Practical Copywriting: 12 Steps to Boost the Persuasive Power of Your Marketing Copy
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Marcia Yudkin
Apr 23, 2013, 4:00:06 AM4/23/13
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Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Marcia Yudkin
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Article Title: Practical Copywriting: 12 Steps to Boost the Persuasive Power of Your Marketing Copy
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 600
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=617207&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=617207
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=617207
*********************** ARTICLE START ***********************
Whether consumers or business buyers, people today are skeptical and tight with their discretionary money. If customers have been slow to sign up for your paid offerings, try these practical copywriting exercises to increase the persuasive power of your marketing pitches.
1. For your company, think up reasons why people might think you�re not good enough to deserve their business. Explain why those are, on the contrary, excellent reasons to buy from you.
2. Estimate your company�s positivity score by giving yourself one point for every upbeat, sunny-side-up web page, article, blog post, etc. and one minus point for each instance of complaining, criticism, gloom or loathsomeness. After adding everything up, you should normally arrive at a solidly positive number. If not, make plans to shift your tone.
3. Find factual statements that you�ve written as if their significance to the customer is obvious. Give each such statement the �So what?� treatment. Ask �And what�s good about that?� or �Why is that a good thing?� If your answers clarify the appeal of your statement, flesh out what you had written with clearer, more explicit implications.
4. Before finalizing a sales page, letter or postcard, pause to consider both the psychological and practical stakes involved if the recipient fails to take action. For example, they may become liable for fines and penalties, they may remain stuck with an unsolved problem or they might always be wondering what would have happened if they�d taken a certain risk. If you can work such issues into the piece without becoming cheesy, do so.
5. Have three people who don�t know you or your business visit your web site and guess your average transaction size. If the guesses surprise you, make adjustments to the wording, design or order forms on the site and ask again.
6. Imagine that guarantees were declared illegal. Think of five things you could do that you�re not currently doing to strengthen customers� confidence in your company. Then go ahead and do at least three of those things anyway.
7. Use the Supreme Court Nominee Test on your marketing copy. Is there anything that the opposition party could challenge as exaggerated, unsupported or downright false? If so, change it or take it out.
8. Reread your sales copy from the point of view first of someone super-cautious, second, someone super-skeptical and third, someone who likes to go wild wondering �What if�?� Make any changes needed to keep those people interested in buying from you.
9. Reread your web site and other marketing materials, and describe everything you can think of that your reader would naturally expect because of what you wrote. Then ruthlessly evaluate whether or not you fulfill those promises. If you fall short, adjust either your marketing copy or your services.
10. If you have a business plan, proposal or do-or-die sales page, ask colleagues to read it with a highlighter pen in hand, marking the three most compelling sentences in it. Chances are, these provide clues about how to capture attention for your message and explain it quickly.
11. Ask your five most recent new clients what feelings triggered them to seek your services. Appeal to those feelings in your marketing copy to establish rapport.
12. When looking for a concise little zinger, make a list of conventional ideas, clich�s, misimpressions and boring sayings about what you�re promoting. Then look at them slowly one by one to see what kind of twist you can put on it.
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin, a mentor for copywriters and marketing consultants, is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity and Meatier Marketing Copy, from which this article is adapted. Learn about her Marketing Insight Guides series on copywriting, persuasion, marketing: http://www.yudkin.com/guides/index.htm
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=617207
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
Message delivered directly to members of the group:
publish-the...@googlegroups.com
*****************************************************************
Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Marcia Yudkin
*****************************
IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms
- You have permission to publish this article electronically in free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as the bylines are included.
- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial purposes. The article should only be reprinted in a publicly accessible website and not in a members-only commercial site.
- You are not allowed to post/reprint this article in any sites/publications that contains or supports hate, violence, porn and warez or any indecent and illegal sites/publications.
- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in an opt-in email list only.
- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that contains the article to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=617207
- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of the URL where the article is posted to http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=617207
- We request that you ask permission from the author if you want to publish this article in print.
The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as part of its Article Distribution feature ( http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT own this article, please respect the author's copyright and this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.
*****************************
Article Title: Practical Copywriting: 12 Steps to Boost the Persuasive Power of Your Marketing Copy
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 600
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=617207&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Contact The Author: http://www.isnare.com/eta.php?aid=617207
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=617207
*********************** ARTICLE START ***********************
Whether consumers or business buyers, people today are skeptical and tight with their discretionary money. If customers have been slow to sign up for your paid offerings, try these practical copywriting exercises to increase the persuasive power of your marketing pitches.
1. For your company, think up reasons why people might think you�re not good enough to deserve their business. Explain why those are, on the contrary, excellent reasons to buy from you.
2. Estimate your company�s positivity score by giving yourself one point for every upbeat, sunny-side-up web page, article, blog post, etc. and one minus point for each instance of complaining, criticism, gloom or loathsomeness. After adding everything up, you should normally arrive at a solidly positive number. If not, make plans to shift your tone.
3. Find factual statements that you�ve written as if their significance to the customer is obvious. Give each such statement the �So what?� treatment. Ask �And what�s good about that?� or �Why is that a good thing?� If your answers clarify the appeal of your statement, flesh out what you had written with clearer, more explicit implications.
4. Before finalizing a sales page, letter or postcard, pause to consider both the psychological and practical stakes involved if the recipient fails to take action. For example, they may become liable for fines and penalties, they may remain stuck with an unsolved problem or they might always be wondering what would have happened if they�d taken a certain risk. If you can work such issues into the piece without becoming cheesy, do so.
5. Have three people who don�t know you or your business visit your web site and guess your average transaction size. If the guesses surprise you, make adjustments to the wording, design or order forms on the site and ask again.
6. Imagine that guarantees were declared illegal. Think of five things you could do that you�re not currently doing to strengthen customers� confidence in your company. Then go ahead and do at least three of those things anyway.
7. Use the Supreme Court Nominee Test on your marketing copy. Is there anything that the opposition party could challenge as exaggerated, unsupported or downright false? If so, change it or take it out.
8. Reread your sales copy from the point of view first of someone super-cautious, second, someone super-skeptical and third, someone who likes to go wild wondering �What if�?� Make any changes needed to keep those people interested in buying from you.
9. Reread your web site and other marketing materials, and describe everything you can think of that your reader would naturally expect because of what you wrote. Then ruthlessly evaluate whether or not you fulfill those promises. If you fall short, adjust either your marketing copy or your services.
10. If you have a business plan, proposal or do-or-die sales page, ask colleagues to read it with a highlighter pen in hand, marking the three most compelling sentences in it. Chances are, these provide clues about how to capture attention for your message and explain it quickly.
11. Ask your five most recent new clients what feelings triggered them to seek your services. Appeal to those feelings in your marketing copy to establish rapport.
12. When looking for a concise little zinger, make a list of conventional ideas, clich�s, misimpressions and boring sayings about what you�re promoting. Then look at them slowly one by one to see what kind of twist you can put on it.
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin, a mentor for copywriters and marketing consultants, is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity and Meatier Marketing Copy, from which this article is adapted. Learn about her Marketing Insight Guides series on copywriting, persuasion, marketing: http://www.yudkin.com/guides/index.htm
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=617207
*********************** ARTICLE END ***********************
- To distribute your articles go to http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php
- For more free-reprint articles go to http://www.isnare.com
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