Basic Copywriting Tips for Beginners

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What made Gary Halbert’s work so attractive?

Okay, other than the fact he was a fantastic copywriter (wiseguy).

Reading through some of his letters, yet again, I realised here was a guy who was funny… I mean genuinely funny.

He took take the piss out of you and you couldn’t take offense. (Unless you’re a prude, of course. In which case I suggest you don’t read my posts too regularly coz I pretty much speak my mind).

Take at a passage from one of his letters:

The numbers aren’t in for 2003 (that’s this year in case you are into serious substance abuse) but, I think it’s safe to say there are now at least 10,000,000 websites on the Internet, wouldn’t you agree?

What’s that? You say you don’t agree? Well then, why don’t you go piss up a rope, you low I.Q. shit weasel? (Lighten up, Buckwheat, I’m just trying to keep your attention.)

That’s genius, isn’t it?

Just look at the way he got out of that one… and… even if he didn’t put that last bit in, you just know you’d be okay, and he’d get away with it. Unless you really are, like I said, a prude.

And, he’d get away with it because you know, if you read the rest of the letter, you’d be getting a million dollar ejication in copywriting.

Just thought I’d mention that coz it popped into my head.

Oh, you wanna read the letter?

It’s here: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Newsletters/moneymakingsecrets.htm

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Here’s an excellent video highlighting the various elements of a sales message. You may be surprised at what’s important and what’s not.

http://imsecretsrevealed.com/

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When writing a sales copy for the web, especially in the early stages of your copywriting career, it is a good idea to stick to a formula for writing. Utilising a formula will ensure you’re on track and you’ve covered all the necessary parts required of a web sales copy.

Before making a start, you will need to be familiar with your customers and your market; identify your product and how it’s relevant to your customers and your market; and discern how to talk to your market in its own language. So, you will need to do a little research before you get started.

Then you’ll need to establish what problem your customers have; put that problem in their language; research your product or service and find its components and features; inform the customer how the components and features benefit them; make an offer.

Once you’ve carried out the necessary research, you can utilise these five basic steps to ensure your sales copy is complete. They are:

1. Problem – If you want to convince your prospect to buy your product or service, you must first show them why they need it. Once you’ve shown them a reason why they need your product, you can then set up a sense of urgency by illustrating why they need to take action now, rather than later. Once you’ve achieved this part you can present them with your solution, and why it’s the best route the take.

2. Promise – Which takes us to the next step, and that is to let them know why the solution you offer is the best one. Let’s take an example of a motor mechanic: If your prospect’s car needs a service, it will be up to you to demonstrate why your service is the best. You could be the one who offers a full service at the cheapest price. Or you could offer extras no one else offers, such as a full steam clean, or a valet service along with the engine service, at no extra cost.

3. Proof – Once you’ve made your promise to your prospect, you have to follow through and give them what you said you would. You have to show them why the service you offer is better than everyone else’s. Why your service is better than all the others. You can show them how your service is the best in the area by explaining you use the best parts from the original manufacturer, the best oil instead of some cheap brand, etc.

4. Price – You can show your prospect why your service is the cheapest. And it doesn’t even have to cost less. Let me explain: Your service costs $100, but the garage down the road charges $90. On the surface, the other garage looks cheaper, but when you break down the extras they get from you, your prospect sees that the free valet service you offer would cost an additional $20. That would take the price up to £110 with the other garage.

And, even if they don’t want the free valet service or steam clean, you can explain that, in the long term, your service would cost less because of the quality of the parts you’ll be using. You can break it down and explain that your parts would last twice as long which would save on repair bills.

In essence, you demonstrate why your solution is the best, bar none, and why it’s is worth ever penny your customer pays despite seeming to cost more. You show them why your service is much superior in comparison to your competitor’s inferior service.

5. P.S. – This can be a further benefit, or you can emphasize a benefit, or benefits, within the main body of the sales page which stands out above all others. You can even put additional emphasis on a bonus or bonuses offered along with the main product.

For example, you could draw attention to the fact that the free valet service or steam clean is not a part of the engine service but an additional extra. You could also emphasize that the free valet service or steam clean is only available only till the end of the month, hence creating a sense of urgency.

In effect, the PS can be used to show up the advantages of coming to you instead of going to your competitors and giving your prospects that extra incentive to come to you.

Once the sales letter is written, there are a few things you can do to ensure you’ve done a good job. These are:
• Read the letter out loud to yourself to ‘see’ how it feels when you hear the words. Make sure it sounds conversational and clear. You can use short words and sentences to help with this.
• Use short paragraphs, using no more than two to three sentences in each one.
• Make it personal – if you prospect thinks you’re talking to him, he’s more likely to read your copy.
• Make sure it’s clear what it is you’re offering – don’t make him have to guess or you’ll lose him.
• Think about any and every objection your prospect might have to buying form you, and answer those questions. Give them a reason to buy from you rather than go to someone else. Make the value you’re offering very clear. Cover every objection they could possibly throw at you if you were taking to them face-to-face.

Make use of this basic formula and you could come up with a decent sales letter to sell your product or service.

http://imsecretsrevealed.com/

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A video of Ted Nicholas explaining the seven great emotional triggers behind every sale.

http://imsecretsrevealed.com/

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What makes the internet appealing and interesting, probably more than anything else, is the fact that you can find information in basically almost anything and everything. A person would be hard pressed to type in a keyword into any search engine and find nothing there. And, as such, it is very easy to find information an individual may need to put on their own sites for content.

Unfortunately, while this can be beneficial, it can also sometimes be a hindrance to that individual if the information is copied verbatim. For, an article copied word-for-word can actually be detrimental to his site. With that in mind, it is better to either change the article completely, or create original content.

When a web site has original content, it makes the site more appealing, not only to the reader, but to the search engines, as well. You could have a site with the same subject matter as a thousand other sites, but the original content would still make it stand out.

Another reason to have original content is that you can place appropriate keywords within the article or document which helps to rank higher within the search engine rankings. Finding the right keywords can greatly improve the chances of placing in the top ten results of these rankings.

Why bother with higher search engine rankings? Well, for a start, it means you could get larger numbers of visitors to your site. And, as we all should know, more visitors usually mean a better chance of making more sales, if that is the intention.

Another extremely good reason is that writing original content improves the contributor’s copywriting skills, an art that is essential to online marketing. In fact, it is often said, the one thing all the top gurus have in common is the ability to craft their own sales letters and emails.

Yes, writing original content is more challenging and can take more time. But, ultimately, it is more satisying to know that the article you have created is your own, and not just copied from someone elses site. Fresh copy is always more appealing.

So, it is clear that in order to be better at internet marketing, one of the the biggest skills to learn would be copywriting. And there are a vast number of courses on the internet today. The only challenge is knowing which ones to choose.

The good news is, there are a number of sites which can help you as they have already taken the time to write simple, easy to understand reviews. You just need to go through them and make an informed decision.

http://imsecretsrevealed.com/

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