Direct Response Copywriter Admits He Knows Nothing

I’ve been writing copy professionally since 1989. I’ve specialized in direct response copy for 10 years. I’ve read all the ‘must read’ books and I’ve attended seminars; I recently watched the Gary Bencivenga DVDs.

Like most direct response copywriters, I’m always trying to get a little bit better every week.

I use the ‘proven techniques’ and follow the rules of direct response copywriting. I have enough creativity to make a direct response promotion stand out from the crowd. Many of my promotions have established solid controls or beat established controls.

Yet I’m the first to admit I really know nothing…until the copy is tested.

If you’re a direct response copywriter, get ready for blood. Copy can sometimes fail miserably. I’ve had plenty of successes but I’ve written copy I thought would rock only to see it miss the mark by a vast distance.

Direct response copywriters are, ultimately, salespeople. People who sell can come across as brash and arrogant, and, as such, I’ve met copywriters who are…well…confident.

There must be a lot of arrogant copywriters. In fact, one copywriter gives 14 reasons to hire him.

"Reason #6: I’m not a jerk."

No copywriter knows anything until the copy goes live and the real experts weigh in. Arrogance in copywriting is believing you're an expert.

The real experts?

Potential customers who read the copy. Are they providing valuable information? Are they pulling out their credit cards and buying? Are they making a telephone call?

When the real experts have spoken, then I know something.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on Getting to Simple

Getting to simple. It’s hard.

As a direct response copywriter, I usually spend a chunk of time researching the product and its market. I have a strong record writing copy that drives response. One reason: the product or service almost sells itself. I wish I could say “it’s the copy” but it’s much easier to write copy for a strong product than a product that makes the reader go ‘uhhh…what?’

Products or services with a poor value proposition are extremely difficult to sell. And poor comprises:

• Useless
• Difficult to grasp even after a couple of hours
• Not immediately obvious
• Bizarre

I spend quite a bit of time on Linked in and I see some very weird job descriptions. A few: 

• Relationship Development Professional
• Founder of The Rainmaking Academy
• Lifestyle Entrepreneur
• Consultant - Digital Consumer Engagement

I’m not sure what these people do. I once worked with a company that specializes in corporate engagement. It’s a successful company but I’m not sure I ever really grasped what they actually really do! Get people engaged, I guess, but not in a marriage sense.

If you’re about to hire a direct response copywriter to write copy for a product or service, I recommend you create a strong value proposition. 

1. Does the product or service solve an obvious problem?
2. Is the price right?
3. Can you make an elevator speech that details precisely what the product or service does?
4. Is the product really focused on a specific problem/niche?

In my career, I’ve made the mistake of trying to be too many things to too many people. Not any more. Here’s my value proposition:

I’ll write direct response copy that persuades the reader to take the next step in the sales process. I focus on nutritional supplements, information products, and golf...although I'll take on pretty much any project when I feel the product provides significant value.

There…that’s pretty simple.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on How Readers Actually Read Copy

I just read a couple of long-form pieces of direct response copywriting. And these were LONG…

One was 30,000 words; the other was 12,000 words. That’s 42,000 words and the literary world has produced shorter novels.

Reading these two behemoths reminded me of how potential buyers look at sales pages and how copy should be organized.

For both pieces, written by top copywriters, I looked at the headline, the deck, and the lead, and looked for how much the products cost.

Once I had a sense of the price, sorry…investment…I started to read the copy. The first time around, I looked mostly at the subheads. Then, because I was extremely interested in the products, I read every word of the copy. It took a while!

I was looking for two things:

1. What I was going to get.
2. If the listed features and benefits were going to solve my problem and produce an ROI.

I was also interested in the guarantee in case the products turned out to be poor.

So…here’s what we can we discover from this experience.

1. The headline and deck must quickly and clearly spell out the clear benefit and the product. It’s not a time to be clever. It’s a time to be straightforward, lucid, and clear.
2. If people are genuinely interested in the product or service, they will instantly look for the price. If the price is high, then having a “three easy payments of” option is important. There must be TONS of copy to justify an expensive purchase.
3. Pay close attention to the subheads. These should be every bit as strong as the strongest headlines.
4. It’s unlikely that someone will sit down and read every word of long-form copy right away. But, to justify an expensive purchase, they will read every word—especially when it comes to key features and benefits…plus the full description of what you get.

It’s sort of like car buying. Some people will buy a car because they like the color or the stereo. Others will buy because of the engine’s torque and/or efficiency. Others will buy because of the payments. Others want to know everything they can discover. The advertising for the car has to provide information for every type of buyer.

Strong long-form copy written by a long-form copywriter will satiate every type of potential buyer.

And yes—I bought the two products…persuaded by the long-form copy written by a top direct response copywriter.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on Content

If you’re in marketing and/or direct response copywriting, you’ve heard it a bazillion times.

CONTENT IS KING

And it’s true.

Sadly, even some of the biggest names in the information marketing business fail when it comes to their content.

You’ll hear a lot of “I’ve got the magic, secret sauce to make your digital marketing cook!” when we all know that’s hype.

