Have you ever seen those marketers who have a JV sign up page and rave on about how they got a killer copywriter to write the copy so us JV’s can expect “out of this world conversions”?

Well, getting a good copy writer to write a sales letter is all great but aren’t they forgetting something?

Recently, I came across a brilliant copy writer and marketer by the name of John Ritskowitz…. (I know, I’m plugging another copywriter :o) but I was instantly impressed with the content he shared on his blog so I signed up for his newsletter and was even more impressed with his last email.

He talks about the “Money Zone”.

The money zone is what he calls the synergy between three important areas that make up a successful advertising campaign. It’s nothing new, it’s very fundamental, but often us little guy marketers forget about it.

The 3 things that make up the “money zone” are….

1. Your market
2. Your offer
3. Your sales copy or salesletter

Each of these 3 ingredients play an essential role and when you get them all right, you can be assured you’re hitting the bulls eye for great conversions.

If you get 2 of them right and just 1 wrong…get ready for a loud backfire!

For example, if your offer and copy is spot on, but you’re mailing to the wrong list of people, you won’t get people to see the offer.

If you get in touch with the right crowd but your offer is weak, then good copy just won’t cut it.

And if you send targeted people to a good offer but it’s not sold strong enough by the copy, you won’t convert any visitors into customers.

See how important it is to get all three right? When they are all fine tuned, you’ve got a hit that will go right to the center of the “Money Zone”.

Take the big launches you see every day for example.

Do you remember John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2.0, Frank Kern’s Mass Control, Eben Pagan’s Altitude?

They had awesome sales letters and I’m sure they paid through the nose to get the sales letters written.

But notice that they also had the other 3 factors lined up perfectly.

A lot of people were already convinced and waiting to buy the products before they even saw the sales letter!

Of course, some people were still on the fence about buying it and that’s where a good sales letter can help close sales.

So when marketing your product, yes, you need a good sales letter, but you also need to pay special attention to hitting your market with a great offer…because that’s the way to enter the “Money Zone”!

John Ritskowitz talks more about the Money Zone and how it affects your business in his Fool Proof Profits course, so if you’re interested, I recommend checking it out.

Please leave your comments and thoughts below.

Stuart Stirling

But more often than not, this little trick can increase response dramatically!

Have you ever seen on a sales letter phrases that go “for serious marketers only” or “don’t buy this product if…”?

This is what copywriters call “qualifying your prospect”

And it works because it’s a type of reverse psychology. It throws the reader off…it makes them think “huh? now I’m not allowed to get this? oh yes I am!” and it ups their urge to want the product that much more.

On the other hand, this idea is also related to the 80-20 rule.

The 80-20 rule is a universal rule…it can be related to anything in life, time management, and business.

For this example, we’ll say that 80% of our sales will come from only 20% of those targeted to our offer. The remaining 20% of our sales will come from the remaining and bigger 80% of our audience.

We know that a 100% conversion rate is not going to happen..ever. Not everyone that sees your sales letter will buy. So what’s the point of trying to target everyone? You only really want the 20% who are suitable for your offer.

Narrowing down your suitable customers and talking to that 20% qualifies them. Stating that this product may not be for everyone qualifies them.

For example….

“this product is not for lazy people…it takes some work to get the results”…

“this product is not you you if you’re looking for a quick fix… you must understand that it takes time to see the results, but the results are well worth the wait…blah blah..”

This is the way to really pin point your prospects situation and talk to them directly. It quickly gets rid of the chaff..which doesn’t matter because the other 80% isn’t as significant.

You’ll get much better response from the 20% if you can get into them and target them with accuracy. And you can do that by qualifying them.

Stuart Stirling

Learning copywriting for beginners isn’t that hard. The basics of copywriting are easy to undertand and you’ll see that they make sense.

Here are a few essential copywriting for beginners tips…

• Benefits. And lots of them! The people you are trying to sell to are only interested in one thing..and that’s W.I.I.F.M. (what’s in it for me). So make sure you are highlighting the benefits of the product or service.

