December 2017

Copywriting tip for the holidays:

Know that there’s more important stuff out there than copywriting. More important stuff than your sales metrics.

And truly…

The best copywriters are deeply interested in things totally unrelated to copywriting.

And truly…

It helps them write better copy, to have other hobbies. And other interests. Because when they do other things, it gives the copywriting part of their brain rest. Which is necessary… if you want that part of your brain to stay happy, and healthy, and alive, and fresh.

So go enjoy your family. Your friends. Pursue God. Eat good food. Drink eggnog.

It’ll be good for your copywriting. And your soul.

This will be my shortest post yet:

No.

Email marketing is not dead.

To quote Perry Marshall…

Email marketing is *still* the center of the marketing universe at the onset of 2018. It’s far from dead. It will not die in the foreseeable future. It is all-important. It is worth mastering. It is more important than your “social media.” If you pay attention to how online political campaigning runs these days… you’ll notice that when Trump (for example) wants to rile people up, he uses social media. But when he wants to raise money, he uses email. There’s a reason it happens this way.

You can heave a big sigh of relief. Because the trick that I’m about to reveal… for driving your email opens through the roof… is neither hypey, deceptive, nor manipulative(as many “tricks” for improving open rates tend to be…).

That’s why it’s so great.

The trick is to refer to something that’s globally trending in your subject line. And even better if the trending topic is NOT intuitively related to your product/business. Like if you write about copywriting… and you use “Bitcoin” in your subject line. Like I did in the headline for this post. Not intuitively connected. And so open rates will soar… because people will be curious about why *you* would be sending them an email about “Bitcoin,” or “Trump,” or “Brexit,” or whatever the trending topic may be at the time. And then… *click*

Just make sure the trend is really big… and that the vast majority of your readers actually know about it.

And also make sure that you meaningfully relate your email to whatever trending topic you choose. Or you’ll do more harm than good. (See my post about the terrible things that happen if you fail to “pay off” your subject lines) For good examples of trend-riding subject lines that actually get paid off in the email body… go sign up for Ben Settle’s email list. He does this kind of thinger masterfully.

And now that you’ve learned another piece of sage copywriting wisdom…

Go get ’em, Tiger!

In copywriting…

“P.S.” doesn’t stand for “Post Scriptum.”

It stands for “Pebble in Shoe.”

Let me explain…

The best  “P.S.” sections are the ones that throw a pebble in your shoe. So that as you walk away from the email… or the sales letter… you can’t stop thinking about the offer you were exposed to. Because every step you take, the little pebble in your shoe jabs you. Reminding you of the pebble’s (read: “offer’s”) existence:

Step… Step… Step…

Ouch… Ouch… Ouch…

So how do you do this?

How do you “throw a pebble in your reader’s shoe” with your P.S. section?

One of my favorite ways is to add one final, concise, well-crafted pitch. Dig deep into the reader’s pain point one more time, concisely… or maybe confront one of their lingering objections head on… and then re-state the offer. And make it sound kind of “ultimatum-ish”:

P.S. If you’re still unsure about whether this is for you… I totally get it.

But let me say one last thing: the proof is in the pudding. My students are out there KILLING it. And they were NOT that good when they started. Just ask them; what they accomplished, they accomplished through this program.

…and if they can do it, so can you. I fully believe that. So let’s sign you up before I end my special offer tonight. Click here to sign up.

Get the idea?

That’s not the only way you can effectively use your “P.S.” section – but it’s one of my favorites.

If you want to try using your “P.S.” to do something else, that’s fine.

Just remember the goal of this section:

You’re trying to leave the reader with one, final “sticky” thought that’s gonna swish around in their minds as they walk away… and eventually cause them to come back to the letter, pick up their phone, and dial the number.

So I repeat…

In copywriting, “P.S.” doesn’t stand for “Post Scriptum.”

It stands for “Pebble in Shoe.”

At the end of the day…

We’re all just wounded children. Still trying to get over the crippling insecurities seared into our souls back when we were 5-year-old kids running around on the playground. When the other kids called you “fat.” When you watched Dad beat Mom in one of his drunken fits. When you wanted – no, needed – somebody to hold you… but nobody did.

When you truly grasp this…

That deep down inside, we’re all just wounded children…

…and that THIS is why people do violent things, terrible things, desperate things, so many things…

…it can unlock a new fount of compassion in your heart, for the world.

And also…

Understanding this truth is *key* if you want to speak to people’s hearts. Because speaking to people’s hearts is simply a matter of speaking to the wounded kids inside of them.

So go meditate on this one.

Journal about it.

Grasp it.

See it.

And when you do start seeing it…

Start talking to the wounded kids inside of people. It’ll unlock new possibilities for emotional connection, mutual understanding, and trust. All things you should seek as a marketer.

Well, and as a human being.

Most marketers care WAY too much about shiny little tips & tricks that will “boost your conversion”… and “double your click-throughs”… and all that.

