Ideas on how to Write Good Copy...

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smaxor

smaxor

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Being in this business for a quite a long time now I see sooooooo many offers and landing pages and it's really amazing some of the the small changes that can be made to really improve your bottom line.

For most of us there's a few different points we can increase our click thru's and conversions. CTR on our ads and CTR on our landers. Both of these really return to copy writing. As a network owner a lot of people show me their landers and the things I see again and again is poor placement of selling peices and poorly written copy.

How much of a difference can copy make?

We had a Business Opportunity lander and when we first rolled it out we were at a 50% loss on the traffic source we were starting with. After making some tweaks to the copy and placement of pictures and text on the page we were able to bring it to a 200% ROI.

With that said I think it's worth starting a thread where some of us can share little ideas we've picked up that have helped you write better copy.


One of the things I live buy. As we all know people buy based on emotion and then the justify with fact.

Stop, and think about that for a second.

Things we "want", we want because of some emotional reason most of the time. Then we back that emotional feeling with some fact.

Right now think about something you want in your head.

What is that thing going to give you? How does it make you feel when you think about it?
If you were standing in front of it and it was a little out of your price range what would you start doing?
Are you backing your decsion with some facts?
Well I need it because blah or blah?

We buy based on emotion and back up the decision with facts. That's just human nature. So lets play with some copy.

"Lose weight with our age old Brazilian weight loss cure. Our acai berry weight loss product has been used in Brazil for well over 100 years. It's 100% natural and is also a superfood that will help you live longer as well."

I see a lot of copy like this around. So you see any emotional pull? Facts usually don't sell well they just backup the emotional sale. Here's a few titles that draw in the emotional pull.

Want to feel like a supermodel?

Lose 24 Pounds before Summer.

Want to look HOT in your Bikini?

Can you feel these pulling you into the copy? I bet you can much more so then then previous blurb of text. Really these are Headers though. In copy there's 3 section of text.

1. Header
2. Sub-Header
3. Body

Your goal with your header is to GRAB your audience and pull them in emotionaly to inspire them to read your sub-header. Then the sub-header should still be selling emotionally but have a little fact in it to pull you into the body for more information.

H-Want to look hot in your Bikini?
SH-It's easy to do by summer time. You can melt off 24 pounds by summer using our Brazilian miracle acai berry.

B-Lose weight with our age old Brazilian weight loss cure. Our acai berry weight loss product has been used in Brazil for well over 100 years. It's 100% natural and is also a superfood that will help you live longer as well.


This is a super brief starter lesson in copy writing but I should give you a basic framework in how to layout your landers.

I'll add some more posts moving forward.

What other pointers do you guys have that help you write copy and what rules do you like to live by?
 
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hello thanks for info ,could you point me in the right direction of a good copywriter i have a sales page i want re-wrote.

thanks
 
For those of you that don't know I used to be a speaker for Tony Robbins. One things he spoke about really ties into copy writing well.

It's that all human's have 6 basic human needs. These are like core needs and everyone has dominate ones. Here's the list taken from someones site.

Tony Robbins has identified six basic human needs and believes everyone is—or can be—motivated by their desire to fulfill these needs.
You may want to consider these needs when thinking about developing and delivering products and services to people. The question to ask is, "What need or needs does my product fulfill for my customer?"
1. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is no ABSOLUTE certainty, but we want certainty the car will start, the water will flow from the tap when we turn it on and the currency we use will hold its value.
2. Variety. At the same time we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough UNcertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.
3. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. I can imagine no worse a death than to think my life didn't matter.
4. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for love. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about.
5. Growth. There could be some people who say they don't want to grow, but I think they're simply fearful of doing so—or perhaps NOT doing so. To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it's there.
6. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value—to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us.
Action Point
Evaluate this list to better understand your personal motivations and examine which ones seem the most significant to you. Then, look at what you do to fulfill the needs of others. It will likely make a difference in what and how you do what you do. It also should make a difference in the way you describe and explain what you and your product can do.


When you're looking to sell something and writing copy it's best to think about what of these needs you need to speak to then tie your needs fulfillment into you copy.

So out of that group what is your most dominate need? When you write your copy are you speaking to that need and maybe not hit the people with the other needs that are dominate to them?
 
Buy:
Tested Advertising Methods
How to Write a Good Advertisement
The Ultimate Sales Letter

Read all of The Gary Halbert Letters.

Subscribe to peoples lists to get their e-mail sequences.

Start building a swipe file (file of good pieces of copywriting), then reference it when starting to write your own copy.

Practice. Also, actually copying other copy by hand helps a bit. Like actually rewriting entire sales letters.
 
I know I speak from the noob train but this post has hit hard. I have struggled with split testing. Do alter the design? Do I rewrite the content? Do I add a pretty face and so on. This little post has given me a definitive purpose to split testing and setting goals for each copy.

Smaxor you rock buddy.
 
I recommend getting some info from "eBook guru" Frank Kern. He's a DAMN good copywriter.
 
Danc1122 said:
I recommend getting some info from "eBook guru" Frank Kern. He's a DAMN good copywriter.
Click to expand...

Kern learned copywriting from guys like Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy and John Carlton (who is a product of Halbert's tutelage).

Learning from Kern is like asking a prize fighter how he won the match. He can only tell you what he did in the ring. Kern's stuff teaches people how to do exactly what he did. Product launches. Admittedly, he's effective in what he does.

Better to learn from his teachers, and get an education in copywriting and marketing skills that you can apply universally.