There are no marketing secrets: the playbook has been written. Executing the plays requires precision and patience; many people with very little marketing experience have marketed themselves and their products successfully.

However, many marketers fail when it comes to their content—what they actually sell and this can impact the long-term revenue.

I recently signed up for a monthly copywriting improvement program from a mega-marketer. The program was around $200 a month. I got a binder and a TON of stuff arrived every month and yes, I had access to a monthly conference call with a big name copywriter, but the quality of the content was poor. So I cancelled and I’ll be cautious about buying again from this vendor.

A conference for marketers took place late last year and I attended. It was good fun and some of the speakers were excellent. But 75% of the speakers had nothing to say except, “buy my product for $400.” Poor content.

One company’s content is superb one day, modest the next. The company sells a continuity program so the content needs to be superb every day to avoid cancellations and deliver on the promise in the copy.

Two years ago, I wrote some copy for one of the (former) rock stars of information marketing. He asked me to write a sales page for the main product—a library of videos about Internet marketing. When I watched many of the videos, they comprised two people talking about how great it was to be a part of the program. There was little, if anything, in the way of useful and tangible information.

I haven’t named names but I will now.

Bob Bly’s information products are excellent and I’ve only sent one product back. Andrew Wood’s content (Legendary Marketing) is also superb. Bly’s products are sensibly priced and the PDFs provide valuable information on every page. He also collaborates with genuine experts and this augments the quality and reliability of the information. Andrew’s books about marketing provide a superb introduction to direct marketing and his other products explain the way to marry direct marketing with the most recent platforms.

I’m a direct response copywriter and web copywriter today but I used to publish magazines. I worked extremely hard to provide readers with routinely superb content. And my magazines always flourished. I would often meet a reader who would say, “I read your magazine from cover to cover. I love it.” I’ve written or worked on 18 books and I’ve always provided a manuscript I believe provides real value. A weekly email I wrote for a certain area in Charlotte had 70% open rates; the industry average is around 15%. CONTENT!

As a direct response copywriter, it’s hard to write inspirational copy for a product that’s poor. However, when the content is deep, valuable, and strong, the copy almost writes itself.

If you’re superb at marketing, you’ve achieved a great deal: successful execution of a marketing plan requires major, major work. However, make sure the content you’re selling…whatever it might be…OVER DELIVERS on the promises in the copy. Then the content becomes another marketing tool.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

Direct Response Copywriter on Hype and the Beauty of Simplicity

If you’ve watched a direct response TV ad or infomercial, then you know all about tonality.

Ads for cleaning products bleat. Ads for life insurance purr.

As a direct response copywriter, one of my goals is to get the tone correct. Some products require a little bit of hyperventilation. Others require a more subtle and respectful tone.

I can HYPE! IT! UP! with the very best but I can also turn down the volume.

When it comes to hype, I’m extremely cautions. Consumers are increasingly wary and skeptical and mega-hype can damage conversion. And potential customers are intelligent: they don't need hype; they need a solution.

Someone I know was thinking about paying to attend a conference. The copy for the conference included the phrase:

"Mingle with the masters..."

To the person thinking about the conference, that tiny bit of hype turned him off and so he didn't spend the money for the event.

Herschell Gordon Lewis, one of my copywriting heroes and perhaps the spokesmodel for anti-hype, despises the exclamation mark and believes it’s a sure sign of a poor copywriter. So I use exclamation marks sparingly!!!!!!

Hype is often a cover for a poor sales argument, offer, product, or service.

The reason for buying—the value proposition—should provide the excitement. The offer, guarantee, bonus items, testimonials and additional elements simply buttress the primary reason to buy.

In the past six months or so, I’ve primarily been using a straightforward tone and it’s been extremely effective based on test results.

Here’s the product.

Here’s what it does.

Here’s the problem it solves.

Here’s why you need to have it.

Here’s why you should pay the money.

You take no risk.

Here are the goodies.

Here's what you lose if you don't buy now.

Yes—the occasionally powerful metaphor and the occasional bit of semi-breathlessness can provide some vivacity but simplicity, logic, salient facts, and clarity triumph over pure hype.

This approach DOES NOT provide an excuse to eschew personality. While people don't always buy from manic crazy salespeople, they don't buy from dullards with the personality of a brick.

PLEASE KEEP IT SIMPLE

When a product solves a complex problem or if the product has a lot of moving parts, it can be tempting to ask the copywriter to complicate the copy by including everything about everything and making the offer overly complex.

That’s where the USP comes in.

That’s where simplicity is vital. I like to focus on one primary idea for most of the copy.

I admire marketers who keep concepts and copy simple. Far too many marketers complicate offers, products, and deals—to the point where the reader is confused. A confused reader quickly clicks to another company or trashes the mail piece.

Yes...getting to that simple clarity is hard but it's worth the effort.

When I’m writing copy, I like to:

• Keep the syntax simple
• Find the strongest value proposition
• Make the offer extremely clear and simple to understand

Using this approach, the reader can quickly understand the reason to buy and also create their own hype—because the product or service scratches their itch.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing content and copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that just plain persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.