Copywriting -- Two Golden Rules of Sales Copy

By Ugur Akinci

No matter what type of sales copy you are writing (catalog copy, newspaper display ad, e-mail pitch, hand flyer, highway billboard, radio commercial, etc.) there are two rules that you should never violate if you need good results:

1) Focus on the "Maddening Problem"

If you can identify why people are frustrated and upset, you've got a sale. And for that, you need to observe the world without any prejudices or preconceived notions of what gets people upset.

One good way to do that is to watch the popular TV shows and read the best selling main-stream publications because there is a reason why these media products got to be the monsters that they are.

Consider Oprah… or the National Enquirer… why is the former the top TV talk show and the latter the best selling periodical in the United States? Because they both address people's frustrations and they do it well.

They correctly identify what bothers tens of millions of people the most and then they either suggest solutions (Oprah) or, as in the case of the National Enquirer, they assuage that frustration by assuring the readers that "the rich and famous are not that happy and classy at all."

For example, if you are writing copy to sell a home-based business opportunity, don't tell your prospective buyers that now through this opportunity they can visit all the foreign countries that they always wanted to visit.

Instead, focus on the overworked wage earner's top frustration that they cannot spend more time with their families and enjoy life together. That's why a number of successful and long-running home business advertisements draw a warm picture of "ideal balance" where you can earn good money "while still wearing your pajamas," with your kids and loved ones "in the next room."

2) Stress Benefits, not Features

The average car buyer could care less if that new model has a Xenon Carbide headlights that won the French Concorde Award last year and is 37.2% brighter than the traditional highlights, or, it has a HB-22 Generation Four auto-combustion cycle regulator under the hood designed by none other than the "one and only" August Rochelle.

But what they care about is if the new model can parallel park automatically, with no manual steering, and save you the anxiety of parking in tight spaces and busy traffic; or if it switches on a sonar radar to warn you against collisions when the road visibility drops below a certain threshold and thus secure your family's safety under hazardous conditions.

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Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a writer with 20 years of experience. He is available for a wide variety of freelance assignments. Visit his web site http://www.writer111.com for more information on his services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ugur_Akinci

Copywriters - How To Promote Your Copywriting Business Online

By Biana Babinsky

Are you a copywriter who runs a copywriting business? Do you need to find more clients? Do you want your target customers finding your web site online and contacting you through your web site to hire you? You can accomplish this if you have an effective online marketing system for your copywriting business.

Here is how you can create a marketing plan for your business to get more clients and make more money online:

- Find a target market for your copywriting business. It is extremely important to know who your target market is when you start marketing it. If you do not know who your target market is, you will not be able to promote your business online effectively.

- Create a professional web site for your business. When people hire a copywriter, they hire a professional. Therefore, if you want to get clients online for your business, you need to present a professional business image.

Your web site should have professional look and feel and it should have information about your business and the products and services that you offer to your customers. It should be easy for your potential customers to contact you through your web site.

- Use your web site to explain what you do. Copywriters can perform different services. Some ghostwrite. Others write articles. Yet others write web copy only.

Make sure that you discuss the copywriting that you do on your web site. This way your potential clients can read this information and decide whether they need your services or not.

- Publish a newsletter for potential customers. Your customers might not hire you immediately. Therefore, you need to be able to keep in touch with your potential customers, so that when they are ready to outsource copywriting, they can hire you.

Publishing a newsletter is the best way to keep in touch with your potential customers and let them know about your business.

- Publish your articles online. You are a copywriter, so you should be able to write articles for publishing them online. You should do that because publishing articles is a great way to promote your expertise and get more web site traffic.

Your articles are great for getting links to your web site. Getting links to your web site is extremely valuable in online marketing, because they help drive additional traffic to your web site.

If you need more clients for your copywriting business, use the online marketing techniques we discuss in this article.

Biana Babinsky is the online business coach and expert, who helps copywriters get more clients online. Get her FREE Special Report, Top 5 Strategies To Get More Clients Online at http://www.EffectiveOnlineMarketing.com/report to learn how to get more clients for your copywriting business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Biana_Babinsky

Find Out How A Writing and Blogging Campaign Can Help You

By Kathi Dameron

Find out how a writing and blogging campaign can help you to achieve uncommon results.

Are you using the power of content-rich articles and blogs to deliver more bang for your buck?

You should be!

Traditional advertising is expensive and often fails to deliver the desired results.

I've been there and done that. I have sunk countless dollars into advertising that literally did not do diddly squat for me or my business. In essence, the only one who benefited was the publisher and sales rep who sold me the ads.

There is only one reason to advertise- to make money.

Anyway that you look at it, advertising is an investment that should yield a measurable return to your bottom line and not just to the bottom line of the publication.

Uncommon results are achievable. But you need to employ uncommon practices to release them.

You need to think outside of the box of traditional advertising.

With content-rich articles and blog postings, you can accomplish so much more for so much less.

Don't you owe it to yourself to step beyond the ordinary into the land of the extraordinary?

Five Ways To Add More Bang To What You Are Currently Doing

1. Write content-rich articles and post them to top Internet article sites, like ezinearticles which is considered the best article resource on the Internet.

2. Write and post your articles on a regular basis. Develop a strategy and follow through on it.

3. Start a blog and post daily with content-rich postings relevant to your niche.

4. Create additional blogs that are specifically niched to your targeted markets.

5. Ping your blogs with google and technorati.

(c) Kathi Dameron, Kathi Dameron and Associates www.kathidameron.com

For more information on how you can create a customized and measurable marketing campaign contact Kathi Dameron askkathidameron@aol.com

Kathi Dameron owns Kathi Dameron and Associates, a Writing and Blogging Boutique located in Tallahassee, Florida. http://www.kathidameron.com

She can be reached at 850-422-3599

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathi_Dameron

"How To Get Started With A Career In Copywriting"