8 Strategies To Catapult Your Copywriting Skills To The Next Level
I am about to share with you 8 quick ideas and suggestions to dramatically help you improve your copywriting skills as you get going.
You can use these tips when it comes to creating offers, E-mails and sales letters that grab people’s attention.
So without further ado, here they are!
Number one:
Always write your sales letter with the individual in mind.
Whenever you’re writing a sales letter or an E-mail, you want to write that E-mail or sales letter as though you were talking to one person.
Number two:
Pull them in with the first line.
You’ve got to create interest with the reader, the very first line that they read.
Number three:
Use bullets.
People like to scan, they like to quickly read things as fast as they can, and using bullets makes that whole process a heck of a lot easier. So use them.
Number four:
Just let it flow.
When you’re starting to write a letter, it is very difficult to just start from top to bottom and write everything.
When it comes to writing it and actually putting everything down in order, I want you to just write as it’s coming out.
You’re going to have moments when inspiration hits you and your pen is going to go like crazy or your fingers are going to go like crazy on the computer keyboard, and I want you to just let it flow.
Number five:
Write like you speak.
I briefly touched on this in one of the earlier points.
But it’s much easier for you to envision that you’re communicating with one individual as though you’re having a conversation with that person, because when that person reads your sales letter or your E-mail, they’re going to feel like you’re talking right to them, and that’s exactly what you want.
Number six:
Make your communication easy to read.
What I mean by that is use short paragraphs. Use pictures. I want you to bold certain things. I want you to highlight important areas.
Number seven:
I want you to stress the benefits and not the features.
I want you to put yourself in the shoes of the person reading your communication piece
The number one question that they’re going to be asking is: What’s in it for me?
You have to address those things, and you’ve got to stress the benefits of your particular communication piece that you’re trying to use.
Number eight:
I want you to keep the reader interested.
How do you do that? On a sales letter there are a ton of ways that you can keep the reader interested, and I’m going to give you a few of them right now.
– You can use graphs.
– You can use pictures.
– You can use audio.
– You can use video.
– Another one that people love to see are testimonials.
– Another one that you can always use is giving examples of proof.
– Do you have checks?
– Do you have screen shots of people registering for certain things?
Whatever you’re trying to sell or promote, I want you to give proof that it works or that it would provide benefit to the person that is reading it – screen shots, pictures, testimonials – these are all great things of proof.
So there you have it… 8 quick tips to improve your copywriting skills.
This is not the be all and end all of copywriting techniques but they will definitely help you jump over some of the hurdles that are standing in your way!
Copywriting For An Online Audience
So what’s the big deal about copywriting for the Internet? It’s the same as any other form of copywriting isn’t it? In a word, yes. But in another word, no. Confused? Sick of all these questions? I had better myself explain then.
No matter what medium you are using, all copywriting should have one prime objective – create an effective message that appeals to the audience it is intended to influence.
This golden rule applies to websites, brochures, and sales letters, even adding a nice message to Grandma’s little pink birthday card.
However, the Internet presents a number of unique challenges for a copywriter, even if the people reading your sales letters are the same ones reading your website.
Think about it for a minute. Do you read on the Internet the same way you read on paper? Not for long.
First of all, there are comfort factors such as the monitor resolution, colours, glare, and a reading surface that doesn’t move.
Secondly, we are conditioned to read websites in a different manner. Online, we are quite comfortable scanning sub-headings, clicking on hyperlinks, and jumping between pages.
Thirdly, the majority of people looking at your business website are there because they seek a service that you provide.
After all, they made the effort to visit you didn’t they? The online reader can be impatient and demanding, and they usually know what they want before they click through the door.
If your business doesn’t impress them straight away, it’s a quick tap on the keyboard to find someone who will. Even if you do provide the product or service they need, it doesn’t take much effort to duck into your competitors store for a browse around.
Website copywriting is a bit like speed dating – you have to make a big first impression and leave them thinking “I bet we’d be good together”.
Readers of hard copy sales material don’t have the luxury to pick and choose, so they become somewhat of a captive audience.
After all, it takes a lot more effort to call or visit your competitors business in the real world.
In addition, a brochure could sit on a potential customers desk for months, staring at them with puppy dog eyes, day in day out, until one day the customer decides to make some enquiries.
With these unique challenges in mind, here are a few copywriting pointers to help make your website a lean, mean, highly effective, sales machine:
1. Snatch their attention from the first paragraph
Most visitors spent less than one minute summing up a website before they decide whether to stay or go. There is no time for waffling paragraphs about who you are, where you live, and how your wife makes the best apple pie.
