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From the Cold War joke series:
– Mr. President! The communists have painted the moon in red! What shall we do now?
– Well… let’s write “Coca-cola” on it, and that will be the greatest ad in the universe!

To believe this joke, the idea of guerrilla marketing had already existed long before Jay Conrad Levinson introduced it in his much-talked-of book in 1984. In the mid-eighties guerrilla marketing strategies were recommended to small businesses and low-budget campaigns. Time goes by, things change, and today even worldly-known companies do not scruple to use guerrilla ad weapons to create more buzz among their prospects.

This list of ads doesn’t always include my favorite ones: some of them are too cruel, others – almost stupid. But each ad given below is worthy of mention, each of them is brilliant and revolutionary – in its particular category. So, guerrilla ads may be…

1. Flattering. This ad of sport equipment is great, because it flatters users’ self-esteem. Besides, you can use it to throw dust in the eyes of friends or colleagues: just ask someone to take a photo of you holding that weight, then cut off all unnecessary details like other passengers’ heads – and you’ll have a wonderful picture of yourself starring as Superman.

2. Kind. The best way to dispel fear in your prospects is to provoke it by yourself. That’s why this pothole imitation, looking like an April Fool joke, is very reassuring by nature. You can ask any driver about the matter.

3. Cruel. Looks like a rock star’s nightmare, doesn’t it? The concepts of funny and cruel are inseparable since the Chaplin’s epoch, so this ad of a burn plaster just follows the traditions.

4. Annoying. Maybe, it’s ok in the world of business, but personally I hate the idea of using historical monuments for selling purposes. Despite the company’s name on the ad, something still should remain virgin, even in that notorious business world where nothing is sacred.

5. Persuasive. “The faster you get, the faster you go.” The number of accidents might minimize greatly if a control panel like this was integrated in each vehicle.

6. Creative. This one, in addition, must be inexpensive.

7. Terrifying. First I wanted to place here the Kill Bill banners, but then I came across another “coming soon” ad – that’s really thrilling, if you look closer.

8. Green-Peace-style. Perhaps that ad will please those who really care for animals: so much food for a poor city shark excluded from its habitat!

9. Motivating. “Life’s too short for the wrong job.” Make sure you are happy with yours while reading this.

10. Oxymoron-like, i.e. contradictory. It may look conservative, but I strongly believe that ads should have a positive effect on human mind, and this one makes an unpleasant impression, despite its ultimate creativity. Looking at it, I want neither to play bowling nor to open my mouth ever again, let alone to address some dental insurance company. Very frustrating, not funny!

11. Just brilliant! Some of them don’t need comments. Simply see and enjoy:

Some ads by quierosercreativo

Using videos in sales letters isn’t a new technique: most today’s marketers take advantage of this multimedia format to promote their products on the web.

Having appeared on the stage in the form of short testimonials, video tenaciously made its way through the marketing world. It’s now often incorporated in sales presentations and product tutorials, and it’ll come as no surprise if it finally evolves into a full-fledged form of sales letter that will successfully replace the text or at least strongly support it.

The reason why sales letters with videos or any other multimedia are so popular lies in their efficiency. To believe Dr Ronald Marks, professor of marketing at the University of Missouri, sales letters with multimedia are 43% more effective than plain text ones: prospects need less time to catch the key point of your selling proposition and they are more likely to buy (sorry, claim or invest). Marks admits that multimedia is especially good for intangible products – and the web is lousy with such stuff: software, ebooks etc. So, by incorporating a video – as well as an audio or at least slides – into your sales letter, you ultimately rev up your conversion rate.

Let’s dig a little deeper. What drives users in video? The answer is, as compared to text and audio, videos have a greater appeal to senses. Each of us belongs to a particular group of people classified by the way we perceive information into visuals, auditories and kinesthetics. The thing is that online video embraces all these three categories. A user can not only WATCH the picture and LISTEN to the spokesperson, but also control the process by TOUCHING the ‘play’, ‘fast-forward’ etc. buttons on the panel. And once again that proves the ultimate efficiency of the video for producing copy that sells.

So, what to consider when creating a sales letter video?

