How to Write Successful Promotional Posts: Part 2

                                   

  In Part One last month I shared the fictional promotional post below:

Would you like to receive coaching training from Sally Sue?

Sally Sue, 3-time New York Times bestselling author and coach of 36 years

will be giving an exclusive training to new and established coaches to help you

be as effective and as successful as you possibly can be in 2021 and beyond.

We want to rewrite this post so that it’s reader-focused and benefit-driven. Transforming a ho-hum marketing message into one that converts requires more than simply rearranging the  words. Sally’s ad needs more details, more clarity, and more benefits, THEN it will be time to rewrite it. Let’s add those details now.

Let’s List All the Details We Know Now

We’ll need to fill in the gaps for Suzy because she didn’t include several key pieces of information in her original post. We’ll use fictional answers and we’ll make every detail more specific than in the original post. Here we go!

Suzy’s audience description: “new and established coaches” needs more specificity.

We’ll choose: marriage coaches.

She doesn’t identify the problem her training will solve so that doesn’t help us.

We’ll make one up: not enough clients  

Her promised results: help you be as effective and as successful as you possibly can be means absolutely nothing. No practical or measurable result.

We’ll create a measurable result: double your income in 2022.

What IS the actual offer? An exclusive training

Let’s help Sally out and change that to: Facebook ads training.

Length and location: She doesn’t say.

So we will: 4 weekly 60-minute Zoom calls.

Day /Date / Time: Sally didn’t share this info.

But we will: Every Saturday in February 2022 starting at 10PT / 1ET.

Price: Sally doesn’t mention the $99 price.

We won’t either: Tell you why below. 🙂

Now We’re Ready to Rewrite!

Let’s begin with a new headline, one that lists the Big Benefit first, …the measurable result Sally’s promising the reader. We decided her promise would be doubling their income in 2022.

What frustration will we cite? No need for the solution Sally’s offering unless her reader has the coordinating problem. How about the never-ending struggle to gain new clients?

See how the benefit (the measurable result) is the flip side of the frustration (the problem)?

Now we have all the details we need. Let’s do it!

Marriage Coaches: Double Your Income in 2022!

Tired of the never-ending struggle to gain new clients? Join bestselling author and marriage coach Sally Sue for this new, 4-week Facebook ads training designed especially for you! If your calendar isn’t already booked through this summer, it’s time to ramp up your marketing efforts. Full details at…then we’d add our active link.

Notice that some important details are still missing, such as: the training will be delivered via Zoom, the day/dates/time, and the price. That’s on purpose. We’re not ready to share that info yet.

Here’s what we haven’t talked about yet:

we don’t want our promotion to answer every question.

We only want it to be clear enough and interesting enough to get our ideal reader’s attention, so they’ll follow our link to find out more and take the appropriate action: sign up, enroll, purchase, take your quiz…whatever you want them to do to complete this step and move on to the next one.

Our goal is to help our audience

First by pulling them away from the throng so we can further educate them, answer their questions (including the ones they haven’t thought of yet), list even more benefits, and point them to our desired call-to-action button.

Creating an effective promotional post or ad is the first step in a multi-step effort to get our readers’ eyeballs on our offer.

Sally Sue’s former offer didn’t do that. Does yours?

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission