Tap into limitless potential with the Social Media Success for Professionals podcast on mastering the art of lead generation on social media! Learn to capture attention and develop client relationships with proven and practical strategies. Plus, Heather will help you grow your brand voice and drive sales with creative content ideas. Listen now for free as we unlock a world full of possibilities!
Writing the copy you need to draw people to your brand can be challenging. Whether you don’t know how to start or need to dial in more engaging copy, there is help!
Listen today for the answer because, on this podcast, we have copywriting expert Kim Kiel from KimKiel.com. Kim is a master copywriter who has worked flawlessly with words for over 15 years. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn the 5 tips to take your company’s readability to the next level.
Social Media Success for Professionals Talking Points
[2:37] Kim’s story: Communication, College, Career
- She minored in communication in college, believing communication would solve most problems.
- In her career, she moved from frontline communications to fundraising to direct response writing.
- After some research, she discovered copywriting, quit her day job, and eventually turned her annual salary into her monthly salary.
[5:50] The First “C” of Copywriting: Clear
- Make sure to know what you’re selling, your purpose, and who you’re writing to, so your writing can be clear.
- Avoid industry jargon.
[7:25] Second “C” of Copywriting: Concise
- Write short content or write and then go edit out extra words to make the message more concise.
- One long email can be split into three emails, turning into three weeks of content.
[8:24] Third “C” of Copywriting: Credibility
- Provide proof that you are who you say you are and have the expertise you say you have.
- Infuse customer reviews in your copy – screenshot reviews and share them on social media, and share customer stories.
[9:53] Fourth “C” of Copywriting: Compelling
- Write in a compelling way, and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.
- Tell stories, drop fun references into emails and let who you are come out.
- Infuse who you are into your copy to connect with your audience.
- Add in a call-to-action.
[12:18] Fifth “C” of Copywriting: Compassion
- Compassion is an element of empathy that is typically missing from sales copy.
- Infusing kindness, caring and compassion into copy helps to connect people.
[18:30] Where to Find Kim
- Her podcast is called Ill Communication.
- Her website is Kimkiel.com
- There is a freebie on the website, the Magnetic Copy checklist.
[18:54] The Magnetic Copy Checklist
- Download the free checklist at Kimkiel.com/magnetic.
- 20 pages that show the before and after of changing copy.
- Some checklists have physical elements such as font type, and some contain tips to infuse in your copy.
Get to Know Kim Kiel:
www.Instagram.com/kim_kiel_copy
Write your best copy and share it with the world through your very own lead magnet – targeted toward your ideal audience.
Download our guide 15 Ways to Use Your Lead Magnet To Sell More Services to create your next lead magnet today!
Happy posting!
If you’d like to read the full episode, here is the transcript:
Welcome to the Social Media Success for Professionals podcast. Hi, I’m Heather Holloway founder of Holloway Media Services former television and radio producer and social media expert. I’ve multiplied my sales using organic social media and this show is a way for me to share my experiences and guide you on what it takes to grow your business using social media marketing to I’ll cover everything you need to know to leverage social platforms to build your business, practice, or firm and have a steady flow of clients, patients and customers waiting to work with you. I’m diving deep into the marketing vault to bring you the best social media secrets to engage high-paying clients. Build trust and establish yourself as an industry leader. So tune in take notes and get ready to experience social media success.
Howdy, everybody. Welcome back to social media success for professionals. I’m your host, Heather Holloway. And boy we got a good one for you. Because I know you’re sitting out there thinking I don’t know how to write copy, or the copy that I’m writing isn’t bringing people in. Well, I have the expert Kim Kiel, the one the only from Kim killed.com here to teach us the five top tips to make your company more readable. But before we get into it, Kim, thank you so much for joining me today.
Hey, Heather, thank you so much for having me. I know we have something in common which is that we both have the same I’m Kay Kay your H H Sen like connecting in the marketing world as well as in our name. So I love it.
J Dubs. H Dubs. Here we go. So K dubs Tell me, what do you do for the people out there?
I love writing copy. I love helping people connect better with their audiences. And I specialize in sales copy. So I help people write in a way that sells their brilliance, their genius, attracts the right clients, and creates just a really beautiful connection and relationship because most sales are really founded on building that relationship.
Absolutely. And so we’re using social media these days. We’re online, right? We use words all the time we write so many words. So it’s really good for us to learn how to do that in a persuasive manner right for somebody to take action. But how did you get here like you did become k dubs replacing your full-time income to writing full-time? You didn’t just do that overnight. Tell us how you got there.