• Use the words “You” and “I”. Some copywriters will say that you should strictly use “you” and never use “I” in your copywriting. I would say that “I” is just as important because it gives the reader a feeling that a real person wrote the letter. Of course you need to address them as “you” when you are telling them the benefits for example “this is what it can do you for you!”

• Make it easy to read. The layout of any piece of copywriting must be easy to read and understand. People don’t want to spend time reading trying to work out what your offer is all about. Don’t write long sentences, don’t use words that only brain surgeons and physics professors can understand.

• Strong call to action. Once you present your offer, you need to tell them exactly what to to get it…and why they need to get it now! Tell them to “order now”, or “click on this link now” and tell them how horrible their life will be if they don’t! Your chances of getting those who don’t take action the moment they see it to come back at a later date and take it are extremely low (less than 0.5%) so make your first chance count!

These are the most important copywriting for beginners tips I think will help you the most when you are just starting out.

There are many more elements to learn about sales letters and email copywriting and you can learn about them when you download my free copywriting tips report.

And please leave your comments below….feel free to add any more tips on copywriters for beginners you want to share.

Stuart Stirling

Or maybe it’s just a habit of us humans - but we have a tendency to presume that everyone already knows what we’re talking about.

In marketing, presumption is a huge killer!

Just because you may be an expert, does NOT mean that everyone else is…not even those who you think are your perfect target market.

So instead of presuming…it’s better to assume that people know much less than you think they know…and the reality is it’s even less than that!

The best way to get your message across without going over your prospects heads is to apply the K.I.S.S. factor in all of your marketing messages…

K.I.S.S. stands for….

• Keep
• It
• Simple
• Stupid

The KISS factor applies to all things educational….because when something is simply explained, we can understand it better.

Copywriting essentially is this…to educate people about an offer that will make their lives better.

People are lazy…so if something is too complicated for them, it’s easier to just skip it and move on to the next thing.

It’s the same thing with your copywriting…when your prospect sees your offer….your words…they have to be able to understand it quickly or else it’s out with your ad and in with the next.

- Here are some tips to keep your copywriting simple…

• Use simple vocabulary…one rule I and other copywriters live by is to make sure the vocabulary is simple enough for a junior high school student. Especially when you’re writing about a topic with a lot of specialized terminology, you still need to choose words that a complete beginner to that topic can understand.

• Use short sentences…and space out your lines. I mentioned white space and other design tips in my last post..but again, people would much prefer to read short sentences than long ones. The less they have to think, the more chance you have of keeping their interest.

• Present the offer clearly…for what it is. Call apples, apples…oranges, oranges. If you’re trying to twist words around to make it sound more appealing…or hid something to create mystery…it can have the opposite affect. Your prospects just want to know what it is they’re getting and how it’s going to help them. They don’t care about how fancy you can string your words together.

• Keep it precise. Stay on topic. The moment you go off on an unrelated topic, you’ve lost them. This includes writing too much as well. One great copywriter once said something like “each line of copy is there only to urge people to read the next line” so be careful of writing anything that will throw your prospect because you miss the mark with just one off-target line of copy!

KISS is important to remember in copywriting and all aspects of marketing.

There may be times when you feel stupid writing such basic copy but the copy is not there to entertain you or feed your ego….instead it’s to educate your reader about the benefits and to urge them to take action as simply as you can.

To your success,

Stuart Stirling

Common Website Design Mistake…

Have you ever seen a sales letter or visited a website that had so much jammed into it that you couldn’t see what the heck any of it’s about?

Some people think the more they can cram onto their website, the more effective it will be.

But in fact, bunching up all your text, links and ads in the one space has the opposite effect.

Remember, “the confused mind always says no”.

If you want your visitors to stay on your website, you need to think about the layout and design.

Copywriters are Artists

You might think copywriting is just about the words we use.

Words are very important to communicate the meaning but designing the words in such a way that is creates an attractive overall picture is key to getting readers’ attention and keeping it!

Tips On Text, Color, White Space Etc.

…
TEXT

First, let’s talk about text formatting and design.

There are a few text design elements worth considering.

