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Archives for 2008

Copywriting Notes – How Do You Know You’re Good Enough?

Couple of times recently in copywriting discussions I’ve seen this question come up, that is how do you know when you’re good enough to be a copywriter, in particular, to offer your services as a freelancer?

Interesting question, because it’s not as if there’s a “Copywriting University” where you get a seal of approval (OK, I know there’s AWAI but that doesn’t really fill that role).

Now, in my case the question never really came up.  I was working “on staff” and by default was the copywriter. Copy had to be written so it was a case of producing the copy, getting it out there and seeing what happened!  I guess I must have had the self-confidence from somewhere to think that I knew what I was doing!

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More Controversy About “That” Tactic

There’s been a bit of controversy lately about the marketing tactic of “forced continuity”.  It’s flared up again with a recent promotion by Mike Filsaime of “Butterfly Marketing” fame.

Mike is launching a new magazine focused on internet marketing and to get people to try out a subscription he’s giving away a ton of free material as well as one month of the magazine free.

Now, a bit of a “flame war” seems to have erupted with a number of people suggesting Mike has been underhand or unethical with what he’s doing.  In response to this, top copywriter Ray Edwards (who did some of the work for Mike) has posted a video going through exactly what the promotion involves so people can see for themselves.

You can view the video at this link…

http://rayedwards.com/2020

Couple of things about the video.  If you watch it, you’ll see that Mike Filsaime did 2 things in particular…

1. Throughout he went to great pains to make it very clear what was involved.

2. He also made it extremely easy to cancel the trial subscription.  In fact, if you wanted to, you could just get all the freebies and cancel straight away without even getting the trial issue of the magazine.

Lesson for marketers and copywriters?  Consider this “best practice” if you’re going to use this “forced continuity” tactic.

However, Mike went on to do something else that might very well annoy a lot a people.  he made multiple (and I mean multiple) “One Time Offers”.  Again, he did this in a way that would be viewed as “best practice” but it still comes across as incredibly annoying, at least to me.

However, as Ray points out, if you don’t want the offer, it’s a simple matter to say “No Thanks”.

Worth having a look at the video to see what these tactics involve.  Despite the controversy, there’s ample evidence that they produce results in terms of sales.  Plus, of course, these type of tactics have been used successfully in traditional offline Direct Response Marketing for many years (book and music clubs being examples).

Rare Treat For Copywriters – New Bencivenga Bullet

Copywriting superstar Gary Bencivenga has just released a new edition of his “Marketing Bullets” newsletter.  It’s all about “The 3 Greatest Copywriting Lessons I Ever Learned”.

Essential reading for all copywriters and you can get the details at “Bencivenga Bullets“.

Next post, I will get back to the “controversy” topic I mentioned previously.

‘The Great Copywriting Conspiracy’ – Really?

We seem to be in one of those phases where “controversy” swirls around the online marketing community.

We had top copywriter John Carlton talking about a “Copywriting Crisis” recently.

Now copywriting heavyweight Clayton Makepeace has released a special report (actually authored by Clayton’s protege Tony Flores) called “The Great Copywriting Conspiracy”.

Let me say that I have the greatest regard for Clayton Makepeace.  I have pretty much every course he has released and would unreservedly recommend his material.

However, this report is a little weak.

Look, if you’ve never heard of Jay Abraham’s formula for geometric growth or the idea of a marketing funnel (or “ladder”) is an alien concept, this report will be an eye opener.

There are also some good “snippets” drawing back the curtain on some recent successful promotions.

And the core message, that success is down to following and implementing tried and true principles (rather than following the latest internet marketing “fad”) is spot on.

But the style of the report is a little cheesy and the whole “Conspiracy” thing is never developed as an idea. “Conspiracy” is one of Clayton’s favourite themes (“The Great CoQ10 Conspiracy” is a classic) but here it falls flat.

Having said all that, the report is worth a quick read.  Click on “The Great Copywriting Conspiracy” to get the report (an opt-in is required).

Clayton is releasing a new course shortly, so this is all part of the lead up to the launch.

More controversy tomorrow on the currently popular topic of “Forced continuity”.

Copywriting Video – Right Way To Use Testimonials

Here’s video #5 from master copywriter John Carlton in his “Copywriting Checklist” series. This one deals with testimonials (in fact, there are another 2 videos on this topic, and I may include them in a future post).

Now, testimonials are one of the key “proof” elements to include in any sales letter. But to get the best effect, they need to be carefully woven into the letter to support key points and also to be framed in a way so that they are relevant to the reader.

John brings out this point in the video with 3 questions you need to ask about any testimonial that you include.

Remember, as well, to include an attention grabbing headline with every testimonial! People aren’t necessarily going to read all the testimonials so you need to include a headline to maximize your chances of getting the point across.

Here’s the video…