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TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Aubrey Bergauer: Hey everyone, I'm just returning home from a trip to a few places on the book tour. This was a three legged trip. So the first stop was Brno in the Czech Republic. I was speaking at a conference there for arts management students and I just have to share it because this is pretty cool. The conference was started by a student herself 10 years ago now.

This was the 10th year. She's been doing it, and it has grown into this arts management conference for all kinds of students across the Czech Republic. I didn't even know that they were teaching arts management as a discipline in that country, so I just thought it was really amazing that there are so many arts managers studying this there.

I would say there were probably a hundred maybe or so. At the conference. So very cool. And then after that I was off to Vienna. That's the closest major airport. It was really the practical reason I was there and I was able to meet with. the Friends of Vienna State Opera, and then got to see a performance at Vienna State Opera, which just the [00:01:00] music making was, gosh, just wonderful.

So really fulfilling to be able to do that. And then I hit Washington, D. C. on my way back, first speaking at WOCO Fest, which is put on by the Boulanger Initiative. And if you are not familiar with that organization, Google them, follow them. They do really cool work to advocate for women composers and gender marginalized composers, and they do that work in a bunch of different ways.

So just really impactful for the field specifically for the classical music people listening. And then I spent the final two days in DC doing some onsite work with a client orchestra who is getting ready to join the run it like a business academy. So some work to kind of prepare for that before they got going.

So yeah, a week and a half, a lot of stops, great places, great people, great food, and of course, lots of talk about running it like a business and the book. And then later on the academy of the same name. And so now it's good to be back home for a bit, asleep in my own bed, before [00:02:00] the next book tour stop comes in, in a few weeks.

So that's what's been going on in my world. Today we are talking about a topic that is, in my mind, the singular most important thing you can do. If you want to increase ticket sales, subscriptions, and donations. If you want to grow your audience and grow your donor base. So let me say that again. This topic we are covering today is the singular most important thing you can do.

You can improve upon, optimize, spend time getting better at. That is how important this thing is. And it is a topic that comes up all the time, literally everywhere I go, whether abroad as in this recent trip or here in the U. S., but it comes up kind of indirectly. Okay. What are we talking about? The topic today is copywriting.

And before you like fall asleep or decide this is like the least sexy thing we can talk about, it's not. It's, you just heard me say, I think it is the singular most important thing. [00:03:00] So the reason it comes up indirectly is because Almost nobody ever says, Aubrey, how do I get better at copywriting? Instead, it comes in the form of, Aubrey, we need to grow our audiences.

We need to get more people in the doors. Aubrey, we need to raise more money. Stat. We need to convert more people to subscribers and donors. And my favorite, except not favorite, and I'll tell you why in just a moment, is when they say, Aubrey, what's the one thing we can do to increase, fill in the blank, revenue, tickets, audiences, sales, donations, et cetera.

What's the one thing. Now, the reason this is not my favorite question is because There is not one thing we can do. Change takes multiple small steps that together make a big difference. The research bears this out, and just to finish this digression here, as humans, we want big, grand, sweeping solutions.

We want one thing. We want a silver bullet solution. That's human nature. [00:04:00] But it doesn't work that way. And like I said, the research bears this out. Change is about multiple small steps. That means manageable. That is good news for us, manageable, small, but together make a big, big impact. So if I had to answer the question, though, of what's the one thing we can do to make a difference in all these different areas, it would be this topic of copywriting hands down.

Why? Why am I so into this? Because we use the written word so much in the arts. Let's just name a few of these places, website. More people visit the website than we serve via any other means. If you don't believe me, go look at the numbers, go look at your Google Analytics. How many people visit your website in a year versus how many people buy tickets, for example.

Way more people visiting the website than anything else. It's the first stop. So, so much written word. That's the majority of what's on our website, word and images, right? Program book. [00:05:00] Words all throughout. It's literally called a book. It has a lot of words. We write a lot of copy. Social media. So much copy.

We're going to talk about that a lot today. We're going to talk about all these today. Press releases. That's written word. Email blasts for sure. Every piece of marketing collateral. Postcards. Season brochures. You name it. It's all very copy. I was going to say copy heavy. Probably true. Copy heavy. We're going to talk about why there should be less of that, but why every word really matters.

