Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro - Ícaro de Carvalho

Have you ever stopped to reflect on the value of words? They are out there, everywhere. They cross your mind at every moment. Without even realizing it, we are always talking to ourselves.

What if you could use them better? Have you ever thought about what good language can do? Few people think about it. Maybe because they don't know the potential that language and writing have and their importance. This is exactly what Ícaro de Carvalho brings in his book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro".

In this book, the author shows that those who use words well write well, those who write well can organize their thoughts, and those who organize their thoughts speak well and communicate better. Those who can do all this literally turn words into money. Ready to discover the value of words?

About the book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro"

The book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro" is a "roadmap" with tips by Ícaro de Carvalho on making money with words, especially through copywriting. It is divided into 42 lessons over 176 pages.

The three main teachings he wants to pass on in the book are:

1. Writing and language are power;
2. Your audience is more important than money;
3. People have needs, and the key to the financial success of your business lies in recognizing and fulfilling them.

About the author Ícaro de Carvalho

Ícaro de Carvalho is one of Brazil's great experts in digital marketing. He was responsible for the marketing of projects such as "Brasil Paralelo" and "O Código da Riqueza". Entrepreneur and communicator, he founded "O Novo Mercado", a Brazilian digital marketing online school.

He is well known in social networks, and made the TED Talk "Transformando segundos em minutos." (Turning seconds into minutes).

To whom is this book indicated?

The book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro" is suitable for those who seek to be a better copywriter, for those who want to know more about digital marketing and improve sales, for those who want to improve their digital content and their visibility and authority on the networks. In short, it is for those who want to learn how to write in a convincing and, therefore, profitable way.

Main ideas of the book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro"

• Listen to your customer and understand his needs before offering him a product;
• To be a good scribe, read and write a lot, seek to acquire culture and learn English;
• Practice persuasive writing and the concepts behind copywriting;
• Be objective and clear in your texts, because the competition for attention is great and your message must stand out among the others;
• Orient all your writing to your customer and be consistent in your speech.

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The power of Writing and Language

The first lesson that Ícaro de Carvalho wants to pass on in his book is that writing and language are power. We are in the Age of Attention, in which the stimuli to our attention are thousands. Because of this, for him, we are, in fact, in the Age of Distraction, in which we have enormous difficulty in focusing on something.

Amid a bombardment of advertisements, content, and propaganda, how can you draw people's attention to what you want to transmit? Through good writing. For Ícaro, whoever writes well can bring people together, and therefore conquer the most valuable currency of the 21st century: attention.

What is Copywriting?

But, after all, how to gain attention through writing? Through a technique called Copywriting. But what is it? Ícaro says that Copywriting is an effective way to expose information, to communicate with customers, not only in writing but through various communication channels.

According to Ícaro, copywriting is the most cost-effective tool to get your client's attention. It lowers the value per conversion, the cost per click, and the cost per impression.

First of all, to use words well, and thus become a good copywriter, Ícaro brings some tips.

Acquire culture through reading

Only those who read a lot, about a variety of subjects, write well. Also read English and, if you don't know it, try to learn it as soon as possible, because much of the culture and good content is in English.

And don't stop writing either, because as Stephan King says

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."

Make short texts

We have already said that we are in the Age of Distraction. For Ícaro the form of communication today must be short, fluid, and direct, without novels and twists in the text. You have to catch the reader's attention in the few seconds he/she spends looking at your post. Remember the quote of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a Brazilian writer:

"Escrever é a arte de cortar palavras."

(Writing is the art of cutting words.)

Copy good writers

Take their texts and copy them, as an exercise (never as work). Be inspired by them to develop your writing style.

Make a good title

It is the most important part, it must be original, short, generic, and polemic. The beginning and the end of a text should be strong, the middle can be more thoughtful.

What is Persuasion?

Ícaro de Carvalho says that in the perspective of turning words into money, persuasion comes in. Persuading is to induce someone to take an intended action, whether it is selling a product or getting them to sign up for your list of customers. Ícaro says that this is not simple; it involves elements to involve and stir emotions and feelings.

