Tag Archives: style

P: Punch Up Your Prose

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

P: Punch Up Your Prose

This post fits right in with my complimentary ebook “Pretty Darn Good Writers: Become Great” available by entering your email address in the opt-in box to the right. I despise spammers, so you can believe I won’t spam you just because you downloaded my ebook.

OK, punching up your prose.

I’ve noticed that a lot of online marketing content is a yawn. It’s grammatically fine, uses subheadings and keywords properly, talks about the subject in a linear way. But man, can it be boring! Lifeless verbs, limp metaphors, empty pronouns… Informative, but not captivating.

So how do freelance writers (especially ghostwriters) create captivating prose? Start by eradicating extraneous phrases. Just use the right words the first time, rather than tacking on more and more phrases that end up being breathy and confusing and that annoy a dedicated reader who is simply trying to solve a problem like how to write better prose.

See what I mean?

Next, get creative with your verbs. Punch. Eradicate. Tacking. Annoy. If you don’t have a thesaurus, use the online versions to find word substitutions that rock.

One more tip: Use clear but visually-stunning metaphors. Employ the six senses when writing so your readers can hear and see and taste and touch and smell and FEEL your writing. Yes, you can do this even in a shampoo review or an article about toe fungus remedies.

How do you punch up your prose? Creative writers, jump into the comments section and give us some solid examples!

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Posted in AtoZ Challenge, FOCUS

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Notice: Copy Clinic Coming Up on March 15

Posted on March 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

autumn leafCandace Talmadge is holding an open-to-the-public Copy Clinic on Thursday, March 15. This one is a free teleseminar–you phone conference with Candace and other students in the class, voice-to-voice and live. It’s a great way to learn.

Tap into Candace’s writing knowledge and editing wisdom. No matter which piece of writing is causing you pain, Candace can help you find the right words and guide you into improvements. I’d suggest working over your author bio or About page, a landing page you’re developing, autoresponder copy, or any longer self-marketing piece you’ve been struggling with. Post your document in GoogleDocs or on an accessible URL so Candace and your fellow students can look at it and offer immediate feedback.

The Copy Clinic happens at 2 p.m. Pacific / 5 p.m. Eastern, so be on time and be prepared with your copy.

Visit http://www.copy-clinic.com and sign up to get the phone number and further details for the teleconference. I’ll be on the call getting feedback from Candace, so I hope to “see” you there!

Join the no-cost Copy Clinic on the 15th, and consider getting a membership in Copy-Clinic.com, too. For an extremely low monthly price, you get access to all of Candace’s coaching calls and her Facebook group for ongoing help with your writing dilemmas.

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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!

Need more Internet marketing and affiliate marketing tips? Join Chris Farrell for access to the nuts and bolts of online success (membership site, 4.95 for 7 days).

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

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Posted in Marketing Yourself

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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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Posted in Write Better

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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.

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

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