An example of how to make your copywriting tighter?
There IS a copywriting lesson here…
Watch how the kid reduces the length of the headline.
There’s no sense in having more words than necessary – you only have a few seconds to catch your prospects attention… and hold it.
Filed under Humour, copywriting, marketing by on Feb 1st, 2010. Comment. 
It seems like a silly question really: Drayton Bird asking if you’d like a free video critique of some of the best adverts of all time.
But then, that’s Drayton, always under-valuing his own worth.
He just sent me his latest email from his collection of Helpful ideas. Take a look at it and send him an email (you’ll see what I mean when you get to the end).
Once you’ve got a good idea, try to make it surprising, too.
Here’s another little quiz for you, Ghulam. What do all these messages have in common?
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“The lazy man’s way to get rich”
(Most people are too busy earning a living to make real money) |
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I7 ingenious (but perfectly legal) ways to avoid paying your debts |
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It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken |
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Cash if you die, cash if you don’t |
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Quite frankly, the American Express Card is not for everyone |
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Drive it like you hate it |
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“They laughed when I sat down at the piano – but when I started to play” |
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“How much should you pay … …when you’re planning to steal the ashtray? |
Did you guess what it is, besides the fact that they all made an awful lot of money for the people who ran them?
Have you guessed the common factor yet?
Well, just in case you didn’t, let me tell you that it is a special quality that I believe distinguishes marketing messages that are remarkable from those that are just good.
That quality is relevant surprise.
And my Helpful Idea No 32 is, once you’ve got a good idea, try to make it surprising, too.
But don’t be tempted to commit two grievous sins:
1. Putting forward ideas that are surprising, but utterly irrelevant.
2. Putting forward ideas that are neither surprising nor relevant.
I gave you an example of the irrelevant a while ago in the case of a fatuous commercial for Barclays Bank featuring the famous financial expert Samuel L. Jackson and a pig.
Actually, banks are very good at the fatuous.
I recall that when First Direct started they thought it a good idea to have a commercial half-witted business man waving an umbrella and splashing about in some fountain, plus ads featuring dead fish and Wellington boots.
No wonder it took them about 8 years to break even.
I saw a good example of the second sin on a poster for Vodaphone, which says “Make the most of now”. A prize to anyone who can tell me how the hell that meaningless drivel is going to make anyone choose/stay with Vodaphone.
Special offer – but only if you’re interested.
I could tell you a lot about the ads and mailings I’ve featured here that you might find useful. That’s partly because I knew five of the eight people who ran or wrote them so I can tell you about the background, and partly because I know a lot about what made them work.
If enough of you would like me to, let me know and I’ll put together a little video for you (f*r*e*e!!!) But only if you are really interested.
Let me know if you like the idea by e-mailing me with the word ‘Video’.
Best,
Drayton
P.S. This is number 32 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas. You can sign up on the link below for the rest.
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Website: http://www.draytonbird.com / www.eadim.com
Click here to get 101 free helpful marketing ideas. Marketers from all over the world think they’re a pot of gold.
The Drayton Bird Blog – please do not visit if you are easily offended.
Filed under copywriting by on Jan 16th, 2010. 6 Comments.
Listen very carefully: I’m going to tell you a secret.
And, I need you to promise you’ll never… never… repeat it to anyone else. You see, what I’m about to divulge is from my past… and it’s embarrassing.
So you’ve got to promise.
Promise?
Good.
This is what happened: In 1983, I did my GCE ‘O’ level exams. These have since been replace with a watered down version called GCSE exams. In the U.S. it would be whatever high schools kids do to graduate.
Oh, before I go on I need to tell you there’s a lesson in this story for you if you want to be a copywriter. And it’s one that could improve your skills by leaps and bounds. Even if you’ve been at it a while.
Anyway, I’m embarrassed to say I failed, miserably. It was Human Biology.
In fact it was so bad I received a ‘U’ grade – Unclassified. (Tell anyone and I’m coming looking for you, got it?)
I’m not making excuses (okay, maybe a little) but I don’t even remember covering a lot of the topics the exams were based on. But that’s another story.
A classmate, who lived close by on the same street as me, also failed. But he got a grade ‘D’. That’s the grade after ‘C’ (in case you’re wondering). So we both had to redo the whole course the next year if we wanted the certificate. (Actually, he could have re-sat the exam as his grade wasn’t that bad, but he wanted to do much better – remember this for later).
