“Don’t sell your product in your subject line.”

And this is a good piece of advice. I can easily count on my hands the number of times I have gone to my email to find a subject line which tells me everything about the product. By telling me so much so soon, instead of stirring my interest, I know straight away not to read it.

However throw in a subject line that agitates your curiosity. That makes you go ‘what’ you can attract a whole new audience to your email marketing.

If like me, subjects lines are not your forte, then the following tips will help:

1. Write headlines without mentioning the product once
2. Offer them scandalous/shocking pieces of information
3. Personal the subject line i.e ‘Can’t believe what you have done
4. Make claims/offer statistical data they cannot ignore

Now these may not always work with an existing mailing list (depending on your market place); however if you are trying to attract new clientele using a different mailing list, any one of these can help turn your email from a ‘delete me’ to ‘read me’ message.

Try first writing yourself some generic subject lines which can be applied to any scenario. When you have got a good selection (approx 10), try incorporating themes from your product into the subject line and create a further 10 subject lines. With a collection you can feel confident that you have got 10 email topics straight way which you can use to produce new emails and new content.

This week I wanted to elaborate on this further but show you how to deal with bullets, headers, sub-headers etc.

1. Writing a powerful headline – the saying is you should always fill your headlines with benefits which are related to a desire. So instead of just saying ‘lose 1-5lbs’, you can top this by adding ‘drop a dress size and reclaim your wardrobe.’ Your headlines need to be emotive and focus on one specific theme. The point is you can’t sell to everyone, which is why you need to pick your ideal consumer and target them

   Your headline can also aggrevate your audience before providing them with a solution.

   One useful tip I have found beneficial is to theme your headline around one of the following: a) time/speed b) diaster story/pain or c)natural/purity

2. Sub-headers – the best copywriters are able to use their sub-headers to tell a story whilst providing your audience with an accurate summation of what is to follow in the next paragraph. The key is to make sure that the paragraph that follows leads from this subheading.
3. What is their reading age – it is important when writing sales copy to make sure that the language you use is understandable. It is for that reason that most newspapers and websites will treat their readership as though they have got a reading age of  11.
4. Don’t persume they know everything – if for example you work for a company that sells detox products enriched in antioxidants, it is important to assume that not everyone visiting your site will know what antioxidants are. Now whilst you can’t go overboard explaining it, giving a bried descriptions of how antioxidants impact on toxins and you will win a broader selection of sales
5. It is all about ‘you’ - it has been proven that integrating ‘you’ focused copy can produce more sales. Similarly keeping your tone converstational and personal will enable consumers to relate to you and your product/service
6. Include a P.S. – these are heavily understated but easily be used to re-iterate your products benefits, introduce a CTA or remind them of an important element. If you want to use a P.S. it is best to use the following formula:

- Time limit
- Main benefit – reiterate
- Guarantee

Never go above 4 as this can appear overbearing and will affect the potency of these P.S.’s as you get consumers to buy.

Writing effective sales copy is heavily dependent on the type of audience you are writing for, so whilst a personalised sales letter make work on someone who is looking to lose weight, clear their acne and become healthily, this might not always work on someone in the property investment market.

The trick I am afraid is trial and error. Split testing your sales letters and seeing which produces the best conversions.

Of the sales letters I have written to date though, there is one formula I would recommend to copywriters just starting out. A great copywriter recommended this to me and it hasn’t failed me yet:

THE PROMISE: In your headline try to define what are you offering. What is your unique selling point?

THE PICTURE: Ask yourself why the consumer is here? What are they looking for? Take this information and agitate the problem before sympathising with their situation

THE SOLUTION: Introduce your product. What is it? What does it do? Build interest

THE PROOF: List the benefits of the product. Prove that it works and why it works

CALL TO ACTION: Reiterate why the consumer is here. Restate the benefits of your product. Prove why their lives will be much better after using this product. Be emotive.

