WHAT YOU’LL LEARN DAY 1
GETTING STARTED If I Can Do It, So Can You My Promise to You: What You’ll Get From This Book Before You Write: 5 Important Things to Remember about Effective Copywriting
DAY 2
GETTING YOUR FOUNDATION RIGHT
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5
Know Your Audience What Is Most Important to Your Readers What Motivates a Person to Buy From You? How to Get to Know Your Reader Benefits VS. Features: What Are You Really Selling?
DAY 3
KNOW WHERE YOU’RE HEADING
Section 6 Section 7
Real World Examples of Goal Setting for a Winning Ad Campaign 5 Easy But Powerful Steps to Formulate Your Goals
DAY 4
TIME-TESTED COPYWRITING STRATEGIES
Section 8 Section 9
Examples of Sales Writing that Work And What Doesn’t
DAY 5
HOW TO BE CREATIVE
Section 10
How to Develop Interesting Ideas that Work
DAY 6
START WRITING
Section 11 Section 12 Section 13
A Surefire Formula for Writing Effective Sales Letters How to Write an Effective Headline How to Craft Persuasive Body Copy
DAY 7
DRESSING UP YOUR SALES COPY
Section 14 Section 15 Section 16
Tips to Help You Produce Crisp, Error-free Copy How to Keep Readers Glued to Your Sales Letters Proof-reading Your Work the Professional Way
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DA Y 1
GETTING STARTED
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QUICKSTART COPYWRITER
DAY 1 | GETTING STARTED
If I Can Do It, So Can YOU! If you have a basic foundation of English and can write reasonably well, then you definitely can persuade and motivate your readers by learning to use the right choice of words. My work experience as a professional Content Editor at a Deloitte award-winning firm tells me that you can learn to do this. How do I know? Well, I was never formally trained as a Copywriter and I did not work as an intern at some renowned ad agency. In fact, I got my first paid copywriting project as a Junior Executive in a personal development company with no relevant education behind me other than a diploma in IT. Eager to improve my skills in writing… 1. I bought nearly every good book on Copywriting I could find and used them as personal references… 2. I applied what I learnt from my experience in door-to-door sales (I had previously been the sole proprietor of a gardening hardware business) with real people to selling and communicating in print… 3. I built up a collection of ads, brochure samples and sales letters and organised them in a cheap ring binder… If you don’t have any experience in sales or business, here’s the good news -- you don’t have to be well qualified or creative to write good sales letters (although practical experience counts!); you only need to be good at re-sorting ideas and re-phrasing sentences. With that in mind, here are some handy tips to help you get started quickly: How to Overcome Writer’s Block in Seconds I don’t know about you, but many people whom I know are intimidated by the idea of writing. To overcome that fear, all you need to do is START WRITING! If you still find it difficult to translate your ideas into print, try and use a voice recorder to record what you plan to say, and then playback the audio so you can transcribe your speech on a word processing software. Most MP3 players and mobile phones today have functions that allow you to record audio. If you have Windows Media Player installed on your computer, you can review and transcribe the audio at your own time and pace.
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QUICKSTART COPYWRITER
DAY 1 | GETTING STARTED
Build Reference Cards Another way to help you get started quickly would be to build reference cards on which you can write down what you know about your customers, products and so on. What is the profile of your customer? What are the benefits of your products? What is the price of your service? Jot it all down. This ensures you have sufficient content from which to start your sales copy. My Promise to You: What You’ll Get From This Book Be it in business or at work, writing clearly in English is an important skill you must learn if you want to motivate people to do what you want. With this in mind, my aims through this book are to: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Give you the confidence and tools to write better sales copy, faster Help you avoid common sales writing mistakes that could break a potential deal Show you specific strategies for improving the flow and readability of your copy Share with you some of the professional trade secrets I’ve learnt, and more importantly… 5. Help you to achieve real results through the power of the written word! You can use my strategies and ideas in your emails, marketing collaterals, public relation materials, reports, letters and more, so that your readers will feel compelled to respond in a way that you want. Before You Write: 5 Important Things to Remember about Effective Copywriting 1. It’s about changing people’s behaviors - Whether it is pitching for a sale or generating leads, the ultimate goal of good, effective copywriting is to entice your target audience to do what you want them to do and feel compelled to respond to an offer. Oftentimes, understanding how their minds work is an added advantage. 2. It’s about selling – Contrary to what most people think, copywriting is mainly about selling, followed by writing, and not the other way around. You may have an First Class degree in English Literature but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can sell. 3. It’s never about “me” – In any successful relationship, be it personal or in business, people want to be loved and understood. Likewise in copywriting, it’s never about your product, your company; not even your special offer or promotion! This is where many businesses go wrong in their marketing efforts – they become overly in love with their products that forget their target audience’s needs and what they are motivated to hear and read. Always focus on your target audience and craft a compelling sales copy that they will pay attention to and act upon. www.QuickStartCopywriter.com
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QUICKSTART COPYWRITER
DAY 1 | GETTING STARTED
4. It’s about speaking your target audience’s language - Ever been in a situation where you’ve felt “left out” because you couldn’t understand a word someone else is saying? Sadly, the same thing happens in copywriting. Many writers who are just starting out assume that using big, impressive words will, well, impress readers. The truth is, ordinary readers want to be engaged and seduced by simple, everyday language. Listen to how people talk. What common languaging, dialect or phrase would you use to describe your product? 5. It helps to build some sales experience - Depending on how some people describe it, copywriting is in fact, salesmanship in print. But the problem (and irony!) is, while most copywriters are armed with advertising degrees or relevant paper qualifications, many of them do not have practical sales experience. If you don’t have any sales experience, then I strongly urge you to start observing how successful salespeople sell and close deals and then model after their selling strategies in your writing. This, I believe, is the difference between a copywriter who can write to impress, and one who writes to sell.
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Read the rest of the chapters in the COMPLETE VERSION of QUICKSTART COPYWRITER! What Some of My Readers Have Said "Highly recommended" Marc has put in a lot of time, love and effort into creating this valuable resource for people who simply just cannot write. Don't let the simple design of the ebook cover fool you! It's actually very, very well written with plenty of practical, professional advice on the subject of copywriting. It's really a steal and I highly recommend you to get your copy while it's STILL available at such an affordable price! Michelle Wand Professional Piano Coach Turned Entrepreneur
"My HR Director should read this" I just wanted to drop you a note to say how much I've enjoyed reading and putting to use all the tips you covered in your ebook. There are so many educated business professionals from my company who still cannot write and I've had to use the strategies you taught to help them improve their writing. In fact, I told my HR Director (who absolutely sucks at writing) about your ebook and I hope he buys a copy for his own reference! Julie Kaufmann Marketing Manager with an IT firm
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