On Copywriting

Applying the 80/20 Rule to Copywriting

In case you haven't seen it yet, you might be interested in reading my latest article over at Michel Fortin's blog.

The title of the article is "Copywriting the 80/20 Way." I think it's beneficial concept no matter if you write copy for a living or you write copy for your own products and services.

==> Click here to read Copywriting the 80/20 Way

Be sure to leave a comment.

P.S. I just discovered that Jason Robert linked to my article from Digg. If you liked the article and have a Digg account, would you mind "Digging" it here?

Results Since Getting Rid of TV

It's been five full months since we got rid of our TV last spring.

I love it.

Here are some of the changes I've noticed.

• More peace and quiet. I, for one, do not like living in a noise-addicted society. My home is now a sanctuary.

• More reading time. Without the TV, my wife and I read before bed more often. And we read more in general. So far, I've completed 30 books this year. I'll probably hit close to 40 by the time the year is out.

• Our kids are more creative. Instead of begging for TV, they actually play with blocks, Legos, toy cars, etc. Their imaginations have grown tremendously, and they no longer require our constant attention (or the TV's) to keep them occupied. This is a blessing.

• More enjoyment when we do watch TV. Occasionally, we will see some football at a family member's house. I enjoy it a lot more since we don't have TV at home.

• Lower tolerance for TV. When the TV does happen to be on at a friend or family member's house, we can only stand so much. My biggest pet peeve is when the TV is just running in the background. Anymore, I don't ask for permission. If no one's watching, I just walk over and turn it off.

• More positivity. Ever since quitting the newspaper and television, we don't see all the negative press. Which really helps us to stay positive. As Thoreau pointed out, after you've read a story about a man's untimely death, you know the principle. Do you really need to know about every specific tragedy?

If there is one overarching lifestyle change I recommend more than any other, it's getting rid of your TV. I don't mean putting it behind closed doors or in a low-traffic area. I mean get rid of it. Sell it or give it away.

If you are afraid of how your kids will react, just tell them (and your spouse, if necessary) it's an experiment. You'll do it for a few months then reevaluate. I bet once the experiment has begun you'll never go back to your old way of living.

Which Media Are Best?

A reader writes:

Hi Ryan,

I am always on the search for more information that will help me to develop my career. One thing I noticed on your site was your mention of having a marketing mindset. That struck me.

I ask a lot of questions of copywriters such as how to reach certain people, the usual how to get new clients and such. One of the questions I keep asking, how is the best way to reach prospects, always gets answered in relation to writing the copy. I'm of the frame of mind that the copy is no good if you can't find the right medium to deliver it.

I mean is email or a direct response letter best for prospecting? Is a yellow pages ad better than a newspaper ad? Or do you do better posting flyers on lamp posts? I know some of this sounds silly but, this subject does not seem to be answered anywhere I can find easily.

Do you have any recommendations on which is best? And how to determine the best mediums? Is handwritten better than printed labels?

Any advice would be appreciated. (I am thinking of when I referred A. to you with a brand new product in the development stage, taking something from an idea to the market... do you have suggested guidelines?)

Thanks,

L.

Here is my response:

Great questions.

For a campaign to be successful, you must have the right market, media, and message.

That is how Dan Kennedy describes it.

Sometimes you will see others say the most important elements to the success of a campaign are:

1. List
2. Offer
3. Copy

Notice that "media" is missing here. That's because these three elements are critical no matter if you are using the Internet or direct mail or space ads.

You asked what the best medium is. The answer is to test. It will be different for every market. In general, almost any medium can be made to work, so long as your prospects can be reached by that medium. So, for instance, handbills are out. You cannot easily reach business owners that way. (But maybe handbills would work if you were selling house painting services.)

To discover which media work best, conduct a test. Use direct mail in one case and perhaps an ezine ad in another. Measure the cost per customer. Whichever achieves the lowest cost per customer is probably best.

Question: If one source provided 20 clients at a cost of $20.00 each and another source provided 1 client at a cost of $1.00, which would you choose? The one may be cheaper, but there is little volume.

Then again, must it be a choice? If a medium is producing copywriting clients for you, then you can pay almost anything to get them. That's because copywriting fees are, in general, high. The story would be much different if you were selling something for less than $10.00.

You asked which was better: hand-written or printed labels. Answer: hand-written. Printed labels scream "commercial mail." The way to get a letter opened is to make it look as personal as possible.

If you are bringing a new idea, service, or product to the market, go slow. Conduct small tests to prove profitability. Then take profits and reinvest them so you can grow. The trouble with any new product is you probably won't see any money for a while. So you have to have financial means to invest for a few months without receiving pay.

I never ended up working with A. He didn't have a strong sense of urgency. The time it would take to make his product a success would be months, if not years. (The h_____ buying cycle is about 12-18 months long.) I knew I didn't have that kind of time to invest. Neither does almost anybody else.

