Dynamic Copywriting

I just read a really interesting article by Robert Stover on his blog, Breakthrough Copywriting Ideas, called “The Antidote to 'Howler Monkey' Copy – The Ethos Effect.

“Howler Monkey” means copy that shouts or is full of hype. It sounds phoney or contrived. And it puts a reader's guard up because it lacks believability .. and yet you can't help but trip over examples of over-hyped websites and sales material all over the web.

But the question for most of us who make our livings marketing on the web is how to be persuasive without resorting to extravagant claims.

To answer this, Stover refers us to the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who wrote about persuasion in his work “Rhetoric.” Aristotle said there are three tools used by great persuaders.

The first is “Pathos” from which we get our word, “passion.” Pathos refers to emotion. It excites either the fear of pain or loss, or it promises pleasure or gain. Pathos is key to any persuasive copy and is always the core of any sales material worth its salt.

But the danger with Pathos is it can be overdone, resulting in hype. Once that line is crossed, your credibility is gone and cannot be regained.

The second tool is “Logos” from which we get our word, “Logic.”

Logic is never as persuasive as emotion, but in most cases it must be included in good copy. It seldom persuades, but it is always conspicuous if it is absent.

Finally, Aristotle gives us the tool of “Ethos.”

Ethos is character and credibility. Stover points out that your family doctor usually has high ethos, whereas a used car salesman stereotypically has very low ethos. Unfortunately, ethos is often left out of online copy and websites suffer when this important element is missing.

Stover describes two keys to ethos: The first key is when the seller has expertise. The second is when you perceive that the seller has your best interest at heart.

To illustrate these two keys, he gives two examples of financial counselors. One is your brother who has just started a job as a financial advisor. You would probably trust your brother to have your best interests at heart, but you might not consider him to have much in the way of credibility.

On the other hand, you might know of a millionaire stock broker who obviously knows investments and is an expert in his field, but you may not trust him to put your interests above his own.

I don't want to give away everything in Robert Stover's article, so I encourage you to check out “The Antidote to 'Howler Monkey' Copy – The Ethos Effect to read more about the power of Ethos and how to establish it on your own website or marketing materials.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown
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Let's go over this again, "Headlines are the most important part of your advertisement/web content/sales letter or any other marketing communication."

The headline pulls readers into the rest of your piece. It tells them there is something here that may help them and is worth reading.

You knew all that, right? But don't be ashamed if you have wandered off the path and into the dark woods. We've all done it and gotten too caught up in our own creativity. Just don't get lost in those woods. Get back on the path as soon as you can.

There are two other things I want to say about headlines. First, the old tried and true formulas continue to work because they still appeal to buyers' basic needs.

And second, only the market place can determine which headline is most effective. Think of your buyers as voters. You can't tell them how to vote (they are, after all, voting with their money), all you can do is wait to see HOW they vote.

And all this leads me to a colorful copywriter from Australia named Trevor Crook. Take a look at this video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO1adJvZneA) in which he compares three actual headlines used by a chiropractor to generate leads for his practice.

Trevor gives you a chance to choose which of the three headlines you think outsold the others before he reveals the winner. I won't reveal the winning headline for you, but I will say that I didn't guess right either, and I am in this business.

This again goes to show that ONLY THE BUYERS can vote on which headline motivates them most.

As you watch this video, another thing you should notice is how OLD all these headlines sound. They are tired old formulas that have been used over and over and over and over again. Many are nearly a century old, and yet they are still used BECAUSE THEY STILL WORK.

The link again is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO1adJvZneA. Trevor may seem like a character (I'm sure he is one) but he knows his stuff.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown

freelance copywriter, ghost writer, lawyer marketing, lawyer advertising, web content writer, white papers

Here is an excellent article by Elaine Berry that provides a different spin on why a copywriter must give customers a reason to act. Often we assume readers of our delightful prose will just fall into our laps by the sheer beauty of our writing. Not so. If we are in the business of getting people to take action, we must spell out a clear reason for them to do so.
Charles Brown

Have you ever had this experience?

You are selling what you believe is a very valuable product. You are marketing it for $97 and have written a brilliant sales letter. But sales aren’t what you hoped. So you step up your sales pitch: “Order by midnight tonight and this $97 product is yours for $47!”

You sit back and wait for the sales rush. But it doesn’t happen.

Why not? Almost certainly, because you haven’t given a REASON! If it cost $97 yesterday, how come I can get it for $47 today?

People are suspicious. And the more seductive the offer, the more suspicious they are. They want to know:
· WHY should I buy this product?
· WHY will it work for ME?
· WHY are you reducing the price?

There is one word above all that you need to include in your copy. This word alone has been shown to have a massive impact on sales. This word is “BECAUSE”.

