What's your main focus when writing sales copy?

Is it...

Your offer?

The benefits of your product or service?

Using the right words, or fancy adjectives, to make your copy sound exciting?


All of those are good answers. But they shouldn't be the "main" focus of your sales piece.

(Note: This post is for the less experienced sales writers among us, because the more experienced copywriters already know this stuff...)


So, If you're writing your sales piece, and you're unsure what your main focus should be... Then pull up a chair, and grab yourself a snack.
Because in the next couple minutes I'm gonna throw down some gospel for you.



First, let me start with a preamble, just to set the mood...


There was thread started a couple weeks ago, from AnneE who wanted advice on how to increase donations, to her crowdfunding page.

One of the replies that came from GordonJ (a wise member of this forum) contained the following passage...

(Note: You can read the entire post here, but I'm just focusing on this one part for the moment)...



^^^ That blurb contains a brilliant bit of advice right there!!! ^^^


I've tried to tell people this, over and over (and over again). Sometimes they get it...Sometimes they don't!


ALWAYS start (and finish) writing with the focus of "Who is your audience? And, what's in it for them?"

Because that's what most of your audience is looking for, when they're reading (or listening to, or watching) your message.



This goes for ANY piece of writing, where you want your audience to take some action. (From a full on sales piece, to a fundraising piece, to a sales video, to an email, down to a simple opt-in form on a website)



Whether it's something that will improve their lives, or just something that gives them a good feeling of doing a good deed (like a charitable donation)

If you want people to "take action" you need to give them a reason that means something to "THEM"


I can't even count how many times I've started working with a business, who's previous ads were all about the company. (i.e. - here's how great our product or service is... we have a bunch of happy customers... our past clients love us... you should buy from us because we're great... etc. etc. blah blah blah!)

Seriously, when I read sales copy like that, all I can do is is shake my head and wonder how they manage to get any new customers at all?







Simply put, if you ever find yourself creating an ad... and you start thinking "what can I say to convince people how great my product or service is?"


STOP!... Back up... Regroup... And reverse your direction...



And instead, start with "who is my audience, what do they want, and how does my offer help them get it?"


When you start (and finish) your sales piece, with this state of mind, your sales copy and your response rates, will only get better!

Sumthin' to think about...


Here's to writing better winners, more often.

All the best,
SAR



Note from above: I said "most" of the time, your audience only wants to know "how your offer benefits them."

But, there is an exception...

If any of the experts on this forum are critiquing your copy, at your request, we're probably not looking to buy whatever your selling.

All we're really looking for, is you to show some appreciation for the time and effort we've freely given you, to help you make your sales copy better.
And you can either reply with some words of gratitude, or at least click that little "thanks" button under our reply.


Bottom line folks... None of us are gettin' paid to help you here. And we're often giving you thousands of dollars worth of insight, and help... for free.
So if you don't show any appreciation this time around... next time, we might not reply to your request for help.

(Sumthin' else for you to think about...)