Copywriting Success Blog

Question mark in Esbjerg by alexanderdrachmann

Time and again I’m amazed at why small businesses spend over $2500 to be the “featured business” at the back of my local newspaper… right before all the classified ads. I’m tempted to call the advertising department and listen to their sales pitch. It’s obviously very convincing. Week after week businesses waste money on this “service”. Last year I actually made a phone call to a couple of the small businesses that had been “featured” (or should I say “conned”!). I asked them how it was working for them. Their response?

“Ummmm…. we’re actually not quite sure. Our enquiries haven’t increased. I guess it hasn’t really made a difference at all.”

Surprise, surprise.

Well, I shouldn’t be so smug. How are these people to know any better? After all, their skill lies at the heart of providing their service – not in marketing! And yet, they have placed their faith in an advertising salesperson… and their dollars down the drain.

That’s right! They had been talked into spending over $2500 on advertising that brought absolutely NO RESPONSE!

Obviously there’s a big problem with the style of advertising; but there are more problems that YOU must be aware of before paying for any kind of print advertising:

You must be able to track the response to your ad. Even if these local newspaper reviews were working, these business owners wouldn’t know. They had not incorporated any means of tracking the leads from the ad. It’s as easy as a designated phone number – or even a “when you call, tell them Bill sent you” printed next to the phone number.

That’s about all I have time for writing this quick post. I know I haven’t written for ages – I have been busy writing copy!

Let me leave you with this little message:

Rather than spending over $2500 on a print ad (like my local business friends), why not invest that $2500 in a lead-generating website? You can setup a simple web page with sales copy to sell your product/service and a form to capture leads (which you would then follow up). You would send traffic to your website through online advertising (such as Google’s Adwords), your business cards, classified advertising, flyers, word of mouth, etc.).

Now doesn’t that sound like a much smarter way to spend your advertising dollar?

Tags: Copywriting Tips, print advertising, small business marketing

Coins by chefranden

In recent posts, I’ve talked about the power of emotion in your sales copy. I can’t stress how vital it is to the success of your sales copy.

At the very beginning of your sales pitch, you should flood your prospect with emotion, desire and energy to create momentum needed for them to read your sales copy.

Then – after you’ve stirred up emotion – you must make a smooth transition from emotion to reasoning. Usually around the point of purchase (when a major decision is to be made), your prospect’s brain will raise objections to buying.

Here are a few examples of common objections:

* If I just invest a bit of time, I can get the same information somewhere else for FREE
* This is very expensive – perhaps too expensive.
* Is this really going to work?
* How does this compare to XYZ selling the same thing?

So how can you stack the odds on your side?

1 – PROOF ELEMENTS
Personally, I like to address the MAJOR points of objection in the sales letter directly. The most effective way to do this is using PROOF elements such as testimonials, statistics, diagrams, comparison charts, etc.

2 – GUARANTEE
Of course, you should offer a guarantee. A 30, 60 or 90 day money back guarantee usually works best. Don’t be afraid to offer longer guarantee periods… you’ll often find that people forget they want a refund by 90 days… so your refund rate will actually be less with a longer guarantee.

3 – FAQ
Include a FAQ. Many times there are small points of objection that don’t really fit into your sales letter. If you were to address them all, your letter would be too long, too boring and potentially confusing. By including a link to a FAQ at the bottom of your sales letter, you’re able to alleviate concerns of buyers.

Here’s a few examples of concerns you could address with a FAQ:

* Is the credit card processor safe?
* Is it suitable for my kind of business?
* Am I too old/young for this?
* Is there a support phone number?
* etc.

To stack the odds on your side, make sure you’ve answered all obvious objections. If your product is new to the market and you haven’t had much customer feedback, you might need to spend time brainstorming potential objections of your prospects… then write copy that addresses and alleviates those problems.

Tags: Copywriting Tips

Snowball by kamshots

From the moment your reader glances upon your salesletter, you must take the lead. You must catch their attention, grab their interest… then hold them tight as you steadily guide them through your sales pitch.

