Write Sales Copy Without a Teacher
Copywriting is one of the best-paying writing skills you could possibly have. When you know how to write good ads (instead of just good content), you can hit peoples' persuasion triggers and get them to buy or get them to take any sort of action (like putting your info to use or opting into your e-mail list). That's a skill worth $500 per page instead of $5 per page.
You don't even need to know how to write copy from scratch, you can just make a few tweaks to bad copy to make it into good copy. Think about it. What if you found a great product with an affiliate program that had a crappy sales page? You could rewrite that copy to gut out the unimportant parts, add a few of your own points and shape the offer in such a way that gets people to buy.
What shape is that? AIDA... Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Get their attention with a headline, capture interest with a problem and a solution, build desire with benefits and testimonials... then tell them to take action. Click an order button, subscribe to a newsletter, whatever. Today you need to find AIDA in every day ads.
Look at 4 pieces of junk mail on your mail table or look at direct mail ads online at a site called "Hard To Find Ads" ... you can find it in Google. For each of those 4 ads, write down what the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action for each one is.
(Come on, hurry up and do it, it will only take you a couple of minutes. Make a commitment to yourself.)
You have only done four today, but I want you to keep AIDA in mind every time you read a web site, watch a TV commercial, see a poster at the mall... ALL successful ads use it. We have all seen commercials that are clever or funny... but you have no idea what they are selling.
Obviously attention and action are the most obvious parts of AIDA, but attention is only the beginning... and without desire, you don't want the product and you won't order. Keep in mind that the elements of AIDA go in order and keep building... building... and building pressure until your prospect is ready to explode, and have nowhere to go BUT to buy.
What's your best QUICK tip to write sales copy on your own, if you have no one to help teach you?
Filed in: Copywriting
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Robert…
Excellent Article.
on google video you can dig up Joe Sugarman speaking about copy and how to S-E-L-L…
or see
http://businesscoaching.typepad.com/the_business_coaching_blo/2008/10/joe-sugarman-batman-adventures-video.html
Robert thanks for allowing the link through to the Joe Sugarman post on my blog.
two tips that I like are:
1) From Dan Kennedy and others – take a lesson in writing headlines from Cosmopolitan and see how they create the desire to want to know more
2) From Jay Abraham – use the Amazon.com reviews to give you hot phrases and triggers for your market niche.
Both have articles in the copywriting section of my blog.
Just write it out. Provided the writer has done his research on what he/she is writing. If it is an affiliate product they need to purchase it first. Dig into the product. Then they will know almost as much as the product owner about that product.
The body should be easy to write. Except the headline and offer. I like to spend a little time with the headline. And even more time with the offer or closing.
Hey Paul great site. I just bookmarked you. I’ll Check it out a little latte on when I have more time.
@Robert, you just keep writing really great interactive post. I love it.
Thanks Robert. I like:
AIDA… Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
I have written that on my whiteboard here in my home-office.
J.R.
that’s great advice
too many people make this over complicated and get stuck in a rut
You learned your lessons very well Robert – and thanks for sharing some of your methodology!
Do you ever do copy critiques? That might be yet another income stream for you. 🙂
Have a super weekend,
Donna
A forever fan…
Sorry to tell you this Robert . . .
but they say your video was removed due to a violation of terms of use, whatever you did !!
Any way, could you post it using Amazon S3 instead of YouTube? We’d love to see it.
Hope you can work it out.
Steve
Dude, what happened to all your videos? Every one of them got pulled from YouTube. Did you pull them or did they?
Hopefully you can get them back up soon.
Hey Robert,
Good aticle with some great tips. However you have been a bad boy with Youtube. What happened man its almost impossible to get your vid pulled by these guys.
Have a good one man and hopefully you can sort out the video problem.
Kevin
Robert,
What exactly did you do … tried to view http://www.youtube.com/user/robertplank and received this “This account is suspended.”
Dave
If you are anywhere serious about improving
your copywriting skills, these 2 tips are
all you really need.
1. Do what ALL the best copywriters do, create
a swipe file to draw from. If you see really
good copy, do a screenshot or save it as html
on your hard drive for future reference.
2. I’m not sure taking bad copy and making it
good is the fastest or best route. Why not take
proven and good copy, change out the wording to
make it fit for your niche, keeping the structure
generally the same. It will look original and not
copied directly. People pay thousands to have good
copy made, so why not borrow the format and structure
and gear it towards your circumstances.
Where do you think the pros get their ideas? From
swipe files and great copy written by the best.
Why reinvent the wheel? It works wonders as it is.
The video message worked for me.
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Got my ATTENTION
Created my INTEREST
My DESIRE is working
But low and behold where DID the ACTION GO.
Wow. I never saw someone get their youtube account suspended unless they were really spamming and violating copyright. How did this happen with your own vids?
Building desire with benefit bullets is something a lot of my clients still struggle with.
They write their bullets about the features rather than the benefits.
On way to help is to list your features.
Ask ‘so what?’ about each feature, add the words ‘and that means’ to get to the benefit.
For example:
Feature: “The new make-up is water and sweat proof”
So what?
“And that means you can swim, dance and exercise without worrying about your makeup sliding off or disappearing”
You can then remove “and that means”, if you wish.
Some would leave the bullet as “The new make-up is water and sweat proof” – highlighting the feature.
A much better bullet would be:
“The new make-up is water and sweat proof, so you can swim, dance and exercise without worrying about your makeup sliding off or disappearing!”
Hope this helps.
Andrew
Really sorry to see your Tweet that G had decided to suspend your account with no specific reason. What a crock o’ cr@p…
Your Youtube video deleted… and your youtube account itself suspended!
Have you started Spammming Youtube lately?! 🙂
Here’s my best, and perhaps only, quick copywriting tip —
The Good Old A-B Test
Many years ago, when I lived in San Fransisco on Beery Goulevard, I had to do some layout work. I had very little skill, but I found a simple method. Although my method was slow, it worked.
I would just make up a layout, then change one thing. Then I’d look at version A and version B, and ask myself which version sucked less.
Then I’d take the winner, and discard the loser, and then on the winner I’d change something else, and again compare A to B.
In this way, I could slowly create a layout that looked pretty much OK, if not truly outstanding.
I just realized … I’m still using the same method. Still slow. Still works.
This little story was version A. Version B sucked more.
So version A is my story. And I’m sticking to it.
Gosh. You learn something every day. Some days, you learn two things. I wonder if today is one of those?