· WHY should I buy this product? Remember BENEFITS sell products. Tell people that they need to buy this product BECAUSE this is what it will do for them or this is the problem it will solve for them. If you are marketing a hair-restorer, emphasize that the customer needs to buy it BECAUSE it will improve confidence, end embarrassment, help in attracting the opposite sex, lead to a happier life and so on.
· WHY will it work for ME? Give very specific reasons. If you have a scientific-sounding reason, so much the better – these are always very reassuring. For instance, you should buy this hair-restorer BECAUSE it contains the brand-new product “X” which has been scientifically proven to be effective in 99.9 percent of cases.
· WHY are you reducing the price? Remember that the most potent “reason why” is always the TRUTH! If you are reducing because you are experimenting with prices, say so! If you need to raise some cash in a hurry, say so! If you are aiming to build a relationship with your customers so that they will buy more of your products in the future, say so! People will respond.

There was a famous social psychology experiment in which the experimenter, standing in a line to use a copy machine, requested people ahead of her to allow her to get to the front. A much larger percentage of people agreed when she gave a reason, than when she did not. But, remarkably, in a third experiment, she simply asked, “Could I use the machine first BECAUSE I need to make some copies?” A full 93 percent agreed, yet this time there was no reason given – the effect was achieved just by the inclusion of the word “BECAUSE”!

If you haven’t been using this secret weapon, you’ve been missing out on what has been found time and time again to be one of the most powerful triggers for massively increasing sales. Try it – BECAUSE it works!

Elaine Berry is the owner of Bizwrite, the only one-stop-shop for help and tuition on all aspects of writing. Come and find out about our copywriting, ghostwriting and article-writing services and get a FREE 12-part e-course on copywriting!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Elaine_Berry


COPYRIGHT © 2007, Charles Brown

All of us in the copywriting trade come across business people who are shocked that we charge money to write for them. Check out Drew MLellan's blog, Drew's Marketing Minute, for an example of what happens when companies try to do their copywriting in house. This is a funny and sad example of why a good writer earns his or her fee.

The link to Drew's article is Do You Have Any Idea What He Is Selling?, and if you can guess what this company was trying to sell, you are far better than I am.


COPYRIGHT © 2007, Charles Brown

freelance copywriter, ghost writer, web content writer, white papers

This is the third, final, and perhaps the most important, article in a series on the topic of features vs. benefits. It will deal with the emotional reasons people buy any product or service.

This series was inspired by the many ads, websites and marketing materials I’ve seen recently that seem to offer little or no benefits to the would-be customer. Hints, yes. Vague references to something better, yes. But very, very few strong benefit statements that boldly tell the customer how this product or service will change their lives, solve their problems or open up new opportunities for them.

So now let’s get started on the all-important emotional benefits.

Emotions outsell logic and facts 10 to 1. There’s an old but true saying that goes, “people buy on emotion and justify with logic.” Even for corporate customers, your material must convince a human buyer who makes decisions in part based on how these decisions will further her career or cast her in a bad light with others in the company. Leaving out the emotional element can, and often is, fatal to your efforts.

Emotional benefits go right to the heart (literally) of why people make decisions. Often called “psychological triggers,” these reasons are the needs that operate like software in our brains.

Take, for example, home exercise equipment. The logical benefits behind making such a purchase might be to lose weight, to be healthier or to have more energy. All valid reasons that should be included in your copy if you are selling such a product.

But the emotional benefits might be to look good to members of the opposite sex, to enhance your own confidence, to help your career because you look better, to be accepted by others or to be able to wear certain clothing in the summer. All of these reasons might sound slightly shallow, but they are a part of all our psychological makeup.

According to John Caples in his book, Tested Advertising Methods (Fifth Edition) a partial list of these psychological triggers (which he calls appeals) is:

• Make more money
  
• Save money
  
• Retirement security
  
• Better health now
  
• Health care security
  
• Security in old age
  
• Career advancement
  
• Sex, acceptance by the opposite sex, love or affection
  
• Greed, including all the things that money can buy
  
• Fear of loss, fear of failure or fear of losing
  
• Duty/Honor/Professionalism, which means our altruistic motives of doing what’s right or best for others or simply doing our jobs well, or doing what’s right for our employer or organization
  
• Desire to avoid embarrassment or rejection
  
• Desire for acceptance or popularity(or as Caples puts it, the desire to be one of the “in” group)
  
• Competitiveness (which might include the desire to own a better car than your neighbor)

As you look over this list of psychological triggers (which is by no means a complete list of the emotional reasons people make decisions) you will notice that sometimes different triggers can be used to sell the same product or service.

For example, going back to that corporate buyer mentioned earlier, she might be motivated by her professionalism to do what was right for her company, her desire for career advancement, her fear of hurting her career by making a bad decision (back in the 60s, 70s and 80s a common business proverb advised that no one ever lost their job for choosing IBM), fear of making a bad decision which might turn out to be an embarrassment

With all this said, I’d like to mention a very good method for making all these emotional reasons and psychological triggers very real to the reader of your material. In her bookWeb Copy That Sells, Maria Veloso uses a device she calls the emotional scenario to paint a vivid picture for the reader.

What Veloso’s emotional scenario does is create a story-like scene in which the reader can see and feel the emotional cost of the problem they now face. Then she puts the reader right inside another scene to contrast that problem scene, which show how they could feel if the problems were resolved. This second scene allows the reader to experience the ownership of your product and assumes that the sale has already been made.

