Whose Language are you Speaking?

Good sales copy can magnetize your dream client, illicit a serious visceral response and easily motivate them into buying — but there’s one catch, and it’s an important one: you absolutely MUST be speaking THEIR language. Not yours.

I’ve always loved to write. In fact, as a freshman in college, I majored in English. I thought I wanted to be a teacher (chuckles inwardly). I had no idea where I’d end up in life, but I always hoped writing would be a part of it.

Now it is!

Tim Ferris (author of The 4 Hour Work Week and beaucoup entrepreneur) says that writing is one of the most important skills a business person can possess. Copywriting (alongside speaking) is such an effective strategy for increasing brand awareness and ultimately persuading your audience to take a particular type of action with you.

Good sales copy can magnetize your dream client, illicit a serious visceral response and easily motivate them into buying — but there’s one catch, and it’s an important one: you absolutely MUST be speaking THEIR language. Not yours.

In the yoga world, we’ve all pretty much come to grips with the concept that yoga is a practice — not an end goal. There’s no competition, no desired outcome. We want our clients to develop a sustainable lifestyle, to tap into yoga’s deeper meaning and adopt all of the juicy philosophy we’ve come to know and love.

That’s all well and good, except that your prospective clients aren’t saying any of those things. They’re in the results zone, as I lovingly refer to it. They’re not looking for moksha or samadhi — they want to lose weight, get stronger and live in less pain. It really is as simple as that. So when your sales copy refers to a ‘lifelong practice’ or ‘a sustainable lifestyle’ or ::yawns:: “a connection to a like-minded community” your readers’ eyes glaze right over. They’re out before you’ve even had a shot.

One of the exercises I have nearly every client do is a target market research project. I have them interview members of their dream audience and ask open-ended questions about their struggles and goals. The idea is to get the customer talking in as much detail as possible — we want to understand exactly how they describe their pain points in their own words. Then we want to reflect those words right back at them.

It’s not that we need to change our entire philosophy to cater to the customers who want a quick fix. It’s that we need to sell them what they want, THEN give them what they need. If we lose them before they ever meet us in person (or in class) we have NO chance of turning them on to all of the life-changing goodness we have offer.

Marketing language matters — a lot. Take a look at the ‘results statements’ below. Which sound more appealing?

“I help yoga studio owners learn and implement best practices in business management so they can generate as much profit as possible.”

“I help women in the wellness world STOP undervaluing themselves and their businesses so they can enjoy improved commercial success and live out their life dreams.”

“We help every BODY reduce stress, improve balance and develop a sustainable yoga practice they can enjoy for life”

“We give women on-the-go an invitation to step out of the chaos and onto their mats for a kick-ass flow that helps them release the heavy and show up strong in every aspect of life.” (Stolen from a real client — you know who you are, and you’re killing it.)

All of these above are true, but two of these statements are written with really great copy, and two of them aren’t. See the difference?

So the next time you sit down at your computer to write some web copy, or a social media post, or a blog, or an ad — think about your client. What is she really saying to herself? Go repeat it, then watch the magic happen.