• Font
  - choose an easy to read font (particularly for headlines - Tahoma, Arial, Georgia)
  - be consistent! use same font for paragraphs and same for headlines.
• Sentence length
  - not too long - keep sentences short and simple
• Paragraph length
  - never go over three lines
• Bolding, emphasis, highlighting
  - use sparingly

COLOR

A word on color…

• Black text on white background
  - never type white on black
• Headlines in Red/Blue
  - or another contrasting color that matches the website theme
• Yellow highlighting
  - super effective when used sparingly
• Website background color
  - choose a color that’s easy on the eye. Eg. light grey, light blue, white or black
• Avoid bright fluorescent colors
  - eg. pink, orange, yellow, green…anything that will burn your reader’s retinas.

WHITE SPACE

White Space is what we call the space on your website or sales letter that is just bare space….just blank white space.

At first, you might think that having white space on your page is a waste of space….but white space is not a waste of space at all.

It’s very, very important if you want your readers to stay on your page.

Like I mentioned at the start of this post, a cluttered website (no white space) is going to confuse your visitor.

Visitors will leave before they read even one line and this is because they won’t know which line to read first.

Cluttered websites are ineffective. Use white space to make your website easy to read and understand.

Places to look out for white space include…

• Line spaces
• Paragraph spaces
• Margins
• Between images and text (more about images below)
• Padding in cells and tables

OTHER TIPS

A few other design tips to stop your reader from skimming and offer a little entertainment value your reader include video, images, johnson boxes, bullets, etc.

Basically, the purpose of these are to give your page some contrast. A page that looks the same from top to bottom won’t intrigue the reader much.

Images and johnson boxes will break up the monotony and stop the reader from skimming.

Images can really enhance the experience for your visitor but using too many or distracting images will take away from the effectiveness.

Images are great, but they are not everything.

You can take away the images and your words can still do a good job selling. But take away the words and only leave your images…how well do you think your images can sell?

Thanks for reading!

Stuart Stirling

I can’t verify that statement to be true but I know that I always read or at least glance at the P.S. on sales letters and in emails. I always include one on my sales letters and emails and I urge you to do so too.

A sales letter without a P.S. is incomplete and your sales will drop!

You can test with and without a P.S. but I am confident that if you leave a p.s. out, your conversions will suffer.

People expect to see a P.S. and if there isn’t one, they feel something is missing.

Also, a P.S. is there to give that final push to buy to those who might otherwise be a lost customer.

What to write in a P.S.?

Your P.S. should summarize your offer and push one last time for the sale.

Include your product or service’s main benefit again, your guarantee, your price (optional) and call to action.

A prospect should be able to get the main gist of your offer and why they need to get your offer now just from reading your P.S.

Do you need a P.P.S.?

A P.P.S. can be used to further create that urgency and get them to buy now. If your offer is limited, then restate the terms of the offer at so they know they will be at a loss if they leave without buying it now.

Warning:

Some copywriters go over board with the P.S.’s and end up with half a page of P.P.P.P.S. that is mostly dribble and smothered with yellow higlighting.

Your P.S.’s need to be compact and compelling. People read the P.S. for those reasons so keep it short for maximum effectiveness.

To your success,

Stuart Stirling

p.s. I knew you’d read this line

Some days we just don’t feel ‘it’. Yes, even copywriters are human.

I don’t want to call it “copywriter’s block”, but sometimes our senses are dull and we can’t come up with that snappy headline phrase, or strong closing ‘call to action’.

As with many other types of writing jobs, copywriters need inspiration to make our words magically dance on the page which is where swipe files can provide us with the inspiration we need.

What is a swipe file?

A swipe file is a collection of appealing copywriting or advertising pieces that you keep ion file for reference at a later time.

Your swipe file can be made up of online ads you see (sales letters/emails) and offline (direct mail pieces like letters/postcards).

Online, I have a folder in my bookmarks (favorites) called “Copywriting Swipefile“) where I save each sales letter that catches my attention and one I feel I could use later for inspiration.

I can access my swipe file from the top of my browser so it really is ‘inspiration from above’.

So when I’m having one of those days where my brain activity is as low as the tide at dusk, I take a look at my collection of sample copywriting pieces for some ideas in my own work.

