That’s why so many people get overwhelmed at the thought of sitting down and writing a coherent and persuasive message. Juggling all of those details can be difficult, and often leads to heavy, boring sales copy.

To combat that, I have two quotations on my wall that have proven to be very useful (and profitable!) over the years:

“You can’t bore people into buying your product.” – David Ogilvy

“People will read what’s interesting to them, and sometimes it’s advertising.” – Howard Gossage

Now that you have a goal when you begin to write… to be interesting for your prospects… it’s much easier to control all of those details and have them contribute to your sales message instead of dominating it.

A quick and easy way to generate interest in your readers is to tell your own story. To do this, you simply explain to your readers why you’re in the situation you’re in. Here are a few examples of the type of story you can write:

How and why you created the product or service you’re offering

Hi, my name is Jane Doe. Two years ago I was going through the darkest period of my life. It was more difficult than anything I could ever imagine… so bad that I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

In a moment I’m going to share with you how I was able to escape that terrible situation. More importantly, I’ll also share how my experience can help anyone transform their lives from the misery of pitch black to a life of happiness, light, and fulfillment.

How the product or service you’re offering has changed your life

I’m Bill Smith, creator of Product X. In just a few moments, I’m going to show you how I was able to go from a complete woodworking novice, to a respected expert craftsman in just one short year.

Why you’re making the product or service available at such a tremendous value

Hello, my name is John Doe, President and CEO of Company A. I’m writing to you today with a very special opportunity that my company has never made available before. Pure and simply… the reason we’re able to offer this to you at this time is because the economy is in the toilet.

With these simple “tell your story” templates, you’ll be able to catch the interest of your prospects – and also make the task of writing your sales letter much easier!

————

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

As prospects scan your sales copy, they often rely on your bullets to get straight to the point. That’s why it’s vital to take advantage of this high readership by packing your bullets with as many benefits as possible.

Don’t make the mistake of simply stating features in your bullets.  Transform each bullet into a benefit so your prospect will see herself successfully using your product.

A well-crafted bullet list can become a mini sales letter inside your larger sales letter, reinforcing all your major points and quickly helping prospects understand how you’ll help them.

BORING

• Aluminum alloy

• Available in 4 different colors

• Operates more quietly than other similar products

• Weighs 3.7 pounds

BETTER

• Carefully constructed of high-quality aluminum alloy for years of maintenance-free enjoyment

• Choose from 4 popular colors to look your best while using it with your friends

• Save your hearing with our exclusive new “whisper quiet” technology

• Weighing just 3.7 pounds, it’s lightweight enough for everyone

BEST

• Carefully constructed of high-quality, rust-free aluminum alloy… so you can enjoy it for many years with virtually no maintenance!

• Choose from 4 popular colors to look your best while using it with your friends… and reflecting the real “you”!

• Save your hearing with our exclusive new “whisper quiet” technology… to give you hours of non-stop thrills without those annoying ear plugs!

• Weighing just 3.7 pounds, it’s lightweight enough for everyone… so you can wake up the next morning feeling great without any muscle or back strain from overuse!

————

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

The easiest thing in the world is to convince me that I need what you’re selling. Whether it’s at a retail store, in my mailbox, or on the Web, I’m easy to seduce!

And your prospects are no different. Everyone wants to believe that your promises are true. They want to enjoy the happiness and satisfaction that awaits when they put your product or service to
the test.

Solve a Real Problem

If what you’re selling solves a real problem, people will want it.

However, there are two major obstacles keeping that prospect from whipping out their wallet and gladly giving you their credit card number: value and performance.

Everyone knows that buyers must be comfortable with the terms of the deal in order to plunk down the money. That’s why good marketers are well trained in creating great offers and carefully promoting them for maximum value to the prospect.

Time to ‘Be Easy”

However, most marketers don’t pay enough attention to promoting the “easiness” factor of what they’re selling.

In other words, we need to show that our product/service solves the prospect’s problem with very little effort on their part.

We’re good at using the word “easy” as often as possible – which is definitely a good start!  Now let’s look at how we can begin fixing a couple of little words that often end up in our copy without our full understanding of the negative impact these words can have on our prospects.

