For my American readers. . .

Short and sweet. . . Happy 233rd Independence Day – yep, it’s 233 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Enjoy your holiday and celebrations tomorrow.

~ Carol Bentley

Is this true. . .

Do you use a freely available email program such as Google Mail? Have you ever sent proprietary material (e.g. PDF, MP3 etc) as an attachment?

Apart from it being a potentially insecure media to use – it looks like you may be ‘giving your material away’ without realising it. Let me explain. . .

I was doing some research online for a client’s copywriting project when I came across this video on YouTube. It highlights the importance of reading the small print whenever we sign up for a service; whether that’s email or one of the social websites.

Now – I’m not a legal whizz-kid; not by any stretch of the imagination so I’m curious… is this a true and correct interpretation of the terms and conditions quoted?

Take a look – it’s only 4.5 minutes long (and yes, it is advertising an event so it may be hype – I don’t know) – and share your thoughts or, if you happen to be a legal-eagle, tell us… should we be extremely careful about what we’re putting out on these free websites?

Of course there may be some content you don’t mind having passed around, but if someone else is gaining revenue from the content you generate without giving you a share, it doesn’t seem very fair to me. Or am I getting paranoid here?

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. Site update nearly ready to go live – just doing some final testing.

Changing style

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a tweet mentioning I’d decided to modernise my blog layout. So the next time you visit it will look very different.

Why am I updating? Main reason – modernising:

The theme I chose to start with was set up on WordPress v 2.2.1 and now looks very dated.

If you are familiar with WordPress you’ll know that it has now reached v2.8.

The layout theme I had did not work beyond version 2.5 – I’d tried updating before unsuccessfully. So I needed to choose a new theme, get it set up and modified and transfer everything over. And I found someone experienced in WordPress to do that for me – the new look will be applied within the next week.

I’ll let you know when it is freshly launched… I hope you like the new style which is very different to the current one

~ Carol Bentley

Video: 10 Time Management Tips

Do you struggle with time management? I have in the past, which is why I follow some proven time management techniques that reduces the struggle and makes me more effective. In this video I share 10 tips I’m sure you’ll find work extremely well if you adopt them.

Chances are you already know some of these tips, but it doesn’t harm to be reminded occasionally, does it?

[If you can't play the video you can download the plain text 10 Time Management Tips script file]

That was just 10 tips; there are 23 – another 13 – in the Action Unleashed guide, which I’ve got permission to give you as a free gift and for you to share with your friends and colleagues.

You can download it here:

Action Unleashed (Right-click and choose Save Target As or Save Link As)

Note: The software tool I am using in the video has been withdrawn – sorry about that – but the tips still apply.

~ Carol Bentley

Your copywriting subheads – powerhouses or weak as water. . .

After your headline, PS and opening paragraph your subheads are vital to the success of your letter or web page and in a moment I’ll let you into a neat trick on how to check their effectiveness.

Subheads have two crucial, seemingly opposite, functions in your copywriting. If they don’t fulfil these then they are just ‘eye-candy’ breaking up the main body of your text rather than accomplishing an important role in your sales copy.

Do Your Subheads Facilitate Flow?

You already know that the purpose of your main headline is to capture your reader’s attention and intrigue or persuade them to read the first paragraph of your letter.

Your subheads have a similar function – they should draw the reader naturally from the previous paragraph and smoothly into the next. Sometimes they introduce the next focus point of your letter. It’s important to keep that connection; using subheads to jump about from topic to topic confuses and can repel your reader.

Used in this way it makes reading long sales copy particularly easier for the detailed person.

Do Your Subheads Halt Your Reader?

Your subheads should be able to stop your reader in their tracks.

Now this may seem like a contradiction to what I’ve just said. But it is just as important and, in fact, well written subheads do complete both roles.

The type of reader I’m thinking of is the skimmer. Someone who reads the headline, is interested, reads your first paragraph and then skims through the rest of your copy to see what it is about.

The purpose of your subhead is to get the critical points of your message across and magnetically compel the skimmer to stop and read important sections.

In essence, reading just your subheads should deliver your message – certainly enough to appeal to your prospect so they take the action you want and have clearly signposted.

I have had people phone me and say “Your letter was very long, I didn’t read it all but I did get the gist of it.” And that’s fine with me because the ‘gist’ was enough to get them to take action.

Without powerful ‘story-telling’ subheads they would never have got the gist, because they would not have read the main body text.

Creating Powerful Subheads

As I said, subheads should give the gist of your offer whilst – at the same time – drawing your reader through your letter.

If you start your copywriting session developing a large selection of potential headlines you’ll often find many you can adapt into subheads.

Check your swipe file for inspiration on subheads that have been used in successful letters and direct response adverts (you do have a swipe file, don’t you? See my previous post: Your unlimited copywriting resource)

After writing your sales letter check your main body text; is there a phrase within the paragraph that is more powerful than the subhead you have used?

Check How Effective Your Subheads Are… A Neat Trick

Read just your headline and subheads. Do they flow; would they attract attention; are they intriguing enough to make you want to find out more?

Here’s the neat trick I mentioned at the beginning.

Copy your headline, subheads and PS into a separate document. Now read them;

• Do they tell the story?
• Are they all strong statements or questions?
• Are they compelling, even persuasive?

or

• Are they weak and boring?
• Perhaps they don’t flow or make sense?
• Do they need a bit of tweaking or changing completely?

Give your summary document to someone else – who doesn’t know what you are writing about – and ask if they get the gist or are intrigued enough to want to know more.

Advanced Tip

If you write your sales letter in MS Word and use the heading styles there’s an even easier way to get your summary.

