Copywriting is basically a step by step process. This is what you need to do before you attempt to put out any emails or any other marketing material.
The first step is that you need to create a fact sheet. This literally is a piece of paper. You write down every single fact you can think of about your product or service.
That can be the price, how much it is, how long the products going to last if it’s a special offer. What’s going to be included with if it’s a package. How many sessions are involved?
Every single thing you think is important about your product, just get it down so that you’re not trying to constantly think about what you are providing.
Every single thing you think is important about your product, just get it down so that you’re not trying to constantly think about what you are providing? Here you’ve got everything written down. And it’s all in front of you.
The second important thing you have to do is create a benefit sheet from the fact sheet. You’re thinking about what the benefits of your product are.
You need to remember that a feature and a benefit is a very different thing.
An example is when you think of a car, an airbag is a feature of a car, a wheel is a feature of a car. When you think more deeply into how that feature benefits that product, an example is that the airbag is in there to protect you in case of a car accident.
People don’t care so much about what’s in something. They care about how that something is actually going to impact their decisions to buy something or be involved with that product.
The next important is that you need to create your killer offer. This is really important, probably the most important point out of all of these steps.
Your copy can’t begin until you know what you’re selling. For it to stand out, you really you need to make sure that your offer is the best thing out there and it’s different from everyone else.
Copy often works backwards. When we started off our Easter campaign to reactivate some clients back into the clinics, we started by having a meeting to figure out what the product we were going to be putting out there was going to be.
The first question was, “What’s the offer going to be? What are we actually trying to get these clients for?”
Rather than trying to think of how we are going to get them in, we needed to know exactly what we were getting them in for. Because, that was the most important point.
As soon as you have that, you can work your way backwards. Stephen Covey said to start with the end in mind. That’s always the way. Backwards is the way forward.
The next step is to create headlines. Try writing down different variations. Because if the heading doesn’t grab your attention, then the rest of the copy is meaningless.
Copywriting Steps
- Create a fact sheet
- Create a benefit sheet
- Write killer offer
- Create headlines
- Write a draft first- DON’T EDIT
- Edit rough spots and style
The headline is the first big thing they’re going to look at. When you look at a newspaper, you’re going to see that main headline, the big news of the day going on. If that isn’t interesting to you, then you’re not going to care; you’re not going to want to read the article.
As long as your headline is a catching and really engaging, then they’re going to want to read on.
The next step is to write a draft first. Once you have everything in place, you know exactly what you’re going to be writing about and what you’re going to be offering.
Don’t try and think too much about it. Just get everything you can think go out on to that piece of paper into that email.
Just really just go for it. Get everything out. Pretty much just a brain dump. Because what happens is when you begin to write, your subconscious begins to write for you. And you start getting ideas out and literally it’s just a brain dump.
It’s also really important to try and write as yourself. Sometimes you’ll want to overall yourself or try and stand out a bit more, so you become something that you’re not. But if you’re just really honest and you’ll just be yourself, then you’re going to stand out a lot more than you think you would.
It’s really important as well that as you get your first version out, that you don’t edit it at all. If you start to see squiggly lines because you made spelling mistakes, leave it. It doesn’t matter. Just get everything out there.
Because as soon as you stop, that flow is going to stop. And you’re going to think, “Oh, I could probably change that.” Then you’re going to start going backwards. And not forwards.
The last important step is once you have that information out, then you can start to make it look nice. You can add italics. Make things bold that you want to have to stand out. Use underlings too if you want to highlight things that you think are really important. You can use links as well.
When you look at an email, the most important thing is what we call the zig-zag rollercoaster.
When they’re working their way down the email, you want them to be going on a journey. They’re probably not going to be reading everything there, but we want to make sure that they’re making their way down that letter or down that email to get to the most important point, which is that offer at the end.
These things really help them to follow their way through. The things that stand out. They’re making their way to each one. They’re joining the dots and getting to that point in the end.
