From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
Dear friend,
So you have decided to learn how to write sales copy. Maybe you want to do it for your own projects or maybe you want to monetize this skill. You are now wondering, where do you get from here.
I will not get into the detail if it is a good idea or not to learn this. Any skill is a good idea. It is just not as easy as most people think. The closest equivalent I can name is learning a foreign language.
Even so, if you take it slow and if you invest time in it, you become better. Learning copywriting is done in incremental steps. You can’t jump from 20% to 50% overnight. Instead, every book you read, every copy you study, every copy you write, every feedback you get, improves your competence in copywriting.
Here are a few rules or steps that you can follow in your pursuit of selling more online:
- Forget everything you think you know about copywriting. Unless you have a psychology background / sales training, it is better to just go in with a fresh and empty mind. Many people think they know what good copy is and most fail to realize that they are wrong. Copywriting in a way is like politics, everyone thinks they can do it but very few can.
- Start reading more. If you are already a reader, this is good. I read an average of 52 books per year and reading improves my ability to write and my ability to express ideas. Not to mention that I can get an almost unlimited number of stories, hooks and concepts from those books. About 30 – 40% are copywriting books and these in turn improve my technical knowledge of copywriting.
- Understand that good copywriting is goal oriented copywriting. Good copywriting is not creative or interesting or funny. It is not something that you like. It is not something that makes people say “WOW”. Good copy sells and that’s the only standard. Of course, there are circumstances in which good copy won’t sell like in having bad traffic or a bad product.
- You do need to write copy as often as possible. There are three main parts to the learning process. Learning how to do it well, writing and then getting feedback to see how well you’ve done it. So the more you write copy, the better.
- You need a feedback process. Copywriting can’t be learned in theory. In sales, you know right away if your pitch is good or not. That person will either say no or yes. In copywriting, you need to test with traffic and see if it sells. This is the golden standard of getting feedback. Knowing that a simple change to the headline improved conversion by 25% is better than reading 10 books on copywriting. The second level of feedback, when the first is not possible is having a mentor. He will use his experience in the field to recognize what works and what doesn’t. For all intents and purposes, those are educated guess but if he tested his works and knows, then they are very valuable.
So how do you start?
Step 1: Buy these three books:
- Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.
- Writing Copy For The Web by Maria Veloso.
- Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples.
Two are classics, one is rather new. Web copywriting is not that different from traditional copywriting but there are some major nuances to it.
Step 2: Start a swipe file
A swipe file is a document, a folder, a collection of sales materials. You can do it in print, you can do it on Evernote on your computer, you can do it however you want, as long as they are organized. You don’t need to gather every copy under the sun there but when you see something you like, you should place it there.
Step 3: Start writing copy by hand
A few times a week, take a promotion from your swipe file (or from the Internet) and write it down. Spend 30 – 40 minutes in a session, otherwise it can become very boring. The reason why you are doing this is to internalize patterns of writing and language.
Step 4: Write spec copy. A lot of it.
In the ideal case, you have someone for whom you can write, even if that someone is yourself. If you don’t, then take products from the Internet and write copy for them or just imagine your own products. You can write one spec letter per week and you’ll see your skills improve dramatically.
One last note, once you finish the initial three books, simply buy others. Virtually all copywriting books are about the same. They carry the same concepts. Some are better than others because they were written by more important copywriters but it is hard to find a book that goes against what Caples or Ogilvy said tens of years ago.
Best regards,
Razvan “The Copy Scientist”