Freelance Copywriting, marketing and social media tips

Life would be so much easier if we all have a crystal ball. But we don’t, so we have to rely on good old fashioned research with a dash of copywriting cunning.

You might think that writing a piece of direct mail is easy. All you need is a description of your product, the price, a method for the customer to get in touch to order your product and Bob’s your uncle.

Well, if that’s your approach, Bob won’t even be related to you because it won’t work.

Behind the innocuous façade of a direct mail letter lurks an array of mystical mechanics. In my last post, Direct Mail – The Copywriter’s Secret Weapon, I identified 4 factors that contribute to your campaign success – the list, the offer, the format and the copy.

To take things a step further, in this post I will explore the common magic ingredients that are required for effective direct response marketing, regardless of its format.

Get your offer out there – fast

This is the most obvious aspect but, surprisingly, one that is sometimes overlooked.

Get you offer out there immediately (in your heading) and then say it again, and again, and again. Copywriting is a lot like storytelling – you create a drama by showing your readers the power of your product and how it will benefit their lives. There are 2 different ways of achieving this:

1. When your product is desirable (e.g. jewellery, holidays etc.)

Show your readers a vision in the header or opening paragraph using the benefits – looking good, showing great taste, enjoying a luxury holiday etc. This is the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Show your reader how and why the product you are offering will fulfil all their dreams and desires (and don’t forget to mention the offer again).

1. Over coming pain and fear

This will help you by providing a formula for benefits that help you overcome things you don’t want like dirty clothes, higher taxes, ill health etc.

First describe the pain (e.g. disease, dirt etc.), then introduce your offer (laundry detergent, vitamins etc.) which is the cure and then follow it up with evidence of how your offer will cure the pain.

The carrot and the stick

This is a great tool within the freelance copywriter’s arsenal. It is a means of telling your reader that good things will happen if they respond to your offer and, of course, that there may be undesirable consequences if they don’t.

So, if you were selling washing power your offer would be a brand new scientifically proven formula that gets all your laundry clean first time.

Carrot – buy the detergent and enjoy sparklingly clean clothes forever and be incredibly successful in all that you do.

Stick – use your normal detergent, wear dull clothes and spend your life aspiring to be your friend who always looks clean and smart and is incredibly successful.

So there you go, direct response mail is much more than just throwing a sales letter together. The words that you use have to convince the reader that your product or service is right for them. My next post will look at the characteristics found in successful direct mail letters.

Direct mail is a very effective sales weapon, if you get it right.

There are 3 elements to direct response advertising that make it so successful:

• Appeals to a specifically targeted audience
• Written to inspire an action or response
• It can be measured to assess it effectiveness

Target your audience

Some methods of marketing involve sending out generic advertising to the general populous. This may achieve a wide distribution but much of the information will be wasted.

Why?

Because your sales pitch won’t be targeted at your ideal market.

The beauty of direct mail is that it is targeted to a specific audience. Your mailing list is the single most important aspect of your whole campaign. In fact, in order of importance, your direct mail campaign top 4 elements are:

1. List – you can either buy this in or use your own which would have been built over time from past customers, newsletter sign ups etc.
2. Offer – this will depend on what the desired response to your mailing is. It could be a free report, free shipping, BOGOF etc.
3. Format – email, letter, gift, radio ad, TV ad etc.
4. Copy – this must be customer orientated with a strong call to action

Get them to take action

The whole reason behind your direct mail campaign is to get a desired response from your prospects.

Whether that is to buy, sign up or make an appointment, your mailing should be designed to get the reader to make that response immediately.

Therefore you need to make it as easy as possible for them – provide a free phone number, enclose an SAE for their completed order form, give them a web address etc.

Always provide them with everything they need.

How did you do?

The only way to discover how effective your campaign has been is by measuring it.

If you are doing an electronic campaign your analytics will show you how successful your marketing drive was. But if you are sending a physical mailing you will need other methods of monitoring it.

Try a 0800 number specific to each campaign. If you are driving traffic to your website provide an offer code that has to be keyed in so you can track your website visitors. If you have sent SAEs mark the envelope with a code so their source can easily be identified.

