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Copywriting

Copywriting Productivity Tools to Boost Your Writing

These days, I do a lot of SEO consulting and content strategy work. But a big part of my career was in copywriting. And when I write copy, some tools help me tremendously. Whether it’s doing research, writing the copy itself, or working with my clients, there are certain resources that help. I previously shared […]

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Copywriting

How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects

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 […]

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Copywriting

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 […]

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Copywriting

Forget Benefits, And You Will Sell More

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 […]

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Copywriting

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 […]

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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

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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Marketing

Are All Business People Dishonest?

Seems I’m ranting a lot these days, and a little more opinionated than the norm. Perhaps it’s my back problem, which is killing me, that’s making me more sensitive or irritable. I don’t know. But something someone recently said in my copywriters forum irritated me. And it’s not what this person said specifically, but the […]

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Copywriting

The Seven Deadly Sins of Website Copy

Throughout my research, I’m always surprised when I stumble onto websites that are professionally designed and seem to offer great products and services, but lack or fail in certain important elements. Elements that, with just a few short changes, can help multiply the results almost instantaneously. Generally, I have found that there are seven common […]