12 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
12 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Copywriting - The Most Essential Part of Marketing

by Kevin Lam
10 replies
Copywriting is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing for all businesses online and off. The art and science of copywriting involves strategically writing words that promote a person, product, business, opinion, or idea, with the ultimate intention of having the reader to take some form of action or another such as signing up for a newsletter, requesting more information, purchasing an item and so on.

So, whether you're looking to sell something or to build traffic by earning links from others, you'll need to tell compelling stories that grab attention and connect with people so that they'll respond the way you want. The best known process is called AIDA.

* Attention - grab attention
* Interest - build interest
* Desire - create desire
* Action - require action

If you've learned anything about marketing, you more than likely already know about this concept. However, I would like to introduce something more advanced, and from my experience, will boost sales every single time.

It's Original And It's Powerful

It's an original concept I call the "5 W'S".

The 5 W'S stands for (not in any definite order):

* WHO - introduces the presenter/seller & who it's for
* WHEN - builds credibility of establishment
* WHAT - explains what it's about
* WHERE - entails proof of claims (testimonials)
* WHY - reasons to take action (examples, benefits)
* SO - directions on how to take action

"So" is the most important element because, regardless of what is being presented to the reader - so what? It goes beyond the "why" of things and gets you to find more than just a USP (unique selling proposition).

These elements seem quite obvious, but this concept breaks down an entire sales letter or pitch down to exactly what is needed for a successful copy. Look at EVERY successful business and you will see the 5 W'S in action.

Here are examples from some of the best marketers in the world:

1. Take a look at Jay Abraham, probably the best and well-known marketer of all time. Browse through his website and you'll see the 5 W'S emerge.
2. Drop on by Dan Kennedy's website. You'll also notice the 5 W'S at play.
3. Journey on over to Dr. Joe Vitale, the "world's first Hypnotic Marketer." Though he only does public speaking, you can learn a lot from his website.
4. Last, but certainly not least, take a look at Yanik Silver's website. One of the best examples we've found.

Can you see what's going on here? It's a lot more than just "AIDA". The 5 W'S do not have to be applied to a single page, but an entire website. If you do not have these elements applied to your business you are either losing a lot of potential sales or you will go out of business. That's the sad truth.

What We Do As Copywriters

Our job as copywriters isn't to write compelling stories or use all the correct punctuations and grammars your English professor preach about everyday. Absolutely not!

Our job as copywriters is to increase your bottom-line (more sales and more profits). That's it! Simple as that!

Your website could receive a million visitors a day, but without good copy all of those visitors will just leave and find someone else.

Copywriting is salesmanship in print. A sales letter can be used over and over while a verbal sale is a sales technique that has to be pitched to each and every person over and over. That's poor time management and poor marketing leverage.

Copywriting is the foundation of all the money you'll ever make.

With that in mind, keep honing your skills and keep getting better so you can bring in more money with the stroke of your fingers.
#copywriting #essential #marketing #part
  • Profile picture of the author snyd
    Kevin,

    Thanks for sharing.

    Copywriting has been a struggle, but something
    I know I need to focus on

    Rod
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[676307].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Lam
    We all struggle at some point. It's a matter of willingness to learn from the struggle and getting better at getting OUT of the struggle. Do that often enough and you become more efficient. Just keep at it, keep learning, keep practicing.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[676557].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author MaskedMarketer
    copywriting is def. important for direct sales on the web... but some marketers would agrue the Offer, Branding, and Positioning is actually more important in marketing (offline and online) than copywriting is. Maybe it depends on the type of business we are talking about?

    What are your thoughts?
    Signature

    "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor    "

    "I Pay Less Attention to What Men Say. I Just Watch What They Do."
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[677552].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DougHughes
    Of course copy is important, as is the offer, branding, positioning, etc... I would also like to add that even before any of those I would take the who, what, where, when, and why and apply it to trying to better understand my market.

    I might argue that knowledge of the market is the most important factor in marketing. Without that you will never know your prospects greatest problems and how to solve them, or what likely USP will get your prospect to choose you over a competitor.

    On the copy note. There are many good copywriters whose work is worth looking at and can probably be found online. Among them are Gary Bencinvenga, Brian Keith Voiles, John Carlton, Frank Kern, Eben Pagan, Carl Galetti, Marlon Sanders, the late Gary Halbert, Matt Furey, Yanik Silver and others.

    I love to read their letters, not only because the copy is good, but because it is fascinating to see how the copy connecteds with buyer psychology.

    Very interesting,

    Thanks Kevin and others
    Signature

    I write copy. Learn More.>>

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[678098].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Lam
    >>>MaskMarketer, I pretty much answered you in another post: http://www.warriorforum.com/copywrit...pywriting.html

    Blah, blah, blah.... blah, blah, blah... blah, blah, blah...

