Dynamic Copywriting

Let's talk about Sarah Palin and smart marketing.

I think the GOP campaign has committed a major blunder in the way it has gone about "packaging" Gov. Palin. This blunder was very evident in her interviews with Katy Couric and in her debate with Joe Biden.

It has to do with her lack of top level skills in foreign policy. She is obviously a quick study who has done massive amounts of homework on the subject in the few short weeks she has been on the campaign trail. But whether you like her or not, the fact remains that foreign policy is not her strong point.

In the last three decades, there have been four presidents who were governors before they ran for president. By the very nature of the job, a governor does not have a lot of foreign policy experience. It just isn't part of the job they do.

So what these four men have done when they were elected president, was to assemble teams of foreign polciy gurus on their staffs (no I will not get into a discussion about how good these teams were or what decisions they adviced their presidents to make).

No president comes into office with extensive skills in every area of the job. They have to rely on their staffs to help them and advise them.

But what Palin has done has been to make claims that because Alaska is very close to Russia, she has foreign policy experience. No wonder Tina Fey, David Letterman and Jay Leno have had so much fun at her expence.

What if, instead, she had just admitted that governors come along with other skills. What if she had cited Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush to point out that governors have experience as chief executives but not as foreign policy wonks?

By admitting her lack of foreign policy experience, she could have shifted much of the spotlight to her extensive energy experience and to the fact that she is the only person among these four candidates who has ever been a chief executive.

Dan Kennedy, one of the greatest copywriters alive today, even goes so far as to look for flaws, faults and limitations in the products he sells. When he finds them, he highlights them, shouts about them from the roof tops and makes sure his readers know he is not claiming that his product will be all things to all people.

And in so doing, he positions the product so he can talk about its strengths. When a marketer freely admits that her product has a flaw, don't we then "listen up" to find out what the good points about it are?

No one will ever believe a marketer who claims his or her product does everything better than any other product anyway. But a curious thing happens when we admit a flaw. Buyers start paying close attention to the message to find out what the good things are.

Admitting limitations puts more of a focus on the benefits you do claim. And doing this gives you much more credibility in the process.

If you refuse to do this, you may - just may - find yourself being paradied on Saturday Night Live.



COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown
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I just read a free ebook I want to recommend to you on how to use storytelling techniques in ads and other marketing copy.

The ebook, The Greatest Marketing Secrets of the Ages, is by the legendary online marketing guru Yanik Silver.

It is basically a history of direct marketing and advertising writing by some of the historic copywriters in the past. What really jumped out at me was how many of these classic ads were presented in the form of stories. And even those that didn't had a "backstory" that seemed to exist behind the actual copy.

For example, he talks about Max Sackheim, who wrote the classic ad "Do You Make These Mistakes In English?" This ad selling a mail order English grammer course, was so successful that it ran for 40 straight years.

It was basically a story about a man who was embarassed by his poor grammer and this course helped him comport himself with greater dignity and earned him a promotion.

The book also mentions two ads which sold mail order food that were supposedly written in the words of the fisherman and grapefruit grower whose meticulous standards provided their customers with outstanding product.

Then there is the story of Claude Hopkins who turned Van Camp's pork and beans into a money machine. At the time, only 6% of housewives cooked store-bought canned beans. The other 94% cooked their beans at home (it takes about 16 hours to prepare beans, and even then the result is usually crispy beans on top and mushy beans below).

What Hopkins did was to tell the story of the process Van Camp's used to select their beans, how they used soft water in the cooking process, how the skins were made less tough by using lime, and how the steam ovens they used were sealed to keep the flavor in.

This was a story, and it was hugely successful in getting housewives to buy Van Camp's pork and beans.

There are also examples of how storytelling has been used to sell Ethan Allen furniture, overcoats, magazine subscriptions and books.

I should point out that Yanik does use this free ebook as a platform to sell his own products, but that doesn't get in the way of conveying some very useful information.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown
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What is an irresistable offer? As marketers, we are all seeking ways to create compelling ads, web sites, and other marketing material that will get people to buy what we sell. I thought this article by Andre Thomas would be helpful to readers of this site who want to do a better job of turning prospects into buyers.
Charles Brown

Web Copywriting Tips - How To Craft Irresistible Offers

By Andre Thomas

according to legendary copywriter Gary halbert, the most important factor that determines your success is a "hungry crowd". If people are hungry for your product, there's really no need for selling.

But that's not the case in reality. Your competitors are only a click away so it's crucial that you have a better offer than they do. Offer is the second most important factor that determines your conversion. Poor conversion can never be saved by compelling web copy... but poor web copy are often rescued by irresistible offer! An irresistible offer should be at the heart of your whole marketing campaign.., and coming up with it should be job number 1 when you sit down to plan your web copy.

So what makes an offer irresistible? Here are a few steps I use to create them:

1. The first and most obvious way is to add more goodies. Getting X+Y is always better than just X. People love free stuff so give it to them. Information is free to reproduce but are valuable and that makes it ideal to be bonuses.

2. Give your customer a real world value on which to benchmark your current price. If you don't initially offer it for a higher price, your customers will put that price as "what it should be", which makes your offer not that irresistible.

3. Make your offer unique to you. There's definitely no unique service that you can perform but no other can. There's definitely no unique product that you can produce that has no substitute. But there's one thing that you can do to make your offer unique and that is by branding. Products and services under your brand is exclusive to you so make sure you brand your product well.