Digital ads copy is often more important. Listen to this. This is important. Copy is often more important than the creative itself. So to define it for the people who aren't doing digital ads or doing ads, creative just means like the image, the visual that goes with it. So which is true for whether it's a print ad or any other media.

But oftentimes, the copy is more important than the creative, and we tend to kind of flip that and over index on like how much we care about the image. Important, don't get me wrong, but truly, if we get the words right, it's gonna be a strong ad, is the [00:06:00] point. Talk about donor communications. Just about every donor communication as well is full of copy, full of written word that Includes our solicitations, the appeal letters themselves, even the acknowledgment letter.

Wow, is that an opportunity for better copywriting? Usually they tend to be quite stale and clinical. Donor benefits, when we're talking about the benefits and messaging the benefits for our donors, that's copywriting, emails for donors, brochures that they receive, campaign case for support. The words matter there for sure too.

website yet again, and on and on and on. The words we use are so important. Okay, here are three things you need to know about copywriting right away. The rest of the episode, we're going to talk about tips and what you actually need to do to improve this skill. But three things you need to know about copywriting right away.

The first is The written word is the most public facing and wide reaching tool we have available to us at arts organizations. No matter if you work at a symphony, [00:07:00] orchestra, opera company, ballet, dance company, theater, Museum, gallery, zoo, aquarium, no matter where you work, the written word is the most public facing and wide reaching tool we have available to us.

Number two, getting better at copywriting costs you nothing. This is so important and why this is even more critical for us. Everyone is reaching out to me asking, not just, what's the one thing, what's the one silver bullet solution, often they reach out to me and like the other half of that sentence or question is.

And I have no money, so I need it to be cheap or free. I just wrote a whole blog article on why scarcity mindset is killing arts organizations. So go to my website, aubreybergauer. com slash writing. If you're listening to this near the release date or Google scarcity mindset is killing your arts organization and my name and you'll find it.

So don't go there now. Don't go there now. Let's stay here with me, but pull up a browser tab and come back to it later. Okay. The point [00:08:00] is always trying to cut, cut, cut, cut, cut is not going to bring your organization to health. But making minimal investments will. But despite all of that, I am here for free solutions too.

I like a good free solution and that's what this is. And I have to say, I have been there when I had zero dollars in the budget, like leading an organization in total crisis and just thinking, I don't have Like literally a dollar to spare. In that case, keep listening, friend, because copywriting is your cheapest ticket, and by cheap I mean zero, dollars to spend.

Okay. Costs zero dollars to update the words we use to create. An emotional response that drives a desired transaction. That is what good copywriting does, and transaction could be a purchase, it could be a donation. Or in the case of PR, the desired action is we, somebody writes about it, somebody covers us, somebody tells a story about our organization.

We want people to maybe action, like if it was social media, the action is we want people to get curious. We want [00:09:00] them to want to know more. We want them to get excited. You know, all of those things are desired actions that we use our words to try to elicit. That's the whole point of copywriting. And just to drive this home, there is not another singular solution or singular skill that achieves all of that for literally zero dollars.

Like I cannot think of one. That is why copywriting is so important. I can't stress it enough. This skill, this episode is so important for you to be able to achieve your financial goals at your organization. Okay, so point number three, I said there's three things you need to know about copywriting right away.

Point number three is So why don't we talk about this more as a sector? And I think it goes back to the earlier point. People want big solutions, big solutions. And me saying, update the words you use and you're going to have a slam dunk. I don't know. Like it just feels not grand enough maybe in some ways, but don't fall into that trap.

If you get [00:10:00] better at copywriting, you will start making more money. I guarantee it. Also, why don't we talk about this more? I think, kind of as a result of what I just said, is that it's not taught. It's not taught. If somebody listening to this has an example, please message me, DM me, tell me, because I'm curious.

But I cannot think of an arts management program that has a class on copywriting. Like I said, maybe I'm wrong, and if so, amen, please tell me about it. I want to hear about it. But, It's just not taught. It's taught maybe for programs that are like, if you're getting a marketing degree and there's tons of online courses about it, but it's just not taught.