    The best thing I EVER read was a marketer who challenged EVERYONE to have any kind of 'weapon' to generate sales. Everyone was talking about getting all the traffic, having the best product, have the perfect location, blah, blah, blah.

    He wanted just ONE THING.

    Hunger.

    You can have all the traffic, the perfect location, the perfect pitch, but if they're not hungry for it, so what?

    So even though I think copywriting is a huge part in making sales, there's just way too many things involved to say ONE thing is the most important.

    It's like saying your brain is the most important thing. Okay, you have a brain, but then nothing else works. What good are you?
    There is a multitude of elements that are equally important. The product has to be of value, the graphics has to used and laid out in a way that complements the copy, the copy has to be compelling, the market has to be targeted, the product has to have a USP - the list goes on.

    Don't ever think that only ONE thing is important. It's a combination of many things. It's just like life. We all take different routes in life and end up with different results. Yes, we'll all eventually die, but some die with more accomplishments, some with more friends, some with no friends.

    Point is, the end result is sales, there are many ways of getting there, not just one. However, some paths/combinations are just better.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[679329].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Angela Kambarian
      Kevin,

      You make a good point here.
      However, I think that a few different elements contribute
      to marketing success. Copywriting is one of them.
      Even if you hire the most experienced, talented and
      business-savvy copywriter, she/he will not generate
      a desirable outcome if the timing is bad or economic
      conditions continue to deteriorate. Of course, there are
      other factors that play a role - your audience, your
      offer, your reputation, demand for your services, etc.

      To make a long story short, your marketing efforts will go to
      waste if your copywriting is not up to par. And there is so much
      you can do as a copywriter if other elements of your marketing
      campaign do not work. It's like buying a car. Even if it's brand new,
      very comfortable, looks good and the engines work perfectly well, you
      are not going to purchase it if the wheel is missing. It's that simple.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[687885].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author vistad
        Originally Posted by Angela Kambarian View Post

        Kevin,

        You make a good point here.
        However, I think that a few different elements contribute
        to marketing success. Copywriting is one of them.
        Even if you hire the most experienced, talented and
        business-savvy copywriter, she/he will not generate
        a desirable outcome if the timing is bad or economic
        conditions continue to deteriorate. Of course, there are
        other factors that play a role - your audience, your
        offer, your reputation, demand for your services, etc.

        To make a long story short, your marketing efforts will go to
        waste if your copywriting is not up to par. And there is so much
        you can do as a copywriter if other elements of your marketing
        campaign do not work. It's like buying a car. Even if it's brand new,
        very comfortable, looks good and the engines work perfectly well, you
        are not going to purchase it if the wheel is missing. It's that simple.
        I'm new to Internet Marketing but I'll talk about an analogous situation.
        Quite often one salesman keeps making sales everyday while others are struggling. It's the same with copy, if you have good copy then it can make a lot of difference whatever be the economic conditions.
        The sales page is often equivalent to your salesman. I am new to this field but this has struck me quite forcibly.
        If you look at it in terms of money it may be that good copywriters of sales pages on the Internet are being paid much more than their counterparts in the print media. After all these Internet workers are performing a more critical operation.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[714205].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Lam
    Hey Angela,

    Sorry for the late reply. I kinda forgot about this thread and didn't subscribe myself to receiving notifications.

    I absolutely agree. There's way too many things that play into making a product sell, but we all know regardless how many people we get to a site, how good the product is, if the copy isn't compelling and portray the right message the cycle is broken.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[708389].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    I agree with you. If you write well and you manage to convince your readers that they must trust you, you can sell whatever, no matter if your product is not really special, while if you don't know how to promote it, you may have the best product of this world, but no-one will buy it.
    Signature
    Join my Affiliate Program and Sell Original eBooks
    Scientific Dream Interpretation – A Solution to All Problems

    How to Be Extremely Successful in Life
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[708408].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Lam
    Well said vistad.

    The way I see it is, it doesn't matter if 2 products are equal in value, equal in targeted traffic, equal in price and equal in design but the product with poor copy will never outsell the other product.

    Let's call them product "a" and product "b". "a" has good copy while "b" has poor copy. Well, what if we lowered the traffic for product "a?" As long as there are still targeted traffic, sales will still come through and possibly still be better than product "b".

    Now, let's say the price was lowered in product "b". Even with poor copy, it might produce a few more sales... maybe not, because crap is still crap, right? I mean, there's no such thing as a good bomb or a bad bomb - it's still a lethal weapon used to cause harm on Mother Earth.

    Finally, let's diminish the design quality for product "a". Well, we all know from history that million and billion dollar sales have resulted from some of the plainest pages. All this comes down to "Copywriting - The Most Essential Part of Marketing".
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[715192].message }}

Trending Topics