In general, you only want to work on projects that you know will work. This almost guarantees your success and makes it more likely you will receive a testimonial for your effort.

Right now I'm involved in a project that pays only if we succeed. It will take at least 3-6 months before I see a nickel. But the payoff could be huge. The trick is to only handle one of these at a time. That way you can still take on projects that pay today instead of tomorrow.

You should be careful not to get into a situation where cash flow has stopped and you can't pay your bills. This happens easier than you might think, especially during a growth phase when you're reinvesting profits.

My two best "media" for getting new clients remain: seminars and referrals. With these two things, almost anybody can succeed as a copywriter.

My Best,

Ryan

P.S. To learn my personal system for getting copywriting clients, please go here.

My Social Security # Is 457-55-5462

[Editor's Note: I do not endorse LifeLock or recommend their service. The lesson below is about the power of proof in copy. The idea came from a LifeLock ad. But my most recent article is critical of the company. Find out why by reading Is LifeLock Selling a Lie?]

It is rare for an ad to really grab me. It comes from over-exposure to advertising I suppose. Anyway, the reason this particular ad got my attention was because the headline said this:

My Social Security # Is 457-55-5462

Naturally, I kept reading...

I'm Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, and this really is my social security number. I give it just to prove how safe your identity can be with LifeLock. All of us, no matter how careful, can become victims of identity theft. In fact, every three seconds another identity is stolen.

The ad continues for a few more paragraphs. But you hardly need to read them. That's because in the space of a headline and one paragraph, I'm basically sold. I'm guessing most other readers who would like to protect against identity theft are already sold, too.

This is the power of proof.

In the case of this product, what greater proof could Todd Davis have offered than to publish his SSN on the top of a publicly distributed advertisement? I can't think of anything.

I scanned the ad in so you can see for yourself what it says.

==> Click here to view the LifeLock ad.

How can you use proof like this to strengthen your advertisements and sales letters?

Inspiration on a Friday

If you'd like to be inspired, read this story at Fast Company.

It's about Ashley Qualls, a 17-year-old girl who has turned her hobby into a $70,000 a month business.

It's not about copywriting.

It's about doing what you love, overcoming adversity, and making it big. Good stuff.

==> Click here to read "Girl Power" at Fast Company.

(Thanks to Warrior Forum for the link.)

What Changed David Ogilvy's Life

David Ogilvy had some excellent advice for copywriters.

Unfortunately, most people overlook it... or outright ignore it... even though Ogilvy said it was responsible for changing his life!

Ogilvy's advice is printed on the font cover of My Life in Advertising & Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. Here it is...

Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book (Scientific Advertising) seven times. It changed the course of my life.

It is interesting how Ogilvy suggests this as a prerequisite to entry in the advertising field. I bet less then one-tenth of one percent has actually followed his advice.

I have personally read Scientific Advertising twice. I am amazed by how much wisdom is packed into this slim volume.

It is rumored that Jay Abraham has read it more than 50 times.

With that in mind, let me share another bit of advice from Ben Settle, one of my mastermind partners and a copywriter I have a great deal of respect for. He writes...

It always amazes me how someone can buy an expensive book or info product and only read it one or two times.

It doesn't make any sense.

Since you're paying $200, $500, $1,000 (or more) for a course on copywriting or marketing or whatever it is you do, doesn't it make sense to read it over and over and over again—milking out every single secret you can?

I like to cover the stuff I buy at least ten times in a row—minimum.

I just pick it up and work through it—highlighting and underlining and making notes along the way—until I've read it ten times.

After that, I try to read it at least once a year.

This is one of the best ways of mastering a subject you will ever see.

This piece of advice is in Part 3 of "Private Details About Ben Settle." You can read the whole thing here.

Here's the takeaway. You don't constantly need new information to succeed. You need only to fully absorb and apply information that has been tested and proven to work.

Instead of getting sucked into yet another irresistible offer, why not do this instead: Look through your personal library of training materials, pick one book or course, and read it a second time.

After you're done, read it again.

Yeah, it's work. But it's where the real breakthroughs happen...

Honesty Sells, Overconfidence Kills

This weekend I was at my parents' house. While thumbing through my Dad's October 2007 copy of Cycle World, I stumbled upon a brilliant example of honesty in salesmanship.

The article is about Erik Buell's new-for-2008 Buell 1125R. It's a sport bike built from the ground up. The article describes Buell's search for a company to build the new engines.

The project is at least three years old and began with the search for an engine-maker. In meetings, Buell would ask each company about its design process. As you'd expect, each was super-confident – one was described as giving the Vulcan salute while intoning, "We are very excellent!”

Then Buell went to Rotax, in Austria. Their engineers said, "We try to improve our design process but we sometimes make mistakes. Then we fix them." Refreshing! Buell felt these were his kind of engineers – people his team could work with.

