Copy Tip 16: Must-Have Resource
Christmas Greetings!
It’s nearly time for our Christmas lunch (prawns are thawing, chicken and ham ready, yummy salads) … but first, the latest Copy Tip!
As promised yesterday, it’s another resource… and this one really is a “must-have”.
Best of all, it’s FREE.
I’ll readily admit that as a “constant student” of marketing and copywriting, I use the leverage of coaches and mentors, along with the resources provided by online copywriters and marketers.
This particular resource is one of the VERY FEW email subscriptions that I let land in my inbox. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And if it wasn’t free, I’d happily pay for it!
Today’s resource to share is US copywriting giant Clayton Makepeace’s “Total Package”.
Each day, Clayton and his stable of experts add a new, free, blog post and the topics are well worth reading for any marketer (online or offline) or business owner.
Like Clayton says, each article “is jammed with brainstorms other online coaches charge a freaking fortune for – all for free.”
Clayton has asked his loyal readers for help… and knowing the incredible value he offers, I’m most willing to comply!
Here’s part of his compelling offer (so we’re all winners):
It’s like a double-karma thing. You’ll help others by introducing them to The Total Package. And you’ll help me … by helping me help them. How can you possibly lose on a deal like that?
The inside copy, marketing and business tips I’ve been getting over the last couple of years have really helped to creating some winning marketing campaigns. I refer to this resource every week: and read the posts every day. For me, it’s must-read content that is simply priceless.
You could pay $5,000 and not get
as much value as this free resource.
If you were a business owner,
and you could marry a website,
this would be THE ONE!
Not only are the tips and expert knowledge easy to understand, it’s content you can instantly apply to your business along with some proven examples of how it works in the real world.
Here’s an example of the value you get:
Troy White’s posts recently on the lobster fishermen — they are worth their weight in gold. If you can’t find at least 5 good ideas to use in your own business (here’s part 1, part 2 and part 3), then you’d better check if you have a pulse.
And that’s just 3 of almost 600 articles on The Total Package.
Here’s What To Do NOW …
Go to this web page: http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/bonus/holiday-referral-signup.html
When you do, you’ll also get four valuable reports just for joining: 1) Why Your Advertising Never Makes Money … 2) The Eight Components of Irresistible Direct Response Offers … 3) How to Decide Where to Advertise and … 4) How to Write Killer Ads and Compelling Sales Copy
(So along with my 101 Copy Tips, you now have a treasure chest of gold to make your business even more profitable than ever).
You simply can’t go wrong if you read The Total Package every day.
It’s the best free resource I could give you… a gift from the golden sleigh of Santa “Clayton Makepeace” Claus!
Okay, it’s back to regular Christmas Day activities now for me … see you tomorrow!
Copy Tip 15: Headline Swipe Resources
If you thought Copy Tip 14 was going to make things a bit hard for you — then it’s time to relax! You’ll want to devour today’s tip!
As it’s Christmas eve here in Melbourne … a couple of extra special “gifts” for you over the next couple of days.
These may be two of the shorter posts I’ll make in the Copy Tips series … but in all humbleness I think they’ll be explosively valuable for getting your copy right.
These are things I do myself to fast-track my success.
I’m talking about the power of leverage.
Archimedes talked about it as a way to move the world: something like “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.”
Here’s the power of leverage used in action today.
You can name the Number One ranked male golfer in the world right?
Yes, it’s Tiger Woods (he maintains his ranking despite spending most of this season recovering from a knee injury after winning the US Open in June — that’s how successful he has been. No wonder he has been the PGA’s Player of the Year nine times!).
I saw a documentary on Tiger once on TV and was incredibly impressed — but not really surprised — by his rigorous training and practice schedule.
Not only has he shown incredible skill to earn the No. 1 ranking, he leverages the skills of other to stay there. His success comes from determination and hard work, not from “luck”.
Even though he’s Number 1, he trains incredible hard and uses the skills of his coaches and mentors to keep his golf game — physically and mentally — at its peak.
Take note … even the “best in the world” use coaches and mentors as a way to be the best at what they do.
One way YOU can do that with your copy is to leverage or “swipe” the success of others and use it for yourself.
This is especially useful to do when it’s time to create attention-grabbing headlines.
Now when I say “swipe” I don’t mean steal or copy word-for-word.
You should “borrow and adapt” a concept, not steal words.
I have dozens of headline swipe files and resources I use to help me come up with my headlines. They’re “proven winners” and worth adapting whenever you can.
One very famous headline example by John Caples (there are books of his that should be on your shelf) used in an ad in is this:
They Laughed When I Sat Down
At the Piano
But When I Started to Play!~
That has been adapted many times since … using these words as a “formula” …
“They __________ When I __________, But When I __________!”
