You’ve told me over and over again that you want to succeed at marketing, because you know that folks who do reap the greatest rewards in business. You also know that one key area of marketing — copywriting — must be mastered, and as soon as possible.
Copywriting, after all, is the ability to select and present the words that get people to stop, pay attention to what you’re saying and then buy. Master this, and you get the big bucks; fail to do so and you don’t.
This article reviews the 5 top copywriting errors. Stop making these today; start doing things the right way, the customer-centered way, and I guarantee you you’re going to be richer, faster. I know that’s what you want… so let’s get started turning you into the well-heeled marketer you want.
#1 Copywriting is about moving mammals.
Let’s be clear with each other. Copywriting is always about getting the people you are contacting to TAKE ACTION. Either you want these mammals to tell you they are interested in your proposition (providing you with the complete follow up details you require)… OR you want them to buy what you’re selling on the spot.
Often inexperienced copywriters add a third category: telling people what you’ve got, expecting that when the reader knows enough she’ll buy.
AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS.
The objective is NEVER, EVER merely to tell your customer good stuff about your product. That’s a waste of time and money. As stated, and herewith emphasized, copywriting means selecting and presenting the right words that turn folks either into prospects… or buyers… It’s about selling, never just telling.
#2 Mastering just 4 words delivers copy that sells.
Top copywriters are well paid because they know the secret of getting people to stop what they’re doing… and focus on what you want . Just 4 words can deliver this absolutely crucial result: YOU GET BENEFIT NOW. Let’s look at each crucial word, the better to understand their importance.
YOU — There’s only 1 person who matters when you’re writing copy; that is the person you’re writing to motivate to act. You must ALWAYS know who that person is. There must be an exact fit between the copy you are writing and the person you are writing for. Yes, the fit must be snug as a glove.
GET — People respond and people buy to improve their circumstances. Thus all of marketing is predicated on motivating people to respond to be better off, in other words to “get” the desired benefit.
BENEFIT — To succeed in marketing and in writing copy that sells you MUST understand (and write down) every single benefit your product delivers. AND you must be specific about these benefits. The harder, sharper, clearer your benefits, the faster your customers will respond and in the greater numbers you desire.
NOW — There’s only one time period in marketing and copywriting… and that time frame is — NOW! Yesterday is history; tomorrow doesn’t exist. All there is, then, is NOW…the present, truly a gift to you!
#3 Make an offer… then make a better one.
As I write, the world is in the grip of economic doldrums which frighten customers and make them pause before taking action. Thus, uncertainties create caution; caution creates more caution… and more caution produces more uncertainties. What’s a good marketer to do in such a climate? Sit down and cry?
Certainly not. Make an offer… then improve the offer as often as it takes until you’ve got the offer that will put money in your pocket at once… and carry your business on until better times come.
The offer, the improved offer, the enhanced offer, does this IF you do it right. Here’s what you need to do…
* Keep thorough records of all your offers that worked. Update and use them again.
* Look for good offers constantly, including what your competitors are doing.
* When you find offers (and copy) that look good to you, clip and save them.
Finally, test offers, keep good records on how they worked… then improve the offer to get even better results.
ALL copywriters, all marketers, are in the testing business. That’s how we learn what works (and so use again) and what doesn’t (and so trash).
#4 Before you write a word, breathe deep and stretch.
You are about to start writing the best copy of your life, copy that will ring up response after response and sale after sale… because your skills, thanks to this article, have dramatically improved since the last time you were at this point.
Now, prepare yourself further for what you must do. Get up from your computer. Breathe deep…. stretch… put oxygen in your lungs and thereby assist your brain to prepare for the important work at hand.
Copywriting is an action game. It is all about energy! Motivating! Uplifting! Inspiring! And above all else helping people and improving their lives. This is a great responsibility, and you owe it to your customers to do it right. After all, you are improving their lives… as well as enhancing your own.
Makes sure your energy level is high. Remember, you are all about energy and energizing folks to MOOOOOOOVE and take action. This necessitates fuel. You cannot write high energy copy if your body and mind are hungry, unsatisfied and under fueled.
#5. Now start writing… always remembering that the most important part of writing is re-writing!
Open with your best offer. Make it clean, crisp, motivating, incredible!
Then follow with the benefits, in priority order (leading with the best one). Each benefit should be short, punchy, powerful, persuasive.
Then restate the offer… so you’re sure the prospect gets it. Remember, offers get people to respond who had no intention of doing so.
Follow with product features, always stressing what it can do and how easy it is.
Reprise your offer in two more places… as a post script and also on the envelope if you’re mailing.
Last point: evaluate what happened and why.
Copywriting, like life itself, is an ongoing business needing constant review, analysis, rethinking, improving. Thus, no copywriting you do is actually finished until you scrutinize what happened and why. You may not like doing this, but it is essential and no project is over until this is done. But when it is, it’s time to congratulate yourself. You now know more… and, if you’ve followed these directions, have done better. Keep up the good work… and congratulation: you’re a real copywriter, on the road to being an expert copywriter, with all the rewards. You deserve them!
About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. at
www.worldprofit.com, providing a wide range of online services for
small and-home based businesses. Republished with author's permission
by Don Hayes
Affiliate Millionaire Video #1
7 January 2012 1 Comment
Planning on making money online this year? Unless you avoid these lethal mistakes you haven’t got a prayer.
