From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
Dear friend,
Sales copy is not the most productive activity in the world.
Why?
Because as copywriters, we want everything to go perfect. We want every word, phrase, paragraph to fit in and look like a piece of modern art.
And this is the biggest obstacle to writing good copy. Writing good copy is a process of research, putting your thoughts down on paper and refining. It is about approaching every possible way to get into the minds and hearts of the client and only then pick up the best one.
How do you do that?
I have three methods.
The first one is to auto-write. The process of auto-writing is when you set a timer for 30 – 60 minutes and in that time you write without stopping. You don’t edit. You don’t think. You don’t brainstorm. You just write. You pour down everything that comes out knowing that you’ll need it in some form or another later.
Auto-writing is a very useful process in copywriting, journaling, ghostwriting and possibly every other creative field. It allows you to get some rough gems on paper, gems you would need think about if you would edit every word and punctuation sign.
The second one is to discuss personally with your prospects. Keyword research, blogs, forums, project briefs, are all useful but only to a point. You may get the general picture about whom you are selling but you are still going to make a lot of assumptions about how that person should behave.
People are anything but rational (me included) so it may be useful to stop assuming that they’ll buy because of rational reasons or that they are interested in the same aspects of the product as you are. Sometimes, the most counter-intuitive thing out of all, a small benefit, a bullet may actually lead to a sale while other times, pages of benefits may not move him even one inch.
So find your prospect and carry a normal conversation with him. Try to understand how he thinks, acts, sees the world. Pay him if you need to, just to understand his mindset as close as possible.
The third method is to use strategic breaks. We are all emotional creatures. Emotions can make us or break us. One bad news and our entire day can be a mess and one good news and you can write the best copy of your life at lighting speeds.
It is hard to write good copy when you are upset or depressed. It is hired to write good copy when you are uncertain if it will work or not. A good concept from NLP is “beliefs are possibility filters”. In other words, if you believe that it will not work, you are actually restraining yourself from writing copy that may work.
It seems strange but the only way to access your true potential in any given situation is to believe in it’s certain success, in victory.
Of course, there are many other ways to be productive while writing copy but these are the main three principles I consider you should follow. They usually eliminate writer’s block and will give you that momentum that you need to get from start to finish.
For your business success,
Razvan Rogoz