You Have To Give Just One Copywriting Tip?

While writing your copy over a period of time, always go back and read from the beginning before starting each writing session. This will ensure you don't have dramatic tonal shifts in your copy.

Imagine yourself in a chance meeting with your ideal prospect (you do know them, yes?) and simply tell them about your product in the way a friend would tell them.

Or better yet, have the conversation with your prospect live.

I just did this for a personal letter I'm writing and realized there was some "groundwork" I needed to lay prior to getting into the actual pitch. I needed to prepare their mind to be accepting of what I was about to say.

1. Match your prospect's driving emotions to the product's benefits.
2. Write an eyeball-grabbing headline.
3. Make an irresistible offer.

That's more than one, but without all three, your promotion is dead in the water.

Alex

KNOW your prospect. Then create an intersection where your product and their track will meet.

If you've done your homework, you'll stand a better chance of a positive result.

gjabiz

After you've done research and gotten to know your prospect, write up a Psychological Analysis sheet. That way, whenever you're struggling, you can read back to the sheet and study his mindset and beliefs.

This is a complete breakdown of the market, but identified as a single person.

Tell the truth.

Totally nail your headline.

If it takes rewriting it 50 times, then so be it.

Since its the first thing that prospects will see, if you don't entice them right off the bat then the chances are high that you will loose out on initially gaining a new customer AND growing your profits through your backend.

Focus on benefits rather than features - what's in it for me?

Also...emphasize value over price

I picked this one up from Bruce W. in a different thread.

BORROW CREDIBILITY.

I'm in the process of creating my first product and this is going to help me add believability (proof). I don't have a Ph.d in my niche, so I'm going to borrow proof from other well established identities.

E.g.

Completely "Green Behind The Ears Copywriter" Writes Winning Sales Letter Almost Overnight All From "A-List" Copywriting Tips He Found At Warriorforum.com -- He Didn't Even Have To Pay For Them!

Dangle a carrot, always just out of reach.

Don't try to work your entire sales pitch into the headline.

Always write to the prospect's desires with benefits not features. What need or desire is being filled by your product or service? In other words what's in it for them?

Always write disadvantage of the product also....

Make sure your grammer and punctuation is correct. I was reading a copywriter's website yesterday, and there were several basic mistakes within a minute of my starting to read. If that's how much effort he puts in to his own website, how much is he going to put into yours? He didn't come across to me as someone who would be doing 20 edits.

The site was elitecopywriting . com if you want to see what I mean.

Read Breakthrough Advertising.

And don't bitch out because you don't "get it" the first two or three times through.

- HR

proof read !!!

1) What was the last awesome thing you just HAD to have - -and finally forked out funds for?

Review the main ad (s) that made you buy, and use their techniques in your own sales copy. In particular, note the features and benefits, and what the driving factors were to get you to buy. Harness this in your own sales copy.

2) Go live and test. If you achieve high rank on Google with your keywords and see lots of traffic, but no sales or even inquiries, it's back to the drawing board time!

Touch on people's pain, give them some
pleasure that solves the pain issue.

The commercials do it all the time:
"Stomachache? Gas Pains?
Well, get ready for instant relief from [Blanketty-Blank Product]!

It eases stomachache, ends gas pain, all in just 2-3 minutes. Ahhh!"
(End commercial with sickening musical jingle)

Happy holidays, everybody!
Vince aka makingiants

Know your product inside out. You can't sell anything if you don't know what you are talking about?
Buy the product, use it, touch it, smell it, hug it, eat it, whatever. You need to know every little detail about it.

I love songwriting and in a way it is another way of copy-writing.

one of the best quotes I got was

"You write a good song. You REwrite a great song".

I found many songwriters would not re-write. I gotta tell you I leaned the most about songwriting by rewriting (often after critiques).

I think the same goes for copy-writing. You have got to be prepared to rewrite, rewrite and then rewrite again until you can't improve it then guess what? You rewrite again.

Just my 10c worth

Paul

Headline. All else means nothing if the reading stops there.

Sell good products. Even if you can write top-converting copy for garbage products, do you really want to?

Have ethics. Remember, somebody is buying what you're selling - and if you're writing well, lots of people are doing so. The prospect is a real person with real problems. Can anybody really afford to waste $47, $97, $197 or more on rubbish? I don't know a single person who can - and especially not the sort of person who would be responding to an online offer.

Don't sell crap. You have a brain and you know whether what you're pimping is worthwhile or not. Don't believe those who say that what someone buys is totally their own responsibility. If you pimp crap, you share the blame. Plus, it's easier to write great copy for great products.

Be fun. Make people laugh. Works great, even when it comes to selling products.

Why? Well, you build up trust by making them laugh. That way, they'll believe you even more. Think about it yourselves.

/ stand-up comedian

Know thy prospect.

(Actually, I like Rezbi's answer best... but this is almost as important.)

write about what you are interested in!

Write bullets first.
_____
Bruce

Read your copy out loud...

Watch for the spots that make you stumble and sputter.

Be aware of the pace and how the momentum builds.

Notice abrupt or awkward transitions.

(That's one...)

Have a friend/coworker/other person read it - then ask them what they thought the point was, if they lost interest at any point (and where), and if they found any parts confusing.

stop being so ****ing boring.

make me love you, laugh with you, hate you... just dont make me like you.

My one tip would be to completely as possible understand the world of my prospect.

You want to meet the customer where they're at, in their language, explaining in their terms...being customer-centric...is key. To do this requires shining the spotlight on your customer holding a gem on a little tray...and the gem is called "their needs"!

We don't even really want to put the spotlight on them.

Communicating where they're at, WITHOUT MAKING THEM WRONG is important, and yet you still need to push their emotional hot buttons.

You accomplish this by focusing on the needs. And what are the needs that make a difference? Their pain and desires. You could call the pains Fear, Anxiety, Frustration, Problems. And you could call desires Aspiration, Wants, Fantasy. These are all interchangeable.

What they have in common is THEY ARE EMOTIONAL. ALL OF THEM ARE EMOTIONAL. Rationality is used as a tool to support the emotional. But this all starts with irrational, emotional needs of the customer.

When you're shining the spotlight on those, this is when you get attention and create marketing that works.

Here's an example I just read of someone using this...

"Tons of women do this one thing.

And it must leave them feeling awful...

I wonder if you've ever done it too?

I'm talking about women who hide their true feelings from a man and fear sharing their desire for a closer relationship and for love.

Ever felt this way?

It happens when you won't communicate directly with a man about your feelings because you think you'll "scare him away."

If you have felt this way before, I'd like to share a FASCINATING story with you."

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This guy knows his market. He's selling dating advice but you notice how he doesn't come right out at you with how big the manual is, how many cd's are in the program and how you pay for "Dating Secrets" with an easy pay program.

I just critiqued a "Dead On Arrival" CPA offer that right from the get-go was nothing but a "Just the facts Maam" pitch. You can always tell if someone knows their market or not. If you know it, you've got so much more ammunition to use. If you don't, you end up putting together a rag tag compilation of features and if you include some token benefits they're so broad and general, they may as well not even be there... Example: "Satisfaction Guaranteed".

Know you're market and selling becomes easier and a lot more fun.