Helpful Resources Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Donnie Bryant

Start Your Freelancing Thing

September 30, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

“No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.” ~ Booker T. Washington

These wise words have served as a guiding principle for the way I operate as an entrepreneur over the past 6 or 7 years. I’ve said it a number of times; it’s my goal to be the most generous guy you’ve ever met.

One of the main ways I’ve added value to the “place in which I live” is by creating piles of instructional content. After working tirelessly to develop my craft and become something of an expert in copywriting and direct marketing, I always tried to help other succeed along the way.

Sometimes I got paid, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I should have been paid, but wasn’t. But I always had my sights fixed on making valuable contributions to the business community I came in contact with.

I had the opportunity to talk about this process on Monique Welch’s awesome new Start Your Thing podcast. It was quite a privilege. If you’d like to hear more about my journey, check out Episode 1 here. The podcast is also available on iTunes.

I hope there’s something help you and inspire you to build your expertise and go start your own thing!

P.S. Along the lines of creating value, I came up with a variation on that clever “2 secrets of success” quote you’ve likely seen floating around the internet. Naturally, this advice won’t work for everyone, but I can tell you, it has worked for me.

If you’re willing to work harder than anyone else, or do a “common thing in an uncommon way” to quote Booker T. Washington once again, you probably won’t have to worry about too many people stealing your ideas and your customers.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you more of an info-hoarder or an uber-sharer?

Escape from Retail Jail: A Copywriter’s Tale

November 18, 2023September 8, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

People sometimes ask me how I became an expert at copywriting. My answer is always the same; I smirk a little and say “I decided to become one.”

Naturally, the story is more involved than that, but that decision — followed by commitment — is the crux of the it.

I had the opportunity to explore this decision and how it impacted my life on Episode 7 of Jason Leister’s Incomparable Expert Podcast. This was a special treat for me because of the massive respect and admiration I have for Jason. (If there’s was an incomparable individual on the call, Jason was him.)

The conversation was very raw. Jason didn’t tell me what he was going to ask, and I’m not sure he stuck to any kind of prearranged series of questions or topics, either.

So we were all over the map, talking about

the fact that your ideal customers probably have characteristics similar to the average serial killer – and what it’s going to take to attract and keep them
what “providing value” really means
Jason’s patent-pending “village model of evolution” and why doing business in the vast expanse of the internet is reverting, in some ways, to the old neighborhood structure
when content creation is just plain stupid
just how elastic price is — and how to start banishing the notion that you have to work harder to be worthy of making more money from your mind

One of the big takeaways is the magical power of “showing up.” I realize that one of the main reasons I reached any level of success is because I decided to keep going. Even if you’re not very talented, there’s a good chance you’ll find your status elevated simply because you consistently came to work.

Jason said it well: “Anybody with a heartbeat COULD be consistent. But it’s rare, it’s as rare as gold.”

I’ll testify to that.

Steve Lahey said it was my best interview yet…

…and I’d love you to have check out Incomparable Expert on Spotify

Psychologically-Proven Ways to Get Anyone’s Attention

July 4, 2016September 5, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

I love this quote from Steuart Henderson Britt — “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”

The same is true for writing valuable web copy. If you can’t seize the attention of the people you can help, you might as well be winking at them in the dark.

Unfortunately, attention is one of the scarcest commodities in the world today.

There are 3 things that are psychologically-proven to draw the attention. Well, really there are 4, but the fourth one kinda goes without saying

danger
entertainment
curiosity
surprise, which is sort of a combination of the other three.

In my guest post on the Orbit Media blog, I discuss specific ways web writers can leverage danger, entertainment and curiosity to surprise their audiences and grab their attention. The article also includes some of the best examples of other writers putting these psychological forces to work.

Here are a few that didn’t make the cut:

Danger

How about this example from my inbox today:

Doom and gloom is a powerful motivator, always has been. And with the recent craziness in the financial markets, “danger” headlines abound.

Your wallet (which you are quite fond of) is in trouble, and if you just read this email, you’ll be prepared to protect yourself.

For a certain audience, headlines like this are nearly impossible to ignore.

Entertainment

Your camera advertisements can talk about frames per second, lenses and apertures — or you can shoot a video like this:

Did you watch the entire 4 minute video? Exactly.

The title of the video is pretty attention-grabbing, too: Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex. The active verb (locked), the intrigue of “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”… and for camera fiends, the prospect of playing with a $100K camera. All juicy details.

(Note: Don’t get me wrong; you do have to talk about the features of your product or service. But, more often than not, you should lead by demonstrating the benefits, the transformation that your product creates.)

