When you want to create authority content, the combined lessons of an old poem and a scientifically-proven formula can be very useful.
Together, they provide a valuable system to help you quickly and easily create authority content and convincing business presentations.
The concept was framed in the following words penned over 100 years ago by poet and writer Rudyard Kipling (perhaps better known for creating ‘The Jungle Book’).
“I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.”
Rudyard Kipling
It turns out that Kipling is more than just a master of pretty words.
Create Authority Content Based on Scientific Research
More recently, extensive academic research into effective communication has come up with a similar formula for success.
And it shows very clearly why most business communication and persuasive marketing fails to have the desired impact.
After studying the learning style of different people for more than 25 years, educationalist Bernice McCarthy developed the 4MAT teaching system to reflect the four different types of learning style that she identified. The system works just as well for communication and marketing.
In brief, it splits people into four types:
‘Why‘ people: need reasons and relevance before they will listen.
‘What‘ people: information junkies; want to know all the facts.
‘How‘ people: pragmatic and practical; they seek usability.
‘What If‘ people: visionary, interested in the future possibilities.
Most of us have elements of all four types but usually one of the four ‘buttons’ is particularly ‘hot’.
For example, you can provide a ‘why’ person with all of the facts you like but they will not even listen unless you satisfy their ‘why’ first.
If you are giving a presentation or writing a marketing leaflet, the only safe assumption is that your audience will contain people of all four types.
Where Most Marketing Messages Fail
And that’s where most marketing messages fail – they don’t pay enough attention to all four buttons. Most often communication misses out the crucial first button – giving people a good reason ‘why’ they should pay attention.
If you don’t hit that one, many in your audience won’t even listen to what you have to say. Typically people rush straight in to the facts, the features – the ‘what’ part. While this is important, it is not enough on its own.
This is not a new problem – legendary advertising man John E Kennedy wrote the classic ‘Reason Why Advertising’ on this subject around the same time that Kipling wrote his poem.
And, often, messages are stuffed full of information but don’t make clear how it can be put to practical use.
The ‘4mula’ to Create Authority Content
So, whether you are writing a 200-word letter or a 60-minute presentation, try taking a piece of paper, splitting it into four quadrants, and answering these four questions.
Why should my audience be interested in this message?
Brainstorm as many reasons as possible why people will benefit from what you have to say or from buying your product or service
Choose the best reasons and tell people about them first
What information do they need to make a decision?
Give them the facts that they need
Explain the features of your product or service
How will they use it?
Tell them what they need to do next
Give them an action plan they can implement
What will happen in the future?
Point out the risks they face if they don’t take your advice
Paint a great picture of how things will be if they do as you suggest
Then use that information to write your letter or brochure or deliver your presentation.
The amount of words or time needed for each segment will vary depending on your purpose but remember to give adequate time to all four – and cover them in the above order.
Cover ‘why’ as early as possible – though you might need a brief introduction to your topic first – and make it powerful. Then give them the information they need but make sure you explain ‘how’ they can make it work.
And finally, give a vivid picture of what will happen if they do (or don’t) follow your advice.
Proven Persuasion
As your marketing message hits the mark with a much bigger audience, watch your profits grow
But you can use the ‘4mula’ of ‘why/what/how/what if’ as the basis for creating authority content quickly and easily.
If you choose not to hit these four hot buttons in creating authority content, your message will miss a large chunk of your potential audience and you will lose out on many possible customers.
Or you can choose to use it as the basis to create authority content and see how much easier it becomes to create powerful marketing material and deliver persuasive presentations.
Then, as your marketing message hits the mark with a much bigger audience, just watch as your profits start to grow faster.
(Footnote: Naturally this article follows the formula – it starts with a reason why you should read on (after a brief introduction), it then covers the facts and goes on to explain how you can use the information. Finally, it says what will happen in the future if you do or don’t listen to this advice. It makes writing so easy!)
Both authors are experts in the study of human behavior in this field and each has drawn up a list from their research of the things that make a difference.
Here is a summary of Robert Cialdini’s Six Rules of Influence:
Reciprocation: Reciprocation is about how, if you do something for somebody, they will feel obliged to do something for you, or they will at least feel better about doing something for you.
Commitment and consistency: People respond to others who are consistent in their messages. If you are constantly giving the same messages to people and acting in a consistent way, they will respond positively.
Social proof: If people see others doing something, they assume that it must be okay to do it and therefore, they will be happier about doing it themselves.
Liking: People respond much more readily to people that they like, and even to the friends of people that they like. They feel comfortable if they see or like the things that you’re associated with.
Authority: People invariably act more positively if they have respect for the authority of the person who is giving them information.
Scarcity: People get so much more interested in something if they feel that it’s about to run out.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book Blink, he shows the ability – also well demonstrated in his hit book The Tipping Point – to pull together facts and data and present them as an interesting story, while leading you towards a conclusion about what all these facts mean.
