Though it might look like nonsense right now… I guarantee it will help you shave hours off the time you spend reviewing and editing your copy. And it’ll make your copy a damn sight more effective. It’s almost too simple to follow… And it only takes about five minutes from start to finish. Sound interesting? Good. Let me show you what […]
Working in the world of direct response is great. Why? Because it’s cold, hard and emotionless. Wait. That doesn’t sound good. But it is. Trust me. Of course, we copywriters spend the majority of our time desperately trying to inject emotion into our writing and into our readers… But in the true light of day, the market is […]
Copywriting should be fun. It should be challenging too. But if you’re finding it too challenging, it’s wearing you down or it’s taking up too much of your time… You’re probably doing something wrong. So here I want to give you some tips on how to better manage your time as a copywriter. Most of […]
The local shop in my village has finally figured out the perfect marriage of impulse purchase and value. There I am… Waiting for the assistant to pack my stuff and ring it through the register… And I notice them… Four Kit Kats for £1. I know I shouldn’t. But four… FOUR… for just £1. That’s […]
As I sit on the terrace of the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank and watch the sun set on a very pleasant evening in the City… My thoughts turn to you. Yes, you, dear reader, my fellow copywriter in arms. I know, I know. I should be thinking about the cold beer on the […]
You can’t prove that your exciting new product works before you’ve proved that it’s exciting in the first place. Think about that. Because it’s a flaw with long direct response copy that I see over and over. Too soon a copywriter will start trying to prove a product works before they’ve proved to the reader that they should be […]
Imagine you’re living a roguish life as a bank robber in the Wild West… You drift from town to town ‘sticking-up’ the local bank… You’re damn good at it too. Just yesterday you moseyed on in, stuck your gun in the bank teller’s face and delivered your usual “this is a stick-up” line. The teller knew the […]
“Live. Die. Repeat.” That’s the tagline of Tom Cruise’s new movie, Edge of Tomorrow. Have you seen it? Basically Tom Cruise gets the blood of an alien on him, which means that whenever he’s killed he returns to the day he got the alien blood on him. He meets Emily Blunt and then he has to […]
I’m a huge fan of the Glove and Boots blog. “Mario and Fafa: unlikely internet marketing experts.” There are very few sites on the web that I actively visit to check for updates, but Glove and Boots is one of them. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll remember I first featured them in my 15 other things to […]
One of my mentors, the American entrepreneur and writer Mark Ford, once taught me a simple way to improve problematic headlines using ‘the Four Us’. I’ve written about the idea many times before, but today I thought I’d put it to the test LIVE. Or rather, as I write this article. Why not, eh? Indeed, I’m […]