4. Anyone can offer anything they want so it's nothing special that you made an offer. The real question in your customer's heads is whether you can deliver. So make yourself as believable as possible by adding testimonials, displaying your contact details and information such as disclaimer, privacy policy and refund policy. If you have the cash, get a security badge from one of the popular online assurance providers.

5. Make it easy for your customers to understand the offer and what exactly will they get once they purchase because if they don't they'll leave without turning back. Simplicity is key and if the offer is complex (and if you it's easy, think again) make sure you simplify it by categorizing and using simple words.

So there, 5 ways to craft irresistible offers. I'm sure there are hundreds more ways you can think of and hundreds more ways you can think of to do each of the 5 points I made, but if you just concentrate on what I gone through, there's no doubt it will send your conversion through the roof.
Andre Thomas was a freelance copywriter for 8 years. He now works at home as an internet marketer. You can find more mind blowing web copywriting tips on his blog at http://www.salescopyquickfix.com/blog You can find his latest best-selling book, Sales Copy QuickFix, at http://www.salescopyquickfix.com

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

I just read (and Dugg) Vin Montello's post announcing his new ebook called Seven Story Secrets That Skyrocket Sales and wanted to let you folks know about it right away.

As you know, I've been on my own kick lately about the power of storytelling as a marketing tool. To put it simply, STORIES SELL.

What got my attention right away was his very first secret which had to do with telling a story in the copy's headline. I can't imagine a reader being able to resist the kind of headline he talks about.

The other thing that struck me is that Vin is also just giving his ebook away, free and without even asking readers to opt onto a list. I wonder if Vin has been reading my email here, but I originally planned to use the ebook I finished last week, The Plot Thickens: Why Case Studies Create New Customers as an opt in device. But I got some really good advice from David Meerman Scott who suggested that it would have a better chance of going viral if there were no strings attached.

I really recommend that you read Vin's ebook and also Digg it or Stumble it. It really should be bookmarked.

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown

Recently I've been studying the methods of efficiency expert, David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.

(Although the purpose of this article is not about productivity or efficiency, I really do recommend David Allen's methods because they are so dramatically different and more naturally intuitive from any other "time management" or efficiency system I've ever read. If you'd like to read more about Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, click this link).

Anyway, Allen really focuses on intuitive methods for getting things done, and he begins by insisting that we start with a clear understanding of the desired outcome before taking on a project.

Some of the ways he recommends forming a clear picture of a desired outcome is to:
· Imagine a wildly successful result. Often we simply set a goal and that is the end of the matter. Allen urges picturing a Spectacular outcome. Imagine beyond what you expect, imagine breaking through any limits, imagine getting beyond-anything-you-could-ever-have-imagined results.

· Ask, "Wouldn't it be great if _______? This simple question is an excellent focusing device for clarifying a desired outcome, because it too pushes the brain to think beyond "reasonable" expectations.

By now of course, you are thinking, "What does this have to do with marketing and copywriting?" The answer is asking these questions is a great way to distinquish between features and benefits.

Why not flip Allen's thinking around and ask these questions from the point of view of your ideal desired customer? This is another way to force yourself to look at what you do and what you offer from inside the mind of the client you are trying to attract.

How often do customers expect to get "wildly successful results." Heck, most of the time they would be satisfied with just meeting what you promised. And how often do they ask, "Wouldn't it be great if ___?" with any thought that someone could actually deliver what they truly want.

Customers, like the rest of us, tend to diminish their own expectations over time. They tend to settle for what they can get because life has taught them that shooting for the stars lands you flat on your face.

But if you can deliver the goods, begin your marketing project by putting yourself inside the mind of your ideal customer and ask, as if you were that customer, what would be a wildly successful result.

Not only will you astonish yourself with what you come up with, you will also astonish your customer.

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

COPYRIGHT © 2008, Charles Brown
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

I recently started reading an interesting book that, on its surface, has nothing to do with copywriting or writing web content. And yet, I think this book could have incredible value to those who must write any form of business communication.

The book I’m talking about is “Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire,” by Cliff Atkinson. This book is primarily designed to teach business people who to create better Microsoft PowerPoint presentations using a story-driven format.

Atkinson, who is a communications consultant for a long list of major U.S. corporations, confronts those typical, bland PowerPoint presentation we’ve all had to endure, that consist simply of long lists of bullet points. These kinds of presentations are not only marvelous cures for insomnia, they almost universally fail to get their point across (no pun intended).

Instead, Atkinson has adapted movie making and screenwriting techniques to tell a story with presentations (hopefully you are now beginning to see what this all has to do with copywriting and writing web content). He brings in the concepts of storyboarding and the three-act play structure to be used in communicating to audiences.

I see several applications here for copywriters and web content writers.

1. The human mind tends to think in stories. Stories have been essential to our ability to understand new ideas and information. But even more importantly, stories make ideas more believable and persuade us to act on these ideas.
   
   
2. Atkinson advocates beginning with the script or narrative text, just as a film company would begin creating a movie with the script. Many presentations (and websites) are created with the visual elements first. Instead, begin with the story or the message. A pretty website won’t sell, but the words written on that site can and should.
   