If you’ve ever written a salesletter, you’ll know that’s not so easy to do!

When I’m writing a salesletter, I like to visualize a snowball rolling down a hill. Just as you see in the cartoons… it grows larger and larger… and gets faster and faster as it gathers more snow and more momentum.

That’s what I want to create in a salesletter. I want my readers to effortlessly tumble through the copy. I want them to feel compelled to read… that it’s difficult for them to click away! How do I achieve that? Here’s a few tips for creating momentum in a salesletter:

1. Story – this is an obvious one! It’s also the easiest way to write sales copy… simply tell your story. Stories – real stories – grab people’s interest… they want to keep reading to discover what happened in the end. Integrate a great story into the beginning of your sales material and you’re onto a winner.
2. Emotion – creating emotion in sales copy gives massive momentum. Use words, testimonials, statistics, stories and pictures to evoke emotions such as jealousy, desire, greed, hope, fear and happiness. Arousing emotions in your prospect is the glue that sticks them to your sales page. Emotions have priority over reasoning… so they’ll keep reading to satisfy their emotions, even if their mind is reasoning otherwise.
3. Mystery - this is an area many copywriters overlook and yet it is extremely powerful in creating momentum. My favorite way to create mystery is to use cryptic bullets. These are bullets that give the reader a promise… but don’t reveal how the promise will be kept. Many times, a prospect will buy because of ONE bullet alone! Another way to create mystery is to leave your story unfinished… at least until they’ve read to the end of your sales letter. The suspense will pull them through your letter, they’ll be eager to keep reading.

So there you have 3 super copywriting tips for creating momentum in a sales latter.

Of course, there are many more. If you have your own tip, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section. Go ahead and share your ideas on this blog.

Tags: Copywriting Tips

Lakeland Outdoor Swimming Pool by havenholidays

This quote from Paul McCartney says it all:

“Somebody said to me, ‘But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.’ That’s a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, ‘Now, let’s write a swimming pool.’” – …” Paul McCartney

Imagine being able to do that.

Imagine you could write yourself a swimming pool… or a Ferrari… or even your next bill repayment.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know if you needed something, you could simply create the money you needed by writing? You’d just write a song… or a letter… or an advertisement?

It’s exactly that notion that got me started in copywriting.

I love the idea that words give me the power to sell something to the marketplace with a simple letter. When I say “love”, I mean LOVE! Personally I can’t get enough of copywriting strategies and techniques… whether they be old or new… I invest a lot of time researching and testing sales copy to find the tactics that *work*.

And I encourage you to do the same.

Whether you’re selling digital downloads, membership sites, real tangible products or even services, sales copy has almost magical powers to transform your business from mediocre sales to millions of dollars in turnover.

You see, I’ve witnessed the difference between poor sales copy and professional sales copy:

• A mortgage broker I know had a website with poor sales copy… it didn’t generate a single phone call.
• A digital download store had no sales copy for their products other than product title and description… they were lucky to sell one download per week. Certainly not enough to make a living!
• A parquetry flooring company I worked with didn’t bother to write sales material for their website. They used pictures and some brief blurbs written by their web design company. Needless to say, the website was a flop.
• I was speaking with a man who had created his own unique language software. He had a great product, responsive market and even good traffic to his site… but he was making only 1 or 2 sales per month. The reason: he had written his own sales letter… and it SUCKED! Now this man has my complete respect, because unlike many dreamers out there, he had got off his backside and made a MASSIVE effort to create his product and website. Yet, he was crippling his sales because he thought he could do EVERYTHING himself.

The truth is, it doesn’t have to be so hard!

There are many great courses – some which I’ll be recommending here soon – that teach you how to write persuasive copy.

That said, I need you to understand something. Some people would have you believe that writing sales copy is a simple matter of learning a formula and plugging in your product details. On the one hand, that is true. If your budget is tight, then that’s a good way to get STARTED. Some sales copy is better than no sales copy.