I teach it too in my run at like a business academy. But as a general statement for so many of us coming up into this field of arts management, Copywriting just was never a part of any of our training. So here I am, I'm teaching it now, we're here, or at least giving you some pointers and tips that you can start using right away because I believe it's just so important.

If you only do one thing to improve your sales and donations this year, [00:11:00] make it up leveling your copywriting. I am here to tell you that if you get super serious about your copywriting, really believing every word matters and using these tips to help you do that, it will make a difference. The more places you do this and employ these tips and strategies we're going to talk about, the better results you will have.

So nobody say, Oh, I updated a page on the website and it didn't work. No, no, no. You just heard me give a laundry list of places we have words that we use. So today could honestly, honestly, I think be the best free resources. You've been given, at least for me, in terms of the return ratio it will bring you.

In fact, there is so much value in this episode. I'm actually adding this in. I recorded the whole episode and it was near an hour or so long, so I decided to break it up into two parts to make it more manageable for you as a listener. So here I am circling back to tell you it's good. There's a lot to cover now in two parts to make it digestible and [00:12:00] implementable for you and your work.

So share this with somebody in your organization. Share this with somebody who you think it could be helpful to. And now I'm going to share with you how we're going to do this starting right now. I'm Aubrey Bergauer and welcome to my podcast. I'm known in the arts world for being customer centric, data obsessed, and for growing revenue.

The arts are my vehicle to make the change I want to see in this world, like creating places of belonging, pursuing gender and racial equality, developing high performing teams and leaders, and leveraging technology to elevate our work. I've been called the Steve Jobs of classical music at the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony I've held offstage roles managing millions of dollars in revenue at major institutions and as chief executive of an orchestra Where we doubled the size of the audience and nearly quadrupled the donor base And now I'm here to help you achieve that same kind of success in this podcast We are sorting through the data inside and outside the arts applying those findings Findings to [00:13:00] our work, leading out with our values and bringing in some expert voices along the way, all to build the vibrant future we know is possible for our institutions and for ourselves as offstage administrators and leaders.

This podcast is about optimizing the business around the art, not sacrificing it. You're listening to the Offstage Mic.

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[00:15:12] Aubrey Bergauer: So here we are. Let's talk about nine copywriting tips for you. I want to say up front, this is not an exhaustive list of all you can do, but there is a lot of good value here. Nine tips to get you going and start driving more emotional connections and Ultimately, the desired action, desired behavior, whether that's ticket sales, subscriptions, donations, whatever it is you're trying to achieve.

And if you want more on all this, I'll say we talk about copywriting a lot in my Run It Like a Business Academy, as well as look at actual examples and materials you're working on. But this gets you going right here, right now. There is no need to take notes on this. I have got it all for you in a free download, so I'm hopefully making this easy for you.

You've got the resource. It's called Do's and Don'ts of Copywriting, 9 Tips [00:16:00] to Level Up Immediately. Go to my website to get yours. It's aubreybergauer. com slash 26. That's number 26 for episode 26. And let's talk it through. So tip number one. Talk like your customers talk. What words do people use? This is what you need to ask yourself.

What words do people use in regular conversation or posts online that you like? Not just arts posts. Don't let arts posts be your inspiration. You got to think outside of that. And your customers are not saying, buy tickets now, get tickets this weekend. Did you see the effusive? Blah, blah, blah. Don't miss this.

Like that's not how people normally talk. I have more examples for you as we go through here, but. Okay, so here's a hint. Your customers are not saying, I'm really looking for my springtime saga. Okay, I just, I picked this up off of a major orchestra's website. Venture into timeless springtime saga and bask in sunny orchestral landscapes.

Customers are not saying, I just want to journey into [00:17:00] love and adventure into fantasy. Just grab that from a actual major opera company's website. I don't know, adventure into fantasy, To me, it sounds like something else, not an opera, to be honest, but okay. I literally copied and pasted both of these from major institutions websites.

So just like, basta, basta, enough. Stop doing that. It's not helping you, and I'm not trying to make fun or throw people under the bus. To be fair, I am constantly working on this myself in my own business, too. Just the other day, I had this mini panic or epiphany, maybe, as I was working on SEO, search engine optimization for the podcast, actually.

