| |
| |
|
|
Copywriting Information |
|
|
|
10 Keys to Copy That Sells!
Whether you're selling a product or service, the 10 tips below are your keys to writing great copy that communicates and persuades ... to get results! These guidelines can apply to most any form of consumer marketing communications: sales letters, brochures, web copy, or direct mail. As long as your goal is to elicit a reaction from your reader, you've come to the right place. Many ads, brochures, and Web sites we see talk endlessly on and on about how great their products and companies are. Hello? Customer, anyone? Think of your reader thinking, "What's in it for me?" If you can, talk with some of your current customers and ask them 1) why they chose you, and 2) what they get out of your product or service. TIP: To instantly make your copy more reader-focused, insert the word "you" often. The fact that your product or service offers a lot of neat features is great, but what do they DO for your customer? Do they save her time or money? Give her peace of mind? Raise her image to a certain status? Here's an example: If you go buy a pair of Gucci sunglasses, you're not just looking for good UV protection. You're buying the sleek, stylish Gucci look. So that's what Gucci sells. You don't see their ads talk about how well made their sunglasses are. Think end results. Now, what does an insurance broker sell? Policies? No - peace of mind. (See? You've got it.) The first thing your reader sees can mean the difference between success and failure. Today's ads are chock full of clever headlines that play on words. They're cute, but most of them aren't effective. There are many ways to get attention in a headline, but it's safest to appeal to your reader's interests and concerns. And again, remember to make it reader centered - no one gives a hoot about your company. Bad: "SuccessCorp Creates Amazing New Financial Program" Better: "Turn Your Finances Around in 30 Days!" Like mini-headlines, subheads help readers quickly understand your main points by making the copy "skimmable." Because subheads catch readers" eyes, you should use them to your benefit! Read through your copy for your main promotional points, then summarize the ideas as subheads. To make your subheads engaging, it's important to include action or selling elements. Bad: "Our Department's Successes." Better: "Meet Five Clients Who Saved $10K With Us." Write to your customers like you'd talk to them. Don't be afraid of using conversational phrases such as "So what's next?" or "Here's how do we do this." Avoid formality and use short, easy words. Why? Even if you think it can't possibly be misunderstood, a few people still won't get it. Avoid industry jargon and buzzwords - stick to the facts and the benefits. An easy way to weed out jargon is to think of dear old Mom reading your copy. Would she get it? If not, clarify and simplify. (This rule, of course, varies, depending on who your target audience is. For a business audience, you should upscale your words to what they're used to. In these cases buzzwords are often crucial. Just make sure your points don't get muddled in them!) No one has time to weed through lengthy prose these days. The faster you convey your product or service's benefits to the reader, the more likely you'll keep her reading. Fire your "biggest gun" first by beginning with your biggest benefit - if you put it toward the end of your copy, you risk losing the reader before she gets to it. Aim for sentence lengths of less than 20 words. When possible, break up copy with subheads (see no. 4), bullets, numbers, or em dashes (like the one following this phrase) - these make your points easy to digest. Let your prospects know they won't be the first to try you. Give results-oriented testimonials from customers who have benefited immensely from your product or service. Oh, and never give people's initials only - it reminds me of those ads in the back of magazines with headlines like "Lose 50 Pounds in Three Days!" Give people's full names with their titles and companies (or towns and states of residence) - and be sure to get their permission first. Tell your reader what you want her to do - don't leave her hanging. Do you want her to call you or e-mail you for more information? Order now? Call to schedule a free consultation? Complete a brief survey? Think about what you'd most like her to do, and then ask her. It's amazing how many marketing materials I come across every day that don't make it clear what the reader should do. If you wrote interesting copy, your reader may forget you're trying to sell something. Tell her what to do, and she'll be more likely to do it. Good. Now have it proofread again. Don't risk printing any typos, misspellings, or grammatical mistakes that will represent your company as amateurish. Hire a professional editor/proofreader to clean up your work and double-check your grammar. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impession! Oops - *impression*. (c) 2002 Alexandria K. Brown ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is author of the award-winning manual, "Boost Business With Your Own E-zine." To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/
MORE RESOURCES: This RSS feed URL is deprecated, please update. New URLs can be found in the footers at https://news.google.com/news
