Wouldn’t it be great if there was just one little button you could press to make your audience buy? My job as a freelance copywriter would be so much easier. But it doesn’t work like that. Finding the one thing that will make someone buy can sometimes be like looking for a needle in a haystack (please forgive the cliché).

One thing that definitely won’t make people buy is clever marketing. You can make your ad look as pretty as you like; it can have a witty slogan or ironic content but that isn’t what is going to make your reader think ‘I must buy that’.

What will get them on the verge of opening their wallets is if the marketing strikes a chord within them. If you manage this, you have achieved the ultimate aim of any copywriter – you have tapped into their emotional reasoning. That is definitely the place you want to be.

Customers won’t buy just because you are trying to sell to them but they will buy if you can make them realise that it would be of benefit to them to own what you are offering them.

It could give them the solutions to their problems, make them more attractive to the opposite sex or guarantee increased income (be careful about what you promise). Whatever it is they are buying the advantages of your product.

People won’t buy if you fill your copy with adjectives, exaggerated claims or overt marketing as all this points to an amateur approach – they won’t be impressed and they will walk on by.

So get to know your audience, get inside their heads, find out what makes them tick and then you will be able to produce copy that will build their confidence in your product/service and will make them want to buy.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

 

Let me take your business to new heights by making every word count.

Every copywriter wants their sales letter to be the greatest ever written. But how do you make sure that your message hits the back of the net rather than the crossbar?

 

The first step is to break down your identified goals into objectives. You need to think about what you want your reader to do; what should their reaction be when they read this letter? Basically you must identify - what it is you want your reader to know, how you want them to feel once they have read it and ultimately, what you want them to commit to.

 

What you want your reader to know

I know I have banged on in the past that your writing should be benefit-lead and not feature-lead but you do need to tell your reader some facts about what you are selling so that they can then justify their buying decision.

 

How you want them to feel

Not an easy question to get an answer to. Clients will often look at you blankly when you ask them. What you are looking for is something along the lines of they should feel excited about becoming one of your customers, or that they will be worried that they’ll be missing out if they pass up this opportunity. It is the emotional response that you are after. Not an easy little blighter to pin down at the best of times but if you can tap into your readers’ emotional tank you will be on to a winner.

 

What you want them to commit to

This is the call to action. It could be ‘buy now’, ‘recommend a friend’ or perhaps ‘book an appointment with an advisor’. Whatever it is it must be specific and direct. You must leave them in no doubt whatsoever about what they should do, how they should do it and when.

 

Follow these steps and you can be sure that your clients will love you forever more as they see a much higher number of customers in the back of their net.

 

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

Let me take your business to new heights by making every word count.

 

When beginning a new project, one of the most crucial aspects you will ever face as a freelance copywriter is the defining and setting out of your goals.

Ask yourself what is the purpose of the document you are about to write. It is important to remember that your document will replace a personal visit or conversation with the reader therefore it must achieve what you would achieve face to face – or at least what the most successful sales executive known to man would achieve.

Your goal could be any number of things including:

• Make a sale
• Get opt-ins for your email list
• Open an account with you
• Increase spending with you
• Renew a contract
• Agree to a meeting

Whatever it is you must ensure that it is the goal that drives your writing and not your creativity.

Writers are creative by nature and therefore it can be all too easy to let your alter ego get the better of you. The first sign that you should ditch your copy is if, when you read it, it makes you smile; you want to show it to everyone with a big grin on your face shouting from the roof tops ‘look how clever I am’.

Ask yourself if it will persuade the reader to buy. If your answer is ‘no’, scrap it. You are not up for the ‘Most humorous and creative sales letter’ Oscar, you are trying to achieve the goal you have been given. Your long suppressed novel is the place for your creativity – make sure that is where it stays.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

Let me take your business to new heights by making every word count.

Guess what? People don’t like sales letters and mail shots. They see them as an intrusion and believe that their only benefit is that they can be recycled and made into something more useful.

 

It doesn’t matter how long you spend writing that letter, if it is unsolicited it is unlikely to be read. So what have you got to do to grab your reader’s attention? Well that’s simple, write the best sales letter known to man.

 

The quality of your letter begins even before you have opened a new blank document. Let me ask you a question; before you write do you sit down and work out a plan? You would be surprised at the number of people who don’t. Think back to your school days, I bet your teacher always told you to plan your essays and when you finally took that advice your grades began to rise. So why not do the same for your sales writing? Let’s face it writing without a plan is rather like wading through treacle.

 

Remember, whatever you write must evolve around your reader. Think about who they are, what makes them tick, where they shop, what is their lifestyle like in fact create a picture of them in your mind.

 

Now think about this:

 

• Who am I writing to? – this is your ideal reader, you know, the image that is now in your head
• What do I want to say? – focus on your reader’s needs not yours
• How much space do I have? – know your word count before you start
• How do I want to come across? – friendly, approachable, authoritative, unbiased…
• What’s my deadline? – always important to know
• What do I want to achieve?

The last one is the holy grail of your letter. Is your letter designed to make your reader change their mind about something? Do you want to motivate them into an action? Do you want them to buy something?

 

Your plan is taking shape. You know who they are, you know what you want them to do, now you can tell them why your product/service is right for them and what it will do for them (the benefits) and you know how to tell them what to do next (call to action).

 

There, that wasn’t so hard after all. Planning is important. If you are time-limited it is tempting to skip it and dive in – be warned, you will do so at your peril and your letter will be turned into a paper cup.

 

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

If you have been involved in the making of a product or service, the chances are you think it is the best thing since sliced bread. You have nurtured it from the initial brain storming sessions and through its infancy. You were there smoothing out the troublesome teenage problems until a fully matured product emerged. In fact you are so close to it, all you can see are its features and that will be all you want to talk about.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing because we all want to know what something can do. But if you want to be a great sales writer you must understand that what the potential reader/buyer wants to know is how it is going to benefit them. What is it going to do for them? Why should they spend their hard earned cash on your particular product or service?

 

For example, you have made a pair of football boots, your sales copy reads like this:

 

• They are made from a unique leather 
• They have titanium tipped studs
• They come in a range of colours
• They mould to your foot

What is your reader going to think? Shall I tell you? They’ll say ‘so what?’ turn over the page and start reading the latest celebrity gossip.

 

Now if you sold them on the basis that by wearing your football boots your customer would become a better football player, that is a benefit. The features will help your buyer rationalise their buying decision but it is the benefit that will get him to pull his wallet out.

 

People want to know WHY they should buy something, not WHAT they are buying.

 

 

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter