Copywriting Tips

1. Command attention with a powerful headline. Your headline is there to ‘hook’ your readers attention. Use strong sub-headings to break up large blocks of text.

Most people’s headlines and sub-headings need work.  Dare to be different. Stand out from the crowd but keep them relevant.

Remember that copywriting sales copy is all about selling and nothing more, hence the reason it is called — Sales Copy.

Does your sales copy sell? Does it really make you want to buy your very own product or service?

2. When you write your sales copy, use short, punchy sentences. Keep your words simple. Do not use gobbledegook that very few people can understand. Try to use shorter words over longer words if you can, although this of course does depend on your target audience..

3. Turn every negative into a positive. For example… “If your writing isn’t improving in 30 days, we’ll refund your money,” say instead, “You’ll be writing like a professional writer within 30 days, or you’ll get your money back.”

4. Don’t be put off thinking that your sales letter or sales copy online has to be spelling perfect, it doesn’t have to be. Nor does it have to have perfect punctuation or grammar.

Your sales copy is there purely to nudge your visitors into taking a direct form of action, whether this is to sign up to your opt-in list or to physically buy a product.

Most professional copywriters break many rules to get the selling point across to the intended target audience. You can do the same. Just say it in the most simple way, write it in the most simple way that you can come up with.

5. Don’t go off at tangents, keep the flow going continuously throughout your sales copy. Get to the point as quickly as possible. Try not to waffle, writing on matters of no direct relevance to the sales message.

6. You can use color to underline important parts of your text. Options: Do this with a (color) underline or use a yellow text background tag or simply print the text in a different color for a direct mail flyer for example.

7. When you complete writing your sales copy / sales letter, review it several times over. Look at your sales copy from many different angles or perspectives. See your own sales copy / sales letters as your intended target audience will perceive your copywriting. Sleep on it again overnight and read it back again the following morning.

Make adjustments where necessary.

8. When you create a story, make sure it relates to your readers, your target audience.

9. Whenever you can, use short sentences. Long sentences are difficult to read and digest. The easiest sentence to read is just eight words. The average length of a sales copy sentence should be sixteen words. A sentence over 32 words total, is difficult to read.

10. A paragraph ideally should be short and to the point. A paragraph should contain just one thought, not two or more. Do not write long paragraphs, again they are very difficult to read.

11. Use dots to link sentences or paragraphs… Now, check this out… Read on to find out more… This is the link and chain effect in action…

12. Avoid like the plague being too clever or cryptic. There is nothing worse than trying to read sales copy which loses it’s true meaning, when you try to impress others with your long winded vocablary. This is not a competition. This is about you drawing in buyers — as many as possible. Using cryptic ‘clever’ language simply distracts visitors and hurts your potential profit margin.

13. Humor has it’s place but not everyone may appreciate your sense of humor. It’s best to avoid humor when writing sales copy or sales letters. The only exception to this is if you are an exceptional writer to start with.

14. Use repetition for emphasis. People often do not mind you repeating yourself to stress a point. You can repeat the offer several times in the text and get away with it perfectly okay. Make sure the offer is irresistible!

15. Add to your own credibility if at all possible. Rather than saying, “As used by several blue chip global corporations,” say, “As used by (Specific corporation/s name/s here).”

16. Don’t use an unreadable text size, too small is not good. Make sure the size of your text can be read by as wide an audience as possible.

17. There is no need to go over the top with the most fancy design in the world. Design does not sell, words sell. Keep it simple.

18. Never use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS – Use them sparingly. CAPITAL LETTERS ARE MORE DIFFICULT TO READ.

19. Use bullet points to highlight your main key benefits and your main key features.

20. State real sums of money in your sales copy. For example, “How I turned a $500 investment into $5000 in just 30 days. Watch over my shoulder as I show you step-by-step how to do the same.”

21. Stick to the facts – Do not make outrageous claims, that will set off the ‘I smell bullshit meter’ in the mind’s of your readers.

22. If you can say it with less words, do it.

23. Always, always, always focus on the benefits that your product or service will bring to the reader, your potential customer.

24. When you write your sales copy, do not worry about the length of your sales copy. It has been proven over and over again that long sales copy sells better than short sales copy.

