23 Wise Words | Consultation agency

23 Wise Words

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24.01.2022 Book your free about page review today! Your ‘about us’ page isn’t pulling its weight. Which is bad news because statistically it’s the most visited page on your website. ... But don’t try to write it yourself again. Let me help. I’m Elena, a copywriter who focuses on helping websites nail the sale. I’m opening up my 30 minute website once-over sessions for January 21. You come armed with a web page that isn’t converting. I’ll review it with you there and then. You leave with killer-copy that helps your business grow. Lock your session in now to get one-up on 2021. Spots available now for Jan 2021: https://calendly.com/elena-23wisewords/30mins

24.01.2022 Sometimes I get asked how I came up with my business name In folklore the number 23 has significant meaning. Some attribute it to good luck - it was Michal Jordan's number throughout his whole career and as a result, the number David Beckham chose when he joined Real Madrid ... Some attribute ’23' to bad luck - the date of 9/11/2001 adds up to 23, as does the time the Hiroshima bomb was dropped 8:15am. It's been the subject of two films and was the obsession of the Nobel-prize winning economist, who inspired the film A beautiful Mind. As this is dinner party conversation-gold, I’ll continue. ’23' the most renowned psalm in the bible: "The lord is my shepard" and each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to create human life. Anyhoo, with all that in mind. I learnt all this after the fact, and named my business '23 Wise Words' becasue the domain name for 'Wise Words' was taken and my son's birthday is 23 August. Simple as that. But don't tell anyone. See more

23.01.2022 Do you have presence? Did you see Amy Cuddy's TED Talk? Even if not, you may have heard of 'power posing’? The basic essence is that our body movements and how we hold and carry ourselves, effects our confidence, and therefore the outcome of our actions. ... There are poses we can hold for just a few seconds, that have been scientifically proven to give us more confidence. American philosopher and psychologist, William James sums it up well I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing. I love this concept and I love the TED talk, so I was excited to read Amy's book, Presence, and thought I’d regale you with my insights. Amongst many actionable ideas, including: How to speak to command authority (slowly - those who believe they're worth listening to speak slowly and don't apologise for taking their time) How to change fear into excitement (both stemming from the same nervous system response, it's just how we choose to process it) The main takeaway is being more aware of how you hold your body. Confident people; people with presence, take up space. Uncross your arms and legs to both feel more confident, and give the impression of confidence. Feel you’re worth the space you’re taking up in the room. "Why should we not carry ourselves with pride and personal power? When we do, we are able to be present in our most challenging moments. How you carry your body shapes how you carry out your life Amy Cuddy Now, when in testing situations, I always ask myself. What would Amy do?

19.01.2022 Have you tumbled down the marketing money-pit? You run an ad campaign and...crickets. You pay to attend the biggest networking event, giving your business cards out like toffee and... zilch.... You invest in PR to get people talking about your brand and...no new voice messages. This is what I like to call the marketing money pit. A never-ending cycle of shelling out your hard earned $$$$ but not seeing much, if any, ROI for all your troubles. However you market your business, potential leads are always going to come to your website at some point. They might even be heading there with the intent to do business with you. But if your web copy doesn't nail the sale when they step into your virtual office, they’ll make a swift exit out of the bathroom window. Let me put it bluntly. If you web copy isn’t cutting the mustard, all your marketing efforts will lead to nada. 0 Here are some quick ways to improve your website TODAY and avoid the marketing money pit: Make sure you have a way to capture people’s email addresses on your site. That way if they don’t want to do business with you than and there, you might at least get their email address Change copy wherever possible to speak directly to the reader i.e use ‘you’ and ‘your’ not ‘our clients’ or ‘our customers’ Add in more call to action buttons. I guarantee you don’t have enough CTA buttons on your site. You might think it;s overkill, but your reader needs to be able to easily do business with you wherever they are on your website For more top tips on increasing conversions head to my bio for to download my free eBook. Remember the marketing money-pit can be deep and unforgiving. Take a step back, look at what you’re spending money on and see if you can make some simple, free changes. After that it’s ROI or die. See more

