Sales Copy/Marketing

[Vacman]

Hey everyone!

I hope you folks had a great Memorial day weekend!

Anyhow, I'm really close to having developed a muse. I just need to see if it will work.

Basically, I need to see if it will sell in the marketplace.

Do you folks have any good ideas for creating sales copy? Or how to effectively market a product?

I've read Hypnotic Writing by Joe Vitale. And I know a decent amount about Google Pay Per Click advertising.

My plan is to get a Google campaign going, but how to get people to buy once they are on your page...?

Any good resources/ideas?

Thanks!

[GatsbyGirl]

sales copy can be tough. I hired a writer on elance.com and his copy really stunk even though I paid him $750.

I would look at Dan Kennedy or John Carlton. Carlton has some great free reports tips.

[Vagabond]

Originally Posted by GatsbyGirl

sales copy can be tough. I hired a writer on elance.com and his copy really stunk even though I paid him $750.

I would look at Dan Kennedy or John Carlton. Carlton has some great free reports tips.

oh man!!! bad experience on elance! sorry to hear that.... it looks like a lot of people have good feedback on elance. how did you choose the person you went with and who was it?? this way the people on this board can make sure we dont use the same person.

[GatsbyGirl]

"TheGreatPersuader" Brian Flatt.

I chose him based on samples and feedback. His copy had typos and I was paying him to edit my e-book. It was a 70 pg book and he found like 5 errors. Obviously there were more.

[BrianDale]

1) Know your product's benefit. How does it make someone richer, healthier, more beautiful, save time, ect.

2) Make a list of the main 2 or 3 strengths.

3) Go to the strongest sales sites you can find.

4) Copy their format. HEADLINES SELL!!! It is a proven commodity.

5) Test Market

6) Fine Tune

7) Build your list

8) Expand your list before you expand your products. Do 1 thing very well and use that as your base.

9) Outsource the mundane

Oh yes....most of this was in Tim's book...And most people need 7-9 exposures before they even "see" the product

[darrin365]

Also remember that your content shouldn't be about you, your company or your product. It should be about the customer, their needs and how your product solved their problem.

I know a lot of people are turned off by "strong" copy, but I've found that if you push the envelope a bit, you get a better response. I used to write copy for a national author/talk show host's online product sales. I was allowed to use strong copy and it got results. After that, I went to work for a marketing consultant. I took my strong copy with me and it was not appreciated. I was told it was too "in your face" for our clients. So we wrote weak copy and it got weak results.

By strong copy, I mean passionate about the product and how it can help the customer.

I hope that helps!

[Renegade]

>
> Basically, I need to see if it will sell in the marketplace.

You have the order backwards. You should have determined if the market wanted it BEFORE you created it.

Jeff Paul calls this "the single most deadly mistake in marketing".

Phrased another way, as Gary Halbert liked to put it, you want to find a 'starving crowd' and then give them what they are hungry for.

>
> Do you folks have any good ideas for creating sales copy? Or how to
> effectively market a product?
>

These are 2 very different questions. You need to answer the "how to effectively market" question before you write a single word of copy.

You need to know your market
You need to know how to get your message to them (media)
Then you need to craft your message

This is the holy trinity of successful marketing

Market <---> Media <---> Message

virtually all problems in marketing will be found in one or more of these 3 areas.

>
> Any good resources/ideas?
>

Start here by reading this letter by Gary Halbert on how to learn to write good copy in 30 days. It's also a lesson on Direct Marketing fundamentals.

http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/...experience.htm

If you don't know who Gary Halbert is, and you want to succeed in marketing your products, today... now... is a good time to find out about him. He's a fricking genius. One of the best copywriters ever, and a brilliant direct marketing strategist.

Cheers,

Craig

[MuseMojo]

Renegade,

Thanks for the link to the Gary Halbert letter. There's a heck of a lot that I need to unlearn about writing if I want to get my info product sold.

Thanks

[squeegee]

I second the recommendation to read Gary Halbert.

[webgal]

Your goal is to define a target market who will PAY for the product or service. The single most important thing is to isolate and learn about this target market. You can actually already be selling a product and realize a niche target market and start to cater to them.

Every copywriter whether direct response, print ad or TV script copywriter identifies with the target market before writing anything. When I worked at an agency, there was lots of preliminary work done prior to it every being assigned to a creative team (copywriter/art director) to execute the strategy. And we as the creative team would often take week long trips in the field with the sales guys to meet the market and see what they were about.