Top Ten Tips for CopyWriting

These are the top tips to be a great copywriter:

1) Be compelling

You must use words so people take action and buy. Don’t be boring. You must really make them feel special. What you probably think is over the top, is probably about right. You must show empathy, caring and concern that makes them feel connected and helps them suspend their rational belief

2) Great headlines

Experts have said that great headlines can result in more sales (8-10 times more). Research and learn from major magazines. A sales letter has numerous headlines so you must learn this skill well.

3) Magic not Tragedy

Don’t overuse magic words but you must not underestimate how far a little hype can go. Use simple language, I read somewhere that you should use the language of an eighth grade level or less.
Use words such as: free, happy, breakthrough, incredible, amazing etc

4) Questions

The reader will get involved with questions. Remember the questions should lead the reader to say YES. There is a theory that says: if your customer is used to say Yes, he will be prone to say Yes again when you ask him to buy.

5) Write to One Client

Create a personal relationship, people tend to buy from people they know and trust and have created a personal relationship with. Use “You”.

6)Not necessarily brief

There are four natural buying steps:

• Attention.
• Interest.
• Desire.
• Action.

It is A.I.D.A. or Aida for short. Sometimes brevity is not answer. You must answer all the questions so they can naturally take action.

7) Share your story

We are drawn to stories of people who triumphed over adversity. I don’t know about you but in a soccer game I tend to root for the underdog if the team I support is not playing. Entrepreneurs always have a story of how they overcame adversity. Do not hide it!

8) Build urgency and scarcity

You need to build a message that includes both urgency and scarcity. Give a special prize for early birds and limited quantities or limited time offers. You must give the client a compelling reason to say yes.

9) Testimonials

Must be strong and answer one objection per testimonial. Testimonials must be between 4 and 6 sentences in length. You can sell your product but never as good as your satisfied clients can.

10) Guarantees

Many of my clients in the offline business field did not like guarantees. Many digital marketers think that they would be taken advantage off. Well the opposite is true, guarantees appeal to anyone’s fear of taking risks. I am not saying that some will not take advantage but as a percentage it will be low. It has been proved that the longer the guarantee term is, the less likely the person is to ask for their money back!

Free resource:

Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins 1924

This book is in the public domain and you can get it for free. Also it will probably be available from Amazon in paperback or kindle.

This book is about the philosophy that advertising is to sell not to win creative awards and how to apply that philosophy to create winning ads.

For me the best comments are that specifics sell and superlatives roll off the human understanding like water off a duck’s back.

A review:

“All successful direct marketers have learned from a book first published in 1924. Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins is the shortest and still, probably, the best book on the subject ever written.”

In his introduction to the book, David Ogilvy says that nobody should have anything to do with this business until they have read Scientific Advertising several times!

FREE DOWNLOAD

Another resource:

A timeless publication by my friend Randy Smith which is highly recommended:

Sales Letter ABC

Randy was an offline salesman and marketer and now a very successful copywriter and online marketer.

Anyone that follows me knows that I suffer from information overload, for the last 5 years I’ve been buying product after product, taking very little action. Strangely enough I have not bought anymore products about Copywriting since acquiring Sales Letter ABC in 2008.

Personal view

I have always said, I am not a saleswoman, I don’t know how to sell. I think, perhaps, many people think the same. It is not true really, perhaps some people, like me, don’t like a sales job. We are constantly selling ourselves in our daily lives.
For example:

• we sell to our employers our knowledge and expertise;
• we sell to the school headmaster that our child did not mean any harm;
• we sell ourselves when we attend interviews;
• we sell our business to future employees.