World Copywriting Blog

Profitable Lessons from a Software Giant That Will Get You A Much Better Response For Your Copy

Last week I was part of what I would call a Reverse Focus Group.  By that I mean: Instead of  a small number of people studying a large number of people and their reaction to a product, three people in the proverbial white coats were all studying ME.

For four hours.

The people were from a large West Coast Software Publisher.  That's all I'll say about them and their product because I am legally bound by a contract not to disclose what I learned about them or their product.

But that's not why I'm writing you, anyway.

Their product and my opinion of it are of little direct interest to people who write copy, anyway.

But what they hired me for is of great interest, and that's what I want to talk about to you today.

In the Reverse Focus Group, the people in the white coats asked me what I thought of this feature.  That feature.  The other feature.  They asked me to perform such-and-such a task.  They did not answer my questions.  They just watched. They gave me no hints at all, in fact.  They took meticulous notes.  The whole thing was impressively thorough.

And spookily detached.  Lab-like.

They weren't looking for compliments.  Or criticisms, for that matter.  They wanted to record in as much detail as possible my off-the-cuff  reactions to their requests for my peforming an action... and my reactions to their product.

And the reason I'm writing to you is: you should do the same thing with your copy.

How often have you had someone sit down at a computer screen, and asked them to tell you what they understand and what they don't understand about your headline?

Your offer?

Your description of your product?

Very few people do it.  When you do, you learn some amazing things:

• How many different ways people can interpret a word, phrase or sentence whose meaning was PERFECTLY obvious to you
• How confusing your "spiffy" Web design actually is
• How difficult (or sometimes impossible) it is to actually order from you, using your order process

... and that's just for starters.

Getting someone else to take this kind of objective, interactive look at what you have written is immensely valuable to you.

Oh, it might be a little hard on the ego. 

But until you learn how people actually react to you Web sites (or sales letters, or postcards, or radio ads, or TV ads, or whatever medium you write copy for), it's going to be a lot harder on your bottom line.

So take a tip from the giants of software publishing.  Do a "usability study" on your copy.

You don't have to send me a piece of the increased profits after you do.  But a success story would be nice. :)

*  *  *

Hey, there was one other thing I wanted to tell you about, on Friday, but I had that Really Special Experience - my computer crashed.  I lost an entire hard drive.  Wear and tear.  It happens.  Inevitably.  To every hard drive if you use it enough.

Now, I've been this way before and fortunately I had a backup system in place.

Well, almost.  I saved everything except my Outlook files, (hint: NO, THE USABILITY STUDY WAS NOT FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK!) so I'm missing some email addresses, phone numbers, and most important, my calendar.  So, if we have an appointment in the next few weeks, please send me a note so I can put it back in!  (I've actually got most of these handled, but, just in case... thanks.)

Anyway... a word to the wise.  Back up.  And now, here's my new additional piece of advice: Everything.  At least, everything you'll need when the inevitable occurs.

Ahem.

And here's what I wanted to tell you on Friday:

My friend Mitch Meyerson talked Mark Victor Hansen, Jay Conrad Levinson, Robert Allen and a number of other writers, including Yours Truly, each to contribute a chapter to a terrific, brand-new book, "Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars."  I threw in a 20-page (manuscript pages) chapter on headlines with material I have never released before.

Mitch is doing a promotion with a bunch of bonuses you really ought to check out.  It's a great promotion to see - worth studying if for no other reason. 

But I'd get the book if I were you.  It has already hit #1 on a couple of Amazon lists, so there must be something to what he's doing, right?

And, the 34 bonuses are a great deal!

Check it out:

http://www.onlinemarketingsuperstars.com/DavidSpecialDiscount.htm

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

The S-A-M Strategy for Increasing Online Response

from the forthcoming book Online Profits at the Speed of Light

One of the biggest misconceptions I have observed among online marketers is the belief that the Internet exists as a world unto itself. This is heightened by the fact that many people in the “real world” have never heard of us or our business.

For example, a friend of mine was consulting with a television news editor from New York who had met him at an Internet Marketing Conference in Chicago. The editor had previously believed that, being in the news business and being in New York, she was at the heart of all there is and she knew everything that was going on.

