Stick With What Works
Why should you stick with what works? What does that even mean?
We spend a good chunk of time explaining the importance of focus in our (free) 20-minute 10x Method video. The reason for spending so much time on focus is that most people struggle to stick to one thing.
Most folks are looking for fast and easy money.
But the truth is that making money usually takes a lot of time. So, when you find something that actually works, you need to stick to it.
Remember, most people aren’t making any money online. And, they don’t stick to one method of generating income — even when that method clearly works. Once again, this is because most folks think they should be pulling down more cash. (Read between the lines: Greed!)
The irony is that when you stick to one way of making money — once you know it works — you can pull down even more money. This is because of these three reasons:
- It’s easier to retain customers (low cost)
- You get more efficient with your tasks
- You can leverage your products and skills
In a nutshell, it’s cheap to sell to existing customers compared to winning new customers. Furthermore, you get good at what you do. You might even become a guru, worth your weight in gold on some topic. And lastly, you can bundle products together if you stay focused in your domain. You can also sell updated versions of your product. They are easier to create than ones that are fresh and 100% new.
So, once you are done trying a million things, please be sure to settle down and focus. Again, I’ll recommend the 10x Method video because it not only explains the true value of focus but I also give you some concrete ideas on how to get started immediately. (Zero cost, zero risk.)
Need More Help? Recommended Content:
- Free Business Model (how to set up autoresponder memberships; powerful)
- Really Simple Method (resale rights are explained; easy money)
- PLR Model (learn the secrets of private label rights)
Interest in A.I.D.A.
Yesterday I talked about A.I.D.A. and attention. As reference, A.I.D.A. stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It’s a way of understanding a simple marketing model. In this blog posting I’ll focus on interest. The A.I.D.A. will make more sense as I push forward.
So, what is interest? What does it mean from a marketing point of view? I’ll answer those questions but first let me make an important point.
In reference to A.I.D.A. please remember that “interest” comes after attention. I will assume that we’ve already grabbed the attention of our reader or customer.
Recall that grabbing attention is critical but attention is easily broken. People don’t focus very well. Even small distractions break attention. To make matters worse, if you try too hard to grab someone’s attention you will turn them off.
In the previous posting on attention I provided you with some power words. Well, if you try too hard you’ll lose people quickly. It’s that simple. You have to strike a balance.
So, “interest” in A.I.D.A. is really about holding interesting or holding someone’s attention. It’s isn’t the initial act of capturing someone with sexy images and power words. That’s already done. You need to know how to keep people interested.
Let’s explore that for a moment. If you want to keep people interested you need to give them a good reason to stick with you and stay focused. You also need to occasionally boost their attention. This is why subheadlines work so well — you’re giving someone reasons to stick with you as they read down a page. Makes sense, right?
[Ed. Note: If you're looking for examples of great salescopy which uses A.I.D.A. and, in particular, attention boosters, don't miss the Simple PLR Club, The Simple Cash Blog, and PLR Exploitation. Very powerful stuff.]
There are other tricks to hold attention. For example, you can use psychological devices. That is, you can get the person invested in the page in several ways. You can use their name (if you have it). You can also add mini-surveys to a page, with radio buttons and checkboxes.
Think of attention this way. If you can get the person to interact with your web page, chances of keeping their attention is much higher. Don’t just hit people with images and great information — get them engaged.
This excitement drives interest. It can also boost attention if it’s starting to fade. But remember, don’t bombard a person with great stuff. Mix it up with boring but high value content, such as charts, images, statistics, and the like. Give people shortcuts along the way.
So, I’ve summarized the key ideas behind “interest” in the A.I.D.A. model. You should understand what it means but you should also feel pretty good about some of the new techniques you can use to improve your salescopy.
Attention in A.I.D.A.
Many copywriters like to talk about A.I.D.A. (or AIDA) which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Give me just a couple of minutes to clearly explain the importance of attention in this formula.
STOP!
Asusming you made it past my first paragraph, I’m pretty sure the the word “STOP!” above caught your attention. It’s an attention-grabbing word.
But, what does “attention” really mean? It’s kind of hard to understand in theory, but in practive it’s easy to grasp. Let’s poke at it because it’s important in internet marketing.
Psychology textbooks will tell you that attention is a cognitive process where you concentrate on one thing while excluding everything else. The key principle is that you focus; everything else is noise.
[Ed. Note: Speaking of focus, have you watched the 10x Method video?]
The problem with attention is that, while we know how to manipulate it and disrupt it, we don’t understand it well. We even know how to help people maintain attention but we can’t explain it every well. For example, is it possible to pay attention to two things or not? The research isn’t conclusive.
Fortunately, we can ignore theory. What matters is what we can do in practice. What matters is that we can use attention to help customers solve problems and help businesses make money.
WARNING!
Once again I’ve grabbed your attention, right? Good copywriters know how to grab your attention. In most cases this is done with words. Yes, you can grab attention with images and sounds, but I’m going to ignore that for now. Let’s just keep it simple and take a look at 12 power words:
* Free
* Bonus
* Discount
* Famous
* Gift
* Best
* Instant
* Lucky
* New
* Secret
* Rare
* Secure
Note: Copywriters use a few hundred power words. This is a small list to get you thinking. Don’t limit yourself.
So, these power words are powerful exactly because they grab your attention. Obvioiusly you cannot use the A.I.D.A. model unless you first grab attention.
So, why not use power words again and again? It’s a smart question.
The reason is that if you use too many power words you ruin the salescopy. It’s like using too much garlic in your pasta sauce. Too much of a good thing ruins the batch.
The reason is that humans become “immune” to power words in a very short time. Attention can be grabbed using power words but you cannot maintain attention with power words alone. You need other tools for that.
The second part of A.I.D.A. is interest, which I’ll talk about in a future posting. For now, just recognize that there is real value in understanding power words to capture attention. And, you cannot use the A.I.D.A. model unless you grasp attention.
[Ed. Note: Are you looking for copywriting help? Need help with your online marketing? Read more about the services offered by the Rhodes Brothers.]