And even better to learn from the copywriters they learned from. Guys like John Caples, Claude Hopkins, Eugene Schwartz, David Ogilvy, and so on. The couple grand you would spend on just one of those guru-type's products could buy you a large library of copywriting and marketing books written by the old school masters of this craft.
 
This is a great thread, along with the "Deliberate Irrationality" thread floating around on here as well. I'm starting a new campaign in the dating vertical that appeals to emotion in a very similar fashion.... people will always backwards rationalize why they did something even if they were only acting based on their emotions at first!
 
Pictures

Nice post, some good tips.

One thing I have found that helps is to use pictures in subtle ways, not always just the obvious picture of the product itself. Induce the feeling/emotion with an almost unrelated picture.

Think about times/events when you felt relaxed and content. What pictures illicit these feelings?

Think about times/events when you felt proud and confident. What pictures illicit these feelings?

Think about times/events when you felt safe and were full of trust.

etc.....
 
If you don't have someone else to help proofread your copy, walk away from it for a while. When I get to writing anything for a long period of time I start overlooking much of what I have written because I'm use to it. I'm not reading what's on the page. Instead I skim and my brain fills in what I think I wrote.

You can have a real kick ass flow going, but one little thing can kick a reader out of "the zone." Usually awkwardness. I don't want double takes, the only thing I want them to reread is their credit card bill. And if your traffic is targeted right, they won't want to double take either.

I'm just getting through Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion now because of a recommendation here, but there is one story about how a professor completely debunks the claims of two religious "healers" and they are unable to come up with a rebuttal. The audience sees all this and hears all this, but they don't want to. Most of them signed up shortly after to learn their healing methods because if they didn't, they would go home and mull over what the professor had said.

People in a desperate/buy state of mind don't want to be talked down, they just need some sign that product xyz will do what they want.

Normally you go to friends or family for this assurance, but in the absence of friends or gaps in their knowledge people come to the internet.

Then it gets into the whole trust aspect. If you are looking for this assurance that usually comes from people you trust, the first sign of a trustworthy website feels great, rewarding, "oh finally."

helpabrothaout.png


All you need to do is live up to that initial, "these guys look legit," feeling.

You are the man offering a helping hand in the above picture. The brotha below you does not care about how strong you are, he sees you are strong. You don't need to shout at him "Don't worry, I'm jacked." All that is on his mind is what it will be like on the other side of the wall.

You can't reach down to him any further, but he can jump and close the distance. So you talk to him about what you are guys are going to do after you get over this wall, not about how you are going to get over the wall. Make him want to get this last stretch over with so he can exhale and relax.

Fuck it, I'm not sure where I was going with this. I'm like explaining marketing instead of copy now.

I might talk about black people more later, we'll see.
 
Smaxor, do you know of any good tools for multivariate split testing? I'm thinking of using Google Website Optimizer, but since it relies on Google Analytics for figuring out conversions, all I'd be able to do is measure CTR off the landing page (by placing the code on the meta refresh to the offer page). The main advantage of using something like Google website optimizer would be to test multiple combinations of copy and headers, in multiple places on the LP at once.
 
When I began this affiliate marketing quest I knew so little of how it's done I didn't realize that I'd be back in the business - albeit functioning as my own "agency" and advertiser.

I was an advertising copywriter many years ago, and took courses on design and how to meld copy with images at NYU and the School of Visual Arts (two of the top schools). In class, we mostly discussed the art of print ads, and I can rehash a couple of the most salient points that made them effective:

You want to surprise the reader with an ad that that is logical, yet unexpected. Irony works very well.

To wit, I recall an example ad for re-employment training running in the middle of a classified section. It was approx. 300x300, and said: "The best reason to read this ad is because of the ones around it."

The "ones around it" were typical ads you see in a local classified section for waiter, welder or window washer, etc. Low wage crap that drives the point home.

It was a study of the economy of words and a striking image to make an impression. (Although this particular ad had no image.) The classics never die. Read about the great print ads of the past to make an impact on your customer.

Damn. I can't code for shit, but I might get good at this.
 
Awesome thread:

Spy on your adwords competition, make sure they have been advertising for a decent time (not organic results for obvious reasons)

Grab yourself a pen and paper and pick apart and analyze their landing pages write down whats useful, question every single action, placement & word, why did they write that? why did they put that there? etc, etc, NO i am not saying copy their shit coz I hate that, instead improve on it, take the best of what you think is well, the best bits out of each LP and reword, redo, re-whatever that shit but don't overdo it and exaggerate things you may think that is "improving" but it is not, never hard sell as smaxor says push their emotional buttons but do it better than your competition.

They, your competition have been on adwords for a long time for a reason, not only does this help you build one LP it helps you build dozens of LP's for split testing.

Basic shit I know, but some need to be reminded, again your competition are on adwords for a long time for a reason.
 
Great feedback peeps bring on more. I have another posting I'll make tomorrow or Monday about visual, auditory and feeling personality types. If you can pull all those in you'll see your numbers running up and the register ringing :)
 
smaxor said:
Great feedback peeps bring on more. I have another posting I'll make tomorrow or Monday about visual, auditory and feeling personality types. If you can pull all those in you'll see your numbers running up and the register ringing :)
Click to expand...

Looking forward to it.
 
good post

sell strong and go straight for the jugular

when people go to a website and give it a once over... they're looking for a reason to buy...

give it to them.

also, keep in mind that people will almost always tell you "don't b.s me" "just give me the facts" "I hate hype" blah blah

the numbers almost always suggest the exact opposite - at least for the masses who are skilled at parting ways with their money
 
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