A consecrated technique to persuade the client is storytelling. It consists of telling your story, generating empathy with your client, exposing your difficulties and the failures you went through until you were able to redeem yourself and achieve success. As Robert McKee said:

"To connect to people at the deepest level, you need stories."

So the customer will not only remember your brand but think about it.

According to the author, to apply this technique you can, in the first 20% of the text, introduce the pain, the problem of your customer that will be solved by your solution. Then, until the 35% of your text, present the drop of water that led the customer to decide to change. Finally, throughout the rest of the text, he advises talking about your solution.

Remember to dose this script with the aspects of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, as we will see below.

Éthos, Logos e Páthos

Ícaro, in the book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro", brings some concepts created by Aristotle in his work Rhetoric that cannot be missing in a persuasive speech:

• Ethos: is linked to ethics and truthfulness of speech. It is the part of the text where you show that you are honest, that your clients are satisfied, that your company is reliable.
• Logos: concerns the order and the logical arguments of the speech. What are the technical advantages of your solution? Is your speech making sense? Is it well organized?
• Pathos: is related to the passion and emotion of the speech. The difficulties, the achievements, the solutions to problems.

In this logic, Ícaro states that texts should have a proportion of 10% Ethos, 25% Logos, and 65% Pathos. The latter has predominance in the text, because as Robert Cialdini says, the sensations you are able to provoke are much more important than your authority or the logical argument of things.

According to the author, the ten most important persuasive elements are:

1. Value repetition: repeat the differentials of your product throughout the text, until the customer memorizes them.
2. Consistency in dialogue: keep the line of discourse from the beginning to the end of the text, and don't start a communication loop and then disappear.
3. Fidelity and constancy in communication: whether you have taken on a more relaxed or more erudite form of communication, stick to it.
4. Prove and prove: provide evidence that what you are offering is good. Cases, testimonials, comparisons...
5. Dose with exciting narratives: remember to use the storytelling technique.
6. Show the prognosis: that is, show the future advantages of buying your product, or future disadvantages for not buying it.
7. Don't talk to a customer, talk to the customer: always use "you", directing yourself to the persona you idealized.
8. Tell your story, be vulnerable: show the customer the challenges you've been through, show how you turned the game around.
9. Resilience to the customers' objections: be prepared for the possible objections of the customers to your product.
10. Use scarcity: show that the offer is running out, decisions are made when we cannot avoid them.

The Five P's of an advertising copywriter

Advertising copywriting is a technique responsible for creating a concept for the dissemination of your brand. The author Ícaro de Carvalho reports which are the five important aspects that give strength to your action:

1. Premise: what moves you professionally? Demonstrate this in your copywriting. For the author, it is "teaching people how to really communicate".
2. Promise: what do you offer? Does it match the customers' needs and wants?
3. Picture: does your website or app have fluidity and harmony in design? This brings credibility. Without this, it will look like an unpainted house, with plaster on the walls?
4. Proof: throughout the text, are there proofs that your text is worth reading until the end? Are there clues to the final solution to come? This is important to hold the reader's attention.
5. Push: do you propose the client take some action? Ícaro says that you have to do this taking care of two bad extremes: only push and only tell stories out of shame to offer something. In the first, you lose credibility, and in the second you lose the sale because you don't offer anything.

How to develop an effective speech

In the book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro", Ícaro brings three fundamental elements in the elaboration of an efficient speech.

• First, try to talk directly to who is reading, using "you". Be direct, transparent, and human, bringing the difficulties, but as drivers for the solution offered.
• Second, speak the essential, in the shortest time possible. Don't promise information for the next 20 minutes.

As the saying goes: "Keep things simple".

Shakespeare managed to sum up the life or death dilemma in six words, Ícaro says that this is to speak the essentials:

"To be or not to be."

• Your solution has to be within the audience's reality, in price, availability, and conditions. If your offer is for online classes, you can't expect to get customers if you charge a lot, make few class times available, and don't offer the option to watch recorded classes afterward, for example.