Oh, thanks. I started out in get this I have a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science. Oh, wow. with a minor in communication. So communication has always been the thread. And you know, back when I was in university, I felt the only way we could solve our environmental problems was through communication. Over the years I was in frontline communications, helping people understand what are the problems, how to solve the problems, eventually moved into fundraising, because I worked a lot in charity. And in fundraising, I learned all of these practices to get somebody to open their wallet to make a donation. And I learned this term called direct response, which is the art and practice of writing in a way that gets somebody to make a response to your copy or to take action. Yeah, and
I was I just want to pause right there because I want you to listen and listen good, or Well, I don’t know I’m talking to a copywriter. So is it in if it’s listening, if it’s not on Grammarly, I’m a little but listen, she just mentioned direct response kit book that word up. That is when you take your posts and you profit. So please, direct response, keep going.
So I was working this day job in fundraising. But I had two little kids at home and I couldn’t manage the constant like rush to get people to childcare, get people to school, get myself to work and back and I was late for everything. And it was just I was a mess. And at that time, I discovered this whole world of online business and through that sort of deep dive in the Google rabbit holes. I discovered the practice and profession of copywriting and I realized, you know, I’ve never called myself a copywriter. That’s actually what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years. Yeah. And as we all do, we I started my own job, quit my day job, and over the last couple of years have been able to replace my annual salary. And my annual salary has now become my monthly salary. So it was a really good move. And I’m working with clients that I genuinely love, they are making an impact in the world, they are changing people’s lives. And while I get to support them with copy or strategy or copy coaching, I know that like, I’m like helping to support that kind of impact that’s going out into the world. And that’s really it’s priceless.
I love that that’s a compound effect is we’re able to then give our expertise, the things that we’ve been diving deep on over the last few years. Share that share the wealth, right? Yeah. Oh, that’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. So for today, I mean, at the perfect setup, listen in this woman has taken her annual salary and made that her monthly salary by crafting creative content. So today, five top tips to make your copy more readable, teach us coach teach, and Okay, listen up here, people. So I’m actually going to borrow from another popular copywriting trainer named Bob Bly, he created something called the four C’s of copywriting, and I’m adding a fifth C.
So the first C when you’re sitting down to write, copy, or when you’re reviewing something you’ve written, you want to ask yourself, is this clear? Do I know what I’m actually selling here, like so often, when we sit down or like, I don’t know what I know what I’m actually selling, you want to be very clear about what you’re writing about what the purpose is, and to whom you are writing. Have in mind your ideal customer, make sure you know who your ideal customer is, and write clearly to them. Yeah.
Now, the second part of being clear in your copy is avoiding what I like to call like industry jargon, or coach terms, or, you know, if you’re in finance or lobby using like, super jargony terms, that the average person doesn’t know what it is, those people just want, you know, I want to protect myself, I want to protect my legacy, use the terms that they’re using, be very clear in the words that you’re using. And don’t try to be too academic.
I love that, you know, we work with lawyers, we work with doctors. And so you know, as I’m trying to attract more of the same, I better not use words like agency, business or company, rather, I’m using firm or practice. Right, so it’s finessing. You can have evergreen content, but you have to finesse it. Absolutely, yeah. And being clear about what those words that they use are Yeah, and infusing that into your copy. So that’s the first see clear daughter is here. Be clear, avoid being clever. That’s actually like one of the best adages in copywriting.
The second C is to be concise. Even though a lot of us think we are terrible writers, we actually probably write too much. And I know you talk about this a lot, Heather, but to write sort of shorter content or write and then go back and edit out all these extra words, see if you can shorten your copy into a more concise message. So just be really clear. Often I find when I’m reviewing copy for my clients, they’ll have an email, they’ll be talking about so many different things. And I’ll say, You know what, this is actually three emails. So suddenly, this one email, you can just now split it into three. And now they’re three weeks worth of content instead of just one. So you want to just make sure you’re very concise in your messaging.
I love that so much for so many reasons. One being efficiency and getting time back in my day. So like taking that longer form and splitting it out. Holy smokes. Now you have like you said, three posts in one fantastic.
Yeah, the third C is credibility, especially when you’re writing sales copy. And this happens also in like social media copy where you want somebody to take an action, you want to provide a little bit of proof that you are who you say you are, you have the expertise that you have. So in your copy, make sure you’re infusing customer reviews, especially if you have like a Google site, or you’re collecting Google reviews. You can take screenshots of those and share them in a carousel post on social media. You could infuse a customer story, say somebody came and sat in your chair and they had this aha, you delivered an incredible service. Share that story because it builds your credibility gives me trust to know that I’m ready to invest in you.