On the other hand, you will seriously CAP YOUR SUCCESS if you don’t exploit copywriting to its full potential. If you truly want to see MASSIVE RESULTS… if you want sales copy that performs like a well-trained , talented, hardworking salesman… then you cannot stick to a skeleton salesletter formula. Doing so will choke your sales.

Instead, you need to beef up your sales copy with professional know-how. You need to learn the power of persuasion. You must skillfully exploit your story. You must harness the hypnotic power of cryptic bullets. You must tweak your copy. You must test your copy. This is what must be done to FINISH successfully!

Now that you understand this, you need to make a choice:

1. Do you want to write your own sales copy and learn the one skill that will make you a great success? If yes, then be prepared to invest time into learning sales copy… for the rest of your career. It is an endless pursuit… there is always something new to learn! It’s an exciting journey and I encourage you to join me.
   OR
2. Would you prefer to work on your business and not in it? Look, if you’re not passionate about writing like I am, then investing hours into educating yourself on copywriting is going to be HARD SLOG. Seriously, (I’m not trying to sell my services to you by saying this – although you’re welcome to contact me), you would be much smarter to entrust a professional with your sales copy

Whether you learn the skill of copywriting yourself… or decide to harness the power of sales copy through hiring a professional copywriter, you’ll be making the smartest decision you can make when it comes to boosting the sales of your business.

Keep an eye out for my next blog post and email this to your friends if you’ve found it helpful. I’ll be posting as often as I can, but I’m excitedly writing copy for one of my own offline products right now… so I’ve got my head buried in that for now.

Please leave your comments below and I look forward to hearing about your own experience with sales copy… both online and offline.

Tags: Copywriting Tips

How does *SMILING PUG* make you feel?

Maybe it’s because I’m a woman that I judge most webpages and salesletters by the way it makes me FEEL. Maybe; but I don’t think so. Chatting with my husband, I’m sure he judges websites in the same way. What about you? Are you like this:

Within seconds of glancing over a salesletter, I’ve decided to stay and read OR disappear!

If I stay, it’s because I FELT something. Maybe I felt…

• curious - how do they do what they say they can?
• jealous - I want to be able to do that too!
• desire - yes, I want results exactly like that… now!

Of course there’s more… but you get the idea.

If I click away, it’s usually because I felt:

• bored - yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before… ooh look, is that the same “stock photo” they’ve used in their testimonials as the last guy!
• confused - I have no idea what this page is about. It’s too hard to find anything.
• lazy - it looks interesting, but I’d rather not try to wade through that solid block of writing to understand it.

Again, there’s many more FEELINGS that might drive me away… these are just a few.

So here’s the 5 Second Test you can take for your website.

Simply load up your home page and notice what hits your eye in the first 5 seconds. After 5 seconds – look away and don’t look again. Now, make a note of the images, words and colors that are still in your mind from your 5 second glance.

How do those images, words and colors make you FEEL?

Is that feeling what you want for your website?

Go ahead and do this by yourself. Then, be sure to ask friends and family to do the same. It’s important to get an outsider’s view of your website too.

Tags: copywriting, Copywriting Tips

giving thanks by TheAlieness

Using testimonials in your marketing creates “buzz” in your promotion.

Unsolicited testimonials are usually the best… because they’re “off the cuff” and the language is natural and carries a tone of excitement. Very often you can quote a client’s email or phone conversation and you’ll have exactly what you need.

On the other hand, solicited testimonials – the ones you have asked for – are very often stiff and unnatural. Doesn’t it seem, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get a client to write a great testimonial suitable for use in your marketing materials? It seems people think too hard about it and they try to write something impressive… but it just comes out too formal – too dull.

So, what do you do if you’re stuck with a few testimonials that just don’t carry the “buzz” factor? Do you throw them away? No! Here’s two great tips to help you beef them up for your next marketing promotion…

TIP 1. Add a little quote from you at the top that goes a bit like this: “These are real stories from our happy clients. Some of the comments came from our last customer survey… and some arrived as a nice surprise in the mail. I’d love to add your comments here too! Call today.” See how this adds a personal touch, qualifies your testimonials as genuine and allows you to add another “call me”?

