Just a gimmick?

If just starting out yes.

It cements certain copywriting processes, subtleties of written language and technique directly into your subconscious mind.

By hand is best if you can.


Mark Andrews

Like anything else, it's not the "magic pill".

But, it has its benefits in my opinion. It can be another tool to help you better understand your craft. And so in that regard, it's not just a gimmick.

Think about it this way.

It's almost like imbedding a swipe file into your "mind to writing memory" connection.

Not unlike bodybuilders who stress the importance of "mind to muscle" connection
to make the weights work for you.

Others call it muscle memory.

After awhile, because most of the successful ads were successful because they used proven sales communication with their market, in their copy,

the commonalities of each part of a successful ad will begin to sort of leap off the page at you.

And you will begin to notice the similarities--you recognize them and remember them from what you wrote before.

For example,

You'll notice the way the pre-heads lead to the headline so invisible it's like they're not even there.

You'll notice how the headline quickly grabs your attention and draws you in--excited to read the rest of the copy.

You'll see how the opening paragraphs quickly communicated the main benefit and connected with the reader, then prompted the reader to read more.

You'll see the ways the copywriter made the case for their credibility and why it paid the reader to listen to what they had to say.

You'll notice brilliant counters to overcome objections.

You'll notice how the writer communicated with empathy and understanding of the way the reader feels and at the same time, brings such painful awareness to the reader's problem, they can't help but acknowledge their need to act on the offer.

You'll also notice how successfully selling offers were constructed.

You'll pick up on how the product was introduced.

And see many examples of proving the value with benefits.

You'll notice strong risk-reversing guarantees.

You'll see killer closes and learn to adapt them to your own ads.

You'll see what they did when they used post scripts.

Pretty much, any component of a successful ad, you'll now have experience writing so that when it comes time to write your own, the entire concept won't be foreign to you.

You'll also see transitions used to connect one part of the copy to the next. And the devices used to keep the reader reading.

Again, like anything else, don't look at it as the "end all be all, magic pill or success elixir" for your copywriting abilities. Everyone knows only I can sell you that.

But in all seriousness, there is benefit from it *if* you do it for the reason of understanding the elements of successful copy and apply what you begin to see
to your own copy.

The verdict is still out. I mean I wouldn't "swear by it".

But at the same time, I did it. And, looking back now, I can see where it seems to have helped.