The foundation for creating advertising copy that floods your newly designed website’s copy with cash-in-hand ready-to-buy customers is forged from the interview process between you and your copywriter. Subsequent research and the creation of a dynamite promotion all stems from the critical information gathered about your business, your product and service, your customers and your competition. The answers to the questions below are crucial to the effective and successful completion of the website writing portion of your project.

1. What are all the product’s benefits?
2. What are all the product features?

3. How is the product different and better than the competition?

4. What does the buyer expect when he spends his money for this product? Do we deliver?

5. What methods, approaches and sales techniques is the competition using?

6. How does the audience for the product differ from the general public?

7. How much can the buyer reasonably expect to pay?

8. Does your average buyer have a credit card or checking account?

9. Will the product be purchased for business or personal use?

10. Can you expect to get multiple sales from your buyer?

11. What is the logical ‘back end’ product to sell someone after he has purchased your product? [‘Back end’ refers to other products in your product line you can offer to someone who has bought the primary product featured in your ad]

12. Will I need to show your product in color?

13. What is the total number of potential customers for this product?

14. Who will buy your product, i.e. teens or seniors, men or women, executives or blue-collar workers?

15. Is there a market for overseas sales?

16. Should I offer time payments?

17. Will the product be a good gift item?

18. Should my copy be long or short?

19. What should the tone of my copy be?

20. Should I test the price?

21. Should I test copy approaches?

22. Is there a seasonal market for the product and are you taking advantage of it?

23. Are testimonials available from satisfied customers?

24. Do I need photographs or illustrations?

25. Which appeals have worked in the past for this product?

26. What objections might arise from a prospective customer? How can I overcome these objections?

27. Should I use a premium?

28. Should I offer a money-back guarantee?

29. Is this item also sold by retail? Are there price advantages I can stress for buying direct from the ad?

30. Should I consider a celebrity testimonial?

31. Can I tie in my copy to sonic news event?

32. Can I tie my copy to some holiday or seasonal event?

33. Does the product sell better in a particular region or climate?

34. Should I consider using a sweepstakes?

35. Can the product be sold through a two-step advertising campaign? [Ads generating queries rather than direct sales]

36. What must I do to convince the reader to buy your product now?

37. Can I use scientific evidence in my sales approach?

38. Have I allowed enough time to write, design and produce my copy?

39. Can I get the customer to order by phone?

40. What approaches used to sell this product have been unsuccessful?

41. Can I get powerful ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures?

42. Assuming the ad is successful, is the client prepared with orders?

Copyright Alan Richardson

=> Step #1 – WHO DO YOU THINK YOU`RE TALKING TO?

Before you sit down to write your email sales letter, you`ve got to determine exactly who your audience is. This is a master key to getting results from email marketing.

Ask yourself these questions:

– What do your prospects/customers want?
– What frustrates your prospects/customers most?
– Who else is selling something similar to you?
– Why should your prospects/customers believe you?
– Why should prospects/customers respond to you instead of someone else?
– What kind of appeals will your target market respond to?

=> Step #2 – A GREAT SUBJECT IS YOUR OBJECT

Before an email can generate results, recipients need to open it. But what can you do to spark their interest and get their interest “motor” revved up?

Your SUBJECT LINE is the key.

There are four types of email formulas you can use as a guide in crafting your email. Each has a different PSYCHOLOGICAL APPEAL that works like magic on consumers. Here are some examples:

– State a powerful benefit – “Empowerism Satisfies Your Need for Leads”

– Pique curiosity – “Empowerism Has Uncovered the Secrets of Success”

– Write your subject line with a news angle – “Empowerism Launches RSVP For Those Who Want to Double Their Money Fast!”

– Offer Immediate Gratification – “With Empowerism RSVP, you can start the money wheels turning before the sun goes down tonight”

Here`s an important “homework assignment”: Write at least 25 SUBJECT LINES before you decide on which one to use. Take the best two and test them against each other in your marketing campaign. (Save the “losers” to use for other purposes or spruce up later.)

=> Step #3 – WHAT`S IN IT FOR THEM?

Sit down and write every conceivable benefit your product has. Don`t know the difference between features and benefits? Features describe the product; benefits describe the results of using the product. Features appeal to logic…logic justifies emotion…emotion drives sales (see below).

