Copywriters, good copywriters are all around you.

But how do you find the good copywriter who makes your site sell, your brochure alluring or your direct mail damned good?

There are several ways, let me list a few:

• The Yellow Pages, on and off-line
• People you meet at business network meetings
• Referrals from people you trust
• Looking at copy you'd buy from and asking for the name of the copywriter
• Using the Internet

The first 4 ways to find a copywriter are easy.

If you use the Internet you'll find it more difficult. As one example The Text Wizard's site lists copywriting keywords and common mispellings.

Nothing wrong with that particularly but because he's stuffed a page with all the mispellings and actually some correct spellings too his site rises nicely up the pages onto the top Google page for quite a few of those keywords.

And to make sure he repeats each keyword in a second block. So as an example here is the first block of his chosen keywords:

"copywriting, copywriters, copywriter, copywritng, copywritiing, copwyriting, copy writing, copy writng, copy writers, copy writer, copy-writing, copy-writng, copy-writers, copy-writer, copyriting, copyriters, copyriter, copy riting, copy riters, copy riter, copy-riting, copy-riters, copy-riter, copyrighting, copyrighters, copyrighter, copy righting, copy righters, copy righter, copy-righting, copy-righters, copy-righter, coppywriting, coppywriters, coppywriter, coppy writing, coppy writers, coppy writer, coppy-writing, coppy-writers, coppy-writer

copyediting, copyeditors, copyeditor, copy-editing, copy-editors, copy-editor, copy editing, copy editors, copy editor, coppyediting, coppyeditors, coppyeditor, coppy-editing, coppy-editors, coppy-editor, coppy editing, coppy editors, coppy editor

proofreading, proofreaders, proofreader, proof-reading, proof-readers, proof-reader, proof reading, proof readers, proof reader, prooofreading, prooofreaders, prooofreader, prooof-reading, prooof-readers, prooof-reader, prooof reading, prooof readers, prooof reader, profreading, profreaders, profreader, prof-reading, prof-readers, prof-reader, prof reading, prof reader, prof readers, prooffreading, prooffreaders, prooffreader, prooff-reading, prooff-readers, prooff-reader, prooff reading, prooff readers, prooff reader"

He misses out an obvious phrase such as "UK copywriting" which only has 1,280 hits on Google.

The Text Wizard happens to be an excellent copywriter and I find his site fun to read. But if he wasn't. If his copywriting skills were basic, or borderline garbage. You might still try him out as he'd appeared well up in the Google ratings.

If you'd prefer to write your own copy check out my favourite people:

• Gary Halbert Spills Some Of Those Copywriting Secrets

• Gary Bencivenga

• Craig Garber

Obviously there are lots of others including Jay Abraham, Ted Nicholas, Dan Kennedy, Michael Fortin and loads of great UK copywriters too.

But if you really want to write your own copy look at all their stuff and copy it out. It trains your brain!

If you don't really want to do your own copywriting look at copy other people write. Make your decision based on whether you like and feel almost compelled to buy what they're selling in their copy.

Go to it...

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I've been getting people landing on this blog looking for hints and tips for producing brochures.

And of course they want to have brochures that sell.

In all the time I've been writing brochure, white paper, case study and web copy I've gathered together a lot of useful information. As I've gone along I've also added posts to this blog to help business owners with time on their hands to write their own copy!

So in the interests of helping anyone else that needs copywriting information allow me to give you a few of the links around this blog that give tips on brochure copy, Ad and web copy.

• Write Ad Copy or Brochure Copy ... Then Test and Test
• Do You Make These Mistakes With Your Customers?
• Do You Use The Points In Your Online Sales Letters
• Are You Sure Your Brochure Helps Your Sales?

There are many more links than this, so have a check yourself too.

Then after I'd looked for these links I realised that you probably want to know where other useful stuff is too.

So the blog contains other copywriting resources and links to FREE books on subjects by Jay Abraham (stealth marketing), Ted Nicholas(copywriting), Brad Fallon(SEO) and others. All of these books will help you increase your profits.

And of course check out my Amazon book recommendations too (button at the top of the post) for motivating and inspiring books by Dragon's Den favourite Duncan Bannatyne and business knights Sir Alan Sugar and Sir Richard Branson.

Enjoy and prosper.

I've got a confession to make...

I used to be an Information Technology consultant.

That means I have a keen interest in marketing and business growth for IT companies.

In fact my first attempt at writing proper copy was for a small IT consultancy I worked for.

Did it work?

Well people did see me after they received one of my letters.

But then I found that I'd a lot more to learn. For a start I thought my target market was the finance directors.

It wasn't...

But also I'd learnt (from books and sales people who got lots of sales) sage advice like:

• Make sure you use headed notepaper so your logo is big and bold
• Only use one page to write your letter
• Explain what your product is in as much detail as you can on one side of A4
• Keep the postage costs down with the franking machine
• Print your labels with nice clear type

Well...

Personally I'm surprised that anyone was intrigued enough to find out more when they received my letter.

Because as I'm quite sure you know my letters were the worst you could imagine.

• Prospects weren't interested in my company at all - could we do anything for them was more important. Logos? Who cares
• Keeping your sales pitch down to one side of A4 is like having your salesman take a stopwatch into a meeting and walking out when 5 minutes has past. Whether he's made the sale or not.
• Putting too much detail, without explaining the benefits is going to bore your prospect silly
• A franking mark screams out "BUSINESS POST" or "JUNK MAIL" - either of which is treated in a very cavalier manner and often the bin is used to get rid of the offending item
• Again using labels shows this is not a personal letter. So it's Business or Junk. Throw away now.

That just shows how little successful salespeople may know about writing copy. But it also shows that if you don't know how to do direct mail it aint going to work. Hence the reason why so many people cry "Direct Mail Doesn't Work".

Well it does...

It just takes some real knowledge from people who've been burnt finding out about it, using it and chasing to the source the people who already know how to do it. And paying through the nose to find out.

Whatever you do avoid computer programs that generate copy for sales letters, brochures, ads or yellow pages.

Why?

Because a computer program doesn't know your particular circumstances. It doesn't know the emotions that your prospects should feel as they read your copy.

Similarly don't' use a Headline program to generate your headlines. Use a swipe file of really great headlines and create your own.

Like I said I used to be in IT and they created a program called "The Last One" which was meant to replace all the programmers in the world. Because henceforth programming would be so simple anyone could do it. Have you heard of "The Last One?"

Probably not.

And the reason?

It took too simplistic a view. Just as automated copy writing and headline generating programs do.

So my advice is to steer well clear of anything that comes out of a program. At least for the moment! Write your own copy. Or let someone else with blood pumping through their veins do it.

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Someone asked me what the copywriting process is ...

So I'm letting the secret of good copy out of the bag.

These are the vital parts that make up good copy.

1. Familiarise the copywriter with everything you've produced so far: brochures, business cards, web sites, video, adverts, yellow pages you name it
2. Agree the aims for the copy that's being written. Possibly you might want to collect the names and email addresses of everyone who lands on your site. Or maybe you want them to buy something, such as a report or perhaps to buy hosting. Maybe even buy something!
3. Agree which keywords you believe people would use to locate your site
4. Agree the subject and the main keyword(s) for each page that you want copy written for. It's usually best to produce a simple diagram agreeing how the pages might link together.
5. The copywriter goes away and writes the copy, with the occasional call to check a fact or to update on progress
6. Get the initial version of the copy (by this time it's not uncommon for copy to have gone through several drafts)
7. Go through the copy and ask questions. Your friendly copywriter answers them
8. The copywriter then goes away and amends the copy if required
9. You add the copy to your web site

That's it...

Well, actually no not quite.

Because you need to tinker with it to make it perform to its optimum. That is pull in sales or leads.

That means tracking how changing different bits of the site changes response. The most effective way to do this is to use method called the A/B split. The A/B split sends browsers to one or other of two pages that are almost identical and the only change is the bit of copy you're testing.

So as you see there's a bit to it. On the positive side it does mean your copy performs better in achieving its objectives.

Angela has a take on copy editing I agree with.

It's certainly good for the soul to take copy editing. It is more difficult although clients think they should pay less "...Because it's already done bar the shouting".

That argument/discussion/point of view is an interesting one. The only thing I'd say there is ... If it's working why employ me?

Like Angela I do actually enjoy copy editing. It's great to take someone else's words and change/polish/rewrite them to pull more sales, generate more leads or qualify more prospects.

Sometimes like Angela I get a piece to edit that just can't be saved. If you find several of these ten worst things in any copy you get to edit seriously consider asking if you can lay down a completely new set of golden strands of copy that will please your prospects eye, gladden his heart and he'll lighten his purse for you.

