Bonding at the Berkeley

Ok not really ‘bonding’ per se, but I did have the opportunity to tour around the Berkeley Church last night. Admittedly, I had never heard of the Berkeley Church Events Venue before. I’m not originally from Toronto (although have been living here for the past three years), which may be part of the reason. But when VIP Assistant Solutions was invited to the Berkeley Open House, I was impressed by the mix of old architecture and modern design.

Planning an event; whether it be a wedding, fashion show, or any other special occasion would feel effortless with the Berkeley friendly and very knowledgeable staff. Your imagination can come to life with the many different rooms and turns available, helping to create the event of a lifetime. Never to be forgotten.

Five Easy Tips for INFLUENTIAL Copywriting

If you want to ’sell’ your product or service, people have to WANT to purchase what you are selling. No one is going to want what you have to offer unless they feel they need it. It’s up to you to convince potential customers that your product or service is hard to live without!

Copywriting is about producing outstanding, well thought of and relatable content for the purpose of selling a product or service. Whether the content is to be used for a website, brochure, newsletter or article, knowing copywriting basics can do wonders for your marketing campaign.

Here are basic yet influential copywriting tips to help boost your marketing campaign!

Know your Product

Know the product or service before you market it! This means doing your research. It’s quite hard to sell something if you don’t even know why you would want it! It’s funny because when I think of this tip I think of my first job, working at Black’s Photography. Digital cameras were just coming on to the scene and frankly I was terrified of them. They were all big and had a lot of different buttons. I was ok developing the photos and selling film but one day when I was the only person in the store, someone became interested in one of the digital cameras. I knew nothing about the technology but attempted to sell it. Needless to say, my stammering and obvious fibbing didn’t influence  the customer to buy. What I learned from this was that if I’m going to convince someone to purchase, I need to know what it did and what it was! I needed to convince myself.

Convince Yourself

When I attempted to sell the digital camera while working at Black’s Photography, I wasn’t convinced or passionate about the product. If I wasn’t passionate about the product, how can I expect anyone else to be? After you research your product or service, learn how to appreciate your product or service. People purchase based on emotion and need. If they see how much a product or service has changed your life they will believe in the benefits and picture how it will change their life as well!

Tell Them Why to Buy

Now that you have convinced yourself that you cannot live without the product or service, it is time to convince your customer. Brainstorm all of the reasons why people need what you are selling and include these reasons in your writing.

The “Five Times” Contact Rule

You may have heard that it can take five times to connect and contact a potential customer before he or she decides to purchase your product or service. The rule often applies to in-person networking, social networking, phone calls and sending information. The same rule applies to written material. When you are writing content, keep telling your potential customer why he or she needs what you are selling. Be consistent in your message and repeat the benefits. For example; a website selling a weight loss product should state its benefits not just on the homepage, but on every page.

Provide Statistics

Want to convince your audience? Show them how your product or service has changed the lives of others! When I explain the benefits of using a Virtual Assistant, I explain that according to well researched statistics, entrepreneurs and small business owners are over worked and over stressed. Over 50 per cent of entrepreneurs do not take a lunch break, 50 per cent work six to seven days a week and an outstanding 82 per cent have not taken a vacation with their families in over a year. Now if a Virtual Assistant took some of the work load away, think of how much time and energy would be saved?

Obviously the copywriting tips I’ve mentioned don’t just stop there when it comes to producing excellent and influential content. However, the five tips mentioned are a great start to effectively marketing your business. If you have additional tips, send them my way! I would enjoy reading them!

It’s Not About the Money

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about why some people land on my website and hire my services, while others show interest and I never hear from them again.

Once upon a time, I took disappearing inquiries personally. I’d stay up late wondering what it is I was doing wrong and whether or not I was charging too much for my services.

What I’ve learned is that first of all I don’t charge too much. My rates are competitive and my services are backed with years of experience and relevant education.  The truth is that regardless of what people are purchasing, whether it be a service or a product, they purchase it only when they need it (or think they need it). Most people make emotional purchases – purchases to make them feel better. For example; we don’t need to purchase televisions but most of us do because we perceive television to be an excellent way to relax and rewind. If we think about it though, there are many and more productive ways to relax and rewind. However, television has been marketed to be a necessity rather than a luxury! We wonder where we would be without the news or the weekly episodes of 24!

So for those who are wondering why people aren’t immediately purchasing your product or service, don’t take it personally and wonder what YOU did wrong. Instead remember that your service or product will not always fulfill a person’s need or want.

Now that I’ve made that point, getting people to recognize they NEED your product or service is another blog post and I’ll come to that soon….

Happy Birthday!

It’s Toronto’s 175 birthday today! The great city I live in is actually older than Canada! I just wanted to give a shout out to the biggest city in Canada.

I’ll be spending the day doing a little work but getting out and enjoying the nice weather we will be having. Keep in mind it’s only the beginning of March in Ontario and we’re expecting 15 degrees Celsius this afternoon. That’s 60 degrees Fahrenheidt! As someone who tends to literally hibernate in the winter, I will certainly be taking advantage of today.

Happy Birthday Toronto, happy Friday everyone else and enjoy the weekend!

CP