1. Make it short. Most selling videos last 2-5 minutes. The longer your video is, the more likely user will be interrupted during the watching process. So if you want your prospects to know all the bells and whistles, create a series, dividing your story into several concise parts, up to 5 minutes each.

2. Keep it simple. Be specific while describing the benefits, but don’t throw the informational bombshell over the prospects’ heads. Give only the basic facts and pay particular attention to the testimonial section, as the emotional component is critically important for calling people to action. It would also be great if you use some vivid examples, illustrating how your product will work for the users’ good. Here is a good sample of sales letter video that explains such a complicated issue as mortgage refinance with the help of a sponge and a bowl of water.

3. Target your customer. There are no customers ‘in general’: targeting a John Doe is the same as using the term ‘product’ instead of your actual brand name. Pay attention to customer’s

• location,
• age,
• financial state,
• education and cultural background,
• needs and expectations.

If you need to address different groups of people, make several videos.

4. Be dynamic. Dynamism is not so much about the length as about the way the information is given. Try to avoid using too many pictures and graphs: it’s video, it has to move. Nevertheless, mind that numbers, titles and other factual data are better perceived when coming in a static form.

5. If you need to tell a long story, put several – 2 or 3 tops – snippets of video throughout your sales letter. The best places are near the headline, in the product description, in the testimonial section and after the call to action. Make sure the video is followed by the order form or at least by a link to the appropriate section.

6. Take advantage of music. It helps create the necessary atmosphere and can be used as a background for testimonials or product descriptions.

7. Video can come without text, representing an independent part of your promotional campaign. However, you should take into account that many people don’t have the necessary technical resources including players or Internet connection. In addition, search engines love words, and using the combination of video and text is better for the ranking.

8. Optimize the tags so that your video can be easily found in the Internet. Here Google Sets; along with similar tools, is a good helper.

9. Experiment with styles. Try to step aside from usual techniques and make your sales letter video more newsy or guide-like. Amaze your customer.

10. Submit your video to video sharing sites, such as www.youtube.com, www.video.google.com, www.blinkx.com, www.videowebtown.com etc.

To kill, you first have to shoot. I mean that, in order to kill prospects with your sales letter, you have to shoot a catchy video.

Image by isto-ica

All of us heard about ‘good’ and ‘junk’ writers – about authors who deliver content of the requested quality and quantity within the deadline, and those who behave like babes in the wood, mixing up words, dates, clients… Both groups position themselves like ‘pros’, yet only one of them tells the truth.

Want to know right now which one you belong to? Look through this list and mark each statement with ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

1. You always deliver quality and unique content on time.
2. You never take tasks that exceed your abilities. If the only thing you can remember while looking at your friend’s car is that it has “a round wheel” and “four doors”, you won’t write Subaru reviews. If your PC reminds you of your grandma and her old typewriter, you are unlikely to take orders which require special software to be installed. Finally, you won’t tackle a dozen of jobs at once and usually set relevant turnaround time for the order.
3. While discussing the time-frame, you take into account the possible force majeure and fix the deadline accordingly.
4. You thoroughly discuss all details before accepting the job. What if the client has in mind a sales copy but calls it “press release” (yes, it happens)? Or wants certain keywords to be inserted, but somehow forgets to provide you with the list? You won’t start writing until you know all you need about the service required, terms of payment, time frame, wordcount and other project related issues.
5. You are easy to contact. Whether you use a phone, an instant messenger or other communication facilities, your clients can reach you as soon as they need.
6. If something goes wrong – the system caught a virus; you accidentally deleted the file; or your town is cut off by floods, and workers of life-saving service insist you should leave the house – you inform the client right away. The deadline isn’t the Judgment Day: it can be shifted, if necessary.
7. Whether you are a widely recognized expert and charge accordingly, or just a beginner with modest rates, each time you produce the best you are able to. All in all, that is you who sets the price, and if one seems too low, you can refuse anytime.
8. You like your job and get buzz from it.

Is it all about you? Well, thanks for stopping by to read this post: you may have tons of clients who expect you to write for them now. To your success!

Never agreed? Hmm… Now you know at least what to learn from your colleagues – copywriting pros.

Image by vantaria

Copywriting Guidelines, 3d installment.

Attention!

Dress up right, DRESS!

