“Excessive Adjectives – too Much of a Good Thing.”
Blame Your English Teacher
Blame Your Mom
Blame Fear of breaking the law
You aren’t addressing your prospects’ concerns”

Now that you know where to place the blame, you can start to do something about it.

That starts with taking the time to write. No good copy is written in an instant.

Begin with getting it all out on paper, then sort, re-arrange, and delete anything that doesn’t add to your main topic.

Next, tighten it up. That means getting rid of “fluff” and extra words that serve no purpose except to fill space. Replace long words with short ones and long sentences with short ones.

Eliminate any words that any person in your target audience might not understand. Even if you use terms like “experiential,” “protracted,” and “tertiary” in real life – get them out of your copy.

And if you can’t overcome the reasons why or don’t have the time to write effective marketing copy, get in touch.

Writing to help you succeed is what I do.

And yet, amateur marketers still pay too much attention to the rules their High School English teacher taught. The result is dry as a bone, stiff copy.

And you know, nobody reads dry words until they’re required to do so.

At the same time, being too casual makes you sound a little demented. And I HAVE seen it done. In fact, I’ve received emails with a subject line that went something like: “Like You Gotta Dig This!”

Uh – no, I like don’t gotta.

I thought that “like” habit had fallen out of fashion years ago – but I was wrong. I not only heard it in the grocery store this week, I heard it on a television commercial tonight.

But there are a couple of other common errors that I’m seeing more and more lately.

One is the over-use or mis-use of commas.

Look how difficult it is to read this:

By now, you know, that following instructions, from your high school English teacher, will cause you to write dry, dull, uninspiring copy.

This one is SO easy to avoid. Here’s the trick:

After you write a sentence or a paragraph, read it out loud. Pause at every comma. If it sounds like normal conversation – great. If it sounds choppy or clunky or halting (as if you were really not sure about what you wanted to say) get rid of a few commas.

The other is the over-use of descriptive words and phrases.

Take this sentence from a property description one of my ezine readers found on an agent website: “Well-favored uncommonly modern kitchen equipped with top-of-the line appliances and unpredicted materials.”
(No, that’s not a typo. It said “unpredicted.”)

Sadly, all those words draw attention to themselves and away from the message they were meant to convey.

Keep it simple – and communicate.

The rule is: Remember that it isn’t about you.

Your marketing, if it’s to be effective, HAS to be about your prospective customers/clients and what they want or need.

Test each of your marketing messages (including web pages) by checking to see what the first sentence is about. If it says “we” or “I,” rewrite it.

Then count the number of times you say “we” or “I” or any variation thereof. Next, count how many times you use some version of the word “You.”

Unless you’ve used “you” at least 3 or 4 times as often as you’ve used “I,” – rewrite it.

Just yesterday I spent nearly an hour on the phone with a client who was trying to decide on the best word to describe an offer he was making.

It can be a long process, pondering each word and trying to decide how it might affect a reader’s perception of the offer.

Most copywriters and marketers go through this same process… and sometimes they come up with words that are just plain annoying.

At least, they annoy me. Once I see them in copy I am stuck with the feeling that the person is “All hype and no substance.”

The problem, of course, is that the words that annoy me might not be the same ones that annoy you.

But for what it’s worth, I’ll share two of the words/phrases that turn me away…

Both of these are used by marketers who are promoting their expertise and asking you to buy their program or listen to an audio or video – which you know will only promote what they have to sell.

One is “drill down.” They say “We’re going to drill down and …”

The other is “grill.” Just yesterday I got a promotion for a teleseminar, “In which XX will grill me until he discovers my secret for…”

Yeah sure. Delete.

Before you send your promotion out to the world, check to see if any of the words you use make you sound like “All hype and no substance.”

If they do, choose better words.

A recent Active Rain post posed the question: “Which words make you disregard a marketing message?”

Here are some of the replies:

Paradigm shift
hard-worker
well-respected
“KILLER”
Progressive
Well-respected
Content-rich
Quality
Urgent
Utilize
Typical
Innovative
leverage
A-list

Two of my own favorite “love to hate” phrases are “drill down” and “Hold his feet to the fire.”

These are quite often used when promoting a teleseminar or some kind of training program. And there’s just something about those phrases that make me think the speaker (or writer) is a phony.

Then there are the sentences that attempt to impress, but simply sound pompous. For instance:

Let’s all partner to leverage our passion and proactively initiate a world-class paradigm shift that will optimize enterprise-level interactions.

It was intended for real estate agents, but the principles apply no matter what business you’re in.