Now in a future post I will go through some of these classic formulas. You have to be aware though: there are pitfalls to consider (and I’ll cover those too).
In the meantime, here’s your Christmas-eve gift.
There are vast amounts of FREE resources available online for you to start building your own swipe file. You can cut-out, copy and collect your own headlines as you see them (along with other copy elements) … but a great way to start is with someone else’s collection!
And best of all, many are available free online!
Here’s what I did just now to find several great resources to keep.
It took me just 3 minutes and an internet connection!
- I went to Google and typed in:
headline swipe +filetype:pdf
I used the “+” with “filetype:pdf” to make sure I got ONLY pdf files in my results. Here’s a link to do it yourself! http://www.google.com/search?q=headline+swipe+%2Bfiletype%3Apdf
- Within just a few seconds, I had links to several high quality content pdf files to download with hundreds of winning, proven headlines ready to swipe!
It doesn’t get any easier than that to start your swipe file of headlines! Not every link is relevant, but many are.
Study what you find … see how you can ADAPT the headlines to suit your own needs.
We’re really just touching the surface here on headlines, but this technique to create a headline swipe file — totally for FREE — is a great way to get started.
There are other ways to create swipe files we’ll also cover (that go beyond just headlines), and I look forward to sharing those techniques too!
I better go for now … I can hear reindeer and sleigh bells …
Season’s Greetings to
You and Your Family!
Copy Tip 14: Headlines I
Just 2 sleeps until Christmas and here we are on headlines!
Work has wound down, it’s time to focus on catching up with family — but first, another juicy copy tip to help your response soar!
The headline.
We already know a couple of things …
- The headline’s primary job is to get you to keep reading … to see you on reading the next sentence.
- In Copy Tip 10, I also mentioned one little tip on headlines: being specific increases believability.
We’re assuming you have already prepared knowing your MOOVE research, objective, offers and vehicle/s… so first things first, your headline must …
GET ATTENTION!
And specifically, it must get the attention of potential prospects.
At this point, you and your product or service really mean nothing to your prospect.
It’s all about THEM.
Your headline will be competing with thousands of other messages that your prospect is exposed to each day.
In fact, you’re an interruption to their day.
Whether it’s work, time with family, friends are visiting, whatever is going on … your prospect is not sitting silently, waiting, hoping that today is the day they’ll see your headline.
They’re doing other things much more important to them!
(That’s why the strategy of choosing your vehicle is so important — so much of your planning is intertwined and you cannot afford to skip any preparation).
Depending on the vehicle you use to get your offer out to your market, you may only have a few seconds – at most — to stop them in their tracks and give them reason to pay attention to your message.
So before you write anything else — you can see here that your headline is critical to your success.
It’s the quarterback on your football team. It’s the putter in your golf bag. It’s the engine in your car.
Now you know more about why copywriters love resources like books and publications full of winning headlines.
But before you start thinking this task is impossible, I have some good news: many different good headlines can work well at getting attention: you will still get results from a number of headline choices: it’s not just that you need a single headline that works.
Like the putter in your golf bag, many of them can successfully get the ball into the cup for you … some particular putters just feel much better and work much better for you in your particular situation.
So before we look at specific headline options, I want to make sure you realise how important your headline is in getting attention for your copy.
Remember too that your offer will affect your response (along with lots of other factors). So even if you grab attention successfully, and you have a terrible offer, your sales will be much lower than they could be.
The same goes with knowing your market: if you write an awesome headline, and have an awesome offer, but don’t get it in front of qualified prospects, you still won’t get a response.
That’s why we covered MOOVE first: each of the elements really do work in together and it’s not just a matter of whipping out some cheap software and knocking up a sales letter.
So you now know your headline is aimed at getting attention and getting your prospect to keep on reading.
We’ll dive further into headlines tomorrow and I’ll be drawing on my expert resources to share more insider headline tips with you.
Until then … keep smiling!
Copy Tip 13: Insider Tip on Headlines
Before we get into the juicy copy tips, I want to let you know something:
Some of the vehicles you use when creating and using copy don’t have to cost a fortune to bring you great results.
$75 returned for every $1 spent
Just recently a client (retail travel agent) sent out a 2-sided postcard to a list of around 290 of her clients … and got 24 bookings — worth almost $30,000 to her business. For less than $400 (I don’t have exact figures on this one, sorry!) … $30,000 returned in business.
In other words, for every $1 she spent on the campaign, she got back $75.