PRICE: Depending on the type of product/service you are promoting here is your chance to show the price of the product/service, its cost and incredible value for money

REMOVE THE RISK: Once you have iterated the price, remove the risk of investing by discussing your guaranteed results and guarantee

ORDER NOW: Show them how easy it is to order your product/service

CALL TO ACTION: Restate why the consumer should order. Highlight the products best benefits

I have used this template on a few of my campaigns now and it seems to have worked; however I strongly recommend that you continue researching and looking for templates to add to your swipe file. A good sales page is one that keeps you readin from start to finish.

Of course you should NEVER copy another writers work, but this swipe file can prove very inspiring if you are struggling to formulate a headline.

Today I thought I would share with you my swipe file of the best headline templates I have ever encountered. Each of these headlines have been proven to generate increased sales and leads and are incredibly adaptable to every niche.

Come take a look:

1. They Laughed When I ____________ -
   But When I Started to _________________!
2. The Truth About ___________________!
3. What Every ______________ Should
   Know About ______________!
4. WARNING: Before You ________________,
   READ THIS!
5. The Amazing ________ Secret Of a __________ from
   ___________!
6. How to Get ______________ Without
   ____________!
7. An Amazing Secret That Can ___________________!
8. Here is What __________ Say About The Amazing
   Inside Secrets Revealed In ________________!
9. How to Make People Line Up and Beg You To
   _____________!
10. Now you can make more __________,
    have more __________
    - than you ever thought possible!
11. He Was Only (#) Years Old and Was Making
    $_________ A Week. I Was (#) and Bringing Home
    $________; Boy Did I Feel Like a Jerk!
12. My _____________ Was Killing Me…
    Until I Discovered ____________!
13. How the Same ______ Who Helped
    Me __________ Can Help You, Too!
14. The Incredible True Story of __________________!
15. How a _____________ Went From
    _____________ to _____________ -
    In Less Than _____________!
16. How I Went From an ________________
    with ___________________ to
    ___________________… & How You Can Do It, Too!
17. Announcing… The First ________________ – Tested &
    Proven More __________ and More __________
    Than Any ____________ Ever!
18. Amazing Free Report Reveals…
19. A Foolproof Way to…
20. At Last… Someone Has Unlocked
    the Secret To _____________!
21. Confessions of a ______________!
22. How to Discover/ Get Free/ Get Rich/ Make Money _______________!
23. Let Me Show You How I _____________…
    And How You Can, Too!

    These are only a handful, but you get the idea of how easy it is to create your own amazing headlines once you have got a template to work from. Give these a try and let me know how they impact on your sales. I guarantee you will notice a difference in the quality of your sales and audience.

I hope they too can offer you the same inspiration that they have offered me over the years, and find real enjoyment in their work.

In no particular order:

1. Jeff Gardner
2. Bob Bly
3. John Carlton
4. Randy Charach
5. Jesse Forrest
6. Michel Fortin
7. Mike Jezek
8. Dr. Harlan Kilstein
9. Dan Lok
10. Yanik Silver
11. Grady Smith
12. Joe Vitale

These are just a handful of the top online marketers around and they have each earned a strong reputation due to their commitement to write powerfully strong copy, email marketing and campaigns.

If you are interested in looking further into their background and work, you can easily find them all on the web by typing in their names.

If you find any others, send us a message and we shall discuss them here.

Enjoy xx

Sales copy is harder than you think. It is poweful stuff…

I was reading a sales copy page the other day and even though I recognised all the triggers I found myself at the end of the page, ready and prepped to buy the product. The copy had caught me hook, line and sinker and had invoked feelings and insecurities about my appearance that I never knew I had.

So what did they do?

Simple. They targetted my emotions, agitated my need and offered me a solution.

Now I am not going to teach you everything about sales copy today – I’d be writing forever lol – but I thought today I would offer out some tips to help get you started.

1. Research – your sales copy is only as powerful as the knowledge you inject into it. For example, would you believe a weight loss supplement website if the writer sounded like they didn’t know a thing about the product? Of course you wouldn’t. Your first question would be: what aren’t you telling me? Instantly removing trust.