It works like this (we’ll go back to using the home exercise equipment mentioned earlier):

It’s 2:00 in the afternoon and you find that you are having to tuck your shirt back in again because your “spare tire” keeps your clothing from fitting right. You’ve been trying to catch the new woman’s eye for weeks now, but you think she doesn’t pay any attention to you because you look out of shape and over weight. On top of all that, you are getting tired and listless and don’t know how you’ll have the energy to make it until the end of the day.

Now imagine it’s just four weeks after buying your new Super Ab Cruncher. Your clothes fit great and you feel more lean and muscular than you have in years. You feel like a bundle of energy and your boss has complimented you twice this week on the productivity level you have been performing at. On top of that, the new woman just asked you out for drinks after work.

Ok that would definitely need more work before I would ever put that on an ad or website, but as rough as it is you still get the idea of to put the reader, as the main character, into an emotional scene.

Remember that your customers and clients are first of all people, not analytical machines. It takes more than facts and logic to persuade any human to make a decision or take action. If your ads, website or marketing materials fail to take into account the emotional nature of the people you are writing to, you will never see the results you are looking for.

freelance copywriter, ghost writer, web content writer, white papers

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

The year after winning the Super Bowl, Vince Lambardi began the next season’s pre season practices with drills on blocking and tackling. In other words, even as world champions, he felt his great Green Bay Packers needed to keep learning and relearning the basics of the game.

In marketing and copywriting, the basics of our game are features and benefits.

Every day I see this need to relearn the basics of features and benefits. Daily I run across full-page magazine ads or web sites that leave me entertained, or even make me think, but do not give me or any other reader a compelling REASON to buy.

I am convinced that tremendous amounts are money are wasted each year by businesses that create advertisements, marketing materials and web content, which fail to give buyers compelling REASONS to buy from these companies.

Not only is money wasted as a result of the poor returns on investments these advertisements et al. generate; the failure to capture new customers and new sales, is likely an even bigger, although unseen, cost to these businesses.

“REASONS” to buy, of course is just another way to say “BENEFITS.” This article is part two of a series on one of the basics of our field, how to distinguish features from benefits. It is an attempt for all of us to go back to drilling on the "blocking and tackling" aspects of our game of marketing and copywriting.

So let's begin:

Why do you and I buy things? Why do we spend our money, whether it is our own money or money spent on behalf of our company, to acquire goods and services?

These questions get to the heart of what distinguishes a real benefit from a mere feature that looks and smells kinda like a benefit. With all that in mind, let’s look at four basics to our game of marketing and copywriting, when it comes to creating reasons and benefits:

1. Change. I once read an over-hyped direct mail piece that began with the words, “This Product Will Change Your Life!” Now I don’t recommend using such extreme hyperbole to start your copy, but sometimes I write a similar statement at the top of my legal pad when I start working on a new copywriting project. My statement reads: ”How Can This Product (or Service) Change Someone’s Life (or business, or whatever)?”
   
   Why would you buy a new luxury car? I presume you already own a car, so your basic transportation needs are already met. You might buy a new Mercedes because you want to change the experience you get when you drive. Or you might buy a hybrid in order to get more fuel efficiency out of a new car.
   
   Why would a company lease new office space? Possibly because changing their office gives them more room or puts them in a better location to gain or service their customers.
   
   
2. Make a Promise. A real benefit is always a promise. If you spend a lot of money on an ad that fails to make a clear, specific promise to your target customers, you are wasting their time and your money.
   
   What do you promise? Re-read step one. What kind of changes or improvements do your target customers want to make? I begin every copywriting project I take on by writing out a list of "I wants" as if I were the customer telling me what kinds of promises would appeal to him or her.
   
   Make your promises target that area between where they are right now and where they want to be.
   
   
3. Offer a Solution. Next, a real benefit is usually a solution to a real problem. Now I tend to go off on tirades when I see the word, “solutions” bandied about like a buzzword. (See my recent article, "Solutions" is Not Just a Buzzword to see what I mean). A real solution is tied to a specific problem.
   
   Most, if not all benefits are actually solutions to an aggravating problem (see another previous article You're Really Just Selling Aspirin).
   
   If you can identify problems your potential clients face, you can craft solutions that help them relieve, escape or avoid the pain caused by those problems.
   
   
4. Opportunity. In the few instances that you are selling a problem that does not solve a problem, it will probably open the door to an opportunity, even if the opportunity is just pleasurable.
   
   When you see an ad for a quaint country inn with a cozy fireplace and a spectacular view of a peaceful lake, that ad is presenting you with the opportunity to spend an enjoyable, romantic weekend.
   
   When you see an ad for a local MBA program that can be taken in the evening, that ad is presenting the opportunity to advance your career. When you see an ad for a charitable organization, that ad is giving you the opportunity to give to a worthy cause. If your ad shows how to help small companies become big companies, you are presenting an opportunity.
   
   All of these opportunities are benefits that must be spelled out clearly in your ad, marketing material, website etc.

Find out what motivates your prospective clients. Chances are their goals and ambitions will either be to solve a problem or seek out an opportunity (or both).

