Shopify Blog’s 30 Books That Will Help You Increase Sales

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks around here. First, Brian was named one of the Top 40 Digital Strategists by OMI, then SEO Copywriters recognized him as one of their top guest posters of 2012. And today, Your Customer Creation Equation was recommended by Shopify Blog as one of the 30 books that will help you increase sales.

This calls for streamers and champagne!

Shopify included some really amazing titles on the list. There are books for conversion, books for entrepreneurs, books for marketing and PR, and every type of online marketing under the sun.

It’s pretty cool to see Your Customer Creation Equation listed with so many great books. It’s not often a conversion and optimization book gets to be listed with Tony Robbins or Malcolm Gladwell, so this is definitely worth celebrating. Congratulations Brian!

Bring a Story Teller to Your Markishing Team

Whatever kind of website you’re running, you’re likely to be publishing…something. So you don’t just need a marketing team. You need a markishing team. And your markishing team needs a story teller. Because, let’s face it, people remember a good story. They share good stories. Most web content is neither remembered, nor shared. And often it doesn’t convert either.

People believe the most interesting things about the words on websites. Among them:

  • Nobody Reads Them. Clarification: Nobody reads bad web content because it’s as compelling as the list of ingredients for dish soap.
  • The Only Important Ones Are SEO Keywords: Clarification: SEO will always be important but Google is constantly changing its rules so that keywords don’t win; good content does. Besides, if the search engines like it, but it reads like a list of ingredients for dish soap, you will convert no one.
  • They Can Be Written In-House: Clarification: No. Most companies write what I call Styrofoam copy: colorless, tasteless, and bad for the environment.

[freebookpromo]Styrofoam copy comes from hiring copywriters who write “business speak.” It is “safe” but offers little in the way of storytelling, metaphor, and proper use of detail. Then the work is sent through marketing, one or more executives and perhaps the legal department.

By the time the copy has completed this gauntlet of red ink, any remaining color, taste and freshness will have been squeezed out until it is “squeaky clean, like a Styrofoam sandwich,” to quote author Tom Robbins. (Source: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, Tom Robbins, 2000 Random House).

Writing that converts must appeal to humans. That’s who your customers are. At least, that’s what we assume. Case in point: GroupOn, a so-called “deal-a–day” site offering email subscribers discounts from local businesses. You’d think that discounts of 50%, 75% or more would be engaging enough for email content. GroupOn didn’t. Each of the dozens of deals they send out is packaged in a description that is witty, entertaining, and fun.

How important is copy to GroupOn’s business? The New York Times writes, almost jealously, that GroupOn “has managed, at least for the moment, to make words pay.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/business/29groupon.html?pagewanted=all

This flies in the face of reports and research that says Web surfers don’t read. GroupOn descriptions get read.

GroupOn writes the descriptions for their customers because they recognize one thing: businesses don’t know how to write, especially about themselves.

This includes you and me.

Marketing people may be great at messaging and positioning. This is only half the battle. Get a good copywriter, pay him or her exorbitantly, and don’t edit the copy, except to correct errors.

This more than anything will increase the value of your white papers, articles, videos, social network posts, and landing pages.

Summary

The reason people think web content isn’t written to be read is that much of it sucks. The best many websites can hope for is that enough Google power will lead prospects to the site that they’ll make money in spite of their content. But the most brilliant sites know that great content is the key for conversion from Googlebots to human beings. Great websites tell the stories of their companies. A website that converts needs a great story teller to put the words to proverbial paper. Read about the benefits of a story teller on Customer Creation Equation.