Tag Archives: style

Contrary Email Marketing: Use Video Less During Holiday Buying Season

Posted on November 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

echinacea spiderMost email service providers now give marketers the option to embed videos. What a blessing! If you regularly include videos in marketing emails, what I’m about to say may sound dangerous and heretical.

Use fewer videos during the high holiday buying season between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Stop spluttering. Here’s my logic.

Beginning on Thanksgiving Day, ramping up on Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving, and continuing relentlessly through midnight on December 25th, email marketers will be inundating opt in subscribers with thousands of super-fabulous discounts, sales, coupons, and offers.

It’s hard enough to get subscribers to open emails at this time of year without boring them with a three minute video embedded in the marketing message.

They want the facts, and they want them fast. “What’s in it for me?” is the primary question being asked by email newsletter subscribers, because they’re too busy to pay attention.

So give ‘em the facts: Item, item description, regular price, sale price, expiration of sale, click here to buy now. Thanks and have a fabulous day.

If you really, really need to have videos, include a hyperlink back to your website so customers can choose to watch or simply choose to buy and skip the video.

The high holiday buying season helps us email marketers hone our copywriting skills to the finest edge. Respect your readers’ time and energy: make them a great offer, use fewer words, and don’t embed a video in every email.

Good luck to you on Black Friday!

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11 Tips to Write an Effective Lift Letter—for Direct Mail or Online Copywriting

Posted on November 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

The exciting conclusion to the 4 part series on adapting the lift letter approach for online copywriting. Read Part 1: Adapting the Lift Letter to Online Design Constraints, Part 2: Incorporating the Lift Letter Into Web Copy, and Part 3: Including Lift Letters in Product Launch Email Campaigns to get caught up.

The most powerful lift letters are larger-than-life endorsements from uber-satisfied customers, grateful donors or recipients, or genuine users of your product. Please don’t cheat and write the lift letter copy yourself. Get a real live customer/client/donor to use his or her name and real words. Edit to fit, but be honest.

Copywriters are sometimes called upon to use the lift letter approach to detail product benefits, which is not the same as a testimonial. Use these tips to improve writing power, whether it’s a third party or your copywriting self.

  1. Tell a story. A true story.
  2. Endorsements should be written in first person. If you’re a copywriter, call upon truthful and verifiable examples (name names, with permission). First person engages readers in the story, and names provide social proof.
  3. Use emotional language, not logic or sales language.
  4. At the same time, steer clear of hyperactive words like magnificent, explosive, unbelievable, astounding, shocking, etc.
  5. Also steer clear of great, good, wonderful, excellent, and “really” anything.
  6. Even if a third party is writing the lift letter, design the headline yourself. Use at least one good verb and eliminate little words. Read the headline out loud.
  7. Focus on benefits. Help your lift letter writer by naming benefits up front: he increased his income, or he saved the environment, or his aching knee is cured. It’s best if one or two benefits are clear rather than trying to name half a dozen.
  8. Don’t let the writer say anything that’s not true or is too general. Make it clear the lift letter is that person’s experience. If you’re copywriting in the lift letter style, use facts to back up your words.
  9. Include key fill-in-the-blank phrases such as, “If I hadn’t tried X product…” or “I’ve joined the thousands of others who…” or other prompts. This keeps the writing focused on the one big idea.
  10. Use the lift letter as an opportunity to talk about something other than the product. Stress credentials, past successes, credibility, authority, honesty, integrity. Customers buy more than products—they want to know you’ll stand behind your offer.
  11. Make the lift letter stand out from your usual look-and-feel through fonts, graphics, colors, boxing it off, etc. Have a friend scan your webpage or email—if the lift letter jumps out, you’ve done a good job.

Direct mail copywriters have been using lift letters for years. With a few adjustments, online copywriters can adapt the lift letter approach to produce powerful add-ons to the main sales message.