   So believe you write a single word: research your product, look at your competition and check out its history, i.e. clinical trials, past successes…

2. Pick a Unique Selling point – look at any industry/market and you will find products/services which are exactly the same bar their brand name. As a copywriter your mission is to make your product unique, which means you need to find a unique selling point (USP) that no other product in your industry is marketing.

   This can even be something that your competitors do the same but don’t advertise i.e. suitable for vegetarians. You’ll be surprised by how much pointing out this small difference will make to the success of your product.

3. Know your audience – instead of trying to write copy that satisfies everyone, try to imagine that the perfect customer is sitting in front of you. With this insight consider what they are looking for, how are they feeling, why are they searching for you etc, and begin structuring a plan.
4. Benefits, Benefits, Benefits – the distinction between a feature and a benefit is often blurred. Even the best of copywriters have made this mistake…

   Now the trick to writing quality sales copy is fill your copy with details of how your product/service will better their lives. Surprisingly the winning line for a weight loss supplement is not pointing out how much weight a consumer can lose, but how this weight loss will benefit them.

   If you struggle to come up with benefits try the following. Write the feature of the product/service and ask yourself the following question ‘which means?’ This will help you to come up with a concoction of benefits which will draw consumers in.

5. Create a swipe file -  saw a piece of sales copy that made your hand itch to press the ‘Buy Now’ button. Create a copy of the page and pop it in a folder. Whether it was the headline, a particular paragraph, the structure of the copy or the way they tackled their products benefits… they can teach you how to adapt your copy and improve your sales copy style.

   PLEASE NOTE: Never copy another websites copy. The purpose of this Swipe file, is to help you develop as a writer and learn from others.

Well I was recently reading a newsletter from the famous copywriter Gary Bencivenga and I was so impressed with it, that I just had to share it with you.

In this particular article, Bencivenga discussed a 7 letter strategy that is designed to instantly multiply your creativity 11-fold. What to hear it? It is SCAMPER.

Now ‘SCAMPER’ is not an original concept by Bencivenga but was originally created by Alex Osbourne, an equally talented Copywriter, and is a technique that can easily still be applied today:

• S = Substitute (a new, surprising or more contemporary element for a tried and true one)
• C = Combine (successful elements from 2 or more different sources)
• A = Adapt (a winning headline, products, offer etc from another product category)
• M = Modify, Minify or Magnify (any element)
• P = Put to other uses (who elses can use this and why?)
• E = Eliminate (one or more of the elements that have always been included and see what happens)
• R = Rearrange, Reverse or Redefine (any part of the product, selling process or problem you’re confronted with)

These will take practice to implement, but harnessing just one of these for your online marketing strategies will make a difference.

Example:

The easiest one to show you would have to be ‘Adapt’.

In Bencivenga’s example he displayed the popular headline of ‘Do you make these mistakes in English?’ At the time of its publication this use of directness and intrigue, ensured consumers went on to read the rest of the article. It created a sense of wonderment and left many consumers questioning: ‘do I make these mistakes?’

It was hit as you can tell and over the years has been adapted into various other marketing campaigns including the following: ‘ Do you make these mistakes with vitamins?’

The adaption is simple. You modify it to suit your product offering and then fill the body of your copy with common mistakes people make which they will invariably won’t if they have got your product.

It is a good trick and it works.

So give them a try and witness the difference they make to your marketing strategy… they will be worth it.

Rowena xx

Now I am not so much talking about a general ‘Hi, how are you?’ email, I am on about the ones that can come off as an advertisement to spam filters.

I was once doing an email marketing campaign for work and sent a test version to my home email. Now whilst my home email was already programmed to recognise my work email, low and behold my newsletter ended up in the Junk Folder.

As a copywriter the email templates I am generally given have all been thoroughly tested to ensure that they don’t get recognised as spam. After all what would be the point of sending out an email to your products mailing list if none of them were going to get it?

The best online marketing company’s always test their html codes to make sure they get through. Yet even still, their deliverable rates can still be less than 80%.

So what is happening?

The reality is your content is setting off the spam filters.