19.01.2022 Your brand is not a marketing tool This is the one thing I always try to get straight with my clients when I start a brand messaging project. A brand is the foundation of your whole business.... A strong brand will help define your sales strategy of course, because sales and marketing are intrinsically intertwined, but it’ll also lead: The customer sales process (how do you respond, when do you respond, what language do you use, how are your CS team empowered?) Hiring (and firing) decisions - your team should embody and personify different aspects of your values Which suppliers you work with Which products or services you bring to market Your growth strategy and business plan In fact, every single corner of your business should be built from a strong brand foundation, if you want it to be authentic and powerful that is. And that's why your brand should never be considered just a marketing tool.

17.01.2022 The most important piece of advice I've ever received. It came from The Slight Edge, a book I bang on about quite a lot. The basic premise is anything is possible if you perform small daily habits to make it happen. ... Since this life-changing revelation, I see this advice everywhere. In pretty much every personal development book and from every online guru going. But that doesn't mean it's lost its shine for me. You're either on the upward trajectory, in every aspect of your life, from work, to health, relationships, happiness, personal development... or you're not. And if you're not, you're going downwards. There are so many ways of saying this: Keep showing up. Be better than yesterday. Small atomic habits. The Accumulative Advantage (the economic terminology). The Slight edge It all leads to the same thing - nothing happens overnight, behind the scenes small actions compound and lead to 'overnight success’. This is the best advice I have ever received and I draw on it every day to create the life I want. I keep showing up. And I read The Slight Edge every January. Put it on you to-do list too.

16.01.2022 Copywriting is 9 parts psychology, 1 part wordsmithing. After all, the name of the game is to persuade (or ‘inspire’ as we prefer to position it) people to take an action. Whether that be handing over their email address, or their cash ... There are zillions of psychology-driven copywriting tips, but today I’m going to concentrate on cognitive bias. These are fundamental ‘flaws’ or mental patterns we all follow, that make our actions more predictable. And if you can predict how someone might act, you can predict what might make them buy. . Add some of these to your webcopy to nail the sale. The Bandwagon effect: ideas, fads and beliefs grow and become more powerful and persuasive, the more people that adopt them - this is why we use social proof in copywriting. How much more likely are you to buy a pair of wireless headphones, when a pop-up tells you 1078 people are also looking at this product RIGHT NOW? Or that Dave from Adelaide bought last week and LOVED IT. Curse of knowledge: Once we know something, we assume everyone else knows it too. This can be the downfall of many a website. Jargon galore. None of it making any sense to the reader. Always get a third party to read, and preferably write your website. Anchoring: We rely heavily on the first piece of information introduced when making decisions. If you run a service business and put your pricing online, you can use this bias to strategically position services you want to spruike to seem more appealing. Confirmation bias: The most famous of the biases. We tend to find and remember information that confirms our original beliefs. If you know your audience well, you can use their confirmation bias in your copy to really make them see how much you ‘get’ them This isn’t trickery or sleazy sales tactics (trust me, I’m terrible at sales), we’re not forcing people to buy something they don’t need. But instead helping them solve a problem, they may not know they have See more

