Killer Copy Secrets-v2

Introduction The goal of this guide is to teach you a ton of powerful tricks and methods that will allow you to optimize your content to convert. Whether you want subscribers or buyers, you need to convince them with an offer. After reading this guide, you should be in a better position to do so. For those of you who aren’t familiar with copywriting, I suggest you read my blog article here. It will inform you what copywriting is, why it’s important and how to get better at it. Once you have that knowledge covered, you can continue reading here. I am going to write down the tips as headings and put an explanation beneath the headings. These tips aren’t ordered or structured in anyway, I just wrote them down in whatever way they came across my mind. I have mentioned the extra importance of some in the explanations, so make of that what you will.

Onwards...

Make sure your headline grabs attention David Ogilvy was quoted as saying “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” This should confirm exactly how important headlines are. Headlines are what draws your customer in. They should contain at least 3 of the 4 U’s - be useful, be urgent, be ultra-specific and be unique. Another good way to attract curiosity in your headlines is by using numbers, for example: “7 reasons why… “, or “5 ways you can…” You need to use your headline as an attention grabber, but don’t make it clickbait.

Use clear simple, language Always remember, you’re trying to get your prospect to click on your CTA. Don’t try to impress people with complex words and sentences – it won’t help you sell and may confuse some prospects. Keep your sentences short and your words below 7th grade standard. If you have trouble with this, consider trying out Hemingway Editor. This is a clever little editing tool that shows you where you have placed words that are unnecessary. It also shows you sentences that are too long. On top of that it tells you when a word is too complex. It will also highlight what grade your writing is (again, it should be below 7th). Grammarly is a good alternative.

Make your copy about the reader Write directly to your reader. Avoid using words like “we”, “our”, “their” and other such words. Instead be sure to use “you” and “your” as much as possible. Make the reader feel like you are writing directly to them. Bring them closer. Don’t talk about the product at the beginning. Talk about your reader. Make them see how the product benefits them.

Avoid talking about yourself, other than a brief introduction and a small story of what the product done for you. Other than that, I’m sorry to tell you, your reader doesn’t care. They want to know what’s in it for them.

Make the reader imagine their lives with your solution Transport the reader to a world where your product is the solution to their biggest pain point. Let them imagine how it would impact their lives. A good way to do this is through storytelling. Let’s say we have a product that is targeting someone who suffers from back pain. First, show you understand their pain. Talk about the struggle to get out of bed. Talk about the difficulty of properly showering. Then you can introduce your product as the solution to their problem. Use phrases like “with (name of product here), you will be back (activity your target market enjoys here) in no time! You could write something like “imagine being able to play football with your son again… that’s what (product) done for me! Be sure to show your product is the solution.

Know your target market intimately Build a profile of your average prospect. You should figure out their age/sex/country/likes and dislikes/hobbies/profession/average salary. You may be wondering how to go about this. The best way is to check out your current customers profiles, you should be able to harvest information. Check social media. Check out competitors. You can also use review sites and places like Quora. This will help you massively when trying to write your copy. You’ll know what to talk about, what tone to use etc.

Use power words to target emotions Emotions play a massive part in our purchases. We buy what we want, not what we need. We then try use logic to justify our purchase. When you know what emotions to trigger in your prospect, one way you can do so is by using power words. Power words are words that sell. I found a list of power words that you can check out here. Fear, greed, lust, pride, and guilt are all emotions that are incredibly effective to trigger a response from. Sell to the heart, not the head.

Explain the benefits to your features When writing copy, tell your reader about the benefits, not the features. They aren't interested in the features. They want to know how it helps them. Always look for deeper benefits to your features. The more benefits you give, the more convinced your prospect will be they want your product. Let’s use an example of a copywriting course: The course will teach you how to write to sell (feature), making you more money than ever (benefit 1).This has the power to allow you to quit your job (benefit 2), giving you more time to do what you love (benefit 3). As you can see, I don’t just list the feature. I list the feature along with the main benefit. I then list two deeper benefits that extend from the main benefit. You should aim to do this with as many features as possible.

Make enticing CTA’s Your call to actions should be clear and send out a strong message. They should not be ambiguous. They should stand out. Make it easy for the prospect to find and activate your CTA. For example, “Click the red button below this text to sign up to our newsletter. You will then be taken to a different page where your download will be waiting.”.

This makes it absolutely clear to the prospect on what you want them to do. It also states what will happen when they do. Don’t leave your CTAs open to interpretation. Always be direct and use active language. You should also use urgency in your CTA’s. Phrases like “Act now” or “Hurry” work well. You should also remove the risk, which I will talk about shortly.

