How are things with you this week?
The best thing I heard the other day that I want to share with you is:
“You either succeed… or you learn.”
And before we start today’s lesson, know that in your business, whatever you’re doing, you’re either succeeding, or your learning, either option is great.
So, this week’s lesson is all about name-dropping, which might not sound like it has much to do with copywriting, but indeed it does.
One important aspect of copywriting is establishing credibility for your business. If you’re writing sales copy, one of your customer’s biggest potential objections is going to be:
“Why should I listen to you?”
Well, if you can show that other people in your industry are listening to you, it makes this objection easier to overcome.
The term “name-dropping” might make you shudder, and if you’ve ever met someone at a party who happened to know Sting’s maid, once wiped the ashtray of Mick Jagger and had her legs waxed in the same salon as Angelina Jolie, I can completely understand why.
But leveraging relationships (shall we use that instead of name-dropping? Sounds better doesn’t it) is not only good for your business (when done the right way) it’s also great for your customers.
Let’s say you’ve just worked with, or met or written a guest post or had an acknowledgement from someone in your industry that you admire. Someone you know your customers would also admire.
You want to tell people about it, but you don’t want to feel like you’re boasting, so you very humbly keep quiet about it.
The thing is, it’s okay to tell people about it, if you do it tastefully, and you can do it tastefully by following these 3 simple rules whether you decided to blog, tweet or talk about the connection you made.
Rule 1: Don’t boast
I know you wouldn’t do this, but when you’re writing you have to be careful how you come across to your audience. Saying things like
“She couldn’t believe how amazing my work was and said she didn’t know a finer web designer this side of the Atlantic”
might make you feel good inside, and it’s certainly something to be proud of, but it’s not a great way to come across as endearing. If in doubt, deflect as much attention as you can onto the other person and their skills. For example:
“It was great fun to work with “X”. With a great passion and vision for her business it’s no wonder her service is helping business owners discover their own talents for success.”
Rule 2: Make sure it’s useful to your audience
Whatever you write, it should still be in the interest of serving your audience. Can you teach them something about your experience of connecting with that person? Can you bring to their attention how this person’s business could be important to them? If you make it valuable to your audience, it won’t come across as “name-dropping” at all.
Rule 3: Don’t fawn
Whilst a sprinkling of “I really liked this person, they were cool” is lovely, a heavy dosage of:
“Oh my God, I can’t believe she liked me, she’s amazing, I want her children…”
Is just a bit bizarre.
And don’t think it isn’t done. It is. And it’s not pretty.
Treat them and talk about them as you would a close professional colleague and you will be seen as being on the same level as they are, which you are. No-one is any more or less important than you.
The great thing about talking about some of the relationships you’ve made in your business is that you don’t have to wait for someone to start talking about you to get noticed or to attain credibility.
You can get the ball rolling by taking the initiative and shining a light on any relationship you think your readers would be interested in.
And if you are friendly, positive and polite when you leverage your relationship, you will come across as peer, not a stalker.
Now you go and have a marvelous week ahead.
Amy.