Learn all the Internet marketing rules of the road by reading e-Marketing Strategies: The Hows and Whys of Driving Sales Through e-Commerce (instant download PDF, 18.23).

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment below. Please keep in mind that content theft is both illegal and immoral. If you’d like to purchase reprint rights for the entire article, visit http://www.constant-content.com/docDetails.php?DocID=138903.

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Adapting the Lift Letter Approach for Online Copywriting (Part 3)

Posted on October 30, 2011 | 1 Comment

Here’s Part 3 of 4 on adapting the lift letter approach for online copywriting. “Lift letter” is a direct mail concept that simply means a supporting endorsement letter designed to lift response rates to the sales appeal. The lift letter leverages social proof to bring the reader closer to saying yes. Read Part 1: Adapting the Lift Letter to Online Design Constraints and Part 2: Incorporating the Lift Letter Into Web Copy to get caught up. Keep your RSS feed turned on so you don’t miss the exciting conclusion 11 Tips to Write an Effective Lift Letter—for Direct Mail or Online Copywriting.

gaillarda spiderOnline copywriters use the lift letter concept to boost response in several ways: (1) by adapting it to how web surfers interact with landing pages, (2) by using it as part of web page copy, and (3) by integrating it into product launch emails.

Including Lift Letters in Product Launch Email Campaigns

An easy way to integrate the powerful lift letter approach into online marketing is to make it one of your product launch email series. It should be the second or third email, right after the enticing intros that create anticipation about the product.

A larger-than-life endorsement must be written by someone other than you—hopefully, someone with a bigger name. If you don’t have a big name to testify about your product, call upon a truly satisfied user or customer.

If you’re using the lift letter to address a potential objection or focus on key benefits (not an endorsement), let your style be relaxed and conversational. Don’t sell: just talk. Keep your enthusiasm in check and address your audience directly.

Never refer to the lift letter as a testimonial. Remember the piranha and shark analogy earlier? Testimonials are little and strike quickly. Lift letters are long, detailed copy and circle around the call to action.

Learn all the Internet marketing rules of the road by reading e-Marketing Strategies: The Hows and Whys of Driving Sales Through e-Commerce (instant download PDF, 18.23).

Please subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss the concluding post in this series, 11 Tips to Write an Effective Lift Letter—for Direct Mail or Online Copywriting. Read Part 1: Adapting the Lift Letter to Online Design Constraints and Part 2: Incorporating the Lift Letter Into Web Copy.

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment below. Please keep in mind that content theft is both illegal and immoral. If you’d like a free reprint of this review for your website or blog, send me an email.

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Adapting the Lift Letter Approach for Online Copywriting (Part 2)

Posted on October 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Here’s Part 2 of 4 on adapting the lift letter to online copywriting. “Lift letter” is a direct mail concept that simply means a supporting endorsement letter designed to lift response rates to the sales appeal. The lift letter leverages social proof to bring the reader closer to saying yes. Read Part 1: Adapting the Lift Letter to Online Design Constraints to get caught up. Keep your RSS feed turned on so you don’t miss Part 3: Including Lift Letters in Product Launch Email Campaigns or the exciting conclusion: 11 Tips to Write an Effective Lift Letter—for Direct Mail or Online Copywriting.

gaillarda spiderOnline copywriters use the lift letter concept to boost response in several ways: (1) by adapting it to how web surfers interact with landing pages, (2) by using it as part of web page copy, and (3) by integrating it into product launch emails.

Incorporating the Lift Letter Into Web Copy

OK, so maybe popup windows aren’t your thing. Make the lift letter part of the web page instead.

Set the endorsement off in some way—in a different column, with a different typeface or colors, with a bold headline. It should be obvious to someone scanning your page that this is not sales copy, but rather social proof for why the reader should be there or should buy the product.