You have to get to the point as fast as you can. If you don’t convey your key message in the first few lines, don’t expect many people to be around to read them further on.
2. Short paragraphs
If you want people to read your website, forget the long descriptive, romantic prose about the salubrious ambience of your pulchritudinous offer. They will only think you are stercorous (take my word for it, you really don’t want to be).
Short paragraphs are most effective on the web because they can be differentiated and skimmed at a glance. Visual layout is the key.
3. Make sure your copy flows
Reading online is straining enough. Flowing on from the point above, using jargon, formal language and/or trying to impress your audience with your knowledge of words containing more than ten letters will only make the reader irritated, frustrated and start to think about places or sites they’d rather be.
4. KISS
Remember the old adage Keep It Simple Stupid? Write as though your audience is a bunch of twelve year olds.
Don’t sound patronising, but don’t assume they know anything about your business or what you do.
They have arrived laden with burning questions, “What are you selling?” “Why should I choose you?” “Where are you?” “How can I get some of this?” “How much is it?”
5. Appropriately tempt your audience
A lot of hot and personal activity goes down on the Internet, but lets face it, the technology itself isn’t causing readers monitors to fog up. The content is what makes things exciting.
The Internet itself is just an impersonal two-dimensional screen. Good copywriting might not always be intended to get the heart racing, but it must connect with your intended audience to break through this impersonal barrier.
Maybe you need a little humor, sophistication, cold corporate speak, personal touch, or yes, even something racy.
How To Get More People To Notice Your Advertising
HEADLINES are one of your biggest weapons for getting MORE PEOPLE TO NOTICE YOUR ADVERTISING, for whatever medium you choose to use.
Now you are using headlines, aren’t you? And NOT your logo – that’s not a headline. Only one person cares about your logo, AND THAT’S YOU.
Whereas a headline is something every single one of your prospects will be glued to like a kid on a cartoon. Whatever you’re writing, you’ve GOTTA HAVE A HEADLINE.
But here’s the deal, there a are good headlines and bad headlines, so I’m going to give you an absolute killer template headline that you should use THIS WEEK in your business.
Remember, a headline’s goal is to do one thing only – STOP YOUR PROSPECT IN THEIR TRACKS AND LOCK THEM ONTO YOUR AD, and some people say you only have 1.5 seconds to catch their attention, so you need to make it good!
Master copywriter David Ogilvy has said… “On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”
So if you’re using your own logo at the top of your ad, you could improve your response IMMEDIATELY, just by sticking ANY kind of headline up instead!
So would you like to know one of the great secrets for writing headlines that literally slap your prospect in the face and demand they open their wallet?Good, well here it is for you… MODEL HEADLINES THAT ALREADY WORK!!
Don’t try and reinvent the wheel, the best way to come up with fantastic headlines is to take what already works, and adapt it to your own business. Isn’t that simple?
Here’s an absolute knock-’em-dead blockbuster template for a headline:
IMPORTANT NEWS FOR HOMEOWNERS:
Don’t pay another phone bill until you read this…
IMPORTANT NEWS FOR WOMEN:
Don’t buy any makeup products until you read this…
IMPORTANT NEWS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS:
Don’t run another ad until you read this…
Do you see how powerful this is? And I’ve shown you 3 different versions, so all you have to do is apply it to your own business and you could easily double or even triple your responses! How about these headlines:
Do You Make These Mistakes With Your Money?
Do You Make These Mistakes Playing Golf?
Do You Make These Mistakes In Bed?
Do You Make These Mistakes Baking Cakes?
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. This particular headline works on your curiosity. It gets the reader to say to themselves, “maybe I’d better read on and find out.”
The main thing you really want your headline to do is to get your reader to be interested enough to see what else you’ve got to say. MAKE AN IMPACT! Remember the old saying ‘first impressions last’? Well that saying still applies today.
And now that we are bombarded with up to 5,000 advertising messages each day, it is more important than ever to stand out and BE NOTICED!
If you have a headline that literally screams out, READ ME, then you’ll be more than half way to having an effective advertising campaign that starts making profits for your business!
Remember the 80 cents out of each advertising dollar? Well now you know how to focus your efforts to have the maximum impact!
Keyword Article Companies
When it comes to making the most of your website or blog, you will need to have top notch content. The bottom line is that content brings visitors to your site, and visitors bring profits.
In order to increase traffic to your site, you will want to use a good mix of keyword articles. These will go a long way in increasing your traffic from search engines. Not to mention the fact that keyword articles can also be very educational.
When looking to choose a keyword article company to help you out, there are three important things that you should keep in mind. These details are as follows.
