One of the most valuable skills you can acquire for marketing is the skill of copywriting. It’s the art of putting a sales presentation onto paper – turning it into a sales letter or, in the case of a website, a sales page.
Learn the skill of copywriting and your business will prosper. You don’t have to be an expert at writing copy, but it’s wise to at least be familiar with how a successful sales letter should look – so you have an idea whether it’ll be profitable just by looking at and reading through it.
You can always hire a copywriter to write the letter for you. (Keep in mind that an established copywriter charges upwards of $2500 for each letter he writes.) But if you aren’t familiar with proper sales letter structure you won’t know if you’re getting your money’s worth.
You Can Learn The Art Of Copywriting
So how do you learn this skill?
There’s an abundance of courses for this online and easily accessible. Most you must pay for. Some of the best that I’ve studied include:
“The Accelerated Program For Six-Figure Copywriting” by the American Writers And Artists Institute (AWAI).
“Advertising Magic” by Brian Keith Voiles
“Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets Of A Marketing Rebel” by John Carlton
If you’re interested in any of those – and they’re all great courses that I recommend for learning copywriting skills – an online search will get you to them. And you can start your education free just by reading the sales letters for those courses.
They’re just that great!
But You Don’t Really Have To Pay For The Knowledge
But you can get this knowledge at no cost by just reading good marketing messages.
How do you know if a marketing message is a good one?
If you keep seeing the same sales page or letter on a continuous basis that means it’s working. It’s a good idea to subscribe to well-known marketer’s lists just to get their emails. Click on the product links in those emails to go to their sales pages and study those.
What do you look for initially?
Finding The Successful Copywritten Letters
The most important part of a marketing message is the headline. Ted Nicholson said that a one-word change in one headline increased sales by 1800%. That’s how powerful a great headline can be.
When you read a headline that peaks your interest and makes you want to find out more about what it’s all about, ask yourself why it interests you. What do you like about that headline? Is there anything you don’t like about it (anything that turns you off about it)? Then go study the letter it’s attached to. If the sales letter makes you want to buy the product it’s marketing – that’s a good letter to study.
Check out how the words are organized. Study the structure. How does each line lead you into wanting to read the next? Because that’s what each line should do. How does the letter identify a problem? How does it call out a pain you’re having? How does it promise to fix that problem or pain? How does it ask you for the purchase?
Know The Difference Between Good & Bad Copywriting
It’s also a good idea to learn from the poorly written sales letters you come across.
Does the headline totally push you away from reading more on the subject? Why? Does it read hypey or gimmicky? Does it sound too good to be true?
Go read through the sales letter. Is it completely unrelated to the subject of the headline? How does it not fulfill the promise of the headline? Does it read smoothly or not? Is there anything in particular about the letter that you completely reject? Does the letter disappoint the expectations that the headlines sparked within you?
Make sure you distinguish between those headlines and letters that make you feel good about the product being marketed and those headlines and letters that make you outright reject the product. Study until you internalize what you feel will be a successful letter and also what you feel will be a disaster. Keep that knowledge at the front of your focus when you review a letter you hire written – or one you write yourself.
Model your future marketing messages after the well-written sales letters that you study – the ones that entice you to buy. Don’t copy them word for word. That’s copyright infringement. But model the techniques.
Studying the successful sales letters that are freely available for your reading pleasure is a superb and inexpensive technique for learning the art of copywriting.
