bit of time.

As a marketer and salesperson, you encourage people to ACT NOW. If you’ve set the stage for the sale with content that naturally leads up to it, the urgency to act should be there.

If your customer chooses not to act, then they must either give up the idea of purchasing altogether, or gear up to make another decision about it in the future. For most people, that’s not an ideal situation. What else are they going to do? How are they going to solve the problem or scratch that itch in the meantime?

That’s the question you must address in your copy. What’s the alternative if they wait?

In the here and now, you are connecting to your customer with your offer. There is magic in that moment. And the beauty is, you don’t need to force it. You don’t need to force anything at all, because…

The time limiter is just that.

The moment in time where you say, “Here it is…and it will only last as long as we’re together in this moment. Make your choice.”

Time passes. We will never meet again in the here and now. (Cheesy, huh? But true!) This is IT.

Time marches on. Sometimes, thankfully, we realize time is disappearing. Most times, it escapes whether we realize it or not, and if we haven’t acted on what we really wanted, we may regret it.

That’s why I love the time limiters that highlight not only time passing, but opportunity slipping away…this one precious moment.

How can time pass so fast, how can it slip away so easily? Can’t I hold on just a little while longer?

“No,” the best time limiters seem to say, “This moment is all you have here and now.”

A good limiter follows the natural fact that time slips away. It must. There doesn’t even have to be an explanation. It’s here one minute, and the next it’s gone.

It’s not fair, of course, it’s not fair that time limiters slip way. In fact I never understand the emails that clamor up to say, OMG Did you miss it? Yes, you missed it. So here is “One More Chance.”

Don’t give them a second chance. (Or, if you do, don’t suggest that you will in your offer. People will always take more time if you give it to them.)

In real life, you rarely get the same opportunity twice.

Everyone knows that. No one really expects to.

It’s a cold fact, but let’s face it, you just don’t get another chance.

You wake up and your family is different, your life is different, the chance you always thought was sitting waiting patiently for you…simply stood up while you were looking away, and walked out the door.

I’m challenge you to stick to your guns the next time you use a time limiter on an offer. If you say, “this offer is only available for 12 more hours,” then have the balls to turn away purchasers who sneak in at 12:01 and beg for more time. Life isn’t like that. Life is so perfectly sweet and it is full to bursting with opportunities that never see a second chance. Let you customer have her moment to make her choice. If she misses her chance, next time she may be more decisive.

Stick to your time limiters and they will be all the more powerful.

Recently I saw a really cool time limiter on an offer on a sales page. The deal was, you only got one chance to decide whether you wanted X at this price. Once you left the page, the price went up. It had to; there were others waiting to purchase X, so each time you put it off, each time you looked at the offer and declined, someone else presumably stepped in to capture it at the designated price. Every purchase locked in its own special price. As demand went up (meaning as more people viewed the offer and decided to purchase), the price went up.

This is natural law, folks, at least according to the free markets.

No complaining, and no foul. The price goes up if you neglect to purchase and someone else buys it instead.

Isn’t that just like life?

Don’t be afraid to use limiters in your copy. Don’t feel sheepish about it. First come, fIrst served. Use your time limiters proudly. There’s nothing more equalizing than time. At least your customer will know you are living in the real world.

The second time around, the offer will a little bit different, because, you know, you never step in the same river twice, and you’re never “done.”