14.01.2022 The #1 question I get asked by small business owners alllll ze time? "What's the ONE thing I can do to grow my business"? My response is always thus: Set up a simple lead generation funnel. ... I get it - the words 'simple' and lead generation funnel' seems to fight like Sologne and Jay Z in a lift. But once you have one set up, you can use it for all sorts of marketing. It goes like this: Step 1: What's a common misconception in your industry that you'd like to clear up? This is the 'ONE BIG IDEA' for your funnel. Step 2: Write a guest blog about this topic (or get someone else to do it for you). Unpack your audience's misguided beliefs about the industry and counteract them with some reasons to believe they are wrong. Send it to a publication that targets your audience, or you could run some social ads to get some traction. Step 3: Set up a landing page in Mailchimp - trust me if you can use a computer, you can set up a landing page in Mailchimp. You'll link to this in your article and talk about your ONE BIG IDEA on your landing page too. Keep your landing page to ONE message. ONE call to action. Keep it simple. Step 4: Your landing page asks people to provide their email address in return for a piece of valuable content - this could be your e-newsletter (even if you haven’t started it yet ), a checklist, a webinar anything. Keep it simple, ideally something you already have, but related to your ONE BIG IDEA. Step 4: Create a 3 or 4 email sequence in Mailchimp, so once they've downloaded the content they get sent the emails - you'll guide people from your ONE BIG IDEA to why they need you to solve their problems. And you're done. Now, you’re thinking, hang on that’s a lot of work. BUT The reason I love this is you can use that first article for anything - a facebook ad, a guest blog, on your website, PR. Once the funnel is set up you can come back to it again and again and keepfunnelling people through to become leads, all without lifting a finger.

13.01.2022 Truth bomb: Everyone’s a scanner. No matter how great your copy is, when a visitor first lands on your website they won’t read it. Instead, they’ll do a quick scan to make sure it’s worthy of their full attention. ... If so they’ll go back and read in more detail. So you need to make your page scan-friendly and here’s the science. Visitors will scan-read your page in an ‘F’ pattern. Meaning you need your most meaty (technical term) copy in the first few lines of the first paragraph and within the first 34 words of each new line. This technique is called ‘frontloading’ and a simple change that will keep visitors engaged on your page for longer (assuming of course your copy is good enough when scanned). It boils down to this: ensure your most persuasive words are at the left-hand side of the page and it will have a drastic effect on how long visitors stay on the page, read the rest of your copy and take an action. Bonus tip: Split longer headlines over two lines and ensure the first word or two on the second line are powerful and persuasive to adhere to the F pattern rule. See more

10.01.2022 Blank page? Not anymore. How to write anything well. Quite often the biggest hurdle business owners face when they sit down to write, is the blank page (or screen if we’re going to get technical). So stark. So plain. So daunting.... But what most people don't realise is there’s a science to copywriting that goes way beyond having a way with words. Enter copywriting formulas. These will help you format your writing in a way that, not only makes sense, but also sells the sizzle. Here are my top two go-tos: Formula #1: AIDA Attention - Start with something relating to your business, that’ll grab attention. A wow stat. A shocking quote. A quirky anecdote. Interest - Now build on it by adding another layer of interest to your attention-grabber Desire - Connect this to an ultimate outcome your reader desires Action - Tell the reader what you want them to do now Formula #2: PASO Problem - What big challenge in relation to your business, does your reader face right now? Aggravation - Now add a little more heat to it Solution - How your business solves this problem for the reader Outcome - The ultimate desire they can expect Use either of these to start writing a webpage and blank page, be gone. BONUS TIP: A very wise writer once said there’s no such thing as a blank page, just not enough research. I go back to this tip ALL THE TIME. If I don’t know what to write, it’s because I don’t know enough yet, so I go away and do some more research, then come back to the draft. Works every time. See more

10.01.2022 How to make sure your emails are opened. Behold, the '6-word email' approach Let me tell you, it's become the stuff of legend in copywriting circles because, well, it works. ... This is a tip for warm leads, so people who have enquired after your services before, or have at least indicated an interest in what you do. Otherwise, you’ll get a confused emoji back (hey, but at least the conversation has started). The trick: Send an email to everyone on your warm list with something similar to these 6 words Are you still looking for (INSERT SERVICE YOU OFFER). Just reference whatever they inquired. Fight the temptation to add more to it, friends. Don’t do it. The mind can’t resist an unsolved mystery. It’s the mystery that adds to the compulsion to respond. These simple emails work like crazy. Part of why this works so well is that it seems like you’re ONLY talking to the reader. Like you’ve only sent one email. To them, Now you’re waiting for a reply. Nobody wants to be rude. They can’t help but respond. Especially if they actually are still looking for whatever it is you do. See more