Low Cost Campaign Returns ROI 2158%
A campaign we did ourselves last year cost us $109.90 in setting it up. It was sent to 157 clients. 19 ordered during the campaign (a 12.1% response). Gross sales were $8161 and our net ROI was 2158%. In other words, for every $1 spent, we made a net profit of $21.58.
Our actual sales ended up being a fair bit higher … as orders kept arriving long after the “official” campaign was over … in fact, we were still getting orders last month (November 2008) — 17 months later! So our actual net profit would now be around 50 percent higher than the figures above.
“Fully Booked” from tiny classifieds ad
In October 2008 I created an ad that cost my clients (2 sharing one ad) less than $100 to advertise. Their services — tarot reading and reflexology — were fully booked while that ad was running. It was slightly smaller in area than one side of a regular business card.
Why am I giving you these examples?
For two reasons …
- I want to demonstrate to you that you don’t need to spend a fortune to put your copy skills to work in a way that’s effective for your business. You can invest just small amounts and see quite profitable results when you understand and can use effective copywriting techniques.
- Secondly, I want these examples to inspire you … if I can create these results, you can share in my knowledge and put it to work for your business. You can see that this stuff really does work.
Now of course I’m nowhere near the “guru” status in this industry and readily admit that I’m always learning. Learning never stops. While I live and breathe copy stuff day-in and day-out, there’s always masses of great resources to absord and study and put into practice. Any wise marketer or copywriter really is a perpetual student in the craft … there’s always someone doing great things to learn from, and I keep on learning from the world’s best.
The big difference is doing what you know rather than just knowing what to do.
When you start creating campaigns and testing your offers, the more you do, the more you’ll want to do … and the easier it becomes because you don’t only know it, but you also implement and do it.
Inside Secret on Headlines
Here’s today’s copy tip … your headline is “the ad for the ad”. It gets 70 to 80 percent of the attention of your copy — so it’s worth getting this part right!
We’ll talk a lot more about headlines in upcoming tips: but here’s the tip I want to leave you with today:
Your headline should persuade your prospect to keep on reading (or watching/listening) … and nothing else.
It has ONLY ONE purpose.
It’s not designed necessarily to sell your product or get your prospect to take action.
It’s not designed to convey all of your copy points.
It’s simply designed to grab the attention of your prospect and get them to read the next sentence.
Joe Sugarman talks about this with his “greased slide”… your copy is like a slippery slide designed to keep your prospect moving in the right direction.
(You really should have this book in your must-read collection!). Here’s my link to the book on Amazon.com (yes, via amazon associates):
You want to sell your prospect to keep on reading. So don’t try and make your headline do everything: just make it do this one thing.
To be successful, it must achieve this one purpose!
Tomorrow we’ll get more into headlines … and some essential considerations you cannot afford to overlook.
Err, it’s not my book!
I had to laugh today … a bit of pre-Christmas humour …
I use Google Alerts to track some client issues and also to track some marketers, to see where they get mentioned on blogs and in the news.
They’re a great way to not only keep track of what gets posted online, but you can also use the alerts to let you know of relevant new items on blogs, to then go and contribute and gain some valuable traffic.
Of course, I keep a track of my own name to see where it pops up.
An alert arrived today with this content off a blog:
Visitors to your site will submit their information using your forms if you use convincing sales copy. I think Dean Kennedy is a phenomenal resource to tap when creating your content. He may be unequalled in the field of writing copy. Buy his book, The Ultimate Sales Letter, and read it thoroughly.
I thought this was fantastic!! Alas, it’s not true of course!
The author isn’t referring to me here … he’s referring to Dan Kennedy! Quite often at marketing events people see my name and say something like “hey, that’s just like Dan Kennedy” — or on the odd occasion they call me Dan by mistake. That’s how ingrained Dan Kennedy’s name is as a world-famous marketing guru!
I don’t mind that name association of course, not that I’m any relation!
I have found, however, the Kennedy name has brought to my attention some excellent marketing resources over the years, so I have three Kennedy’s to thank for increasing my knowledge of this craft.
All of Dan Kennedy’s books are on my shelves, as well as much of his other products. Ian Kennedy has also influenced my knowledge. He is Chairman and founder of K & D Bond International (and often referred to as the ‘Father of Direct Marketing in Australia’) — I met him back in 1997 and have an autographed copy of the book he co-authored with Bryce Courtenay called ‘The Power of One To One’. Another famous Kennedy in marketing and advertising is Canadian John E Kennedy who in 1904 coined the phrase “salesmanship in print” to define advertising.
So it is quite amusing when my name pops up in this way (at least to me!) … albeit attributed incorrectly!
Nowadays I compete with an American footballer and the former NHL hockey player who both share my name, so it’s a bit of a challenge in Google at times to stay noticed!