8 Sure Fire Ways To Creating Copy That Sells

In my Marketing workshops for small business owners I talk a lot about how important it is to get your message right before you worry about where to put it. I call this simply – The Message VS The Medium.

In my experience working with 100s of SMEs over the years they too quickly race to deciding that they need a website, or a brochure or a telemarketing campaign or an ad…You get the idea. The problem is they don’t give the necessary thought in to deciding what to say. And I think I know why…IT’S HARD! Most of us are not born copy writers…many of us don’t think we’re creative.

So we find ourselves writing copy for our precious business’s marketing material that often misses the mark because it’s either long-winded, feature driven, poorly constructed and so on.

So, what to do? Well, whilst I’m no professional writer myself, experience has shown me a few tips and tricks that will go along way to making your marketing copy sing. In no particular order they are:

1. Write as if you were writing to an old friend, telling them about your business.
2. Employ an expert…You’ll find many willing copy writers at www.elance.com
3. Turn every point in your existing copy in to a benefit. So, if your product comes in 52 different colours then change this to there’s a colour to suit every decor.
4. Write your copy so an eight year old can understand it.
5. Write what you believe to be the ideal copy to sell your business offer and then work backwards removing every single word that is not required…Less is definitely more.
6. Write in point form…we tend to consume bulleted information better anyway. Big, chunky paragraphs can often look way too scary!
7. Inject your personality in to the copy…Avoid being formal and uptight. Have some fun with it.
8. Write with this in mind…People don’t care about my business. What I hear you say. Well, that’s the harsh reality…we’re al bombarded with advertising and marketing messages all day long. Why should people care more about mine than the next one? Write great copy and you’ll find out.

Once you’ve got compelling copy that really does sell your business then worry bout where to put it. Remember…MESSAGE comes before MEDIUM.

What do you think? What do you do to ensure your marketing copy jumps off the page?

One Response to “8 Sure Fire Ways To Creating Copy That Sells”

1. Cory Says:
   March 30th, 2009 at 4:19 am

   And remember to make the message relevant to the reader. Don’t insist on writing about how YOUR COMPANY’S products/services are great. Don’t toot your horn. Instead, relate to the reader by writing to him/her. Use words like your, you, etc. The reader shouldn’t have to ask, “What’s in it for me?” It should be obvious.

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