95% of copywriting is THIS bad...

I'm always paying close attention to copy. Everywhere. Not just when I'm working on assignments. I even look at 'local' advertising for yard sales, bands, lost dogs...you know, the signs people put up around the neighborhood.

We've had a cold winter (for North Carolina) so there's a solid demand for firewood. Here's a sign from a would-be firewood vendor. Good timing with the snow everywhere but there's illegible red pen on a cardboard background. I see design and copy this bad all the time...even from big agencies. If you want to avoid advertising this bad, use direct response techniques.

One of these...black type on a white background. If it's print, use a serif font (Times, Garamond). If it's web, use a sans-serif font (Arial, Helvetica). I can't comment on the copy: I can't see it!

If I were in the Firewood business and I was putting signs up around the neighborhood, here's what I might write....

Copy, what there is of it, cannot be seen, even from three feet. The person is trying to sell firewood. I see copy and design this bad all the time. Avoid this type of disaster by using direct response techniques.

FIREWOOD

Buy Five Bundles...get one FREE

Call XXX.XXX-XXXX

www.CLTFirewood.com

Follow the 'rules' of direct response design as well as the 'rules' of direct response copywriting.

*

I'm Scott Martin, a direct response copywriter. For my website, go here and make sure you request my free direct response copywriting checklist.

Do you like surprises?

As a copywriter, I'm a small business owner and, as such, I have to market myself successfully.

How many times have you heard this?

"I hate surprises."

Unfortunately, I've heard this from a boss or two! And it's because I've handed them news about a bad surprise.

I'm not a huge fan of my electric company, Duke Energy. It's a monopoly sponsored by the federal government and the state government. I have a client in Australia and I wrote the copy for this landing page (currently getting an 80 per cent click through); I learned that, in Australia, they have a choice when it comes to which electricity company they want to choose. I have a small house yet my bill is stratospheric, especially in the summer. How I wish I could move my house to Australia.

The power company offered me a pleasant surprise for a change...15 of these eco lightbulbs for free. What are you doing to surprise your clients? Pleasantly, of course!

When paying my insane Duke Energy bill online, I got a pleasant surprise...an offer for 15 free lightbulbs. They arrived yesterday and I'm delighted. That's about $100 in value.

I just added to my monthly marketing checklist: Pleasant Surprise (like lightbulbs).

As a direct response copywriter, I'm always trying to follow my direct response copywriting checklist...headline...guarantee...benefits, etc...here's something to add: good surprise.

*

I'm Scott Martin, a direct response copywriter. For my website, go here and make sure you request my free direct response copywriting checklist.

 

Why copywriting will be more important than ever in 2011

OK - as a copywriter, I'm biased. I'm always going to think of copywriting as more important than other parts of the advertising/marketing equation. I have to!

So why did I read on another blog written by a non writer that content and copywriting will be more important than ever?

Let's step back and take a look at the science. According to Will Swayne, one of my clients, Google Adwords conversion is harder than ever: for one client, the cost per click of pay per click is up 800 per cent in five years. Ouch! Very ouch!

The increase in PPC and the increasing difficulty getting organic search results places added pressure on conversion. If you get someone to your website, it's vital to increase conversion. And it's more important than ever in the current economic climate.

Copy on a website is a conversation between the business and a prospective client or customer. Imagine yourself having a sales conversation with a customer that goes something like this...

"This is what we do...we make widgets. They're really good and they come in red, blue, green, and yellow."

Any salesperson would be fired for this type of shoddy salesmanship. Yet most copy I read is like the statement above.

Successful, high converting copy on a website is like having the best salesperson on the planet selling for you.

One more thing...make the copy readable. Copy that's hard to read is the same as having a salesperson who mumbles.

Here's a great example of a superb sales website...I didn't write the copy but I help this client with copy for their clients.

In 2011, make your copy read like a successful sales conversation between a top sales performer and a potential client/customer. How? Use proven direct response copywriting techniques.

*

I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, N.C. My website is here.

New copywriting site live

About 10 months ago, David Brooks reorganized my copywriting site and he did a great job. I've added to my portfolio and made some changes to my copywriting services so I reorganized my direct response copywriting site.

The new site is here.

Still some tweaking required but I'm happy with it.

Of course, what I think is mostly irrelevant! Will it help me achieve what a website MUST achieve? The site follows as many of the rules of direct marketing as applied to websites.

I've written, in this blog among other spots, that if you put a group of the best direct marketers in a room and ask them to critique each other's work, the marketers will implement the recommended changes. Every serious direct marketer is constantly striving to get more response.

Take a look at my site and if you have tweaks you think you I should make, contact me and, for your time, I'll send you a new special report I just published...Eight Ways to Keep Visitors Glued to Your Website.

If you're looking for a great direct marketer, go to Rome

Every copywriter, every direct marketer, can learn something from the young American woman in Rome...

I was fortunate to visit Rome several years ago. On the last day of the visit, I went to the Colesseum then across the road to...well...it's not really a site like the Colesseum but more of a collection of ruins, rocks, and tourists like me who were wandering around trying to sort through the rubble. It's essentially the site of ancient Roman politics. It think it was the Parco di Traiano perhaps...anyway...it was a bunch of rocks and pillars to me!

As I was wandering around cluelessly, starting to think about dinner, a young woman came up and said that she would make a 15-minute free presentation explaining what went on here. She gathered quite a group, about 200, in fact.

Speaking eloquently to the group in front of one of the more distinguishable ruins, she brought the place to life, telling us about the ancient Roman politicians and even performing some Shakespeare...Caesar's speech just before he got done in, I think. This 'freebie' was brilliant and you could have heard a pin drop when she was speaking.

Just before the end of the presentation, she said, "Tomorrow, I'm giving a tour of St. Peter's and I'm going to show you places not on the normal tours and I'm going to tell you about the artists, many of whom were tortured souls who gave everything for their art...and the tour is just $30 and it's limited to just 20 people. Come see me now. It's first-come, first-served."

If I hadn't been leaving the next day, I would have paid the fee.

Looking back on this, what great marketing!

She went to a target-rich environment...hundreds of clueless tourists wandering around aimlessly wanting to know more...

She provided salient FREE information...what on earth are all these ruins?

Her presentation was totally flawless and she provided great information...it was a SHOW! You definitely wanted more.

And then her sales pitch for the "upsell" was perfect. Good price point. Exclusivity. More great information. Tease...BUY NOW!

It was textbook.

What can we learn?

If you're not getting a lot of people who want your information (or what you have to offer) to your website, get them through old-fashioned badgering, search, adwords, whatever. Provide some free information to prove what you have to offer is good/great and satisfies a need. Then provide the next step, preferably with some exclusivity.

I don't know if that young woman is there today but I'd like to take her tour of St. Peter's.

*

My new website, by hook or by crook, goes live tomorrow. For now, go to my Krop portfolio here.