Curiosity

Bill Jayme’s famous direct mail envelop for Psychology today is a classic study in curiosity. Questions are always a good way to engage people, and a question like “Do you close the bathroom door even when you’re the only one at home?” is a doozy. It does more than force your brain to come up with an answer; it makes you wonder, “why do I do that?” and “what does that mean about me and my personality.”

The teaser copy makes you want to find out more about the human mind — YOUR mind to be precise. And now that you’ve started thinking about it, your brain practically begs for more insight into the meaning of it all.

Masterful.

Read the full article, The Psychology of Attention: 10 Lessons for Web Writers from Deez Nuts on the Orbit Media blog.

The most famous formula for selling, e.g. AIDA, starts with attention. Without attention, you don’t have a chance of selling, educating or effecting any kind of change for your readers. You are constantly competing for space and time in the mind of your competitors and every other distraction your should-be customers have to deal with.

This study on the psychology and application of attention will help give you an edge in this battle.

(You may also like to check out Attention-Jacking with Terry Crews)

Big Mistakes Small Businesses Make: Podcast

September 5, 2015September 4, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

copywriting mistakes small businesses make

What’s are the biggest mistakes small business owners and solopreneurs make?

Well, I can name a handful of major ones — and I dealt with a couple of them during my guest appearances on the Rhino Daily Podcast with Steve Sipress.

Steve is a well-respected, well-connected guy in the direct marketing world. He gets excited about big marketing ideas that help small businesses make big money.

Naturally, we get along very well.

He brought me on the show to talk about some of the most painful mistakes entrepreneurs make when sitting down to write sales copy…and how to fix them. In the short time I had, I gave a few specific tips:

Make your message about your customer, not so much about yourself. Even your “About Me” page should really not be about you
Never forget to appeal to the emotion. I gave one tip that even the least exciting industries can use to crank up the emotional volume of their messages
Boring = marketing death. How do you make a boring business interesting? What are the only two things your prospects are guaranteed to be interested in? You’ll have to listen to find out my prescription
“3 strikes and you’re out” is bad way to think about marketing, but it’s better than the “one and done” approach. Strangers rarely turn into paying customers the first time they see your marketing material. Don’t give up! Build follow-up and multiple touches (in multiple media, if possible) into your strategy

Check out Episodes 171 through 174 of the Rhino Daily Podcast on iTunes or on the Rhino Daily website. All 4 are less than 14 minutes long for your listening convenience and enjoyment.

I’ve also contributed a few articles to the Rhino Daily blog in the past, just in case you were wondering. You can read here if you like.

Free Resource for Bonehead Husbands (like me)

August 22, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

Got a question for you:

Are you the man and husband you decided to be? Or did you get to this point in mostly on autopilot?

Seems like a strange question, but I have a good reason for asking you.

A buddy of mine is offering pre-release copies of his book, Husband on Purpose: Your 30 Day Action Plan to Become a Better Man and Build a Better Marriage, for free until the end of the month. If you aren’t the best husband you can be — but you’d like to be — I think you’ll want to get your hands on this book.

I got to read an early version of the manuscript and I’ve gotta tell you: the message is phenomenal. I don’t want to sound hypey, but I believe it could revolutionize a lot of marriages. It’s really helped me get my head on straight — and I thought I was doing pretty well!

“Most of us get married on purpose…then we end up being a husband by accident.”

Conrad Deas (the author) is one of the most intelligent and passionate guys I know. In this book, he lays out specific action steps to help men, including the boneheaded among us, find out what their wives want and give it to them EXACTLY the way they want it.

Impossible? Conrad shares a simple way to cheat your way to success. (Actually, this IS impossible if you don’t cheat.)

I’d like to tell you the path to becoming a Husband on Purpose is easy. That would be dishonest. The road gets tough sometimes…but it’s not as tough as having a crappy marriage.

If you’re interested, you can get a free PDF copy at http://www.husbandonpurpose.com/. You will have to opt in with your email address, though.

Husband on Purpose has earned my highest recommendation.

P.S. If you know of any men who could use some advice on reading their wives minds, would you mind passing the link along to them? Don’t forget: the FREE pre-release copy will only be available until August 31st, 2015.

Progress doesn’t happen accidentally. Don’t settle for being less than a purposefully-growing husband.

6 Painful Reasons You Can’t Rely on Headline Analyzers

October 3, 2016June 7, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

A colleague of mine shared this tool in one of the Facebook group I’m a member of:

http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer#

I don’t spend much time at all on Facebook, but I happened to see this post, and I couldn’t pass by without adding my two cents. Here’s a slightly modified version of my response:

This IS a cool tool, Jamal.

