Copywriting Archives - TODAY INDIA

Technical Writing – Definition of Copyright and Copywriting

Definition of Copyright and Copywriting

You can apply for a copyright or you can apply for some copywriting, but they’re totally different things. In the first case, you’re asking for a document that gives you the right to publish something. In the second, you’re asking for a writing job. Writers often get them confused.

Copyright

A copyright is a legal document issued by the Copyright section of the United States Patent Office. It states that the person named on the document as the author owns the right to publish the written material designated in the document. That doesn’t mean that the person named actually wrote the copy, only that he or she has the legal right to publish it.

It’s not necessary to copyright anything. Legally, as soon as a person commits words to paper, they’re protected by a copyright whether a government document has been acquired or not. Practically, if you write something, and I apply for and get a copyright on it, it’s going to be tough for you to prove that you wrote it.

From the tech writer’s POV, it’s a little different. The law says that work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or a work specially ordered or commissioned is a “work made for hire” and the employer is considered to be the author. If you get paid to write something for someone else, you don’t have a right to it.

In its correct forms, the word is:

– copyright: the right to publish

“She owns the copyright to that book.”

– copyrighted: the condition of being covered by a copyright

“You can’t publish that because it’s copyrighted material.”

– copyrighting: the act of obtaining a copyright

“I’m copyrighting this even as I write it.”

There is no such form as copyright or copywritten correctly associated with this definition even though the Microsoft Word Spell Check accepts copywritten as a correct spelling (but doesn’t say for what), and copywritten shows up all over the Web in place of copyrighted.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the act of creating copy or content. Generally, the term refers to writing in the sense of creating non-technical material. It’s different from the kind of writing tech writers do. Some jobs that call for copywriting are marketing brochures, magazines, newspapers, and consumer-directed communications. If you’re a writer, you might be a copywriter.

Bonus

Here’s another comparison to be careful of. If you want to write plays, you want to be a playwright. Yes, that’s right. You have to write wright when you’re writing about writing plays. We almost never use wright by itself. It’s used mostly in compound words such as wheelwright, millwright, or wainwright. We do see it a lot as a name; Frank Lloyd Wright or Wright/Patterson Airbase.

Wright has the same history as Smith. A smith was anyone who worked some kind of metal with a hammer; blacksmith, tinsmith, silversmith. A wright was a craftsman who made something. The name of the occupation became the name of an individual.

A person who makes plays is a playwright. True, he may write them, but he’s not a playwright. I guess you could argue that a person who writes copy is a copywright, but it’s not used that way.

7 Big Ticket Copywriting Secrets I Learned from Ted Nicholas

I recently sponsored and attended Joel Christopher and Ted Nicholas’s Double

Birthday Bash and Interactive Marketing Summit in beautiful San Antonio, Texas.

There was a fantastic lineup of speakers including John Assaraf, Joe Vitale,

Brad Fallon, George McKenzie, Shawn Casey, Alan Bechtold, Tom “Big Al” Schreiter,

Brian Keith Voiles, Rosalind Gardner, and Sydney Johnson.

And, of course, both Joel Christopher and Ted Nicholas presented as well.

Don’t know who Ted Nicholas is?

Ted is a living legend in the offline direct marketing world. He’s considered

the “King of Print”, the “Copywriter’s Copywriter”, the “Entrepreneur’s

Entrepreneur” and the “GodFather of Direct Marketing”.

He’s known as the “4 Billion Dollar Man” because that’s how much of his own

products he’s sold using offline marketing methods.

Ted’s business card says: “I help people turn words into money“.

Anyway, it should be clear that Ted knows a lot about marketing and

especially copywriting.

Copywriting is simply selling with words. When someone reads the “copy” or words

of an advertisement or sales letter and is compelled to respond to the offer,

then you know your copy is effective.

I wanted to pass on some copywriting secrets I learned from Ted while I was at

the Double Birthday Bash. These secrets are taken directly from my notes so any

errors or omissions are mine.

Secret #1: Write the copy BEFORE the product is created!

Ted Nicholas says the smart marketer writes the copy BEFORE the product is

created.

Say, for example, you have a product idea. You should write the copy that sells

the benefits of the product even before you create the product.

There are two great reasons for doing that.

The first reason is that you get a much clearer idea of the focus of the product

from a customer perspective because you will be focusing on the benefits to the

customer in the copy.