   
3. Don’t try to communicate with raw data. People are not computers. Craft that data around human problems, needs, goals, changes and experiences. People relate to those things on an emotional level. And they are more likely to believe and act on this information when they can emotionally relate to it.
   
   
4. Make the reader the star of the story. Either literally bring the person into the copy by addressing him or her in the second person, or tell a story about someone who is similar to the reader.
   
   Think about all those commercials for weight loss products. They all use real people giving their testimonials. Potential customers for these products can relate to being overweight and unable to get the pounds off. Seeing someone like themselves who successfully lost weight with this product is strongly motivating.

Check out Atkinson’s book, Beyond Bullet Points. I think it has a lot of applications beyond just PowerPoint presentations.

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

COPYRIGHT © 2007, Charles Brown

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

The other day a client read a short piece of copy I had written for her and called me a "Magician" (I am blushing). It is always great when a client praises your work, and I was pleased that what I did for her will help her promote a very needed product.

But, if the truth were told, what I did for her wasn't really magic at all.

Here's the process I went through when I wrote for her, and what I do with every other project I work on as well:

First, I sat down and wrote out a list of "I wants." I put myself in the minds of her prospective customers and just wrote what I perceived they would want from this product. Each line began with the words, "I want ____." By the time I started repeating myself, I had over 40 "I wants" on my list.

You've heard the story about the salesman who sold more drill bits than anyone else? When asked how he became so successful, he said he didn't talk about drill bits at all. He talked about the kind of holes his customers wanted.

In other words, his customers weren't interested in buying a new drill bit, they wanted holes. So instead of selling drill bits, he sold holes.

My "I want" list is how I sell holes. It is an exercise that forces me to look at a product or service through the eyes of the buyer. It also helps me tap into the emotional reasons they want these things. (Sometimes I also write a "why" list beside the first list so I can understand why they want what they want).

My method may seem touchy-feely to you (hey, it seems a little touchy-feely to me too, but it works). That's your choice. But if you are going to write really good copy, you asbolutely must find a way to get inside the heads of customers or clients.

If you can't do that, you will never write "magic" copy.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

Michael Seitzer, an authority on marketing with white papers (and a fellow Dilbert fan) put up an interesting post on his blog last week. The post, Inventing Facts To Fit Your Purposes, begins with a quote from a recent Dilbert cartoon strip.

If you follow Dilbert (and why wouldn't you?) his dog, named Dogbert, is an evil genius whose life mission is to exploit everyone around him. In this recent strip, Dogbert brags about making up facts to support his marketing claims. Michael brings up this cartoon as a starting point for a discussion on ethics in marketing with white papers.

Marketing and selling have well-deserved bad reputations. If you read, watch or listen to many ads, you can't help but wonder how all these competitors can be, "the best," "the leading," "recommended by more doctors," etc.

We read ads and other marketing materials like white papers with honed skepticism. We assume the facts, statistics and claims are at best, strategically selected, or at worst, made up.

Contrast this with openly admitting flaws and negatives up front.

Dan Kennedy is one of my freelance copywriter heroes. In his book, The Ultimate Sales Letter, he shows several examples of how admitting these weaknesses up front helps to create a more powerful sales message.

Open admissions does several wonderful things for your marketing materials:

1. First, admissions enhance your credibility. It immediately causes your readers to crack open their protective shields just a little bit. You will still have to earn their trust with the benefits you introduce, but at least they will give you a chance.
   
   
2. Admissions set up your benefits. No one expects you to pay for expensive advertising just to bad mouth your product or service. They know that if you are willing to admit some flaws, you will soon have some positives you will be mentioning. This builds up anticipation and gives them a reason to pay attention.
   
   
3. Admissions help you to position your product, service or company against your competition. You can't be all things to all people, and you lose credibility when you try. Instead, by openly acknowledging your weaknesses, you put the spotlight on your strengths.
   

Dan Kennedy finds making admissions up front so powerful and so compelling to the reader, that he claims to look for flaws, just so he can admit them.

Possibly that's going too far (although who am I to argue with Dan Kennedy?) but honest and open admissions can go a long way to gaining credibility every one of your competitors lack.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

freelance copywriter, writing web content, copywriting tips, ghost writer

There is one, simple copywriting technique that if you are not using, you are throwing away at least 50% of your potential sales.

Not only are you blowing half of your potential sales, but if even one of your competitors is using this copywriting technique, he is robbing you blind. He is using this method to take money right out of your pocket, steal some of your best customers and could be putting you out of business before you wake up and correct what you are doing wrong.

What copywriting technique could be this important? Go back and re-read the previous two paragraphs, because I was justing using this tactic it on you. It is the fear of loss, which is easily 100 times more persuasive than the opportunity for gain as a selling tool.

Tell your readers what it will cost them, what they will lose, what they already have been losing and what the future cost will be if they turn down your offer.

Everything you sell has consequences if you say "no." Look at what it costs people NOT to have what you offer, and shout it from the rooftops.

If you sell a car safety device such as tires that get extra traction in bad weather or a child’s car seat, sell death, injury and tragedy. You can do this without resorting to "hard sell" tactics, look at how Mercedes and Volvo show crash test dummies getting smashed to bits in auto accidents involving their competitors' vehicles. Their ads come across as informative and as a public service message, rather than hard sell.


How can you craft a message based upon the losses people will incur if they turn your offer down?

