Joe Sugarman’s “Adweek Copywriter’s Handbook” is one of my favorite books. It reveals a simple technique for making even the most cookie cutter products sound amazing. It’s a technique Joe perfected to sell everything from sunglasses to burglar alarms… And it can be applied to selling supplements, software and even services. What is this technique? […]
Overcoming Buyer Insecurity
It’s one of the biggest reasons people don’t buy. It’s not because the price is too high… Or whether the reader thinks the product works. It’s that people are plagued with self doubt… They think they’re not good enough… And that even if a solution has worked for thousands of other people… It’s not going […]
What the World’s Highest Paid TV Star Can Teach Copywriters About Persuasion
Can you guess who’s the world’s highest paid TV star of all time? No, it’s not Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. Nope, it’s not Dr. Phil. It’s not even Simon Cowell or Ellen DeGeneres (despite both banking a bumper $75 mill each). Coming in waaaay ahead is TV’s ‘Queen of Media’ Oprah Winfrey. By the […]
Sir Winston Churchill’s ‘4 Iron Clad Rules’ of Persuasive Copywriting
Sir Winston Churchill is famed for being the ‘British Bulldog’ whose speeches galvanized a nation against seemingly insurmountable odds. He was also a writing workhorse. Over his lifetime, he wrote more words than Dickens and Shakespeare combined. His published speeches stretch to eighteen volumes, while his memos and letters run into the millions and fill over 2,500 boxes. […]
Should Your Website’s Copywriting be Informative or Persuasive?
“For six months I read all the car ads in search of information. All I found was fatuous slogans and flatulent generalities…If their engineering was as incompetent as their advertising, their cars would not run ten miles without a breakdown.†– David Ogilvy With magazines and TV struggling to cope with haemorrhaging ad revenue (and […]
Persuasive Writing eBook Released – The Art of Using Words to Convince, Compel and Sell
Three months and several rewrites later, my eBook on persuasive writing has finally been released. It comprises of all the posts from my recent persuasive writing series, and a couple more to fill in the gaps. Experienced copywriters won’t discover anything new. But I’m hoping the eBook will be useful for visitors looking for advice […]
Persuasive Writing 7 – Editing Your Writing
It’s believed that procrastination and writer’s block are caused by the writer’s desire to achieve perfection. The fear of composing an awkward sentence or weak turn of phrase can be so paralysing that many writers simply can’t face the simple act of typing words into their keyboard. But it’s also believed that writer’s block is […]
Persuasive Writing 5 – Writing Headlines that Reel in Readers
“On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.†– David Ogilvy You might be a copywriting genius, and composed a sales letter that can sell carpets to Egyptians. But if […]
Writing Persuasively 2 – Planning Why You Are Writing, Who To And What Action You Want Them To Take
“The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.†– David Ogilvy As any lawyer knows, it’s not the strength of your words but the strength of your arguments that wins. The same rule applies to persuasive writing. Dazzling the reader with your use of a thesaurus or adopting a pushy tone isn’t […]
Writing Persuasively 1 – Do You Want to Communicate or Confuse?
“Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.” – David Ogilvy Words are an undervalued asset in the business world. Whether clouded in technical jargon, marketing buzz words or hype filled corporate claptrap, writing fails to communicate when it’s trying too hard to sound clever or impressive. This misguided […]