Here`s a rule of thumb for benefits: ask yourself “What can my product or service do for my customer?” Then begin to write your letter telling your reader WHAT`S IN IT FOR THEM. Tell them how much better life will be for them after they buy from you. Tell them how much better they`ll feel. Tell them how their peers will respect them more.

=> Step #4 – AN EMOTIONAL APPEAL

When promoting anything to anybody, you must remember that buying decisions are based upon emotion and later backed up by logic. Before you write a single word, determine what emotional hot buttons you need to push to “jumpstart” your prospect.

Selling health supplements? Go for the “fear of illness” button with “A Natural Way to Save Your Eyesight.” Selling political bumper stickers? Hit the “anger” button with: “Let the President Know What You Think of His Policies.” Other buttons include: curiosity, greed, ego, vanity, hope, and/or fear of scarcity or security.

=> Step #5 – A NAME YOU CAN TRUST

To convince people to buy your product or service, you must make them believe that your offer is credible and that you (or your product) will deliver as promised.

How do you do that? Here are three ways you can build credibility with the readers of your sales letter:

– Provide testimonials.
– Include endorsement letters from authority figures in your industry
– Make your offer and promises sincere and believable.

=> Step #6 – A GUARANTEE

Nowadays, trying to sell without some type of guarantee is a losing proposition. You`ve got to have one. And the stronger your guarantee, the better your response will be. And, believe it or not, although most people will NOT ask for a refund, they`ll trust your offer knowing that you stand behind it.

You can offer a 24-hour, 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, or even a full-year. And here`s an interesting fact: The longer the time period, the fewer returns you`ll have! It`s human nature to procrastinate, so the more time someone thinks they have to get a refund, the more they`ll put it off or forget about the refund altogether.

=> Step #7 – DON`T FORGET TO ASK

It happens all the time. Someone makes a fantastic sales presentation, and then doesn`t close the deal because he/she didn`t clearly ask for the order or made the process confusing rather than simple.

– From the Research Department: Statistics show that you need to ask for the order at least three times to close substantial sales. (Some studies put the number at 7!)

If you can, offer several ways for your prospects to order — consumers love choice. It tells them, “You`re talking directly to me and meeting my unique needs.” If you only offer one way to order, make it crystal clear how AND how easy it is. Describe it in detail and ask for the order. Then ask again.

=> Step #8 – THE EYES HAVE IT

It`s a well-known fact: Large blocks of copy are intimidating and will often send people running for the hills or at least the Delete button.

The solution? Break up paragraphs into two to four sentences. Use several subheadings throughout the email letter. And use asterisks, dashes, and ellipses (…) to give your copy more rhythm. Bullet points are excellent eye-catchers – use them whenever appropriate.

Within this article today we will look at what copywriting as a job has to offer.

There is a great deal of benefits if you have copywriting as a job. The salary for a copy writer is much higher than the average wage in the United States. According to the magazine Advertising Age, the average salary for a copywriter in the United States is right around $60,000 when you include bonuses and that was for the year 2005. You can imagine that the income will be higher now, given that there has been inflation in the last two years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics comes up with a similar but slightly lower number, right around $57,000 for a copywriter.

Copywriting does have a great deal more flexibility than many jobs. You do not need to worry about keeping set hours usually because the focus is upon you writing good copy. This could allow you to live a full life in some ways because you can plan some events around the fact that you can make up more time in hours on certain days if something comes up. This is something that many jobs such as banks or restaurants are not able to do.

Copywriting as a job also offers a great workplace environment. Many copywriters work within an advertising agency, which can be a great place to work. You often have many other creative people and there you can bounce ideas off of one another and these people often have high energy which you can feed off of. This can be a great group of people to work with because you will often find that you are challenged due to the intelligence and creativity of this group of people. There are many different sizes of advertising agencies see you could decide to work for a smaller advertising agency if you like a close-knit group of people or you could work for a larger advertising agency if you want more competition. This could be structured according to how your mindset and makeup are. There is a great deal of flexibility within your workplace environment as demonstrated here.

Writing good copy can be very challenging so you will find that this job will never grow boring. If you work at an advertising agency, you often will have many different types of clients so the work that you do every day can change. This is good because you’ll get a great variety of different things they would never get bored.

Copywriting as a job offers great benefits to you no matter how you look at it. You are able to make very good money, considering that the average wage is right around $60,000. If you are able to establish yourself as a master copywriter, you can obviously earn a great deal more money than the average salary. The workplace environment often will be crackling with creative energy and the flexibility that you will have from the job is more than most other jobs can offer.