There is no excuse to fill your marketing materials with creative drivel that does not compel a reader to act. Real benefits show readers how to experience a change for the better, make a clear and definite promise, solve a problem or point the way to an opportunity.

Anything else is a waste of your marketing budget.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

Sometimes it suddenly dawns on me that things that seem so easy to me are a real hurdle for others who are in different professions. That statement is actually a no-brainer when you think about it, but it still comes as a shock when it happens in reality.

For example, the whole “Features vs. Benefits” thing is a real challenge for most business people. It is hard, as an example, for many businesses to translate what they DO into language that means what they can DO FOR the client. The reason is that to an insider, features are code words for what these things do for the customer. A car maker, for example, automatically leaps the gap between "Anti-Lock Brakes" and "safety on wet or icy roads."

But to the consumer, "Anti-Lock Brakes" may sound like just one more gizmo on that new car. Because of this, it is always necessary to run descriptions of your product or service through the “what’s in it for me” filter and think about it from the point of view of your customer.

With all this in mind, I am going to devote the next several days to writing about how to translate all the facts and information about a product or service into benefit statements that can be used on your website, advertisements, white papers, direct mail, etc.

So let’s launch this series of articles off by recycling an article I wrote on October 16 of this year called, ”Pile On The Benefits Until They Can’t Say No.”

What happens when you read a sales letter that contains a long list of bullet point benefit statements? What happens to me is all my resistance just crumbles away under this machine-gun fire of reasons why I must buy this service or product.

When a copywriter writes copy that lists one benefit after another in bullet point form, my mind simply cannot come up with objections or reasons not to buy fast enough to keep up with the copywriter.

As a freelance copywriter myself, I can appreciate the kind of work that went into writing this kind of copy. Many writers barely seem to be able to come up with one or two benefit statements, let alone an entire list. So I know this isn’t a writer who just sat down and quickly slapped down some copy.

But writing a long list of benefit statements is not as difficult as it first appears. There are several ways to organize your thoughts in order to write out a long list of benefit statements:

1. Write out every possible problem your product or service solves for the customer.
   
   
2. Write out consequences of not doing business with you or the consequences of delaying action.
   
   
3. Think of every emotional reward your product or service can give your reader.
   
   
4. Now also write down the logical rewards your product or service offers.
   
   
5. List every reason why your reader should do business with you.
   
   
6. Look at your product or service from your potential customers’ point of view. List their wants. You are brainstorming here, putting yourself into the mindset of your potential clients.
   
   
7. Write out a list of what they don’t want. Put down on paper every hassle, problem, pain or aggravation you can think of.
   
   
8. Go back over the last two lists and write out why your clients want or don’t want these things. Probe into reasons and motives. Again, you are brainstorming here. Your goal is to try to understand the emotional benefits behind first level benefits.
   
   
9. Go back over everything you’ve written and write benefit statements. Use action verbs and paint word pictures. Poke at the painful areas. Discover different ways to state the same benefit as a positive or a negative, what the customer gets and what she avoids. Try to write over a hundred benefit statements if you can. I guarantee nothing you come up with will be wasted.

The simple fact is that the more benefits you roll out, the fewer objections your reader can think of. As they read a long list like this, readers begin to run out of reasons not to do business with you.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

A lot of big ads are bloated and ineffective. My theory is that the copywriter wants to say so much that he/she loses focus on how to say it.

Here’s a solution: Stick to writing offers by first writing your ad as if it were a small or classified ad. Then expand later.

My definition of an offer is that it must contain two parts:

1. It must contain a clear action you want your potential customer to take. This action can be: to pick up the telephone and call you, to come into your place of business, to opt into an email subscription list, to visit your website, to clip out a coupon and send it in, or to request a free information product, etc.
   
   
2. The offer must also contain a clear and compelling REASON for the potential customer to take the above action. You do this, of course, with a strong benefit that answers the “what’s in it for me?” question.

The beauty of writing out a small ad, even if you eventually want to write a large ad, is that small ads force you to stick to the basics of your offer. You simply have no room in a small ad to waste words or deviate from the straight line between the benefit and the responsive action.

If I ran a big ad agency, I would start all the new copywriters off by writing nothing but small ads over and over again until they could write them in their sleep. Too often copywriters develop excellent creative skills and learn to balance form with function, but they never really learn to write an offer.

When you write a small ad, start with the action you want your reader to take. If you ever lose sight of what you want the person to do, you ad will wander off course and get lost amidst all your creativity.

Next, write a headline that contains both a strong benefit and a powerful, compelling REASON for someone to take the action you just described.

If you are writing a big ad, start with this small ad format as a way to clarify both your offer and the headline you want to use. Then, as you expand the ad, you can include more benefits that give readers even more of a reason to act. You can also clarify the action you wish them to take.

By writing your big ad as a small ad first, you are literally writing your ad from the inside out. But, if you write it this way, your ad will never lose sight of the offer that lies at the heart of your message.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

I could call this article, “More Great Moments in Wasteful Advertising,” but I’m saving that one for the future. I’m sure I’ll get another opportunity to use it soon.

On the back cover of the latest Fast Company magazine (the January 2007 issue), is a big, expensive ad from the software company, SAP. They have a picture of an average-looking guy with a headline that says,

“SAP Has Affordable Solutions For Midsize Companies?
This Better Not Be Another Prank By The Guys in Procurement.”

Yes, it is an amusing ad, but it communicates nothing other than the fact that SAP does something or other for midsize companies as well as the big boys.

Well whoopee! If you look really close, there is a quasi benefit that sort of limps onto the ad down at the bottom where the copy reads, “..modular solutions that let you buy only the software you need now…” And then this poor little benefit wannabe limps back off stage never to be seen again.

I’m all for offering solutions, except when you just offer “solutions.” In other words, go ahead and solve actual problems, but don’t throw the word “solutions” around as if it is code for all kinds of wonderful things you can do for me.

“Solutions” (the word) is bandied about in all kinds of ads these days, without specific examples of problems being solved. “Solutions” has become a buzzword meant to replace the hard work of showing problems getting taken care of.

To quote from the classic movie, Cool Hand Luke, “what we have here is failure to communicate.”

Copywriters use the word “solutions” because it sounds nice and because it is a lot less work than narrowing the scope of an ad by specifying certain needs.

But, my offended copywriting colleagues say, “if you narrow the scope of the ad to only those readers who are affected by this particular problem, you exclude all those readers who are not affected by it.

Yep, that’s right. That is the beauty of targeting a niche. Now SAP could solve this problem of excluding some readers (did you notice I just tied the word “solve” to a specific problem?) in one of two ways.

First, they could run a series of ads, each targeting certain audiences by focusing on certain problems and solutions. Chances are these targeted ads will grab those targeted readers much more than the bland generality they are running now.

Second, they could run a single ad with a menu of problems and offer a free booklet to IT managers, CFOs or other managers who identify with one or more of those problems. Now to be fair, the Fast Company ad does mention their website at the very bottom of the ad. It is a lame mention that says, “learn more at sap.com/midsize.”

Directing a reader to your website, before you have aroused her interest, is expecting the customer to do all your work for you. For every one person this ad gets to check out the website, 10,000 will yawn and forget it.

But, by offering a free booklet or guide, and promising tons of benefits which will be contained within its pages, SAP could not only attract much more interest, they could also generate a lot of leads to be followed up on later.

To sum all this up, when you see the word “solutions” used as a buzzword, you are seeing the work of a lazy copywriter or marketer. Benefits are solutions, but always use it as a specific cure for a specific problem.

For all the money SAP surely spent on this ad, they really should be able to do better.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

One of the biggest mistakes a freelance writer can make when writing a website’s content is an unfocused goal.

When a visitor happens upon your site, what do you want that person to do? Actually. A more focused goal would be, what do you want your visitor to decide?

The same thing goes for readers who cast their eyes upon your brochure, your advertisement, your sales letter or any other marketing material you create.

What decision do you want to influence your reader to make?

If you have a clear idea of this, you can create copy that steers that reader toward that decision. If you want the person to buy now, or request more information or opt into your subscriber list, or call your toll-free number, you have to make every word you write lead them toward making that decision.

This means you have to demonstrate the benefits they will receive when they make that decision, the consequences of not, and provide all the information they need to feel confident in such a decision.

Do readers always do what you want them to do? Hardly, so for longer copy or a website with many pages, you will need to establish secondary decisions as your objectives.

These secondary objectives are fall back decisions you want them to make. If they don’t chose to buy now, lead them to subscribe to your email newsletter. If they don’t chose to subscribe to your email list, lead them to bookmark your site. These fall back decisions do not require as much of a decision as your primary objective.

With decision-goals in place, your job of writing becomes easier and more focused:

• You know what to leave out and what to put in,
  
• You know what reasons to provide the reader,
  
• You know how to heighten awareness of what will happen if they don’t act,
  
• You can build urgency to act now,
  
• You can show how alternative decisions can lead to painful results,
  
• And, you can paint a happy, rosy picture of how much better life will be after the reader makes the right decision.

Without a clear decision-goal, your copy moves no one and accomplishes nothing. But with a clear goal, every element in your copy can direct your reader to make the desired decisions.

freelance copywriter, copywriting tips, ghost writer

Every freelance copywriter spends grueling hour upon hour trying to convince readers that a certain product, service or company is the “best.” After all, why should your customer buy your product if the competing “Brand X” product is superior?

Well there are two problems with the whole issue of which product, service or company is the best. First, how do you determine what “best” really is?

And second, how do you communicate “best” in a way that is convincing to a well-justified public’s skepticism that “best” isn’t just puffery or downright lies?

Years ago, just after I graduated from college, I went to work for a giant financial services company in their telephone call center. My job was to answer a wide variety of questions people had about the mutual funds this company offered.

A frequent question people asked was, which was the “best” mutual fund?

There really is no way to answer that question. All the funds were managed to do different things and meet the needs of different investors. The way I learned to respond to the “best” question has direct application to a freelance copywriter trying to communicate “best” in the copy he writes.

