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It’s a problem a lot of marketers and copywriters face…

Or maybe it’s just a habit of us humans - but we have a tendency to presume that everyone already knows what we’re talking about.

In marketing, presumption is a huge killer!

Just because you may be an expert, does NOT mean that everyone else is…not even those who you think are your perfect target market.

So instead of presuming…it’s better to assume that people know much less than you think they know…and the reality is it’s even less than that!

The best way to get your message across without going over your prospects heads is to apply the K.I.S.S. factor in all of your marketing messages…

K.I.S.S. stands for….

• Keep
• It
• Simple
• Stupid

The KISS factor applies to all things educational….because when something is simply explained, we can understand it better.

Copywriting essentially is this…to educate people about an offer that will make their lives better.

People are lazy…so if something is too complicated for them, it’s easier to just skip it and move on to the next thing.

It’s the same thing with your copywriting…when your prospect sees your offer….your words…they have to be able to understand it quickly or else it’s out with your ad and in with the next.

- Here are some tips to keep your copywriting simple…

• Use simple vocabulary…one rule I and other copywriters live by is to make sure the vocabulary is simple enough for a junior high school student. Especially when you’re writing about a topic with a lot of specialized terminology, you still need to choose words that a complete beginner to that topic can understand.

• Use short sentences…and space out your lines. I mentioned white space and other design tips in my last post..but again, people would much prefer to read short sentences than long ones. The less they have to think, the more chance you have of keeping their interest.

• Present the offer clearly…for what it is. Call apples, apples…oranges, oranges. If you’re trying to twist words around to make it sound more appealing…or hid something to create mystery…it can have the opposite affect. Your prospects just want to know what it is they’re getting and how it’s going to help them. They don’t care about how fancy you can string your words together.

• Keep it precise. Stay on topic. The moment you go off on an unrelated topic, you’ve lost them. This includes writing too much as well. One great copywriter once said something like “each line of copy is there only to urge people to read the next line” so be careful of writing anything that will throw your prospect because you miss the mark with just one off-target line of copy!

KISS is important to remember in copywriting and all aspects of marketing.

There may be times when you feel stupid writing such basic copy but the copy is not there to entertain you or feed your ego….instead it’s to educate your reader about the benefits and to urge them to take action as simply as you can.

To your success,

Stuart Stirling

An effective sales letter design is not just about the words you use, but the complete well crafted picture that entertains your reader.

Common Website Design Mistake…

Have you ever seen a sales letter or visited a website that had so much jammed into it that you couldn’t see what the heck any of it’s about?

Some people think the more they can cram onto their website, the more effective it will be.

But in fact, bunching up all your text, links and ads in the one space has the opposite effect.

Remember, “the confused mind always says no”.

If you want your visitors to stay on your website, you need to think about the layout and design.

Copywriters are Artists

You might think copywriting is just about the words we use.

Words are very important to communicate the meaning but designing the words in such a way that is creates an attractive overall picture is key to getting readers’ attention and keeping it!

Tips On Text, Color, White Space Etc.

…
TEXT

First, let’s talk about text formatting and design.

There are a few text design elements worth considering.

• Font
  - choose an easy to read font (particularly for headlines - Tahoma, Arial, Georgia)
  - be consistent! use same font for paragraphs and same for headlines.
• Sentence length
  - not too long - keep sentences short and simple
• Paragraph length
  - never go over three lines
• Bolding, emphasis, highlighting
  - use sparingly

COLOR

A word on color…

• Black text on white background
  - never type white on black
• Headlines in Red/Blue
  - or another contrasting color that matches the website theme
• Yellow highlighting
  - super effective when used sparingly
• Website background color
  - choose a color that’s easy on the eye. Eg. light grey, light blue, white or black
• Avoid bright fluorescent colors
  - eg. pink, orange, yellow, green…anything that will burn your reader’s retinas.

WHITE SPACE

White Space is what we call the space on your website or sales letter that is just bare space….just blank white space.

At first, you might think that having white space on your page is a waste of space….but white space is not a waste of space at all.

It’s very, very important if you want your readers to stay on your page.

Like I mentioned at the start of this post, a cluttered website (no white space) is going to confuse your visitor.

Visitors will leave before they read even one line and this is because they won’t know which line to read first.

Cluttered websites are ineffective. Use white space to make your website easy to read and understand.

