Direct Response Copywriter on ... Copy for Kajabi

I’m a direct response copywriter and I use Kajabi as the platform for my online copywriting training course: The Aspen School of Copywriting.

As such, I regularly attend the Kajabi “Meet Ups” where people who use Kajabi get together online to talk about specific subjects.

I very much enjoy these virtual “Meet Ups.” It’s fun to meet new people, albeit through a computer screen.

People have some great products. I'm really impressed. They are also excellent at driving traffic. I get a lot of questions about copy because I’m a direct response copywriter. People on the Kajabi platform don’t seem to know a lot about copy but they WANT to know more.

So … in this blog, I’m happy to provide Kajabi users with some thoughts about powerful copy. These thoughts, of course, apply if you’re not on Kajabi but you’re selling some type of information product online … and you want to know more about copy.

Let’s get started.

Your copy is your salesperson. It must motivate potential customers to try what you offer. It’s not supposed to be creative, clever, funny, or award-winning. People don’t buy from clowns and they're not interested in your creative approach.

Tell the truth. There’s a group of copywriters who believe it’s perfectly OK to say pretty much anything to make the sale. Don't emulate these copywriters. Many of them have got into serious trouble. Tell the truth with intense clarity and put the truth in the best possible light.

When writing copy, imagine you’re having a conversation with someone who wants what your product/course provides. During this conversation, your goal is to motivate them to try your product or service. How would that conversation go?

Your headline is the advertisement for the advertisement. Use the John Caples formula.

Curiosity + Self-Interest = Compelling Appeal

80% of your copy should be informational … providing your prospect with information that will help them. 20% can be sales copy.

Here’s a great saying: “The more you tell, the more you sell.” Your copy should be long, provided it’s relevant. The copy for my sales page is 15,000 words and I’m trying to make it longer. Plus I provide 4 hours of video.

You want direct response copy, not branding copy. There's a huge difference.

Proof is your best friend. Proof overcomes skepticism. Skepticism is your biggest enemy.

Apply direct response copywriting techniques to every part of your sales funnel … emails … display ads … sales pages … everything.

Your prospect is asking this crucial question: “what’s in it for me?” Build your copy around the answer to this question.

Want some direction? Look at your competitors but don't plagiarize. Look at the copy that motivated YOU to try a product or service.

Copy can be long. But keep sentences short. Write at a 7th grade level.

Use the words “you” and “your” often.

If you can write decently, you can write some good copy relatively quickly. But it takes years to come close to mastering copy.

Write about your credentials but don't boast.

Fortunately, many of the world’s most accomplished direct response copywriters have written books about copy.

Here’s a link to my reviews of some of these books.

Great copy can help you sell more of your product … at higher price points.

The most seriously successful marketers understand the power of copy and happily pay vast sums to engage the top direct response copywriters.

Your copy can be the difference between “doing OK” and earning vast amounts of money.

There aren’t many copywriters who can write direct response copy at a high level. You won’t find them on sites like Upwork and Fiverr. You’ll get cheap copy on those sites but you’ll get copy that will not convert readers into buyers.

If you want to see my sales page for my product, click here. It’s a good example of long-form copy.

If you want to discover more about me, click here.

Great copy has the correct structure. AIDA is one structure.

A = Attention. I = Interest. D = Desire A = Action.

What is great copy? Copy that generates revenue.

Your sales page does not have to be beautiful. Your prospects don’t care about beautiful. They care about themselves and what they want and how you can help them reach their goals or solve a problem.

My blog on this site provides a lot of free information about copy and direct marketing. Dig in.

Tell your prospect, with intense clarity, PRECISELY what they will receive for their money.

Also … provide them with the features of your product but also provide them with the corresponding benefits.

Tell your prospect, with intense clarity, the steps you want them to take in order to gain access to your product.

One of my least favorite sayings is “a picture is worth 1,000 words.” If that were the case, then every advertisement would be just a series of photos. Photos are proof elements and should be carefully chosen.

I hope you enjoyed these copy thoughts. Feel free to ask some questions or you can contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 6. Length. CTA. Curiosity.

In the final part of this series, I’d like to write about two key elements plus talk about length.

When writing an email, I like to include 4-5 call to action links. This may seem like a lot but it’s important to provide plenty of opportunities to take the next step. TELL the reader to take this next step at least twice during the email.

How long should an email be?

There’s no right or wrong answer. I’ve seen extremely short emails and I’ve seen emails that are long-form sales pages. Testing will provide you with the right length.

When the email is shorter, one key factor is curiosity. The email must not give too much away. The email must have the prospect thinking, “I just HAVE to see/discover what’s next.” I see far too many emails that provide all the information right away. Curiosity will drive up your click through rates and a good direct response copywriter will help you build that curiosity factor.

One final thought. It’s important to view your email list as a relationship builder. Email marketing that simply bleats “buy now” constantly is a great way to lose an audience. Many of the most successful marketers I know send 5-6 informational emails for every email that’s more sales-sy. That's a much better way to nurture a list.