Yet she hired my friend because she knew nothing about Internet marketing and saw a great opportunity for herself in this space.

I bring up this example because we all live in the same world - the differences between us often boil down to what we're aware of. And to expect that the only opportunity to increase online response is limited to what you can do online is missing the boat… or more than one boat, at the very least.

Where The Outreach Opportunities Lie

I've used my S-A-M strategy successfully even before the Internet existed. See, I've never seen myself as an Internet Marketer - rather, I see myself as a marketer with some special expertise in using the Internet.

The “S” in my strategy stands for “Speaking.” Specifically, at seminars, conferences, meetings or other large gatherings of people interested (or likely to be interested) in my business, which is teaching others how to write advertising sales copy that pulls in big results.

Being a speaker in front of the room adds credibility. After all, if you're the one talking and everyone else is listening, that says something about you, doesn't it?

But I've found speaking to be valuable on a more tangible, direct way as well. In March of 2004 I spoke at Armand Morin's Big Seminar in Orlando. Not only did I make a lot of sales of a new product and develop a lot of new business relationships, but I have enjoyed a “halo effect” in many other ways.

Afterwards at other seminars, people mention me from the stage. I'm listed on Web sites of past speakers at the Big Seminar. Armand has even developed a living narrative history of his own event, and at the opening of his 2005 Big Seminar in Atlanta, he showed video clips of all past speakers. I didn't know about this, and I was a little shocked to see myself up on the Imax screen from my seat in the audience.

Now, if I wanted to massively increase my online response, the first thing I would do is get as many opportunities to speak at seminars as I can. The multiple effect would be exponential. I've seen this happen for myself and other people - the more you appear at targeted events offline, especially in a concentrated period of time, the more newsletter signups, mentions on other sites, and sales of your own products you enjoy online.

As a side note, I've found that public seminars offer a unique opportunity to meet people and learn things that would otherwise be unavailable to you. The networking opportunities are fantastic, and being surrounded by people of the same mindset is a refreshing change from the confused head-scratching and the clueless questions you so often get from other people after you tell them what you do.

The Second Strategy Does Involve Online Promotion

Type my name into Google and you'll see something like 184,000 listings. Believe it or not - and I don't expect you to believe it - I didn't plan for this to happen. Yes, I did make an effort to get well known on the Internet. But I have friends who are far more famous, who have sold more books, who have higher net worths, more active love lives, whatever measure you want to use, who have far fewer Google listings.

The one thing I did do that others have not done is I wrote articles early - as early as April, 2000, when I launched my first online product, Killer Copy Tactics - and syndicated them to as many affiliates as possible. Many thanks to Mark Joyner and his team at the former aesop.com for their help with this.

Recently I discovered blogging, and that may have as much as doubled my Google tally to where it is today. I write complete articles in my blog and encourage people to reprint them on their sites, in full, with attribution.

So the second part of my “S-A-M” strategy is “Articles.” I would ramp up the number of articles I'm writing, and distribute them as widely as possible - with links back to a sales site, of course.

Marshall McLuhan Was Right - The Medium Is The Message

These days, of course, McLuhan would have said “The Media is the Message,” but he lived in those puritanical days before people intermixed singulars and plurals with nary a thought.

As you have probably guessed, the “M” in my “S-A-M” strategy stands for “Media.” Less than an hour ago I got off the phone with a friend of mine in Washington, DC who owns a radio station and consults to other stations on programming and business development. We were talking about getting a mutual client of ours on talk radio.

I would do the same thing myself. Radio and print PR are a powerful way to increase online sales. I have a friend who is very successful online who right now is planning a massive print advertising campaign. If you know how to do direct response advertising and you can roll out a tested ad to a larger and larger audience, you can get huge increases in sales on your site.

Teleseminars are a form of media. Though the numbers are smaller than, say, radio listeners, the level of interest of each person on the call is much higher. It's possible to make four and five figures in sales in an hour or two when all the stars and planets are aligned. So I would consider using teleseminars as well.

In Summary: The S-A-M Strategy In Action Will my strategy work for everyone? Will it work for you?

Yes… and no.

It will never work for everyone exactly the way it works for me. You have to pick, choose and modify. Analyze what your strengths and opportunities are… and move accordingly.