Come see us live: Click here
Any feedback would be great. “Most important Article of your Life so make sure you read this and Leave comments and right here is just one of the articles of 300 articles across multiple subjects that are bringing me “Prospects and Leads” and YOU need these too. If you want to see us live, just click here: and ask the Sr. Monitor in the Live Business Center how you can get these articles for yourself already written for you. Just for Leaving a Comment I am going to give you a **FREE** Gift…Leave a Comment “—
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. Like ABBA? I do. I think they produced some of the most clever, stylish and sophisticated dance music and rhythms ever. Like their mega-hit “Money, Money, Money” (released in 1976). It’s not only one of the best jump-up songs ever, but it’s got a message you may have to take to heart if you’re still trying (but consistently failing) to make money online.
It’s this: “If I got me a wealthy man…” That’s right, it may be time (and is probably way past time) to use your wiles and charm to snag a rich mate… because you’re just wasting your time online…
… unless….
you take heed to the irrefutable verities about what you must know and do… and so finally turn the Internet into the cash hose it’s long been for people like me, who make money online daily, while you can’t even figure out who’s on first.
Must avoid mistake #1.
Don’t work alone. Working online all by your lonesome is just plain nuts. I credit my awesome success online to a crucial decision I made nearly 20 years ago: the overwhelming majority of online entrepreneurs need more skills — technical, marketing, people — than they’ve got. For such people (and I very much include myself) success is unlikely, even impossible if you try to go it alone. Don’t.
You’re going to need cutting-edge tech experts; Internet marketing experts, and yes personnel to make sales and bring in the bucks 24/7/365. Have you got this team in place? Well you’d better get it together before you waste any more time and money.
Must avoid mistake #2.
STOP thinking, STOP believing you can built a profitable online business off free stuff. You can’t. Say that again: YOU CAN’T! Bite this bullet here and now, once for all. It’s going to cost you money to create a successful online business; just like it costs money to establish a successful offline business.
If you’ve been trying and trying and trying to succeed online without investing you’re probably beyond hope. But let’s assume you’ve still got some of your little grey cells in place and functional. Use some of them to get the money you need to create a profitable online business. There’s no way around it: it takes money to make money, and personally I won’t even talk to the steady stream of folks who approach me without investment dollars in hand. That’s the “bad” news; the good news is that it’s still ridiculously cheap to start a profit-making online business that can net you the minimum 6-figure income it takes to live well these days.
Must avoid mistake #3.
Get educated about what you need to establish a money-making business online. Stop trying to “teach” yourself. If you knew how to make money online, I imagine you’d be making money, right? But you don’t. And you will never know if you have yourself as your prime expert and instructor. Bluntly, you know and can do too little to justify that.
There are many fine online business-building instructors. I swear by mine: George Kosch. He’s been instructing me for almost 20 years now. He’s smart about what you’ve got to do in the constantly changing ‘net environment, a superb trainer and communicator…. good looking, too. I’ve made out like a bandit by putting my ego where it belongs (in some closet) and LEARNING from a man who guarantees you’ll make money if you follow his proven system. I did… and I have.
Must avoid mistake #4.
You don’t know how to generate unlimited traffic to your site…and until you do, YOU’RE DOA. That why you must become a traffic expert immediately, if not sooner.
If you launch your online business without knowing precisely where your absolutely essential traffic will be coming from, you deserve what you get: Nada! Nothing! Zip! Yet to my utter consternation and astonishment, not a day goes by when some knucklehead tells me he hasn’t got guaranteed traffic, doesn’t know how to get it, but is a “survivor” who’ll figure it out as he does. OMG! Such people probably believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. They are casualties just waiting to happen.
Here again I want to pat George Kosch on the back. The guy is a walking encyclopedia of each and every way that exists to generate online traffic… and trains lucky folks like me to use these every single day. He does it in an amazing program called “Home Business Boot Camp”… and he guides you (with skill and patience) to get the traffic you must have… starting today! He’s got a worldwide following who swear by his methods…. as I most assuredly do myself. Do you have a George Kosch in your life? No? Then book your space in the lifeboat today… you’ll need it!
Must avoid mistake #5.
It happened again just yesterday. I was counseling a gent who told me he’d bought some traffic; sent it to his home page… and didn’t get a single response! What did he do wrong? Just everything…
The first rule of successful traffic and crucial list building is to direct ALL traffic to a landing page. Why? Because that’s the proven way to get traffic, traffic, traffic and build the prospect lists that are crucial to online success. So, ask yourself this: do you know how to create and use landing pages? And be honest, totally honest with yourself, because if you get it wrong you’re toast… (By the way, you won’t be surprised to learn George Kosch — there he is again — writes my landing pages… and they’re gold mines.)
Well, I’ve run out of space, with lots more to tell you, but that’ll have to wait for another day. Now, I’m heading over to my favorite search engine where that fabulous dance number by ABBA is waiting for me (and you). As I listen to “Money, Money, Money” I’ll know I’m the rich guy you’re looking for, the guy who can give you that cushy life you’d like. But why would I want an Internet loser in my life? After all, it’s a rich man’s world…
## What do you think? Let us know by posting your comments below.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author’s permission by Don Hayes & Don Hayes.
Check out >>> Affiliate Millionaire Video #1<<<