25. Over inflating claims destroys your credibility. Sure, make it sound as ‘magical’ as possible, the next best thing to sliced bread, but don’t go overboard!

26. When you write your sales copy, write it as if you were writing to a friend. Speak the reader’s language.

27. Think like a sales wo/man. Think about how you would sell the product to someone else. Often the best sales copy often has a kind of speech type you-and-me-talking quality about it. Practice selling your product or service out loud or try and sell it to someone you know in person. Record the conversation and play it back to yourself.

28. Don’t use… “I this, I that, I, I, I,” all the time, the focus of the sales copy is on the reader, the benefits you can bring to them. Use ‘You’, ‘Your’ etc instead.

29. Think in terms of Features, Advantages, Benefits.

30. Research your target audience. What are their fears, their feelings of pain or frustration? Present yourself as their ideal solution, their ideal pleasurable outcome.

31. Keep them guessing what the next page is going to be about. Create excitement in their mind, make your sales copy an irresistible read. Help them to really WANT to turn that ‘page’ or click over to the next page.

32. Create mystery. Keep them reading until the very end, when the best deal possible is going to be revealed to the reader.

33. Don’t sell on price alone, don’t be in a rush to use your discounted price as your major selling point, only reveal the price at the end of your sales copy.

34. Direct mail — remember your envelope is part of the letter. In fact it is the first piece your prospect sees. Grab their attention but do not use Private & Confidential unless that really is the case.

35. Create visual interest. Break up long chunks of text by using: Italics; box rules around paragraphs; tables & bar charts; numbered paragraphs; underlining; bullet points; capital letters – but use them sparingly and in a balanced manner.

36. Use testimonials to sell the product. Testimonials get high readability, use the best one’s you’ve got. Put them in their own highlighted boxes.

37. There is no harm in being polite, say please and say thank you.

38. When you complete your sales copy, edit it ruthlessly, trim it, prune it, add to it, prune it again, sleep on it – eventually it will start to take shape.

39. Read your sales copy / sales letter from back to front, from start to finish several times over. Check, double check and check again for typo’s and spelling errors. When you are finally satisfied, check again! You’ll be amazed just how many errors you keep on finding.

40. Finished writing your sales copy? Read it out loud to yourself. Does it flow very well?

41. Never, ever make the reader or visitor to your site feel like an idiot. If you do, they’ll click away immediately.

42. Don’t bunch up all of your key benefits and key features all in one place, spread them out throughout your sales copy or sales letter..

43. Got a ‘last minute’ offer, make it look like one. Don’t dress it up with an incredible design. The two will contradict each other if you do that.

44. PS – PPS — Use them, highlight your offer, your personal guarantee, they are read in nearly every instance by most visitors, they can work for you very well.

45. Use penalties to get your visitors to take immediate action. For example, “Limited stock”, “Price Increases Tonight If You Do Not Take Action Right Now.”

46. People love new things. If it’s a new product or service, tell them that. People love to be in at the ground floor, first, before anyone else.

47. Make your visitors, readers feel important and special.

48. If a direct mail campaign, do not underestimate using postcards – postcards most often get read whilst envelopes are often simply thrown in the trash.

49. Great sales copy often has a child like quality to it, appealing to everyone. Try to do the same if you can.

50. Read every book you can on the subject of copywriting from the grand masters. You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn from them … Or, ask Mark Andrews of IMCopywriting.com to write your sales copy, sales letters for you – inquire about his copywriting rates and availability to help you today!

• What is Direct Response Marketing?

Sometimes less is more…

It’s about working smarter in business, not harder.

With this in mind,  I want you to commit just 3 very simple words to your mind right now…

Direct Response Marketing

Those 3 very simple words can generate for your business… an incredible amount of cash / profit – if you know how to tap into this superb business resource.

Now, most small to medium sized businesses and their respective owners / directors, no disrespect but the majority haven’t got a clue about the subject of advertising and marketing. A sweeping generalization perhaps. Please bear with me. There is no easy way to say this but to get straight to the point…

Most small to medium sized businesses… their advertising and marketing leaves a great deal to be desired. Their efforts… pouring good money after bad, floundering around trying out this advertising tactic or that marketing tactic is going to get their business nowhere very fast. The bottom line?

