Making the Process Efficient

Making the Process Efficient

A professional editor may take an hour or more reviewing advertising copy. For about $100, in most cases, they can offer a great deal of assistance in tightening up and making more effective the means being employed to sell the product. The writer can make their copy better by simply investing a few extra minutes in review.

Analyze the copy to make sure the structure makes sense. It should flow logically from one point to the next and never leave the reader wondering how they were supposed to draw a particular conclusion.

Make certain the headlines are engaging. They should really drive the reader to continue on with reading the text and act almost as a stand-alone reason to do so. The idea is to draw the reader in with the headline, firm up their attention with the first paragraph and then expand upon the concepts presented with the rest of the document which serves to make the deal even sweeter than they originally thought. By the time the reader is done, they shouldn't be able to walk away from the deal. Having an outside set of eyes check to see if one's copy achieves this is very useful and can make good advertising copy into great advertising copy.

Using a Professional

If one decides to make use of a professional editor, expect to pay money for the service and make certain that the price is worth it. Check to see the copy the editor themselves has created and see if it meets the criteria listed in this text. If their copy doesn’t grab one's attention, it's unlikely that they're actually going to be able to make any lacking copy of yours any better than it already is and, thus, that their services won't justify their prices.

There are, however, very good and successful copywriters and editors available. Some of them maintain web pages from which their services can be engaged. For the beginning copywriter, paying a little bit for their services may be well worth the knowledge thereby obtained.

Using one's JV partners or friends may help, as well, but a professional in the field may be able to offer more for the money than casual partners can offer for free. If one is launching a new campaign or is having poor sales with an ongoing campaign, hiring such individuals is generally worth it toward increasing profits and making a product as good a seller as it can be.

Some of the best editors may charge a bit more for their services. Following the advice given previously, if one has a product that has a good track record of sales but which needs a bit more fire injected into the campaign, it may be worth it to go ahead and engage these individual's services to increase the overall sales of the product.

Putting it all Together

Now that the basics, and a great deal of the more advanced concerns, have been addressed, the question remains: How does one put this all together and make themselves into a successful copywriter? The process begins and ends with practice.

Find the Best Copy

Search out those instances of truly great copy. This copy need not be from small websites or independent marketers. Take a look at how the largest companies move their products. See how their copy is written and start making a file. Fill the file with whatever comes across as interesting.

Remember to keep an eye out for those instances of copy that is recycled over and over again. This copy is likely the best-performing sales copy the company sending it has and should be analyzed to see what really makes it so much better than what else is out there.

Imitation

Study the copy, read the copy and, most importantly, rewrite the copy. Pay attention to how the words flow. Study how it conforms to the basic model described in this text. Pay Particular attention to those most important elements.

How does the headline manage to catch the reader's attention? How is it structured? How does it relate to the first paragraph and what is it about the way that headline is structured that makes it flow into the first paragraph?

Study the first paragraph in detail. How does it engage the reader? What claims does it make? Does it shock the reader into wanting to know more about the product being advertised? If so, what words or phrases does it use to achieve that reaction out of the reader?

What features are advertised and what benefits do they entail? How are features and benefits related by the writer? Do they flow naturally or does it require a stretch of the imagination to see how they relate to each other? If it's good advertising copy, then it's likely the case that they flow naturally from feature to benefit and it's easy to see how the reader is to make the connection.

What about the letter makes the reader feel like they're justified in placing their trust in the writer? If a guarantee of satisfaction is made, throw the letter away. As was stated, that is the single most meaningless guarantee that anyone can offer. In fact, it constitutes a bit of dishonesty because no one can guarantee that a customer will be satisfied with a product, even if it performs as advertised or even better than advertised. Look for concrete guarantees that make the customer know that their money is well-spend and that their business is valued by the salesperson.

How is the bonus offered? Are there packages that have more value than the initial price offered? Are there add-on products that make the purchase a more sensible one than it would be if bought individually?