TIP 2. Add small headers above each testimonial… for example: “A comment from a happy first-time client” or “a letter we received last Thursday” or (if for example you were a window cleaner) you could write: “This guy has a 2-Storey Home”. Try to add a testimonial that can relate to your different types of customers… business, 2-story mansion, etc.

You can also bold certain words in a testimonial to make them stand out – or use ellipses (three dots like this … ) – to remove unnecessary, wordy sentences.

Testimonials and client comments are one of the most powerful components of your marketing… make the most of them!

Tags: copywriting, Copywriting Tips, testimonials

Here is a request I answered on a popular marketing forum. It’s from an e-book owner wanting help with his headline:

I have 3 headlines: Pre-head, sub head, and acutal headline. Do these headlines look okay? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Also, how does this title for a book sound:

“How to protect yourself, belongings, and loved ones from everyday malicious crimes”

The headlines I came up with are below:

Do you worry about crime?

Stop putting up with waking in the middle of the night wiping sweat off your forehead—worrying if you and your loved ones will be safe from crime…

“Here’s How You Can Quickly and Easily Get Access to survival Rules That Will Severely Decrease your chances of Becoming a Criminal’s NEXT victim…Without the unnecessary fluff

Ok, so that’s the original request. As you can see, he’s tried really hard to write benefit filled direct response style headlines… but they’re not “there yet”. Here’s my re-work of his suggested headlines, with some tips anyone can use to write attention grabbing openings.

Here is the advice I gave:

1. Lose the word “Rules” – try “Strategies”, “Tips”, “Plan”. “Rules” is too passive and implies that the reader will be restricted. On the other hand, “strategies”, “tips” and “plans” are great pro-active words that make the reader feel empowered!
2. “Severely Decrease” in this context seems to be an oxymoron – try “dramatically decrease” or “significantly decrease” – the decrease is a good thing!
3. Be more specific to your product… i.e. be specific about the crime – don’t say “criminal”, say “burglar” or “thief”, etc.
4. “…unnecessary fluff” – I think that line is unnecessary fluff!

Now for the re-worked headline:

He’ll break into your home – if you let him!(PICTURE: Use a photo of a serious-looking criminal… not a cartoon or caricature)
Expert’s Personal ‘Home-Safe Plan’ Repels Criminals in 7 Easy Steps
Chicago Security Guard gives you the power to escape malicious crime and avoid being another forgotten victim

As you can see – a huge difference. My rewritten headline is not only more powerful, it is less wordy and therefore, less confusing. This is the difference between amateur and professional copywriting. A professional knows which words to use, where and WHY.

If you’d like a professional writer to critique your copy, contact me via this website today!

Tags: copy, Copywriting Tips

I remember a critique I once did for a lady who was selling Recumbent Tricycles. She had never written copy before… and it showed. Her web copy was really bad… and didn’t have a hope of selling one trike – let alone make her a healthy income. Here’s an excerpt of the copywriting advice I offered in the critique:

**************

I’m going to be blunt and say that your copy needs a LOT of work.
NOTE: This critique may seem a little harsh, but take heart. All copywriters have been there! I hope you find these notes helpful.

You need to start re-writing your copy from scratch… here’s how:

STEP 1: Identify your target market… where is your traffic coming from? My bet is that someone who types “recumbant tricycle” into Google may actually want one of these… they’re seriously interested. This paragraph would simply turn them off:
“A trike? You’ve got to be kidding. That’s for decrepit old farts. I’d look like a FOOL riding around my neighborhood on a tricycle. Thanks but … No Thanks.”

STEP 2: Find your ‘hook’. From reading your page, here’s what stands out as a potential hook:
limits aches and pains !