Blink, says Gladwell, is “a book about the first two seconds.“
Those first two seconds are important whether you are a gallery curator faced with deciding if a newly-discovered work of art is a fake or if you are a police officer who thinks somebody might be reaching for a gun. (The book details examples of both, with tragic consequences in the latter case.)
But the first two seconds are important for all of us – whether we are deciding if we should trust someone, have a date with them, or buy from them.
Here are three points that particularly grabbed my attention from the book:
The first two seconds and judging others
Gladwell tells a few stories of situations where people were asked to make assessments of others based on short video clips.
One interesting case was looking at surgeons who were the subject of malpractice cases.
The research showed that people don’t sue doctors because they’ve had bad medical care.
People don’t sue surgeons they like. They sue surgeons who haven’t shown them respect.
Surgeons who had never been sued spent on average three minutes longer with patients than those who were the subject of legal action – 18 minutes compared to 15 minutes.
That in itself is interesting but what’s even more interesting is that other people could identify the surgeons most likely to be sued by watching a short content-free video clip of their consultations.
The factor that had the biggest impact in categorizing them was their tone of voice.
Those doctors whose tone of voice was felt to be too dominant were usually correctly identified as being in the sued group.
So its true that how you speak is often more important than what you say.
The first two seconds and making purchase decisions
An experiment was tried in the gourmet jam booth of an upmarket grocery store. Some days, six different jams were displayed – other days 24. You might think people would prefer the wider choice as they would find something to suit their exact needs.
However, here’s the difference:
When there were 24 choices, 3% of passers-by bought something.
When there were 6 choices, 30% bought.
Jam purchase is a snap decision. So having too many choices makes the decision difficult and your mind becomes confused.
So a bit of choice is usually good. Too much choice is often bad.
Driving your own mood
Psychologist Paul Ekman and his collaborator Wallace Friesen identified every distinct muscular movement the face can make. They identified 43 such movements, which they called ‘action units’ and they became expert at reproducing them all.
While this work has been used in many ways, one of their most interesting findings was that, after creating facial expressions relating to feeling bad, they started to feel bad.
In further research, they showed conclusively that just creating the facial expressions of feeling bad made people feel bad and show the same physiological responses as people who have a real reason to feel bad.
In the book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz talks about the same concept.
In a similar piece of work, German scientists asked people to look at cartoons while holding a pen in their mouth.
If the pen is held between your lips, it’s impossible to smile. If the pen is held between your teeth, you are forced to smile.
The people who held the pen between their teeth found the cartoons much funnier.
So if emotion can start on the face, and you want to make a good impression on others quickly, it’s best to start with a smile!
When you have used effective promotion strategies to get people to come to your website and give you their contact details, you have the chance to turn prospects into ideal clients.
Just as in personal relationships, you need to give someone time to get to know you and decide whether you are compatible. In business, you need to take time to demonstrate that you can help them.
Building effective relationships with prospects and customers generally happens in stages:
Know: Tell them about yourself and what you can do for them.
Trust: Build confidence by demonstrating the value you can offer.
Try: Make it easy for them to sample your expertise – either free or at low cost.
Commit: Encourage them to stay longer and buy more.
The exact process of relationship building will depend on your market and people will take varying lengths of time at each stage.
The 6 Keys to Building Profitable Relationships to Turn Prospects Into Ideal Clients
The process of turning prospects into ideal clients usually involves the following key elements.
Start immediately
Sell quickly
Stay in touch
Satisfy your clients
Segment your audience
Step up your offers
Start Immediately
Many people make the mistake of collecting email addresses and thinking the free report they offer is enough to create a relationship.
Send out communication as soon as someone joins your list
In your personal life, if someone asks for your contact details, and then never calls, you may be initially disappointed but you will probably forget them quickly.
Similarly, to establish a business relationship, you need to follow up the contact right away and with enthusiasm.
You only have a short time to show this person you can make a difference in their life.
That means you need to have a communication program set up as soon as someone joins your list. The key aims of this are to show them what you can do, how it can help them, and why they should trust you.
“You only have a short time to show this person you can make a difference in their life.”
It can be done with a series of emails set up to go out at specified intervals in the first few weeks – backed up by additional material sent as physical mail where possible.
Sell Quickly
When it comes to building trust, there is a fine balance between trying to sell too quickly and waiting too long.
Nobody likes to be subjected to pushy sales messages right from the start. However:
The last thing you want is a mailing list made up of freebie-seekers who will never spend any money.
Bear in mind that people who join your list are likely to have done so because they have a problem they want to solve. They want a solution to that problem.
Not all of them are ready to pay for a solution yet but many are ready to hear about what you can do for them.
