Copywriting Tips

Basic Skills

Above all else, mastering basic writing skills is important. No matter how persuasive you
are verbally, if you cannot put those words into clear, thoughtful, grammatically correct
writing, your arguments may prove more off-putting than enticing.
And this is precisely why I recommend developing your basic writing skills before you try
to delve deep into copywriting and other forms of sales writing.

How to Improve Your Writing Skills

Good Grammar is the Minimum

When it comes to copywriting, no one is going to be impressed by your good

grammar. In fact, no one will notice your grammar at all unless it is bad. And this
is precisely why it is important to think about good grammar being the starting
point for any sales letter—not a lofty goal to achieve.

Style Trumps Grammar

Going from good grammar to perfect won’t be enough to change your

conversion rate from 1% to 2%. Nor will a grammatically flawless headline keep
people reading your sales letter with increasing attention. In fact, when it comes to
improving your conversion rates, style — not grammar — is most important. When your
style is weak, clunky, or disorganized, your readers will stop paying attention and will
eventually leave.
What many don’t understand is that style improvements don’t occur magically.
Style also isn’t a “talent” that you either have or don’t. Rather, you can improve your style,
just as you can improve your grammar.

10 rules for good copy:

1. Avoid using clichés. Clichés are tiresome and create the impression of uninspired,
uncreative writing, so avoid using them where possible.
2. List major points. Instead of spreading information throughout the body of a document,
summarize important points in a central location using bullet points.
3. Give the reader directions. Rather than simply leaving your reader to figure out what’s
going on, give her hints about where she’s been, where she is, and where she’s going.
4. Write in the active voice. Consider the following two statements: a) “John created the
website”; and b) “The website was created by John.” The first statement is in the active
voice, which is what you should try to adopt in all of your writing.
5. Get rid of unnecessary qualifiers. Most style experts claim that words like “really” and
“very” don’t add anything to writing, but often take away from it. Try to avoid using
them where possible.
6. After the first draft, always try to reduce the size of the piece of writing.
7. Keep sentences short and clear. Long, complicated sentences with confusing
constructions will do little other than baffle your readers.
8. Avoid turning verbs into nouns. For instance, instead of saying “I had to make a
decision,” say “I had to decide.”
9. Maintain a single voice. If you don’t maintain a single, coherent style throughout the
piece of writing, it will be difficult for a reader to envision you as a person. When it comes
to sales writing, it is critical that they can do this.
10. Organize your writing. Organize the paper, including its sections, subsections, and
paragraphs. A clear and organized purpose will make it easier for the reader to pay
attention to your writing.

Writing for Your Target Audience

One of the most important parts of good writing is knowing and speaking to your
audience. Many novice Internet marketers who attempt to write copy do not
consider this at all. Rather, they simply craft a generic sales letter that sounds
generally persuasive, but do not consider who will be reading it.

Step #1: Research Your Audience

In addition to conducting surveys of your existing clientele, you should also visit forums
in your niche.
Once you locate a number of promising forums, you should begin reading through the
user-generated content to find out what people think about products in your niche.
Try to learn how they feel and think about the products; and try hard to put yourself in
their place.
As you go, take notes about your potential buyers. For instance, jot down things about
their personality traits, their goals, their ideas; and their reasons for wanting your product.
Is there some particular feature or benefit that comes up frequently?

Step #2: Write for Your Audience

 It’s one thing to understand who your audience is; and it’s an entirely different thing to
write for them. It’s different because it requires careful thought, attentive writing, and a
well-crafted, organized plan.
A good place to start is with the notes you took. Focus specifically on the image of a
single individual who fits the “typical” buyer in your niche. Think about his or her
interests. And fix yourself on his or her reasons for wanting your product.

How to Sell Through Writing

If, for instance, your sales letter reads like a long, well-reasoned argument that weighs
the pros-and-cons of purchasing your product, then it isn’t good sales material.Rather, a
good sales letter is not impartial or unbiased. It is forceful, direct, and compelling. It grabs
the reader immediately; and forces them to work through an argument in favor of your
product.
In short, a good sales letter is not just a good piece of writing. It is a powerfully-persuasive
piece of writing that takes no prisoners; and focuses narrowly on enticing, alluring, and
then closing sales.

