How to Write Copy Like a Pro - The Final Installment

And now, the final installment of the series, the 101 most important things to keep in mind when writing sales copy.  This time, lose the humor, ask questions and make guarantees - not promises.  Enjoy.

81. Avoid using humor. The problem with trying to be funny in your copy is that not
everyone gets a chuckle out of the same thing. What one person enjoys may offend
another – or worse, go right over their head. Instead keep your sales copy personable
and professional. You can always include jokes in your newsletter or on your blog if you think the majority of your customers will enjoy them.
82. Pose a question to your prospects. By posing a question either in your headline or in
the first few sentences of your web copy you are making your prospects think. Ask
questions that are thought provoking such as “How do you see yourself in 5, 10 or 20
years?” However you can grab the readers’ attention, and get them to engage in your
site copy, you need to do it!
83. Use the phrase “How To…” in your headline. While this may seem like a very
over-used phrase – it’s definitely not! Nothing gets people to think that you are there
to help them more than the words, how to… The reader believes that you are going
to teach them something – and they have a natural inclination to keep reading.
84. Identify the biggest benefit of your product – and put it right up front in your
headline. There’s no reason to hold off. Often you only have a few seconds to
convince a prospect they should stay on your site and read your sales letter. So use
this time wisely and tell them immediately what exactly your product will do for
them.
85. Put a number in your headline to make it more believable. In general, odd
numbers seem to catch the attention of site visitors more often than even numbers.
This tactic also seems to work really well for email subject lines. Some ideas are
“Raise your sales by 10% over night” “Look and Feel Better in 3 Days or Less” and
“15 Minutes Now for a Better Tomorrow”.
86. If your guarantee sets your company apart, tell prospects about it upfront. A
guarantee is a good way to get customers thinking that you can and will back up what
you promise, and it makes them much more likely to make a purchase the first time
they visit your site. Guarantees are as much of an incentive as a price reduction, so try
to offer one whenever you possibly can.
87. Use deadlines to create a sense of urgency. For example, “If you purchase X by
midnight on December 15, we will also throw in a …” is a good way to let customers
know that they need to buy now or they’ll be missing out. Make sure that you
enforce your deadlines, or your customers will stop feeling that sense of urgency that
you are trying to stir within them. People react to deadlines – and the closer the
deadline to the time of their initial visit – the better.
88. Make a groundbreaking announcement in your headline. Of course this only
works if you truly have something interesting to announce. But when you do, this is a
great way to grab a reader’s attention. The announcement should cater to the desire of
the reader to improve some specific aspect of their life. Tell them that your
revolutionary approach is making a difference in so many lives… and then tell them
HOW.
89. Make headlines digestible. Whenever possible, keep your headlines to one sentence
with very few words. You need enough to capture the attention of your readers, but
not enough to intimidate them. The purpose of a headline is to entice readers to keep
reading, to appeal to their senses and emotions in a way that gets their attention in one
or two seconds. Keep in mind that it’s not meant to tell the whole story, but rather to
pique the interest of potential customers and make them want to continue reading.
90. Answer all of your prospects’ objections. Customers – especially on the web – tend
to be skeptical of new websites and the products they offer. As a result they are likely
to come up with several objections as to why they cannot buy what you’re selling.
Help them overcome their uncertainty by answering all of their objections in your
sales copy. Although your product will never appeal to everyone, you can greatly
increase your sales if you help people understand why their objections are unfounded.
91. Make sure you have a strong start and a strong finish. If you’ve ever been to a
rock concert you know how important it is to have a strong start and a strong finish.
Approach your copywriting in much the same way. Get prospects hooked in the
beginning with copy they can’t help but read… then end on a high note!
92. Highlight text to make the important points stand out. How you present your copy
is as important as what you say. If prospects land on your sales page and it looks like
a lot of work to read it – they’ll leave. A great way to help break up text is to highlight
or bold important sentences or phrases. The highlighted text will pop out at readers
and leave them wanting more!
93. Work on the parts of your copy that will be read the most. Although all of your
copy is important in it’s own way, there are five parts of every sales letter that you
should pay particularly close attention to. They are your headline, subheadings, first
sentence of every paragraph, first bullet point in a list and the PSs. These are the parts
that will be read the most. And if they’re compelling, potential customers will want to
learn more.
Improving your Copy
94. Test your headlines. There are several places you can try out your headline to see if
it inspires people to take action. You can make it into a PPC ad, use it as your forum
signature, run a classified ad, use it as your eBay product name, use it as an email
subject line or use it as your ad in the traffic exchanges. All of these options force you
to say a lot with only a few words. If you’re successful at getting people excited using
these methods, then you can bet it will make an effective headline.
95. Split test your copy to find what works best. The most profitable sites always split
test their copy to make sure it’s converting as many browsers into buyers as possible.
Start with the elements of your copy that have the biggest impact – headline,
subheadline and first paragraph. Once you’ve perfected them, move on to change
other elements and see whether it makes a difference. A great split testing tool is
AdTrackz. But remember, the key to effective split testing is to only change ONE
element on the page at a time. If you change the headline, subheadline and opening
paragraph, how will you know which change was responsible for the increased
conversion rate?
96. Get feedback from your customers. Listen to what your customers want and write
your copy to address their concerns. Not sure what they want? Some great ways to
find out are to: ask them on your squeeze page, conduct a survey, ask them in an exit
popover, encourage feedback with a form on your site and even by paying attention to
which keywords bring them to your site (through PPC or the natural search engines).
When you know what it is that they want, you can position your website as the best
place to get it!
97. Once you’ve written your sales copy, put it away for a few days. As soon as you
finish writing your sales letter you will naturally think it’s the best piece of
copywriting ever written. But before you declare it your final draft, put it away for a
few days and see how you feel about it when you read it with fresh eyes. Then
pretend you’re a prospect and read it from their point of view.
98. Have someone proofread your sales letter for you. If you can afford a professional
editor then that is definitely the best option. If not, at least have a few friends read it
for grammar and spelling. You can also request a free copywriting critique from the
members at http://www.copywritersboard.com
99. Read your copy out loud. One of the best ways to ensure that your copy flows nicely
and is well written is to read it out loud. If you’re tripping over sentences or getting
lost while reading then your customers will too. Once you’ve done that, have
someone else read it out loud to you so you can determine any areas they have
problems with.
100. Proofread your copy 3 times before placing it anywhere. If your site is full of
typos, misspelling and misused words people are going to wonder where else you
lack expertise. Don’t undermine your credibility with unnecessary mistakes. It only
takes a few moments to look over your text, or to ask someone you trust to look over
it as an extra set of eyes.
101.Never be afraid to review your existing copy. On average, professional
copywriters spend more time editing than they do writing. If they don’t get it right the
first time then chances are you won’t either! So if your prospects are not responding
in the way that you had hoped, take some time to review your copy and rewrite the
sections that need work. Test different styles of copy and track the results so that you
know what is working – and what is not.

We hope you’ve learned at least one new thing in this series, thanks for taking part. 

Now that you’re armed with the knowledge of how to write killer copy go put it to good use!