Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
January 29, 2007
Issue #79
In this issue:
-
Could YOU Make It as a Freelance Copywriter?
- How and When to Hang Out Your Shingle …
- How to Find Your Best Niche …
- How to Structure Your Rates …
-
Two Kinds of Royalties – and When to Use Each One …
- The Crucial Difference Between Fundraising Copy and Product Sales Copy …
-
Are There TOO MANY New Copywriters Today?
-
And MUCH MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
The other day, Stephen Davies of The Copywriter's Institute (http://www.copywritersinstitute.com/) called to ask me a bunch of questions that beginning copywriters most often ask me. And because they’re the same questions many of you send to our feedback box daily, I figure the answers will be helpful for you too.
Stephen Davies: Clayton, how did you get started writing copy? Would you advise others to take the same path you did?
Clayton: Well, it would be kind of hard for someone to take the path I did. I had to drop out of high school when I was 16, and took a job at a printing plant to help support the family. The printing plant did a lot of fundraising direct mail, so I’d sit at a folding machine all night long and read the appeal letters I was folding.
After a while, I decided I could probably do a better job writing this kind of thing than the highly paid consultant who was doing it at the time. So I gave it a try. And when they actually mailed my letter, I beat the company’s $300,000-a-year consultant. That was my first indication I could do this thing.
But my first love was film and video production. I moved to LA and I was very active in that for a while. However, in 1974, the freelance film & video industry just about died. There was almost no work there because of the recession.
That’s when I saw an ad for a small direct mail agency that needed a copywriter. I spent several years there, and finally, I think it was 1979, I left and went out on my own.
So I really just kind of stumbled into this. It wasn’t anything I chose to do. I was basically trying to feed a wife, two kids, and the world’s dumbest Cocker Spaniel. The opportunity just to work in 1974 was what drove me into copywriting at the time.
Stephen: How long did you write copy before you actually branched out on your own?
(more…)
Posted by:
Daniel Levis
January 24, 2007
Issue WMA #34
In this article:
- The essence of empathy, and why it smoothes the way to faster, more productive copywriting …
- How to ask yourself, “what am I really selling?” and feel confident in your answer …
- How to build a dossier on your target prospects that keeps you 100% focused on what really matters to them …
- And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
Konstantin Stanislavski, the famous Russian theatrical trainer and author of “The System of Physical Actions”, observed that an actor could draw on the emotions of others, through empathy.
In Stanislavski’s own words, “We must study other people and get as close to them emotionally as we can, until sympathy for them is transformed into feelings of our own.”
Think of a time when you and another person were completely in sync. It could be a friend or a lover or a family member or someone you just met by chance. Chances are you found you thought alike or felt the same way about a certain movie or book or experience.
You may not have noticed it at the time, but when you were in that state of “rapport” with that person you had similar patterns of breathing and speech, and you shared the same facial expressions and postures. Even the movement of your eyes and the tone of your voice harmonized to a degree.
Your emotional state was influenced by your interaction with that other person. And your emotional state influenced your physiology. If it was a happy experience, you smiled, your eyes tended to look up, and your shoulders were square.
Well it works both ways. If you adopt a vital, dynamic, excited physiology, you automatically adopt the same state of mind, and experience those emotions.
Smiling and laughing, for example, set off biological processes that, in fact, make us feel good. They increase the flow of blood to the brain and change the level of oxygen. The same thing happens with other expressions. Put your facial expressions in the physiology of fear or anger or disgust or surprise, and that’s what you’ll feel.
What does this have to do with web marketing and copywriting? Plenty. If you want to write copy that strikes the right emotional chord for your target prospect, it helps immeasurably if you can experience the emotions they’re feeling. Makes sense doesn’t it?
The easiest way to do that is through your physiology. If you adopt someone else’s physiology, you instantly have a window into the emotions they're feeling. This is what method actors do.
How to ask yourself, “what am I really selling?”
and feel confident in your answer …
Through researching your prospect, through reading books and watching movies that portray your prospect’s struggles and joys — and most importantly by talking to him or her in the flesh — you can begin to feel what they’re feeling.
Only then can you ask yourself “what am I really selling” and be confident in your answer. “Yes, I know it’s a book or a steak knife, or a home study course, but what am I truly selling. What human values are at stake?”
Let’s suppose you’re selling a home study course that teaches people how to become better conversationalists.
Your first step should be to build a dossier on your ideal prospect. If you’re writing for a major direct response marketer, they’ll probably be able to provide you with a profile of past buyers.
You’ll get valuable information about the breakdown of past buyers by sex, age group, what they purchased, and in some cases where those customers where acquired. This allows you to begin visualizing your buyer, and stepping into his or her shoes.
If your target market is split relatively evenly between the sexes, you may want to go through the exercise twice, once for each sex.
Your goal is to immerse yourself in their world, until your mirror neurons begin firing and their feelings become your feelings. When that happens, you may find it very useful to spend a few moments cataloguing your impressions.
How to build a dossier on your target prospects that keeps you 100% focused on what really matters to them …
OK, so this is a course about becoming a better conversationalist. Doesn’t matter what it is, you can lay out your profile in point form like this …
The typical female buyer of the “The Verbal Advantage” home study course tends to derive much of her identity and self worth from:
- The ability to be accepted in diverse social situations, and be recognized as someone special …
- The ability to prevail in competition for career and financial success…
- The ability to obtain or maintain satisfying personal and sexual relationships …
She is success conscious, socially active, and wants to advance her career. She wants deeper, more meaningful personal relationships. She wants to be recognized and rewarded for her achievements. She wants to climb the social ladder, gain prestige, and enhance her perception of self-worth.