If you didn’t play toy soldiers as a child, you have an opportunity to repair this omission in copywriting business. Actually, the profession of copywriter is multi-faceted by nature: we trill away like nightingales while writing a sales letter and generate buzz like rappers when we create a blog post.

This time let’s imagine your are an officer who drills his/her soldiers, teaching them to take the right stand. Each copy of yours contains a message, and you strongly expect it to be perceived by readers, I mean, scanners – because most of people on the Web just scan through the text. To deliver your message to the destination point you should structure the text, so that any scanner can pick your ideas at once.

Ensure that your words are drawn up in paragraphs like soldiers in battle lines.

Organize your copy:

• Make sure your headline is well-targeted and relevant. Don’t try to deceive your readers by the pretentious “Secrets of Business Letter Writing” if your copy just comments some well-known facts. Keep from headlines like “Useful Tips for Business Letter Writers”: that looks too general and vague. Be honest, concise and, if you like, promising: “10 Business Letter Samples That Helped Cut a Million Dollar Deal”.
• Ensure that the title doesn’t echo the first words of the intro: the web copy isn’t a song, so you don’t need to repeat the refrain twice
• Divide all you have to tell into primary and secondary information. What is the main part of your message that you want to convey to your visitors? Find it and place in the first few paragraphs. The rest is secondary information. If you are a master of vivid details, that’s great, but don’t go in particulars too far: your reader may lose the path.
• For the same reason, saturate your copy with signposts, so that users see the key points of your message as soon as they have uploaded the page. Use:

subheads;

* bullet points;

boldface and italic;

graphic elements;

colors;

but try not to overuse them: your words should be like neat soldiers marching in cadence, not like clowns.

• Present all information in a straightforward manner: first you say A, then B and C, and only after this – D. It doesn’t mean that your style should remind of Yellow Pages by its logic and ultimate pithiness: actually you may jump from topic to topic, you may behave like Joyce, enjoying the stream of consciousness, you may do whatever you like – the only condition is that your readers should understand what you are writing about. So, use certain logic while introducing ideas.
• Stick to one idea per paragraph.
• Form up your copy in a way that there are no scrolling pages. That can be achieved by editing content, breaking it into several pages or linking to supporting data.
• Take advantage of what the Internet offers. If you discovered some “awesome” post and fancy sharing it with readers, don’t tear out large chunks to insert them into the text: this way you will overload your copy, and besides, Google may consider it plagiarism while indexing. Place a link to secondary information instead of reproducing it.

This way, step by step, you will be rising to a higher copywriting rank, moving from a modest Junior Officer to a seasoned Marshal. Caught the point? Now: quick march!

Copywriting Guidelines, 2nd installment

“A good style should show no signs of effort.
What is written should seem a happy accident.”
W. Somerset Maugham

The key point of this quote is the word ‘seem’ which means that those ‘happy accidents’ are thoroughly prepared. Inaccurate spelling here, a missed punctuation mark there – and things can turn into a ‘serious’ or even ‘fatal’ accident for your copy. I’m not going to say that WHAT you write is less important than HOW you do it, but repeated stylistic mistakes can divert all of your prospects, unless they are completely illiterate themselves or blind (the latest survey showed they weren’t).

Tame your style before it starts ‘biting’ your income. Enhance your copy in 10 easy steps:

1. Ampersand (&)

Though ‘and’ and ‘&’ stand for the same thing, you shouldn’t abuse the latter. Follow the rule: the ampersand sign is used for trade names and radio station frequencies.

• Dolce & Gabanna
• JSM Radio 93.2 & 108.1 FM, 1005 & 1284 AM
• Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger

2. Contact Details

Be precise. Such introductions as “Bond. James Bond” went out of fashion about thirty years ago. Scrupulous web users want to know where exactly they can find your amazing products, services or whatever you offer them. So, disclose all these step by step:

• Name;
• Postal address (addressee’s name, company, building name, number and street name, town, country and postcode). Separate it by starting a new line or by putting a comma;
• Telephone number (dialing codes are given in one block, without brackets);
• Fax number;
• Email;
• Website (give the shortest URL possible and make sure it works by loading it in a web browser. Omit ‘www’ in unclickable URLs but use it in links)

