Copy Checklist

For copywriters – this is a superb copywriting checklist you can consult whenever you need to polish up your copy.

It’s by John Forde of the Copywriter Roundtable’s fame.

http://copywritersroundtable.com/

Enjoy! I’m sure you will find it as useful as I did.

I Package Description:

CARRIER ENVELOPE

[ * ] *Excellent
[ * ] *Good
[ * ] *Needs some improvement, but can be salvaged
[ * ] *Needs to be rewritten
[ * ] *Needs to be redesigned

Is there a strong teaser that effectively does these two things?:

(1) *The copy identifies and qualifies the prospect immediately.

[ * ] Yes
[ * ] No
[ * ] MAYBE

(2) *Gets him inside the envelope?

[ * ] Yes
[ * ] No
[ * ] MAYBE

THE LETTER

[ * ] Excellent
[ * ] Good
[ * ] Needs some improvement, but can be salvaged
[ * ] Needs to be rewritten
[ * ] Needs to be redesigned

Content:

The letter must contain the following in this general sequence–all done
strongly and effectively according to proven direct response methods:

Selling Secrets of Ad Agencies

What if you can learn the secrets of the top ad agencies to create blockbuster ads that pull response like crazy?

If you know their techniques…you can absolutely replicate them and create the same sales success for yourself.

Imagine if you knew the following facts:

FACT! 60% of people read only headlines. Your headline MUST stop them or your advertising will likely fail.

FACT! Captions under photos get 200% greater readership than non-headline copy.

FACT! Ads with sale prices draw 20% more attention and increase depth of readership.

FACT! Half-page ads pull about 70% of full-page ads… quarter-page ads pull about 50% of full-page ads.

FACT! At 12 points and larger, Ariel is the easiest to read font. Under 12 point, use Verdana.

FACT! 4-color ads are up to 45% more effective than black and white.
Could you use these insider secrets to your advantage?
You bet you can!

And you can them more from a phenomenal book by Eric Drew Whitmen’s Cashvertising.

Here’s the link:
http://www.cashvertising.com/

If you do anything related to advertising – online or off – this will be your secret weapon. Just think about it.

Persuasion – Mind Motivators – Part 1

When it comes to selling, you have to understand that people buy largely on emotion. Not logic.

For them to part with their hard-earned money, you have to first discover their innate wants and desires. We call these “mind motivators”. Once you get their sweet spot, keep pressing these emotional hot buttons.

As you slowly begin to understand what gets the buyer’s pulse racing, you can easily incorporate them in your sales presentation and sales copy.

Use it in your sales copy for PPC ad…landing page copy…banner…whatever!

Here are a few mind motivators for starters:

• Buyers want to avoid pain
• Buyers want to gain pleasure
• Buyers want to save time
• Buyers want to have an easier life
• Buyers want to feel safe and secure
• Buyers want to have a peace of mind
• Buyers love to receive compliments
• Buyers like to invest in future
• Buyers also love short term, instant gratification
• Buyers like experience happiness
• Buyers are fearful of being disadvantaged
• Buyers love to dream the dream

Small Change Big Impact Part 3

Here’s another example of how a little tweak can effect a huge change.

In this case, we are going to talk about the power of consensus.
Or the power of the crowd.

How does this fit into the “small change big impact” theme? Let me explain…

There’s this product where buyers can call in to buy.

The product was advertised as an infomercial.
And the call-to-action line was “Call now and our operators will be there to serve you”.

Well…the response was okay, but not fantastic.

So the call-to-action line was re-written and tested.

It now read, “Operators are busy. Please call back again later if the line is engaged”.

Straight away, orders went through the roof!

Why was there such a big impact when the change to the call-to-action script is so small?

Because of the power of consensus!

In the first case, you get the mental picture that operators are free, and are probably twiddling their thumbs waiting for calls to come in.

Small Change Big Impact Part 2

In the previous post (part 1), we talk about using the principle of consistency technique that helped a restaurant reduce their cancellation of table reservations by 30%.

This was achieved just by adding 2 “small words” to the call script used by the phone receptionist.

Today, we are going to explore another “Small Change Big Impact” scenario.

I got this from a newsletter issue from John Forde’s Copywriting Roundtable. I thought it’s pretty relevant to today’s theme.

And I think you will like this. It goes like this:

In Italy, and for many countries for that matter (including Singapore where I am based), you get penalized with points if you commit a traffic offence.

Once you accumulated points to a certain level, your driving license get suspended.

Now Italy is well well-known for bad driving on the road. And while this measure probably work to a certain degree, the authorities decided to do a small tweak to the system.

They Flipped It Around!

That means you start of with points on your record. With every violation, you get points taken off. If you hit zero, you are IN LUCK! Say goodbye to your license!

Small Change Big Impact Part 1

Do you know that you can have significant increase in revenue just by making seemingly “small changes” to your business?

Most people tend to think that if you want big results…you need big change! You need to spend big money! But that’s not entirely true!

If you know how to make the RIGHT change, you can still achieve great results even if it may just be a small tweak.

Let me tell you a story illustrating this concept.

I read about this story in one of Robert Cialdini’s presentation about how to be more persuasive.

Robert Cialdini is a world-renowned authority in the study of influence. He is also the best-selling author of “The Psychology of Influence”.

And it goes like this.

There is a restaurant that takes advanced booking by phone. But there was a problem. There were many customers calling in to cancel at the last minute.

The thing is that the receptionist was trained to say “Thank you for calling our restaurant. Please call if you want to cancel your reservation” to all the customers making their booking.