In this article I’m about to give you the 7 essentials of writing good marketing copy. Every page where you want to sell something or even offer a free gift will need these elements to encourage people to take advantage of your offer.

If you miss any one of these 7 essentials out from your copy you will seriously reduce the effectiveness of your copy.

1.    Title – this has to make a promise about what you’ll deliver and it must speak to your audience – so an audience we were speaking to on one of our web pages wanted more money and they wanted to make a difference in the world and they wanted to start doing that right now… and this is something we can deliver, so our title reflected all of those things.

2.    Sub-title – the subtitle builds on the title, it build the picture and gives just a little more of the critical information that might attract someone to read on.

3.    Rapport/Credibility piece –  I know the people I wanted to attract to a  programme I was launching wanted to attract clients rather than “win” clients. I know they are interested in “flow” rather than being “motivated” and I know they wanted me to show them the “how-to”. So I used their language to build instant rapport and credibility.

4.    We then need to get the benefits across quickly and we do this through a bullet point listed benefits. When your benefits create curiosity, they tend to work better, than when you just state something as a fact.

5.    Social proof – testimonials, show other people what they got from your offer. Use names where you can. Use pictures if you can get them. Use video whenever you can and the more specific you can be, the better.

6.    A call to action – this is about telling them what to do next. If you leave this out, it will seriously hurt your results.

7.    Contact details (either get theirs or give yours or both)

I want to mention that what I have covered here are just 7 essentials… These are just the basics.

Good wishes
Neil

p.s A great resource for something in more depth is my Insiders Secrets programme. Read about it here: http://www.communitysoulbusiness.com/insiderssecrets/

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What other essentials do you think are needed for great marketing copy?  Would love your thoughts on this blog. Leave a comment below.

In this article I’m about to give you free and easy ways to develop your marketing copywriting skills.

The first tip is that to become a good marketing copywriter, you have to become a good marketing copy reader.

This means you have to invest time reading and learning from good copy and good copywriters. When I’m surfing the net, or when I get an email that I just can’t stop reading, I keep a copy of it.

I keep it in what I call a “swipe file”.  So this is where all the “good copy” goes that I receive. When I then come to writing copy or when I’m stuck on copy, I’ll go to the swipe file and look for inspiration.

Over time you start to notice what works for your audience and then less and less of your copy is written from scratch… because when you see what works for your audience, you repeatedly crib your own best copy, making adjustments based on what you’re offering.

So this is a free and easy way to start learning what sells.

A second free and easy way to become a better copywriter is to know who your customer is.

So many people forget – or resist – clearly defining who the customer is. In coaching sessions I’ve seen people wriggle and squirm on this issue or even tell me it doesn’t work, or their market really isn’t like that.

Personally, I believe you honour, respect and show love to your potential buyers when you take the time to get to know them by defining them.

If you never define who your customer really is, how will you ever really know what your customer REALLY wants – which isn’t always what you offer, or at least not the way people often offer it.

When you fail to define your customer what you do is end up pressuring or shoe-horning someone into buying your product or service and that never feels good, for you or them. But when you define them and what they want, it becomes easy and natural.

Interestingly when I spoke to one of the world’s top marketing copywriters about writing copy for us, guess what his first question was?

“Who’s it for?” Now if that’s a question he asks right up front, who do you think you should be?

When we really defined who a particular event was for and created marketing for that niche, 77% of the people who hit that web page took the offer we were making.

Later when we tested the same page against less targeted people, the conversion fell to 38% (which is still good – but can you see clearly the difference in what happens when you are more specific?).

Honour, respect and love your customers today by defining who they are and what their real needs are.

Good wishes
Neil

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Would love your input: Have you made it a point to get to ‘know’ your customers? How does this help with your marketing copy?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

All top copywriters agree on this point.

They probably wouldn’t even go to far into a writing project without spending time understanding this.

And if you miss this step in your marketing copy, you’ll be missing out on one of the most important ingredients in your copy, be that on your website, or in your brochures.

What I’m talking about here is understanding what stands between a client walking away from you without buying or buying.

We are talking about their objections.