In particular, there are 10 qualities you should change about your writing when trying to
sell or persuade:

1. Be direct. Tell your reader exactly what you’re selling, exactly what it costs, and exactly
why they must buy it.
2. Use short sentences and short paragraphs. When people browsing sites, they don’t
want to run into gigantic walls of text. They want something that is light and readable. And
this is exactly how your sales letters should be.
3. Get rid of jargon. Again, when it comes to sales, showing off your vocabulary is not
particularly effective. Few people will be turned off if you don’t use large words, but many
will find it off-putting if you do.
4. Make persuasion your ultimate goal. Instead of writing to fill a page, think about using
each word as part of a master plan to persuade your reader. Think about how he will
respond to each word, sentence, and paragraph; a craft it with him in mind.
5. Don’t try to keep the writing “even” throughout the sales letter. Instead, focus on different
things in different parts. In the beginning, try to grab the reader’s attention. In the
middle, show the benefits of your product. And towards the end, put a lot of
pressure on the reader to buy—and to buy NOW.
6. Use lists frequently. If you read the blogs and writings of successful copywriters, you’ll
notice that most swear by the power of bullet points. The reason for this is simple: bullet
points convey a great deal of information in a format that is scannable and
enjoyable to read.
7. Bold, italicize, and highlight. In an essay, it would be considered tacky. In a sales letter, it
is an absolute must. Bolding, italicizing, and highlighting allows you to tell readers
what they should scan; and, alternatively, what is not terribly important.
8. Use subheadings. Subheadings allow you to divide up your sales letter into several
pieces. This will ensure that your readers are able to follow the flow; and to scan for
important information, too.
9. Make shocking, controversial statements—and then back them up. Make a big, true
claim about your product and then demonstrate how it is true.
10. Avoid introspection. When it comes to sales, your goal should always be to think about
and target the reader, so try to stay out of your own head; and focused on what the
reader is thinking.

Powerful Tricks for Boosting Conversion Rates

When it comes to copywriting, your primary objective should be to convert readers into
buyers. If your conversion rate is 1%, then you should aim for 2%. And, if it’s 2%, then
you should aim for 3%.
Down below are some of the methods you can use to crank up your conversion rates;
and generally squeeze more money out of each sales letter.

How to Use Bullet Points Correctly

Bullet points and ordered lists provide your readers with a simple means to capture a lot
of information without having to wade through dense writing. For instance, they can drink
up an entire list of benefits; or they can skim a list of ways in which their businesses may
be transformed if they begin using your new technique.

1. Keep bullets points short. If your bullet points are actually paragraphs, you’re doing
something wrong. The goal should be to summarize important benefits and features
of your product.
2. Alternate between bold and unbold bullet points. Great copywriters, such as the late
Gary Halbert, often used this technique; and claimed that it made it easier for readers
to digest each bullet point.
3. If you have several large, dense paragraphs that contain many thoughts, break them up
into smaller blocks of bullet points. This will improve readability and the flow of your
sales letter in general.

How to Use Sub-Headings

 New copywriters believe that all a good piece of copy requires is a strong headline, a
compelling introduction, and a powerful call to action. In reality, this couldn’t be more
incorrect.
So why are sub-headings important? The short answer is that they allow readers to
skim your sales letter for important points. If your sales letter consists of one -
paragraph after another with no well-defined structure, the only people who get through
it are those who have a stomach for lengthy prose—and who have a very strong interest
in your product or service.
In short, making it easier for people to skim your sales letter, retain information, and
use that information to make a buying decision is vital.

When it comes to using sub-headings, this are the best tips to follow in the copy:

1. Use a large, bold font that is smaller than your headline, but much larger than the body
text.
2. State the most important benefit of the upcoming section in a sub-heading.
3. Think of the sub-headings as a road map for your readers. With this in mind, try to
convey the most important information about what’s coming up without using too many
words.
4. Put the most shocking and most powerful sub-headings first (along with the
appropriate sections) and the less powerful bullet points later.
5. Try to fill your sub-headings with psychological triggers. Words like shocking,
scientifically proven, powerful, explosive, secret, hidden, free and limited will generate
responses from your readers.
6. Keep sub-headings short. The goal is to make it easy—not time consuming—for
readers to skim through your sales letter; and to make the decision to buy.

How to Correctly Use Bolding and Highlighting

When you are writing a sales letter, it is both common and useful to do this. If you ask
most copywriters about this, their reasoning behind it is simple: if you bold or highlight
something, skimmers will see it.
Just as you created sub-headings to give skimmers a road map for getting through your
sales letter, you should also bold, italicize, and highlight to give them additional
information about your product.