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Some Important Tips On Proposals And Price Here's a critically important copywriting technique I use when writing sales letters and proposals for our own direct marketing services and for our clients.It's all about "price". Touching the Prospect's Emotions in Your Sales Letter Your prospect has emotions? and you MUST touch these emotions in your sales letter. Your copy has to excite. Are Long Copy Salesletters Scams? A passionate debate is currently raging in the Copywriters Forum about long versus short copy. (If you haven't joined, do so. 7 Big Ticket Copywriting Secrets I Learned from Ted Nicholas I recently sponsored and attended Joel Christopher and Ted Nicholas's Double Birthday Bash and Interactive Marketing Summit in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. There was a fantastic lineup of speakers including John Assaraf, Joe Vitale, Brad Fallon, George McKenzie, Shawn Casey, Alan Bechtold, Tom "Big Al" Schreiter, Brian Keith Voiles, Rosalind Gardner, and Sydney Johnson. 11 Things You MUST Know Before Hiring a Copywriter! If you're considering hiring copywriting help for your next brochure, Web site, or marketing project. Congratulations! You should get great results if you hire a pro to do it right. Hooks, Lines & Sinkers Hands up if the title to this article made you think that you'd strayed into a fishing feature?Perhaps you didn't quite go that far, but hopefully you were puzzled or curious enough to wonder what on earth those three angling associated words have to do with writing. The answer of course is nothing at all if you are thinking of metal barbs, yards of tangled nylon and blobs of lead weights. Why Copywriting Is The Secret To Your Online Success Over the last decade, the number of companies selling their products and services on the Web or sharing information online with their target market has exploded.It's no longer frowned upon to conduct your business on the Web, and huge numbers of people are making a healthy living doing just that. Writing Benefit-Driven Web Copy - 4 Steps to More Sales You've identified the benefits you offer your customers, but how do you turn a list of benefits into engaging web copy which converts visitors into customers?Recently I wrote an article explaining how to identify the benefits you offer your customers (http://www.divinewrite. 3 Keys to Better Online Copywriting Doing the copywriting for your own website without the proper knowledge and tools is pretty much like flying blind in a snowstorm without piloting experience or instruments.It doesn't work too well. How to Negotiate Rates with a Freelance Copywriting Expert Lots of people who seek out my copywriting services are concerned about money. Rightfully so. Content is King IntroductionA pencil. Yes, a pencil. Do You Make These 5 Mistakes When Writing Sales Copy? Writing copy has sometimes been compared to an "art." While it does take creative skill to write great copy that generates results, there are some mistakes that you should avoid to make sure that your copy is read and acted upon. 42 Deadly Ad Copy Sins That Ive Made I have read thousands of ad copies online and offline over my lifetime. I have read excellent ad copies that made me buy right away and some that may have had a decent product, but had a poor ad copy that turned me away. Writing Tips for Your Website Now that your website is up and running, it's time to add content. Fresh content will make your site interesting and keep people (and search engine crawlers) coming back. Copywriting Makeover: Making An Emotional Connection - Part 1 of 2 One statistic shows that over 80% of all buying decisions are emotional. That means your copywriting should be, too. Copywriter Rates, Getting The Facts Beforehand Have you ever had the experience of hiring a freelance copy writer only to find that the project takes longer than expected, or that the fees they offered are 'flexible' in the wrong way for you to benefit. There is no doubt that copywriter rates differ greatly from one to another. Beyond Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tales arent the Only Thing Needing Catchy Openings Once a upon a recent time in a galaxy not so far away, I received an e-newsletter that provided valuable dos and don'ts for email newsletter publication. Ah, something about this newsletter didn't pull me in to read its tales nor did I take out the sword to slash my name from the e-newsletter distribution list. The Number One Copywriting Technique That Makes Your Prospects Read Every Word You Write How does this sound?Today, I'm going to show you how to get a fifteen page sales letter read from beginning to end and keep your prospect magnetized to *every* paragraph along the way. Impossible?The real magic behind these magnetic sales letters is not some mystical skill or secret formula but rather a simple copywriting concept that has been around longer than most of us have been alive. Prevent Procrastination With Positive Pressure My wife and I recently bought a house.It's currently being built and moving day is slated for December. How To Make A Career Out Of Copyediting And Proofreading Do you possess the qualities of a good proof reader? Are you good with details, spotting errors in spelling, grammar, and the flow of a piece and putting together quality work? If so, you may be able to make a career out of copyediting or proofreading. For those looking to get in to this field of copywriting, they may be stuck looking in if they do not know where or how to get established.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |