Ignoring This Can Destroy Your Online Sales and Hurt Your Brand

Copywriting…

As an online marketer, you recognize that copywriting is critical to your success. You understand it has a “make-or-break” effect on your marketing and sales results.

The right copy to the right audience can drive your sales through the roof. It can make your readers rabid with the urge to buy and devour your product or service. It can help you win those all-important repeat sales.

The wrong copy can cause your marketing and sales results to plummet, even if everything else in your “online machine” is perfect. It can hurt the perception readers have of you and your product or service. It can kill your brand.

You want to invest in professionally written copy. Or maybe you already have. And you’d like an answer to the question, “What makes copy?“the right copy?”

“John, you gotta come see this!” Sarah was excited.?

After a lot of hard work, her digital training course was ready to launch. She believed in her course and expected big things

After reading through it, John beamed back and said, “Sarah,?this is going to help your audience solve major problems they’re facing. It will definitely enhance their lives.” He was right.

That’s why this story is so sad. You see, although Sarah had heard about copywriting and was convinced it mattered, she didn’t know much about it. She thought it was “just writing”.?

She said to herself, “I got good grades in English. I’m a good writer. I’ll write this myself”.

The unhappy result? She launched her course and waited for the sales to roll in. She waited. And waited. And waited.?

And? Crickets…

Zero sales. Sarah was depressed. Despondent. Dejected.?

But she was not the only one to lose. Her potential customers lost. They could truly?benefit from her course. But her copy could not convince them.?

It left them saying to themselves, “Meh. So what?”

You don’t want to be like Sarah...

?I’m a conversion copywriter who specializes in crafting compelling marketing and sales messages. I diligently study the most successful copy written by the world’s greatest copywriters.

My goal??To give my clients world-class results and even better service.

I geek out over this stuff! I work every day to boost my copywriting skill and strengthen my grasp of persuasion and influence. I’m constantly asking myself how I can help digital marketers and business owners like you sell more of your fantastic products and services.

I’ve enjoyed the honor of receiving some positive feedback over the years.

One of my clients, direct response marketing specialist, Bobby Hewitt, was kind enough to say: “John is great to work with. He's very prompt and thoughtful in terms of his copywriting. It's rare to find a copywriter who truly gets the user experience side and is as curious about conversion optimization as I am.”

Here’s something about copywriting a lot of people, even those who believe that copywriting matters, don’t understand…

Copywriting isn’t “writing” per se. It bears little resemblance to the type of writing you were forced to learn in Mrs. Smith’s high school English class. When you are writing copy the right way, you are selling through the written word.

When I became a copywriter, this took me a while to understand. I had to “unlearn” a lot of what I learned in high school and college English. As I did, I also learned how to write compelling, persuasive copy that attracts readers like slivers of iron to a powerful magnet.

With the tips I give you in this article, I hope to help you shorten your learning curve, so you can become better at writing copy yourself. Also, so you can distinguish good copy from bad. This will help you big time when you are reviewing the copy someone else has written for you.

With the idea that copywriting is a sales conversation in print in mind, let’s look at some specific actions you can take to boost your copy’s persuasiveness:

1. Focus on benefits more than features:?

Legendary copywriter and marketing consultant, Dan Kennedy, said in his book, The Ultimate Sales Letter, “People do not buy things for what they are. They buy things for what they do.” In other words, they buy the benefits your course will give them. So highlight those in your copywriting.

2. Tell your reader about the deeper benefits of your product:?

Let me explain…these will be more personal. More emotional. We’ve all heard the phrase, “People don’t buy the drill, they buy the hole in the wall”.

But what are they REALLY buying? Not the hole as much as the ability to hang their family portrait on the wall. Even deeper than that, the feeling of pride and joy they will feel when they see that family portrait in their living room.

Do you see how that warm feeling is so much more powerful for selling drills than “It makes holes quickly and easily”?

3. Keep your writing simple:?

Remember what I said earlier about “unlearning” what I was taught in English class? Part of that was learning the skill of making my copywriting basic. Simple words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. Easy to understand. Think 6th grade, not graduate school.

Formal, stiff, “academic” writing will impress a college professor. But it won’t help you sell your stuff.

Make your message crystal clear. If it’s confusing, your reader won’t take the time and effort to understand. They will click away pronto!

By the way, this article scored a 5.3 grade level using this free tool: https://www.perrymarshall.com/grade

Yahoo!

4. Burn this into your brain: “It’s not about you!”.?

When we're trying to impress someone, and win them to our way of thinking, it’s so easy to think we need to talk on and on about us.

But here’s the thing-the opposite is true. We need to focus much more, and with great empathy, on our reader than on ourselves and our products.?

So in your copy, from the get-go, “talk” to your reader about his or her problem. The one you can help them solve when they invest in your product. Talk about their dreams, their goals. And how you can help them reach them. Make sense?

5. Write each piece of copy so that you focus only on one big idea, one goal.?

For example, when you write your next email, don’t follow the “kitchen sink” philosophy. Don’t talk about your upcoming webinar, and your latest eBook, and your new subscription service.

No! Focus each email you write only on one topic. “Selling” readers on clicking through to a landing page to secure their spot for your webinar, for example. The other approach will destroy your copy’s effectiveness.

One More (Important) Thing…

We talked earlier about how copywriting is selling in print. Even though you know you have to make sales, that word may make you cringe. Here’s my advice…don’t let it!

A Moral Obligation?

Look at it like this…

You have amazing products, right? Your potential buyer can benefit greatly from them, right? They have a nagging, frustrating problem you can solve for them, right?

Then doesn’t it make sense to tell them about your offering and try to persuade them to buy it? Could it be that you have a moral obligation to try and sell it to them?

So please DO NOT be afraid to sell!

What are your thoughts on this fascinating topic?

Do you have any questions? Do you have a specific marketing project you need help with? Do you want the services of a true copywriting and marketing professional driven to help you win, put a smile on your face and help you sleep better at night?

I’m here for you. You can reach me at [email protected].

Here’s to your success!

John

John Rugh is a copywriter, marketing strategist, 2X published author, and award-winning speaker.

He harnesses his skills, talents and expertise--copywriting (especially email copy), research, marketing strategy, empathy, buyer psychology, and selling, to help his clients win more sales and enjoy longer, more profitable customer relationships.

His goal? To help each of his clients thrive like never before!

You can reach John at?https://johnrugh.com/contact-me.