So if you’re writing a sales message, make sure you have some of that credibility baked in and it could be in the form of numbers and data. You could say, Hey, I’ve been writing copy for 12 years, that was how I dropped in a little bit of credibility that so you can see how you can weave it into your messaging.
I love that. I love that so much. Yeah, I mean social proof, right? Like we purchase with our eyes. And listen, when we’re out there, people are buying us not our brand, as coaches, consultants, lawyers, doctors, you know, it is us all we mean to surface it is Heather Holloway. So we got to share that proof that this is the person you’re going to deal with. These are the things that you can expect while working with me. I love that so much.
The fourth C stands for compelling. So we’ve got clarity, concise, credibility, and now we’re on to compelling you want to write in a compelling way. Now, I’m gonna say something that maybe some of your listeners might not really like. But I have to say a lot of professional services tend to write very boring copy. And we have this belief that we have to sound professional, we have to be very business savvy and buttoned up and to your point that you just made Heather like we are humans buying from other humans. So like unbutton that top button a little bit. And don’t be afraid to let your personality shine.
Some easy ways that you can write compelling copy is through telling stories. It’s through dropping in a fun gift into your email that maybe can help bring your story to life use funny isms or references. So I’m a big Beastie Boys fan, I often in my copy will be dropping little Beastie Boys nuggets in there like little references. I also love cooking. So a lot of my references have to do with food. Say you love like sports, you could drop in references to sports or type of music. If you’re like a country music fan, look at ways that you can just infuse that into your copy and to bring your personality on to the page. Again, because humans are buying from you. You want to connect with them. And you want to make sure that they want to open and read your email. So make them just a little bit more lively and interesting.
Yeah, you know, I love that you say that. Because in the beginning, when I was creating content, it was so cookie-cutter, right? I was seeing what other agencies are doing and most marketers get it wrong. Most marketers get copywriting wrong. Most marketers get marketing wrong. So if I’m looking at somebody’s doing it wrong, what am I going to do? Not so good, right? But until I changed to telling stories. Kim the moment the first email I sent that shared a story was with me and Miranda Lambert. I booked three Perfect Fit clients and I think I grossed over 15k. One email and honestly it was sheer a story. I mean, not all I did I led them down a path, right?
Yeah, you have credibility you have you are concise, you are compelling. And you had an action that you want people to take match the four C’s with a CTA Now, number five.
Number five is the one that I’m adding. And I think it is missing from so much marketing. So Bill Bly has those first four C’s, I just want to back up you just said there, the the CTA that’s also part of compelling, you want to compel somebody to take the action, so make sure you include that next step. But the fifth C that I see missing from so much copy is compassion. And this is an element of empathy that I feel is really missing, especially in sales copy. It’s not baked into our sales processes. It’s a level of kindness and caring and compassion, that if we infuse it into our copy will help connect our people. We have to appreciate where people are coming from when they’re reading our stuff.
You know, if I have a toothache, and I’m going to be Googling like dentists near me, if I find a dentist’s webpage that is going to say something along the lines of, hey, even if you’re scared about going to the dentist, we have all of these strategies to help you feel comfortable when you’re in our chair. When you’re selling something, it’s about giving people more time to make a decision, especially if it’s a big investment, more in like coaching space, which is where I tend to work. People are selling these tremendous coaching packages that cost five figures, four figures, even six figures sometimes Yeah. And you can’t expect somebody to make a decision, a five-figure decision on a webinar, give people a chance to really understand this is the level of investment and I need a few days to make that decision. Sometimes it’s a few months to make that decision. But you want people to enroll themselves and working with you.
You don’t want to pressure people. You don’t want to use clickbait. You don’t want to use like timers and other things that force people to make a decision when they’re not ready. Now. Deadline timers are fine if it’s really a limited-time offer if it’s a low ticket like $20 offer. But if you’re having a countdown timer on something that’s $10,000, you’re triggering someone to make a decision, that may not be the best one for them. So I just really want to add in that level of compassion and care in all of our relationships, and especially those sales moments.
Yeah, I love that so much, because I try to impart on our clients and folks listening to that you gain with gratitude and compassion and empathy. So we have a system, it’s called scope. And it’s our social media marketing system for professionals. And the last part of that SCOPE engage, I also would maybe add empathy on to that yes, and energy because the same way that you write copy compassionate copy for your web, you can also write compassionate copy or gratitude when people are engaging in commenting on your posts. So have some kinds of things to say back to them have some, if they’re asking questions, make sure that you’re just guiding them and sort of just being their friend, their guide through the whole thing. I love that so much, Kim. That’s the secret sauce right there. Number five compassion?
I think it is. Yeah. And it helps you stand out in the marketplace. Because if everyone else is responding to the DMS with like, are you ready? Are you ready? Do you want to jump in? Here’s the link, are you ready to buy as opposed to? Well, why don’t you tell me what your biggest struggle is? Like? Where are you wanting to grow your business? Or where are you wanting to get your financial future to, you know, like, actually taking the time to get to know your audience? And then showing them that compassion? Yeah. Do you find yourself at that last C? Are you reading books on psychology? Or you’re trying to find out patterns of why people act a certain way? Like, how can we inform a little more compassion?
A lot of the psychology books that I read are actually about getting people to the sale. It’s about buyer psychology. Yeah, that empathy card I think is actually missing from a lot of our education systems today, like this. Now we’re gonna get philosophical. Oh, here we go. But I think it is what’s sort of a missing ingredient in general, in our society, or in our culture, and particularly in the Western North American culture? I would say, Yeah, I think it’s just tapping back into the values you had when you were a kid. And you know, my 11-year-old, he’ll say, all Yeah, I have all these friends. They’re all my friends. Like, he views the world where everybody is his friend. And we could have all these very different socio-political paths, but he views everyone as his friend, and he treats everyone as his friend. And I think when you sit down to write your copy, to think, keep that in mind, I am writing to my friend. Yeah, whether it’s a social post, whether it’s your email newsletter, whether you’re coming up with content for a YouTube channel, you want to just imagine that you’re talking to one friend, and how would you talk to that person? You wouldn’t be like, hey, they’re here. I am trying to sell you something. You’d be like, hey, this funny thing happened to me at the store the other day, wait till you hear it. And then you’d go on.
That’s right. You don’t walk into a bar, see an attractive person and be like, do you want to get married that news ever in the history of ever happened? And if it did, it probably ended up as a rom-com or something? I don’t Yeah, exactly. That ain’t how it works. And it isn’t how it works in the human communication department. And it’s not how it works, especially when you’re trying to translate something through the written word. So repeat them for us one more time, give me the five.
The five C’s are clarity, make sure you’re being clear about your offer, what you’re selling, but also clear about who you’re talking to be concise. Don’t talk about three things that when you can just talk about one thing, you want to be compelling, right with a bit of personality, use some gifts in your communications weave in stories, you want to have credibility. So drop in a few data points, show some customer reviews, and testimonials and case stories. And the last C is compassion. Make sure you’re sitting down and being compassionate with yourself as well as with your audience.
I love it. There you go the five C’s and you will write all the way to the bank. Now, if people are sitting here want more from you K Dubs, where can they go to finding
H Dubs, they can head to two places. One they can check out my podcast, which is Ill Communication, you’ll find it on all the channels. You’ll also find that on my website, which is triple www.KimKiel.com. And it’s KIMKiel.com. That’s where you can connect with me. You can grab a freebie once you’re there, the magnetic copy checklist. Yes. But in general, that’s sort of the foundation for everything. Yes.
And before we go, let’s talk about that freebie. The ultimate checklist for magnetic copy that attracts and sells tell us about it and how to get there.
So you can go to Kim Kiel.com/magnetic and download this free checklist. I can’t even I think it’s about 20 pages, but a lot of it is screenshots that show you before and after how to actually change your copy. Some of it is physical, like, what kind of font are you using? How big are your margins? What kinds of images are you using, and others is giving you some other tips to infuse in your copy. So you could actually just download that resource, grab one tip, and you could immediately implement it.
Literally happening after this recording. I’m going to go do that. So make sure to grab the ultimate checklist for magnetic copy that attracts and sells KimKiel.com/magnetic. Kim, this has been phenomenal. You gave us the five C’s I feel. We write copy all day every day since but I feel stronger having had this conversation with you. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, your expertise, your compassion, and being very clear on your message.
Thank you. Heather. Thanks for having me.
Cool. Thanks.
I’m Heather Holloway and you’ve been listening to social media success for professionals. Thank you so much for being here. It means the world to me and my team. Hey remember, to check the show notes for resources and links to other episodes. And don’t forget to hit that subscribe and follow button to be notified when new episodes are released.
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