As in any profession it is necessary to establish a good foundation for your copywriting basics before you will have much success.
First off you want to be you. I don’t know about you but I have a degree in English and have spent countless hours (often at night) writing college papers for professors who were much more interested in specific style and grammar than they were in anything that might express my personal style. In fact in the halls of academia that sort of writing is vehemently discouraged.
You essentially want to learn to write as like you are talking to one of your friends. In fact your customers are going to be a lot more interested in reading your copy if they get the feeling that you are a real person having a heartfelt conversation with them. So, if you want to make more money, ditch The Elements of Style and write like you talk. Reading your copy out loud to a friend will help you to learn this skill.
Here are a few things that you are going to want to keep in mind when you are writing sales copy.
Most of us really don’t care to be sold to. A lot of us do like to buy, but it’s mostly a response to an emotional need or a desire to avoid something painful. And then after a purchase people tend to want to justify their purchase in some way. Not all purchases make sense. So justifying, for whatever reason is an important part of the process.
Then, you want to know who your target purchaser is. You have to know what motivates them, what age range they fall into, what they like and don’t like, whether they are married, single or divorced. What culture do they belong to, are they religious or do they belong to the NRA. You want to have a really good knowledge about who it is that you are selling to.
And then you want to know your product inside out, upside down and backwards. You not only want to educate your audience about the product and what it can do for them, but you want to express it with the real passion that you have about this product. After all who wants to buy anything that’s not packed with excitement or at least sex appeal. It’s your job to show your prospect that your product is the one and only product they are looking for and then tell them why.
Buyers are interested in proof. Giving them lots of testimonials and showing them that the product has worked for lots of other people will give them more of a justification to make this purchase. Show them how they will benefit from ownership of your product and give them all the proof you can find. Don’t be afraid to write a long sales letter. Most people are interested in seeing and hearing all that you can provide before they will want to give up their hard earned cash.
If you have done your job right, you will have built up enough confidence and desire in your prospect so that collecting the money for the product will be easy.