So what are these 'top ten worst things to copy edit'?

They are as follows, and in no particular order, really:

1) No offer - I'm always amazed that if you're taking the trouble to catch someone's notice you don't reward them for paying attention with an attractive offer.
2) No headline - amazingly common. I've been told it's a business letter so must look professional. What do you want professional lack of sales?
3) No emotion in the piece - it makes me so mad when I see staid, run of the mill writing for a business that's got something great to offer their market.
4) A letter that doesn't tell the whole story and answer the questions
5) The wrong tone to a piece
6) no sub headings - you're going to miss the scanners - like I know I do with blog readers. I may try sub heads soon.
7) Complete fabrication, or just plain unvarnished lies, or unsubstantiated 'facts' from dubious sources
8) All about how great the company is who's sending the copy
9) Logo taking up a great chunk of real estate on an ad (yellow pages or newsprint) or on direct mail, even mini-sites
10) No PS - come one you always need a PS, otherwise you could miss the opportunity to catch those who only look at headline, signature and PS.

Sometimes you can rescue copy and it's a rewarding feeling when you can do that. Especially if it's the business owner. Because what they write almost always comes from the heart - the exact right place to write copy from.

There are so many different ways to get to your customers:

• Adverts
• Blogs 
• Brochures
• Business Cards
• Catalogues
• Direct mail campaigns
• Email campaigns
• Presentations
• Press releases
• Radio
• Seminars
• Television
• Trade shows
• Web sites
• White papers
• Yellow pages

Every single way needs words to persuade your customer to purchase from you. Preferably now!

The best copywriters can create the most sales-effective written words for your business.

Many business owners and marketeting people write their own copy. And a lot of it is extremely well written.

And Very BORING!!

Copy is not just important.

No copy? Nobody buys.

If your copy don't work you're pouring your money down the nearest drain (blocked, or not).

I'm often asked to look at letters written by business owners or marketers. People who've attended great courses on copywriting and know in their gut that words sell. 

And I always find one, and usually more, of the following mistakes:

1) no headline - you're not hooking your prospect to read further
2) no offer - if you've nothing to offer your prospect why should they read further?
3) no idea - of their market, or the benefits it wants. Why would they be interested in general stuff. What's in it for them?
4) no strategy - a letter, a brochure is almost never part of a marketing strategy and so you get a mishmash of approaches

Now get your strategy right and you'll easily work out who your advert, your brochure, your business card and your blog and web site are for.  And, even better,  how they can combine to support one another.

For example:

• is your blog address on your business card?
• Does business card offer a white paper?
• Does your white paper offer a case study through the web site, or maybe another resource?
• Does your web site provide a link to your latest seminars?
• Do the presentation handouts in your seminars offer a list of resources that are available to customers?

Do you see where I'm headed with this?

Finding an offer and crafting an interesting and relevant headline is easier when your strategy is written down and not whirling around inside someone's head!

And yes I am also putting off the point when I need to finish off my article for "What's New in Marketing."

I'm a fervent subscriber and fan of Gary Bencivenga.

Why?

If you're a copywriter or business owner who has any interest in learning more about how to write good copy you must subscribe to a few, yes just a few copywriters ezines. Gary's Bencivenga Bullets ezine is one of them.

I'll come to the others I love after I explain about Gary's Bullet-ridden body.

Of course Gary Bencivenga's not really bullet-ridden it's just that he got a lot of flak over his July 2006 ezine posting which said,

"A gifted product is mightier than a gifted pen."

People emailed to point out that the prospect should be at the core of copy.

Gary used his September 2006 post to explain exactly how a great copywriter looks to find a product's unique strength first.

Once the unique strength is found the copywriter uses a variety of copy tactics to deliver that message to the prospect. And the prospect is then at the core of the copy.

Nice one Gary!

I promised to let you know some other copywriter ezines that I love. If you have any desire to write your own copy study of these people is going to help you write better. So here they are, in no particular order...

• The Gary Halbert Letter
• Bencivenga Bullets
• Craig Garber

Of course there are other great copywriters out there including Peter Stone, Michel Fortin, Bob Bly, Clayton Makepeace...

... the list just goes on and on.

My point?

If you're a business owner you need to get great copy for your web site, your brochure, your sales letter and your adverts. That means learning from the greats.

Have I learnt better writing from them? You bet!

Did it take long? You'd better believe it!

Could you do the same? Very probably.

