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Beginnings and Endings

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By James Ellis

There are really only two hard parts to writing effective marketing pieces. If you’re thinking about your email, web pages, or direct mailings, it doesn’t matter.

Sadly, these two things are the beginnings and endings. Do those properly, and you barely need a middle.

The job of the beginning is to get your target interested. The job of the ending is to tell the target what to do next. Yes, it really is that simple. If I was running your marketing department, i’d rather have killer beginnings and endings rather than all the great middle content you can stuff in a web page.

Yes, the beginnings and endings are just that important. Think about it. Once you’ve got someone interested, the only thing that can happen is that you can either close the deal and convert them, or you can say something stupid or unappealing and lose them. Why take that chance? Once you’ve got them interested, tell them what to do next. Don’t waste your target’s time (trust me, they will appreciate it) and get to the point.

Please note that I never said how long the beginnings or endings need to be. The perfect email isn’t necessarily just a subject line and a call to action link. But if you can get their attention in ten words, and the link is the offer, what else is there to talk about?

The beginning isn’t just the subject line and pre-header, but those are part of the beginning. The beginning isn’t limited to the structure of the medium (subject line in emails, headlines in web sites, etc), but whatever it takes to achieve the goal: gain interest.

The beginning of Moby Dick isn’t “Call me Ishmael.” It’s a hundred thousand words that explain the relationship between a man and a white whale, or really the nature of obsession. All those words are needed to get our attention because simply saying “An old sea captain lost a leg to a whale and wants revenge” is not attention-getting; it’s an idea in need of supporting detail.

On the other hand, what else do I need to know beyond “50% off all our most popular products” except what to do next?

It doesn’t matter if you use emotion, loss aversion, numbers, relationship reminders, or sensational quotes. Just be intentional about getting their attention.

So once you have their attention, you need to do something with it. Don’t tease, don’t dawdle, don’t wait. Get to the next step. Click the link, call for an appointment, sign up for a subscription, whatever it is, just get to the point.

It’s crucial that you make sure that the beginning aligns with the ending. If you get my interest by saying “Free beer and pizza” the ending can’t be “Sign up for a subscription” because I won’t understand why they go together. I’ll smell something fishy and bolt.

This is the basis of all good marketing. Making it more complicated than that just clouds the issue. Nail your beginning and ending. The rest takes care of itself.

Author’s Bio: James Ellis is a digital strategist, mad scientist, lover, fighter, drummer and blogger living in Chicago. You can reach out to him or just argue with his premise at saltlab.com.

My ass just tapped me on the shoulder.

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Todays guest post is from Julie Roads.

Julie Roads of Writing Roads is a professional copywriter (specializing in blog, social media and web writing) and a book & blog ghostwriter. You can find her at Writing Roads (her writing blog), Soc Media 101 (how-tos and tips for beginners) and The Daily Norm (a collection of interviews with abnormally magnificent people about their normal, daily lives).

tap on the shoulderI’m standing on the other side of the abyss, the good side. And I wanted to let you all know that the ground here is high and dry, nearly heady.

Because I read your comments carefully – and because, as far as I can tell, we’re both human – I’m going to guess that at one point or another you’ve stood on the scary side of the abyss just like I did before I got to the cushy side.

You wanted to do something, you needed to do something…but the canyon that stood between you and accomplishment just looked too damn big, wide, menacing. Impossible, you said. And sat down.

My alarm goes off at 4:30. I jump out of bed and look out the window. It’s snowing. I smile smugly at the snow. Bring it, I think smugly. Pull on my layers of Capilene, my bright orange hat, my running shoes. And head out for an eight mile run before I go to work.

This used to be my norm. Miles run, laps swum, heart pounded, sweat drenched – before the sun rose.

And then my body abruptly took on new super powers forms of exercise: first, it grew another human being; then, it made milk. Needless to say, my body was preoccupied with performing miracles. Too busy to hit the trails or the pool.

But, last spring, something changed. My ass literally tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Um, I’m thinking we should shift things back into high gear…you?’

Which is when I realized that I was standing on that cliff. On the scary side of the abyss. I had a lot of reasons why I couldn’t take the leap:

  • I’m too old.
  • My body forgot how.
  • Once you get past a certain point, it’s just pointless.
  • I don’t have time.
  • I’m so frickin’ tired.
  • Have you seen my parents? (I love them and they’re beautiful, but they don’t have super model bodies. I’m just sayin’.)

In the middle of this tirade, I ran into a good friend who had just finished a long rollerblade, and she told me, “It gets you right here”, and she grabbed her butt. “Makes it burn,” she said. And my ass took notice. And, then it tapped me on the shoulder again. I took the bait. I didn’t think, just started to move again.

I had really believed all of my reasons why I couldn’t do this, but they just weren’t true. Bodies are amazing – they snap back in a way that is extraordinary. Minds do too. My ‘get up and go’ tape started playing again, as if I’d simply hit play again after a long moment with the pause button down. We both quickly forgot how long that moment had been.

Now, it’s been five months. And someone recently told me that my belly looks the same as it did when I was 16. Is that really true? Um, ish. Is it a miracle? Nah. I just think that I got way too comfortable on the pitiful side of the abyss. Too shlumpy to realize the infinite possibilities hanging out across the way.

Sometimes life feels like a series of cliff dives – scary, exhilarating, progressive. The above experience being just one of my abysses. For you, it might be finally going to law school, having a baby, getting up on that karaoke stage, or – drumroll, please – writing (creatively, professionally, bloggingly).

Whatever it is, I’ll save you a seat on the other side. Believe me, if you don’t already know, the view is fabulous.

Image credit: Scampercom