TWO WORDS TO BANISH FROM YOUR SALES COPY

1. Work

2. Learn

These two simple words seem innocent enough, but they can sure put a damper on your sales.

Why? Because your prospects are as busy as you are. They want what you’re promising, but they need it to be easy. Yes, they see the value of your product… but they see at least as much value in your ability to make using that product effortless.

They already have enough “work” to do – they don’t need you to give them more.

And “learning” also takes effort. We want it to be effortless.

Instead, try replacing them with words like these:

Discover… Absorb… Implement… See the results… Reap the rewards… etc.

Get the picture?

By banishing these two small words – and others like them – from your copy… and replacing them with positive words that support the rest of your message… you’ll help your prospects go from wary to willing!

————

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Your writing instructors loved to give the best grades to the students who could write as if they were some floating intellect in space. Even better if this floating intellect had no form or personality. Instead, it just dispassionately put pen to paper to write about whatever the topic of the day happened to be.

To them, cold and clinical was the best way to write.

But now you’re in business. You want to communicate with your customers. To make an honest living you need to excite your customers and motivate them to buy your products.

And you’ve probably realized by now that the old style of writing you learned in school isn’t cutting the mustard. Customers are ignoring your message.

So how can you spice up your writing to make sure it gets read? Just follow these two easy steps…

STEP 1: BE INTERESTING

I’d bet my last dollar that when you have the opportunity to sit down face-to-face with someone interested in your product, it’s easy for you to be passionate and compelling.

You’re able to communicate everything about your product, how it will help them, and why that person’s life will be better by owning your product.

But when it comes to getting that down on paper, you probably crash and burn. You wonder, “how on earth can I put everything I know into words?”

Easy – just follow the next step…

STEP 2: WRITE HOW YOU SPEAK

This is when you need to banish your writing teacher to the past. Don’t be afraid of her anymore. She’s not here to grade you ever again. In fact, the only people who will grade your writing are your customers – if they like your writing, they’ll give you their credit card number. If they don’t, you’ll be eating ramen noodles until you figure it out.

People want to read interesting things said in an interesting way. No one has the time or desire to wade through “academic speak.” They want you to solve their problems and prove that you can do it easily.

One of the easiest ways to get started doing this is to make an audio recording of your sales presentations. Voice recorders are inexpensive, and most cell phones now have the ability to double as voice recorders.

If you don’t often give actual sales presentations, have a friend sit down and listen as you tell him about your product and your company. Don’t worry about formalizing it. Just talk from your heart.

Whenever possible, tell stories about how the product was created, why it’s so important to the world, and how it will change someone’s life when they get it.

After you have a few of these presentations recorded, have them transcribed so you can read them on paper. Make a few copies of the transcription and pass them out to new people. Give them a highlighter and ask them to mark the sections they think are most interesting.

Now you have some material to use in your sales copy. Try to use as many of your real “spoken” words as possible. Don’t smooth them out!

————

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

That’s why so many people get overwhelmed at the thought of sitting down and writing a coherent and persuasive message. Juggling all of those details can be difficult, and often leads to heavy, boring sales copy.

To combat that, I have two quotations on my wall that have proven to be very useful (and profitable!) over the years:

“You can’t bore people into buying your product.” – David Ogilvy

“People will read what’s interesting to them, and sometimes it’s advertising.” – Howard Gossage

Now that you have a goal when you begin to write… to be interesting for your prospects… it’s much easier to control all of those details and have them contribute to your sales message instead of dominating it.

A quick and easy way to generate interest in your readers is to tell your own story. To do this, you simply explain to your readers why you’re in the situation you’re in. Here are a few examples of the type of story you can write:

How and why you created the product or service you’re offering

Hi, my name is Jane Doe. Two years ago I was going through the darkest period of my life. It was more difficult than anything I could ever imagine… so bad that I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

In a moment I’m going to share with you how I was able to escape that terrible situation. More importantly, I’ll also share how my experience can help anyone transform their lives from the misery of pitch black to a life of happiness, light, and fulfillment.

How the product or service you’re offering has changed your life

I’m Bill Smith, creator of Product X. In just a few moments, I’m going to show you how I was able to go from a complete woodworking novice, to a respected expert craftsman in just one short year.

Why you’re making the product or service available at such a tremendous value

Hello, my name is John Doe, President and CEO of Company A. I’m writing to you today with a very special opportunity that my company has never made available before. Pure and simply… the reason we’re able to offer this to you at this time is because the economy is in the toilet.

With these simple “tell your story” templates, you’ll be able to catch the interest of your prospects – and also make the task of writing your sales letter much easier!

————

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Your writing instructors loved to give the best grades to the students who could write as if they were some floating intellect in space. Even better if this floating intellect had no form or personality. Instead, it just dispassionately put pen to paper to write about whatever the topic of the day happened to be.

To them, cold and clinical was the best way to write.

But now you’re in business. You want to communicate with your customers. To make an honest living you need to excite your customers and motivate them to buy your products.

And you’ve probably realized by now that the old style of writing you learned in school isn’t cutting the mustard. Customers are ignoring your message.

So how can you spice up your writing to make sure it gets read? Just follow these two easy steps…

STEP 1: BE INTERESTING

I’d bet my last dollar that when you have the opportunity to sit down face-to-face with someone interested in your product, it’s easy for you to be passionate and compelling.

You’re able to communicate everything about your product, how it will help them, and why that person’s life will be better by owning your product.

But when it comes to getting that down on paper, you probably crash and burn. You wonder, “how on earth can I put everything I know into words?”

Easy – just follow the next step…

STEP 2: WRITE HOW YOU SPEAK

This is when you need to banish your writing teacher to the past. Don’t be afraid of her anymore. She’s not here to grade you ever again. In fact, the only people who will grade your writing are your customers – if they like your writing, they’ll give you their credit card number. If they don’t, you’ll be eating ramen noodles until you figure it out.

People want to read interesting things said in an interesting way. No one has the time or desire to wade through “academic speak.” They want you to solve their problems and prove that you can do it easily.

One of the easiest ways to get started doing this is to make an audio recording of your sales presentations. Voice recorders are inexpensive, and most cell phones now have the ability to double as voice recorders.

If you don’t often give actual sales presentations, have a friend sit down and listen as you tell him about your product and your company. Don’t worry about formalizing it. Just talk from your heart.

Whenever possible, tell stories about how the product was created, why it’s so important to the world, and how it will change someone’s life when they get it.

After you have a few of these presentations recorded, have them transcribed so you can read them on paper. Make a few copies of the transcription and pass them out to new people. Give them a highlighter and ask them to mark the sections they think are most interesting.

Now you have some material to use in your sales copy. Try to use as many of your real “spoken” words as possible. Don’t smooth them out!

NEXT MONTH: After you’ve had a chance to follow this month’s lesson, I’m going to give you some specific examples of how to change “ho-hum” phrases into high energy phrases that will help boost the response of your sales materials.

—–

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

One-click subscribe in iTunes

We recently interviewed master copywriter and blogger, Brian Clark who has an fantastic copywriting tips blog. We got to pick his brain about writing compelling marketing copy for your sites and sales letters. He also chimed in about how he overcame his initial fears and obstacles to become an internet entrepreneur.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery, we share a twenty-minutes of this value packed conversation. We also share our own set of

5 Quick Tips for Writing Killer Copy

Other items mentioned in this episode:

MSCopeland.com: Information and Knowledge
Singing Pig Forum: Wealth, Property and Business for Entrepreneurs
PodcastToolBox.com
Marketing Syndrome Forums: Niche Marketing Matermind

Also, if you compose music and can help us put together some new theme songs for the show, please contact us at comments AT internetbusinessmastery.com.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

1. A sense of how to sell
2. A sense of language and psychology and how they influence people
3. Creativity

I don’t claim to be a genius copywriter, but I’d like to think I have a decent grasp on #1 and #2. This weekend, however, I have some important marketing copy to write and I’m having a hard time finding #3.

It’s kind of like songwriting. You can’t force it. You have to have the right energy. There are certain bands I listen to that get me in the mood to write songs. Likewise, certain settings can bring out the creative itch for songwriting.

I need something to spark my creativity for copywriting. What do you do to get the juices flowing when you need to write compelling sales copy?

Photo by kidnoonan

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.