But do you have the time?

If you're on a tight budget you need to quickly learn how to copywrite. Sign up for my FREE Business Growth Course to get on the fast track.

In the course you'll see a number of proven tactics to improve response to anything you write.

And now, to quote Craig Garber, "Now go sell something".

Business growth and business training go hand in hand.

If you want growth you need to implement best practise processes to ensure that your people uniformly adopt the best ways of:

• Selling


• Delivering products/services


• Building customer relationships


• Dealing with suppliers


• Invoicing


• customer complaints

The list could go on and on.

Interestingly your list of vital areas for your business may well be different to mine.

That doesn’t really matter the point is you choose an area and refine and refine it.

Again as I’ve mentioned in a previous post you need to use the Deming Plan-Do-Act-Study process to continually improve a single process.

Until it’s the best it can be.

The exact same principle applies to creating copy, either for brochures, business cards or web sites.

Until a prospect looks at your brochure, web site or business card you can have no feedback on how effective the materials are at generating sales, leads or whatever you’ve set as it’s “Most Required Response.

You must also expect that your guess of exactly what hot buttons your customers have may be wrong, or at least slightly wide of the mark.

That means that you need to polish and change and test and test copy until you’re happy that it’s pulling profits in for you.

Copywriting is a skill that requires feedback in the form of sales, leads, expressions of interest, or their lack. So that the copy can be reviewed and changed according to the real feedback from people who want your product or service.

Don’t be fooled by friends, people in your office, other copywriters or even yourself into thinking you’re the target market you’re writing for. So don’t base the letter on what you want.

Ultimately the final arbiter in how well your copywriting works in a particular instance is whether it achieves what you wanted it to achieve.

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You’re in Business and you know you need marketing. Marketing can be through your adverts in yellow pages, copy in newsprint and the media, web sites, sales letters, even business cards.

There’s an absolute classic book for anyone who aspires to write working copy for almost any purpose by the late master marketer Claude Hopkins called “Scientific Advertising”.

David Olgilvy said, “Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times".

I agree. That’s why I’ve put some investment into making an ebook version of Scientific Advertising available for you. The reason? You’ll understand more about what is good practise for advertising in all its forms and be able to choose the best value copywriter for your own work.

In it Claude Hopkins writes well, as you’d expect, and tells some home truths, like:

• “The only purpose of advertising is to make sales” (page 8) ... does your advertising agency talk to you about branding rather than sales?
• Ads “...are written to please the seller. The interests of the buyer are forgotten” (page 11) ... do you think times have changed? They haven’t...
• ”Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in the time of Caesar” (page 23) ... that means what Hopkins writes applies now as it did then. Does your agency think that way?
• “An ad-writer to have a chance of success, must gain full information on his subject” (page 41) ... does your agency ask you for all your previous ads, letters, yellow page and internet site details?

• Direct response letters ,,,”you act on or the ones you keep have a headline which attracted your interest” (page 65) ... remember headlines are the only way people are attracted to read your ad, email, web site page or your letter

It contains over 70 pages of easy to read, grasp and apply material written by probably one of the top ad men of all time.

To get yourself a copy subscribe to my blog (either by email or using RSS - both on the right hand side of the blog).

Once you’ve received the ebook if you wish you can unsubscribe. If you’d prefer to read the book online Michel Fortin has put a copy of Scientific Advertising into HTML.

(Note to my existing subscribers: I won’t send you a copy unless you email me requesting one so you don’t suddenly receive something by email you weren’t expecting!)

Copywriters are two a penny. Aren't they?

Anyone who can use keyboard and spell checker can be a copywriter.

Often in a small to medium business it's the business owner who is the copywriter.

Funnily enough that's often a good thing.

The reason? They have the passion for the business. They know exactly what clients like about their service or product. They know their typical client inside out.

The main problem that business owners face is ...

Simple Lack Of Time!

Yes I know it's something everyone in business feels. But as the owner there's so much more you feel you should be doing. Things like:

• Getting New Clients
• Making sure staff are doing their best work
• Fire fighting - yes we know we shouldn't have to
• Thinking of the next product or service
• Juggling the finances

Consequently copywriting is usually at the bottom of the list. It's not seen as a money generator.

And yet ... That's exactly what it is!

How else can you use your best salesperson to talk to a hundred, a thousand or ten thousand prospects at once? Talking to that many people at once you're going to get some people raise their hand. New clients and old.