Of course, at the end of the letter, the reader should know exactly what they have to do to purchase that item. There should be no guess work involved, no hunting through other materials to find the needed phone number and no confusion regarding the preferred method of payment.

There should be a P.S. section to the letter that summarizes and makes more attractive the original pitch. Remember to structure this in a way that it would make perfect sense even if one were to simply read the headline and move directly to this section of the sales letter. The P.S. comes at a point where the customer has already made the effort to read the entire sales letter and at a point where they may be very inclined to buy. Make certain to take advantage of this.

The end of the letter should contain an up sell offer. This lets the customer know that they can do even better. It also make certain that they're reminded of this fact at the time they're ready to make the purchase. This combination of skillful, enticing writing and the customer's positive state of mind is a very powerful one and can create greatly increased sales. Make certain that a related product is offered or that a value-added product is offered so that it is very difficult for the customer to pass up.

If all these criteria are met, then one is certainly looking at a good example of sales copywriting. Now comes the imitation.

Rewrite the letter, by hand, and absorb everything about it. Get into the writer's head and see how they're able to excel at this the way they do. Pay particular attention to the following:

· How they use headlines and sub headlines

· How they structure their phrases

· The sort of vocabulary they employ

· How they define their audience

· How they appeal to that specific audience

· How they work their product into a narrative involving that audience

· How they shock that audience into paying attention

· How they cater to that audience's basic needs

· How they engage curiosity

· How they structure the document as a whole

Chances are, there are a lot of powerful words being used. One need not delve into English 404 textbooks to find this vocabulary. Many of the most potent words are also the most frequently-used.

Good copywriters do sometimes use words that border on obscenity to engage their customers. For example, "It's really a bummer when your car breaks down" is pretty lack luster. "Aren't you pissed- off when you're car breaks down for the following reason?" is much more eye-catching. It's the way people talk in real life and makes the reader feel as if they're being spoken to by a human being instead of by a corporate marketing department. Check good sales letter for such turns of phrase.

Get Over that Lack of Confidence!

Readers can sense a lack of confidence when it's represented in print. Don’t be afraid to write naturally. There's no need to be the best copywriter on Earth to make a successful sales letter. Keep practicing and just do a bit better than the competition. As skilled copywriters point out, the vast majority of business owners have no idea how to write sales copy. Those that do have a distinct advantage.

It takes confidence in one's self to even learn this skill but most salespeople understand that they have to believe in themselves to sell any product. Keep confidence levels high by constant practice. Remember that, the more one writes, the better writer they become. Even a person who has only written one sales letter enjoys a substantial advantage over someone who hasn't written any.

Write Your First Letter

Every journey begins with a single step. Write your first sales letter and pass it around to friends. See if it works for them. See if they'd be inclined to learn more or even purchase the item described based on the letter.

Work the letter out to the best it can be and send it out to clients and gauge the response. If response is good, chances are that one is on the right track in their copywriting efforts. One may even find that they have a knack for this task that they may have never guessed they did.

Track It

It's vitally important that one keep track of the sales resulting from one's copywriting efforts. This ensures that substandard copy gets fixed and made more effective and that particularly good copywriting is exploited to its maximum value. This is why some letter arrive in the mailbox over and over again: the companies that sent them had the good sense to pay attention and, thereby, determined that they were working as intended.

Remember the turns of phrase and headlines that worked and develop similar headlines and copy that employs those same elements. If it worked once, it will likely work again.

It is worthwhile to keep a record of all the sales copy one has produced and to look it over now and again for reference. It's easy to forget what worked in the past, but, if one has a copy of a particularly good sales letter there's no reason one shouldn't replicate it for another product. Keep track of all phases of the copy, from the initial pitch to those pitches that come later and are directed at customers to whom the first attempt didn’t appeal. Remember that three letters is enough for just

about any product. If the customer doesn’t express interest at this point and others have, it's likely that the product simply isn't useful to them. If no customers have expressed an interest by that point, it may be time to review the product itself and to see if it's worth keeping on with the marketing project or to simply let it go.