1. A good keyword article company should be devoted to helping you succeed through quality content. This means that you will want to find a service that offers quality content, not just fluff.
After all, people are going to be reading what you put on your site. If your writers do not do a good job you will not be making your visitors happy.
2. Even though price is not everything, you will want to take it into consideration. Think of it this way. If you need 10 articles a week, and one service offers them for $6 an article and another $8, you will be saving $20 total every week.
Over the course of a month this is $80; and during the year $960. Surely you could find something to do with an extra $960. Remember, costs can add up; shop for the best price without compromising quality.
3. Search for personal service. When you order any type of copywriting project chances are that you will need to be in touch with the writers you are working with.
This means that you should do your best to choose a service that will walk you through the process, not one that simply completes the work and sends it back without communication.
Overall, there are several top quality keyword article companies that are available to work for you. As long as you do your research and follow the tips above you should be able to find the one that best suits your needs.
Lower Cost & Increase Conversion of Your AdWords Ads
Comparison shoppers are the mortal enemy of pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers. When you’re paying each time someone clicks your AdWords (or other PPC) ad, the last thing you want is a person determined to visit every site to find the best price, the closest location or the most secure guarantee.
But, with many categories of products or services, it’s bound to happen. There is a way to eliminate many of the lookers, however.
When you qualify your AdWords leads, you can reduce the click-through rate (CTR) of browsers and help direct only those most interested in your offer to your site.
How is it done? By inserting text that will purposely eliminate arbitrary visitors.
Qualifying Your PPC Leads
Purposely eliminating visitors sounds like an awful thing to do, doesn’t it? Perhaps, until you consider the fact that – once these visitors got to your site and found out the details of your offer – they’d most likely leave anyway.
Why not save yourself a click (and the money associated with that click!) and prevent the visitor from running up your monthly AdWords bill? This is exactly what Steve Jackson of Conversion Chronicles and I discussed awhile back.
Since that discussion, I’ve come up with a process that will allow you to easily write pre-qualifying ads when you use these simple steps.
Step One
Outline the specifications of your offer. Be precise. List all the details of the offer, the price, length of time, physical location, size, etc. For example, say you have luxury cruise packages available.
You’d want to list the details such as: packages depart from New York City and go to several destinations in Mexico including Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán from December 5-15 for a cost of $2500 per person.
Step Two
Go back and highlight anything that would be a deal breaker. This is a luxury cruise, so the cost of $2500 per person might be too much for most people. Quite often, cruisers are looking for the best deal possible.
Also, the cruise only leaves from New York City. The additional airfare cost might not be something your site visitors want to add to the cost of their trip. Or, it may be inconvenient to depart from New York City.
What about the dates? These cruises are only available on the dates of December 5-15. Your site visitors may not be able to take a holiday during that time.
Does the visitor want to sail to the locations on the itinerary? Maybe they’ve already been to Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán and are looking for a cruise to Cabo San Lucas.
Are there other factors that might force shoppers to decline the offer and move to another site? If so, list them here.
Step Three
Now, decide which bits of information you want to include in your AdWords ads. You’ll want to test and track to see which combination of details bring the lowest click-through rates along with the highest conversions. For example, your ad might read:
Luxury Mexico Cruise 12/5
Tour tropical Cozumel, Puerto
Vallarta & more. Leave NYC. $2500pp
www.whatever.com
That would give a lot of information that would keep unqualified visitors from clicking through to your site (and running up your AdWords bill). At the same time, the use of words like “luxury” and “tropical” help the searcher visualize their wonderful vacation.
Another example could be a special shipment of microwave ovens. Let’s go through the steps once again.
Step One
The specifications include: convection/microwave combination, built-in with light and vent features, 1200 watts, white, $900, available on the Internet only.
Step Two
Any of these could be used to weed out visitors. Someone may not want the convection feature. They want a countertop microwave rather than a built-in model.
Twelve-hundred watts may be more powerful (and larger) than the visitor needs. Their kitchen may have stainless steel or black appliances, not white. Lastly, $900 could be more than they have budgeted for a microwave.
Step Three
Again, you’ll want to test and track to see which tidbits of information work best to bring qualified leads, reduce CTR and costs, and improve conversions.
Your ad might look like this:
Powerful Convec/Microwave
Special purchase. Attractive range
built-in with 1200w. Only $900.
www.whatever.com
Rather than using generic terms to describe high cost or frequently compared PPC items, get as specific as you can with “disqualifying” copy.
By weeding out those who would likely take one look and leave, you can save yourself a lot of money in AdWords expenses while increasing conversions.
