Direct Response Copywriter Provides Tips from Top Copywriters: Bob Bly

What’s the most valuable lesson you can learn from Bob Bly? He’s a strong writer but his customer service is excellent. He provides clients:
 
1)    A guarantee—not necessarily a money-back, but a promise of a rewrite.
2)    No charge rewrites. If a dentist drilled the wrong tooth, why would any patient pay him or her to fix it?
3)    A barrage of testimonials backing up his customer service claims.
4)    Communication—staying in touch with the client.
5)    Clarity. Tell the client who you are, what you do, where you are located, when you can deliver the copy, why they should choose you instead of another copywriter, and how you can help them.
6)    Multiple resources on the website for the client including many ways to reach him.
 
Bob has published hundreds of client testimonials on his website. You can watch videos to see what he looks like (striking) and hear how he sounds. You can see examples of his writing and read about his services.

Bly also presents multiple ways to spend money on his website but also includes plenty of free goodies including audio, video, downloads, etc. Bly targets possible clients for his copywriting, but also manages to turn his colleagues, competitors, fellow writers, and marketers into his clients as well.
How?

Variety—he sells them books and CDs about writing, freelancing, selling and marketing, and starting your own business. He links his main website to his other websites. Bly has a few hundred websites set up to sell his products. So if you have no need for his copywriting skills, he presents you with about a thousand other ways to spend money/time with his company. The wide range of products he sells complements and augments his customer service.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Indulges in Branding

In the world of direct response, branding is a banned word. There’s a famous book about branding…or non-branding: Branding Only Works on Cattle.

People in direct marketing (like me) often wonder why small companies spend a lot of money on branding/image advertising. And the people who run branding/awareness agencies generally view people in direct response as inferior. Let’s not get into that battle for now. But it was time for me to come up with a new image for my business so I asked a graphic designer to create a new logo. I gave her the direction and the copy and it was ready in two days.

The result…

I think every business needs an image and a brand but it’s less than 1% of the marketing spend.

When you want actual results from your marketing investment, use direct response techniques and hire a direct response copywriter.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter on Successful Landing Pages

Traffic on the Internet is becoming much more expensive. And the amount spent by online advertisers is also increasing significantly.

This means the online advertising environment is becoming more and more competitive. A few years ago, a really bad landing page could convert readers into buyers but today, the landing page has to work to gain a positive ROI. Failure is not an option. Mediocre is not an option.

For online advertisers who want their landing pages to work, my advice is:

• Use direct response copywriting techniques.
• Hire a direct response copywriter to write the copy.
• Follow proven successful landing page formats.

Here’s a landing page that’s converting successfully.

Many times I speak with potential clients who want creativity and ‘innovative’ work. That’s not what you want. What you want is CONVERSION and so you want to imitate, without plagiarizing, what’s worked before.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

The Most Important Copy this Direct Response Copywriter Has Written

If you want to be successful and you want to reduce your sales costs dramatically, then this page I just created includes the most important copy you will read.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Meets Renaissance Man

I was just on vacation and I ran into this guy. I told him I was a direct response copywriter and he told me he was a writer. Actually, here’s what’s on his business card:

• Film Critic
• Author
• Scriptwriter
• Executive Chef
• Extreme skier

That, my brothers and sisters, is a renaissance man. 

Nothing wrong with that.

However, I’m increasingly becoming a specialist. Two years ago, I was writing books, publishing magazines, and also writing copy.

For the record, I'm not an executive chef and I'm not an extreme skier...yet.

I just write direct response copy. And I’ll soon start to focus on two niches.

I only spent an hour or so with my film critic, author, scriptwriter, executive chef, and extreme skier new friend—and I enjoyed the banter—but it’s generally better for a direct response copywriter to get vertical. So I won't take inspiration from his varied background.

For the small business, the more vertical and specialized you can get, the better.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. I increasingly specialize in sales pages and landing pages. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.