Depending on how good your offer is and your ability to write magical prose of course.

What about the ezine you know you should be writing to be seen as the expert in your field? Yes that too has the potential to get you clients.

What about your brochure? What about your series of letters and email follow-ups?

Everything that you need to have in place so that each prospect is automatically fed into a qualifying funnel. The result is that some become customers.

The bottom line is that you're used your best sales strategies in all your writing. Your prospects know your benefits. All down to what and how you write to them.

And you only have to do it once. Then you use your follow-ups to keep in peoples minds.

Is it cost effective?

What other salesperson can you buy for a few thousand pounds and then use forever to qualify or get your prospect to buy for just pence?

So how do you know good copy once you've written it? Check it against people you know are good copywriters. For example...

There's a piece of copy that Peter Thompson wrote for his Achievers Edge programme which I loved. The reason?

It listed all the famous business and self-development people Peter has interviewed and said would you like to hear 36 of them at a seminar? Then it went on to make the point that you didn't even need to attend a seminar because Peter's programme brings it to you.

The point Peter's making is that Achievers Edge is amazing value for money when you think in that way.

See what you think fo the copy. I've extracted a chunk from his sales letter, which ostensibly is about setting prices for your goods or services:

"Now here's my way of positioning a price:

You can imagine getting an invitation to a seminar where the
following happens:

The seminar is a full two-day jam-packed event, there's a
total of 14 hours and 24 minutes of actual 'speaking' time.

It's hosted by the UK's leading strategist on business and
personal development.

There's a total of 36 speakers!

Yes - 36 speakers and each one is only allowed to talk for
20 minutes.

Why?

Because then there's no waffle, no wandering off the point - each speaker concentrates on giving you the very essence of their message, their key proven ideas on being more successful in your business and in your life.

The speakers list reads like 'who's who' in business and
personal growth.

Such as:

Prof. Robert Cialdini, Rebecca Stephens, Tony Buzan, Ric
Eidelman, Paul Daniels, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Tony Allesandra, Barry Hearn, Steve Bennett, Richard Richardson, Simon Woodroffe, Jonathan Jay, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Yanik Silver, Craig Garber, John Polish, Jim Rohn

the very best of the very best.

Wouldn't that be a inspiring weekend? I know I'd be there.

BUT what would a two-day seminar of that 'magnitude' cost
to attend? £3,000? £1,200? £600?

Well at least £600 - agreed?

Oh and of course there's going to be your travelling time
and costs, your hotel and food costs - all amounting to about another, let's say £400 - so it could be in the region of £1,000!

OK - now another important point

What about your use of the ideas you pick up? You have to rely on the quality of the notes you take.

And if you miss a speaker because you've popped out of the
room for a couple of minutes for a break you've completely missed their ideas.

Can you imagine taking useable notes for 7 hours 14 minutes a day over 2 days - maybe!!"

Then Peter lists the benefits of having the speakers available when you want, as often as you want and where you want.

As you know I'm a subscriber to Achiever's Edge so Peter doesn't need to persuade me. But I just loved his imaginative use of copy. What do you think?

My main point though is this:

John Carlton writes beautiful copy. Now I don't mean it's highly polished or it flows when read or all the words are spelt correctly.

I mean the copy is beautiful because it works.

I was reading the 11 free issues of his ezine from his Marketing Rebel site and after each issue I read I kept getting the urge to sign up for his yearly subscription.

And that's all copywriting is there to do - get sales.

Look at John's site, his blog and the free ezine issues and you'll get some ideas for writing your own copy.

Of course you could get John to write a sales letter for you. After all the costs only start from $20,000 plus 5% gross.

To get great copy pick up the phone and call me now on 0161 278 1919.

If your motto is "let's just get it done" you've the drive to become highly successful at what you do. If your motto is "Let's see what happens to other people then copy them for success" you have the potential for success.

Unhappily if your motto is "let's keep trying stuff" you're either broke, bumping along making minimal profits or you're bankrupt.

Years of working with entrepreneurs and others has convinced me that these three types exist. It's not to say you can't graduate from one to another. It's just that typically there's only 3 main types.

When it comes to marketing it's interesting to see how each operates.

Mr. "Let's Just Get It Done"

Typically he will have loads of ideas for his business. They may or may not work. His drive ensures that though he might fail 90 times out of 100 the 10 times he does well more than balances out the failures. Unfortunately it's rare that this type knows enought about marketing to really make the profits he deserves.

