Forgetful? Blame Happiness
According to a recent study published in the “Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,” the more positive your mood, the more likely you are to forget important details… Continue Reading
Headlines and Leads
Getting your copy started on the right foot.
#486: A Sweet, Dark History of the Promise Lead
When writing a Promise-Driven Lead, where should you start? The default for most marketers is to study the product and just figure out what it can do best. We’ve all heard, after all, the lesson about “features” versus “benefits.” First… Continue Reading
What’s The “Big Idea?”
What’s the single toughest secret you’ll ever learn, if you hope to blow the doors off the world of writing sales copy? For all the clever metaphors you’ll ever come up with, for all the phrases and images, the formatting… Continue Reading
10 Proven Ways To Make Your Message “Go Viral”
First, can I confess something? I hate talking about “content” like this. It’s the word itself. So cold, so academic. It sounds like we’re talking dispassionately about fuel grades at a gas pump. “Content,” of course, just means the stuff… Continue Reading
The Details That Close Sales
Any good copywriter also knows that when you really… really… want to make for a powerful sales pitch, digging into the small details can be your most powerful technique… Continue Reading
What Keeps Your Customer Up at Night?
But in each case, what makes the headline work is not just empathy for a reader’s concerns. That’s only the hook. Where the copy works is in offering a final, credible solution. If you can manage that… well then… you’ve nothing to be afraid of, right? Continue Reading
Which Sells Best, Stories or Stats?
Carnegie-Mellon, says the book “Made to Stick,” did a study. They invited participants in to take a survey. The topic wasn’t important — something about tech products — but what mattered was the small payout. Each participant got paid with five… Continue Reading
The Dark Side of Testimonial-Driven Sales Copy
It’s always a great idea to throw lots of testimonials into your copy. Except when it isn’t. Here are some times when you might not want to run a testimonial past your audience… When it’s emotionally unsatisfying and vague: “I found… Continue Reading
How One Big Idea Beats Lots of Small Ones
“Shut up and listen,” I said. I was talking to Michael Masterson, the great copywriter, publisher, and best-selling author. Had I lost my mind? Not at all.
Rather, I was summing up the core idea behind one of the best-selling books of all time, Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” That, in my opinion, is the key idea behind that book. And the fact that it’s so easily defined has a lot to do with its success.
Michael came back with another example… I delivered a third… and the volley went back and forth, until we ran out of ready examples. It wasn’t a game. See, Michael and I — along with another brilliant copywriter, Bill Bonner — had just finished running four straight days of an intensive, private copywriting bootcamp…
Which Promises Work Best?
“That’s right – it filets, it chops, it dices and slices. It never stops. It lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn, and it picks up the kids from school. It plays a mean rhythm. It makes excuses for lipstick on… Continue Reading