Archive for February, 2008
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Ok, so you’ve found a great page of copywriting resources. The following links will help you improve your copywriting, hire a copywriter or secure a copywriting job.
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In the interests of helping as many people as possible with their business writing and copywriting, I’ve decided to release my new 15,000 word 50 page e-book on sales letters as a free resource. Obviously, I hope this will draw some attention to my new blog over the next few weeks and months, but primarily, I want to answer the many questions I get on sales letters in one go.
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When Shakespeare was writing during the Elizabethan period, two types of dramatic style were merging together to form an exciting new voice. Previous to this, London theatre audiences were served up either the traditional Tudor morality play of slapstick allegory and farce, or the more rhetorical academic play based on classical Roman drama. Usually shown in universities, the latter were perhaps not much fun.
Yet Shakespeare was an innovator, and sensed that the audience of Elizabethan England was changing. Read the rest of this entry »
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Writing sales letters is part art and part science. If you get good at writing them, it’s one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways of promoting your business. No matter what the copywriting gurus tell you, no sales letter formula will work well every time, and your response rates will be determined by a variety of factors. But it is true that if you always include certain prerequisites that are proven to work more often than not - your sales letters will perform better as a result. Read the rest of this entry »
When you hire a copywriter, there are many things they will need to know in order to do a good job for you. Knowing how to brief a copywriter in advance will therefore help you get the best out of them, and secure the optimum return on your investment.
When you’re launching a new product or service, there’s normally a whole load of written information that goes with it, even if it’s a new venture. As well as asking you lots of questions about your project, the copywriter will need to see as much of this written information as you can muster.
Essential sources of background information can include:
- Previous adverts
- Brochures
- Press releases
- Product descriptions
- Technical information
- Website copy Read the rest of this entry »
Aside from agency creatives and freelancers, it’s no surprise to learn that not everyone really knows what a copywriter actually does, especially those in business. I still get several calls a year from people who have seen my ads on the Internet and want me to secure the legal rights for their logo and tagline, or something similar.
It’s not my place to mock these people, and I politely explain that I’m not a lawyer and I’m not involved in copyright. After all, you either know what a copywriter does or you don’t. When my friend’s dad, a graphic designer, suggested I would make a good copywriter when I was 15, I didn’t know what one was either. Read the rest of this entry »
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Most people who write for a living will tell you getting it right takes about 10% actual writing time and 90% research. Knowing what to write before you write it, and to whom, might sound like an obvious place to start, but when you’re under pressure to meet a business writing deadline, the obvious can go out of the window. It shouldn’t though, because even when you’re up against the clock, the whole process of writing your content will become easier if you put the pen down, sit back from the keyboard, and consider it first.
"An important first task when you are planning a piece of written work is to think carefully about its purpose." (1). Start by identifying your reader, bearing in mind these three simple questions:
- Who is my reader?
- Will they read this?
- What value is being created? (2) Read the rest of this entry »
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We live in an information age, an era of mass communication. In this world, some people consume information, while others provide it. It’s a constant and essential cycle. Information is valuable, and those who present it as high quality content will make money doing so. It’s the biggest growth industry in the world.
In the past, information was published by specialist organizations. Today, everyone has become a publisher. The Internet and home publishing software make electronic and traditional publishing easy and affordable. As only 0.003% of content published every year is in printed form (1), the Web accounts for the vast majority of this content explosion, with websites and blogs springing up in their millions. Read the rest of this entry »
When writing copy for any media, it’s always important to write in the active voice – not the passive.
Active sentences give your copywriting spark and drive, energising your sales message with words that enliven the reader and encourage them to act. Indeed, just employing this one technique in your copywriting could make the difference between securing a sale and losing one.
If you use passive sentences in your copywriting, they often appear awkward and flat, and you run the risk of your message being boring. Just think about it, you wouldn’t buy from a boring salesperson, so why should you feel compelled to act upon limp and uninteresting copywriting? Read the rest of this entry »
So, what’s the big buzz about Google Adwords? Well, if you have a website and need to grow your sales, Google Adwords is the answer. Google Adwords is proven to be very effective at driving new business, and that’s the primary reason why everybody’s trying to get to the top of the paid listings. In short, if you want to increase your sales quickly and dramatically, you need to get started with Adwords. It’s cost-effective and really does work, instantly. Read the rest of this entry »