Often they'll know about marketing, even use it but not be fully aware of how much more they could provide for their clients. In fact how much more their clients would like them to provide. And in doing so make more profits.

Mr "Let's see what happens to other people then copy them for success"

They'll find an idea they like the look of and investigate and analyse it to death. They tend to spend a long time on the sidelines watching how other successful businesses work. Then once they're happy that the business they've chosen works well they'll set-off, ready to cut their losses if it doesn't go well and retire back into paid employment.

They may know some marketing but in copying another business all they're doing is giving people more choice. More choice means pressure on margins and unless they can differentiate themselves they're doomed to lower profitability than they should have. 

Mr. "let's keep trying stuff"

This type gets into business for a variety of reasons. They don't think through what they're trying to achieve. There is no marketing strategy. Instead there are a series of marketing mistakes. Where typically they "try" a marketing tactic they like the sound of. If it doesn't work then obviously that method of marketing is rubbish, "let's try another."

Because they have not stepped back and positively decided what they're selling and who their target clients are any marketing they attempt will definitely fail. They may stay in business by feverishly selling their product and services. But they'll never be able to relax and they'll always be concerned about where the money is coming from.

Which One Are You?

Be honest with yourself.

If you're the "let's keep trying" type at least you're persistent. And you need to invest in a coach to get you focused on creating a strategy, define your market and then decide the tactics to use to get repeat business.

If you prefer to copy remember if you copy a business that's heading down the tubes that's where you'll end up. Instead work out what your business aim is and think for yourself about the marketing strategy you need to meet your aim(s). Then go implement it.

If you prefer to "just get it done" that's great on one level. The only thing is how do you know that what you're doing is consistent with your long-term aim(s) for your company? Step back for a short while assess what your company is and decide what you need to do consistently and go and do it.

And when you choose your coach make sure they understand your business, make sure they know marketing, make sure they look at strategy with you.

If you write copy that pulls response the phrase "Copy, in one form or other, is the heart and soul of advertising" really speaks deep down to the furthest reaches of your own soul. Or at least it should if you want your advertising to work.

I've quoted the phrase from an article called "Profitable Showmanship" by old-time copywriter and legendary author Kenneth M.Goode in Jo Han Mok's Copywriting Empire Blog.

I would thoroughly recommend you read the article on the Copywriting Empire Blog, not because Kenneth M. Goode is a famous copywriter, because what he says still rings true today.

One of his arguments is for you to look at the amount of white space in editorial (practically nil) whilst adverts tend to have quite a bit. So you're paying for your white space.

He also recommends that you look through a magazine you intend to advertise in. Does your eye stop and read the adverts? Obviously the answer is usually no, or not for long. So why he asks do you think that the general public would stop and read your advert?

Often I come across people who show me ads that do look good but don't actually help them sell.

For example I met up with a entrepreneur today who's advert I'd been sent. It looked good but there were several things wrong with it.

The top and bottom of the ad had some great artwork but they didn't contribute to selling the product. Some of the main issues were as follows:

• There was no mention of the fact that the product was only going to be available until December 2006
  
• Nothing about only having a limited quantity of the product available
  
• Although the entrepreneur knew the product price it was given as a round figure (not very believable)
  
• The product had many benefits but none of these were spelt out in the ad
  
• The headline was uninteresting and wasn't attractive to the target market

It's easy for me to pick apart any advert and point out where it could be improved. But this advert had already run several times. What might it have pulled if it had been more informative and attracted people to it sooner?

A good copywriter would have found all those issues with minutes of picking up the ad.

This illustrates the hidden costs that entrepreneurs go through all the time until they start using people who understand marketing. And I truly believe in the saying: "you just don't know what you don't know."

Happy 4th July!

If you've been reading a while you may remember that I said I was going to test eBay Sales. By using the second and better edition of my ebook "How To Leap Ahead Of Your Competitors" I wanted to test different forms of copy, headlines and categories.

If you go to eBay and search on the original Ad for the item you'll see that I've changed the headline at several stages, included a subhead, changed some copy and tried different prices.

So for a minimal investment I'm getting some good feedback as to what categories sell the ebook, what headlines help and also how attractive the book title is too.

While it's too early to say exactly what works best I thought I'd share with you the current state of the advertising copy, enjoy:

Do You Know These Ways Of Stopping Your Boom And Busts Sales Approach?

