Thread by @JoeCassandra

T#29

LEARNING HOW TO WRITE BETTER SALES COPY IN 5 MINUTES

My copy has directly sold tens of millions of dollars

But writing copy is a skill everyone should learn to persuade your clients, boss, spouse, the contractor trying to rip you off

Crash course

(unconventional)

👇

2/

First.

You have to love to write. You write daily. You'll be editing. Bosses and clients will look at a piece you spent 5 hours and in 2 minutes will put red lines through it.

Your manager will redline a presentation...

You'll feel like a failure

3/

But that's what you deal with when you get into the "creative" world. Everyone has an opinion

As Don Draper says in one of my favorite interactions talking about copywriting and its process,"People think monkeys can do this"

Does Sex Sell? (youtube)

4/

When talking about writing copy, Don says "They can't do what we do, and they hate us for it."

Point is? You need thick skin because what you do will get changed by everyone from the CFO to the janitor.

5/

Be ready to stand behind your work. Writing can be one of the most vulnerable things you do.

How do I become a Master?

Read and learn from the best:

Read: Gary Halbert, John Carlton, David Ogilvy's books, Joseph Sugarman's book, Bob Bly

6/

Follow some great copywriters on here @nevmed (great tips and courses)

@craigclemens - read his Golden Hippo copy!

Just started following @joserosado @taylorawelch

@alexgarcia_atx tons of marketing/writing tips

@businessbarista - knows how to simplify ideas

7/

It doesn't stop there. Keep going.

Reading a book is only 5% of it. Look at ads you see in magazines, newspapers, on TV.

Is what is written interesting and making you want to act?

Open your junk mail (yes all those AT&T bulk mails sent out) and read their copy.

8/

Typically, it's horrible. Alot of *flash* and *huzzah* without any substance. The reason for all this?

You see what others are doing and what NOT to do (and what you should be doing).

That's another 10% (notice we're only at 15%).

9/

If you don't absolutely love reading copy others do to learn from it, you're not going to enjoy this profession.

Gary Halbert typically tore out ads he thought were great and kept them in a "Swipe" file. Every time he wrote copy, he pulled them all out for inspiration.

10/

But even if you don't want to BE a copywriter professionally, you have to be curious as a cat why something works & why it doesn't.

If you see an ad online more than 3x, usually it means the ad is cookin'.

Read it

11/

Read your Facebook ads. Click and read the pages they link to. People are putting real money on the line to convince you to buy something.

Some are paying $millions for you in your undies to read the ad & buy some pants or CBD

12/

Pick up a Pen

For every new piece of writing, start with a brain dump. Look at the product or service, describe the benefits, what does a customer feel when using it, WHY should they buy it.

A secret?

(This works for when asking for a raise or pitching an idea)

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Write down every reason a customer will say "NO" and then in your writing, subtly, answer those questions.

This is the brain dump process. You aren't editing. All ideas are "good" at this point.

Next...

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Step away. You need time for your brain to organize thoughts. Go read, go walk, go play, go have sex. Anything but thinking about what's written. It's called the Incubation period.

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What you'll find is you'll be taking a shower, walking, having sex, then EUREKA, an idea will hit that will connect different ideas together.

You'll jump out of shower (or the bed) and go and write some more. Here you are still not editing yourself, but developing your flow

16/

Write Your Headline

This is the most important piece. Have you ever caught yourself flipping through a magazine and realize you've skipped most of it?

Sure. I do it with our crummy local newspaper every week

The reason is...

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Because the headlines didn't GRAB you. They didn't reach out of the page and catch your attention to tell your brain "Hey, this is interesting."

30% of your WORK to get someone to read is the headline

Yet too many noobs put 5 seconds of thought into it

18/

You'll have this same issue unless you develop a grabbing headline.

Here are 38 great ideas for a headline, a subject line in an email, a Tweet headline...

bly.com/newsite/Pages/…

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EDIT

The last step in the process is to edit down everything. Take out words. Replace words with ones that have deeper emotion.

Trim the fat. Read everything out loud and hear how it sounds. Normally, you'll find the awkward phrases, the weird sounding words etc.

20/

Mastering?

You become a Master when you understand how to do all this over and over and over and perfecting it over and over.

Soon, your writing gets better. Ideas come faster. Your hourly rate goes soaring.

21/

Mastering is simply taking something (much like a shooting movement in basketball) and repeating it until you know how to do it very well.

Shoot to write at least 500 words per day.

Every email you write, run through the thought process of "what is the reader thinking"

22/

"Joe, this doesn't talk about writing better..."

90% of your writing is preparation. Preparing offer & proof.

The rest is just

-Write how you talk
- Write with easy words (look at this recent 9,500+ word ad I wrote... Grade 3 reading level)

via Hemingway editor

23/

The structure of writing something persuasive is simple

- Pitch the idea/OFFER to interest them
- Follow up with proof/credibility
- Add urgency
- Stack the value of what they get
- Pitch your product

Once you do the right writing preparation, the rest is easy

24/

Same if you're pitching an idea to your spouse for why you should get a convertible

1. Big idea (Wifey can cut loose & look sexy in it)
2. Proof / cred you've been a good hubby
3. Show her the last 1 for sale that's on discount
4. Tell her it's still under warranty
5. Close

25/

Last advice... none of this works if what you're OFFERING the other person is crap

Whether you offer a product/service, it has to be compelling or none of this makes sense.

I'll do other threads on mechanics. But this is the foundation here.

#marketing #writing