“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.

Here are some I quickly mocked up for some popular websites you can easily find on the web:

This second one in particular, I originally copied the logo and header shape. However after introducing it to Photoshop I was able to make the curves consistent on the top and botton of the header and introduce new text.

The first header on the other hand was created from scratch. Using the pen tool and my mouse I was able to establish the curves exactly how I wanted them, as well as use them to shape the head of the keys. One of the clever things about photoshop is that when you use the pen tool, you can easily correct/modify the shape using the Direction Selection Tool and change the shape of the curves.

Now getting these curves to look smooth will take practice and a lot of zooming in to help smooth out the lines, but it is definitely worth the effort once you finally achieve the end result.

So give it a try and see how you get on.

Michelle

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.

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.

Today we thought we could mix it up abit, by offering you the opportunity to ask you what you would like us to write about. Copywriting, PPC, SEO, development, email marketing, web design… if you have got a question about any of these areas that you are just dying to find out more about, then please feel free to leave us a comment here and we’ll look into it.

We know from experience how frustrating searching the web from marketing tips can be, so we want to make this search easier.

Simply leave us a comment below detailing what you would like to know more about and we’ll write a dedicated post just for it.

It can be about anything: producing killer headlines, choosing the right graphics, where to find affordable imagery, tricks to ranking first on top search engines… give us a shout and we’ll get onto it.

Rowena xx

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