In an event we once ran on networking skills, I knew we needed to overcome objections to have people attend. If we simply told them this was an event to  improve networking skills a number of people would have thumbed their noses at it and missed out on the content that would have helped even the most seasoned networker.

But that’s not all…

There are a group of people who are networking phobics, how do you include them and make it safe?

So I needed to engage both groups of people in the copy and then honestly and with integrity make them a promise we would deliver on.

As you think about your marketing copy, you might start to now see what objections people have when thinking about buying from you. Is it location? A fear? The price? Something else?

An objection one of my mentoring clients spoke about was that they felt scared because we made everything so easy and they felt they would get all the things they needed and wanted and that scared them.

In other words, if they decided to take out our service, they knew with 100% conviction that nothing would stand between them and where they wanted to get to.

By knowing what may hold a client back from taking on your life changing service, you can help them.

Best wishes
Neil

Do you agree with this? Would like to hear what you have to say, so feel free to leave a comment.

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

One of the reasons a lot of people struggle is because of poor marketing copy. If you look around the Internet you’ll see lots of sites that are poorly written.

You can spot the poorly written websites very quickly because they mostly focus on the web site owner… their experience, their knowledge and how their product or service works.

Some of this is important information, but unless you relate this to how all that knowledge and experience or how your product or service is really going to make someone’s life easier or better, it’s not going to compel someone who is interested in becoming invested in your product or service.

The example here is websites, but it could just as easily be any other aspect of marketing.

As a customer, when you or I read something, we’re subconsciously hunting for: what’s in this for me? Can I get what I need? Can this person or business solve my problem?

And these days… when you have so much competition… and it’s all easily accessible… especially via the Internet… it’s the people writing the most engaging, compelling copy… that draw in the crowd.

And you’ll know how well you’re doing with compelling people to buy from you based on how your bank balance looks… and I say that with lots of love and I say that because what you put down on paper, or on a website, is probably also a fair reflection of how you verbalise the difference you make…

There are no short cuts to writing good copy. It is an art. But there are three options open to you as I see it:
1. You can invest in getting someone who knows how to write marketing copy – I charge £1000 for a web page (to give you an idea)
2. Get someone who does marketing and says they are a copywriter, (usually a few hundred pounds)
3. Learn how to do it yourself

Whatever you do, don’t take short cuts with your marketing copy… it’s your lifeblood.

Best wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

In writing any good marketing copy there are 7 essentials you have to take care of – without getting overly technical. I’m going to give them to you here, because I want people reading this newsletter to write copy that engages readers and finds them a stream of clients.

So, let me take you through the 7 essentials:

1. Title – this has to make a promise about what you’ll deliver and it must speak to your audience

2. Sub-title – the subtitle builds the picture up more – it expands on the title

3. Rapport/Credibility piece – Speak in the language of the people who will buy from you and let them know why they should listen to you.

4. Benefits – put these in a bullet point list… it makes it easy to read and suggests value, value, value

5. Social proof – testimonials, show other people what they got from you. Use names where you can. Use pictures if you can get them. And the more specific you can be the better.

6. A call to action – this is about telling them what to do next.

7. Contact details (either get theirs using a contact form on your website or give yours if you are using flyers or another advertising method.

For an example of a webpage using these all 7 steps visit: www.communitysoulbusiness.com

When I first wrote the copy in the link above, I had it critiqued by a group of people I mastermind with. Then I rewrote it. I invested around £3500 in hard cash in that copy and then a further £1000 in my own time writing it.

So you can see, it’s not something I just threw together in a few minutes. The title took several attempts and yet when I look at it now it looks really simple. And that’s the way you want it to read. Simple.

The copy was hacked and rewritten. But that page has resulted in around 2000 people signing up for the offer we make.

Just using the seven essentials will give you better results in from your marketing efforts, but that’s not the be-all-and-end-all in copywriting. There is a lot more for you to learn… and it never stops!

Best wishes
Neil

http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

What happens when you don’t invest in good marketing copy….

One of the reasons a lot of people struggle is because of poor marketing copy. If you look around the Internet you’ll see lots of sites that are poorly written and you can spot these very quickly.

If your website is one of those websites, then what happens to the visitors?

An uninterested website visitor clicks away if they can’t find what they want in seconds. That means that whatever your website costs you to create, host and manage costs you money.

So, how do you draw a crowd with your marketing copy?

One of the topics I covered with my Insiders Secrets group recently was what is important and why and how to write it and we went into a great deal of depth on the subject and that’s not something I can cover in an article.

What I can share here is that there is information you must get across and you have to put that in a way that is going to compel someone, who is interested in being your customer, to become your customer.

As a customer, when you or I read something, we’re subconsciously hunting for what’s in this for me? Can I get what I need? Can this person or business solve my problem?

And these days… when you have so much competition… and it’s all easily accessible… especially via the Internet… it’s the people writing the most engaging, compelling copy… that draw in the crowd.

And you’ll know how well you’re doing with compelling people to buy from you based on how many people buy from your web pages and how your bank balance looks… and I say that with lots of love, and I say that because what you put down on paper, or on a website, is probably also a fair reflection of how you verbalise the difference you make, too…

In the last 2 years we’ve run five really big events. And these are the events where we’ve really pulled out the stops on on the  marketing front. And these events have pretty much all been sell outs. In one case we had 1000 people register, in another more than 1800. On two other occasions, we couldn’t get any more people in the room.

And this was mostly due to the marketing copy we used to help people get along to these events.

Best wishes
Neil

What are the 3 MUST-KNOWS of writing Compelling Marketing Copy?

First, there’s a saying, that to become a good copywriter, you have to become a good copy reader… that means reading good marketing copy and learning.    This is one of my habits.

Because I have developed good copy habits and a process for writing, I never have to scratch my head and wonder where to start.

In fact in my newsletter to my Insiders Secrets group recently, I mentioned to them that I spent 15 minutes writing copy that sold 3 products in 90 minutes while I prepared a presentation and gave it.

The people on that call know something, though – my marketing copy is never just thrown together. I was able to create that copy so quickly because of the habits I have developed.

The second must know is: know your customer.

And I know that you know this, but I’m mentioning it here, because even though I know that you know, that you need to know your customer, so many people forget this or resist clearly defining who the customer is.

And if you never define who your customer really is how will you ever know the third must know of good copywriting…

The third must know of good copywriting is to be clear on what your customer REALLY wants – which isn’t always what you offer, or at least not the way people often offer it.

And unless you have these 3 Must-Knows clearly in your cells, you shouldn’t even start a website or a brochure, because you don’t know who you are offering to, or why or how to write the copy.

Interestingly enough, I was talking to Alan Forrest Smith a few weeks ago, and Alan is one of the world’s most sought after copywriters, charging thousands to write your marketing campaigns and the the first thing he asked me was “Who is your customer?”

Now if that’s one of the world leaders in marketing and copywriting asking that question, we all need to pay attention.

Best wishes
Neil

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website and register for his free newsletter at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I recognise a number of people reading this article are just not getting the results that you want from your brochures, flyers and websites.

These brochures, flyers and websites are marketing that never sleeps and it’s your marketing copy that for many people determines if you have people queueing up at your door or not.

To attract business we have to represent ourselves well on page because it’s our written material that sells us. And the more you automate your marketing through websites, auto-responders and emails, the more important your copy becomes.

You may also want your marketing copy to compete with the best in the field. To do that there are some essentials, and if you include them, that can set you apart from so much of the competition and have you recognised right up there with the leaders in your field.

There are also things that set ordinary marketing copy apart from great copy which sells quickly and easily.

Creating great marketing copy is something I’ve invested in. I write much of my own copy, but I will always run it by either a mastermind group who understand marketing copywriting, or I’ll talk it through with a mentor or an expert.

Doing these things has raised the bar, with many of our pages now getting results of 38%-84%.

In the last year we’ve invested thousands into this area of development, but I have to be honest and admit I made a big mistake…

When I first looked at at how much copywriting cost, I decided it was too expensive. In making that choice I failed to look at what it would cost me if I didn’t invest.

Looking back this is something I would have invested in much sooner.

Have you invested in copywriting? Or is that another area of your business where you are saying you can’t afford to invest? What is failing to invest costing you longer term?

Best wishes
Neil