So this is a little meta what I'm sharing here, but like what I was doing with some batch editing, I was looking at all the different topics and keywords in upcoming episodes, just to kind of give some context here. For this example, SEO, search engine optimization, is all about the keywords people would use if they were doing a Google search.

So it's really, it's right on this topic of [00:18:00] talk like your customers talk. That matters for SEO. And SEO is very important for podcast discoverability. It is definitely important for the content on your websites. That's why I share this example. So every episode I am, what I'm doing on the backend is I'm listing out what the top keywords are for that episode.

So today, the main keyword is copywriting. For example, we are using that word a lot and besides being. Just topic driven, though, maybe, for example, people are searching or Googling copy ideas in the arts, or probably more so, how do I write a fundraising appeal, so that when I say words like copy plus writing, or help it improve your fundraising, when I say those words, So, over and over again, and that then becomes part of the transcript.

That helps the SEO. Okay. So it's really about thinking like, what are people going to say? Another one for the whole season of the podcast is business. I talk about running it like a business, driving. I'm trying to drive awareness for my book. That is a big goal [00:19:00] here this season. So that word business, business, business, I'm saying a lot.

I talk about the business side of the arts, all that kind of stuff. And then I had a moment of realization. So here was my panic slash epiphany. I thought, Aubrey, what if what people are actually saying and actually searching for, whether they Google it or searching on Spotify or whatever podcast app you or other people use, what if they're actually searching for arts management?

Like are people searching for business and arts a lot? Like is that what people are Googling? And I'm like, Oh, maybe not. Maybe people are searching for arts management or arts administration. Now, I still need the keyword business for book sales, so that's not really going to go away for me. And it's also an important branding choice.

So there are other things that drive our copy sometimes besides just SEO and how people talk. So all this business talk for me is not going to go away anytime soon. soon, but for me, it revealed an opportunity or something I think maybe I was missing out on. If I am able to work in more words like arts management, [00:20:00] maybe in my show notes, I've already said it a few times in this episode, for example, that could be the key, potentially, the theory would go, could be the key to getting my podcast in front of more people who, you guessed it, work in arts management and are my potential customers, clients, book readers, and on and on.

Hopefully, you're tracking on all this, but what if you're thinking, you know, I'm not sure how my customers talk. I think, I think this is a hard exercise often, and if you need more inspiration, I would say go to like the general inbox for your organization. So you know how sometimes customers send us glowing emails?

Sometimes they're not glowing, but oftentimes they are glowing, you know, they really enjoyed whatever event they attended. Look at those emails and see what types of words they use. Usually it's probably pretty plain language and that's okay. And that's part of the key. And we'll come back to using more plain language in a moment.

But anyways, point number one, talk how your customers talk. Number two, when writing copy, start with the [00:21:00] juiciest, most interesting line first. So, this is important. The first line of copy, it doesn't even matter the medium, whether it's the first line on a page of a website, the first, the headline on a postcard, the first line of the fundraising appeal, the first line in the social media caption.

The first line is not to convey understanding. Okay, let me say that again. This is so important. The first line is not to convey understanding. The purpose of the first line of copy on whatever it is that you're writing is to get the person to keep reading. That's the sole job. This is called the hook.

Now, there are two ways to go about this. Maybe more than two, but two that I'll name right here. The first is name exactly who you are talking to. Make it very clear. Two, make it thumb stopping, right? If it's social media, you want the scroll to be thumb stopping. I didn't make up that term. So here are some examples.

I pulled up the analytics on my top performing social media [00:22:00] posts. So we'll use these as examples. One of my top performing posts recently, this is like my probably second most performing post, at least in recent months, is an Instagram reel, and here's the first line of copy. On the reel it says, On my first day as CEO of an orchestra, the board chair told me they had just considered shutting down.

Okay. That reel has over 122, 000 views and counting. Why is it effective? The hook makes it thumb stopping. It invited the reader into a story first and foremost. There is drama. You are asking, what happened? Literally it says in the reel after that, what happened? See caption. Okay. So full credit here to Johanna at Classical Content who made this and does my brand management on social media.

I will talk more about the full team in a future episode because I realized recently I really should. doing what around here, but for now, absolutely give credit where credit's due. Johanna does this. To give another example, the maybe I don't know if it's most [00:23:00] popular post I've had, definitely most popular.