At the same time, she is …
- Frequently frustrated by feelings of doubt and inadequacy, often failing to assert herself in situations that could allow her to advance her position in the workplace …
- Uncomfortably inhibited in social situations, disappointed, and angry with herself for not knowing how to express her views and opinions more
effectively …
- Unsure of her interpersonal skills, fearful of embarrassment, and sometimes reluctant to champion her ideas forcefully enough to advance her professional interests …
- Worried that life is passing her by, as she watches others confidently taking advantage of career advancement opportunities, and enjoying more satisfying personal relationships …
She wants, yearns, and passionately desires to break free from the above limitations, and …
- To become a polished, expert conversationalist …
- To introduce herself to strangers in social situations comfortably and confidently, and make a terrific first impression …
- To be able to walk into any party or business function and “work” the room with confidence, authority,
and flair …
- To instantly engender respect for her intelligence from the people she meets …
- To be able to attract the romantic attention of any man, should she so desire …
Now, it’s time to close your eyes, visualize your prospect, and talk to her. What would you say to her? How would you get her attention? What benefits would you offer her first, second, third? How would you connect with her feelings?
Or what kind of story could you tell her that would allow her to easily project herself into the character of the heroin?
Do you see how this process focuses you entirely on the prospect, and helps you answer the question, “What am I really selling?”
In our little example there are many prime buying motives we can infer. Here are a few examples, along with an idea of how they could be positioned in a headline …
- Social Contact – YOU the Life of the Party?
- Status – Join an Elite Group of Movers and Shakers Who Can Talk Anyone into Anything!
- Acceptance – Can Popularity Be Purchased? The Answer is “YES” - and the Cost is Two to Three Hours of Your Time …
- Romance – Don’t You Just Hate Walking Up To A Person Of The Opposite Sex And Trying To Start Up A Conversation?
- Vengeance – They All Chuckled When I Told Them I Was Calling The President Of The Company With My Cost Cutting Ideas – But Their Laughter Turned To Amazement When They Saw My New Corner Office!
- Power – Are You An “Alpha” Personality? Here’s How to Command Instant Respect, and Lead People Effortlessly With The Power of Your Speech …
- Tranquility – How To Walk Into A Room Full Of Strangers And Talk To Anyone With Total Confidence!
- Independence - Communicate Like A Pro, And YOU Call The Shots, Here’s How To Write Your Own Ticket Wherever You Go …
Empathy is the secret sauce that allows you to isolate your target prospect’s dominant emotions and desires, and zero in on the most powerful appeals. It allows you to dredge up just the right words to strike a chord in the hearts of the people most likely to buy your product.
It will help you to intuitively select the best headlines to test. It will help you to write in a way that builds an almost blinding rapport with your reader, positioning you and your products as the obvious solution.
But like anything else, it takes practice and discipline. Your empathy is only as good as your research, and your willingness to involve yourself emotionally in your prospect’s world. Most of all, it demands that you care about them sincerely, and want to help them.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
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Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology “Masters of Copywriting” featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.Sellingtohumannature.com
Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
January 22, 2007
Issue #78
Dear Business-Builder,
I was born cocky.
When I was 17 years old, running a Baumfolder in a printing plant for $1.60 an hour ($64 a week; $3,328 a year – before taxes!) – I was absolutely convinced I could write more compelling copy than I saw in the direct mail packages they had me working on …
At 23, as I slaved over a hot IBM Selectric at an L.A. agency for $15,000 a year, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that my sales copy was by far the strongest stuff in the mail – probably the hottest copy anybody had ever written in the entire history of the direct response industry, period …
And when I was 30, earning $300,000 plus overrides each year creating promotions for a $250-million-a-year financial newsletter and rare coin retailer – I was just too cool for school.
Sure – I had heroes; The stuff I saw Gary Bencivenga, Jim Rutz and Bill Bonner cranking out never failed to blow my mind. But with those exceptions, I was always the smartest guy in every room.
According to me.
And so, when a client offered me a bit of constructive criticism, I’d just smile and politely ignore him. And when I received invitations to attend seminars or conferences on copywriting or direct marketing, I just smirked, rolled my eyes and tossed them into the nearest “round file.”
After all – I was THE guy. I knew it all. Nobody could tell me anything about how to create blockbuster products or premiums or world-beating promotions. Nobody’s ideas were as good as mine were.
I was, as they say, a legend in my own mind.
Pretty dumb, huh?
Of course when I think about it, that youthful cockiness got me a long way.
It gave me the nerve to call total strangers, tell them their promotions were stinking up the room and offer to save them from their dismal mediocrity for a reasonable fee.
And it gave me the backbone to survive failures and to keep pluggin’ when a sane person would have just quit.
But more recently – in the last decade or so – I’ve noticed a subtle but significant change in my attitude. And that change has led me to many of the biggest winners and the biggest money of my entire career…
(more…)
Posted by:
Daniel Levis
January 17, 2007
Issue WMA #33
And how the simplest words can come together to release a mind-blowing flood of motive energy…
In this article:
- The true nature of words …
- Your six-point word choice checklist …
- Two words to never put on your order buttons that everyone does …
- How a trial lawyer twists words to win judges and influence juries!
- And much more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
You can have the best sales message in the world, but your prospects will always understand it through the prism of their own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and pre-existing beliefs – not yours.
For that reason, your choice of words can have a remarkable impact on how your message is understood. Choosing the right words rides on your taking an imaginative leap into your prospect’s shoes to know how they’re thinking and feeling.
But what are they anyway – words?
(more…)
