Posted by: John Forde
October 21, 2008
Issue #528

JUST-IN-TIME COPYWRITING:
Secrets of the “Overnight” Promo Writer

"While we are postponing, life speeds by."
- Seneca

Maybe you’ve heard of "just-in-time" manufacturing. This is where companies streamline the production process so they can fill orders almost the moment they’re made.  The more nimble these producers are, the more valuable they are in their market.

Well there’s also a way for you to add "just-in-time" copywriting to your stable of skills.

And the secrets that make it possible are pretty simple. In fact, most of them are shortcuts that have already been figured out and perfected for you by other writers. 

Here are some of the ways you can make it work …

1) FOLLOW THE FORMULA(s):

This might be the most obvious of the secrets. 

Surely you’ve seen a formulaic movie you’ve loved, read a formulaic book you couldn’t put down, or heard a verse-chorus-verse pop song that worked just fine.

In sales copy, there are formulas too.  Identify them and use them as framework for your next sales letter. The one you might already know best is AIDA, short for "Attention-Interest-Desire-Action."

That’s a basic start-to-finish template for what your promos need to make happen.

Another is the Four Ps, or Promise-Picture-Proof-Push. That is, launch out of the gate with a big Promise headline, get quickly into a vivid Picture of what you’re saying or selling to draw in the reader, load him up with lots of Proof (testimonials, studies, track record, and the like) so he can rationalize the emotions you’ve awoken in him, and then Push him to act, in a way that connects your big ideas and promises to the product you have on offer.

By themselves, the formulas are just theory. But you can put them into practice by actually keeping a blank ‘framework’ document on your computer that lists each element of your favorite formula, in outline form and with some more detailed prompts underneath.

When you’re ready to start your next promo, simply fill in the blanks to organize your research and best copy ideas. You’ll find your second pass through, where you’re actually doing the copywriting and crafting, going much faster because you’ll have organized all the work beforehand.

2) BUILD A "PLOT-LINE" LIBRARY FROM PAST CONTROLS:

There are only so many classic ‘plots’ for stories. (I remember an article claiming every Hollywood movie, for instance, was built around one or another of 13 recycled themes).

If that’s true for movies and literature, it’s definitely true of direct marketing letters. Visit your swipe file and pick out the winners.  Take apart the best controls to see how they were put together.

I’ve called this the "filet of soul" approach to package outlining — where you carve away the copy and extract the bones of its outline.

Use a similar outline to build your own promo, using your own research and prose.  Keep a file of outlines for use later on.

This is also a great way to get jumpstarted when you’re stuck.  Just be careful about how much you borrow.  You don’t want to get accused of plagiarism.

3) CREATE YOUR OWN PROMO CONSTRUCTION KIT:

For products you write for over and over, ready yourself ahead of time with a "toolbox" of key elements. This is especially useful for sales letters that use the same sidebars between packages.

For instance, you might not know the lead of your next promo for "Widget X," but you know testimonials will come in handy.  Write the testimonial sidebar. 

Then write one with news clippings. 

Write another with a third-party endorsement letter.  Then drop them all into a folder on your computer desktop called "Widget X Credibility Sidebars."

The first time through, you’ll spend lots of time crafting and re-crafting these pieces. The next time through, you might even polish them further.

But the more frequently you go back to working with the same product, the more you’ll find you can revive and reuse all that polished material.

4) PREPARE MORE:

For the writer who gets lost or loses steam, spending more time on the outline before actually writing can be tedious at first, but helps speed the process. 

Especially valuable: Spending extra time at the beginning to narrow your headline or lead down to the single most powerful Big Idea. This may seem like the opposite of a speedwriting technique.

But the reality is, sometimes the reason it seems to take forever to capture a copy concept on paper is because you just haven’t figured out exactly what you’re trying to say.

An added benefit: Even though making your idea more narrow might isolate some of your audience, you more than make up for it by having a much more memorable and powerful impact with the customers you do target.

One way to do this is to always be doing the reading and research on products you work on often, even between marketing campaigns. Why? Because when the time comes to write down a sales pitch with authority, you’ll already have most of the key concepts at your fingertips.

5) PREPARE LESS:

Even though I just told you it’s easier to write faster when you’re better prepared, there’s a flip side to that coin. That is, sometimes the trouble copywriters have with getting a promo done quickly is TOO much preparation.

Maybe you know the novelist, Lawrence Block. Block is a big believer in just plunging in and letting momentum take him where it will. The speed, he says, comes across as energy on the page.

