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Copy
Writing
Sooner
or later you'll come across websites and newsletters with references
to advertising copy writers. Most will say something like "Normally
it would cost you $1000 dollars for Chuck X to write a 500 word
sales page" OK, if money's no object hire Chuck.
But
it's better to write your own copy as it reflects your personality
and that's all-important when it comes to marketing. Potential
customers like to think that what they're reading is written by
you.
There
are skills to writing copy, or anything else for that matter,
and the two main requirements are:
-
Correct spelling
- Correct
grammar
Without
getting these two right, you'll never succeed in copy writing.
If you can't spell, use a spell checker; if you've no idea of
basic grammar either learn it or employ someone.
Essential
aids are a dictionary and a thesaurus. Repeating the same word
or phrase too many times becomes boring. We all have our favourite
words that we tend to over-use.
Copy,
according the the Concise Oxford Dictionary, is material for a
newspaper or magazine article or the text of an advertisement.
So copy writers are people who specialise in writing advertisements.
Writing
for the Internet is more informal than that used in printed media,
but words spelled wrongly still stand out and although some rules
of grammar can be bent, they shouldn't be completely broken. Badly
written copy is a turn-off and will rejected by many potential
customers
Reading
from the screen is more demanding than reading from the printed
page. To assist the reader, paragraphs should be kept short with
clear space between as in this report. Sentences should be of
varied length so as to maintain interest and prevent boredom.
To this end it is permissible to begin a sentence with words that
are taboo elsewhere, like 'but', 'and', 'or', or any other word
that makes sense and seems reasonable at the time. This adds emphasis
and often helps the flow.
Some words give a warm glow to the reader, others turn them off.
Words like free, amazing, great, good, profit, easy, bonus and
so on are good, and it's not hard to see why; they all promise
something. Whereas words like difficult, pay, cost, loss, are
not good; they all depict the down side.
People
reading your ads are looking for information and how the product
can benefit them. Write as though you're writing directly to the
customer and use 'you' and 'yours' a lot. Try to get the customer
to identify with the product.
Potential
customers typically click on to a sales page looking for clear
information; what can this product can do for them, so put the
greatest advantage or selling point right up there at the top
of the page, where it must be seen.
Use
of coloured fonts and boxes, together with relevant graphics can
all make a sales page interesting to look at and read, but please
don't make it boringly long as so many of the "top copywriters"
do. And be sparing with those tables of potential earnings that
are so hard to reasd and harder to believe, even if true.
Above
all, fill your copy with good information; alter it and repeat
important points if you like; people often don't take stuff in
the first time. Then make sure that you state the price clearly
near the end, offer ways to pay and offer a guarantee. Most companies
that will accept payment for you insist on a guarantee being given
anyway.
Finally,
when you're looking at ad pages, check out those that impress
you the most and ask yourself why you like it. Personally, if
I click on a page that is three feet long with loads of garish
fonts and filed with buzzwords like jaw-dropping, no-brainer and
mega, I find out what the product does then zoom down to the end
to see the price. Usually by that time I've lost interest anyway.
Here is a free ebook on copy-writing to download. It's in
.zip format.
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