Part of the task of developing relationships is building trust. Often this is done by sharing valuable information.
Generally, you want to start as soon as possible introducing ways that people can try out what you offer and you want to get them used to the idea of paying for it.
That means you should be able to quickly make offers at relatively lower price points where they can try you out. That price point may be $7 or it could be $197, for example, depending on what you offer.
Typically, the actual price point doesn’t matter too much in determining whether someone will turn into a long-term customer.
The key is that:
People who have bought something from you are more likely to buy more; so you want to turn people into buyers as quickly as possible.
One of the keys to that is making sure that you make offers to people and that you are specific about what you want them to do.
But you can do that in a framework of sharing valuable information.
In other words, give good information but be specific about how people can get further help by investing with you – even if it’s a relatively small amount.
Stay in Touch
There are many different elements in building the relationship – depending on the type of product or service you offer – but email is a particularly effective communication tool.
Here are some key points:
There are many different elements in building a relationship
Planned: You need to put in place a series of pre-planned messages to go out to new email subscribers to let them get to know you. The first 30 days are especially vital.
Practical: You should be giving people information they can use and that they find valuable. Your aim is first to build trust before you try to take the relationship further.
Persistent: You need an ongoing program of messages and the contact needs to be regular. You shouldn’t mail three times in one week and then nothing for a month. A regular ezine or newsletter can be very effective for doing this.
Personal: For email to help build a relationship, it should have a personal touch. Use friendly language – as if you were writing to someone you know well – and be ready to share a bit of yourself.
Purposeful: Each email should have a specific aim – it might be to build trust, to share information, or – later in the process – to ask for the sale. In the long run, your aim is usually to make money, so don’t be afraid to sell – when the time is right and with an effective message.
Satisfy Your Clients
The long-term success of the relationship will depend on how successful you are at giving people what they want.
Immediate delivery: Make sure you communicate with people quickly and deliver what they have requested – even if it is free.
Follow-up service: The quality of the relationship will often hinge on how well you respond to questions and problems. Even complaints turn into valued relationships when handled well.
Exceed expectations: You don’t build relationships by giving people what they expect. That won’t make them stay. You need to give them an experience that goes beyond what they expect so that they have no temptation to go anywhere else.
Segment Your Audience
Although the most effective communication is personal, you won’t always be able to talk with your clients and prospects one-on-one.
Target your messages to specific groups.
However, you don’t want to have one message for all. So you can use the information you have about people to ensure your message and offers are targeted to specific groups.
Splitting your list into different categories is known as “segmentation” and there are many ways you can segment a list, such as when they joined your list, what they have bought from you, whether they open your emails, or specific interests they indicate.
When you ensure your communication is tailored to the needs of individual segments, you will have much better results.
Step Up Your Offers
It’s said the most important sale in any relationship is not the first, it’s the second.
So you always want to be thinking of the next sale you can make to someone based on where they are in your process.
That is what turns one-off customers into long-term relationships.
Here are some of the keys to achieving that:
Find ways to turn a sale into a long-term commitment.
Upsell: Look for opportunities to sell people something in addition to what they have already bought. That may be at the same time as the sale or soon afterward.
Continuity: Find ways to turn a sale into a long-term commitment through some kind of regular fee arrangement.
Retention: Work on ways to keep people with you – especially if you have a product or service that people don’t need to buy very often. Look for ways to reward your best customers – even a “thank you” or small gift can pay huge dividends.
Referrals: While referrals are a very effective way of getting new customers, they are also great for holding on to your existing ones. People are less likely to move on if they have recommended you to someone else.
Reactivation: Past customers can become future customers if you stay in touch and give them an incentive to return.
Getting the Balance Right
All stages in the communication process are important for building long-term profitable relationships. However, the emphasis can depend on what stage you are at with your business.
If you don’t have many customers, for example, you will need to work harder in the early stages to get more people on board.
Many businesses make the mistake of putting all their efforts into attracting new prospects.
Even with a small number of customers, it’s often best to focus on existing customers and contacts first.
As a general guide, you should usually allocate your time as follows:
60% on existing customers – and most of that with your best customers
30% on prospects, seeking to convert them into customers
10% on everybody else, aiming to turn them into prospects
ACTION PLAN TO TURN PROSPECTS INTO IDEAL CLIENTS
These five actions will help you turn more prospects into ideal clients.
Identify the first five emails you will send to new people signing up to your email list.
Decide how you will communicate regularly with your subscribers – e.g. ezine or regular emails and plan content for the first six weeks.
Identify how best to segment your email lists between different types of subscribers.
Identify an offer you can make to encourage new subscribers to buy from you quickly.
Choose three to five ways you can get more referrals from existing clients.
The 5 Keys to Being Seen as an Authority
This is one of the five keys to building your authority as shown below.
