| Copywriting
I get asked all the time if it is really true that anyone can learn to write copy. I tell them all the same thing:
You already know how to do it!
Because you already know how to tell stories. I just have to teach you the proper structure, and UNTEACH you all the crap your elementary and high school teachers beat into you. (Which is a lot easier today, since schools no longer teach people how to read and write!)
If you ever made up a story for your little daughter, you’re a copywriter. If you’ve ever told a campfire story for the scouts, you’re a copywriter. Likewise if you ever gathered with friends as a teenager and told ghost stories. Great copywriters simply paint visual pictures of events. Events that happened in the past, events that may happen in the future, or events that won’t ever happen -unless you buy their product.
You either paint the picture of the joy the prospect will get using your product, or you paint the picture of the hardship he will continue to endure without it. Why?
Because people love stories. No one is interested in dry facts and statistics about your product. But they will be captivated by a story that tells them how it will impact their life. And the more emotion that you bring into that story, the more compelling it will be to your prospect.
The reality is that if you can talk - you can write great copy. The problem comes from people thinking there’s actually some difference between the way people talk and the way they write. They’ve been led to believe that when words are put on paper they should be somehow more “proper” or official sounding; that they should meet high school English competition standards.
Great copywriters have discovered that they must forget about proper language structure and simply speak to people as though they were across the table from them at Starbucks.
They put their words down on paper the same way they would speak them if you were sitting in their living room listening to them talk. Each letter, each paragraph, even every sentence—is conversational.
Copy should be the bridge between two souls, the copywriter and the prospect. Even though your letter or ad may reach tens of thousands of prospects - it will only be read by one person at a time. You must reach out to the multitudes, but you must do that reaching out on a soul-to-soul basis.
This means your copy must have sympathy for the prospect’s problem; you must empathize with what he would like to happen, you must paint word pictures of the challenges he will continue to face by not getting your product, as well as the benefits he will receive by having your product; and, you must do all this with emotion.
Your copy has to go further than simply defining the benefits to your prospect. It has to cause her to see them, hear them, taste them and touch them. In other words, she must experience them through your copy.
I’ve made it no secret that I don’t think too many copywriters and marketing gurus actually do this. If you asked me to name ten world-class copywriters - I couldn’t. Almost all of them miss part of the equation.
But make no mistake...
I am not saying that lots of people—you included—cannot be world-class copywriters. You can. I’m saying that most people don’t take the time and effort to properly learn the craft. Which is amazing to me, because it can be learned so readily. Everyone already knows how to tell stories. You just have to learn the proper structure and components of a sales letter or ad to pull it all together.
People who come to my Boot Camps and Institutes are amazed by the fact that every single person present is writing good copy before the weekend is over. Even in my Million Dollar Mastermind Weekends, people are writing good copy, even though we do just a very brief segment on it. Why?
Because they already know how to tell stories. We just have to teach them the structure of a sales letter or ad, and help them unlearn the proper language skills they learned in school. We get them back to writing conversational copy, and the magic happens!
If you are committed to learning to write better copy, checkout Randy Gage's One-Year Copywriting Home Study Course at www.CashCopywriting.com
© MMIX Randy Gage. All Rights Reserved.
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