Apply Heading style 1 (Ctrl+Alt+1) to your main headline section

Apply Heading style 2 (Ctrl+Alt+2) to your subheads

When you’ve completed your sales letter go into Outline view (Outline from the View menu or use the Outline View tool at the bottom of your document).

Once in Outline view you can set the display to show your main headline and subheads only by choosing to show up to heading level 2 – press Shift+Alt+2

If you print your document whilst displaying your subheads in Outline View you get a printout of your headings only.

So, tell me. Are your subheads working as hard as they should? Are they attracting and compelling your prospect? Or are they scarcely making an impression?

~ Carol Bentley

Your unlimited copywriting resource. . .

Did you know you have a huge copywriting resource there for the taking? The same resource professional copywriters constantly use.

I’m talking about a swipe file. You may have come across the term before, especially if you have read advice from marketing and copywriting professionals about how to improve your sales letters / webpages.

In case you haven’t come across the term before, let me explain what it is, what it can do for you and how to create your own.

Swipe File

A swipe file is a collection of sales letters, adverts, webcopy – in fact anything that contains a strong marketing message.

When you start a swipe file it is important to make sure the examples you collect (or swipe ) contain good copy. Preferably ones you know – or are confident – have generated results (I’ll explain how you can check that in a little while).

Benefits of a Swipe File

You can use a good swipe file to:

• improve your own copywriting skill. Simply copying out a good advert or sales letter, in your own hand, helps you to absorb the flow of the copy and start to recognise the techniques used.

  Your understanding may be unconscious rather than a deliberate “oh, I can see why that particular phrase or wording was used here” but the important point is you are learning about what works.

• gather a collection of powerful headlines. Re-writing these for your product or service, following the same structure, is an easy way to create eye-appealing headlines for your adverts, sales letters and webpages.
• give inspiration when you get ‘writer’s block’. When you sit down to write new marketing material sometimes the ideas just won’t come. A blank page or blank screen can be an amazing block to creativity. Browsing through your swipe file often sparks ideas for you.

Caution

The companies that put out these marketing messages have paid their copywriters good money – in many cases thousands of pounds (or $s). You are effectively getting these great copywriting insights for free!

Be careful; when you use your swipe file to inspire your writing creativity you must never plagiarise someone else’s work. An exact copy of an advert or sales letter content is not only frowned upon it is breaking copyright law.

Recognising Good Swipe Copy

• Take a look at your junk mail.
• And take a look at the adverts in your local and national newspapers.
• Check the adverts in your trade or professional magazines or the publications your target audience read.

For the adverts I’d strongly advise you only consider the direct response style advert – those are the adverts that ask you to take some sort of action. Visit a website; make a phone call; place an order or fill out a request coupon.

Does it appeal to you? If the headline or body copy of the letter or advert appeals to you – and especially if you are tempted to respond – then it is probably worth keeping in your swipe file – but check the following points first.

Look for frequent or repetitive examples. It is a fairly safe bet that the company sending the same letter or placing the same advert is not going to constantly spend their marketing budget on it if it is not pulling an acceptable response.

Check for coding. With direct response style marketing the originating company measures the response they get from each advert or sales letter. It is the only way they can be sure their marketing is generating revenue for them.

So look for a code in the address or in a corner of the response coupon. A code in a repeated advert or sales letter is a good indication of a results generating marketing piece – one that is worth swiping for reference.

Don’t limit your examples. You may be tempted to only keep marketing examples from your own industry or profession. Don’t! Powerful copy from other, unrelated industries can often be adapted very successfully for your own business. Try re-writing good examples to promote your goods or services.

If you haven’t already got a swipe file I suggest you get one started and let it help your creative juices flow for your marketing material.

~ Carol Bentley

marketing congruency

Are your marketing messages congruent? Is there a natural flow and connection? Or do they skip about and confuse your potential customers or clients?

Why am I asking these questions?

Simply because of a phone call from a new client.

“I’m getting a good response to my classified advert – 322 visitors to my website from the last one – but I only got one sale – will you take a look at the letter on my web page?” Anita asked. (Name changed for privacy).

Her conversion rate was an extremely disappointing 0.31%.

I took a look. The letter itself was a bit disjointed; that could soon be remedied.

But the biggest stumbling block I could see was the lack of connection between the advert and the content of the sales page on her website.

The advert offered free information about how someone had achieved a specific result. In contrast the sales letter on the website started off by talking about something entirely different; it didn’t follow on from the advert.

Now, bear in mind that of the people who had seen the classified advert, 322 decided they were interested in what was offered; took the trouble to fire up their computer; open their web browser and type in the URL to find out more.

Imagine their disappointment when the website they reached didn’t give them the information they were promised and – at first glance – didn’t seem to be connected.

There was no congruency between the advert and the content on the website the advert asked the reader to visit.

The info they were promised was there – but not until you reached what would have been page 6 if it was printed out! And I suspect the majority of the readers left long before that point.

It’s a similar situation with PPC (pay per click) advertising like Google Adwords. The experts on Google Adwords always say two things are crucial to gain a good conversion rate:

1. The destination URL should never be the home page of a website… it should be the specific page that matches what is being advertised
2. The headline on the destination web page should match or follow on from the wording used in the Google Adwords entry to reassure your visitor they have reached the right place

Having a magnetic; intriguing or exciting headline or classified advert that appears to have nothing to do with the content that follows may attract people… but you won’t keep their attention.

And Anita had potentially lost thousands in future sales because 321 people, who responded to the original advert, left the website without buying.

Take a minute to check the advertising messages you’re putting out – are they fully congruent throughout?

~ Carol Bentley