Potential profits are hurting as a direct result of this lack of knowledge. And as you know knowledge is power. Having the right kind of direct response marketing knowledge to hand, can drive up your profits dramatically. The problem as I see it…

Most small to medium sized businesses, they advertise, they market, they think they are doing the right thing but…

…the trouble is, usually all they end up accomplishing is the precise and exact opposite – to what direct response marketing is really all about. They follow like sheep, copying the tactics used by many larger companies and corporations, a tactic which when applied to their own much smaller scale business operations – has a tendency to backfire on them massively.

Truly effective advertising and marketing is all about attracting potential customers, hot leads to your business and then directing them specifically towards a call to action, which in turn, will drive up your business profits.

If your focus is on image projection, the branding of your business only – you are missing the point.

You need to move your focus away from generating needless expenses for your business and hone in like a laser directed missile on your income / profit  potential and nothing else. And one of the best ways which allows you to do this, is through the medium of…

Direct Response Marketing

Allow me to identify what this is and how it can help you directly, to push your profits up exponentially…

One word… Salesmanship.

That’s right, salesmanship in print OR salesmanship via the medium of broadcasting. Today, you have at your disposal many avenues to explore. With all of the tools now available to you online, there really is no excuse not to be using some of them, to much greater positive effect. To name but a few…

Direct mail pieces, newspaper and magazine advertisements, creating a web page, Internet video, podcasting, MP3, DVD, radio advertising or perhaps most important of all to direct response marketing… creating an infomercial. With the sheer number of readily accessible tools now available to you at your disposal, creating an infomercial today is an extraordinarily simply exercise. And if you’re unsure about how to do this yourself you can of course outsource it.

Many professional individuals offer these services online today. When it’s completed to your satisfaction, simply distribute your new infomercial online, via one of the many online video distribution services, available on either a free or paid for basis.

Direct response marketing has one single purpose… never forget this all important point… Direct response marketing is there to generate an immediate response from your potential target audience. Getting potential customers to take instant action to buy into your products or business services. You want people to take action. An action, which in turn puts more money and profit into your business.

You position your products or business service right in front of your ideal target audience – offer them something attractive for them to buy into. Your job is to now nudge them or positively kick them straight towards your main offer. Placing your in-demand product or business service service right in front of the stampeding herd of buyers, giving them what they need right now – positioning yourself as the answer to their prayers, the solution to their current problem, pain or frustration and if you do this, guaranteed you will increase your customer orders.

More orders subsequently bring increased profits to the income column on your books. This is the very essence of direct response marketing – eliciting direct immediate action from your target audience to buy instantly, into your business products and/or services. The question then to ask yourself is this…

Right now, right this instant… what do YOU want your potential customer to do right at this very moment? What precisely do you want them to do? When you’ve established what you want them to do…

…you simply create your direct response marketing piece to get the action taken on their part, which will benefit your business. Do not forget, your entire business revolves around the concept of enriching the lives of other people and you… you’re in business to make a profit. So simply give your new potential customers what they want. Give them an easy way to access your products or business services and take action.

If you can provide a better product, a better service at a better price – sock this offer right in front of your ideal potential audience eyeballs. Direct response marketing has huge potential for your business IF it is utilized / tapped into properly. Do not…

…do not EVER under-estimate the sheer power of direct response marketing. This point cannot be overly emphasized. Make a strong case for people to buy into your business. Do it properly and you’ll find you can use salesmanship-in-print or broadcast media to be an excellent tool in overcoming every potential customer objection to making a purchasing decision today. You can answer questions before they are voiced verbally or in writing, in essence the performance of your business will benefit massively IF you put yourself into the shoes of your target audience and think how they think.

Direct response marketing therefore is a superlative marketing weapon of choice for many business people. If you are not taking advantage, utilizing direct response marketing personally you are missing out massively on a huge untapped income resource within your business model. Tapping into these untapped income resources, the hidden wealth within your business, could yield a huge return on your investment, many times greater than more traditional forms of advertising and marketing.