“Best” depends on the circumstances, the customer, what the customer wants, what problem the customer wants solved and an endless list of other situation-specific factors.

So I learned to ask callers questions about whether they were now retired or planning for retirement? If they were planning for retirement, how many years away was it and what were they setting aside to save for the day they would be given their gold watch?

I asked questions to determine what their objectives were, how much risk and market volatility they could comfortably stomach, and what other investments they had in their portfolio.

The goal of all these questions was to help them put together a balanced portfolio to meet their own individual needs and objectives.

So what does this have to do with helping freelance copywriters write compelling copy? The “best” widget varies depending on the customer’s needs and circumstances. If you know your target customer, you can carve out a niche to be the “best” for that type of person, or company. The more you learn to speak that target customer’s language and communicate understanding for the problems she faces, the more credibility you will convey that your widget is the “best” for her.

It’s all about not trying to be the “best” for the entire human race. I’ve spoken before about creating a new category and dominating that category to the point that you own that category. Why be a little fish in a big pond when you can be the big fish in your own pond? I recommend you read my article on how to create your own unique selling proposition (USP) called, 10 Steps to Writing a Powerful USP for more on this subject.

The answer to the “best” question is, “that depends.” That answer sounds evasive but it is not. It has to do with finding out more about who your customer is and how to surgically solve that customer’s problems. Once you do that, you can truthfully and credibly claim to be the very best.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

As a freelance copywriter, I am keenly aware that my work will often be the first impression many people have of my client and my client’s product or service.

As in all areas of life, preparation divides the winners from the rest of the pack. But how can a freelance copywriter lay the groundwork to write great, compelling copy that produces new customers, new sales and new profits?

It comes down to two things: (1) Know your customer; and (2) Know your product.

Knowing Your Customer.

• Why would a customer buy this product? What need does it appeal to? What reason motivates a customer to buy something like your product? If you cannot find the need you are appealing to, all the rest of your work will fall flat. I have explored this whole topic in another article called Freelance Copywriter Secrets: How to Tap Into Your Readers' Deepest Needs, which you might want to check out.
  
• What problem does your customer need to solve? What changes do your customers want to bring about? These solutions and changes are the benefits they are looking for that you can highlight.
  
• What motivates your customers to buy NOW? What cretes urgency? What events can trigger a decision to seek out this type of product or service?
  
• When considering a product like yours, what is a your buyer’s main concern? Is it price, selection, performance, reliability, how long the product will last, customer or technical support after the sale, the warranty and guarantee, the seller’s reputation or how quickly it can be delivered? All these are common factors that go into a buyer’s decision, but you must know what they are before you begin to write.
  
• What demographic type of person is a buyer for your product and how can this demographic type be targeted and reached? In other words, how will you choose the media to advertise in or the list to buy for direct mail?

Knowing Your Product.

• Know the differences between the product’s features and benefits. Familiarity with a product can sometimes be a handicap because features can come to be “buzzwords” for what the product will do for a customer. For example, for insiders in the auto industry, ABS braking systems are synonymous with safety and skid protection on slippery roads. But don’t assume your reader makes the same mental connection.
  
• What problems does the product solve? This is one of my main techniques to help me distinguish features from benefits. Solutions are benefits. The things that aid in bringing about the solution are the features.
  
• Find out what tasks or work the product or service makes easier and faster.
  
• What does your product do better than anyone else’s product? What is its edge over the competition? If your product does not stand for something unique, it will get lost in the marketplace. If this is difficult for you to distinguish, try reading my article called, Freelance Copywriter Secrets: 10 Steps to Writing a Powerful USP. Just click on this link to find out more.
  
• Describe the quality control methods used in developing, producing and supporting the product.
  
• Why does your product cost more that its competitors (if applicable)? You MUST have an answer to this question if you sell a premium product.
  
• If the product is part of an entire product line, what makes this model different from the models you make that are ranked above and below it?
  
• How is this product positioned in the marketplace? Again this has to do with the product’s unique selling proposition (USP) mentioned above. Your goal is for your product to be the big fish in its own pond, rather than having to compete for dominance in someone else’s pond. To have a strong USP, you must OWN your category.
  
• What are the economics of using this product? Does long term savings justify a premium price?
  
• Is the product guaranteed? If yes, describe how your company stands behind the product.
  
• What support is available after the sale?
  
• How does the product work?
  
• How reliable is it? How long will it last? Is headache-free ownership one of your selling points?

As you can see, laying a thorough groundwork is difficult and very intensive. But in the end, it not only makes a freelance copywriter’s job easier, it will also help produce compelling copy.

And can you think of any area in life where you can ever be too prepared?

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown

As a freelance copywriter, I have come to think of my work as that of slowly, methodically removing a reader’s doubts, apathy and other mental barriers. In some ways, my job is like being a matchmaker between a good, quality product and the person who can truly benefit from owning it.

Here are a few of the mental barriers that a freelance copywriter may have to remove between a product or service, and the potential customer who truly needs and wants what this product can do:

• Lack of awareness that the person may actually have a need or a problem. Some needs require education before the reader recognizes that it exists. Paying for children’s college education might be an example here. Many parents have no idea what inflation will do to the cost of college tuition by the time their kids reach the age of 18.
  
