Why Making Your Copywriting Promotions Ooze Personality Will Nab You More Sales
A couple years ago I was talking to a copywriter who said something so incredibly powerful, I have never forgotten it. He said, there are two people every copywriter should know better than his favorite character on television: 1.) The customer 2.) The client Number one (the customer) is pretty obvious, but I didn't understand number two, and why it was so important. "Because," he said, "in order to inject your client's personality into your sales letter, you have to literally 'become' him while you're writing. It's the only way to make sure your letter sounds like it was written by him...and not a 'copywriter.'" Makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, there have been instances where injecting personality into an ad has doubled or even tripled response. Only problem is, how do you get to know your client that well? Sure, you can talk to her, record the call and listen to it over and over and over. But if you do that, there's a good chance she'll be reserved in her comments. Say only the things she thinks you want to hear or that sound "right" (we're all like that). And in the process hold back valuable tidbits about her personality you can use in your ad. And so, here are a few ways to dig out the interesting personality traits about your clients, and capture the essence of their personalities when creating their ads. 1.) Do an Internet search. You'd be shocked how many things you can learn about a person simply by looking them up in the search engines. Their name could pop up on message boards, blogs or even in news stories. And if you see something they wrote in a blog (especially if it's someone else's) or said to the media, immediately capture it. Chances are they were speaking on the fly, revealing important details about their personality and giving you some excellent "fodder" for your ad. 2.) Read anything they have published. Does your client have any other books, articles or published material besides the product you're selling? If so, you should read it and look for things that pop out at you -- like words, phrases and figures of speech they use over and over again. 3.) Finally, see if he left any feedback for books on amazon.com. I recently had a client who likes leaving feedback on books he buys. And when I checked those comments out, I learned all kinds of information about the way he talks, thinks and makes decisions. Information that came in very handy as far as making his ad sound "personable." Anyway, those are a few places to get you started. The key is to capture your clients' words as they write or say them in non-formal settings...and then transfer the more interesting aspects of their personalities to the ad you write for them. Not only will this make your promotion literally ooze personality...but it'll also explode your sales. It may seem like a small detail, but many times (especially when it comes to injecting personality in an ad) it's the small things that add up to big profits at the end of the day. Ben Settle is a direct response copywriter and author of "The Copywriter's Cheat Sheet" -- which contains over 300 pages of advanced copywriting secrets and rare swipe file ads not easily found anywhere else. You can get a free copy of his book and read his latest copywriting ideas and tactics at http://bensettle.com |
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