On most marketing tools they are you a widget that enables you to check for spam words. My most unusual experience with this tool was when I was told the word ‘laugh’ is a spam word.

It is incredible what words crop up. Beyond the obvious of ‘free’, ‘buy’ and ‘financial freedom’, some of the others that pop up are unusual.

Now if you are incredibly serious about increasing your emails delivery rate I recommend using this spam check. Using a rating of 5, should your email cross the threshhold of 3.9 and above there will be a risk that your email won’t deliver.

If that is the case, look through your email and try to implement alternative words in their place.

Admittedly you will never get it down to 0, but 1-3 is enough to fill confident that your mailing list will recieve your email.

Give it a try and see if it makes a difference.

Good luck.

Rowena xx

As a copywriter I am constantly asked to write about a variety of different niches/industries. Weight loss, property, accounting… the list keeps growing and as a result it is necessary for me to keep on top of what is happening in the industry.

Myself, I love using Google Alerts to keep my posted. Admittedly the search terms can be broad and your email account can get filled up fast with random emails. But pick the right keyword and the quality of the stories is increadible.

So what do you do?

First things first, visit http://www.google.com/alerts. As soon as you log onto this page you will notice to the right of the screen a box asking you to create a Google Alert.

The options themselves are fairly simple:

• Search Terms – this is plural, so you can easily ensure that your searches are more focused.
• Type - this can be comprehensive, news, blogs, videos or groups
• How often – this can be ‘as it happens’, ‘once a day’ or ‘once a week’
• Your email address – I suggest you create a new email address from this, so it doesn’t crowd your personal account

And finally… Creat Alert. After this a screen will appear telling you to visit your email and verify that this Google Alert is correct. Do that and it is set up.

It is truly that simple, but is a fast easy way to keep track of what is going on in your industry.

The one suggestion I do have though is that you create specific folders, especially if like me, you are writing for a number of different industries.

Give it a try.

Rowena

So let’s get started:

• Combine curiosity with a benefitYou need to create intrique within your headline which will get your surfer pausing for thought and wondering if they too can receive the same benefit.

  Now this benefits needs to be attainable, so don’t try to exaggerate about the product you are writing about. Instead it needs to be an attainable benefit that surfers want and of which you can provide.

• A bold claim followed by dramatic proofWith this one you will need to separate the two putting your bold claim in the first main header before introducing a smaller header than places this bold claim with dramatic proof that it is attainable.
• ScarcityIntroducing a deadline whereby your exclusive offer will end is a create way to create urgency and getting surfers considering their options.

  If you were told that only 20 apple ipods priced at £60 were still available, wouldn’t you be clicking on the ‘order now’ button?

• Telling a storyThis can’t be any story. Your character needs to be making a transition which could help other individuals. With this possibility on the horizon their curiosity will be heightened.
• A HookThis one is a classic but placing a hook where you connect 2 seemingly unrelated things can grab your surfers attention and make them wonder what the connection is.

  The only thing you need to remember here though is that if you mention a juxtaposition within your headline, you need to resolve it early within your copy.

• NewsNew News is always a good way to stop someone in their tracks. Integrate the words ‘now’, ‘finally’, ‘at last’ and ‘announcing’ into your headline establishes an immediacy that must be heard about.
• Challenge We all do this. If someone sets us a challenge and dares us to give it a go we do. We too want to succeed.

  So trying adding a challenge to your headline and see the difference it makes to your articles success.

• Comparing 2 unequal thingsWrite as though 2 traditionally unequal objects/events can be equal and you’ll have surfers wondering  how it is possible whilst viewing your product/service with no appreciative eyes.
• Unique Selling PointLike a hook, your products unique selling point is the key to making you stand out against your competition and making surfers want to choose you. So use this unique quality to your advantage and incorporate it into your headline.
• ‘How to’Now this one only really works if your product/service is the first of its niche. In terms of weight loss and ecommerce a ‘How to’ headline may not be so effective when your competitors are doing it too.

  Good Luck!

  Rowena xx