Positioning: Identify your ideal clients and how you can best help them so you can attract them easily
Packaging: Offer your advice, skills, and knowledge in a way that makes it easy to attract a large number of high-paying clients
Publishing: Demonstrate your expertise in a wide range of ways so that people can see how you can help them
Promotion (Lead Generation): Take steps to attract more of your ideal clients to you instead of having to chase them
Persuasion (Conversion): Turn more of your ideal prospects into profitable long-term clients
Click on the links above for more information on each of the elements.
Both authors are experts in the study of human behavior in this field and each has drawn up a list from their research of the things that make a difference.
The list below summarises the 10 Laws of Persuasion as listed in Kevin Hogan’s book.
Law of Reciprocity: When someone gives you something of perceived value, you immediately respond with the desire to give something back.
Law of Time: People will behave differently depending on whether their primary time orientation is present, past, or future.
Law of Contrast: When two things, people, or places that are relatively different from each other, are placed nearer together in time, space, or thought, they appear to be more different from each other.
Law of Friends: When someone asks you to do something and you perceive the person has your best interests in mind, and/or you would like them to have your best interests in mind, you are strongly motivated to fulfill the request.
Law of Expectancy: When someone you respect and/or believe in expects you to perform a task or produce a certain result, you will tend to fulfill his expectation whether positive or negative.
Law of Consistency: When an individual announces in writing (or verbally) that he is taking a position on any issue or point of view, he will strongly tend to defend that belief regardless of its accuracy, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Law of Association: We tend to like products, services, or ideas that are endorsed by other people we like or respect.
Law of Scarcity: When a person perceives that something he might want is limited in quantity, he believes the value of what he might want to be greater than if it were available in abundance.
Law of Conformity: Most people tend to agree to proposals, products, or ideas that will be perceived as acceptable by the majority of other people or a majority of “the group.”
Law of Power: People have power over other people to the degree that they are perceived as having greater authority, strength, or expertise.
If you want to persuade someone to buy your product or service, you’ll find it much easier if you are offering something they already want.
This may seem too obvious to be even worth mentioning but the truth is many people set up businesses with great ideas or good intentions based on what they think might be appropriate or good for people.
The key when you want to persuade someone to buy is thinking about what they ‘want’ rather than what they ‘need’ as people will usually spend more on something they want.
How your USP can persuade someone to buy
This was perhaps best set out by advertising legend Rosser Reeves when he coined the term Unique Selling Proposition and set out the following criteria for a good USP in his book “Reality in Advertising” in 1961:
Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.
The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique– either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.
The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions; i.e. pull over new customers to your product. (In other words, it should sell – because it is something your prospects really want.)
When we want to persuade someone to buy, let’s start by getting clear whether we have something that they want to buy.
The keys to that are as follows:
What are the specific benefits your customers will get from buying your product or service?
How do know you they are willing to buy it?
When we want to persuade someone to buy, let’s start by getting clear whether we have something that they want to buy.
Focusing on benefits to persuade someone to buy
Many business owners describe what they do by a label or product name – “I’m a consultant” or “We clean carpets”.
To persuade someone to buy, you need to think of your products or services in terms of what they do for your customers.
One way to approach this is by viewing it from your customer’s perspective and thinking about the problems they have or what they want to achieve.
What problems do people have that your products and services can solve?
If there is no problem to be solved, what opportunities or benefits can you offer that they are already looking for?
What are they currently buying to solve this problem or satisfy this need?
What’s wrong with the current solutions so that their wants are not being fully satisfied?
Why have they not satisfied this want already?
Another way of thinking about this is in terms of features and benefits.
A feature is some basic factual information about your product or service. For example, in a computer, one of the features may be that it has 1 gigabyte storage capacity.
Some people will understand what that’s all about but others won’t have a clue. So it’s important to spell out exactly what that means to them. This is the benefit.
For example, “It has 1 gigabyte of storage capacity, which means you can store as much information as you want with virtually no fear of filling it up.”
Try to uncover the ultimate end goal for a prospect interested in your product or service. For example, for tooth whitening, you might be tempted to say the end goal is to have white teeth.
But the end goal could be appearing more attractive to potential partners and having more confidence. Sometimes, you have to dig deep to find the real benefit.
Are they willing to buy?
It is one thing for people to say they want something and another for them to be willing to buy it at the price you want to sell it for.
So, if you want to persuade someone to buy something, it’s important not only to have identified something they want but also to have evidence that they are willing to pay for it.
You need to be able to identify who your potential customers are and establish data like the potential size of the market and details of competitors and their products.
In general, when you look at your market, you should see competition as being a good thing as it usually shows that there is a demand. Sure it’s good to be innovative with some new ideas but it’s also risky to break completely new ground where there is no existing competition.
So when you know you have something that people want to buy, the next step is finding out what makes your offer unique.
