How to Become a Successful Copywriter

Copywriting is the single most important skill you can ever learn in marketing. You either learn to write it, or pay someone else dearly to write it for you. Personally, I'd rather keep that kind of money in my own pocket and just learn how to write it.

It doesn't matter how fantastic your product is, if your salescopy isn't up to par you're wasting time and money.

You can actually have a less than super product, but if your salescopy screams a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, then it will sell.

I'm sure you've experienced this before. You find yourself so engrossed in a sales page, you can't take your eyes off "what will be said next." This is what you're aiming for when you write your own copy!

Heck... doesn't just apply to salespages... Have you ever had an ad that comes on TV and you cannot change the channel? You feel compelled to watch every part of it... You know you're being "sold to" but you just can't resist! You've got to watch every part of it!

If you've run into this yourself, and I think everyone has, you've experienced the difference between good copywriting and not-so-good copywriting. The difference between "WOW" and "whatever."

And most importantly, the difference between success and failure.

So where do you want to be? Silly question, eh?

Good Copywriters need to possess certain qualities and skills, below are a few;

Creativity - a good copywriter needs to be able to paint pictures with words, to instill in the reader exactly the thought or idea they wish to get across. As I mentioned above, a good copywriter is an artist and as any artist, creativity is one of the major qualities they need to possess.

Intelligence - a good copywriter must have a degree of intelligence to understand what they are promoting and why, to be able to get inside a target's mind and discern the triggers which, when 'pushed,' will persuade your target to give the proper response.

Empathy - a good copywriter needs to be able to understand the core 'problem' that the readers had to be able to suggest the solution because that is the bottom line idea. Your target audience has a need or problem and you, the copywriter, are addressing that need or problem with a solution. If you can't feel and understand the problem, you will not be near as effective in addressing it.

Understand - you must understand; understand and know your target audience, understand and know what you're writing about, understand the power of words and how to use them. These are just a few things a copywriter should understand.

Be a Good Reader - in order to be a good writer, any kind of writer, you should be a good reader. Reading will help you to learn; learn how to use words, compose sentences, communicate. You should also read up on your craft. No one was born all knowing and the more you 'learn' the better you will be able to develop your own skills. Learn from masters, emulate them.

These are just a few qualities of a good copywriter, some of the most important ones anyway. If you can make these qualities and skills your own, you will be headed in the right direction on the road to Copywriting success.

Let start by talking about some basic tools any good copywriter needs.

Writing Program - almost mandatory is a good program that you can write in, something like Word, Open Office or the like. A good program will have basics like spellcheck to catch the most glaring spelling errors, a Thesausus, which is wonderful for getting just the right words, a counter to keep track of your word count.

Sure you can use pen and paper and many do, you can also use programs like NotePad or WordPad which are standards on most computers but the more tools you have at your disposal, the easier your work will be.

As a copywriter, your focus should be on the art itself, not necessarily the mechanics. They can fall into place later.

Swipe File - most any experienced copywriter will have a swipe file. A swipe file is just a collection of great copywriting from others that you study and emulate. It is not a plagiarism file!

It is a collection of headlines, intros, closings and miscellaneous other bits and pieces of copy that have worked and are from experienced copywriters. The file can be a physical file or electronic but it's important.

It goes right along with learning from example and from the masters. Find out what they are doing right and emulate it. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. There are tried and true 'formulas' that have worked and will continue to work. Use them!

Study it, use it to generate ideas and new angles that you make yours.

Reference Books - get yourself a supply of basic reference books, books on writing, copywriting, grammar, dictionaries, thesauruses, ect. Of course you can find most of this stuff online but I find it inspirational in itself just to go through books, real physical books. Inside books reside a plethora of ideas. Just reading the way someone writes something is often inspirational.

I have stacks of magazines and newspapers as well that I go through when I am looking for inspiration and ideas. The more you have to pull from, the more beneficial it is to you. Read, read, read!

Other There are many online tools and pieces of software that can be beyond helpful, especially if you are writing for the Internet, especially on subjects such SEO, Keywords, etc. I'll be adding some resources regarding these as I go through them and evaluate their usefulness.

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A sales letter is your testimonial to the world about your product or service. This is where you get to tell people what the product is and why they should be interested in it and buy it. To sell, the sales letter must be specific, go to the right audience, appeal to the readers needs, and it must be informative.

Let's start with the basic "Anatomy" of a Sales Letter.

Headline
The headline of the sales letter is your first and sometimes only chance to get the attention of your reader. A good headline must grab a person's attention and hold it.

The headline usually makes a statement or promise to the reader about your product or points out a key benefit.

Sub-Headline
Optional but often as important as the headline, the sub-headline a couple of lines of text under the main headline there for the simple reason of enforcement. It gives you a little space to expand on what you've just said and do something very important. And that's give the reader a reason to read on. Here's a well used example for you, and that's the 'don't go anywhere, because this could be the most important letter you'll ever read' approach.

Introduction
An introduction is important in that it gives the reader someone to identify with. Introduce yourself, tell a bit about who you are. Perhaps tell a little story about yourself in a way that shows them that you empathize with their "problem."

Why should they listen to you rather than some other Joe Blow out there?

People like to connect with people, especially people they feel can understand them, you want to be that person.

Body
Next up comes the meaty goodness of your sales letter, and that's the main body of text that directly talks about individual parts of your product and how it's going to help the people that buy it.

One of the very most important things to remember when writing the body is that benefits sell, features don't. There's two ways to go about this as you're dissecting your product for all to see on your sales letter. Method one is to simply list the features as mini titles and in the same bullet, expand on them and talk about their benefits. The second method is similar and just mixes the two together instead of separating the feature and the benefit.

Closing, Call to Action
This is the time for your final "pitch" where you let people know that this is the time to make their decision. Don't expect them to know it, you need to tell them that it's time to click, to buy.

Just as important as any part of the sales process, is closing the sale, asking for the cash. All too often, both in the real world, and online, if you've ever trained a sales team or been on sales team that's being trained, the number one thing that'll be drilled into your head is closing the sale and asking for the cash. It's something that people just starting out don't like to do, or do in an indirect roundabout way trying to avoid this, and the fact is, the sales process can only do so much. If you don't request a signup or ask the customer to buy, it's all been for nothing.

Other
Above is just the basic layout of a sales letter, the main and most important parts but that doesn't mean they are the only parts. You can also have your Guarantees, Bonuses, PSs and miscellaneous other additions but the above are the necessities when it comes to writing a successful sales letter, time tested and proven.