I hope you have found these blogs about emails valuable.

Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 5. Body Copy.

Once you’re sorted out the headline, it’s time to work on the body copy.

It’s at this stage of the exercise where the email can go in all sorts of directions.

I’ve written long emails … upwards of 2,000 words. I’ve written short emails of around 300 words. I’ve written emails based on direct response principles. I’ve written pithy emails that are more branding-oriented. I’ve written funny emails.

In fact, for one client, a restaurant in a basement location, I wrote an email saying they were going to expand underground. It was an April Fool’s stunt and people came in to the restaurant asking about the date of the expansion.

For that client, the comment they receive is “the only emails I open are from you.”

There are emails sent to cold lists and emails sent to warm lists and house lists. There's pure spam.

I don’t know of a single business who successfully sends readers directly to the checkout page from an email. But I could be missing something.

Usually, the emails I write send people to a landing page where the selling takes place. So … when it comes to body copy in an email, start by asking, “what are we trying to do here?”

I like the power of curiosity here. If someone is trying to sell a product to help direct response copywriters and they say, “I’ve got something that’s going to help you solve a big problem” then I’m highly likely to click through. But if they say, “I’ve got this new course and I'm the best and the course is about writing sales pages and it’s a bargain at $997” then it’s going straight to my trash.

There’s also a school of thought that says, “nurture your list.” For every 5 emails you send to the list, 4 should be informational. Email #5 can be more of a sales pitch. I like this approach because it builds trust with the prospects.

Many of the fundamentals of direct response copywriting apply to the body copy.

Copy in 7th grade English. Clarity. Benefits. Strong call-to-action. Proof. Testimonials.

If the list is big enough, you can split test. Then, in subsequent emails, you can write emails based on what seems to resonate.

It’s also extremely important to be laser-focused on what people on your list genuinely want and need.

Unless you’re appealing to people with a certain political viewpoint, keep politics totally out of the entire email. However, I like an opinionated email … provided it’s not political. In fact, I regularly send out opinionated and even controversial emails. I’m simply stating the truth about what’s going on in the world of the direct response copywriter.

Most sales-based emails I read are motivating me to click through to a landing page. That’s fine, of course, but stoke the reader’s curiosity, often with a couple of carefully-chosen benefits.

Remember what the reader is asking: “what’s in it for me?”

By following the direction in this email, you can cut through email clutter.

Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 4. Headlines in Emails?

I get a lot of emails every day. I’m sure you’re in the same boat. Some are business-related, like emails from clients. Others are marketing emails trying to motivate me to buy something. Sadly, I also get a ton of spam, even from legitimate companies … or companies that pose as legitimate.

If you’re writing an email and the subject line motivated someone to open your email, that’s bit step. However, the work has just begun. Now you have to motivate the reader to keep reading. And that’s where I see a lot of direct response copywriters fail.

What’s going on?

They forget to include a headline in the email. I see tons of emails without a headline. That’s a mistake.

The headline must complement and augment the subject line. It must draw the reader into the body of the email. And then I recommend a number of subheads in the body of the email. A subhead is the same as a headline, essentially. The subheads let scanners know what's happening and what's in it for them.

Some emails are long. Some are short. But every email should include a headline plus some subheads.

Next time you're looking at emails, see which ones have a strong headline.

Direct Response Copywriter on High-Converting Emails. Part 3. Subject Lines.

There are two things people look at when they see an email.

The person it’s coming from … or the company.

Then the subject line. The former can be more important so make sure you get that part correct. It just has to be clear and consistent.

The subject line is also important.

An email subject line is a headline. It’s essentially the same as the copy on the outside of a direct mail envelope.

Some companies use no copy on the outside of an envelope. I’m not a big fan of that method. You can leave the subject line empty in an email and, again, I’m not a big fan of that.

I see lots of stupid subject lines in email marketing. Usually some ridiculous promise or something sophomoric. I like sophomoric humor but not in serious email marketing.

The subject line is an exercise in writing direct response headlines. As such, I refer to the John Caples headline writing formula.

CURIOSITY + SELF-INTEREST = COMPELLING APPEAL

John Caples, in case you didn’t know, was a superb direct response copywriter. One of his copy cubs, Gary Bencivenga, goes one step further with headlines …

Interest = Benefit + Curiosity

Let’s say you own a restaurant and you want to send an email for New Year’s Eve. You might write something like …

We’ve got something super-special for December 31 this year. If you’re interested in something fun, you’ll open the email.

For a golf-related email, I might write:

A long-drive champion just used this driver to hit the ball 402 yards in a competition …

OK … that subject line might be a bit long. But I want you to write email subject lines that pique curiosity based around a benefit. It’s a proven direct response copywriting technique.

The headline writing has only just begun. I routinely see hundreds of emails with a decent subject line but NO HEADLINE IN THE EMAIL. Crazy. Again, use the formulas above for the headline in the actual email.

If it’s a longer email, break up the copy with carefully-written subheads.

Just remember that subject lines are headlines. And if you can test these, all the better.