And like recent last few months is another Instagram reel and it's, it's this. me speaking. So it's footage of me giving a talk, a public talk. So we had the captions on the screen. So what the user, reader, is seeing as the hook, as the first line, is me saying, at the symphony, we cannot play Beethoven faster and save money.

That's the hook. At the symphony, we cannot play Beethoven faster and save money. The clip goes on to talk about why we need a great newcomer experience to get people to come back and ultimately make more money. So that's the. point of the whole reel. It has over 200, 000 views, nearly 6, 000 likes, almost 400 shares at the time I'm recording this.

It really took off. For me, that's a strong piece of content. So why? What's about, what about the hook worked? I would say it starts with the problem. It's hard to save money at an orchestra. It is hard to find deficiencies. All of this, you know, I later, I talk about within the rest of the 60 seconds or however long the reel is, but it really begs the question, if we [00:24:00] can't save money playing Beethoven faster, What do we do about it?

So clearly I am talking to people at orchestras and the caption, this gets into one of this, name exactly who you were talking to, the caption of The Real literally lists people. It says, is your orchestra, philharmonic, ballet, theater, or arts organization welcoming to newcomers? Like, literally says who the audience is for that post.

And the audience, reader, user, has to keep watching to find out. Doesn't, by contrast, the reel doesn't start with, the hook doesn't start with, here are the three F's of the newcomer experience. That is what I say later in the reel. That's the whole point. Here are the three F's of the newcomer experience.

Here's how you make a great newcomer experience. It doesn't start with that. So how often do we see a version of this? Starting with the what is another way to say all this. The bad hook or lack of hook would be to start with the what. In my case, it would have been leading with the three Fs. For a [00:25:00] lot of arts organizations, the post, the caption starts with what's on stage this weekend.

Don't start with that. Start with the hook. That first line matters. The point of the first line is not to convey information. The point of the first line is to get people to keep reading. That's not just social media. That's All these other mediums we've mentioned already. Point number three, good copy includes or alludes to what your customer needs, wants, or has questions about.

If you're not sure of their questions, here's all you have to do. Invite some friends to come to a performance or exhibit or whatever you're offering and have them tell you what they didn't totally understand. That is like the like minimal version of user experience research, but just have them come tell you what they didn't understand so you can start to incorporate some of that into your copywriting across all these channels.

And I have been doing a lot of work on this this year especially. The prompt I've been asking myself is not just what do they need, want, or have questions about, but I've been asking myself [00:26:00] What is keeping my audience up at night? What is keeping my audience, whether that's listeners, potential customers, clients, members of the Changing the Narrative community, potential Run It Like a Business Academy participants, what's keeping them up at night?

That's how I'm trying to get at this question because sometimes You know, if I just ask myself, what are their problems? What are their needs? What are their wants? For me, at least, sometimes that's not, I guess, the right thing to really stimulate my brain. Like, like, what are the, what does my audience need or want?

That's hard to like, kind of get the gears turning for me. It's maybe too clinical, or it doesn't always get to the simplest version of the answers. But when I, like, make that question, what's keeping them up at night? For me, when I was chief executive of an orchestra, it was, how am I going to balance the budget?

And like, that suddenly for me unlocks something different in my brain. So yes, sometimes it's what people need or want is to grow audiences, increase revenue. But, you know, I don't know, maybe you've noticed this, maybe not, but I have been [00:27:00] starting to shift in my own copy over the last couple months, I would say, to trying to like really hone in on this.

I've been there lying awake at night thinking about how to balance the budget. And, you know, like that kind of theme is more and more in the copy you see from me. Even Talking about that social media post, that Instagram real example I just gave. It's, it was this exact strategy. It was all very intentional.

And that paves the way for me to then share, how did I overcome that? What solutions are there that I now offer to help arts managers and executive directors in the field? So, write answers to what your customer needs, wants, or has questions about. That's the whole point of this tip. So, one more example, I, as I was looking at top posts I've had and that have done well, when I was looking at the LinkedIn analytics, I looked at my top performing posts over the last year.

So, over the last 12 months, this post I'm about to share about had almost 40, 000 [00:28:00] impressions and my next highest was like 30 something thousand mark. And then a big drop off after that. So this one really, really outperformed all the others. And what it was on LinkedIn was a share of a New York Times article.