This real-life example demonstrates how claims of superiority fall flat with prospects. Saying "We're the best" is just a subtle way of proving you don't have a clue. But admitting your flaws... now that's something else.

There is probably no faster way of building trust than admitting your own weaknesses. And there's probably no faster way to kill a sale than to be cocky and overconfident.

How much humility do you include in your marketing mix?

Copy Always Matters

On Tuesday of this week, we listed our home for sale.

We've already had five showings, two of which were yesterday evening, during dinner hours.

My wife had baked chocolate chip cookies that afternoon, so on a whim we put some cookies on a plate for the people who would be seeing our house.

We could have simply put the cookies on a plate, assuming our visitors would know what to do. But we did not do that.

Rather, we put the cookies on a plate, set out some napkins, and left a note next to the plate.

I will tell you what I asked my wife to write in just a moment. But first, let's examine the frame of mind of these "prospects."

I assume that a home buyer who comes to see a house for sale feels a little bit awkward. Almost like they are intruding. They are in a stranger's home.

I also assume that a home buyer will feel uncomfortable taking a free cookie. Without specific instruction, they might wonder if they are permitted to take one.

What's more, if they eat one, they might feel obligated to reciprocate in some way. So they need reassurance that it's okay to take a cookie.

With that in mind, here is what I asked my wife to write...

Baked fresh today. Please take one. Enjoy! :-)

Do you want to know something? Out of the six cookies we left, we discovered that five of them had been eaten while we were gone. I thought that was pretty good considering a maximum of six people came into our house, and maybe as few as four.

Copy always matters... even if you're offering something for free.

3 Ways to Improve Your Selling Skills

Most copywriters are deficient in the sales department. If you're looking for how to improve your selling skills, then perhaps these recommendations will help you gain the knowledge and experience you need.

1. Read Sales Books

One of my favorite books about selling is Frank Bettger's How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. This isn't your vanilla "how to" book. It's a great story that includes practical sales advice from one of the best salesman of the early 20th Century.

Bettger's book reminds me in a lot of ways of Claude Hopkins' My Life in Advertising. Part teaching and part story. It makes for a great read.

Another favorite of mine is Roger Dawson's Secrets of Power Negotiating. I got the audio version from Nightingale-Conant. It's also available in book format.

The last two books I'll mention I have not read yet, but they are on my to-read list because of strong recommendations from Stephen Dean and Ben Settle. Those books are Getting Past No by William Ury and Start with No by Jim Camp. They both have stellar ratings on Amazon right now.

2. Take a Part-Time Sales Job

I've recently watched a few sales presentations in my home. One was for CUTCO Knives, the same company where Zig Ziglar made his name. The other was for Saladmaster. Both presentations were very persuasive. I watched with a critical eye, so I could see what they were doing and why.

Most direct sales companies are always on the lookout for new talent. So if you want to take a part-time sales job in the evenings, you might want to check out these two companies. I'm sure there are more.

Really, there's no better way to get selling experience than to sell face to face. And if you don't have time to do part-time sales, then watching a few sales presentations is the next best thing. (Just guard your wallet!)

3. Generate More Leads

Every lead you get is an opportunity for you to polish your selling skills. So the more leads you get, the more opportunity you'll have to practice.

There are dozens of ways to generate leads. You can use pay-per-click advertising, classified ads, articles published on other web sites (like the one I recently wrote for Michel Fortin), etc.

If you focus your energy on getting more leads, it will be practically impossible for you to not improve your selling skills. Of course, it's even better if you read some books about selling to shortcut your learning curve.

Naturally, there are many more ways to get better at selling. What ideas or recommendations do you have?

P.S. My friend and colleague Ray Edwards has recently begun a daily 5-minute "copycast" on his blog, and I highly recommend you listen to his recent episode, "All the Clients You Can Handle."

Before the Beginning Comes the End

"A new beginning cannot happen unless what precedes it first comes to an end." --Ryan Healy

It seems obvious that a new beginning follows the end of something else. And yet when you contemplate what this really means, you'll find it is more complicated than it appears.

For instance:

• Marriage marks the end of being single
• Self-employment marks the end of having a job
• A new home marks the end of living in the old one

In some cases, you may experience joy at witnessing the end. It is almost always a happy time to leave a job. But in other cases, the end is more painful. Like moving. When you leave a house in which you've created happy memories, it is hard to leave, even if it means going to a nicer home.

It is easy to say, "Keep moving forward." Yet it is difficult not to look back. To become sentimental about certain times in your life.

But here's something else to consider.

Sometimes "endings" are much bigger and more painful. For instance, the pilgrims who came to America had to end their existence in England before they could journey to the new country.

The aftershocks lasted for centuries.

Likewise, if there is ever to be a new "America," we will witness the end of the current world order. What comes may be better than what is, but the death of the old and the birth of the new will not be without its unique pain and turmoil.

Only those who persevere through the end will see the glory of the new beginning.