Or Do You Depend On Sporadic Marketing?

Think again...

Whenever you stop marketing your leads start to dry up, your competitors build better relationships with your customers!

Do you worry where the next job is coming, or whether that referral will come in on time to help your cashflow?

Just marketing as you're coming to the end of your project leaves you exposed to those customers who "just want a change".

This report is a new improved second edition and smashes through wishy washy marketing-speak and tells it like it is.

Listen To What The Gurus Say On Marketing

Ted Nicholas, world famous direct marketing guru says,

"Marketing mistakes are by far the primary reason businesses do not survive".

Peter Drucker said, "Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation".

Ways To Better Marketing

This eBook maybe short but it packs in what you need to know for more profitable business:

• Grab your business objectives by the short hairs
  
• Drive the steel rod of focus through your business
  
• Think you know what you're selling? It may not be what you think
  
• Let Edwards Deming, quality guru, help you like he helped Japan and Ford
  
• Unveil the two well-known but misunderstood marketing techniques that properly applied can explode your business
  
• Discover a Step by Step process for planning and implementating projects and campaigns
  
• Unearth your risks and manage them
  
• Welcome complaints as a great way to make your customer service department a profit centre

This 36 page report in ebook form helps you with all this and more.

You'll Kick Yourself If You Miss This Report

The author a well known consultant provides further secret resources that can double or treble your profits.

This is my secret eBay testbed. I don't want any of my competitors to know what I'm doing because I'm trying out several different low-key auctions to test the reports marketing.

As soon as the tests are completed this report is going to be sold at a fixed price on my normal eBay account.

So get it now before I finish testing and the book price gets fixed.

Jim

PS To get the results I describe you must take action. If you're thinking of buying the report "for later" don't bother. If you've looked at this listing you know you need it now. So get it and apply it.

It's true isn't it? We know from our own experience something that is praised to high heaven as the best thing since sliced bread and yet is run of the mill...

Were we disappointed?

You bet! Did we tell anybody? Of course. Lots more people than we tell if our purchase really is the best thing since sliced bread.

I was reminded of this when I received Gary Bencivenga's latest bullet (marketing bulletin) today. In it he notes the "Most Important 9 Word Sentence In Marketing History". And in his bullet Gary extols the necessity of doing deep research on your product.

It's essential for a copywriter to understand the product and service completely. If you're writing copy for a service or product you own you're automatically in a good position. However, if it's simply a "me too" product and you can't find anything unique to say to get people excited what then?

You might get sales, but they won't be loyal customers. You'll probably compete on price. You'll be running from deal to deal desperate to get that profit.

Yet often outside eyes can help you see that extra edge you've got.

Remember Adrian from Cut N Copy Media? He didn't realise that his edge is his proven theatrical-based creativity and ability to think of great ways to enhance a product with video presentations. It needed someone else to point that out to him. Yet Adrian was great at marketing for the theatre's productions he ran.

Remember research is the bedrock of brilliant copywriting. Look at Gary Bencivenga's latest bullet for his starter list of 10 questions to ask before writing anything at all.

I'm a keen fan of great copywriters and certainly Gary Bencivenga is up there with the greats. So check out what he says and give me your take on it if you will.

Enjoy...

The Wizard Academy - Monday Morning Memo waxes lyrical about the 4 different ad types:

Franchise Ads

Category Ads

Product Specific Ads

Store Specific Ads

Ladies, many of you will be fortunate enough this Christmas to find a small, but beautifully wrapped package under your tree bearing a simple gold seal that says 'Heisenberg's.' Now you and I both know there's jewelry in the box. But the man who put it there for you is trying desperately to tell you that you are more precious than diamonds, more valuable than gold, and very, very special.

What man on Earth who could remotely afford such a package could resist that message?

Needless to say the shop had an amzing Christmas. But ...

Should You Copy That Ad?

Well think about this...

A jewellers in another city used the Ad for themselves and had their worst ever Christmas.

The reason?

Everyone in that city knew that the jeweller didn't have the same very high class reputation that the audience of the first ad knew the shop in their city had. So although they'd got a free advert (they didn't pay for it's creation) they lost money by running it for themselves.

What Should You Do With A Good Ad?

How does that help you?

Good question. My answer is this ...

When you find an Ad that works for another company. By all means look at it or listen to it and don't copy it.