I’d just note that there are several important factors that this analyzer doesn’t take into consideration:

1) Whether a headline is strong or not is determined as much by WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS as by the words you choose. Vegans won’t click on articles about making your steak tender and delicious, no matter how interesting the title looks.

2) Are your claims believable, or do they scream “Hype!”? It’s impossible for a machine to figure that out…

3) The formula used by the tool doesn’t know whether or not the headline is nonsense. As long as you put the right words in there, you’ll score high.

E.g. “how to startling orangutan spine surprises surprisingly” scores an 80 — but it doesn’t make any sense.

I entered the title of this post “6 Painful Reasons You Can’t Rely on Headline Analyzers,” which scored 66. When I switched “Analyzers” to “Awesome,” the score went up to 72 — even though the change destroys the headline.

(Both versions get an A+ for “structure, grammar and readability.”)

4) Some of the “right” words (“emotional” and “power” words listed in the free download Coschedule gives you when you opt in) are less powerful than you might think. “Awesome” is so overused that it will fall flat in many cases.

Again, you can’t know the right words unless you know who you’re talking to.

For example, financial copywriters know that “the Fed,” “Yellen” and “rate hike” have emotional punch that may not really work in any other industry.

5) As far as I can tell, this tool and the accompanying article focus on getting cold traffic to click on a blog post. It doesn’t — nor could it — calculate familiarity, relationship, name/brand recognition, etc.

The degree to which your readers know/trust you, enjoy your style and know you deliver value has a huge impact on your readership.

For example, if two articles have the exact same headline, who wins: Joe Schmoe or Seth Godin? More to the point, who wins a showdown between Seth Godin and Rachel Ray? Of course, that’s a trick question. It depends on the audience and topic.

Many of you have heard that one of the most opened and responded to emails sent during President Obama’s reelection campaign had “Hey” as the subject line.

“Hey” gets a zero on the headline analyzer, and as a blog title seen by cold traffic, maybe it should. But to people who know the Prez (or whoever), it sounds personal and really makes you curious to know what he has to say.

Email is a different animal, so keep that in mind.

6) If it sounds like you’re trying to sell something, you’ll have a different response than if it seems like you’re just sharing content.

If you’ve ever tried selling anything online, you know what I mean.

Having said all of that, I think the tool could be very helpful in helping your strengthen you headlines.

—–

Now, this critique is a bit of a nasty sandwich. One slice of positive at the beginning and end with a pile of negatives stuffed in between. I DO think tools like these can be helpful in making writers think creatively about how they’re crafting headlines and openers.

Just keep in mind that a you can communicate with your audience better than a machine ever could.

Are You Really “Connecting” with Your Audience?

May 12, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

Forgive the alliteration. It might get a little crazy in here.

Connection. Conversation. Content.

Eleven months ago to the day, I did a Google Hangout with Roger Courville. Roger’s question to me was “How do you connect with people?” It’s a topic I feel like pretty well-equipped to answer.

Roger, on the other hand, is the KING of connectorship (which is a term he coined). He’s a genius in every sense of the word.

During this 50-minute conversation, we talked about my dark past in retail management, how that led me to explore the copywriting and how even in that stifling environment, people can connect with each other through content, and giving.

We also discussed the forces that make copywriting and content marketing connectors, from person to person, business to customer and business to business.

This hangout will benefit you because you’ll learn

what makes deep connections happen
how to be more customer-centric, even when time are hard
why giving is so important, and how to be more intentional about your giving
the various forms content can take, in real life as well as online
the best advice on the planet for copywriting that really connects
and plenty of other stuff.

It was a fun conversation with a good friend I don’t spend enough time with (and one of my all-time favorite clients). Have a look:

We recorded this conversation the day after my then 7 year-old son broke his arm. In all the hustle and bustle, I forgot to share this with you sooner.

I recommend you also check out Roger’s website and look him up on social media. He’s one of the smartest guys I know, and also one of the coolest and most generous. You’ll like him. More importantly, you’ll learn from him.

(FYI, Brother Roger wrote THE book on how to create webinars that rock — in 2009. His thinking is always cutting edge, yet practical. As I said, he’s the king of connectorship.)

Consulting Success Webinar Replay and My 2 Big Takeaways

May 7, 2015May 6, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

I hope you enjoyed the webinar I did with Michael Zipursky (CEO of Consulting Success) yesterday as much as I did. If you missed it, or just want to watch again, check out the replay here.