So here is the question: Is writing your own marketing materials the highest and best use of your time?

You as a real estate professional must wear dozens of hats. Some of them no one else can wear, but some of them could easily be placed on another head, freeing your time for those tasks you do best, and those that put the most $ in your bank account.

Talking to customers and clients face-to-face, for instance.

If you’re just starting out and not very busy you can probably wear most of those hats yourself for a while – but even then it depends upon where your talents lie. Some things you should never do for yourself, even if you have plenty of time.

One of those is writing. If you love it and you’re good at it, you should do it, at least until you have too little time to spare. If you don’t love it; if you aren’t sure about proper word usage; or if you just don’t do it very well, then you shouldn’t do it at all.

Forget about “should.”

Writing is something everyone seems to think they “should” be able to do, simply because they know more about their business than anyone else. But many cannot, and it has nothing to do with intelligence.

Even while they have no trouble communicating in person, when they sit down to write the words just aren’t there. Some people feel embarrassed over that inability to put their thoughts down on paper in a way that motivates other people, and I’ve never figured out why.

We each have different talents. I yell at my best friend with regularity because she calls herself “dumb” over not being able to write a good letter. This is crazy – the woman is a brilliant accountant!

Your copy precedes you…

The copy on your web pages, in your email campaigns, and in the letters, brochures, and postcards you send is the first impression that many have of you. As such, it should draw attention to what you can do for those potential clients and customers. Sadly, too often it draws attention to a misuse of the word “here,” or one of dozens of other common grammatical/spelling errors.

That’s why, if writing is “not your thing,” you should either enlist the aid of a friend or family member who knows how to write good marketing materials, or hire a copywriter.

Unless your marketing materials make a good first impression, you may never have the chance to make that first “in-person” impression.

I know, writers are expensive. That’s because several hours of work necessarily go into each letter, post card, or web page. Any writer who tells you they can whip out an effective sales letter in 30 minutes is someone you should shoo out your door.

But I do have good news. I can take the price sting out of one piece of the marketing mix for real estate agents.

Professionally written prospecting letters at a fraction of the price…

Now you can have the benefit of professionally written letters at about 4% of the price you’d normally pay. No, that’s not a typo – I really said 4%. You’ll find the details on my prospecting letters page.

There you can choose from 22 sets of letters, each written with a specific target audience in mind. They’ll save you time and money while they help grow your business by showing your prospects that you’re an agent they can trust.

Go see.

If you really want to do it yourself…

If you do want to write your materials yourself, plan on setting aside at least 2 or 3 hours per letter. Write it first, then edit. Then set it aside for a day and edit again. Then read it aloud to make sure it flows well. If possible, have someone else read it to make sure you’ve said what you meant to say. Misunderstandings come easy, even in writing.

To determine if letter writing is the highest and best use of your time, compare the cost of having a good letter written against the income you might realize if you were on the phone or in front of a customer instead.

But now that the boom times have ended (for the time being, at least), if you want to stay in the business you have to do a good job of marketing. If you don’t, you won’t be in business long.

If you want to be a listing agent, the first step is to market yourself to homeowners. You have to create a message that makes you stand out from the rest as the agent who will get those homes sold.

Part of that is proving that you have the ability to market their home effectively.

So before you can present yourself as the agent to choose, you have to learn how to get your listings spread around the Internet in all the right places. Since over 80% of all home buyers now begin their search on line, that’s an important first step.

Next is learning to take spectacular photos, or putting money in your budget to hire someone who can. Then, along with the photos, you need words that put your readers in the house. You need to make people feel how wonderful it will be to live in that house and create an urgency for them to get there first before someone else snaps it up.

How do you do that? By describing the benefits as well as the features. It’s no simple task, because the ADA and the Fair Housing laws put restrictions on what you can say. So stick with verbs that don’t discriminate. I think you can still use words like “enjoy,” “relax,” and “appreciate.” Just stay away from words like “see, hear, and walk.”

Of course marketing is not the only benefit you bring to your listing clients, so you need to market your other skills as well. One of the most important is the ability to help them determine the correct selling price in today’s market. So you have to emphasize your market knowledge while you’re offering that free market analysis.

Two more attributes that are of prime importance to listing clients are communication and negotiations. They want to know that you are not one of those agents who will “list it and forget it.”

What if you want to be a buyer’s agent?

Then you need to emphasize your commitment to finding your clients the perfect home, staying in touch regularly, and negotiating on their behalf. Those buyers want to know that you will be a trusted guide through the real estate jungle.