If you sell a water filter, you might say, "Every time you drink out of your tap, you are filling your body with dirt, toxins and deadly chemicals that, over time, build up in your system, weaken your immune system and cause your organs to breakdown."

If you are a bankruptcy attorney, your copy might read, "stop creditors from seizing your house, your car and your assets!"

If you sell financial planning services, your message might be along these lines, "Failure to plan for your own future will leave you dependent on the government and family, will rob you of the travel and fun you had hoped for, will prevent you from receiving the best medical care available and will leave you with nothing to do in your retirement but watch Oprah every afternoon."

If you sell a weight loss system, you could say, "Every diet you have ever been on has left you fatter, demoralized and convinced you will never look attractive again. Each diet does nothing but make you miserable and convinced you lack the willpower to be fit and healthy. But there is a better way."

Clearly you might not want to be this negative all the way through your copy. It will come across as hard sell. But a negative message should be a part of every copy you write. If you sell something worthwhile, it will offer a benefit if someone buys it, but it will also have a cost if they don't. If you leave out the negative consequences of not accepting your offer, you have failed both your customers, and yourself.

freelance copywriter, writing web content, copywriting tips, ghost writer
COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

As a freelance copywriter, I naturally assume my readers will patiently hang onto every word I pen, lingering now and then to ponder what great mind authored such magnificent prose?

Unfortunately, we all would be better off assuming our readers will only take a quick scan over our copy, lasting no more than 3 seconds. Only if that quick glance reveals something that might possibly be interesting (to the reader, not to us) will the reader devote more than 3 seconds.

So how do we write copy that passes that 3 second test?

1. Use numerous sub-headlines. Subheadings do two wonderful things that attract attention even if the reader is scanning over our copy. They break the material into small sections and (if well written) grab the reader’s interest with something that attracts her self interest. If the subheading works, the reader will be pulled into that small portion of the copy. Then if your writing in that small section delivers the goods, she may read your entire copy.
   
   
2. Underline or make important information bold. Underlined and bold phrases makes this information jump right off the page. Don’t overdo this technique, and be slective to only key phrases, or this technique will lose its effect. The rule here is to assume the reader only reads the bold or underlined words. If that happens, she must still be able to understand your basic offer and know what the key benefits to the offer are.
   
   
3. Make the headline count. Don’t be cute, coy or creative. Announce something that tugs at the reader’s self interest. The job of the headline is to persuade the reader to read the first sentence of the first paragraph. And that first sentence’s job is to persuade the reader to read the entire paragraph, and so on.
   
   
4. Bullet points or numbered lists. Lists draw the eye because readers like to read packaged information in “bite sized” portions. Readers also like lists because they get right to the point and they feel you are communicating the essentials of your message without a lot of fluff.
   
   
5. Put some information in small boxes. Like sidebars in magazine articles, these boxes pull the eye to small sections of information. Make these boxes contain stand alone messages and examples. You can use boxes for proof, testimonials or to contain intriguing examples.

It’s always a safe bet to assume that your readers will only scan over your copy. Readers are busy and pulled from many different directions. Only if they see something in that quick scan that appeals to their self interest will they read any more.

If you never assume you have any more than 3 seconds to capture that interest, you will write your copy with scanning in mind. After all, you can do a lot in those 3 seconds.

freelance copywriter, ghost writer, writing web content, copywriting tips

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

I am totally hooked on "24." But it gets worse because 24 was merely a "gateway" show that soon led me to become addicted to "Lost." And now, every Monday night, I tell the family to leave me alone so I can watch "Heroes."

Do you know what all of these TV shows have in common? Cliffhangers.

It is not enough that these shows end each week leaving their likeable characters in peril or wrestling with a puzzle that must be solved in order to save the world, Cliffhangers abound throughout the show. There are cliffhangers just before commercial breaks and even more just before the story line switches to another character. These writers are positively sadistic in the ways they find to leave the viewer hanging.

And now, during 24's season break, I am left to wonder what will happen to Jack Bauer for months until the next season starts in January.

The lesson for freelance copywriters here is that you can greatly improve your ad copy, web content or sales letters by writing your own cliffhangers.

I know one copywriter who writes long sales letters, often running 10 or more pages long. So, to keep readers flipping the pages, he puts cliffhanger sentences at the bottom of each page. They will say things like:

""Beware, there are 3 common pitfalls that can be fatal to your small business, and will cost you tens of thousands of dollars unless you know how to avoid them. See the next page for more information."

or

Find out how Howard B. of Florida make $16,000 in one month using this system. See the next page for details."



You can write your own cliffhangers to keep your potential customers reading. Just remember:

• When you raise an question, don’t give the reader the answer it on the same page,
  
• As soon as you answer one question, raise another.

With a little practice, you can have readers hooked on your copy, just like I am on "Heroes." They will hang onto your words and foloow you from one cliffhanger to the next.

As you write, just think of Jack Bauer. In less than 20 minutes, a nuclear bomb is going to go off in the middle of Los Angeles. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people will die unless he can find the bomb and disarm it in time. In the meantime, Jack’s daughter is missing and presumed to be in the hands of a deranged killer.

Jack has only one choice. He must …

freelance copywriter, writing web content, copywriting tips, ghost writer

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

If you are old like me, you probably remember the Ginsu Knives commercials that came out in the 1970s and changed television advertising forever. They were funny, kitschy and a had a tongue-in-cheek tone that made them fodder for late night comedians.

