One way I've improved my copy over the years...

"Every battle is won before it is fought....."

-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Most copywriters know that in order to write copy
that resonates with your market... it helps to put
yourself in their shoes, or get into their "mindset"

Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings that
are being experienced by another being.

But something I've been doing more and more
lately, when I write copy for a market I'm not
as familiar with... is I actually ASK the market
WHY they bought a particular product or service.

For example, before I sold my fitness business...
I surveyed close to 5,000 buyers of one of my
ebooks.

The survey simply asked: why did you buy?

Now, to maximize responses, I gave them an
ethical bribe for answering.

I got close to 1,000 responses and spent days
going through them.

And out of the 1,000 responses, there were
many common, prevalent themes as to why
these 1,000 folks bought.

So, I reworked the copy to target these things
and like clockwork, the conversion rate went
up by leaps and bounds.

When I started writing for others, I tried to use
this survey method with clients that either had
big lists or I didn't know much about the market.

For example, I wrote copy for a breast surgeon who
wanted to target women who were perfect candidates
for breast implants.

Since I was a guy, and even though I'm a fan of breasts,
I had trouble putting myself in the mindset of a woman
who wanted larger breasts.

So, we surveyed his list of past customers and got
some amazing answers that helped me create the
copy.

I've gone some pretty significant lengths to try
and do surveys before writing copy.

I firmly believe that hard work and research can
often help you produce big winners.

for other clients who didn't have a list to survey,
I've even gone as far as renting an email list of
prospects in that target market, just so I could
send out a survey and ethical bribe, asking for
some input and insight.

For many copywriters, this won't make sense
if your client is paying you $1,000 for copy... but
on the jobs where I've gotten $10,000 or more, I'll
gladly spend $500 or so to get incredible insight.

In some cases, I've been able to do kind of a "JV"
with clickbank business owners who had lists in
a market I was writing for but didn't know a lot
about.

You'll be surprised how many business owners will
accept $500 to send out an email survey to their
list of customers.

Now, this method is tough to get working because
many business owners won't want to send an email
to their list for you... simply because they'll most
likely know you're writing for their competition or
you might be entering the market yourself.

But I've been able to use it a couple of times, simply
by telling the business owner that I'd help them
work the survey results into their business as well.

Either way, I'm a big fan of using surveys
to ask BUYERS why they bought something
in the market you're writing for.

So the first thing I'll ask for, when working with
a client, is whether or not they have a list of
buyers, preferably.

If so, I'll have them send out an email asking
their customers why they bought.

If they don't have a list, and if it's a fairly
decent sized fee they're paying, i'll often
go above and beyond just "trying to get into
the shoes or mindset" of the prospect.

I'll actually spend some money and try
to get real-world feedback from actual
buyers... so I can find out for sure why
they bought.