Use formulas to construct copy that works There are a couple of commonly used formulas that act as a foundation to build your copy with. One of these formulas is PAS. Problem: Mention the problem. Show an understanding of your prospects problem. Agitate: Talk about all the annoyances this problem brings. Remind your prospect how much they hate it Solution: offer your product/service as the solution they have been waiting for.

Another formula is AIDA. Attention: Grab your prospects attention by making a big claim or statement. Interest: Hook their interest with features and benefits Desire: Make them imagine their life with the benefits your product delivers Action: Tell them what to do

Keep your copy presentable Make your copy easy to read. Don’t use long sentences. Your paragraphs should be 2-3 lines long max. Use double spacing. Make use of headings and sub-headings. Make use of ellipsis and parenthesis. Your copy should be easy on the eye.

Keep your copy conversational Your copy should sound conversational. You don’t want it sounding like a thesis. You want it to sound like how you would sit and talk to your friend about something. You can imagine you are writing to your friend, if it helps. Another way to keep your copy conversational is to say it out loud. Usually, you will pick up on copy that doesn’t sound conversational by doing so.

Make the prospect feel special Make your prospect feel special. Make them feel like they are the only one that this offer is made for. Tell them you’re offering them this because you like them, or because you think they are ready for it. Or because you think they deserve it. You can use emotions here as well by playing on emotions like ego.

Take away the risk from customer Ok, so you have convinced the prospect of your products quality. What is the final thing stopping them hitting that buy button? Risk. “What if it doesn’t work? What if it’s not for me?”

These are the questions likely going through your customers head. You have got to ease their fears. You can do that by offering incentives like a money back guarantee, a warranty and lifetime support.

Offer high value When selling a product or service, it helps to make a package of sorts to make the offer more appealing. If you are selling a digital product, like an ebook, you could offer the book + another book to get clients + a free email template to attract clients. If it’s a physical product, listing things like warranty and free shipping will suffice.

Read and write copy every day This should go without saying, but the only way to get better is to read and write copy every day. Sign up to as many newsletters as possible. Check your inbox for sales letters each day. Go through them and see what sales pitch works. Add them to your swipe file. You can also think how you can improve sales letters and implement the changes. Another place you can read copy is swiped.co and swipefile.com.

Don’t hard sell People like to buy things, but they don’t like being sold to. Approach your prospect from a different angle. Convince them that it was their idea to purchase. You can achieve this by using many of the tricks you have just read, and by the next one you are about to read.

Tell a story Storytelling can be very powerful. Your reader is usually going to be the hero/heroin in the story. You can build up from their situation at the beginning (their problem) and show how they progress (with your product as the solution). You should give your reader hope and display passion throughout. John Caples is known to be a great storyteller. Check out some of his sales letters.

The Big Idea Out of all the stuff I have talked about in this guide, the big idea is the one that will make the biggest difference. If you can consistently come up with a big idea, you are going to be a big success. Even just 1 or 2 successful big ideas can propel your copywriting career or business to the moon. A big idea is essentially getting your message across in a memorable way. It should instantly click with the reader. A big idea can be recognized by asking the following questions, according to legendary Ad man, David Ogilvy: -

Did it make me gasp when I first saw it? Did I wish I had thought of it myself? Is it unique? Does it fit the strategy to perfection? Could it be used for 30 years?

If you can come up with a big idea that the answer is yes to all the above, you may have just struck gold. Please do some more research on the big idea concept. It’s incredibly important if you really want to take your copy to the next level.

Conclusion I think we have covered more than enough for you to go and implement to your content. If you go and apply all of what I have recommended here, you should see a lot more conversions. It will take some time to do it correctly. Just keep practising.

If you are serious about making money online, you need to know how to write content that engages your reader and has them frantically clicking on your CTA’s. Not only that, if you learn how to write copy to a decent level, you can do some freelance work. An extra income stream – great!

Thanks for taking the time to read Killer Copy Secrets and I hope you have taken something from it.

If you have any questions regarding the content in here, feel free to contact me on Twitter or by email at [email protected]. I would really appreciate hearing any positive feedback if you enjoyed it. I also welcome constructive criticism if you feel it was lacking in something. I am always looking to improve. Keep an eye on my Twitter and emails that I send out for future content. I have a lot of exciting content planned for the coming weeks and months.

Take care, guys.

PS If you would like a free copy consultation for your website, sales page or email marketing – hit me up on the contact details above.