07.01.2022 Use comparison on your website to sell more. A critical part of the human decision-making process is comparison. When deciding what to wear, we mentally compare outfits. ... When deciding who to date we compare to our previous partners (or maybe our friends’ partners ). And when deciding what to buy we compare to similar purchases, or competitor offerings. So in order to make the decision to buy from you, easier for your potential customer, do the comparison work for them. Your copy needs to say why you're different to the others - spell it out - so they can easily frame the comparison with other offerings they may have researched. Some businesses even display a comparison table, where they compare like-for-like features with those of competitors. Save customers the effort of comparing options themselves, and you’ll make their decision to use your service, or buy your product, sooooo much easier. Minimising effort in any way you can is the name of the game friends. See more

06.01.2022 There are two types of people in this world. Those who have a tidy inbox and those who don’t. I'm 100% in the former camp, everything is opened, actioned, read, filed or deleted. Before I start work each day I re-read the emails in my inbox (those that require an action) and that gets me in the zone. ... Forever in pursuit of the holy grail of Inbox zero. If you can stand having 5739 unopened messages, I tip my . So, moving onto my point. As a copywriter I have a love/hate relationship with email marketing. One the one hand I love it - email is still the best way to connect to your audience and convert warm leads into sales. Fact. I love to write emails, they are the perfect place to experiment with creative copy. To have fun, learn and generally get great engagement. But on the other hand my inbox-OCD means I hate to have emails cluttering my inbox that I don't read, so if a newsletter isn't cutting the mustard #unsubscribe. So if you’re in pursuit of inbox-gold to fill up your brain juice, from someone who doesn’t click subscribe lightly. Here we go: 5 Bullet Friday - Tim Ferriss. Guru of productivity and connected to every interesting person on Earth, you'll want to hear what Tim has to say each week 3-2-1 Thursday - James Clear. Authour of Atomic Habbits and general thinker, whose thoughts are worth your time. Total Annarchy - Ann Handley. Ann is an excellent writer; humorous but not at the expense of great advice. This one is more for the writers out there (even if the only thing you write is your newsletter ) There you go. If you value your inbox, these are the newsletters that'll cut through the clutter.

05.01.2022 What does storytelling in marketing even mean? Storytelling has become so cliché that even saying it's cliché is cliché. But what does it actually mean? One of my favourite quotes from the book "Contagious" by Jonah Berger, describes it well. ... ' . . , . Let’s unpack. Imagine you want to let people know about your great new local bakery, you can either advertise your products, or you can give people a story to tell about them. For example how many hours you spend kneeding the dough to make the fresh bread overnight. Or that you're the 10th generation in a long line of bakers and your great, great, great, great Grandfather baked pies for Henry VIII (please don't do that maths, and I have no idea if Henry ate pies, but I imagine if they were around, he most certainly did). Now, as Linda is strolling past your bakery on her power walk with Tori, she might be inclined to tell her about the lovely sourdough she had last week, but maybe not. However Linda is much more likely to regale Tori with the story that the baker uses Henry VIII’s favourite pie recipe. Or that it takes 5 hours of kneading to make one Soy and Linseed roll. Because these stories are memorable, shareable and, most importantly make her sound interesting and knowledgable, they improve her social currency. That's how you use a story as a vehicle to carry information about your business around and ensure it's shared. P.S If you’re a business owner, or a marketer. Or anyone, you should read Contagious. See more

05.01.2022 Download your free webcopy tips! CLICK HERE! Sorting out your website has been on your list for a while, but somehow you get caught up in alllll the things - admin, new biz, social media, not to mention actual work And refresh website copy slips from the to-do list to the too-hard basket for yet another month. ... But it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. In fact here are some quick copy changes you can make RIGHT NOW to instantly spruce up your site and nail more sales. Seriously. No coding. No developer. Just open your website admin and away you go. Tick off your webcopy to-do! Follow this link: https://mailchi.mp/252e5be5/the-marketing-money-pitt-funnel