Places to look out for white space include…

• Line spaces
• Paragraph spaces
• Margins
• Between images and text (more about images below)
• Padding in cells and tables

OTHER TIPS

A few other design tips to stop your reader from skimming and offer a little entertainment value your reader include video, images, johnson boxes, bullets, etc.

Basically, the purpose of these are to give your page some contrast. A page that looks the same from top to bottom won’t intrigue the reader much.

Images and johnson boxes will break up the monotony and stop the reader from skimming.

Images can really enhance the experience for your visitor but using too many or distracting images will take away from the effectiveness.

Images are great, but they are not everything.

You can take away the images and your words can still do a good job selling. But take away the words and only leave your images…how well do you think your images can sell?

Thanks for reading!

Stuart Stirling

It has been said that the “p.s.” is the second most read part of a sales letter behind the headline.

I can’t verify that statement to be true but I know that I always read or at least glance at the P.S. on sales letters and in emails. I always include one on my sales letters and emails and I urge you to do so too.

A sales letter without a P.S. is incomplete and your sales will drop!

You can test with and without a P.S. but I am confident that if you leave a p.s. out, your conversions will suffer.

People expect to see a P.S. and if there isn’t one, they feel something is missing.

Also, a P.S. is there to give that final push to buy to those who might otherwise be a lost customer.

What to write in a P.S.?

Your P.S. should summarize your offer and push one last time for the sale.

Include your product or service’s main benefit again, your guarantee, your price (optional) and call to action.

A prospect should be able to get the main gist of your offer and why they need to get your offer now just from reading your P.S.

Do you need a P.P.S.?

A P.P.S. can be used to further create that urgency and get them to buy now. If your offer is limited, then restate the terms of the offer at so they know they will be at a loss if they leave without buying it now.

Warning:

Some copywriters go over board with the P.S.’s and end up with half a page of P.P.P.P.S. that is mostly dribble and smothered with yellow higlighting.

Your P.S.’s need to be compact and compelling. People read the P.S. for those reasons so keep it short for maximum effectiveness.

To your success,

Stuart Stirling

p.s. I knew you’d read this line

A swipe file can be a lifesaver to copywriters.

Some days we just don’t feel ‘it’. Yes, even copywriters are human.

I don’t want to call it “copywriter’s block”, but sometimes our senses are dull and we can’t come up with that snappy headline phrase, or strong closing ‘call to action’.

As with many other types of writing jobs, copywriters need inspiration to make our words magically dance on the page which is where swipe files can provide us with the inspiration we need.

What is a swipe file?

A swipe file is a collection of appealing copywriting or advertising pieces that you keep ion file for reference at a later time.

Your swipe file can be made up of online ads you see (sales letters/emails) and offline (direct mail pieces like letters/postcards).

Online, I have a folder in my bookmarks (favorites) called “Copywriting Swipefile“) where I save each sales letter that catches my attention and one I feel I could use later for inspiration.

I can access my swipe file from the top of my browser so it really is ‘inspiration from above’.

So when I’m having one of those days where my brain activity is as low as the tide at dusk, I take a look at my collection of sample copywriting pieces for some ideas in my own work.

After all, if the copy in your swipe file intrigues you, it will most likely intrigue other readers, so not using it and borrowing some of it’s strength would be foolish.

*NOTE: Copying an ad word-for-word is a copyright offense. You must not use the exact wording for your copywriting but it is perfectly fine to use it for ideas. Mix the words around, copy the layout, capture the tone of wording.

Your swipefile can be a goldmine so start building it and treasure it like it is gold.

Stuart Stirling

www.BlingCopywriting.com

We know that split testing is the best way to refine our sales copy to find the best converting letter.

But what are the things we need to split test on our sales letters?

If you really wanted to, you could go on split testing every element of a sales letter forever.

It depends on how far you want to take it, but for the sake of time and energy, let’s take a look at some of the most common areas of a sales letter that are split tested:

Headlines - wording, color, font, size/length.

Video/audio - compare results with and without.

Testimonials - with or without, many or few.

Graphics - with header graphic, without header.

Bonuses - with or without, many or few

Price - some people prefer the magic “7″ i.e. $17, $47 or the .95c option i.e. $19.95 $49.95

How many different versions of each you want to split test is up to you. Some marketers have experienced drastic results with just testing different headlines.

Most good website/affiliate scripts allow you to split test sales letters. If not, there are some stand alone split testing scripts and software available.

Some split testing software is cheap and some are expensive. But it’s a good idea to use split testing so you can constantly track and improve your sales letters’ conversion rates.

You’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t.

Stuart Stirling