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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
In the competitive marketplace of the new millennium, the demand for specialized products or services will increase. If your site sells everything or to everyone, chances are that your audience will not perceive any greater value in shopping from you than anyone else. The more generic you are, the greater your competition will be since […]
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 […]
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 […]