You want eight killer copywriting secrets for success? You can’t handle my eight killer copywriting secrets! Although the fate of two Marines isn’t at stake here, good copywriting is on trial.

Admittedly, my reference to the movie “A Few Good Men” was more than a bit cheesy, but the following eight copywriting secrets are a top brass addition to my previous hit post, 8 Copywriting Tips To Keep You From Writing Like An Idiot.

8 Copywriting Secrets To Explode Your Small Business Marketing!

Eight More Copywriting Tips

1. Stay On Point And Keep Your Focus
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Out of these eight copywriting tips, remember not to overload your copywriting with tons of sales copy for multiple products, services and industries. Good copywriting has only one focus and one desired response. Ensure your marketing collateral, sales letter, web page and other copywriting isn’t crammed with confusing options and competing interests.

2. Rock Out Your Copywriting
Use these copywriting secrets to differentiate your business from competitors. Discover your own “voice” in your copywriting and continually refine your writing style to compliment your small business branding. You want people to be able to recognize your copywriting in your small business marketing.

3. Muzzle The Ridiculous Copywriting
Good copywriting is believable and sincere. Drop the outlandish claims that your readers can make millions in their bathrobe or that your copywriting tips will help them make money overnight. Establish your credibility, as it is the only way to producing effective copywriting for your small business marketing.

4. Write Like You’re Running A Marathon
Don’t fear writing too much. Explore the features and benefits of your products in your copywriting. Tell readers every detail! One of the great copywriting secrets of the pros – write your copy as long as necessary to achieve your objectives and to tell your story in your small business marketing.

5. Practice Mind Reading
One of the more difficult copywriting tips to practice… anticipate the questions your readers will have and the negatives they’ll identify about your products and services. Diffuse customer anxieties in your copywriting from the get go. Really good copywriting confronts negatives head on as a way to build good faith and credibility in your small business marketing.

6. Have Customers Sing Your Praises
Use customer testimonials in your copywriting to affirm your integrity. Ask three or four of your best customers for testimonials that you can inject into your small business marketing to produce extraordinarily good copywriting. Testimonials will also help your copywriting appear more objective and less stilted.

7. Guide Your Readers
Prepare your copywriting as if you were drawing a treasure map. Use an attractive headline to draw readers and subheadings to channel your reader’s attention towards the meat of your small business marketing. All of the copywriting tips in the world won’t save you if you can’t focus your reader’s attention.

8. I’ll Slap You Big Boy
Don’t insult your readers with gimmicky attention whoring! Of all the copywriting tips to pay close attention to, it’s in how you present your copywriting to the reader. Asking, “wouldn’t you like to be a millionaire,” is immature and a surefire way to turn good copywriting into a pile of horse manure. Provide smart, truthful and witty copywriting. Talking down to readers is not a tenant of good copywriting in the book of copywriting secrets.

Got a pressing question? Not sure what you think about this article on copywriting tips to explode your small business marketing? Leave us a comment.Thank you for reading!

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Copywriting isn’t really all that difficult, unless you find stringing thoughts together into sentences too rough for your brain meat to handle. What? Did I really just say brain meat? I know, I know, human brains aren’t meat, but stay with me here! That was simply a slick copywriting trick to keep you reading.

Copywriting Tips For Creating Killer Copywriting!

Now, back to the copywriting tips and the purpose of this article… for most small business owners, killer copywriting simply takes a little forethought and a lot of practice. The following eight copywriting tips are a no-nonsense, idiot-proof guide for writing engaging, “smart” copywriting for just about any small business marketing situation.

Killer Copywriting Tips

1. Write as if you’re writing to someone you know.
This may sound rather basic, but when was the last time you received a sales letter from a business that actually read like it was written just for you? Killer copywriting is all about being personable. Write like you talk, and write like you’re talking to a friend sitting next to you.

2. Use stories and illustrations to highlight your point.
I had a client call me up the other day, giddy like a little kid, because the direct mail copywriting we had written for him was generating a firestorm of interest in his business. See what I did there in my copywriting?