Some of the phrases from these commercials were quickly adopted as part of our cultural language. Phrases like, “but wait, there’s more,” or “now what would you pay?” were inserted into everyday conversations by average (but not too bright) people.

One of the reasons these knives sold like, well... hotcakes, was the way the sellers kept throwing in more and more add ons for no extra cost.

Every time viewers thought we had seen the entire offer, the announcer would say, “but wait, there’s more.” Then a new freebie was tossed into the package.

Legend has it that the creators of the commercials were looking for an additional kitchen gadget to to add in a premium, and heard about a little gizmo that made decorative peelings out of apple and potato skins. By itself, this little peeler was so inconsequential it would have been very difficult to promote. But as a freebie, it was perfect. It could be visually demonstrated and only cost the sellers about 50 cents.

But the genius of thee commercials was how they introduced the add ons. Instead of just throwing in one new freebie after another, there was a “wrap up” each time a new add on was announced.

The announcer would summarize the entire offer as it stood so far. The voice would go back over each product, the benefits of each product and then the add on products and their benefits. After this, the voice would say, “Now what would you pay?” At this point a few possible prices, which curiously were all higher than the actual price the Ginsu folks were charging, would flash on the screen just to suggest that this was the range the viewer should be thinking of. Then when the actual price was announced as being below those suggested prices (surprise) it made the actual price seem very small.

And then, once the viewer began to assume the offer was complete, the announcer would say, “but wait, there’s more…” and throw in another freebie. The effect of throwing in all these add ons was to make the price seem ridiculously small when compared to the value received.

Now remember that each freebie cost the seller very little, but to the customer, they represented a significant value.

Can you do the same thing with what you sell? What if you threw in a free booklet, a free CD or some other add on that related to your primary offer?

Selling is all about creating a favorable return on investment (ROI) for the buyer. When all your freebies increase the value side of the offer, the price side seems to very small in comparison to what is received.

By the time a viewer had seen all that came with their Ginsu Knives for such a “low” price, they almost felt guilty for taking advantage of these dolts who were offering so much for so little.

Your aim, no matter what you are selling, is to work the ROI by increasing value every chance you can. To do this, you have to come up with your own version of, “but wait, there’s more.”

freelance copywriter, writing web content, copywriting tips, ghost writer

Some things in business are counter-intuitive. One example is the long sales letter. After decades of research, the results are in, longer sales letters sell better than short sales letters.

We all naturally think brevity is the best way to go, but the numbers don’t lie.

The reason is that if someone is interested in your offer, they naturally want to read more. Questions form in their minds and they want answers to those questions. So as long as your long copy prompts those questions in their minds and promises to deliver answers to them, your chances to sell to those individuals goes up.

Of course this assumes your long copy is well-written.

Go back to what I just said earlier. As long as your long copy 1) prompts the reader to ask questions, and 2) promises to answer those questions, you will sell.

I did NOT say to answer those questions right away. Curiosity is one way to keep your reader in an excited state long enough for you to give your entire sales message.

One effective way I have seen is for copywriters to put phrases like, "Find out how you can ______, on the next page." Or, "Learn how to keep this from happening to you on the next page."

These sales letters refuse to let go of the readers’ interest and actually read like a cliffhanger.

I like to use a technique I call "The Cart Before The Horse Technique." All I have to do is mention a string of benefits or warnings, and promise to reveal the answer shortly.

Here’s an example: "Did you know that there is one food item that can help you lose about a pound or more a week if you eat one with every meal? Did you know this food item also tastes delicious, makes a perfect snack and has so many nutritional benefits that it can add years to your life? What is this wonderful food? It is ………….the apple."

Bet you didn’t know all that about the apple, did you? And I bet you weren’t about to stop reading until you found out what food I was talking about.
Write longer sales letters. Excite your readers’ curiosity and promise to answer their questions shortly. Do all that and you will see your sales climb through the roof.

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Could you sell dollar bills for 75 cents each? Of course you could, but it’s not that easy to sell your products or services, is it?

Well maybe it is. Let me introduce you (or more likely, re-introduce you) to Return-On-Investment (ROI) selling. Once you master this approach to your copywriting, everything you sell will be dollar bills at a discount price.

Anyone who has even brushed up against a marketing book understands the importance of selling value, which means to demonstrate how the merits of your produce outweigh the price you are selling it for.

But pardon me if this sounds too fuzzy. I don’t believe this kind of value selling means much to the average person who reads our ads, websites or sales letters.

A much better way has been articulated by Jeffrey J. Fox in his wonderful book, How To Be A Marketing Superstar. In this book, Fox uses the phrase, “dollarize” to give more substance to the whole idea of value.

“Value is only expressed as a number,” urges Fox. “Every benefit for every product can be expressed in the dollars and cents it delivers to the customer. Every benefit for every product can be calculated to show the economic value to the customer.”

Dollarization gives value a number. It is a way of expressing how much a benefit will make or save for a customer. Here’s an example: “This copier will save you 3 cents per page. So if your office makes 5000 copies a week, you will save $150 per week by owning this copier.”

Dollarization can also show the cost of not doing business with you. “Every week you do not own this copier is another $150 you are flushing down the toilet.”