After all, if the copy in your swipe file intrigues you, it will most likely intrigue other readers, so not using it and borrowing some of it’s strength would be foolish.

*NOTE: Copying an ad word-for-word is a copyright offense. You must not use the exact wording for your copywriting but it is perfectly fine to use it for ideas. Mix the words around, copy the layout, capture the tone of wording.

Your swipefile can be a goldmine so start building it and treasure it like it is gold.

Stuart Stirling

www.BlingCopywriting.com

But what are the things we need to split test on our sales letters?

If you really wanted to, you could go on split testing every element of a sales letter forever.

It depends on how far you want to take it, but for the sake of time and energy, let’s take a look at some of the most common areas of a sales letter that are split tested:

Headlines - wording, color, font, size/length.

Video/audio - compare results with and without.

Testimonials - with or without, many or few.

Graphics - with header graphic, without header.

Bonuses - with or without, many or few

Price - some people prefer the magic “7″ i.e. $17, $47 or the .95c option i.e. $19.95 $49.95

How many different versions of each you want to split test is up to you. Some marketers have experienced drastic results with just testing different headlines.

Most good website/affiliate scripts allow you to split test sales letters. If not, there are some stand alone split testing scripts and software available.

Some split testing software is cheap and some are expensive. But it’s a good idea to use split testing so you can constantly track and improve your sales letters’ conversion rates.

You’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t.

Stuart Stirling

That’s where scarcity in your offer can pay off to increase sales conversions and opt-ins rates etc.

In direct marketing and copy writing, there is no more powerful way to get prospects to buy now than to use scarcity.

Of course your offer has to have the right mix of desire, value and other key factors to get sales, but putting a cap on your offer can add that extra motivation to double or even triple sales.

Some examples of ways to use scarcity in your copy to increase conversions:

• Limited time discount offer
• Limit on the number of sales
• Low introductory price
• Limited time bonuses

Perhaps we could call these scare tactics, because people are afraid to miss out! If they act now they can get a better deal than if they put it off…or miss out completely.

That’s the psychology behind it.

That is why “one time offers” work so well.

You offer a special deal/discount that you normally wouldn’t offer but the catchis that they have to get it now or miss out forever.

This rule of scarcity is very powerful.

But remember that you don’t want to lie about it. If you’re going to raise the price tomorrow, make sure you do it. If the same prospect comes back to your offer tomorrow and sees the same thing, they will know you are a sham!

Scarcity based sales are what keeps many businesses, offline and on, in business. Just look at all the limited sales supermarkets and other stores have in your local shopping center.

Use scarcity wisely in your copy and you will see great sales conversions.

Stuart Stirling

Bling Copywriter

Bullet points are the magic little lists of lines that sit to the right of a “bullet point” that sum up the benefits and features of the offer you are presenting.

Bullets work because they….

• get attention
• break up the text
• are easy to read
• give the reader the “meat”

Bullet points are what people read who want to cut through the crap and know what they will really get when they order your product.

But some people take this liberty too far and write bullet points that are too long and boring which people skip over.

Writing effective bullet points is critical!

I’d almost say they are up there with headlines. They have to be informative yet persuasive.

Here are some tips in bullet point form on “how to write better bullet points” in your sales letters:

1. Try a graphic image like a tick or colorful dot
2. Don’t make them too long - maybe 2 or 3 lines at the most
3. Make sure to list features and benefits
4. Don’t overdo yellow highlighting
5. Bold every second bullet point (idea??)
6. Bold the trigger words only in each line (idea??)
7. Leave a double space between each bullet - you don’t want a clutter of lines
8. Don’t have pages and pages of bullets (boring…it will look like text)
9. Have your bullets block quoted (indented from the rest of the page)
10. Have several sections listing bullets points on the page

Remember, every piece of sales copy writing will work better with the correct use of bullet points.

Bullet points should be used in mails, blog posts, articles, banner ads, video, power point presentations (der!!), and of course email and direct mail.

Make it easy for your prospects - use bullet points!

Stuart Stirling

Comments welcome