But the right combination and application of speaking, articles and media can help you get a much greater response… and if you play it right, it won't cost you much money at all.

For more information about Online Profits at the Speed of Light, go to
http://www.world-copywriting-institute.com/dm

What Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Joe Sugarman, David Deutsch and other leading lights have to say about copywriting

Have you ever wondered what the copywriters who command huge fees -- and bring in massive paydays for their clients -- have to say about what it is they really do?

Recently I came across some material I'd like to share with you.

My friend John Carlton, one of the most successful and in-demand copywriters in the world, said:

"Good writers go into a trance-like state while writing -- that's why committees never write good stuff."

John went on to admit, "It's a one-person operation, just you and the material and that blank page. Get riled up, circle the desk, and allow some passion and adrenaline to well up.

"Get in touch with your ancient hunter instincts, and feast on each project with professional zeal, not phony 'oooh, I'm writing' pleasure. When you're a pro, you write even when you're sick, or bored, or fed up.

Pro's thrive as copywriters, because you're totally in charge."

Whoa.

Pretty primal stuff.

In the same publication, I saw a very no-holds barred interview with my mentor Dan Kennedy. A small-group seminar I attended with Dan 10 years ago pretty much changed the course of my life.

In his characteristically blunt way, Dan said: "At the risk of offending, I think the person who needs to be inspired or in the mood and/or is intimidated by deadlines and unable to write to beat the clock is ill-equipped for a high income from copywriting, and might be better served doing something else."

Then, he reconsidered his position: "To be fair, I know copywriters who are quite good, who need days or weeks to finally get in the mood and write in a fit of passion, but most of these barely make a living even though immensely talented."

As for Dan himself?

"I do nothing whatsoever to get 'psyched up' other than go to my writing place, put the project in front of me, put fingers on keyboard and write. I always write against firm deadlines. "

I found these gems in a new package of ebooks and audio's called "Masters of Copywriting," put together by Canadian copywriter and copywriting historian Daniel Levis.

If you'd like to take a look at his package (it's very modestly priced for what you get, including a personal copy critique from Daniel), go to

http://www.world-copywriting-institute.com/masters

Besides Carlton and Kennedy, Daniel also interviewed other great copywriters, including Joe Sugarman, Joe Vitale and David Deutsch. (In case you're wondering, yes, he did ask to interview me, but I simply didn't have the time to do answer his questions when he was preparing this package.)

I asked Daniel what he found most surprising in what he learned.

"That would have to be the strong link between personal selling and copywriting, " he said.

"I can tell you from my own years of experience in direct selling that there are always prevalent appeals that work far more often than others," he continued.

"And there are always a handful of common objections that need to be overcome for a given product. The successful salesperson always has 'practiced' responses to them. The way those appeals are presented, and the way those objections are handled in a live selling situation are imminently transferable to the printed word."

Of course, most top copywriters would agree with Daniel's point. In fact, in the Masters of Copywriting ebook, Dan Kennedy made this radical suggestion:

"If somebody is starting from scratch, or close to it, and sincerely wants to become a top-flight direct response copywriter, they will first take six months off, go get a job selling fire alarms or vacuum cleaners or pool filters or cookware via in-home appointments and get good at that."

I don't know about you, but I've done that. I sold pots and pans door-to-door.

And my friend Armand Morin used to sell vacuum cleaners that way.

So it's not such a horrible idea. (OK -- it wasn't that much fun, either!)

I also asked Daniel, "What's the one thing you heard about most often that the pro's do consistently, that beginners don't do, when they're writing copy?"

His answer: "The pro's trust and actively direct their subconscious. They fill their minds full of raw material, and then deliberately command their subconscious minds to do the writing for them in an almost automatic mode.

"This explains their creativity advantage, it explains their ability to learn more quickly, and it explains their heightened sense of judgment when it comes to intuitively understanding what works and what doesn't."

Personally, I love to study other successful people and learn their innermost secrets. Daniel proves he's better than Dr. Phil, Oprah and Jerry Springer combined in getting a number of top copywriters to "let it all hang out."

Check out his package. I think you'll find it interesting:

http://www.world-copywriting-institute.com/masters

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter