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.

Just thought I would do a quick post to introduce myself as this is my first time on the blog.

To sum myself up I am the guy who puts on all the cool forms, calculators, gadgets and widgets you see on most product websites.

CSS, RSS, Expression Engine… I work with them all, so if you have got any questions, need some development advice or are just looking to set up your own website, give me a quick post and I’ll get back to ya!

Michael