Today, whether you work with buyers or with sellers, you need something more.

Because so many sales today are either foreclosures or short sales, you need to market your skills in getting the proper paperwork together and in persistently following up with bank personnel to get transactions all the way to closing.

Real estate practice has changed dramatically since the mortgage crisis hit. Your marketing needs to show that you have kept up with the changes and can represent your clients well.

What else is new?

We’re living in an age where relationships count. We don’t know who to trust any more because the news is filled with stories of people we trusted who turned out to be unworthy. We’re no longer willing to trust until we’re shown a reason not to. Instead we want to see reasons why we should trust.

Your website, and especially your agent bio, can help. By sharing something of your personality and your personal life, you can give prospects a way to see you as being somehow “like them.”

So put a little less emphasis on your professional accomplishments and share a little of your hobbies, your past experiences, and your community involvement. Let them see who you are when you aren’t wearing your real estate hat.

This is the number one mistake made by marketers of all kinds, and real estate agents are at the top of the list of offenders. But they’re not the only ones. Marketers in all kinds of professions make the same mistake.

There’s some kind of misguided notion that the person receiving the letter wants to know about you – who you are, how long you’ve been in business, how proud you are of your new facilities, etc.

They don’t want to know. They don’t care in the least.

And that’s why a letter that’s all about you is on the fast lane to the round file… or the junk folder on the computer.

Those folks want to know two things:

• you recognize their problem
• you can help them solve it

Whether it’s finding the perfect new home or creating a beautifully landscaped yard, or assuring themselves that they have proper insurance coverage – they want to know what you’re going to do to help them reach their goals.

There are only two places where you should be talking about you: The “About” page on your website and your personal brochure. Other than that, everything you say should be about your prospects and their concerns.

A good letter takes a bit of time and thought – because you do have to weave your offers to help into the copy, and you do have to show that you are the person who will keep your promises, show up on time, charge a reasonable rate, and generally solve their problems.

One way to put yourself on the right track is to write a rough draft before you try to write the actual letter. In that rough draft, begin each paragraph with the word “You.”

You’ll probably have to come back and edit and remove some of those “you’s,” later, but beginning with that word will move your focus to your clients – and their wants and needs.

When you need a good marketing letter and don’t want to write it yourself, get in touch!

Lately, on many websites, you can’t go and read an entire article on one page.

You get a teaser to get you interested in what they’re going to say, and then have to click forward, sometimes as many as 8 or 9 times, to get the entire article.

I suppose the point of this exercise is to expose you to the dozens of affiliate marketing ads / Google ads that flank each section of the article, but I find it annoying. In fact, I end up not reading things I might have found interesting.

Having a satellite internet connection means waiting between pages, and I don’t want to take that much time for casual reading.

How about you? Do you like this new trend, or are you skipping the articles (and their accompanying ads) just like I am?

But there’s a reason for that. The reason is that it can sometimes take longer to write a postcard than it does to write a letter – even a very long letter.

The copy on a postcard has to be concise – and precise. There’s no room for a long explanation or a story to lead into an important point. So a writer has to sort through all of the available information and condense it down to find the most important points.

What points are most important? The ones that answer the questions and concerns that matter to the people who will receive the card. The ones that demonstrate the most important benefits to be had when your prospects say yes to your offer.

It’s easiest if you’re mailing to a targeted list, because you’ll have some idea of what interests them. You may be able to tell what is important to them from their prior purchases.

If you’re mailing to a “cold list” however – you won’t have any guidelines, so you’ll have to stop and really think about the product or service you’re selling.

Who is your most likely buyer? This is the only person you should be talking to as you write your message. Forget about everyone else.

Next, what matters to that buyer?

Begin by thinking of people you know who would buy the product or service you’re promoting. What one or two benefits would cause them to buy? What one or two questions or concerns would cause them not to buy? And how can you address them in just a few words?

Don’t try to start with the condensed version. Go ahead and write some paragraphs that answer the questions and demonstrate the benefits. After you’ve written them, then you can condense them.

Is it possible to put your key points in bullets? This saves words because no one expects to see complete sentences in bullet points. It also helps increase readership because they’re easy to read.

Whatever you do, don’t try to write too much and cram it onto your postcard in small type with no spaces between your paragraphs. If it’s difficult to read, they won’t read it, and a “wall of type” simply looks like too much work to most people.

So if you’ve written too much, go back to the drawing board. Keep condensing and eliminating until you’ve distilled the essence of your message and can present it in a convincing and visually appealing manner.