But if you want to sell dollar bills at a discount, you must take dollarization one step further and show its ROI. When you compare a benefit’s economic value to the price you charge, you show the cost as an investment which yields the dollarized benefit.

Or, you can show how small an investment will stop the dollarized bleeding of not doing business with you.

So now you are a very dangerous freelance copywriter. The concepts of dollarization and ROI really do allow you to sell those dollars for cents on the dollar.

freelance copywriter, copywriting tips, writing web content

A freelance copywriter’s job is to persuade. But sometimes the reader already holds the opposite point of view. How then, can the copywriter rebut that opposing opinion and then present a persuasive argument for the exact opposite?

Years before I became a freelance copywriter, I was a lawyer. And lawyers, as you know, have to write briefs and present arguments that rebut and persuade. Here’s a simple technique I used over and over again in every brief I wrote.

It involves three steps. The first step is to fully and fairly acknowledge the opposing view. In this first step, it can almost sound as though you are arguing FOR the other side. But remember, this step must fully and fairly represent the opposite opinion. If you just skim over the other side, it will show.

The key word I use for this first step is “although.” My outline will look like, “Although the plaintiff did at one time patent a design for a widget …”

The second step is where I now bring out my own argument for my own point of view. Because my reader has just seen me fully and fairly acknowledge the other side’s opinion, my own argument now has greater credibility. In fact, most readers are now inclined to lean my way because I wouldn’t (in their minds) have been so open with the opposite argument if I wasn’t absolutely sure I could support my own.

The keyword for this second step is “nevertheless.” Now the argument looks like, “Although ______, nevertheless the plaintiff’s patent does not apply to this particular widget …..”

The last step of this formula is where I bring out all my evidence that rebuts the first point of view and supports my own. Roll out every bit of proof you can find here because this evidence must tip the scales from the other side’s point of view to my own.

The keyword here is “because.” Now it all looks like, “Although _____, nevertheless ____, because the design of this widget is very different from the plaintiff’s patent, and because my client filed her patent before the plaintiff filed his design, and also because United States patent law does not protect designs filed in crayon.”

This is a very powerful persuasion technique because of the inherent fairness of the approach. People already understand that your opposition is not without some merit. Because of this, they tend to give more weight to the side that will meet an opposing argument head on, not misrepresent it and play fair.

Where might you use this technique? Generally it will be used in an analytical type of document like a white paper or a proposal. In these instances, credibility and thorough thinking is essential to persuasion.

freelance copywriter, writing web content, white papers, copywriting tips

As a freelance copywriter, I’m pretty observant when it comes to other people’s ads. For one thing, I’m looking for ideas I can borrow (OK, steal). But I also can’t help myself from comparing my writing to the other guy’s.

One thing I keep noticing is the “don’t want you to know” headlines. I see variations on this headline everywhere. I’ve seen:

”What the big pharmacy corporations don’t want you to know.”

“What your banker doesn’t want you to know.”

“What the IRS doesn’t want you to know.”

“What your insurance company doesn’t want you to know.”


Personally, I hate these headlines. In my opinion, they sound fake and appeal to the 4th grade mentality. They also invoke a feeling of a dark-conspiracy-intent-on-keeping-you-in-the-dark-but-thank-God-this-friendly-marketer-is-willing-to-risk-his-life-to-tell-all. For a price.

So why is this headline formula used over and over again? Because it works.

Despite my opinion, people still persist in buying for their own reasons. And as long as this headline formula appeals to enough buyers out there, we will continue to see its variations.

Which (finally) brings me to my point. Here are some other very effective headline formulas that should be in your copywriter’s toolbox:

• HOW ____ MADE ME___. This headline introduces a first person story about something that brought about a wonderful change in the narrator’s life or business. For example, “How a simple idea made me my company’s top salesperson.”
  
  
• ARE YOU _____? I love question headlines, and this question formula is stronger than most because it comes right out of the ad and involves the reader. Here’s one way this formula could be used. “Are you financially prepared for a catastrophic illness in your family?”
  
  
• WHO ELSE ____? Another old, but still working, headline format that involves the power of social proof. If all these other people are seeing results, why can't I? It can be used to write something like this. “Who else needs more money to pay for a child’s college education?”
  
  
• HOW I _____. This is another signal of a first person self-help story. An example: “How I made my wife feel like a princess.”
  
  
• HOW TO ____. Who doesn’t want to learn new and interesting methods or ideas? This may be the most powerful headline of all. “How to write web copy that keeps your customers buying again and again.”
  
  
• IF YOU ARE ____, YOU CAN _____. This is a wonderful technique for targeting people who fit a certain category. They recognize themselves and their interest is aroused. “If you are a nonsmoker, you will save 40% or more on your life insurance.”
  
  
• SECRETS OF ____. “Secrets” is another word that attracts interest and works very effectively in headlines. The word makes the reader feel like someone about to learn a closely-held bit of valuable information. Secrets of a self-made real estate millionaire.”
  
  
• ___ WAYS TO _____. This is a list with a number filled in the first blank. Who doesn’t want to read a list of interesting how-to information? “101 Ways To Write Irresistible Web Content.”
  

Try these headline formulas out. They have been around for decades because they keep working. Of course I’m only telling you about them because a vast government conspiracy doesn’t want you to know about them.

