The Classic Copywriting Argument
With the brouhaha of Web 2.0 going strong, she can be excused for her doubts. And the fact is, if I woke up tomorrow and realized the universe had changed in such a way that a decent sales pitch no longer required persuasion, proof, credibility, believable offers, and all the other classic ingredients… and we could now create sales with just a smidgen of copy here and there, like dabs of gray ink in the colorful wonder of an over-designed Web page… well, I’d be the first one writing short copy that day.
READ MOREA Plethora of Errors
As a writer on language, I’m especially sensitive to mistakes I encounter while reading. They seem to leap off the page, and I gleefully seize them as potential material for this column.
READ MOREOne Website… or Many?
“When selling information products on the Internet, what are the pros and cons of having a home website with more than one product and having micro-sites only for the more expensive and lengthy products vs. having a micro-site for every product?”
READ MOREThe 7 Steps of a Failed Product Launch
These are the seven steps of a failed product launch:
READ MOREWhat’s In a Name?
Personalized mailings were all the rage in direct marketing… back in 1975. They continue to be a staple today, online as well as off, based on the idea that no sound is sweeter than that of your own name. Given my one or two experiences with hand-shaking, name-abusing car salesman over the years, I beg to differ. (”John, what can we do to get you behind the wheel of this beauty today… John?”)
READ MOREHow to Eliminate the Word FAIL From Your Vocabulary
Do you ever wonder why some people succeed at almost every challenge they take on, while others never seem to be able to get out of the starting blocks? There are four major reasons why people FAIL – and they very neatly spell out the word itself.
READ MOREIt All Starts With Traffic
If you’re getting 20 leads a week now from AdWords, it’s hard to imagine what 200 leads a week would look like. From your current perspective, it would probably look just like 20, except 10 times more. But when volume and velocity and quality of traffic increase, lots of things change. Big time.
READ MOREThe Simplicity Imperative
Much of what you read in ETR is directed at helping you earn more money and achieve financial independence. But what many people mistake for wealth is pure junk: the oversized plasma TV, the 2010 Ferrari, the custom-built estate home.
READ MOREIs Your Copy a Welcome Interruption?
When we marketers and copywriters approach a prospect with a direct-mail piece, an e-mail blast, a print ad – or any other kind of sales promotion, for that matter – we are interrupting his life. The simple act of putting sales copy before a prospect brings him to a fork in his road – forcing him to make a decision to either (1) read or (2) not read our message. And every time his eye moves from one sentence to the next… from one paragraph to the next… or from one page to the next… he reaches yet another fork in the road – and gets to decide whether he’s going to keep reading our message or abandon it.
READ MOREKnow What You’re Doing
When “Winston” asked me to help him promote one of his products, I agreed to mention it in my e-mail newsletter. I told him that all he needed to do was give me a coded link for his landing page. If you’re at all involved in marketing on the Internet,…
READ MOREWhy You Must Master Direct Marketing for Real Estate Investing Success
When you think about real estate investing, my guess is that you don’t immediately think “direct marketing” as well. But direct-marketing skills are essential to almost every aspect of real estate investing… from finding motivated sellers… to buying a property… to finding your ideal buyer… and more. In fact, mastering…
READ MOREImitation: The Secret to Stronger Sales Copy
I had an old friend – no longer with us – who used to say, “If writers write, copywriters copy. Isn’t that how it works?” I wince to hear it put that way, given the many times I’ve sat there staring at a blinking cursor and trying to come up…
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