Do you remember that person in college who was the great writer?
The one who cranked out your term papers really, really fast because you left them until the day before?
They used catchy words and made you and your paper sound stunningly interesting. They took your words and gave them a shine. Your words in their hands sounded like “Wake Up! Pay Attention! Don’t Miss A Detail of This A+ Paper!”
I’m not that person. Or so I thought.
Yet somehow…I don’t know how…I became that person, “The Copy Machine.” And in the process, I’ve learned an amazing amount about what it takes to write great marketing copy. Including the more you do it, the better you get.
Do you know the rules for writing great, stunning, compelling, “wow” copy?
And you can probably see through my motive in sharing the rules with you. The better you get at writing copy that moves people, the less likely you’ll need to hire me to do it. Brilliant!
Killer copy gets your emails, websites and letters opened. Killer copy gets people nodding their head in agreement and draws them into action.
Great copy kills. Terrible copy also kills.
Words are the real currency in your business.
Words. The right words. Which is weird because they tell us no one reads anymore (that’s not true).
People do read, and here’s what gets them looking at your stuff:
► They read about themselves. Therefore, your writing job (frankly, your everything job) is to understand your customer’s thought process and buying motivations. Hint: There are only two buying motivations—kind of limits your field.
► Most are searching for ways to solve a problem in their life, business or family. If they have a headache, you be an aspirin. Stop selling pleasurable endings. That’s not what they are searching for.
► They’re busy. Most will give a marketing email about 30 seconds (see our conversation last week). Stop hiding “the news.” Make the key points stand out.
Yes, writing killer copy involves more than these illuminating points. Yet, a simple mastery of these will immediately head you in a better direction—more emails opened, more emails read, more landing pages viewed, and just maybe more sign-ups.
Even if the stars never align to turn you into a great marketing writer, even if you hope to never tap those keys to create genius copy, it’s still up to you to know what motivates your customers and have copy written that does just that.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha and Chris
P.S.: And if you want the shortest cut to finding great marketing writers, we’ve got ‘em. Just call or email. That’s what we’re here for…to generate measurably increased response for you.