Did you know that there is a single food item that tastes great, is packed with vitamins and nutrients, and that eating this food three times a day will cause you to shed weight at a rate of 2 to 3 pounds a week? And if all this were not enough, this same food provides so many other health benefits that it can literally add years to your life?

So what is this wonderful food? -------------------- It is the apple.

OK, by now you are thinking, “what does this story about the apple have to do with being a freelance copywriter?

Everything! The first job of your copy is to grab a reader’s attention and hold on to it until that person has read every last word of your advertisement, web content or direct mail piece.

So I ask you, did that piece about the apple hold your attention? Were you hanging on until the last word so you could find out what food item provided all those benefits? Or were you about to lose interest and stop reading before you got to the last word?

Curiosity, when it is combined with powerful self-interest benefits, is an irresistible attention grabbing device.

But what if I had not held back on the identity of the food item until the end? What if the piece had begun with the words, “the apple can do many things for your body …?” Even though the benefits would have been the same, the hold it had on you would not.

I call this technique of arousing curiosity by listing the benefits before identifying the subject, the “Cart Before The Horse” technique. And it is very easy to do. Just reveal one benefit after another, but hold back the crucial identifying piece of information until the very end.

You can also use a string of negatives or warnings just as easily. Here is an example:

Many companies lose thousands, and possibly millions, of dollars by making a very easily corrected mistake on their websites. This one mistake insures that their sites lose countless dollars in lost revenues, prevents them from ever achieving high levels of traffic and almost guarantees that their visitors will buy from someone else.

And if all this were not bad enough, the cost to fix this single mistake is ridiculously small, and if corrected, will produce an almost immediate surge in new sales. (By the way, I hope I haven’t lost your interest yet. Do you want me to go on? OK.)

What is this one mistake that costs companies so much money? It is the failure to use their sites to capture opt-in email subscribers who give their permission to receive follow up email messages.

Implementing the “Cart Before The Horse Technique” is extremely easy. Start with the six words, “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how” to write a rough draft. Then decide which of those six elements will arouse the most curiosity and self interest if withheld until the end.

Once you have done this, you are free to torment (I mean “keep in suspense”) your readers until the very last word.

freelance copywriter, copywriting tips, freelance commercial writer

Every once in a while a freelance copywriter is handed an assignment with the encouraging words, “you won’t have to do much, this product sells itself.”

Oh how I wish that were true, just once. Then my job would merely consist of jotting down a few explanatory notes and collecting big fat checks...............

…..Oh! Excuse me! I was just drifting off in fantasy land for a moment there….

The truth is even “really, really, really great products must have someone to help it find its market. And this, alas, involves actual hard work.

The point here is that the old saying, “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door,” is flat out wrong. Sorry Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The work begins in one of two ways. The most common way is to build a “portrait” of the person most likely to want and need what this product will do for her. In other words, what problems does she have that must be solved?

Sometimes, however, I approach this question from the opposite direction. Reworded, the question might be, “what kind of problem is this product a solution for?”

Let me explain. Several years ago, I did some volunteer work for a group of unemployed executives and middle managers. These people were professionals who had been downsized and were facing a very tight job market.

One of the exercises I had my students work on was to identify 3 to 5 problems they were very, very good at solving.

I wanted them to think of themselves as solutions to certain business problems. Then I made them understand that somewhere out there was a hiring manager suffering from one of those very problems and was desperate for a solution.

When these very depressed and worried professionals grasped the idea that someone out there was looking for THEM (or at least the solutions they were very good at delivering), their entire outlooks changed.

Of course the job wasn’t done there. All I had shown them was that they were the “better mousetraps.” The problem now was that those hiring managers had no idea where the paths to these students’ doors were located. We had to draw them a map.

The job of a marketer, and by extension a freelance copywriter, consists of helping people who need a better mousetrap, find the path to that door. Here are the steps:

• identifying and locating the people who have problems your product can solve,
  
• sometimes educating these people that their problem exists, what the consequences of that problem might be and how much not solving it now may cost in the long run,
  
• showing the value of the solution,
  
• showing how to distinguish this solution from among all the other competing solutions,
  
• showing how to find this solution,
  
• creating a reason to purchase this solution, and
  
• creating a compelling reason to purchase this solution NOW.
  

It helps me sometimes to think of my job as laying a trail of bread crumbs from the door of the person with a problem to the door of my client, whose product holds the solution. Only after this trail of bread crumbs has been lain, will they beat a path to my client’s door.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

Right now, no matter what time of the day or night you are reading this, one of your competitors is making money (a lot of money) using one simple idea. As a freelance copywriter, I strongly encourage every one of my clients to emphasize this idea over all other formulas they may be using now in their advertisements, the approach they use in their web copy or their other marketing programs.

Before I explain what this idea is, let me tell you about a client that didn’t hire me to be their freelance copywriter. I was brought in by the ad agency who had been doing work for a very upscale furniture and decorating chain in Florida. The ads they showed me were breathtakingly beautiful in their design and photography.

But the client and the ad agency were all so enamored with their creativity that they had left out one “minor” element of the ads, copywriting. The only words on the entire layout said something along the lines of, “everything you’ve heard about us is true.”

Apparently the owner of the chain had a reputation for being fussy, particular and a little bit contrary when it came to the interior design work he did for wealthy clientele.