Outlining is good.  Research is good.  But once you’ve poured your coffee and cracked your knuckles, sometimes the best thing to do is just start typing.

6) BUILD A LIBRARY OF GRAPHIC TEMPLATES:

Some writers are more visual than verbal.

I even know a few writers who actually write their copy inside a desktop publishing program.  If you know Quark or Adobe InDesign, this tip might work for you too.

Start collecting a library of graphic templates. 

Ask designers to give you their files on CD. Use the files to create graphic templates with notes to yourself — "track record goes here" or "sales close starts here" and "main headline goes here." Then, next time you’re in a rush, fill in the blanks.

What if you don’t know diddly about graphic design software?

Then do it on paper. Get together as many blank pages as you think your finished sales letter will fill and staple them together. Then get a black marker and outline the "shape" of your copy. Draw rough sidebars where you think they’ll go, sketch in the pull quotes, mark out space for images you might want to include.

I’ve done this and not only does it help keep you focused on what you do — and don’t do — to get the copy working, but it also gives you a much better feel of how the customer will see your finished piece.

 7) DON’T RE-INVENT THE WHEEL:

Of course, if being "unique" is the soul of a good pitch, you don’t want to be the guy whose every sales letter is a mirror image of the last one.

Still, some things are just so much the same between files it would be a shame to start from scratch each time.  That’s why even the best copywriters build a kind of "riff library" they can go back to for re-crafting repeating elements in their promo pieces.

For instance, keep a generic guarantee paragraph that you re-write between packages. 

Do the same for the reply page. 

Look for parts that will need roughly the same information, from one promo to the next, like track record sidebars, lift letters, and mini-bios of gurus and experts.

Copy and paste the old one into your new document, change all the relevant details, even reinvent the look and some of the way it’s structured if you can. But the point is, it’s often easier — and quicker — to adapt than it is to start from scratch.

Even if you only keep the formatting of the original pieces, you’re developing a de facto checklist of elements you know you’ll need to include. That saves you time.

And isn’t that what this is all about?

Contributed by John Forde
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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8 Comments »

1. Comment by caleb osborne — October 21, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

   John,

   Thanks for the great advice, I already use a little of it when I’m working, but you pointed out a couple more great techniques.

   I’ll be sure to put them to use immediately!

   Best,
   Caleb

2. Comment by Chris Lake — October 21, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

   Thanks John. Always enjoy your articles here and in the Roundtable ezine.

   I like tactic #7 as a way to avoid writer’s block. Starting with some big chunks of boilerplate text in place before you start writing the real guts helps prevent the Big Blank Page Problem. (Credit must go to Carline Anglade-Cole for teaching me this.)

   Cheers,

   Chris Lake

3. Comment by The Rabbi of Response — October 21, 2008 @ 3:06 pm

   John,

   I use the same templates to craft my email campaigns.

   I use a Who-What-When-Where-Why format. This  helps to create a very focused message.

   I also ask myself, "what action do I want my reader to take?" BEFORE I even start answering the format questions.

   So as I’m writing, I’m leading to a specific action that is carefully built around my format.

   Thanks for sharing this with me. You gave me a few ideas I will begin using!

   Warmly,

   The Rabbi of Response

4. Comment by Kevin — October 21, 2008 @ 3:24 pm

   Thanks for sharing such amazing insights, John. I’ve learned a lot from just this post. I’d like to see what else I can learn from you.

5. Comment by John — October 21, 2008 @ 8:46 pm

   John,
   You’ve got a great idea going with the "template".  I am new to the business and was wondering what software is the industry standard.  I suspect its Adobe InDesign….
   Templates will be great for me because I do graphic design and write copy.  Yep…eeeeee!
   Thanks John

6. Comment by Mikhail — October 22, 2008 @ 2:22 pm

   Thanks John!

   I’d like to add some advice for novice: write more sales letters and copy. Every new copy will be better and You can do it faster.

   For me - I need some inspiration for good copy writing. I feel it well and for me this mean it’s time to sit and write copy!

   Best Regards,
   Mikhail Trishin
   Russia
   http://www.napyc.com

7. Comment by Markus Trauernicht — October 22, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

   "The speed, he says, comes across as energy on the page."
   
   That is profound.

   Regards
   Markus Trauernicht from Germany

8. Comment by Louis Burns — October 22, 2008 @ 8:29 pm

   It’s also much faster to use a checklist. AIDA is a good conceptual framework. A good checklist will go into much more detail. That assures that you get consistent results every time.