“If you know your market well and if you know who you’re talking to and know your customer, then you’ll know exactly what to say to get them to at least hear you out and read what you have to say. Then the only people that you hear back from are the people who are the most interested. So it saves you all of this time.” – Ben Settle
“A copywriter should have an understanding of people, an insight into them, a sympathy toward them.” – George Gribbin
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The message you deliver in your marketing can make or break how well it works. Your direct mail, website, ads, you name it… copywriting is THE single most valuable skill you can learn to make your marketing more effective.
So Trevor invited on his good friend and world-renowned copywriter Ben Settle (the king of email copywriting) to talk about how you can connect with your audience better in real estate and boost your marketing with better copy.
Enjoy :-)
Past CarrotCast Episodes
- How A Former Olympian Stands Out In A Sea Of Competition in A Competitive Market w/ Martin Boonzaayer
- My Top SEO Guy Lays Out 4 Critical SEO Tips In 2016 w/ Matt Dalbey
Listen to the Podcast
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In this CarrotCast conversation with Ben Settle we cover these six topics;
- The most effective types of copywriting.
- How to intentionally craft copy around emotions and situations.
- Effective copywriting tips for real estate.
- How to copywrite for direct mail.
- Crafting testimonials into stories.
- Key copywriting resources he uses.
Watch the Video Version
3:55 – What is copywriting? Salesmanship in print or other media outlets.
5:25 – Backstory of getting into copywriting.
9:15 – Ben’s first copywriting assignment.
10:00 – What types of copywriting crack through and actually work.
12:35 – Importance of really understanding your prospects.
16:15 – Basic needs that make us tick and intentionally crafting copy around insecurities, problems, and frustrations.
26:50 – Some of the best techniques to join a conversion when writing copy. Building a vision before pitching an offer.
31:30 – Examples of Real estate investor copywriting.
40:45 – Copywriting for direct mail. Focus on the top one or two important messaging tactics.
48:45 – How to leverage your case studies and stories.
51:30 – Cutting through the marketing clutter. Stand out from the pack by telling a story.
54:10 – Crafting copywriting using testimonials.
57:40 – Resources available to better learn about your client.
59:55 – Formulas for copywriting and learn a copywriting slacker secret.
First of all, I’m loving the podcasts! Keep it coming! Now, my question is, do copywriting and SEO go hand in hand? Because there’s many ways you have to optimize your blog posts and website pages, but can you have both without either detracting from the other? (e.g. you want to have a flowing story and great headline, but you also need your keywords in there enough times to make a good ratio of keywords to words on post). I hope this makes sense!
Thank you for your time!
Aroldo, thanks for the awesome words!
On your question… great question.
So, more and more Google is picking up on the intent of the content vs. just the actual words in it.
As an example… if you Google the phrase “internet marketing”… the #1 search result doesn’t have that phrase in the entire article anywhere… nowhere… and it’s a crazy competitive search phrase.
How? Because Google loves that website, it’s an authority, the writer has a lot of really robust and amazing content (many of them about the topic of internet marketing… just not this particular post that ranks #1), and Google can recognize that the phrase “internet marketing” is the exact same intent as “online marketing” (which that post has in it a lot).
So in this case… SEO really isn’t as much these days about having to have the keyword in there a certain # of times… it’s more about… “what is the intent of the article?” … and “is this a trusted and high quality website?” … and “does it look natural and are visitors liking that website and the value it creates?”… and a ton of other factors of course.
Without getting too complicated here… YES SEO and copywriting go directly hand in hand because copywriting is salesmanship in print.
It’s the words you put on the site, on the article, in the youtube video, etc… that guides your reader down the journey to build credibility for you, show them that you can help them out of their situation, and sell they why you’re the most logical solution to do so.
SEO is simply when you’re writing that article… being intentional about the possible search phrases that you may want to try to rank for… and nailing the intent. Making sure that if someone searches “sell my house quick memphis”… that the intent of your article is to build value and the case for how they can sell their house quickly in memphis… not necesssarily cramming the article w/ that keyword phrase.
“I want to sell my home fast in memphis”… the intent is exactly the same as the search… but isn’t the exact same keywords. And that’s ok.
What other words and phrases can you work into your content that relay the same intent?
It’s definitely part art and part science and a skill that needs honed and built… not one that someone can master in a day or a week or a month. But yep, great website content should be written first to join that conversation in the mind of the web searcher and guide them down the best path where they know you’re the best choice for them… then take that intention and make sure the article does a great job relaying that intention w/o having to cram the content w/ the same keyword.
This could be a 30 minute video on just this question but that’s the essence of it.