But both he and the ad agency felt that his reputation was so widespread that all they needed to do with the ad was to arouse a reader’s curiosity, and the ad would make a pile of money.

I caused a lot of waves when I suggested that the copy just wouldn’t do. I proposed instead that they adopt the idea below.

So what can this idea do to make an ad (or web site or any other marketing program) more profitable?

• It can create a large list of people who identify themselves as being interested in your product or service.
  
• It can also produce a list of people who ask to receive your marketing materials.
  
• It eliminates forever the problem of sending out untargeted junk mail that does not get opened or read.
  
• It generates repeat traffic to your website as long as you keep producing fresh and useful content.
  
• And most important of all, when your marketing message is requested, welcomed, expected and read by interested prospects; your sales rates increase exponentially.

What is this simple idea? No doubt you’ve already guessed it is Permission Marketing a phrase coined by Seth Godin when he literally wrote the book on the subject.

Mr. Godin defined Permission Marketing as the very opposite of Interruption Marketing, such as the telemarketer who calls right in the middle of your supper. The Permission Marketer instead obtains your consent to market to you often with the offer of a free booklet or some other free product of value.

As I mentioned in my article on , Freelance Copywriter Secrets: Why 2-Step Ads Make More Sales a free offer “lowers the bar” for a reader to respond and it subsequently enables you to build an ongoing relationship with that person. The whole idea behind Permission Marketing is that it breaks through the clutter of all the other messages bombarding your prospects every day.

Godin calls this getting the prospects to “raise their hands” or volunteer to participate in your marketing. Thereafter, any marketing message they receive is by consent, and they can “opt-out” at anytime they choose, so their involvement is always with permission.

My suggestion to the Florida company and its ad agency was to use the ad to pull in inquiries from people who wanted more information. I proposed that they incorporate within the ad an offer for a booklet with ideas for interior decorating and tips for determining quality when buying upscale furniture.

Unfortunately, the creative types felt that my suggestion would cheapen the creative layout of the ad and I did not get the job as their freelance copywriter. By the way, they ran that ad in a Florida magazine that targeted very wealthy Florida residents, and it ran one time. I suspect it didn’t produce enough revenue to justify running it again.

Godin sums up the concept of Permission Marketing as, "turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers." If you aren’t already using Permission Marketing along with your other marketing strategies, you need to get this ball rolling right away.

If you already have some aspects of it in place, keep improving, it will be the best investment you will ever make.

And finally, if you haven’t read Seth’s book, Permission Marketing I just cannot recommend this book enough. It WILL make you money.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown

As a freelance copywriter, I love it when I get to use real customer testimonials in the copy I write for one of my clients.

No matter how much experience I may have as a freelance copywriter and no matter how much effort I put into honing my craft, a real customer’s words of praise will always out-sell anything I write.

When a freelance copywriter has a few really good testimonials to work with, the job is to write good copy which highlights these customer comments and uses them to support key selling points.

So how do you get customers to give you glowing testimonials?

Well you certainly can’t wait for the rare customer to pick up pen and paper and write out a thank you note. Yes, they will arrive in your mailbox every now and then, but there is a better way.

Here are a few tips on how to prime the pump so you never run out of good, strong customer compliments that you can use in your advertisements, direct mail and on your web site:

1. Call your customers. Call them just after they have made a purchase, after they’ve been doing business with you for a while, after they needed service or after you haven’t heard from them in a while. On one hand, your call is a good will call or after the sale call to see how satisfied they are, how helpful your people were or if they have any suggestions for you to improve the way you do business.
   
   
2. Listen to the customer feedback. While you are hoping to generate customer testimonials, keep your eye on the ball and use this opportunity to really listen to what your customers have to say. If they have complaints, treat them as opportunities to wow them with your extra-mile service. But if they have good things to say, jot down some notes while they talk. You may need to reword their comments slightly (people ramble, fail to talk in complete sentences or wander off the subject sometimes). But don’t reword their statements to the point that you put words in their mouths.
   
   
3. Thank them for their kind words, and ask if you can quote them on some of your company literature. In most cases they will say yes.
   
   
4. Read back their comments as you have reworded them (slightly) and ask, “does that sum up what you were saying?” If they agree, go with it; but if not, keep working with them until you have their own words in a form of a strong testimonial. But be very careful that you don’t go too far and try to make them say more than they actually intended.
   
   
5. Send them a copy of the quote.To make sure they know you have quoted them correctly, mail or email thank you notes for their compliments and include a copy of the wording they agreed to.
   
   
6. Make it easy for them to put the testimonial on letterhead.In some cases you might request that they copy the testimonial onto their letterhead for you to use in that form. In other cases you will simply quote them as part of your advertisement, direct mailer or a separate section on your web site called “Customer Feedback.”
   

There are more reasons to take these steps than just to enhance you advertising copy. After you have completed these six steps, you have done more than obtain testimonials. You will also have thanked the customer after the sale (an all too rare courtesy in business these days), you will have learned about any problems and given yourself a chance to fix them, and you will have obtained real feedback that can’t help but improve the way you do business.

As I said before, the words of actual, satisfied customers are far more compelling than anything I, or any other freelance copywriter, could ever write, so get your customers' praise in writing and watch your marketing materials take you to the next level.

COPYRIGHT © 2006, Charles Brown