- writing is rewriting
- conversational English and popular slang
- Internal Repetition
- a “yes momentum.
- Entertaining not funny.
- a vivid mental picture
- your own personality
writing is rewriting
“Who’s going to read all that copy?”
The answer is: those people most
likely to respond.
Most research shows that the vast
majority of readers never go beyond a
quick glance at an advertisement, and the
same is true about most sales letters.
Shortening your
copy to a length everybody will read is
counter-productive. Instead, you need to
focus your energies on the relative
minority of the letter recipients who will
be interested in the message.
In other
words, write for the buyer, not the
nonbuyer. Real prospects are hungry
for information.
use
conversational English and popular
slang.
Schoolbook grammar is irrelevant in
the sales letter.
Increase Readership with the Double
Readership Path
divide our recipients into two
personality extremes: the impulsive and
the analytical.
The impulsive one will rarely read
long copy
They want to skim
create an
impulsive readership path through your
letter that consists of big, bold headlines
and subheads; photos with captions; and
boxed, circled, or highlighted short
paragraphs.
analytical prospects will read long
copy — in fact, they almost require it!
They want lots of facts, figures,
statistics, charts, graphs, and hard
information, wanting to feel that they are
making an informed, considered
decision.
TIMING IS URGENT
secret is beginning
to leak out now … thus
eliminating your chance of big
profits. Don’t wait until the cat’s
out of the bag! Buy now!!
Next
week or next month could be a
red letter profit day for many
astute silver investors who heed
our advice today.
“Internal Repetition.”
a time-
honored axiom:
tell ’em what you’re
going to tell ’em; tell ’em; tell ’em again,
a little differently; tell ’em again, a little
more differently; then tell ’em what
you’ve told ’em. In fact, I try to tell ’em
seven times.
In the same sales letter, you can
convey your basic sales message and
promise:
1. In a straightforward statement
2. In an example
3. In a story, sometimes called a “slice
of life”
4. In testimonials
5. In a quote from a customer, expert, or
other spokesperson
6. In a numbered summary
a basic principle of persuasion:
building a “yes momentum.”
never end a page
with a completed sentence. This gives
your reader permission to stop reading
right there.
A teaser blurb is
essentially another headline. In fact, it is
a headline for the next page!
appears easy to read, is easy
on the eye, uses everyday language, and
doesn’t require you to be a Harvard grad
stick mostly to short
paragraphs (ideally, those only three or
four sentences long).
Be Entertaining
don’t be funny.
you may not want to be funeral-serious either
lighthearted — not comical, but not dead
serious.
there’s no such thing as too much
interesting copy — the problem’s not
with the length. The problem is being
boring.
the reader’s “whole
mind” can best be stimulated by playing
on as many of the five senses as
possible.
your
sales letter copy needs to make the
reader visualize pictures and feel
experiences.
Serious as cancer
Stronger ‘n onions!
Savage wind
So overcome with frustration, he
leans against the closed door of his
office and silently screams
Crawl across broken glass on your
naked knees to ….
So powerful (so good; so tasty; so
Why You Should Put On a Ski Mask,
Lower Yourself from the Ceiling On a
Wire Like Tom Cruise in Mission
Impossible, To Steal Bill’s Blueprint
creating a vivid mental
picture.
Resource
Reference books that copywriters
use to find and create colorful,
descriptive phrases:
Words That Sell by Richard
Bayan (Contemporary)
More Words That Sell by
Richard Bayan (Contemporary)
Roget’s Super Thesaurus by
Marc McCutcheon (Writer’s
Digest Books)
Roget’s Descriptive Word
Finder by Barbara Ann Kipfer
(Writer’s Digest Books)
Let your own personality come into
your letters. Sell in print as you would in
person.