How important is copywriting to you?
- Thread starter erifdekciw
- Start date
The Robert Collier Letter Book is what finally helped me "crack the code" of what good long (and even short) copy is like.
GH Newsletter gets me pumped and keeps me turning pages better than a suspense novel. Lots of other good aspects to that one too.
GH Newsletter gets me pumped and keeps me turning pages better than a suspense novel. Lots of other good aspects to that one too.
Salesmanship in print.
I spend more time copywriting now than anything else. The difference between converting 1% and 2% of 2500 daily visitors with an average price tag of $40 is $365k/year. Even at 500 visitors that's $75k/year. Just by improving your salesmanship. Think about that.
What's missing from this discussion is the difference between copy and content. The OP is right in some regards - we don't have a big section of copywriters touting their pages and offering WSOs on landing pages. That doesn't mean the writers aren't around, there really just isn't a section for them. Also, the good ones don't usually go seeking out new clients since clients will often find their way to them, so don't look for very well established copywriters in the BST section either.
What many WF members have is a content driven website. Most "authority" websites are more content based than copy based. Copywriting is, as many of you have said, text written to persuade readers to actually do something - click here, buy now, sign up below. Content, on the other hand, is written for many reasons but primarily to inform or entertain.
Well-written copy can be hugely effective, which is why it often costs so much. Well-written content can be less expensive, even free with guest posts, etc, since it doesn't require the same specific skill set, but it can be just as effective, especially over time. It's almost a difference between a hard-sale and a soft-sell approach to online advertising.
I've seen both approaches over the last five years or so here, so there are long-form sites out there, but I don't expect anyone to out their landing pages (or even recommend their copywriter - not me, since I don't do long-form) to prevent unfair competitive advantage.
What many WF members have is a content driven website. Most "authority" websites are more content based than copy based. Copywriting is, as many of you have said, text written to persuade readers to actually do something - click here, buy now, sign up below. Content, on the other hand, is written for many reasons but primarily to inform or entertain.
Well-written copy can be hugely effective, which is why it often costs so much. Well-written content can be less expensive, even free with guest posts, etc, since it doesn't require the same specific skill set, but it can be just as effective, especially over time. It's almost a difference between a hard-sale and a soft-sell approach to online advertising.
I've seen both approaches over the last five years or so here, so there are long-form sites out there, but I don't expect anyone to out their landing pages (or even recommend their copywriter - not me, since I don't do long-form) to prevent unfair competitive advantage.
I don't think copy and content are much different from each other. Good content sells people, and I'd say it does so more effectively than a long-form salesletter does, mainly because content is devoid of the hype you'll find all over a sales page.
To me, a salesletter is an order-taker. It's the cash register. All the meaningful selling happens before people get to the register. Driving cold traffic to a salesletter almost never converts as well as sending traffic to a landin page for your salesletter. I think the main problem is the yuck factor people have when they see these crazy ass headlines. Sending cold traffic to a salesletter is like trying to open someones' wallet prematurely. It's easy to click the back button when people never gave you something of value, something that makes you pay attention.
Sales isn't really about all these copywriting tricks... I think it's more strategy based. You warm people up before you sell them. You expose your offer at the right TIME. Then even a shitty salesletter will still convert.
edit: I know this isn't accurate for 100% of products, but for many I think it's accurate.
I think copywriting is very important. Quality copywriting is essential to company literature as it enhances corporate identity. Conveying the core message in an easily understood manner, it is essential that grammar, tense and syntax are correct.
Copywriting is salesmanship in print. If your content (subject material) is doing the selling for you then you've got one of the best forms of copywriting you can have, really. You will lose some people at the hint of them feeling like they are being sold to. It's also my opinion that they are not the same thing by definition.
Right. This is called pre-selling. A sales letter is more than an order taker but that is the sole purpose of one. A sales letter is also broken down into different things like a headline, sub headline, the story, bullet points, making an offer, closing the sale and so many other things that actually do a lot more selling then hiring a content writer off textbroker. This is the content of the sales letter.
Yes, I agree here you really have to get a lot of test data to really figure out the best way to warm up your traffic to take some sort of action. Too much of the crazy stuff could backfire in your campaigns but not enough of something like the simple usage of a certain word could also really fuck up your conversions too. That's why you should always be testing different headlines, etc.
This is exactly it. It is all strategy but at the end of the day if your content is selling then you're a good copywriter. That's my main point in that you could have content material that is doing all of the selling for you in which case you don't need all of the fancy hypey stuff that could drive your traffic away. It's definitely all about strategy and testing for sure.