As mentioned above, do not EVER under-estimate the very real power of direct response marketing! It’s a force to be reckoned with, which could line your bottom line profits – with a lot more hard cash. And not forgetting this all important point…

Direct response marketing usually ends with a guarantee. This guarantee offered, gives your potential customers and consumers many more reasons to ultimately trust you. The guarantee will aid your credibility. The guarantee in your direct response marketing piece will inspire consumers to place their trust in you. When you have gained your new customers trust, you are now in an ideal position to be able to up sell / continue selling to this individual over and over again for many years to come.

It’s about starting a good strong business relationship with your customers. It’s a lot more cost effective to continue to sell to your present customer base than to constantly search for new customers. If you want to bring on board a whole new customer base to your business, to develop a long term positive relationship with these consumers – direct response marketing allows you to start doing this instantly.

By all means continue advertising and marketing your business the way you’ve been doing so for years, throw good money after bad, promote your image or brand alone and you will without fail (as a small to medium sized business / company owner) make the whole process of developing long term relationships with your customers very much harder for yourself, and of course this can become needlessly expensive. There are just 4 key elements to direct response marketing…

• 1st/ There is the offer

• 2nd/ It’s all about providing the right kind of information to your new potential target audience, which ultimately will help them to decide if your offer is right for them one way or the other

• 3rd/ A direct call to action

• 4th/ Implementing a way for your target audience to respond. This can be with a web form, a telephone number, an opt-in – the choice is yours depending on the product or service being offered. Make sure you put this direct response mechanism in plain view alongside or underneath your direct call to action

Tell the prospect what you expect them to do next. Make it a logical intuitive step to enable the prospect to do what you want them to do. Direct response marketing gets visitors, readers, listeners poised and ready to take action. When they take action, you can close the deal.

You’re happy and now, you’re new prospect is happy too that you have given them the answer / solution to the problem which they had in their mind. Direct response marketing moves the customer away from a position of frustration and pain – to an emotional experience of pleasure, if carried out, executed properly and professionally.

Now, you know your business better than anyone else but do you know and understand your prospects key misgivings? Do you understand, can you in advance perceive how your potential prospect feels? Can you put yourself in your customers shoes? If you can, your direct response marketing material will be a lot tighter as a result.

Another outstanding benefit of direct response marketing? You can track your customer responses. You can track their actions. This is invaluable marketing data helping you further to understand how your ideal, hot target audience actually feels about your products or services. It’s very important to give your prospects confidence to help them want to do business with you and no-one else.

• Give them the facts they want

• Give them the figures to back up your claims

• Give them everything which supports your case and positions you as the answer / solution to their prayers

• Write, broadcast your direct response marketing material with the main focus on supplying positive solutions, positive benefits, for the end consumer

• Switch the emphasis away from yourself and place this emphasis on the consumer

• Be their ideal solution

• Be their ideal benefit

• Get your point across as though they were a trusted friend of yours who you are trying to help out to the very best of your ability

If you do this… you are positioning your business products and services way, way better than most of your competition who are still using more traditional, unproven forms of business marketing for their business model.

• How will your business product or business service make your prospects life simpler, more fulfilled, simpler, easier, save them time, make them more money?

• What are the features of your product or business service?

• And what are the corresponding benefits of your business product or service?

If you explain these points well, convey these to best effect you will be well on your way to securing the course of action you desire.

• How will your product or service change your prospects life for the better?

• What will it do for them?

• How will it help them personally?

• How will it assist them to improve the quality of their life?

The bottom line questions are…

• Do you really want to dominate your marketplace?

• Do you really want to take business away from your competitors?

• Do you want to be the best in the business?

Direct response marketing gives you many options to explore. Direct response marketing is an incredibly effective marketing tool. Direct response marketing can deliver the results you want and need in your business – starting right now.

If you have found this direct response marketing advice useful, please do go ahead and start putting this to good use in your business model.

If you need a hand copywriting your very own direct response marketing material, we would be absolutely delighted to assist you to the very best of our ability.

Many thanks for reading, more copywriting blog posts will come very soon. Do look out for them!

Best regards,

Mark Andrews – Mark@IMCopywriting.com