John Caples was a legendary copywriter who also pioneered things like extensive research and copy testing. When I was a young copywriter I studied Caples, especially his classic headlines. The best known of those is “They laughed when I sat down at the piano …” I still have my well thumbed and highlighted » Read More
Category: Better Web Copy
5 tricks of the infomercial trade that will help you sell more
Infomercials don’t get no respect Millions of us have bought billions of dollars worth of Veg-O-Matics, and Buttoneers and food dehydrators and other products after seeing an infomercial. As effective as they are, though, you won’t find many articles about infomercials that don’t use words like » Read More
Marketing copy: 6 questions to ask before you write a word
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, if your marketing copy is bad. Here are six simple questions that will help you write the kind of copy that gets results. Who are we writing this for? This should be a person, not a demographic description. There are lots of great reasons to buy the New York » Read More
Marketing Copy: Identifying the Benefits
People buy products and services to make progress of some kind. The progress is the benefit. Your copy will be more persuasive and more powerful if you write benefit-rich copy. In order to do that, you must be able to figure out what the benefits are. Questions to Ask about Your Product or Service The original version of » Read More
Web Sites: 2 things visitors want from you
When visitors come to your site, especially for the first time, they don’t care about many of the things that you care about. They don’t care about your long, distinguished history or fascinating life story. They may care about those things later, but not at first. First, they want to know what you can do for » Read More