4 More Ways to Turbocharge Your Writing

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Came across this excellent article on copywriting. And I thought I share this with you. Enjoy!

By Yanik Silver

Sales copy can make or break your marketing campaign. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that it is as strong and persuasive as possible.

The first step, of course, is to get the first draft of the copy down on paper (or computer screen) as quickly as possible. I always tell copywriters not to worry about getting every word right. Just "let it all hang out."

Then, the real work begins: the editing. That’s when you transform your copy from decent to good - or even great. As copywriting expert Clayton Makepeace says, "The more compelling you make each section of your sales letter, the greater your response and average order will be."

In my last article for ETR - "4 Simple Ways to Turbocharge Your Writing" - I said that the best way to do the editing is to focus on one thing at a time. And I walked you through the first four phases of the process.

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Long Sales Copy Don’t Work? Think Again.

You know, I have been before in quite a fair number of marketing discussions whereby the opposite party will frequently say, "Why bother writing a long sales copy?"

"Nobody will read it."

"It doesn’t work."

"Nobody is going to wade through the pages of words"

Is it really so?

Will interested buyers not even read it at all?

Here’s the truth - long sales copy has been around because - it works! It as simple as that.

I’m not saying long sales copy out-pull short ones ALL the time. But generally, it does.

Here’s a simple example to illustrate my point.

Nothing beats face to face selling where you can see the person, talk to him and address his concerns up front right? There is an inter personal connection you can forge more easily.

Now say you are going to sell a 50 dollar product to a prospect…how long will you take to convince him (assuming that you do)?

10 minutes? 15 minutes? Half an hour?

Okay…let just assume you are a pretty good salesman…and you take ONLY 5 minutes to convince your prospect to buy?

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Using The Power Of Imagination For Persuasive Salesmanship

Sometimes when you introduce a product to a prospect, he may resist your attempt to sell him.

Now, just because he is showing some objections, doesn’t necessarily mean that he may not like your product.

Often, he may just not be immediately aware of how the product can help him. His mind is closed.

If you are a salesman, it’s your job to open up his mind on the various possibilities on how the product can benefit him.

We want to paint a nice picture for him to imagine. For him to feel it. And actually using it, reaping all the rewards in the process.

That’s utilizing the power of imagination for you, my friend.

Let’s take an example to illustrate my point, shall we?

Say you are persuading your prospect to buy a life insurance for himself…

You can get him to imagine the following scenarios…

• What if he falls ill? Who will take care of him…?
• What if he loses his job because of his illness? How will he support himself? And what about his family? Who will put food on the table for them…?

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101 Greatest Headlines You Can Model For Your Sales Copy

Any good marketer worth his salt will tell you that one of the most important, if not the most important, aspect of a sales copy is….the headline.

The headline is the first thing a prospect see when he looks at an advertisement. The headline is the advertisement…FOR the advertisement.

If you don’t grab the attention of your prospect there and then, he is gonna leave. Period.

And precisely because of this, copywriters spend hours tweaking the headlines, split testing different versions, to determine which gives the best conversion rate.

You will be surprised just how much a good headline can out-pull a less attention-grabbing variant (with all else being equal e.g. benefit, offer, guarantee etc).

What makes a good headline? We are looking at something that incorporate the one of the following (or a combination of them) :

• Compelling benefit for prospects (What’s in it for me?)
• Curiosity factor (cliff hanger style…)
• Personalization (YOU.., your name…)
• Specificity (exact numbers and figures)
• Thought-inducing (What if you can…? What if you are able…? If I tell you that you can do….?)

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101 Greatest Headlines You Can Model For Your Sales Copy

Any good marketer worth his salt will tell you that one of the most important, if not the most important, aspect of a sales copy is….the headline.

The headline is the first thing a prospect see when he looks at an advertisement. The headline is the advertisement…FOR the advertisement.

If you don’t grab the attention of your prospect there and then, he is gonna leave. Period.

And precisely because of this, copywriters spend hours tweaking the headlines, split testing different versions, to determine which gives the best conversion rate.

You will be surprised just how much a good headline can out-pull a less attention-grabbing variant (with all else being equal e.g. benefit, offer, guarantee etc).

What makes a good headline? We are looking at something that incorporate the one of the following (or a combination of them) :

• Compelling benefit for prospects (What’s in it for me?)
• Curiosity factor (cliff hanger style…)
• Personalization (YOU.., your name…)
• Specificity (exact numbers and figures)
• Thought-inducing (What if you can…? What if you are able…? If I tell you that you can do….?)

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The Single Most Important Detail You Must Remember To Make People Like You…

If you are a sales or a marketing person, one of the first thing you must do is to establish rapport with the person or party you want to sell to.

You want to make them like you. To trust you. With that done, half the battle is won.

So, how do you make them like you?

Simple. Make them feel as if they are worth a million bucks. Make them feel important. Make them feel that YOU…like them.

And one of the first step towards doing that is…

….remembering their names and using it often!

Often when we are introduced to new people, we forget their names at the next instance.

From now on, for your own sake, and your own business or sales sakes, make a concerted effort to start remembering all the names of people you come across with.

Even better, compliment how nice their name sounds.

That will totally rock their world! Totally… It really helps to open up doors and get them to open and warm up to you.

I tried that numerous times. All done with sincerity, of course. And the look of happiness on their face is just…priceless!

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How To Use Your Audience’s Fear To Your Marketing’s Advantage

For those who play stocks, you might be familiar with this saying.

"Stocks take the stairs on the way up… and the elevator on the way down."

Don’t believe me?

Just pick any stocks in the market and observe how long it takes for it to reach it’s all time high, and then take a look at the time it takes to drop back to the bottom or at least to half of it.

More often than not - it literally takes the elevator down! Back to square one!

What does this show?

One word - FEAR!

In marketing, we can take advantage of this very fear element of your prospects to your profit.

How?

Remember the following…

The Fear Of Loss Is Greater Than The Desire For Gain

Everyone loves to win something. But they hate losing even more.

It’s all nice presenting the benefits and how your prospects can gain when they take up your product or services.

All well and good. You touch on their emotion. You make them feel positive.

But….DON’T JUST STOP THERE!

Negative emotions work powerfully too!

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