This was several months ago now, but the article was titled a frugal opera superfans surprise gift, 1. 7 million for the arts. New York Times did a good job with the title. That's very clickable. So that certainly helped this post, no doubt. But the hook I wrote, as we're talking about this tip. Writing answers to what your customer needs, my hook was This is why planned giving is one of the most important things fundraising teams should be working on.

That was it. That was the first sentence. So if my customer is professionals working in the arts, that's a lot of you listening right now, what do people need or want who are working in the arts? Definitely raising more money, right? And that hook absolutely speaks to what people need or want, which is more major [00:29:00] gifts right away.

It was a surprise gift. That was the article headline. So just all that together really spoke to the need of the customer, my audience. Now, sidebar, my entire last episode was on major gifts. So if you're hearing this and you're like, I also need more major gifts right now. Yes, that speaks to my need and want.

If you want the playbook on what to do to raise more major gifts, go to that episode. It's literally the episode before this one. It's called Major Gift Fundraising and Star Trek with board member Susan B. Nimoy. So one more thing on this point though, arts patrons are probably not lying in bed awake at night thinking, what performance am I going to see next?

Right? Like it's, it's not that dire, but customers definitely have questions. I don't know if that they're lying awake in bed at night thinking this, but they definitely have questions like, what's something fun to do next weekend when I go out? Or do I have plans next month when somebody is coming to visit?

And if they start [00:30:00] scrolling on social media and see what I'm about to describe to you, I'm about to give you some more examples, this is not addressing their question or want or need. So I literally, as I was preparing for this episode, literally open Instagram and scrolled three posts before I got to an orchestra's post.

And that post had the caption, Tonight's the night. Meet us at, insert theater name, at 7 30 p. m. for the final, fill in the blank series, concert of the season. Don't miss guest conductor XYZ name in a program that will be out of this world. Okay. That's not what a patron's thinking. It's definitely not what they're thinking lying in bed at night.

Is tonight the night for the final concert of the season? Okay, so I keep scrolling just to do this exercise. A few handful of posts later, I see a post from a museum. The museum just says, Hey, the last exhibit might be closed, but we still have posters available for sale in our gift shop. Okay, I scroll some more.

The Next Arts Organization is a [00:31:00] major institution saying, quote, Today we remember the late choreographer, XYZ Name, and his extraordinary artistry and distinctive musicality, gifts so amply demonstrated in our current production of Swan Lake, we keep his family in our thoughts. I don't think that's talking like your customers talk, to go back to point number one.

I also don't think it's solving a problem or want or need, and I have to be honest, I don't know that choreographer's name. So, it means nothing to me, and there's no disrespect meant here at all, and I know I don't come from the dance world. I just have zero connection to who that person is, so I actually feel like this post is not for me at all.

And that is a problem for that institution, because I'm going to go out on a limb and say, I'm probably not the only one who has no clue who that person is. Like, I'm, I work in the arts. I see a lot of names and I just, I didn't know. Here's one more because this exercise was like literally hit after hit in my feed.

Few [00:32:00] posts later, I keep scrolling. Major Symphony Orchestra. It's a video with the camera on the conductor and that person's conducting and the caption is Symphony No. 7 was larger than life at venue name in this recent performance with conductor XYZ name. This is also not addressing any customer need, problem, or want.

It's not a good hook. It's not talking like people actually talk. So I'm just gonna stop there. This was a three minute exercise of just scrolling through my feed. Oh, by the way, I refreshed the feed and then it was an orchestra asking for donations. Okay, these are not one offs, is my point. This is like pretty consistent in my feed and it's not.

It's copywriting that's not helping these institutions be as effective as they could. Okay, point number four. Add urgency. So we have this built in with performance dates and museums with temporary exhibits that come to an end, but there's a big but here because there is a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this.

A right way to add urgency and a wrong way to add [00:33:00] urgency. So here's the wrong way. The wrong way is get tickets for this weekend. Don't forget to make your donation. Okay, nobody forgot to make the donation. Nobody was like sitting around thinking, Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. The wrong way is link in bio to donate.

