Preamble: I wrote this article back in 2003 and I rewrote it in early 2005. Back then, it was meant primarily for a copywriting audience. Now that I specialize in SEO, and seeing how the concept of “funnels” is gaining popularity, I took the liberty to slightly update it. One problem in SEO, copywriting, content, […]
Tag: psychology
The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning
In 1992, I wrote power positioning as a way to help attract clients in my early career as a marketing consultant without the need for cold-calling or selling.
Copywriting is often labelled as “wordsmithing.” A wordsmith is someone who uses words to sell a product, a service, or an idea. But, is copy only about words? Copywriting comes down to two fundamental tasks: knowing what to say and then how to say it. The first part is the most crucial. After all, the […]
Risk-Reversal’s Role Reversal
The greater portion of my career has been in copywriting, selling, and direct marketing. And one of the common denominators I’ve found in any successful piece of sales copy is the power of risk reversal. That is, taking a larger risk from the sale than the purchaser of your product. Risk reversal is a powerful […]
New To Copywriting? Start Here…
As part of my coaching program, students can ask me unlimited questions via email. One common question I seem to get is, “I’m new to copywriting, where do I start?” Since my coaching students also get access to any of my digital programs, they also get access to my private website, where I share over […]
I covered headlines many times already. You can find posts about headlines here. But here are some additional tips. There are two huge mistakes people make when they write headlines. Either they are too bland and don’t say enough (such as when they attempt to simply summarize), or they say too much to cover all […]
The Biggest Mistake Copywriters Make
Most of the copy people ask me to rewrite seem to offer great products and services. In fact, some offers are so good, prospects would be crazy to turn them down. But they do. And these sales pieces end up falling on my lap because they’re desperately unproductive. When clients ask me to critique or […]
The Death of The Salesletter
In late 2005 (and early 2006), I predicted the death of the text-heavy, long-scrolling sales letter and the birth of an interactive, content-driven, multimedia model.
The other day, one of my readers asked me the following question, which I found rather interesting: “Why should the author of a product be included in their sales copy?” Seems like a pretty redundant question, right? Especially to any veteran copywriter or marketer worth their salt. But the question didn’t stop there. The reader […]