And they care not NEARLY enough about the deep, underyling principle stuff.

Here’s a good rule of thumb:

If a piece of advice was NOT 100% relevant a hundred years ago… and will NOT be relevant a hundred years from now… it’s probably not that important.

The most important stuff is timeless.

It never expires.

It was always true.

And it *will* always be true.

These truths… these “deep principles”… when you grasp them, and really inject their truth into your fingers, and your entire body, and your habit structures… they’re what matter. They’re the things that make a world-class copywriter. Or salesman. Or investor. Or musician. Or novelist. Or chef.

Not tactics.

Not font colors, spacing, emojis, placement of commas, etc.

Timeless principles. These are what really matter.

Please don’t ever do this.

When you do this…

Your business will bleed customer trust like a dude with a busted artery.

It’s easy – and it can even be profitable in the short term – and that’s why people do it – but it hurts your long-term livelihood. By a lot.

And yet…

People do this all the time.

Ugh.

Cheap marketing tricks—used by shortsighted people.

So what am I talking about?

Not paying off your subject lines.

By which I mean any attempt to make a super interesting/curiosity-inducing subject line… that gets people to open your email… but which you never actually connect to, relate to, or “pay off” in your email body.

An extreme example…

Say I had an email that was selling hand-crafted bicycles.

And I used the subject line, “OMG. Trump just DIED. Story enclosed…”

…and then in your email body, you mentioned nothing about Trump. Or death. But instead you did your normal bicycle spiel. And tried to sell cool bikes.

EVERYONE would open that email.

NO ONE would buy.

And EVERYONE would feel cheated.

So NO ONE would open your emails again.

And yes, that’s an exaggeration. Some people might buy. Some people might not feel cheated, because—coincidentally—they were looking for a good deal on a hand-crafted bike. And they got that. And some people would still open your emails—even if they felt cheated after opening your Trump one.

But you WOULD lose a whole buncha trust. By not “paying off” your subject line.

And in email marketing…

Trust…

Reader joy…

Feelings of relief & gratitude that they opened your email…

These are the metrics you should be aiming to ‘max out.’ Not opens. Not click-throughs.

So NEVER cheat your reader. Not even a tiny bit. Always reward them when they open your emails. Go above and beyond. Make the email MORE interesting than they were expecting.

And your list—and your emails—and your profits—will do well.

Always shoot for short. Simple words. Nothing too confusing. Fewer words per sentence.

This will improve your copy’s readability.

Which will increase your readership.

Which will increase your conversion.

This has been proven time and time again – that there is a direct correlation between the simplicity of your copy and its conversion.

And if you want an objective tool that will tell you exactly how simple/complicated your copy is…

Go here:

Flesch Kincaid Grade Level Readability Test for Copywriters

…and enter your writing in the text box.

Then click “check text readability.”

It will grade the reading level of your copy.

If you score higher than grade 8, try again.

For most markets, you should be shooting to score grade 4-6.

In my experience…

Beginners are bad at writing headlines because they start at the wrong place.

Let me explain.

For every product you write copy for… for every campaign, every event, every service, every business…

There’s a big “pile”… or web…  of interesting facts associated with that product.

This pile might contain unique features of your product.

Or celebrity endorsements.

Or weird applications.

Or related stories.

And the way to write a great headline(or subject line or opening line)… is to sort through that pile of interesting facts, choose the most interesting one, and put it into words.

This – choosing the most interesting fact associated with your product – is something beginner copywriters are very bad at.

Good copywriters are better at it.

Pro copywriters are masters at it.

In my experience…

Beginner copywriters start with the question, “what would make a good headline here?” …and then just start word-vomitting. And making attempts at writing interesting headlines based off of general principles… and vague notions they have about “what makes a good headline.”

And though this can lead to ‘okay’ headlines…

It’s a mistaken approach.

Because it starts at the wrong place.

START by determining what the most interesting fact related to your product is. THEN start putting that to words. Play around with it. Find a compelling way to frame that interesting fact. Then try again. Shave off some words. Add some. Your goal: put this interesting fact into words… in a way that grabs your reader’s attention and gets them to keep on reading.

While finding the right words *is* important…

What’s even more important is finding the right interesting fact.

And the better you get at copywriting, the clearer it will become what the “right” interesting fact for your hook/headline will be. Right off the bat.

If you’re just starting out, you may need to play around with 2-3… and see which one sounds most compelling.

One of the best ways to get people to read your stuff is to fill your sales copy with valuable information.

In other words…

Don’t just promise value in your copy.

Provide value in your copy!

Why?

Because people do stuff that benefits them. And so when they find that reading your sales copy actually benefits them… because it has valuable information in it… they’ll read it.

Not too complicated.

And yet not many copywriters do this.

They fill their copy with promises.

With words that point forward to value… but contain no value in themselves.

This is a mistake.

Fill your copy with value. And people will read it.