Copywriting Basics

Your business vision is the single most important component of your copy. A vision gives you confidence and purpose and helps you ask insightful questions as you move forward.

The Resource section has links to some good articles about creating your vision.

Get a grip on the competitive forces influencing your copywriting: standing out from the crowd and choosing who you'll be compared to.

Your clients like to see categories and you need to select the most productive way to position yourself to stand out against the competition.

The first step in creating strong copywriting is figuring out who your client is. Discover some specific ways to translate your in-depth client knowledge into copywriting that resonates with your target market, by speaking to your clients in their own language and framework.

Copywriting is a tool of persuasion. Before going further, identify just what you want your readers and viewers to do.

As we get into the nuts and bolts of copywriting, we delve into the single most important elements of your product or service - the features and benefits. Discover how to identify features and recognize what you deliver to create value for your customers.

We'll begin with a definition of benefits and show how you can relate benefits to features to promote your service effectively. As you review your benefits, you may go back and redesign your product or service. You may realize that one feature delivers many benefits or that you've got lots of features combining to deliver a key benefit.

In this lecture we dig deeper into the benefits. We get into the emotional side of buying, where decisions are made. The extra depth you gain from these questions will often transform your copy and get more "yes" answers from your buyers.

"Bullets" are those short sentences or phrases you see in the copy. They're the most powerful part of the copy. Some copywriters say that's how you tell whether your copy was written by a professional: the pros use bullets to connect features and benefits.

In this lecture you'll review your copy to be sure you have benefits, and go further to make them as strong as possible.

When readers visit your sales letter or web page, you need to grab their attention quickly. Some copywriters say the headline is the most important component of your website. Do your headlines that draw prospects and motivate them to keep reading? You'll learn how to get this checklist item to move to "yes."

Wondering how to open up your web page, sales letter, blog post or landing page? Many copywriters recommend beginning with "pull" questions. Here's how to check to see that yours work well ... and how to make them better if needed.

You'll connect with your audience when readers see themselves mirrored in your copy ... and when they feel they've jumped into your copy and started talking to you! This lecture shows you how to make it happen and (along the way) how to make your copy more fun for both you and your target audience.

Just as we're attracted to high-energy, upbeat people, we're also drawn to high-energy copy. You can connect with your audience by adding action to your copy 2 ways. You'll also learn how to go out on the edge with your copy. It's not as scary as it sounds!

Does your copy come together in a way that's so special, you think, "It couldn't be different?" Do you get goose bumps realizing how good it is? That won't happen all the time - even most of the time - but when it does, you'll never forget that feeling. This lecture shows you the ONE thing that makes your copy sing - and that separates the pros from the amateurs.

If you've been following along, your copy looks very different now! Go to the Discussion section or send me a message to let me know how you're doing!

We're finished ... but this material is evergreen. Save and use again next time you're writing some copy!