03.01.2022 The two things you want people to do on your website Your aim when writing a webpage is to get your reader to do two things: 1. Raise their eyebrows... 2. Then nod their head That's it. Job done The eyebrow raise shows you've intrigued them enough in the headline to pique their interest and get them to read on (which is the ONE job of a headline). Nodding as they read your copy shows that you get them, that you understand their needs and that what you're saying is striking a chord. OK...you got me, you do want them to do another action - click the button. But if you get the other two, the third is a given. See more

03.01.2022 You won’t want to admit that this psychological bias applies to you, but it does It’s called the ‘prestige switch’. It relies on the fact that someone is much more likely to buy from you if they think it’ll elevate their social status, or boost their prestige.... So your copy should talk about how it will make them look great. Great to their friends, great to their colleagues , great to their customers, great to their boss . Of course no-one is going to say (even to themselves) "I’m buying this to increase my status. But the unconscious mind does wondrous things, friends. For example: I sell copywriting and strategy services to small businesses, so in my content I would talk about how great copy will: Increase brand awareness, so competitors will turn their heads and wonder who’s this new big player in town? Bring in more business, so they can proudly show their partner their business bank account balance Position them as industry-leaders, so potential clients are asking to work with them, and not the other way round. Which is, of course, all true, but emphasising these feel-good factors in my copy turns on the readers ‘prestige switch’ and it’s hard to fight with innate psychology

03.01.2022 Ever thought of your marketing funnel like a relay race? Allow me to explain. In a relay race the baton is passed along the team until it gets to the anchor leg. The most important leg of the race. ... The one that separates winning from losing. The anchor leg in your funnel is your website. It's where all your leads ultimately end up so if the copy is not nailing the sale, all the time, money and sanity that went into your marketing will lead to zilch. Get to the bottom of this analogy and how to strengthen your anchor leg (i.e website copy) with 4 simple copy hacks, in my new Business Chicks post

03.01.2022 Back to one of my favourite topics - call to action buttons. Here’s two simple tips to help make sure people click ‘em. 1. Write in first person. Always. You want the reader’s voice to be reflected in the copy, not yours... 2. Answer the question I want to. Example. If you’d like people to download your ‘Daily Healthy Eating Habits’ checklist. Think about what your target audiences’ ultimate desire is from the checklist - why are they downloading it? Put that desire on the button, people! Example: I want to... Lose my belly fat Get fit for Summer Vanquish bad habits Easy to remember and quick to change. In fact why not go onto your site and give your buttons a once-over now? See more

01.01.2022 When your to-read list is getting out of hand. I’ve got your back. Here are my views on The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. OK I'll admit it, I've drank the Tim Ferriss coolaid, I enjoy 99.9998% of everything he puts out (because nobody’s perfect).... The 4 hour body is a follow-up to the book that sparked a thousand digital-nomads, The 4 Hour Work Week. It isn’t a quick read, or a light one but you could probably read it 10 times in a row and it’ll still occupy your shower-thoughts. So if it's on your list, do it. Or if it's not but you’re intrigued, here are my top takeaways: Drink apple cider vinegar and honey before bed to help you get a good night's sleep. I tried this and was astounded to find it worked. Then it seemed to stop working so well. So I stopped. The jury is still out. Most diets fail is because people think they need to have a different breakfast every day. It becomes too hard to think of new tasty and healthy breakfasts, so the diet stops. But in real-non-diet-life you don't have a different breakfast everyday, so why on a diet? *Admittedly this wasn't Tim’s exact statement, I've ad-libbed. Some people live on six rigorously-scheduled 20-minute naps in 24 hours ONLY. Absolutely no chance of me trying this one out. I have not read The Four Hour Chef, have you? Hit me up with your takeaways in the comments.

01.01.2022 Has ‘refresh website’ gone from your to-do list, to the too-hard basket too many times? Yep? As we know, the trick to any task that seems overwhelming is to split it into small, manageable chunks. ... On that note, I recommend the first manageable step to sprucing up your site, starts with my ‘Quick copy tips that’ll supercharge your website’ e-book. No coding required. You can literally make these changes now. And who knows what that first step will lead to.