The success of your business is in recognizing and fulfilling people's needs

Now that we've discussed how to write well, Ícaro shows how to discover the client's needs to guide the writing in that direction. Remember that your audience is more important than money because it is your audience that will sustain your entire business.

The battle is finding out "what the customer wants"

Now that we've discussed how to write well, Ícaro shows how to discover the client's needs to guide the writing in that direction. Remember that your audience is more important than money because it is your audience that will sustain your entire business.

One of the ways to find out what the customer wants is to "hit the street". What does this mean? Put your campaign on the air as soon as possible. This way you can validate if you are on the right track according to your customers' reactions.

Another way is to try to understand them through indirect means. To do this, do not ask the customer directly what he most needs, because he will not have a clear answer. Instead, try to find out:

• Who inspires you? Find out who it is and imitate the example, adapting your offer and making it an "idol" for your customer.
• What do you aspire to achieve? Does your customer value money, security, comfort most? In general, what people value is success. Offer the possibility of success and you will have your customer's attention.
• What is their biggest pain? Listen to your customer. People don't know what really bothers them, so we have to help them focus, to say no to that which is secondary. As Steve Jobs would say:

"Focus is about saying no."

Help people discover their biggest pain, give that pain a name, and then provide the unique, targeted offer to alleviate it.

Another important point is when selling the product, be transparent about your customers' fears: prices, payments, terms. Exalt success over risk. Use psychological triggers, such as scarcity, mentioned in persuasion techniques.

Also, remember to make clear what your product does not do. Make an honest, objective, and fairly priced offer. This is the only way to get the best kind of customer: the loyal one.

Finally, remember to give some advantages to your customers, such as warranties, test drives, and loyalty awards, because they are a very powerful way to gain the trust of your clients.

The cashback guarantee, for example, is very effective, as it passes the message to the customer that: "the product is so good that we guarantee your money back if you don't like it".

To sell we need to create desire

After finding out what the customer wants, we need to generate the desire. An example is what Coca-Cola does, generating the desire to "quench the thirst" in customers, through its advertisements.

Ícaro points out that it is good if this desire brings some element of social achievement - a promotion at work, a better status. In this sense, he advises to add it to your offer with:

• Originality, some pinch of differentiation compared to your competitors. For example, WiseUp's differential is offering English for adults in just 18 months.
• Personality, never leave your client without an answer, always stay close to him and answer his questions quickly.
• Adapted language, speak as your consumers speak, value what they value. This is the only way to generate involvement.

Always remember to save your audience's attention. They want a simple solution. Offer only two options: take advantage of your offer, or stay behind.

What do other authors say about it?

In the book "Copywriting", Paulo Maccedo covers all the pillars behind the copywriting technique, the structure of a copy, the AIDA model to attract and convert customers, and other interesting tips from an author who has written over 2, 000 articles for newspapers, magazines, websites, and blogs!

While in the book "Storytelling: Histórias que deixam marcas", Adilson Xavier discusses how to conquer the public through stories, explaining the concept, giving tips on how to improve the narrative, and telling some successful cases.

Finally, in the book "The Bible of Digital Marketing", Cláudio Torres addresses everything we need to know about Digital Marketing, the theory behind it, the seven main strategies of this type of marketing, and what is expected for the future, with the new technologies that are emerging.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

• Read and write a lot;
• Find out what your customer wants, what inspires him, what he wants most, and what his biggest pain is;
• Use copywriting techniques, such as storytelling;
• Avoid long texts;
• Dose your narratives with aspects of Éthos, Logos, and Páthos.

Did you like this summary of the book "Transformando Palavras em Dinheiro"?

So, did you like the author's vision on how to turn words into money? Interesting to know some concepts behind copywriting, isn't it? Leave your feedback here below!

If you want to delve deeper into these ideas that Icaro brings in the book, just click on the images below to buy the book. There's no english version, but if you understand portuguese, feel free to read it!