Got the bug to yap about sales letters today.<\/p>\n
Specifically, 5 “classic blunders” that, if you are doing them, could be causing you to leave some serious smackola on ye olde table.<\/p>\n
Here goes…<\/p>\n
1. Removing The Proof<\/strong><\/p>\n Once upon a time I wrote an ad for a product created by a young marketing whiz chock-full of credibility, proof and reasons to buy.<\/p>\n Yet, when the ad ran, the client gutted<\/em> all the proof.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n I have no idea.<\/p>\n And while we’ll never know for sure, I’d bet they got a small fraction of the response they would have had they kept the proof in there. <\/p>\n Way I see it, if you must cut, cut the hype, not the credibility.<\/p>\n 2. Shorten For Sake Of Shortening<\/strong><\/p>\n Another classic blunder.<\/p>\n Case in point:<\/p>\n While back I wrote a sales letter over 16 pages long. A few of those pages were story copy I thought maybe didn’t reeeeaaaally need to be there. <\/p>\n So we tested.<\/p>\n The result?<\/p>\n Let’s just say it was a very “short” test…<\/p>\n 3. Assuming Other Tests Apply To You<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s a big no-no.<\/p>\n Just because (for example) a certain order button kicks buttocks for Marketer A, that doesn’t mean it’ll do diddly-squat for Marketer B’s unique product, prospects and other market-timing peculiarities.<\/p>\n 4. Thinking Writing Is Most Important<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s not.<\/p>\n That’s kind of a bummer for some people (it always was for me), but that’s just the way it is.<\/p>\n 5. Listening To “Advertising Critics”<\/strong><\/p>\n I don’t show my ads to a lot of copywriters or marketers.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because to me, advertising critics are like movie critics. <\/p>\n And most movies that make a lot of moola tend to get ripped<\/em> apart by the critics… while many movies that are slobbered over by critics are lucky to break even.<\/p>\n In fact, want to know something funny?<\/p>\n My longest running headline is FAR from “sexy.”<\/p>\n It sure as heck doesn’t look “cool”.<\/p>\n And yet, it’s been cleaning up for over a year — including as a stand-alone banner ad headline on super competitive sites like Drudge, NewsMax, WorldNetDaily, etc.<\/p>\n So be careful of advertising critics.<\/p>\n Including yours truly \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n Anyway, those are 5 ways to ruin a perfectly good sales letter. For 122+ ways to instead BEEF UP your ads, pop on over to:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n