#1. FORGET WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE
If you want a response breakthrough, you must forget about what you’ve always done … and what everybody else in your industry does. That’s tunnel vision. You need to look at your copywriting with a fresh set of eyes and a wide-open mind.
The fact is, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results. Remember, the 8-word battle cry of a dying company is, “that’s the way we have always done it.”
Be different … be bold … be original. You must use your imagination if you want a breakthrough.
#2. START WITH YOUR PROSPECT’S WANTS
Most marketing falls short for one reason: it focuses on the product or service. The inevitable result of this line of thinking is a list of FEATURES that may or may not be of interest to anyone but you.
Start, instead, with the benefits your prospect wants. This requires research, interviews, brainstorming and multi-industry experience to look at what you’re selling through the eyes of your potential customer. But this is only way to develop the best CUSTOMER BENEFITS that make your sales and profits SKYROCKET!
#3. PROMISE TO GIVE YOUR PROSPECT EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS MOST
Great copywriting is great salesmanship in print. The best salespeople find out what the prospect wants most … and then promise to deliver on it.
Write as if you are the prospect . What benefit does your reader want most from this product? What end result? What hidden benefit? What would be the ultimate benefit?
Once you determine the most important benefits, start with them and keep stressing them throughout the copy … and prove them with specifics facts, a guarantee and no-risk offer.
#4. DOUBLE OR TRIPLE YOUR RESPONSE WITH A GREAT OFFER
Your offer includes how you present and combine your product, product name, price, terms, payment options, ordering information, bonuses, and guarantee. The right offer can double, even triple your response, so it pays to put a lot of thought into this … and continually test.
#5. WRITE A “DYNAMITE” HEADLINE TO GET MORE RESPONSE
Legendary copywriter John Caples saw response to an ad increase by 19 1/2 TIMES simply with a different headline and no other copy changes.
Your headline must feature the benefit(s) your customer wants most in a specific, easily digestible, believable way. Try to use the magic words of guaranteed, new, secret, fast, easy and free. It also helps to include your strong offer in the headline.
For example, if you know your customer’s main desire is to save time, and your product will do that for them, tell them boldly and specifically like this: “YOU WILL SAVE 6 HOURS EVERY WEEK … OR YOU WON’T PAY A DIME!”
#6. USE AS MUCH COPY AS YOU NEED
Don’t try to write “long” or “short” copy. Instead focus on the benefits you want your prospect to know and write as much or as little as you need to convey all of these benefits. Don’t be afraid of longer copy. When your copy is full of excitement and benefits that the reader wants, he will read every word and your response will be much higher.
#7. USE AN AUTHORITY, EXPERT OR CELEBRITY IF POSSIBLE
More people will read, believe and order from your copy when it comes from someone they perceive as an authority. For example, one company selling health products recently tested the exact same sales letter coming from the company president vs. coming from an M.D. The M.D. letter pulled 62% more orders!
#8. USE TODAY’S VISUAL SOCIETY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
We live in the MTV society where people’s attention span is about as short as a newborn baby’s. To get maximum response, your mailing or ad must look very easy to read and be visually appealing. In addition, your copy must be exciting, up-beat, passionate and enthusiastic! You must get the reader excited and interested enough to act NOW!
#9. WRITE THE CLOSING PARAGRAPH AND P.S. FIRST
By the time most writers get to these critically important pieces, they’ve run out of gas and can barely get them written. For high-impact copy, you should write these first. Be sure to close hard in both of these telling the reader what he’ll lose if he doesn’t respond right now.
#10. BE CREATIVE, BUT DON’T BE CUTE
Most copywriters try to be too clever … to be humorous … to get attention with “clever” photos, headlines and copy. I guarantee you that the response from this type of “clever” copy is awful.
The only reason people buy anything is to gain an advantage, or to get a benefit they want. To be successful in marketing you must use your creativity to focus on how best to present the end-user benefits of your product or service..
#11. WRITE TO A SPECIFIC PERSON YOU KNOW WHO:
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- Requires a large benefit promise to get their attention.
- Doesn’t like to take risks.
- Is skeptical.
- Is not very self-motivated.
- Must be thoroughly convinced and excited to take the action you want.
#12. TELL YOUR CUSTOMER WHAT TO DO
Many people who are interested will never respond to your copy due to inertia. They just haven’t been motivated enough to take action. The way great copy motivates them to action is with benefits, excitement and by TELLING THEM EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO over and over again throughout the copy.
We live in a world of slogans and image. We are inundated by ads on TV with vague slogans that say “Just Do It”, and we’re left wondering just what it is we’re supposed to do. In direct marketing
such appeals are doomed to failure. We must be specific, never vague. We must repeatedly and unashamedly ask for the order or the phone call or whatever specific action we want.
There you have the 12 secrets that can double your response. Of course knowing what they are, and successfully applying them are two different things. At Profit Boosters Copywriting, all we do is create maximum-response copywriting. And we’ve been doing it for over 25 years.