3. Write each sentence with the goal of enticing your reader to read the next sentence.
Pretend your dear reader is little yellow Pac-Man from the arcade game… winding through your copywriting, gobbling up each sentence. Keep your copywriting interesting to prevent the ghosties from catching up to your reader and ending the game.

4. Use bullet points, bolding, underlining and quotes to visually engage your reader.
You can’t write a set of copywriting tips without mentioning visual appeal. Your copywriting should not look like a four-year-old just found the old typewriter in your basement and let loose on a defenseless sheet of paper. Break up large blocks of text and paragraphs, and highlight key information with text formatting.

5. Keep it short!
Long sentences are for windbags. Short sentences retain interest. And short paragraphs are easier on your reader’s eyes!

6. Write like you speak.
Don’t worry about what your high school English teacher told you about proper grammar and sentence structure. Be conversational and write like you talk. Copywriting that reads like a college thesis is not going to win you brownie points. The only time I’d advise against this is if you talk like TV’s Dr. Phil. Cause, man that guy’s annoying! Just kidding Oprah!

7. Beef up your benefits, not features.
Make sure your copywriting focuses on the benefits of your products and services. For example, write about how your product saves the reader time, so they can spend the weekend with their family instead of working. Or, how your service will make your reader feel and look ten years younger. Benefits will steer your copywriting towards the emotional reasons for buying, as opposed to logical, rational reasons.

8. Be you!
One of the greatest copywriting tips is to let your natural charm, intelligence and sincerity shine through in your copywriting. Killer copywriting comes from the gut. Not some phony-baloney stuff you write to appear witty, make you sound smarter than you are, or to present yourself as something you’re not. People can spot fake copywriting from a mile away.

Talk to us Goose! We’d really love it if you could take a moment of your time to write us a comment below. It’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Thanks for reading our eight copywriting tips and please do check out the rest of our site!

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If you’re trying to generate business using direct mail marketing, it’s critical you know how to write a sales letter. Many small business owners have great products and services, but their attempts to write a sales letter fail miserably. Keep your sale letters from heading straight to the recycling bin with the following recipe on how to write a sales letter. After reading the following tips, be sure to read my analysis of a sales letter and the accompanying example sales letter download.

Writing a sales letter is pretty simple, but it does take some practice. Use the following criteria when writing a sales letter — they’ll keep your cash register ringing and your sale letters from hitting the junk pile!

How To Write A Sales Letter:

• Focus On Your Audience — When writing a sales letter, focus on the needs of your audience and how your business, products and services fill those needs. Take a moment to identify key selling points for marketing your business and use those points in your sales letter. Your sale letters shouldn’t be about you! Drop the “I, I, I, and me, me, me” from your sale letters.




• Attack Customer Needs — If you can’t explain in your sale letters how your product or service resolves a problem or fulfills the customer needs, you’re going to fail! Write a sales letter that gets your reader’s mouth watering — position your product as something they can’t live without. Try using pain to motivate your customers to purchase.




• Include A Clear Call To Action — What do you want the prospect to do after reading your sale letters? Do you want them to: schedule a consultation, visit your website, call now? Repeat your call to action throughout your sale letters! But be careful not to confuse readers with too many options.




• Force The Reader To Act — When you write a sales letter, use time to spur immediate action. Even if your prices won’t be changing, your readers don’t know that! Use phrases like, “for a limited time only, offer expires in 30-days, or due to spiking web traffic, I can’t keep these special reports on my website much longer!”




• Establish Your Credibility — A key component to write a sales letter — establish your credibility! The reader doesn’t know who you are. Introduce yourself as an expert with a proven track record of success. Use testimonials from customers and clients to establish your credibility!

There are no magical secrets on how to write a sales letter. Don’t make outlandish claims, but do write a sales letter with a strong purpose and call to action. After all, the purpose of your sale letters is to sell! Focus appealing to consumer’s emotions in selling your products and services. Lastly, test, test and test some more! Have friends and family proofread your writing and ask clients for their input on what you’ve done right and what needs to be fixed.