On the main landing page, use the word “More” to your advantage by providing an enticing intro and the opportunity for the reader to read more with a click. Now you can really go old-school with the lift letter and make it a full-blown appeal to the reader. When the copy is on a separate web page, the copywriter has plenty of room to expand and link back to the main sales page.

Because the lift letter is social proof, it should tell a true story and appeal to the emotions. If the lift letter is a heart-to-heart message from someone, include an image of the person if you can (perhaps standing next to you, or using your product, or on the front stoop of your organization), and focus copy on how your product/organization has benefited that person.

Some web copywriters use this concept as the intro to a landing page. Ever seen the one about the dead-broke stay at home mom who now makes a 6-figure income using X product—which she happens to be selling? This is cheating the concept of the lift letter somewhat, but still within copywriting boundaries of good taste.

Learn all the Internet marketing rules of the road by reading e-Marketing Strategies: The Hows and Whys of Driving Sales Through e-Commerce (instant download PDF, 18.23).

Please subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss the next post in this series, Part 3: Including Lift Letters in Product Launch Email Series. Read Part 1: Adapting the Lift Letter to Online Design Constraints.

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment below. Please keep in mind that content theft is both illegal and immoral. If you’d like a free reprint of this review for your website or blog, send me an email.

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Adapting the Lift Letter Approach for Online Copywriting (Part 1)

Posted on October 26, 2011 | 3 Comments

Here’s Part 1 of 4 on adapting the lift letter approach for online copywriting. Lift letters are a powerful tool in direct mail copywriting, but online copywriters must tweak the technique to fit new technology. Keep your RSS feed turned on so you don’t miss Part 2: Incorporating the Lift Letter Into Web Copy or the final post in the series: 11 Tips to Write an Effective Lift Letter—for Direct Mail or Online Copywriting.

gaillarda spider“Lift letter” is a direct mail concept that simply means a supporting endorsement letter designed to lift response rates to the sales appeal. The lift letter leverages social proof to bring the reader closer to saying yes.

In a direct mail package, it’s almost always a separate page and looks different from the rest of the copy, setting it apart in the reader’s mind. It also sounds different from the rest of the package because it’s often written by a different person—a product user or non-profit donor or an extremely satisfied customer.

Let’s get this clear in your mind: a lift letter is not the same as a testimonial. Think of the testimonial as a piranha and the lift letter as a shark.

Online copywriters use the lift letter concept to boost response in several ways: (1) by adapting it to how web surfers interact with landing pages, (2) by using it as part of web page copy, and (3) by integrating it into product launch emails.

Adapting the Lift Letter to Online Design Constraints

I despise popup windows. As a web surfer myself, if I click on a website from a search engine result and the first thing I see is a popup telling me to subscribe to the newsletter (even if it offers an enticing free report), I close that stupid box before it’s done loading.

That said, use the lift letter approach by integrating it into a popup window. When a potential customer arrives, she doesn’t really know why she’s there and a USEFUL popup window can tell her why, based upon a satisfied user’s personal experience.

If you choose to make your endorsement an exit popup, write an upbeat invitation to join or share, and provide a couple of hyperlinks back to your website so the visitor stays with you longer. A few more tips and tricks:

Keep popup copy incredibly short (50 words or less). Use the real person’s name in the headline, and use first person (I) throughout. Break off in the middle of a convincing thought with ellipses marks (…) and add a More hyperlink that jumps to an anchor part way down the landing page. Don’t sell in this popup lift letter—but do mention a key benefit. Always give readers several obvious ways to close the window.

Please subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss the next post in this series, Part 2: Incorporating the Lift Letter Into Web Copy.

Learn all the Internet marketing rules of the road by reading e-Marketing Strategies: The Hows and Whys of Driving Sales Through e-Commerce (instant download PDF, 18.23).

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment below. Please keep in mind that content theft is both illegal and immoral. If you’d like a free reprint of this review for your website or blog, send me an email.

Join the Conquering Content sanctuary. To learn more, click here.

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