Most important things to keep in mind when marking up your sales letter:

1. Don’t mark up your sales letter until you have finished writing it. You should then re-read
it at least once; and, along the way, figure out what items are most important.
2. In order to create a stronger effect, try to bold or highlight words at the end of sentences.
3. Once you have done your initial mark-ups, read through the sales letter by reading only
the sub-headings and the marked-up text. If you feel like this provides you with a sufficient
amount of information to make a buying decision, then you probably did a good job.

Closing a Sale

Closing a sale is not the only thing that is important. In fact, many visitors will read your
sales page, leave without buying, and then come back another day to buy. So, in fact,
planting the seed of curiosity can sometimes be just as important as directly closing the
sale on the first try.
So how can you ratchet up the pressure and close sales? In this section we’ll go
over two strategies.

Retaining Reader Interest

When it comes to closing sales, few things are more important than retaining the readers’
interest. If your readers become bored early on by a lackluster sales letter, there’s almost
nothing you can do to jolt them back to life. Instead, they will probably leave before they
read even a quarter of your pitch.
So how can you retain readers’ interest and encourage them to come back?

1. Cover the benefits and features of your product in order of importance. Start with the
most important benefit of your product. And as the sales letter goes on, continue to
list the less and less important features.
Indeed, you may have seen this approach elsewhere. This style of writing is used in
newspapers very frequently. The idea is to focus on retaining a person’s interest for as
long as is possible.
With newspapers, you can start by reading the first few paragraphs. If the story looks
good, you may continue on until the end of it. If you get sick of it early, you at least got
the most important pieces of information before moving on.
This works well with newspapers; and it works well with sales copy, too. It allows the
people who are most motivated to buy to stop reading early and buy; and it allows those
who are hardest to persuade to continue on until

2. “Edit down” your sales letter. Virtually without exception, sales letters are too wordy
and contain too many filler sentences. Unfortunately for sellers, having a lot of filler
usually does nothing to further your pitch.
 So, once you have finished constructing your sales letter, read through it a second time.
Wherever possible, make an attempt to squeeze out any filler material, so that your
sales letter becomes increasingly potent with each revision.

3. Use bonuses to keep readers interested. After you have finished detailing all of the great
benefits of your product, start throwing in bonuses as you work your way to the final
pitch.

4. “Introduce” your product at the end of the pitch. Instead of opening your sales letter with
the name and purpose of your product, open your sales letter with a problem that the
reader has. As you go, suggest how that problem could be overcome by subtly alluding
to strategies and methods detailed in your product.
Finally, once you build a strong case for the category of product in which your product
falls, introduce your product as the solution for all of the aforementioned problems.

Using Calls to Action Correctly

Another important part of closing the sale is using a powerful call to action.
Unfortunately for many Internet marketers, their calls to action simply don’t get the job
done. Whether they are too weak or too spread out, they never build up the oomph
required to push readers to become buyers.

Three steps to write a call to action:

Step #1: Tell The Reader Exactly What To Do

Whatever it is that you want them to do, make sure you clarify that goal for yourself. Once
you have done that, make sure that you put it into your sales letter repeatedly and clearly.
Tell readers exactly what to do and exactly when to do it.
Usually, with a sales letter, this part is easy. You simply want the reader to stop reading
and buy; and this is exactly what you have to tell them to do.

Step #2: Surround the Call to Action with Supporting Text

Simply calling people to action isn’t enough. If your call to action isn’t surrounded by
relevant and encouraging text, the call to action may fall flat. It may either seem out
of place or too dramatic.
In either case, the antidote for this problem is a strong build-up. In the strong build-up,
you should focus exclusively on moving towards a pitch.
By the time you get to the call to action, they should be ready to buy. And after you
deliver it, all that is left to do is provide additional support. For those still reading (who
haven’t bought), push them to reconsider.

Step #3: Make it Easy to Follow Your Call to Action

With that said, do yourself a favor: make your call to action simple to follow. For
instance, if you repeatedly tell people to “buy now”, follow those calls to action with a
link that allows them to buy immediately. Don’t simply put one buy now button at the
bottom of the page and none elsewhere.

Conclusion

For a good sale copy you need to check the following:

● Research your audience
○ Focus on what the reader is thinking.
○ Write for Your Audience using the same voice
● Improve your grammar
● Be direct
● Keep sentences short and clear.
● Use a roadmap made of subtitles
○ most shocking and most powerful sub-headings first
● Use bullet points
○ Bolding, italicizing, and highlighting allows you to tell readers what they
should scan
● Make a big, true claim about your product and then demonstrate how it is true.
○ Start with the most important benefit of your product
● Shorten your letter
● Throw in bonuses as you work your way to the final pitch.
● Call to action