If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got. ~Lee Iacocca If you were trained under the benefits-not-features mantra, you likely spend most of your copywriting time fleshing out the benefits of your product. That’s not a bad approach, actually. […]
What SPOC Taught Me About Content Marketing
Last month I attended the Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC) by Susan Daffron, author of Publishize. I have to say, it was one of the best online conferences I’ve ever attended. (Let me also say that their tag line, Live Long and Publish, is pure genius!) I was impressed enough that yesterday, when I heard Susan […]
8 Copywriting Books You Need on Your Bookshelf
Want to learn copywriting? Already writing copy but want to get better? Ready to turn your skill into a business? Writing sales copy, whether online or in print, seems easy enough, especially if you already know a thing or two about writing. But writing persuasively requires more than grammar skills. Great copywriters are trained in […]
Google vs. Your Readers: How to Produce Quality Content for Non-Readers
It’s an odd world. Readers are now skimmers. Yet they crave information. Google rewards content, not keywords. Yet keywords are the foundation of search. What’s a marketer to do?
Marketers: What’s Your Point?
Writers, marketers, communications experts: it’s time to recall a foundational truth that can make a huge impact on your results. No matter what you write, no matter what communication you put in front of your readers, before you put your fingers on the keyboard, you need to answer one question… What’s the point? As communicators, […]
4 Keys to Strong Prospect Engagement
Gone are the days of push marketing. Two-way marketing, we’ve discovered, is far more powerful, building strong customer engagement. But what if you don’t already have a loyal following? What if you’re a new business or simply new to the social arena? If you’re starting from zero, how do you effectively engage with your prospects […]
Visualization and the Writing Process, Part 2
This is part 2 in a two-part series. In my last post, I shared how I wrote a full-length three-act play in three days. How did I do that? I was able to visualize my end product before sitting down to write. As writers, we’re often groping in the dark, grasping for meaning as we […]
Visualization and the Writing Process, Part 1
Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations. ~Eudora Welty The first requirement of writing is to know where you’re going when you sit down to write. If you can see your message clearly, writing is easy. If it’s somewhere “out there,” shimmering on the horizon like a mirage, fuzzy around the […]
P.S. You Can Boost Your Response Rate with a P.S.
The three most important elements in a winning sales letter are the headline, offer and P.S. Who would have thought the lowly P.S. would be in that list? Yet surprisingly, the P.S. is more important than testimonials, statistics, and even envelope teaser copy. Why? Because time is short, and your reader doesn’t want to curl […]
Emotional Engagement: How to Make Your Promotion Irresistible
Emotional engagement is an advanced technique for generating that “must-have” reaction to your promotions. Of course, knowing it even exists is just the beginning. The trick is to make it a consistent part of your marketing communications. Let’s look at how you can do that. How do you create emotional engagement? Emotional engagement is the strategic combination of: A powerful […]
