That's my son Nicolas. And yes, that's The Wall Street Journal he's reading.

Should I be concerned?  

In case you've been living under a rock, you know that the dominating headline this week is that Facebook went public on the NASDAQ and was one of, if not the, biggest stock offering of all time. Major league wealth was created for many involved. MAJOR league wealth.

Speaking of headlines...

What kind of headlines are YOU making about you and your business these days? Any? I sure hope so, because most aren't.

Today, I have a powerful little "headline formula" for you that will do exactly what it MUST do...Get attention. There is NO other job you have as an Entrepreneur today than to GET Attention, otherwise you'll get lost in the shuffle, lost among all the noise and distractions out there, lost among ALL the choices people have, and lost among the sea of people playing on Facebook all day long...  ;)

"How To Get Attention In The Attention Deficit Age"

Welcome to the Attention Deficit Age...

Yeah, I know, not such an encouraging Age to be in, right? But it is what it is. And whether we like it or not, we're in it and it's here to stay. So let's play ball.

Now, what to do?

Let's talk about it...

We all face a battle like never before. It's the battle to "get noticed." And it's now harder than ever due to this massive "media landscape" we live in, in which everyone and everything, for the most part, is wide open. We have media hitting us from every possible angle now - Social Media, Email, text messaging, TV, radio, phone, and yes, still, print and newspaper. Yes, that was a real newspaper my son was reading above. Made with real paper and everything. Fascinating, right?

A study showed the average length of time a visitor goes to The New York Times web site and stays there to read...

Answer - 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The New York Times! Shocking.

So how the heck do you break in and grab some mind-share when even the big boys are struggling with it?

Two ways. But first, you must start with two questions...

1) How compelling is your message?

2) How unique are you?

Hmmm.....

Most look at me like a deer in headlights when I ask these questions, as I often do when I'm speaking and training on Copywriting. The reason... because most are too busy running around throwing up on anyone they can about their products and services. VERY few have first, taken the time to craft a powerful message. Even fewer have taken the time to structure a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Here's what I've noticed...

Very few Entrepreneurs have either. The ones that do make all the money. Take note.

Let's take a look at what I mean so that you can get the heck out of the mediocre majority and start separating yourself from the masses so that you GET Attention. Here's two examples of boring, mundane, everyday messages vs. compelling, eye-catching, stop-you-in-your-tracks messages that lead to more sales.

So, which one stands out? Which headline is more compelling? Pretty obvious it's message #2, right? Message #1 is what just about everyone else NOT trained on this subject does. Boring! Very little chance of any sales activity.

Here's another example:

 
Which is the winner here? Obvious again it's headline #2, right? See how deep it goes? See how it digs in and gets specific? This is a skill anyone can learn. No english degree required. In fact, NOT having one preferred....

Now let's talk about your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This is key. In fact, everything must start here. This is your defining statement. I never, ever begin a project without first creating a USP. Everything else follows.

Here's a few you may recognize...

Nike - "Just Do It"

BMW - "The Ultimate Driving Machine"

Fed Ex - "When It Absolutely, Positively Has To be There On Time"

Those are great. But you won't get away with being that brief today unless you're a giant, publicly traded brand like those guys are. You, the independent Entrepreneur and small business owner, will have to go much, much deeper than this to GET Attention.

Here's an all-time favorite example of mine that launched one of the largest pizza empires in the world. See if you can identify who it is now that there are a sea of pizza businesses out there...

Know who that is?

Dominoes Pizza. This USP literally turned Dominoes from a struggling, almost bankrupt pizza business, to a worldwide brand now in hundreds of countries.

On a side note, you will no longer see that USP being used by Dominoes anymore... Too many car accidents followed by too many law suits started happening when their delivery guys drove like maniacs to make the 30-minute deliveries. True story.

Here's the USP I created when I launched my new sales training brand earlier this year, CASH CONTROL For Networkers...

This USP was responsible for getting almost 9,000 people in one week to register for a webinar to hear me talk about it. I think that was a record in the Direct Sales industry. And most important, a massive amount of sales as a result. This should show you how truly powerful YOUR Unique Selling Proposition really is.

This is now, for the first time ever, a skill that MUST be learned today or you won't be around for too long. It's the skill of "Copywriting" - now being called the "Money Skill" of the Attention Deficit Age we're in. Again, it's just too hard to GET Attention today and wimpy headlines, weak messages, and poor, limited training in this area won't cut it anymore. No longer acceptable.

Which brings me to some good news on this critically important topic....

Next week I will be announcing a special webinar series called: "Copywriting For Cash" that will take viewers down this path, by the hand, and show them the blueprints for creating Compelling Messages and Unique Selling Propositions that will blow the lid off your current sales results. Guaranteed. Stay tuned (hey, that sounded like the makings of a solid USP).  ;)


- Andrew