Remember, people buy products that help solve their problems or give them

information that they need to solve a problem. By focusing on the benefits to

the customer, you can ensure that your product is really targeted towards

providing those benefits.

The second reason to write the copy first is to do market validation. In other

words, even if you’ve done some market research that indicates there is a huge

market, you can perform one final test using the copy you write first.

Even if people order your product you can tell them that it is not ready yet but

that they will be the first to be notified when it is ready.

If no one tries to order the product THEN don’t spend any more time on it! This

is the smart way to determine if a product is worth creating before wasting time

creating it! Especially for a Big Ticket product.

Also, if a ton of people order the product based on the copy then it is a huge

motivating factor to create a product that meets the expectations in the copy!

Secret #2: Headlines – The Most Important Item to Focus on when Writing Copy

When Ted Nicholas writes copy for a product, he has to look at the research, the

features, the claims and the benefits of the product – all before he creates the

copy for that product.

The first thing Ted writes are the potential headlines for the products.

Ted writes the headlines FIRST!

Before any copy.

Without the headline you are DEAD!

Because if the headline does not draw your reader’s attention and intrigue them

enough to read further, then they WON’T buy your product!

It does not matter if you have the most killer Big Ticket product in the world,

if people stop reading after the headline you have no chance to make the sale.

Spend 50% to 80% of your time on your headline and make sure that there are no

more than 3 ideas covered by the headline. Any more than 3 ideas is too

confusing to readers. And confusion causes readers to stop reading, something

you definitely don’t want.

One final tip on headlines: Studies show that 27% more people will read a

headline that has quotation marks around it because it indicates that someone

important said it. And of course someone important did say it – you did 🙂

Secret #3: Headline Generation Process

As mentioned in Secret #2, when Ted Nicholas writes copy for a product, he has

to look at the research, the features, the claims and the benefits of the

product.

As he goes through this process, he lists all the benefits of the product on 3×5

cards. He lists one benefit per card and uses as many cards as required to list

all the benefits.

Once Ted has all the benefits down on the cards, he reorganizes the benefits in

order of highest impact.

The strongest or best benefits are used in the main headline for the sales copy.

Many of the other benefits become sub headlines for the copy. Any others that

are left over are often used as bullets in the body copy.

So this process is extremely useful not only for creating headlines but making

sure that all the benefits are covered somewhere in the body of the copy itself.

With Big Ticket items and their higher price tags, it is crucial to make sure

all the benefits are covered. The more benefits you can point out in the copy

the more you move your reader away from their natural skepticism towards the

value that your product can offer!

Secret #4: Copy Flow is Key

Ted Nicholas brought up a quote that many of the top copywriters agree on:

“Copy can never be too long. Only too boring”.

What this means is that you must engage your reader and keep them engaged

throughout the copy of your sales letter or advertisement.

If your potential customer loses interest at any point and stops reading or puts

your copy down there is a good chance that they will never come back and finish

reading.

Your Big Ticket copy needs to cover all the benefits and possible objections

that your potential customer might have. That means its going to require a lot

of copy to cover everything. So you must ensure that your copy flows and that

they keep reading.

Here’s what Ted had to say about the flow of copy and what makes good copy:

Keep your paragraphs short and only cover 1 idea per paragraph.
The best way to test the flow of your copy is to read it out loud. If it doesn’t flow naturally when you read it out loud then chances are doesn’t flow. Change the copy until it does.
Have a student in Grade 7 or 8 read the copy. If any of the copy is hard for them to read then you need to rewrite your copy. You want the copy to be easy to understand.
Great writing is about rewriting. It makes it clearer and simpler, removing unnecessary words and loaded with emotion. That is when the writing is truly great.

Secret #5: Buying is Emotional

Almost all purchasing decisions are emotion driven. When we buy something, we buy it because of how we think it will make us feel or because we think it will solve a problem for us and make us feel better.

We may come up with all sorts of other rational reasons why we should make or made the purchase but the core reason is always an emotional one.

The last bullet in Secret #4 says that great writing is clear, simple and loaded with emotion. It appeals to our emotions.

So, when you write or read a good sales letter, you need to look at the copy and ask:

What is the emotional feeling you get when you read the sales letter?

Is it Hot?

Exciting?

Important but boring?

Or just plain boring?

Any parts of your copy that are in the “Important but Boring ” or “Just Plain Boring” categories you need to rewrite or get rid of those sections.

Why?

Because those sections are the ones where your potential customer could choose to stop reading.

You never want them to stop reading!