STEP 3: Start with your story. How did you get into these trikes? Why do you know so much?
Tip: the very tricky thing with stories is to tell the story about yourself… without sounding ‘me, me, me’. Use the word ‘you’… for example:
“Like you, I love to ride…. blah, blah…”
“Perhaps you too have suffered a riding injury… aches and pains …”
“Did you want to quit biking altogether? You know, I actually did…”
…. That’s when I discovered trikes… blah blah… Here’s what a trike can do for you…”

STEP 4: List lots of bullets with trike benefits…

STEP 5: Put some work (I mean hours!) into your headline.

STEP 6: Swipe:
Take a look around at some great saleletter-style websites. See how they open their copy with a powerful headline and opening paragraph. Don’t copy their phrases word for word… but follow the general layout and flow.

**************************

So, by following these 6 steps, you’re off to a great start. You will also need to work on an offer and call-to-action to close the sales process… but we’ll save that for another post.

Tags: copy, Copywriting Tips

A forum friend of mine was selling “vocabulary builder” software. After taking a look at his original copy (which was under-performing), it was obvious there were a few areas that needed to be worked on. We started with the bullets… and here is the result.

HERE ARE THE BULLETS BEFORE I RE-WROTE THEM:

Read on to discover the 7 unique strategies [the software] employs to build your vocabulary so you can:

• Boost your career
• Improve your communication
• Get better grades at school or college
• Command more respect and credibility
• Be more confident with words
• Sound articulate
• Improve you score in tests such as IQ tests, SAT, GMAT, and GRE
• Improve your writing
• Improve your spelling
• Express your ideas effectively
• Improve your reading and comprehension skills
• Improve opportunities for promotion and career progression

… AND THIS IS HOW THEY LOOK AFTER MY REWRITE:

You’ll easily build a powerful and impressive vocabulary that:

• improves your communication… no more feeling mis-understood or overlooked. When you say something, people will ‘get it’ without you having to explain yourself over and over again.
• improves your writing… now you can be sure to create the right impression with your emails and other written communication.
• grants you instant respect and credibility… once you know a few ‘power’ words, you’ll notice people start to pay attention to you… and begin to follow your lead.
• boosts your career… etc., etc.
• makes getting top grades at school or college EASY… etc., etc.
• grows your confidence with words and coversation… no more stuttering and fumbling for the right word. Make your point – boldly and clearly – without losing everyone’s interest!
• makes others notice how articulate you sound… etc., etc.
• makes getting great IQ tests, SAT, GMAT, and GRE test scores so much EASIER… etc., etc.
• improves your spelling…when your emails are full of spelling mistakes, people judge you as un-educated… and may even assume you have a low-IQ. Ultimate Vocabulary puts a stop to this common career mistake.
• equips you to easily express your ideas… etc., etc.
• improves your reading and comprehension skills… etc., etc.
• improves opportunities for promotion and career progression… etc., etc.

Obviously the “etc., etc.” needs to be completed by the site owner… but you get the idea.

Can you see how turning the bolded items from a boring passive voice into an active voice makes them so much stronger?

Three bonus tips for writing better bullets:

1. state the benefit… and then expand on what this means for your readers
2. write them in an active voice. There’s a subtle but powerful difference between “you can improve your writing” and “improves your writing”. The second bullet has less effort attached! People love FAST and EASY.
3. Put your most important bullets at the top… and a couple at the bottom… less important ones in the middle (think hourglass shape).

Tags: bullets, Copywriting Tips

Hi there fellow copywriters. I’ve been on “maternity leave” for a year now, and it’s time to get back into the freelance world. I’m excited at the prospect of reconnecting with favorite clients and getting back into the copywriting I love so much.

What I’m finding as I prepare to re-open my business is my mind is running perpetually with new thoughts. Some of them fleeting. Some of them lingering. My aim with this blog is to brain dump as often as possible, thereby freeing up some gray matter for more productive thinking.

I’m also browsing though all my old favorite copywriting courses, websites and forums – and thought that this blog would be an awesome place for me to collate them all – and share with other like minds.

Eventually I hope this becomes a daily pitstop for freelance copywriters like you and I. I have grand dreams of posting daily updates and copywriting news, so stay tuned.