Instead analyse it. Or better, get a direct response copywriter to analyse it. Then produce a new ad that incorporates some of the aspects of the original ad - and only if you know those aspects speak to your market.

Does That Work For Internet Advertising?

Do you think it will apply to Internet Advertising or pay per click advertising?

You know my answer to that conudrum:

"Direct response methods work in any medium because the audience they target have the same psychological make-up they've always had"

So go and analyse and create your own.

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I've borrowed and changed the headline. It's a quote from Max Boyce's song about that great Welsh rugby player Barry John.

It just seemed to fit the piece from grokdotcom.com

At first I was reading about scenarios and thinking I'd lost the will to live.

Then hey presto a little nugget presented itself half way down the page.

The team had been asked if they could recommend any good online copywriters. They said no but then listed the criteria so you'd recognise them.

Hurrah. The answer to a client's dreams surely?

Yes and No.

Let me explain...

Every copywriter would say that they fulfil those criteria. I certainly would.

I mean we're all these:

1) creative.
2) intelligent
3) empathizers
4) well-read
5) good listeners
6) organized
7) deadline-oriented
8) client managers
9) simple communicators
10) consistent
11) humble
12) web-savvy
13) themselves writers

I'm assuming that grokdotcom also fulfil their own criteria.

Interestingly enough I had a conversation with an expert Internet user who wasn't persuaded by long copy pages (as against shot copy). Yet grokdotcom.com has long copy.

Hmm.

The only things I'd add as extras are:

14) interested
15) entertaining

Sun Tzu, the author of The Art Of War said, 

“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

This is exactly what I keep harping on about in business and in particular marketing.

Think about this ...

If you select tactics you think will work everyone can see what you're doing and can easily copy it.

If however, you decide on a strategy you can choose the most appropriate tactics. Then your competitors may see one or more of your tactics but are very unlikely to see your ultimate strategy. Which means they can't copy what you're trying to achieve.

For example:

You may be willing to make a loss on the first two products your customer buys because you've worked out that over the lifetime of the customer you'll make 12 times in profit what they pay for those products.

If your competitor simply sees you selling the first product and then making a loss on the second they wont know why you're doing it. And without the proper marketing tactics to quickly follow-up they wont get further sales and will simply make losses.

I know some of my posts have been lengthy so I'm thinking of adding a summary. Let me know if that helps you...

Summary

This post looks at one of today's direct mail pieces received in the post. It reviews it and suggests ways it could be improved.

Direct Mail Mistakes

I received a lovely well-designed letter and glossy folded postcard from a printer through the post this morning.

It used a nice font for the company name, the name (Juicy Print) was very visible in red and it had a nice little graphic of a box with a tagline of  "Not your average box of printing."

Unfortunately the copy didn't do the design any justice at all. In fact I was moved to email the company to suggest that I could rewrite the letter and double their response.

They'd been clever enough to use blue coloured "hand written" signature and personal address to me. That looked good.

They were missing the following:

• A headline
• An offer
• The WIFM angle
• PS

What About A Headline?

Without a headline the only reason I read it was to see whether I could learn anything from them.

Research shows that the headline is read first.

The company logo shouts out what the company does so people are likely to think, "another printing company, bin, next!"

Without a headline there is nothing that immediately attracts the eye.

Make Me An Offer

They do appear to serve a large number of clients. Although the way the copy was worded it sounds  like a franchise company.

They noted that they were "over £567 cheaper than some high street printers." For the promo card they'd used as an insert.

That's not really an offer if I'm not looking for promo cards but want a brochure or sales letter is it?

What's more the phrase they used whilst technically correct sounds as though it's trying to pull the wool over their prospects eyes.

Why?

Because I suspect they're talking about the small printing franchises like KallQuik and Prontoprint. Rather than comparing themselves to Printing.com who are heavily in the commercial sector.

What's In It For Me?

It's not clear how they're different to the commodity print companies. Perhaps they are...

I just can't tell from the letter.

As a consequence why would I even consider jumping from the printer I know? After all at best they're an unknown quantity and at worst could be an expensive disaster.

By The Way The PS

Research shows that a PS is read after the headline and before the prospect begins to read.

No PS and you lose a chunk of people who can't be bothered to read further.

What To Do?

I wrote them  a quick email suggesting that I could double their response rate. Mainly because I think that the letter has no oomph and will generate only a few responses.

They've just replied asking me to elaborate, which I've done. Now let's see whether they want to improve their letters pulling power!