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Build Consistency with Your Copywriting Style
Consistency is one of the most important principles for effective copywriting. One of the fastest and easiest ways to develop consistency is to ensure you’re using the same copywriting style throughout your marketing piece.
There are two style of copy: the John E. Kennedy formula and what I’ve coined the Dale Carnegie formula.
John E. Kennedy was the world’s first “reason-why” copywriter at the turn of the 20th century. (He is not to be confused with Dan Kennedy, who is alive and is one of the greatest copywriters living right now.) A 24-year old Canadian Mountie, John E. Kennedy was the first millionaire copywriter.
Kennedy did three things in his copywriting:
- Made a clear promise.
- Delivered proof with “reasons why.” That is why he was called the “reason-why” copywriter.
- Gave a call to action.
This type of copywriting is often used (more…)
A Template for World-Class Testimonials
Testimonials are one of the most important elements of persuasive copywriting. But not all testimonials are created equal.
Good testimonials are descriptive and specific. Rather than saying, “This product is great,” they offer specifics about the individual giving the testimonial has benefited.
One of the best ways to get world-class testimonials to use in your copywriting is what I call the “Before-After-After” template. Here’s what it looks like: Before the experience, immediately after the experience, and several years later. The second “after” is what really adds punch to the testimonial.
Let’s take the example of someone who’s just attended a seminar. Interviewing the individual on video, you ask, “Okay, before this experience, what was life like? After this experience, what’s life going to be like? Finally, three years from now, what do you think your life will be like as a result of attending this workshop today?”
Another way to use this technique is to (more…)
FAQs: The Key to Fast, Easy and Effective Copywriting
Want to write better marketing copy … and practically eliminate writer’s block? Write your Frequently Asked Questions first.
According to legendary copywriter Robert Collier, the secret to successful copywriting is “Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.” FAQs are like taking a shortcut into the heads of your website visitors and prospective customers.
When copywriting, many people think first about the benefits or headlines. This puts the pressure on you as the copywriter to figure out what will connect most with your audience.
But if you know what your prospects’ questions, challenges or barriers, and/or problems are before you start writing – as you will when you start with FAQs – you’ll gain valuable insights into how to write the rest of your marketing copy.
A good FAQ list will mirror the conversation in your first-time (more…)
Leverage the Principle of Recommendation
The most powerful persuasion tool is the principle of recommendation. It’s a principle that all entrepreneurs should incorporate into their marketing, because we’re in the midst of what’s been called the Recommendation Age.
The principle of recommendation is not the same as the principle of referral. Recommendations are more active. You’re not just referring; you’re putting your reputation on the line by recommending it.
If you look at the Internet and you go to Amazon.com, what are you allowed to do? You’re allowed to rate a book. When you go to You Tube, what are you allowed to do? You’re allowed to rate a video. When you go to Ted.com, you’re allowed to rate a speech. When you go on social networks, you’re really rating each other just in your commentary.
When writing marketing copy, this means that the new call to action is not Order Now, Buy Now, or Opt-In Now. The new call to action that you want to use is getting people to comment and share.
By getting people to comment and share, you get them to (more…)
When to Innovate
Just the other day, I was listening to a recording of a speech by Joe Sugarman* and Joe said, “One good path to success is to learn all the proven rules and meticulously follow them. Another path is to occasionally break all the rules, because breakthroughs come only from breaking rules.”
Resonates with me … as you know, I wrote a whole book based on breaking rules.
On one hand, I’m cautious about innovation; pioneers usually come home full of arrows; it’s often costly and time consuming…and I am always much more interested in “what works” than a new idea.
However, as Joe said, OCCASIONALLY, or I might say, at carefully chosen time, you have no alternative but to be the pioneer in order to move forward and in order to (more…)
Pavlovian Principles for Copywriting
When asked how to distinguish persuasive web copy, I have a two-word answer: Behavior modification.
Behavior modification is what powerful and persuasive words do. They modify behavior. In fact, that’s how I define good marketing.
The person who taught me the importance of behavior modification in marketing is the late Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who made behavior modification history in the late 1890’s.
In his revolutionary experiment, Pavlov put a slab of meat in front of dogs. As the dogs started salivating, he rang a bell. Over time, the dogs became conditioned to salivate whenever they heard the bell – whether or not meat was present. Their nervous systems had associated the bell with red meat.
What does red meat have to do with writing copy? Simply put… (more…)
Want Greater Influence? Smuggle Donkeys
Do you want prospects to take action more quickly? The fastest, easiest and most reliable way to influence your audience to take immediate action is to be transparent in your marketing.
Whether you’re writing a sales letter, a video script, an email or even meeting a prospect in person, nothing is as persuasive as the truth. People can sense the truth. And when you’re not telling the truth, they can sense that, too.
Master salespeople are magicians of persuasion. They’re transparent. They tell on themselves. They show you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s so natural, so organic, and so seamless that you often don’t notice.
When teaching my students about this elusive aspect of truth, I like to share the 13th century Turkish fable about a merchant named Nasraddin Hodja.
Hodja crossed the Turkish border every single day on his donkey, which always carried a big load of straw on its back. The border patrol knew that Hodja was smuggling somethinginto the Far East, because he was (more…)
How to Spot Vendors Who Are “Drivers”
Outsourcing is one of the best ways to increase your productivity as an entrepreneur. But the type of vendor you choose can make or break the gain you realize. The wrong vendors may save time in performing certain tasks, but require you to invest additional time in supervising and motivating them.
For best results, I look for vendors who are “drivers.” The fastest way to describe a driver is to borrow a definition I once saw on Wikipedia for entrepreneur: “Someone who boosts productivity from a lower to a higher level.”
Here are four ways to spot a driver when evaluating vendors:
- Drivers initiate. They self-start without extra supervision. In fact, they don’t have any supervision. They just drive. If they can’t contact you in phone or by person, they don’t get discouraged. They just keep driving.
- Drivers don’t get discouraged if other team members – in other words, their own colleagues – fail to meet their deadlines. It doesn’t matter to them. They just keep driving.
- Drivers report, question, and update you on their current progress, and they (more…)
The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors
One of the easiest ways to identify high-quality vendors when outsourcing is to evaluate the questions they ask you. Top vendors ask, “What is your chief complaint?”
Why does a great vendor look for your chief complaint? The French have a term, raison d’être, which is “reason for being.” Most vendors know that their reason for being is to solve problems.
If there’s no complaint, there’s no reason to serve you. If you have no problems, then a vendor has no place in your life. You won’t have anything to outsource to them.
Reliable vendors approach the challenges they uncover with what Earl Nightingale called (more…)
Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing
When choosing vendors, many people think that the most important attribute to look for is accountability. But I believe that deadline sensitivity is more important, because it protects your business and automatically guarantees a higher-quality vendor.
If someone is deadline sensitive, they’re not only reliable, but they’re also accountable.
For example, imagine that you are meeting someone for lunch, and the person is late. If he’s accountable, he’ll own up to his mistake and say, “Sorry, my bad.” If he’s late again, he says, “Oh, sorry. My fault.” When he’s late a third time, he’ll say, “You know what, I just can’t seem to meet the deadline.”
When the deadline is a lunch meeting, you may be inconvenienced and irritated. But what if the deadline is for delivering sales copy, putting up a web page, or shipping your product? The result may be (more…)