That organization that I said when I refreshed the feed, it was an orchestra asking for donations. Link in bio to donate. Now, Linkin. Bio is better than putting a URL in an Instagram caption because URLs and Instagram captions are not clickable. But Linkin. Bio is not the right way either because social media is not a platform for that.

So adding urgency on social media in general is not the best way to add urgency. This episode is all about copywriting. It's just not the purpose of that channel. We could do a whole other episode on, you know, what do we do at, what is the purpose of social media? But the short answer is it's for brand building at all.

Early stages of the funnel. Early stages of the funnel. Not trying to drive transactions all the time. So that is a huge takeaway I hope you get from this episode. I wish we could get into [00:34:00] it more here, but for the time we don't, there's way more in my academy about this. So for now, what do we do for urgency?

Urgency is more effective for sales, collateral, printed pieces. Brochure. Postcard. Appeal letters. For sure, a deadline is helpful to add urgency. All of that are better channels to add urgency than social media. And on the website, like I said, we have this built in with our performances. Like people have to come by, you know, they have to come on Saturday if they want to see it on Saturday.

So it's actually really built in to what we do, which is, is pretty nice, I think. And we don't have to kind of like overemphasizes it, but I'm trying to stay. So the right way would be. To calmly state, runs through x date. Series of performances exhibited at the museum runs through x date. A wrong way is to add exclamation points.

So exclamation points very quickly, okay for people, not great for brands. For brands, it's forced enthusiasm and people Like, smell it. Like, we intuitively know when we see that. So the research says, [00:35:00] exclamation points, like, okay for people, not great for brands. Another right way to add urgency is don't just make posts about what's happening next weekend.

So we need a 30 day sales cycle. I talk about this in my book. It's chapter, I forget, three or four. There's a whole module about building 30 day content cycles, whether you're at a, you're Big organization or small organization and how you do that, depending on the size in my run at like a business academy.

So I wish we could unpack more of it here. But for now, 30 days is the consideration window, even if people are waiting till the last minute to buy that research comes from Google. So Having that kind of content cycle is really important in a more subtle way to drive the urgency that we need. A final way I'll say is if it's not ticket sales but donations you're writing copy for, I mentioned the deadline is important there, so share facts like matching challenge through Y date.

No, not a bunch of exclamation points or anything like that. Matching challenge through Y date. Okay, just the facts. Does anybody remember Dragnet? It's like, just the facts, [00:36:00] ma'am. All right, we will come back to Dragnet in part two of this topic on copywriting. for listening. We're going to end here today.

And as I mentioned, there is a whole part two of this episode coming out where we get to cover tips number five through nine to uplevel your copywriting immediately so that you start right away increasing your sales, donations, all the revenue to your bottom line. I want you to have all the tips from this episode at your fingertips.

So next time you are writing something, whether that is copy for the website, collateral, brochure, social media, your next fundraising appeal letter, email, whatever, You can refer to these pointers and level up what you're putting out into the world to get the results you want and you need. So go to my website and get the free download for this episode.

It is called the Do's and Don'ts of Copywriting, nine tips to level up immediately. Head to aubreybergauer. [00:37:00] com slash 26. That's number two, six for episode 26. And to best use this, I would say next time you're writing something for your organization, my recommendation is either to first look at the list and scan the tips and then instantly that puts your brain in the right brain space to write great copy.

And of course you can refer to the list and tips as you need as you go. Or if you have something already written, website pages, for example, probably already done up and running. The other recommendation or option is to use these tips and compare against what's already there so you can make smart choices about what to keep, what to cut, and what to modify so that copy is working harder for you.

Again, it's at www. aubreybergauer. com slash 26.

That's all for today, folks. Thanks so much for listening. And if you like what you heard here, hit that button to follow or subscribe to this podcast. If you're new, welcome. [00:38:00] I am so glad you made it. And if you've been listening for a while, I love so much that you are getting value from this. So if that's you, please take just two seconds to leave a quick one tap rating.

Full on review isn't even required if you're short on time. To all of you once more, thanks again. I'll see you next time right here on The Offstage Mic. The Offstage Mic was produced by me, Aubrey Bergauer, and edited by Novo Music, an audio production company of all women audio engineers and musicians.

Additional podcast support comes from the Changing the Narrative team and social media brand management by Classical Content. This is a production of Changing the Narrative.