I have the absolute joy of talking with Mark J. Carter and Joe Martin at a monthly meetup I attend. I’d call it a networking group, but that would give you the wrong impression. This is a group of incredibly smart professionals with giant hearts.
Martin and I got into a deep discussion one time about the value of the first sentence on your website and how he could price his services at a premium based on nailing the first sentence, which would dramatically boost the conversion rate of the website.
It was a fascinating discussion.
In “The One Sentence That Will Change Your Marketing World with Joe Martin,” Episode 89 of the Idea Climbing Podcast, Carter interviews Martin about the power of writing your copy for just one person – your ideal buyer, the person you built the business to serve.
I love this so much because many small business owners think they need to appeal to as many types of buyers as possible. In fact, that just makes your copy bland and dismissable. Good marketing copy is sharp, focused, and relevant to your ideal client.
Martin shared that years ago when we first built websites, they were online versions of brick and mortar businesses. Now, Martin says a website needs to be a digital salesperson, not a digital store.
Below are the podcast show notes from YouTube:
Writing great marketing copy is an art form. Many copywriters struggle with brevity; short form copy that packs a marketing punch isn’t the easiest thing in the world to create.
If you have the right copywriting and marketing strategies you will get the attention of potential clients, keep it, and convert them into clients. I discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest, Joe Martin.
You need to start by answering these questions: Who is the person you want to get the attention of and what action do you want them to take? Then it comes down to: What do you need to say to get them to take that action?
How can you get that point across in one sentence? By focusing on one person. One person? Yes, one person and Joe believes one properly crafted sentence, speaking to your ideal target client, can accomplish that.
A question that he gets asked more than anything else is: “How do you decide on who the person you want to talk to is?”
Yes, ultimately, you’re going to have more than one client profile. It’s important to pick just one to get started and craft that sentence for them. Who do you best help? Design your messaging for them, start there with one person first.
Speak to Your Ideal Client’s Avatar.
How do you focus on that one person? By developing your one marketing sentence.
You need to start a conversation with that one person. Figure out what you need to say to them.
This is important: When you want to create a conversation with one person, you’re listening more than you’re talking. You start by discovering the big problem they have which is why they need your help. That’s the way a great sales conversation goes: “This is the problem you have; we solve that problem, and this is how we do it.”
Let’s look at that again:
Number one: “If I understand correctly, this is the problem you have.”
Number two: “Hey! We solve that specific problem!”
Number three: “This is how we do it…”
We discuss how to combine your answers into one sentence and share examples in the interview.
