More Clients…More Sales…More Cash In Your Pocket!
Here’s a couple more current ads from Australian financial institutions that provide illustrations of bad and not-so-bad copywriting. Let me say, I don’t pick on financial institutions out of spite or some sort of grudge. It’s just that they seem to be so prominent and, often, so poor. As I’ve observed previously, they seem to [...]
Here’s another video from the “Copywriting Checklist” series from John Carlton. Gee, the last one I posted was a month ago! This is a follow up to that previous video. It’s titled “Nitty-Gritty: Discussion”. In it John hammers home the point that it’s benefits, not features, that need to be emphasised in copy. I’d go [...]
Copywriters obviously aren’t the only people who struggle with the demon of procrastination. But, as I said in a previous post about dealing with “resistance” it’s something that anyone involved in a creative endeavour seems to struggle with. Procrastination comes in various forms. One is the idea that you don’t know enough just yet to [...]
Ace copywriter John Carlton is about to withdraw all of his current copywriting programs from the market ahead of launching new versions (“Say Bye-Bye To The ‘Bag Of Tricks’”). It’s likely that the new versions will be significantly higher in price. Can’t say I’m surprised. The current prices are absurdly low. I have pretty much [...]
The chill winds of hard economic times are blowing across the world and hitting some places more than others. I’ve refrained from commenting about the economic situation so far, but I will be posting about the implications for copywriting and sales messages. The “social mood” definitely has implications for sales promotions. However, that’s not what [...]
In the City today I couldn’t help notice a new advertising campaign from BT Financial Group, one of the big local funds managers. It’s promoting their superannuation (retirement savings) products and the part that I saw was the outdoor display ads. There’s a whole series of these advertisements and they all have a question theme [...]
Had to share this wonderful example of the use of intrigue that I came across in today’s UK “Daily Telegraph”. “The Sticky Toffee Pudding Mystery” The article leads off…
I’ve commented in the past about the importance of traffic for any business and observed how some businesses are very vulnerable to changes outside of their control. I mentioned the impact on my local Starbucks and a small bakery shop of the relocation of a big corporate headquarters away from the area. Fortunately, business seems [...]
“Our prices have been reduced 25 per cent” “Our net profit is 3 per cent” “The final result of testing and comparing 130 formulas” The 3 claims above are all drawn from chapter 7 of “Scientific Advertising”, called “Being Specific”. The point that Claude Hopkins makes throughout the chapter is that when you make a [...]
Most copywriting training focuses on what would be called the “craft”. How to write effective headlines, bullets and put together a convincing letter. More advanced training goes into the psychology of selling and and crafting an effective strategy and campaign for a promotion. Very little is ever said, however, about what might be termed the [...]
As a copywriter, I read an enormous amount of material. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that’s the case for most copywriters (and many business people as well). Now, I have looked into ways to increase the speed at which I read. I’ve got books about speed reading (even “Speed Learning”). I [...]
Copywriter Kevin Francis
Connect With Copywriter Kevin Francis