Ted Nicholas also said:

“If you can’t cry, you can’t write copy!“

It takes great strength to admit your feelings.

It’s also vitally important that you can relate on an emotional level to the situation of your potential customers. The more you can emotionally experience where they are coming from the better copy you can write.

Secret #6: Trust

When people know you, trust you and love you they will buy from you forever.

If you ever betray that trust, you will lose your customer forever.

In copywriting, never try to trick your potential customer with misleading copy and then switch topics.

They can detect that, will feel deceived and will not read your copy any further. You have lost the sale.

So when you sell someone a first product, make sure you astonish them with the first product because you want to win their hearts and minds!

This is especially true of Big Ticket products.

Secret #7: Avoid These Common Copy Mistakes in Your Sales Letters

Here is a list of the most common mistakes you must AVOID in your sales letter or advertisement:

No headline – You must have a headline. It is what catches your reader’s attention and makes them want to read you copy.
Few subheads – People tend to read in two ways. They either read your whole letter or they scan it. If they scan it you want to have lots of sub headings to catch their eye and interest and make them read at least those sections.
No guarantee – Always include a moneyback guarantee with your offer. The longer the guarantee period the more credible your offer.
No P.S. – Always use a P.S. on every letter you write. If people scan a letter they will usually read the P.S if nothing else. The P.S. should re-emphasize the strongest benefits and restate your offer.
No signature – Always sign your letter. It’s more personal.
No free bonuses – Free is one of the most powerful words in the human language. Providing free bonuses enhances the already great value of your product offering. In some cases, the right bonuses might convince someone to buy your product just to get the bonuses!
Logo on the letterhead – Your logo is about you, not about your customer. It’s just one more distraction from your sales message. If you must include a logo put it at the bottom of the letter.
No close – Make sure you give specific instructions on what you want your potential customer to do. If you don’t tell them to buy your product and exactly how to do it then the won’t.

And that’s it for 7 Big Ticket Copywriting Secrets I learned from Ted Nicholas. I hope this helps you improve your own copy.

Or, if you need help with your copy, at least hire someone who knows and follows these secrets. It will be worth the money you pay them to get more sales with great copy.

Online Business Opportunities – Social Media Marketing And Article Copywriting

Online business opportunities have been made more popular by social media marketing. It all began as a social initiative that has progressed into a viable tool in promoting business companies, products and services. Corporate organizations are gradually moving towards the use of social media and benefitting from its positive effects. As a refresher, social media focuses on more valuable interaction with business associates, prospective clients and existing customers.

Both major and minor players should strive to understand the crucial responsibility of social media in marketing. Indeed, it plays an essential function in marketing which depends on the business and how it best matches the requirements of that venture. It also depends on the effort that an entrepreneur is willing to contribute in the aspect of social media.

Strategies to Consider for Social Media

One of the questions that should be answered is can companies ignore social media marketing strategies as an effective way to advertise their products and services? This cannot be answered right away and it would be advisable to see the results or developments in the coming year.

Networking in business has never been more expedient than it is now, thanks to the concept of social media marketing. As it is aptly described by some experts in search engine optimization, business prospects are just a click away. Social networks continue to attract so many people who can end up in becoming your future contacts.

Article Copywriting as an Online Opportunity

Among the online business opportunities that are currently increasing in terms of demand is online copywriting. It is different from conventional copywriting although the objective of properly-implemented marketing copywriting is to heighten the online presence of business ventures. It aims to foster exposure and trust among the target publics.

In copywriting, these are the factors that should always be considered:

The content must be able to catch the interest of the target audience through the title of the article.
The headline should be motivating and engage the fascination of readers.
The content must be relevant and provide practical information to the readers.
The primary objective of copywriting is to win over readers to become loyal customers and patronize your goods or services.

Keep in mind that it is not the design of the website and advanced technologies that matter but the fact that the web page copy should be persuasive enough. The site must be able to generate substantial traffic for the business to be successful. SEO copywriting can enhance the ranking of websites by putting keywords at the proper places and in the midst of tabs on the web pages. Of course, the web pages must be appropriate and capable of connecting to readers as well as persuading both the readers and search engine spiders.

The first pointer about SEO copywriting is that it concentrates on generating content that is valuable for online users and at the same time to achieve better rankings in search engines. The next suggestion is to avoid cramming the web page with keywords and keyword phrases that do not work. These websites may be blocked because of irrelevant content. The content can be made relevant with the help of search engine optimization.