If you make sure your direct response advertising covers all the elements shown above you should be well on your way to a successful marketing campaign.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

Hands up all of you, who have been writing so long about your product, service or company that you’ve completely exhausted your sales copy repertoire.

It happens. Sometimes, try as you might, you find it impossible to come up with a fresh angle from which to sell your product. Even professional freelance copywriters can suffer from this especially when they work with clients over long periods of time.

So how do you overcome this particular nuisance?

Flip it on its head

Frequently a 180 degree rethink is all that it takes. Look at your offer from an angle other than the one you are used to.

Still scratching your head?

Perhaps an example will help. Your company makes washing powder, normally you market it by showing a glamorous model walking down the street with a huge smile on her face in a brilliantly clean white trouser suit – showing your product not only cleans brilliantly but it can also enhance your confidence and attractiveness. A bit of an extreme example but it illustrates this point.

Now look at it from a different view point – this time your viewer sees a shabbily dressed woman in stained clothes, her hair is a mess and she appears very introvert and practically invisible to anyone who walks passed her. The message – drab whites lead to a drab life…

So if you usually market a product from a pleasure angle, try and think how to sell it from the other side of the fence and visa versa. This should help you discover a whole new way of marketing your product, service or company.

Give it a try.

Research – research – research.

That is the only way to discover what your customers really want.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But how would you go about conducting your research?

If you have the budget for it, you could turn to a market research agency that could come up with all sorts of data for you on customer habits and buying behaviours. But there is one drawback with this method – it can be very expensive and beyond the marketing budget of many companies.

The answer is right under your nose

Often the most obvious source of excellent market research is over looked – your customers.

Who else is better qualified to tell you what your customers want?

Ask them in person, by email or over the phone. Set up a free survey online (e.g. like www.surveymonkey.com) or maybe enter them into a prize draw for completing the survey. By going to them direct you can find out:

• What they like about your product?
• What they don’t like?
• What benefits/features were most important?
• How do they use the product?
• What improvements would they make?
• Would they buy again? If not, why not?
• Do they have any suggestions to improve it?
• Would they recommend it to a friend? If not, why not?

There is a wealth of information just waiting to be tapped.

You can always try the salesman

Another way of gathering important information is by actually asking the people tasked with selling the product.

Your salesman is on the front line every day making him the ideal person to speak to. Through him you’ll be able to discover:

• What closed the sale?
• What features/benefits do clients find the most attractive?
• What are the biggest obstacles to buying?
• What do customers say about the competition?
• When they don’t buy, why don’t they buy?

Sitting in your office with your eyes raised to the ceiling trying to guess what your customers want will never work.

If your copywriting is to be compelling and persuasive you have to know what makes your customers tick – otherwise you’ll be heading for a disaster.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

When embarking on a piece of copywriting, identifying your USP is essential.

The unique selling point could be something along the lines of:

• Guaranteed next day delivery
• A promise of a boost to intelligence
• A guarantee that the product will make you look younger

Get the picture? Your USP has to be something that makes your product or service stand out from the crowd and is of value to your customer.

Once you’ve found it, flaunt it

What do you do with your USP once you’ve found it?

Stick it in your headline! This will be your most important selling benefit for your customer. It’s hot news so get it in your headline to hook your reader

What else does your product do?

Once you’ve identified your USP don’t just stop there. Your product will have plenty of other features and benefits you’ll want to use in your copy. But make sure you use the right information in the right places.

The most important stuff goes in the most prominent areas.

How do you do that? How do you make sure you get the important stuff in first?

Here’s a colourful method to help you:

RED IS FOR HOT – information unique to you:

• USPs
• Guarantees
• Freebies

ORANGE IS WARM – benefits that are great but also offered by your competitors:

• Saves money
• Saves time
• Makes you more attractive/younger

GREEN IS TEPID – basic features which are expected but unlikely to stir great interest:

• Colour options
• Texture options
• Size options

Get it wrong and lead with the tepid information – you’ll lose your reader in an instant.

Always start with the red, follow up with the orange and end with the green. But don’t forget to finish off with a huge red call to action.

Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting

Freelance Copywriter