March 21st, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
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Every good copywriter (heck even most bad ones) have a “swipe file”. It’s a collection of excellent sales letters you can learn from. I’ve put together a swipe file of high-converting sales letters on the Internet for you. So what do you do with them?
Well, you could do a lot of things. Bookmark them (easier to bookmark my page), study them, or best of all copy them. No, I don’t mean steal them for your own us, I mean get out your pen and paper and copy them word for word.
The idea is to embed these letters in your brain. Don’t laugh. Gary Halbert made John Carlton do exactly that. I’ve done it and so has dozens of top copywriters I don’t feel worthy to hold a pen for. What have you got to lose?
Give it a shot. You’ll find the letters here (be forwarned, the page isn’t “pretty”):
Click here for Andy’s list of Hot Hot Hot Sales Letters.
March 15th, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
Everybody has a story to tell. A well-told story is the essence of getting your message across. People love stories and they will read yours if it’s the least bit interesting. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take much. You’ve heard of the “elevator speech” where you get to the heart of what you are and do in the time it takes to ride an elevator…haven’t you?
I first learned to tell a story is 60 seconds, long before I heard the term “elevator speach”.
Quite a few years ago, I worked in radio - both on-air and in sales (and production, and copywriting, and well… it was a really small station :-). My boss, Jack, loved selling 60-second commercials. Ah-haa! You say - more money.
Well, no not really. Yes, 60-second spots cost more but an effective ad always makes money so this should be irrelevant. Jack was a solid radio man who knew the business. What he said about 60-second spots was “it gives advertisers time to tell their story”.
Jack was not only right but way ahead of his time in a way. In other ways it proves another solid principle that is rarely fooled: people respond to short easy-to-grasp ideas offered in a clear manner.
Now back to your story:
It would hurt to work up a few fersions of your own elevator speech. Get the basics of who you are in as few words as possible. Expand a little for those times when you have more time. But tell your story. Here’s my own example:
I’m Andy Havens and I help business people sell more by improving response to their marketing message. First I look at what they say and replace weak points with strong ones. Then I test my concepts for them for guaranteed results. Go to SalesPageMakeovers.com for a free consultation on how I can help you gain more profit with no more effort.
Now is that the end-all and be all of elevator speeches? No. It doesn’t have to be. Yet I think you’ll agree it’s clear and concise and it tells you what I do when I ‘m not blogging here. You may also notice a “call to action”. It’s important to let folks know what you do but also guide them as to what you want them to do with this information.
Your own story can be as long or short as you need it to be. I say the longer the better because you can always edit it when needed.
So get started now. Brainstorm if need be - write down all the things that make up who you are and what you do. Work out a story. If you need help, find someone who is good at telling stories to offer suggestions. It’s worth it.
In your sales letter your story should be a focal point of your message - it tells WHY you’re doing what your doing. Look at my “Anatomy of a Sales Letter ” for an example of how that works. There’s a link to it at your right.
While your story doesn’t HAVE to be focal - it’s often a natural. My point is if it works - great. If not, don’t worry, you still need to get your story down on paper.
In case you’re wondering, yes we are almost ready to tackle that headline! Stay tuned.
God bless,
Andy
March 12th, 2008 — Tactical Copywriting
News: Today I’m adding an excellent product for anyone interested in writing better copywriting - Paperless Copywriting.
When anybody asks me about learning copywriting I always say three things: read as much as you can, write until your fingers bleed sales copy and test your copy in the market. Do those three things diligently and you’ll be able to write decent copy.
But what if you HATE writing? You can outsource the copywriting - no problem. Just one question… how do you know if you’re paying too much?
Anyone can call themselves a copywriter. Any copywriter can write lousy copy. Even the best bomb more often than you think. One way around this is testing. We deal with that a lot here. (If you need help testing - check out SalesPageMakeovers.com where we can help you test or do it all for you.
But if you hire someone to write copy for you - shouldn’t you have a good idea of what to expect? Plus if you know something about what it takes to write good copy you can make your copywriter’s job a lot easier (and save money) by providing good information about your product and the competition. So where do you learn about writing good copy?
There’s all sorts of books, ebooks, courses… you name it. You can read all of the stuff posted on TheGaryHalberLetter, John Carlton’s BigDamnBlog and a host of others. Or you can pick up a copy of Paperless Copywriting (I suggest you do all three eventually).
I’ve paid thousands of dollars to learn the stuff in this package. It’s good.
Paperless Copywriting is a collection of 10 of the best copywriting titles on the Internet all at your fingertips. You’ll even learn how to build an effective sales page. To learn more, click on the link below…
Click Here to Learn More About Paperless Copywriting…
God bless,
Andy