Michael explained step-by-step how consultants and coaches can set up a marketing system to consistently attract more clients.

At the end, he offered a way for you to get help with your marketing for free. You see, Michael runs a coaching program where he teaches and guides you to create your own marketing system. And if you were paying attention to the case studies, his students often get massive results — almost immediately.
If you’re interested in talking with a top expert about your marketing and getting help to attract more clients, take action on Michael’s generous offer. This complimentary call is available on a “first come, first served” basis, and his schedule tends to fill up pretty quickly.

Request your marketing strategy call here:
http://www.consultingsuccess.com/donnie

My 2 Big Takeaways

1) Authority is as long-term strategy.

You may have noticed on the image above that Authority is the LAST step in the process. That’s almost the opposite of what you hear other experts say. The standard advice is to establish your authority right away, then you can start charging premium prices, etc.

Mr. Zipursky looks at it differently. He teaches his clients to take the long-view on authority. Yes, you should always be working on it, but a perceived lack of authority should never stop you going after what you want, making the biggest, boldest promises you can make (as long as you can deliver) and setting fees commensurate with the value you provide.

It reminded me of Robert Ringer’s book, Winning Through Intimidation. You don’t necessarily have to be the #1 expert to do great work. Always look for opportunities to provide the highest level of value you’re capable of delivering — to the clients who will benefit most and pay you accordingly. If you’re good enough to play in the “big leagues,” step on the field. Don’t worry about “paying your dues.”

2) There is a price for staying where you are.

We probably don’t think about business (or life) this way. We think of progress as moving upwards, mistakes and failures as going downward, and moving forward in a straight line when things aren’t changing.

During the webinar, Michael demonstrated how much we sacrifice when we don’t work with our ideal clients, on our ideal projects, on our terms. When we’re not charging as much as we’re worth, we’re throwing time and money away with every deal we sign.

If you’re not going up, you’re slipping down.

There’s also a price associated with progress. But isn’t success worth paying the cost?

Writing Copy to Crush Your Competitors

March 4, 2021April 21, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

Wanna write great copy?

If not, have you ever wondered how you go about finding the right copywriter to partner with your business and make your competition tremble with fear?

Listen up.

I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by former Olympic athlete, current podcasting machine, the one and only Fabienne Raphael, on her Marketing to Crush Your Competition podcast.

Episode 138: The Secret of Writing Great Copy

Or listen here:

We talked about:

why copywriting is so important
the right way for any copywriter or marketer to approach a project
the must-have ingredients of persuasive copy
when you should and when you SHOULDN’T hire an outside copywriter and
what success really means.

It’s just 31 minutes, but I think there’s some valuable content in there.

(If you’re at all interested in getting more familiar with me and what makes me tick, there are some personal details about me and my “backstory,” as well as a few insights into my worldview.)

Check it out. I hope you find it helpful.

Productivity Hacks – Hanging Out with Carey Green

February 19, 2015 by Donnie Bryant

The early bird catches the worm, as the old proverb says.

Sometimes I think that’s a rather destructive piece of advice.

Earlier this month, I shared a few of my most useful productivity tips with Carey Green. We were talking about my contribution to his new book Entrepreneur Mind Hacks Part 1. The dual volume series is a compilation of tips from some of the brightest entrepreneurial thinkers in the game today (like Seth Godin and Cal Newport), as well as powerful insights from thinkers of the past (like Winston Churchill).

Somehow I sneaked into the roster.

During this interview, Carey and I talk about:

why “early to bed and early to rise” isn’t always best
one of the many business lessons I extracted from sermons of an itinerant 18th century preacher
generosity versus greed in business
why humans need to stop treating their brains and bodies like machines during the workweek
how two different Schwartzes (Gene and Tony) forever altered the way I set up my schedule — their advice will revolutionize your productivity if you listen and apply
step-by-step instructions to discover your unique rhythms
how God made you different — and what you need to do to make the most of that fact.

We also got into copywriting and marketing a little bit. I talked about how important persuasive copy is, but there are two things that have far more impact on the punching power of your sales messages. Most decent copywriters are aware of this. That doesn’t mean they’ll talk about it in public.

Carey was a great host. He’s also a top-notch businessman and MAN. The world could use more like him.

Get more details about Entrepreneur Mind Hacks books. Book 1 addresses productivity and creativity. (That’s the one I contributed to.) Book 2 dives into connections and success.

If you’re in business or thinking about going into business, pick em up. You’ll definitely learn something.