• Lack of concern because the problem seems too remote. Insurance agents and financial planners face this issue every day. We all should plan for retirement, and out deaths are inevitable, but many people lull themselves into complacency because both events seem a long way off. In order to sell a product these people truly need, they must first be shaken out of that complacency.
  
• Lack of interest and attention. the average person is exposed to 10,000 advertisements and marketing messages a day. In order to grab a reader’s attention, you must start with a headline that appeals to readers’ self interest. Check out my article on Freelance Copywriter Secrets: How to Tap Into Your Readers' Deepest Needs
  to learn more about how to appeal to a person’s deepest needs.
  
• Doubts and skepticism. As a result of those 10,000 marketing messages, each claiming to offer the very best widget known to man, people are naturally skeptical of puffery. Support your claims with facts, specific examples, testimonials from satisfied customers, scientific data, etc.
  
• ”They’re all alike.” Shame on you if you allow people to think your product is just like everyone else’s. That is the sign of a freelance copywriter just not doing his or her job. Stand out! Draw attention to why your product is better, different and worth a higher price. But you can only do this by creating a category of one. Your product must be the biggest (or even better, the only) fish in the pond. Your job is to create that pond. Another article I’ve written that you should read isFreelance Copywriter Secrets: 10 Steps to Writing a Powerful USP, because it will show you how to create that category of one.

It is extremely important to understand why a person, who can truly benefit from a product or service, may still choose not to buy it. I want to anticipate these objections and barriers head-on, so I write out every reason, objection, doubt and misunderstanding my potential readers may have.

Then I write copy that answers each of these problems. In so doing, I am able to chip away at their barriers.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

As a freelance copywriter, my sole business is to grab the interest of readers and turn them into your customers.

How do I do I accomplish this? Well there are obviously a lot of copywriter tools in my toolbox, but before I can even start tapping at my keyboard, I have to determine what need will influence those readers to buy and what appeal I will use to target that need.

People don’t buy just because a clever freelance copywriter wrote hypnotically, mouthwatering copy; they buy for their own reasons, which are based on their deepest needs. A few of these reasons (needs) might be:

• to make more money,
  
• to save money or get a bargain,
  
• financial security,
  
• better health,
  
• professional advancement,
  
• prestige and recognition,
  
• to be in the “in” group,
  
• fun and leisure,
  
• protect/provide for loved ones,
  
• popularity,
  
• one upsmanship (ie to keep up with the Joneses or even get ahead of them),
  
• make a job or chore easier,
  
• improve appearance,
  
• freedom from worry,
  
• self esteem
  
• love, sexual fulfillment and relationships,
  

The customer’s need (and the appeal you craft to fulfill that need) is the DNA that will run throughout your ad, from the headline through the final word. The fulfillment of this need is the reason you are going to give your readers for buying.

As you can see, some of these needs overlap. “Freedom from worry” may also be part of the need to “protect or provide for loved ones,” or also “financial security.” Any of these needs might be the DNA you incorporate throughout an ad for life insurance as, an example.

Usually, but not always, you should appeal to only one need per ad. Then you should test that ad against other ads that appeal to other needs to find out which need motivates buyers most when choosing to purchase what you are offering. For example, only through testing their ads have some freelance copywriters were surprised to learn that personal “financial security” is often a stronger motivator to buy life insurance than to “protect/provide for loved ones.”

But don’t regard this as a commandment written in stone. If you have the luxury of writing a long ad, you probably should appeal to more than one need.

Once you have identified the need you intend to appeal to, make sure your headline addresses that need with specific benefits that meet that need head on.

For example, suppose you are writing for a financial services firm that has a product designed to protect someone’s retirement income from market ups and downs, and you have determined that “financial security” is the dominant need for your potential clients. Your headline might read:

Retire On a Secure Income
or
Protect Your Retirement Nest Egg
or
Announcing: The Inflation-Proof Retirement Income
or
How I Guaranteed My Retirement Income Will Never Go Down
or
Why Settle for an Unstable Retirement Income?

As you can see, by first identifying your readers’ dominant need, you can then write headlines that appeal to that need like a laser beam.

Next, you use the same need to pinpoint the benefits your copy must address. In the ad that might follow the above headlines on a retirement income product, your readers will probably be interested in the following benefits:

• A retirement income that does not fluctuate with the ups and downs of the financial markets,
  
• An income that is inflation proof,
  
• An income that is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury, or at least a giant company’s reserves,
  
• An income that will allow retirees to live comfortably,
  
• An income that will make sure a retiree will not have to depend on others,
  
• An income that will not for a reduced standard of living.
  

As you can see, not only does determining the buyer’s need make a freelance copywriter’s job easier, it also helps create more compelling copy that appeals to what your buyer really wants. The right appeal is the reason your readers will buy your product.

freelance copywriter, copywriting tips, freelance commercial writer

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown

Freelance copywriters should ask their readers more direct questions throughout their advertisements, web copy and direct mail pieces. A question forces a reader to think, to ponder and to become engaged in the message being communicated.

