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    • What is copywriting

      Copywriting is re-arranging words to make things sell better. It is a text form of salesmanship. But there's a lot more to it than that.

      A short two-minute guide to the art of Copywriting

       

      This is Bobby:

      Hi stick figure

      Bobby is in sales.

      His job is to write 10 emails per day and send them to important people and try to get them to buy stuff.

      He writes emails to ten people......but hardly any respond. 😞

      Business owner looking to increase conversion rate  

      Here's an example email he sends out:

      Business owner writes lots of boring emails with low conversion rate  

      This email is so booorrrringgg.

      Also, the email is totally useless to Mr. MoneyBags so he gets annoyed and doesn't respond:

        Example of poor copywriting in an email  

       

      But then Bobby discovers this art of marketing called "Copywriting."

      He starts furiously studying how to write great copy.

      How To Study Copywriting    

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      You see my friend, copywriting is about:

      Getting them to WANT to engage with you....not spamming them with offers.

      Generously giving something valuable to the person....not just "greedily asking" for stuff.

      Getting them to WANT to buy from you....not out of pressure, but because they enjoy your content and help.

       

      Now that Bobby knows this, he went back and re-vamped his email to Mr. MoneyBags:

      Copywriting examples and resources including Boron Letters and Ogilvy Advertising  

      Now that Bobby is sending Mr. MoneyBags awesome stuff......Mr. MoneyBags is WAY more likely to engage with Bobby!

        Mr MoneyBags Happy With Email  

      Now Bobby sends this new email that's all about GIVING AWESOME STUFF as his template.

      He then sends it to 10 people, and way more people now respond!

      Example of a High Conversion Rate Email with Copywriting  

      Sales went up dramatically.....and the only thing Bobby changed was the copy.

      And that my friend, is the power of Copywriting!

      Now my friend, around the internets you're gonna hear about some different types of copywriting. I shall explain those here: The most common confusion I hear about is this thing called "SEO copywriting." Most likely an agency will approach someone saying they offer SEO Copywriting.

      Here's what SEO copywriting is:

      First of all, the acronym "SEO" stands for:

      Search
      Engine
      Optimization
       

      Search Engine Optimization is the act of trying to get ranked in the top results on a search engine such as Google.

      Essentially what SEO copywriting attempts to do is:
      1.) Find a keyword you're trying to rank for.
      2.) Write articles about the subject.
      3.) Try to rank in the top of the search results for that keyword.

      So let's use an example....

      Bobby has a little side business selling dog leashes: leashes-example-website

      So he does a little keyword research on the word "Dog Leashes" to see what people are searching for in the most volume. Here are his findings:

      SEO Copywriting Keyword Example dog leashes

       

      Now Bobby happens to be into running also, so he notices this great keyword he can write about:

       
      Leashes Example

       

      Now Bobby already has a website with a little bit of a following, so he actually thinks this could make a GREAT article for his readers, AND he can eventually rank highly in the search engine rankings when someone types in "Leashes to run with your dog."

      So Bobby creates a great article like this:

      The Best Leashes To Run With Your Dog

      Hey, I'm Bobby, and I love running with my dog. Here's a picture of me running with him: bobby-running

      So I'm going to talk about the best leashes to run with your dog. As a dog leash business owner AND a runner, I've run with every type of leash, and lemme tell you, it makes a big difference running with each!

      1.) The running belt leash: This running belt leash is my favorite way to run because the leash ties around your waist so it's hands free. (Bobby inserts more cool information on this leash).

      2.) The variable length leash: This is perfect for people running with their dog through a countryside. (Bobby inserts more cool information on this leash).

      3.) The stretchy leash: This is a great leash for people looking to run in urban areas. (Bobby inserts more cool information on this leash).

       

      Bobby tries his very best to make this post the BEST POST ON THE INTERNET about "leashes to run with your dog".

      The reason Bobby is trying to make this article the best article.....is because search engines nowadays are very very smart, and they can tell what articles people are reading and actually enjoy.

      Perhaps in 1999 you could game the search engines by stuffing a bunch of junk articles with keywords, but this doesn't work anymore. In fact, search engines like Google will often ban you from their index if they catch you blatantly trying to spam the search engines with these articles.

