The other day, an aspiring copywriter asked me a question that I hear all too often: “How do I distinguish myself from other copywriters?” The answer is not an easy one. It takes some thought, some time, and perhaps some inspiration. But time after time, I have found that most people tend to overlook one […]
What’s the single, most important element in copywriting? Let me say it another way. You’ve done your research. You found a starving market. Your product fills a need. And your sales copy shines with benefits. If everything is so perfect, then why is your product still not selling? Is it the price? The offer? The […]
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 […]
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 […]
When writing direct response copy, a few things can maximize the responsiveness of your message. The first and most important element that can turn any website, salesletter, or advertisement into an action-generating mechanism is, without question, the headline. But lately, I’m seeing more and more headlines that are limp, bloated, or simply dead wrong. A […]
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 […]
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 […]
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? […]
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 […]