Systematic Direct MarketingDirect Marketing tips and solutions to help you systematically boost your profits |
While many business people will not have the time required to learn how to become competent at copywriting, an understanding of what makes for good copy will help them assess the copywriting material they get back from their copywriters, and will help them improve the marketing effectiveness of their various direct marketing strategies.
Copywriting is an acquired skill - and one definitely in reach of many entrepreneurs who could significantly improve their direct marketing effectiveness if they spent some time learning the ins and outs of copywriting.
One of the factors that distinguishes good copywriting is where you come across as having a one-on-one ”conversation’ with your prospects. This means that you write in conversational tone, and not formal geek- or business-speak. The implication of this is that becoming competent at copywriting is actually in the reach of almost anybody that can hold a decent conversation!
Copywriting generally follows the following basic structure:
A key aspect of copywriting is developing a good understanding of human psychology, and more specifically, what influences buying behaviour.
Many top copywriters make reference to an excellent book on human behaviour - The Psychology of Persuasion - by Robert Cialdini. This book - although not a quick read - can be regarded as essential reading for any serious student of direct marketing. It will definitely help you gain an understanding of what influences human behaviour. Armed with this knowledge, your copywriting skills, and consequently overall direct marketing skills will significantly improve.
Copywriting impacts all areas of direct marketing - from Google Adwords to postcard marketing to email marketing to traditional direct mail - all these direct marketing methods will benefit from you acquiring the skill in copywriting.
The copywriting articles in this section have been added to this site to help individuals responsible for direct marketing in their business get started with their quest to become a copywriter, or at least gain a better understanding of the art and skill of copywriting.
This article will show you 10 easy ways to increase your sales. Try some of these techniques and watch your sales soar. You’ll want to test everything you do to find out what works the best for your products.
Whether selling online or offline, selling something inprint is one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do. You’ve got to worry about your headline… your opening…your closing… There are 9 little-known bur VERY critical variables to test in your display ad or sales letter, without changing your content.
You don’t have to be an award-winning copywriter to create effective sales letters. In fact, writing great sales letters is more of a science than an art. Even the pros use proven templates to create sales letters that get results. The following is a 12-step template for writing foolproof sales letters…
Hiring a great copywriter can be a challenge. There are a lot of good writers out there. There are even a lot of great writers out there. But a copywriter- a great copywriter, does more than just write. A great copywriter has the ability to write persuasively, research facts, and think in terms of the “total marketing piece”…
If you’ve been in the copywriting realm for very long at all, you’ve heard the phrase “features vs. benefits.” It’s a fundamental copywriting principle and driving force behind much of what we, as copywriters, create. But there’s also another aspect to this equation…
Today, with the advent of email and other cheap sources of communication you don’t have to be that paranoid about your message-except you are writing an advertisement. When writing a classified ad for example, every word must count in the small space allowed and so word choice becomes very important…
Run or hustle? Eat or devour? Move or scurry? You can boost the power of your copy by boosting the quality of verbs you use. Verbs show action, and the way you describe that action can have a dramatic bearing on your readers….
Pretty or elegant? Good or scrumptious? Nice or delightful? There is power in the adjectives you choose. Just like Clark Kent and Superman or Bruce Wayne and Batman, some adjectives are plain, ordinary, everyday words. Others are alter-ego Super Adjectives that leap into your customers’ minds in a single bound. Adjectives are boring, but Super Adjectives impress, inspire, and convince your customers more ….
Doing the copywriting for your own website without the proper knowledge and tools is pretty much like flying blind in a snowstorm without piloting experience or instruments. It doesn’t work too well. A very basic knowledge of copy…