      However, search engines LOVE great articles that actually help people!

      Bobby wrote such a great article with examples, techniques, pictures and instructions.....that other websites even linked to his article. The search engines noticed that Bobby's article was getting a lot of attention, and eventually ranked it #1 in the results:

      leashes-example-result

      So if you're going to do some SEO copywriting, make sure you put lots of effort into making your articles THE BEST on the internet.

      *NOTE: I must warn you, if there is some shady marketing company "offering to do SEO Copywriting" for you, you should usually be highly skeptical of this! They are more than likely just going to spam the search engines with junk articles that in the end will hurt instead of help you.    

      What is Direct Response Copywriting?:

      This is a fun question....because this is where the origins of copywriting start. You see my young child......back in the day before this "internet" thing, the only way to reach a mass audience was through physical written words. This could be in the form of:

      • Postcards.
      • Letters.
      • Magazine ads.
      • Newspapers.

      .....notice the similarity of all these things:

      They ALL cost $money$ to print and send!

      This means if you wanted to reach everyone in your town, you had to PAY REAL MONEY to reach everyone's eyeballs. So this is where direct response copywriting comes into play: It's the art of increasing the conversion rate of buyers from your mailings.

      For example:
      Bobby works for a company that sells homes, and part of their marketing is to send out flyers to their surrounding areas.

      Now here's the problem.....sending out flyers isn't all that cheap. Bobby hopped on the USPS pricing calculator, and the cheapest option he found to send 10,000 flyers was $1,830. And that's just for a two-sided postcard, not even a full letter!

      Direct Response Pricing

      So it's Bobby's job to use his experience of direct response copywriting to maximize this $1,830 per 10,000 customers.

      So the way Bobby does this is by testing a couple different versions of the ad. He designs a couple of them, and his first one looks like this:

      Direct Response Copywriting Bad Example

      Bobby sent this flyer to 10,000 people in the area, and only 2 people responded to it. So if we run the math, the conversion rate looks like this:

      [Total Responses] / [Total Send] = Conversion Rate

      [2] / [10,000] = 0.02%

      The ad was not getting responses. Possibly because it was too vague. Possibly because it wasn't targeted to the right people.

      So Bobby, being a good direct response copywriter, learned from his mistakes and ran another test that:

      • Targeted people within a 5 mile radius of the home builder.
      • Targeted only people in apartment buildings (who are obviously renting their homes).

       

      So then Bobby created this direct response flyer for those targeted renters:

      Front of flyer:

      Direct Response House Ad

      Back of flyer:

      Direct Response Copywriting Good Example

      The results of this mailing were off the charts thanks to Bobby!!

      [130 Responses] / [10,000 Sent] = 1.3% Conversion Rate!

      Of these 130 calls, many people ended up purchasing a home.

      That means the $1,830 Bobby spent on sending that batch of flyers resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.

      Sales went up dramatically on this piece of mail thanks to Bobby's copywriting knowledge!

       

      So......where is your copywriting actually used?

      It varies depending on what type of copywriter you are, but here's a list of examples.

      The places where your words will be put can include:

      • Direct mail brochures.
      • Educational videos for YouTube or digital products.
      • Sales videos.
      • Internal training videos.
      • Podcast scripts.
      • Phone sales scripts for company salesmen.
      • Blog posts used for content marketing.
      • Public speeches.
      • Webinar scripts.
      • Emails for salespeople.
      • Emails for new customers.
      • Emails in and autoresponder campaign.
      • .....the list goes on.

      The good news is, there's a lot of work out there for good copywriters.  For example, I consult as a copywriter on the side, and usually a company will bring me in to re-write their copy on something that performs terribly.

      Often it will be their emails or autoresponder campaign.  Almost immediately after the consultations, the emails will perform better resulting in a ton more business.

      So a copywriter writes words on a page, that help sell more.   So my friend, now you know what copywriting is, and how it can dramatically help nearly any business.

      Thanks for reading!

      P.S. If you liked this article, consider signing up to my newsletter.  When you do:

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      I pride myself on making my email newsletter like a completely free education in copy.

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