About a decade ago, I was extremely ill with a life-threatening disease that had me out of commission for several months. During this time, I slept most of the day on our sofa in the living room while our small children played around me.

I could sleep through all sorts of clammer without waking up. But if my wife or one of the boys asked a direct question like, “Daddy can you help me with my homework?” or “Daddy, have you seen my (fill in the blank) toy?” I woke out of my slumber at least long enough to answer the question.

The point is, even in a deep sleep my mind recognized a question was being asked of me and pulled me back into the land of the living.

So why do you think questions have such power to engage the mind?

Before I answer that, did you notice what your brain just did? Even though you knew I was using the question to manipulate you subtly to pull you deeper into this article, you still most likely paused to contemplate the answer.

And in all likelihood, the answer you came up with was something along these lines: Questions focus the mind. They pull scattered pieces of information and experiences from different areas of the mind and attempt to assemble these pieces into a conceptual idea.

Think back to your education. Why did some teachers have a greater impact on you than others?

My guess (and possibly yours too, as you paused once again to consider another of my clever questions) is because the really good teachers asked thought-provoking questions throughout the class period. These questions helped you to assemble the information you were studying and formed a deeper layer of learning.

Contrast that to the teachers who just lectured. These teachers simply spewed out information and expected you to take copious notes and regurgitate those facts on an exam.

Lecturers, at best, merely convey raw facts and information, but fail to connect that information to the world around us. Questioners help students to conceptualize and organize information within our brains.

But how do questions help freelance copywriters? Simply this: the ultimate aim of marketing material is to influence people to act, whether that means to buy, request information or join a cause.

But people are not led to act on facts and data alone. They must be engaged. Questions help readers to internalize the message you are communicating and consider, “what will it cost me to go another day without this XYZ widget?” Or, “How can I make sure I have a secure retirement income?”

I like to think of the unengaged reader as not very different from the person who sits through a poignant sermon at church and leaves thinking, “I sure hope my wife was listening, because she really needed to hear that message.” The communication bounces right off that person because it was never internalized.

So how can a communicator (whether you are a freelance copywriter, a teacher or a preacher) make use of questions? First, the questions must provoke thought.

Questions that merely call for a one word, or a yes-no answer do not fit the bill. An engaging question demands that the person assemble various bits of information, and sometimes their own experiences, to come up with an answer.

In copywriting some of the best questions force a person to confront their own need for your product. It makes them realize that they need the benefits your product offers to solve a problem or to bring about a needed change.

So make use of this powerful tool in the freelance copywriter’s toolbox. Can you imagine how much better that will make your writing?

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

As a freelance copywriter, I am always reading books on marketing, writing and advertising in order to hone my skills. I was just rereading Jeffrey J. Fox’s marvelous book, How To Become A Marketing Superstar this week, and had to start jotting down some notes to pass along. Fox has a wonderful knack for distilling his hard-won wisdom into two or three page chapter nuggets that others would have to teach an entire college semester to get across.

Here are a few of my favorites:

·
• NEVER USE WE. Eliminate the personal pronouns "I," "me," "we," "us," or "our" in advertising, packaging, sales literature or anywhere else in marketing communications. "We" is about the marketer and its story. "We" is in the first person. "We" is a bad proxy for your brand name or company name.
  A freelance copywriter's job is to draw the customer into the conversation by focusing on her and her story, her concerns, her headaches, her wants. Your job is to build brand awareness, not "we’ awareness…Never use "we," "us," or "our" in the headline.
  The advertisement is not about you, it is not about your success or experience or hard work. It is about the customer and what the product will do for her or him. To confound this sin, these same advertisers often follow their "we" with trite clichés like, "We put customers first," or, "We are committed to excellence."
  
  ·
• SELL CONSEQUENCES. Always communicate the consequences to the customer of going without your product…It is always more effective to influence the customer by showing the cost, damage or loss they incurring right now by going without your product. Few customers knowingly ignore consequences and then deliberately buy an alternative product on the basis of a lower price alone.…What is it costing your prospect right now to not be doing business with you each month? What other consequences will occur if she delays taking action right now?
  
  ·
• DIFFERENCES. If you flip through any small stack of magazines you will quickly find many examples of ads that inform of such things as "our people make the difference," or "little details make all the difference," "feel the difference," or even, "the right choice makes all the difference." These are all signs of lazy marketers who have not taken the effort to think through what makes their product "different." And yet it is these differences that are your selling points and even your competitive edges (or are they just "wishful differences" with your competitor having the real competitive edge.) If the marketer is too lazy to think through the differences and articulate them, how can he expect the customer to do it for him? If you can’t illustrate to the customer why your widget is different and better than the Brand X widget, he will either choose based upon price, or by what his cousin Ernie thinks he once heard someone say about your brand).

I recommend this book to any marketer or freelance copywriter who wants to compel more customers to buy your products or services. If you haven’t read How To Become A Marketing Superstar yet, go pick up a copy. I’d loan you mine, but I’m still rereading it.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown