I wrote a new article for a fellow copywriter, Alastair Allday, that is currently featured on his website, Allday Creative. You can read the piece here. In it I reveal five things that could help you improve your writing. But these aren’t regular copy tips and it isn’t a list of typical ‘how to’ textbooks. […]
So this is a trick I teach any copywriter or editor I work with… It isn’t difficult. It isn’t time consuming. And it certainly isn’t fancy. In fact, it’s a very simple and purely technical change you make to your word processor each time you’re writing copy that will be read via email. It’s particularly […]
I want to talk about the end… The moment you know the inevitable is upon you. The moment you see everything flash before your eyes and wonder if you’ve done enough. The moment you quietly whisper into the vast, empty abyss and ask… Dear reader, do you actually want to buy this? Yes – I’m […]
I often compare writing a successful direct-response sales letter to passing your driving test… Providing you don’t make any major errors and you manage to keep the minors to a minimum – you should be OK. If figures then that when you start learning about copywriting, you generally tend to focus on avoiding the bigger […]
Once upon a time, direct-response copywriting was considered ‘the Don’ of copywriting… Not the Don Draper. Far from it. You see, Don Draper – the famous fictional copywriter from the TV series Mad Men – is an indirect-response man. He writes copy that’s designed to briefly get your attention and then force the product to linger in your […]
Ideas are irritating. Sometimes they’re right there in your face, shouting at you like an arrogant teenage kid who thinks they know best… Other times they’re nowhere to be seen, like your broke mate Steve who’s always in the toilet when it’s his round at the bar. I’ll tell you what… From now on, let’s […]
There’s nothing worse in direct-response copywriting than assuming too much knowledge… Sure you need to target your copy. I mean, you can’t sell everything to everyone. But to assume that your potential customers know what you do and why they need you to do it for them… Well, that’s just copywriting suicide. I shed a tear for […]
Take a look at this copywriting infographic… Of course, there are many weird and wonderful ways to structure a direct-response sales letter. As with most things in copywriting, there are no hard and fast rules. But… There is one particular structure that I return to time and time again and it always produces good results. […]
I make mistakes in my writing. Everybody does. Thing is, some of my mistakes, I don’t mind. In fact, I sometimes make them on purpose. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that I let some of my mistakes remain. I’m not talking about misspelling their as there, or your as you’re – they’re unfortunate […]
I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said it… “If you can’t explain your story to a fourteen-year-old in one sentence then you’ve got a problem with your story.” Something like that. Possibly. And hell, if he didn’t say it, he should have. It sounds like something he’d say. Anyway, the point is, it’s a […]