Excited About Your Product? Nobody Cares

!!!

There—

Just burned through the rest of my 2016 ration of exclamation points.

I like to waste ’em like this so I don’t get tempted to use them in a non-ironic context.

Because exclamation points are usually the first sign that you’re listing dangerously toward *hype*…

And I HATE hype in marketing.

So does subscriber Arial, who helps authors sell more books.

She writes:

I work with authors on their mailing lists and they are constantly saying, “I’m so excited for you to read my books!” And this is the first message they send. That’s great. I know they’re excited. But there’s nothing enticing a reader to read the author’s book, but the author thinks their enthusiasm for their own product is going to motivate the customers to dive in. Oy.

Barely contained enthusiasm for what you’re selling is an asset—IF you channel it in productive ways.

Most authors, entrepreneurs, business owners fail at this.

And when your enthusiasm spills into your marketing without being properly channeled it winds up looking, feeling, stinking like…

Hype.

Hype is vague, inflated promises about how your life will change if you only BUY THIS SHAMPOO…

Hype is slamming your reader with “power word” after “power word”…

Hype is tacking on exclamation points and believing that this will somehow translate into excitement and more sales!!!

(Whoops, just went over my limit there.)

People claim that they hate marketing.

Most don’t.

What they really hate is *hype*.

Fake, phony, ginned up excitement.

Hype-y marketing feels yucky for the buyer…

And often it feels equally gross to the seller.

The good news is, hype is NOT the best way to make sales. In fact, it usually hurts more than it helps.

My favorite antidote for hype is:

Stories.

True-to-life stories told in high-definition detail with 11-channel surround sound.

Real-world, concrete tales that highlight the problems your customer has (and hopes you can help them solve).

Stories like these are the polar opposite of hype.

They look and smell real, because they are…

And by using them you infuse your efforts to persuade with the ring of truth.

Unearthing persuasive stories is a major focal point of the email copywriting workshop I’m leading in just a couple of weeks.

More details to come, but right now I can definitively say that I’ll be keeping the class size small so that each student can get plenty of 1:1 attention.

If you’d like an early sneak peek at what the workshop will cover (and a chance to sign up before I officially open the doors to the public), contact me and I’ll add your name to the early invitation list.

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