Author Archive
7 Steps You MUST Take Before Writing a Word of Copy
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the biggest misconceptions new clients have when they come to me is that I can whip out a sales letter in a few days. Wrong, wrong and wrong. A lot of preparation goes into writing copy. I spend on average 50% – 70% of my time PREPARING to write copy. If you don’t [...]
5 Ways to Avoid Hype in Your Copy
Posted by: | CommentsCopy is salesmanship in print, but does it have to be that of a greasy used-car salesman? The answer is, “No!” Follow these 5 tips and watch your prospects’ trust level rise. 1. Make it believable. Face it – we are just smarter nowadays than we were several decades ago. In fact, we’re jaded. We’ve [...]
5 Hot Spots to Tweak for Higher Conversion Rates
Posted by: | CommentsAll successful marketers know the sale comes from the words or the copy. While the traditional definition of copy is “salesmanship in print” I actually take a broader approach. Copy is used in ALL your promotional sales and marketing material. That means any place there are words about your business there is copy. So it’s [...]
Copywriters: 5 Critical Mistakes You May Be Making in Your Consulting Business
Posted by: | CommentsThink you have what it takes to be an consultant or a coach? I wasn’t so sure I knew when I first started in 1999. All I knew was I desperately wanted to work from home to raise my two sons after my divorce. It took a lot of trial and error to get to [...]
3 Tragic Mistakes of Green Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsWhen I say “green” I am talking about the environmentally-conscious consumer, also called “Cultural Creatives” or the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) market which includes about 50 million people. If you are trying to reach them, ya gotta go green. They are all about a better lifestyle for the planet over the long haul. [...]
Copywriting Tips: 3 Speedy Headline Templates for the Super Busy
Posted by: | CommentsHeadlines are arguably the most important component to eye-catching copy. If you don’t have a compelling headline, odds are you’ve lost your prospect for good. Ideally you should write anywhere from 50 to 100 headlines before choosing one. But sometimes you just don’t have time. I have the solution. Swipe these 3 templates, fill in [...]
Your Elevator Speech in 5 Simple Steps
Posted by: | CommentsLast week I had a meeting with a very well-known motivational speaker. I had met him before at a seminar and interviewed him over the phone for a book, so I felt somewhat comfortable. While on the phone interview, I told him I wanted to write for him. He was surprisingly very open to it. [...]
Wisdom from the John Carlton Event
Posted by: | CommentsCan you imagine an event by John Carlton being bad? Me neither. And true to form John’s Big Damn Hot Seat Seminar was eye-opening. But it was a little different than most copywriting seminars. In fact, we only spent a marginal amount of time on actually critiquing copy. No, this event was about looking at [...]
What the Font?!
Posted by: | CommentsSerif versus sans serif There are two basic types of font faces -serif versus sans serif. But which is better? In fact, which is which? Let’s start there. Serif is the kind with finishing curly cues or finishing strokes on the ends like Times New Roman. Sans serif is the straight lined counterparts, like Arial. [...]
What the BLOG?
Posted by: | CommentsBlogs Are the NEW Secret Weapon for Reaching Your Tarket (target market). Just like you, I hate being marketed to. Every day we’re bombarded with over 3,500 marketing messages. And frankly I’m sick of it! But blogs are different. Blogs are a two-way conversation between blogger and bloggee (plus all the readers in between). Through [...]