Writing a sales letter isn’t difficult, but it takes practice. Follow the above recipe on how to write a sales letter as your template and be sure to borrow some of our other copywriting tips to spice things up. Include each of the elements; write clearly and concisely, and from the reader’s point of view.

What did you just say? If you loved or loathed this article on how to write a sales letter, leave a comment below. Help us start up a discussion. We’d be more than happy to answer your questions and engage in civil debate. Thanks for reading!

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The small business owners I work with are fairly well-seasoned and have a good nose for sniffing out customer wants and needs. They have a decent understanding of what their customers want to know about their business and a general understanding of the consumer buying process. But for many owners, a lot of that knowledge is left unused, floating in the ether. They’re too busy running core business functions to stop, think about and interact with that knowledge, and then apply it to their marketing.

In order to tap into and channel my clients’ knowledge about their business and customers, I’ve developed a fourteen-point questionnaire. The questions help my clients to verbalize what they know, while providing me with valuable insight into their business objectives, target market, products and services, features and benefits, and appropriate marketing strategy. The answers to these questions help me build a mental SWOT Analysis.

I adapt the questionnaire for each client and use their answers when preparing website content and copywriting for marketing materials, and to get an inside look into my client’s business when starting a working relationship. But certainly, any small business owner can use the following questions to better understand their own business, objectives and customers.

Marketing Questionnaire

Some questions may need to be adjusted, depending on your particular business and industry. In many cases, I’ve supported the initial question with additional questions to stimulate thought and focus your answers.

1. What makes your business different from competitors offering the same or similar products and services? Think about your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Use this information to create a company SWOT Analysis.

2. What is your company mission statement? Besides making a profit, why are you in business? What are your beliefs and philosophy about your customers, their needs, how you fulfill those needs, and your products and services? Besides the visual, what is the overall goal of your small business branding?

3. Describe your process. If you are a services-based business, what is your process for understanding your customers’ needs, providing your services and ensuring work was performed satisfactorily? If you sell products, how do you identify which products would best fulfill customer needs? If applicable, provide details on product installation or education.

4. Describe your services and products. For each type of service, identify specialized staff, knowledge, education and experience. For products, what types of products do you prefer or recommend and why? Specify manufacturers and brands.

5. What does your sales cycle look like? What is your process for engaging a prospect, building a lead, closing a sale and providing after sale service and support?

6. What kind of warranty and/or guarantee do you provide to customers? If you sell products, think about what your business offers to customers beyond the manufacturer’s warranty. Focus on your commitment to your customer. For example, think of things like: guarantees on workmanship or quality; guarantees on results, timely installation or completion of services; guarantees on customer support, such as responses to phone calls/e-mails within a certain time, clear communications and customer availability; and guarantees on customer satisfaction, such as error resolution, refunds and shipping policies.

7. What are your billing practices? Do you require a deposit or use progress billing? Are you net 30-days, net 15-days or do you require full payment at time of order? Do you accept credit cards, cash, checks or other forms of payment?

8. What are six of the most common questions prospective customers ask about your services or products?

9. Provide a brief overview of your business. When was your company founded and why? What kinds of customers make up the bulk of your business? What kind of demographic do your customers fall into? Explain who your ideal customer is.

10. What are the cost differences between your products and services compared to competitors? How would you like to position your products and services in your market?

11. What are five concerns or worries a prospective customer has about working with you or buying from you for the first time? What are some commonly encountered stumbling blocks to closing a sale?

12. Provide a brief overview about you/your business. What is your education and experience? Do you hold special certifications and licenses? What kinds of professional organizations are you a member of (such as a chamber of commerce, networking or leadership group)? Are you local, regional, national or international?

13. Why did you start your business? What are your personal reasons and goals?

14. How do you want customers to perceive your business? Do you provide the highest-quality products and services? Exceptional customer service? Quality products at lower cost than competitors? Think about how this translates into branding basics for your small business.

Level with us! What did you think about this article on how to identify key selling points for marketing your small business? Did you like it? Was it good? Help us start a discussion by leaving a comment or question below. Thank you for reading!

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