How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
You have established yourself as a subject matter expert in your niche. People continue to read your content because it offers answers to their problems. What they don’t want from you is to do a hard sell on them.
If you try to overtly sell anything to anyone, you will most likely not succeed and in the process, you may lose some very valuable business relationships. In fact, if your writing is about selling, they won’t bother to read your content at all. They will read other people’s content and become loyal to them instead of to you.
When it comes to your promoting your business, there is definitely an appropriate place and time to communicate about what you offer. In fact, it is appropriate to put your call-to-action in a resource box at the bottom of a blog article that you have posted and syndicated as well as putting some type of promotional content on your website’s landing page. Of course, it is not advisable for you to do this before you have established a relationship with your online connections that is solid and one in which those people find you credible and trustworthy. It is extremely important that your content is informational and educational and doesn’t in any way read like an infomercial.
Another good reason to steer clear of self-promotion in your content is that you will have a more difficult time getting it published, especially if you submit your articles to business directories. The reputable business directories have strict guidelines when it comes to what they will accept and what they will not accept. There are many ways in which content can come across as being self-promotional, which should be avoided whenever possible. The following are types of content that you would be better off avoiding:
- Mentioning money: Mentioning any money amount in your articles does not offer any real value to your readers. It doesn’t give them anything that they can walk away with. It is no different than the content that you would find in an advertisement. On the other hand, if you give people information that they want and need, they will keep coming back to you for more and more information.
- Dropping names: The only appropriate place to put your call-to-action in your article is in the resource box at the bottom of the page. The article body should be used for tips, hints, tricks, and other substantive copy. The concept is that you entice them with valuable information and once they have become interested in what you have to say, you provide them with a way to continue the relationship with you by giving them your contact information.
- Reviews of other products: It is perfectly acceptable for you to post unbiased reviews of other people’s products and services as long as you have no connection to them. Remember, of course, that it is important that you don’t provide a direct link to the owner of the products and services because that would be promotional on their behalf.
- No outline: Writing from an outline is a great tool. Once you have finished writing an outline that you feel you can depend on, you should stick to it as religiously as possible. The outline will keep you focused and on track in your mission to stay away from any sort of promotional content.
- Wishy-washy messages in your title: It is very important to have a strong article title (always) and to also make sure that your title ties in closely with the rest of the article. Your message should be clear and focused. Your goal is to get your readers to stick with you and read the entire article and then want to read more and more of what you are writing.
The heart of the problem with content that is self-promotional
The problem with content that is self-promotional is that its goal is to convert readers into customers right away. It is not a healthy relationship if your readers become clients before you have had a chance to develop a relationship with them in which they have come to trust you and consider you an expert in your niche or industry. Building credibility is critical to the success of your business. If you don’t have credibility, you won’t have customers. You need to make sure that if you go anywhere near promotional ideas in your content, you are subtle and you don’t make it all about selling. It is always important to make the other person feel that they are in control of making their own decisions and if you build a solid relationship with him or her and they eventually want to buy from you, they will do so wholeheartedly.
Conclusion
The interactions that you have online for your business are key to your success. The relationships that you share with others must be cultivated, nurtured, coddled, and maintained on a regular and consistent basis. At the heart of those relationships is human emotions. The hard sell has no place in that phase of the relationship. The reason that people will eventually want to buy from you is that they trust you and believe that you will give them the best products and services for them based on your deep understanding of what they need and want.
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Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Informed Ideas For Writers
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
I couldn't agree with you more. There's nothing that turns me off more than a hyped up buy now or the world will come to an end hard sell.
Posted by Sadiyya Patel
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Social Media Marketing
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
Yes, visitors are looking for valuable information, for answers to their questions. Providing such content on your website results in happy visitors, builds trust and enhances your reputation as a subject matter expert. We call that approach "PREselling".
Posted by Daniel Kornitzer
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Marketing Communication
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
Avoid the hard sell by continuing to be informative. Put out some white papers. I write white papers, and the product or service isn't mentioned until the end of the paper. Most of it is purely educational.
Posted by Christine Parizo
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Consultants Network | North America
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
Thanks Michael,
Great article. True value sells better than perceived value every time. It takes time to build a solid foundation.
Posted by Charles Duke
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Sticky Branding
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
I never do a hard sell…the entire relationship and projects is affected always. I try to really listen and understand what someone or a company needs, wants or desires to accomplish and I speak into that. If they hear something that connects, great..we've begun a journey. Until THEY hear the something or make the connection, it's just fishing or as you put it, a hard sell. Who wants to work that hard and off the map.
Posted by Beverly Winters
Fantastic Article, I could not agree more with the information in this article.
Thank you.
This article reinstilled something very important in me: to not try to sell my services in my posts, and even if I think I'm doing it discreetly, to think again.
It also encouraged me to continue working on my editing service's blog because it really will help me establish more credibility once it's launched.
Thank you!
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Public Relations and Communications Professionals
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
None of these tips helps you focus on the audience. I think that's a serious omission.
That's why I suggest doing a pre-write — something before the outline or draft — that answers these questions:
1. What's the most important thing you want the reader to know?
2. What questions will they have about the subject?
3. What do you want them to think or do after reading?
4. What details (evidence, explanations, examples) do you need to support the most important thing, address audience questions and drive them to the action/thought you want them to have?
This process forces you to think about how to share your message with your audience in a way that meets their needs and serves your purpose. Then you can do an outline and follow the other tips from this article.
Hope this helps.
Margot Lester
@word_factory
Posted by Margot Carmichael Lester
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Consultants Network | North America
Discussion: How to Avoid the Hard Sell in Your Content
Michael,
Solid article that many can benefit from…
I agree with Charles, it is always best to have a solid foundation that will, in time, sell you without being obtrusive, brash or a turnoff to the reader.
Above all it is the content that is key.
Posted by Alan Humphries
This is excellent advice, and I agree that it should be followed as a general rule. Like all rules, there are exceptions. One exception worth mentioning is the press release. The entire goal of a press release is to describe a new product or service offered by your business. In that context, selling is perfectly appropriate. Of course, the proportion of press releases to strictly informational articles should be fairly low if you want to attract and retain a wide audience.
Fred Chapman
P.S. The first major article on my company blog was a press release announcing a new package I developed for my business. I plan to add many more articles which offer practical tips, tutorials, reviews, and other useful information, but do not directly promote my business.