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Copywriting

Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas

I used to teach marketing and selling at a local college here in Ottawa. And one of the things I used to help teach with — I also use them all the time when I want to learn and remember new things, too — was mnemonics. Mnemonics are tools or devices that aid retention. Do […]

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Copywriting

Apply The Law of Contrast to Build Desire

In a recent critique for a coaching client, the issue of “gap analysis” arose. Gap Analysis is something I learned in sales, and it was heavily taught by sales trainers like Brian Tracy, such as in his course “The Psychology of Selling.” Gap Analysis is an immensely powerful selling technique. It’s also an important feature […]

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Copywriting

To Up Sales, Up Words With Upwords!

I first taught this technique in 1998. While there have been tons of improvements since then, today I still see copy on so many websites, sales letters, or emails using a language that only the person who wrote them understands. The bottom line is, most marketers and copywriters still seem to ignore the most important […]

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Copywriting

Does Your Copy Have Personality?

Some people don’t mind hard-hitting copy, while others prefer newsy copy. Some people prefer long copy to get as much information as possible, others prefer short, brief, to-the-point copy. Some like drama, stories, and testimonials; others data, statistics, and facts. Does it all matter? Absolutely. What makes one style of copy more favorable than another? […]

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Copywriting

How to Extract Doubt From Your Sales Copy

A few years ago, something happened that provided incontrovertible proof of an infallible rule in copywriting. I knew it all along but never saw it proven to me in such a personal and direct way. The one element that can transform flimsy, “yeah-right” copy into a sales-inducing powerhouse, is proof. Besides poor targeting, lack of […]

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Copywriting

The Oft-Confused Features And Benefits

If you’ve been a student of marketing for some time, then I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” That quote by Theodore Levitt is probably one of the most quoted passages in marketing in trying to explain the difference between features and […]

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Copywriting

60-Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula

One of the most popular threads on my now defunct discussion forum for copywriters was one started by my friend Dean Jackson. If you don’t know Dean Jackson, he is a Torontonian, a real estate mogul, an information marketing millionaire (author of many programs, including the highly successful “Stop Your Divorce!”), and a darn-fine copywriter. […]

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Copywriting

P.S.: Don’t Forget to Include This in Your Copy

One of the most venerable and common elements of good salesletters, following the headline, is the postscript or “P.S.” at the end. The end of every great sales letter should be capped with a strong P.S. We are often told that the P.S. is the second most read part of a salesletter, because after reading […]

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Copywriting

Legitimate Scarcity Tactics With Digital Products

Scarcity is an effective tactic often used in copywriting to create a sense of urgency in an effort to convince the undecided reader to make a purchasing decision. After all, people procrastinate, and they do for a variety of reasons. It’s simply human nature. So the goal of applying scarcity is to prevent prospects from […]