For anyone who’s read Robert Persig’s novel “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, (and there’s no excuse if you haven’t. It’s freely available on the Internet), the debate between bloggers and marketers (nicely summarised here) looks very much like the split between Classical and Romantic ways of thinking.

Classical thinking is associated with words like logical, scientific, reason - ‘left brain’
while Romantic thinking is defined by terms like emotional, creative, artistic. Most
people use both forms of thinking at different times.

It’s been said that people buy based on emotion, then justify with logic.

So how does this relate to “spammy sales letters”? Perhaps bloggers as a class are more
inclined to technical or analytical thinking, while marketers are more likely to be swayed
by emotional “hypnotic” writing? A number of copywriters, in particular, have commented on
their vulnerability to a good sales letter.

Are sales letters dead? Or, less apocalyptically, are we at the stage where bold red headlines will be disappearing soon? I mentioned in a previous post that Maria Velosa strongly advocates that don’t make the page look like a sales letter, and I agree - or at least my left brain agrees. But the only way to find out what works for your audience is by testing.

Much more about this on Michel Fortin’s blog.

In Mark Joyner’s book, “The Irresistable Offer”, he lists the four questions that your visitor is going to be asking as they start to read your copy. They are:

• What are you selling?
• How much does it cost?
• Why should I believe you?
• What’s in it for me?

You need to answer these questions, or as many of them as you can, as quickly as possible. Joyner says you have 3 seconds before your visitor loses interest or clicks away.

If you can incorporate answers to these questions in your headline, you’ll have a powerful advantage in pulling your reader into your copy.

I went to the local mall today to enquire about a 3G wireless card for the company I work for (the day-job). When I got to the entrance of the store, there were about 6 or 7 sales people standing there, presumably waiting to pounce on the next potential customer. I continued walking past the entrance, saying “I’ll come back when you aren’t all standing at the door”.

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I find situations like that intimidating. There’s a national computer chain which apparently trains its sales people to approach the customer within seconds of entering the shop, and ask the traditional retail question - “Can I help you, sir?” When I manage to pluck up the courage to actually go in, I’m always ready with the equally traditional “No thanks, I’m just browsing”.

I can’t believe that they’re not losing sales because of this. Common sense suggests that you wait for the customer to acclimatise themselves, let them look at products, watch unobtrusively for signs that they need assistance, and only then approach them and try to build a relationship. “Good morning, sir/ma’am. I see you’re interested in our mountaineering boots. Maybe I can help you choose the right pair?”

Is it the same with web copy? One of the marketing aphorisms I’ve always liked is “People love buying, but they hate being sold to.” It seems to me that the huge, brash red headline which traditionally starts a sales letter does a pretty good job of telling the visitor they’re about to be sold to.

Maria Velosa, in her excellent course, says that you should try to make your sales page look more like the kind of information your visitor is looking for. This makes perfect sense to me. Make it look like a page from wikipedia, gently draw them in to your sales message, give away useful information - explain what they need to do to solve the problem, then sell them the solution - the “how”.

Tellman Knudson calls copywriting a ‘leverageable skill’. What he means is that you can improve the performance of your sales letter, website or email messages, simply by improving your advertising copy. For instance, just changing a headline can make a massive difference to your sales or click-throughs, which directly affects your bottom line.

Are good copywriters born, or made?
Is copywriting something you can learn, or is it a skill you have to be born with? Most people are able to make themselves understood verbally, and many people are able to persuade others to do what they want them to. The best advertising copy is written in a conversational style. You’re attempting to open a dialogue with your reader, so dry, academic writing is not effective.

If you’ve ever sold anything to anyone, you should be able to learn the simple principles of good copywriting. The more you practice, the better you’ll get.

This website will share some of the resources I’ve found which will help you learn the principles of copywriting. There’s no need to start with a $1000 course, either - there are a number of free resources you can use, beginning with this concise report: “10 Ways To Write Effective Ad Copy”. Get these principles down, and everything else will follow naturally.