Once the course began again I realised why I failed the first time – it was mind numbingly boring. Even with a different teacher. They just couldn’t make it interesting.
And throughout that second year I failed every test we had in class. In fact it was a running joke amongst the other students whether I would receive a grade D or E.
However, come the end of the academic year and with a week and a half to go for the exam, I decided I wasn’t going to fail a second time and knuckled down to revise.
Every day I took out past exam papers and copied down the most popular questions from previous exams. I then looked up the answers in the textbooks and began to copy them out by hand. The majority of the answers were in essay format.
I took a piece of paper and pen and I copied out each and every single one of these essays word for word. And I did it over… and over… and over again.
I also recorded the essays on an audio cassette recorder (it was one of those old flat ones with the chunky buttons. If you remember them you must be pretty old by now).
The first thing I did each morning on waking was to press play and listen to the essays. Then I’d get up and, after all the usual stuff you do on getting up in the morning; I sat down at 9am to copy out the essays again. All of them.
I did this throughout the whole day, getting up only for necessities. I looked up questions, found the answers and copied them out. Rinse and repeat.
Then, at the end of the day when I got in bed, I would listen to them again. I did for the whole week and a half leading up to the exam.
It got so, I didn’t even have to look in the books anymore: I could just write those essays from memory.
When it cam to the exams I wrote reams of content for the answers. Now, here’s the funny thing –even though they were after the same answers, because the questions were worded differently my essay came out different to the answers I wrote out at home.
I don’t mean they were wrong. Far from it.
What happened was, I actually understood everything I was writing and was paraphrasing the exact same material in my own words.
To cut a long story short, my classmate passed this time around with a grade ‘C’. So he didn’t get the grade he hoped for despite doing well in class tests.
I, on the other hand, received a grade ‘A’.
When I showed him my result paper he burst out laughing saying, “That’s unheard of – from a grade ‘U’ to an ‘A’”.
And indeed it was.
Anyway, enough about me. What about you?
What has this got to do with you and copywriting?
I’m glad you asked.
See, if you’ve ever read Gary Halbert’s newsletters (if you haven’t, shame on you, wannabe copywriter) you’ll see he advocates – no, insists – people copy out good copy by hand. He firmly believes it’s the best way to become good yourself. And I’m inclined to agree.
I did the same thing during my revision, but taking it a step further with the audio recordings.
Keep in mind I was just a kid finishing high school at the time and hadn’t even heard of Gary Halbert. You could say I ‘invented’ the copy and tape method. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
Rezbi’s Copy and Tape Method of Advertising Instruction
(Boy that sounds naff).
Still, it goes to prove these methods work. And I still use them to this day.
Every single day I copy out at least one good advert. I pick out million sellers and control beaters and go at it.
I’ve been doing this even more lately as I needed to get my writing back on track after a pretty dark spell. And I’m happy to say… I’m back!
So, if you’re a beginning copywriter (or even an experienced one) get yourself a writing pad and pen, and start writing. Copy out some ads by hand. No computer allowed.
It will probably be a struggle at first, especially if you haven’t picked up a pen since school, but I guarantee you’ll get used to it. Heck, I prefer it now. I find I’m much more creative when I write out my letters and articles before I type them up.
In fact, I don’t like typing any more. I actually prefer writing by hand.
Also, all the top copywriters I personally know of write the first draft by hand, without making any corrections.
Allow me to explain what I mean by that last remark and how it can help you.
In my exam, I kept writing without stopping to make corrections. The words just flowed from my pen to the paper.
You see I’d done the ‘research’ and prepared well, I knew my subject intimately. And I found that by writing without stopping to make corrections I could get a lot down on the paper. Once I had finished writing I went back to check and correct any errors.
It’s the same with copywriting. Just keep writing and getting words down on the paper. You can edit later.
Remember that you can’t edit anything if there’s nothing there.
Give it a go and see how you do. You may have to push yourself for the first few weeks, but don’t give up. I sincerely believe you’ll be astonished — and very pleased — with the end result.
And let me know how you get on. Maybe I can help you out.
Best,
Rezbi
Filed under copywriting by on Dec 10th, 2009. 6 Comments.
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.
Filed under copywriting by on Dec 4th, 2008. Comment.
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.
Filed under copywriting by on Dec 4th, 2008. Comment.
