Your mom is the only person who actually reads your wordy website. She’s the only one who gives your pretty mail piece more than 10 seconds. And she’s the only one who believes you when you say, “I take the time to truly understand my clients’ needs.”

Everyone else is just looking for a reason to ignore you.

Don’t get me wrong. Everybody WANTS you to be as great as your mother thinks you are. Not becasue they necessarily care about you, but because they all want something they can be excited about.

So, if you want clients, stop talking to your mom and start talking to your clients. Give them a reason to pay attention to you in the first place. And make it excessively easy for them to convince themselves to start giving you money.

Here’s how you do it:

• Know your selling points. If you don’t have any beyond unsubstantiated claims, then you’ve got bigger problems.
• Get rid of the fluff: Fluff diffuses the impact of your message. Any content that’s not strengthening your marketing message is weakening it and should be eliminated.
• Prove your credibility: If you’re an expert in something, then show it. Write an FAQ, a Top-Ten, a How-To, a blog post — anything to show that you actually know what you’re talking about.
• Give them an easy next step: If you do the first steps right, they’ll want to hear more, but they’ll still be tempted to ignore you.  Make it worth their while to keep paying attention — useful blog posts or a newsletter, a no-pressure event, a free trial, etc.

Do this and not only will your mom be praising you, so will your clients.

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