3. Foreign Words and Characters

If a word or phrase aren’t generally accepted in the language, you should use italics. ‘Generally accepted’ means they have become a part of English. Consult with the dictionary, if necessary. Make sure foreign symbols are identified correctly: readers are unlikely to guess that ‘aa,ii eona oi?ioi’ stands for:

• clientele (this French word is now a part of the English language)
• si vales bene est ego valeo (a Latin phrase)

4. Italics

Apart from foreign words, italics are used for titles of TV and radio programs, books, albums or songs, plays, paintings, newspapers, magazines etc (yes, that is etc, not etc). Italicize ‘the’ when it is on the masthead:

• The Economist
• Monet’s Poppies Blooming
• Eminem’s Encore

5. Lists

The most critical thing with lists is to keep parallelism. Don’t jump from one grammatic structure to another, for example, don’t write like this

To make finger-licking cookies we need:

• 2 tbs cinnamon
• 0.5 kg sugar
• 1 cup flour
• to add 4 eggs
• to heat the oven
• kneading dough

Even if your grandma had known of this delicious meal from Queen of England, that’s a fat chance your prospects appreciate the recipe: it looks absolutely illiterate.

• Instead, write:

To make finger-licking cookies we need:

• 2 tbs cinnamon
• 0.5 kg sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs
• a well-heated oven
• kneaded dough

Or just list all ingredients and after that describe the cooking process: “Heat the oven well. Knead the dough.”

6. Money

Write the names of currencies in lower case, adding two digits after the symbol if it isn’t round:

• 300.75 pounds
• 50 dollars

Hold down Ctrl+Alt+E to insert the euro symbol in Word. If you mention sums of million and billion throughout the text, it is better to abbreviate them, without leaving a space:

• $34 billion – $34bn

7. Numbers

Basically numbers from one to nine are written in words, as well as any numbers put at the beginning of a sentence and approximate ones. Don’t forget about the comma in numbers from 1,000 upwards:

• Three Men in a Boat was published in 1889.
• Today the company’s turnover equals to $500,000 yearly.
• Usually we eat little for dessert – about four or five chocolate bars and coffee with cream.

8. Time

If you use the 12-hour clock, the hour and minutes are separated by a full stop. As ‘am’ and ‘pm’ refer to ‘before noon’ and ‘afternoon’, it is useless to write ’12am’. Have the 24-hour clock? Separate the hours and minutes by a colon:

• 22:45
• 7am
• 12midnight, or just midnight
• between 8am and 14pm.

9. Titles and Honors

When a widely respected person is mentioned for the first time, you should give his/her title in full. Starting from the second time in text, you can write only a shortened version:

• His Majesty King Lear – The King

10. Weight and Measures

Make sure you chose the proper – upper or lower – case:

• MHz (megahertz)
• MB (megabyte)
• km (kilometer)

Don’t overuse imperial measurements, giving more preference to standardized metric or at least giving the equivalent in brackets:

• 22kg (48.502 pounds)

Summing up all the above… You know, sometimes the difference between literacy and tedium is very subtle, so whatever you have just read in this guideline, try to keep it within your own style.

Image by Aquilant

This is the first installment of the Copywriting Guidelines – the series of effective tips which will help you to become a better writer.
You should store this remedy in a safe place (away from the sun, water and competitors) and use it according to the prescription. The drug doesn’t have any side effects but should be taken regularly to see the improvement.

Let’s start with such powerful language tool as punctuation. While words exist to describe the multi-faceted world, punctuation allows to understand the description.

NB: If you still believe that punctuation was introduced by aliens to mess human civilization and has no importance, read the famous panda joke from Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss:

A panda comes to a cafe, eats a sandwich, then draws a gun and starts shooting into other patrons.

“Why?!”cried the surviving waiter from behind the counter, as the panda was moving towards the exit. “I’m a panda, said the animal, tossing a badly punctuated wildlife manual over his shoulder. Look it up.”

The confused waiter opens the book and reads: “Panda. Large bear-like mammal native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

So, learning punctuation rules you may not only impress your readers but – who knows? – save somebody’s life 😉

Apostrophe

Do use it to form the plurals of lower-case letters for clarity:

• cross your t’s and dot your i’s

Do not use the apostrophe in plurals of capitalized abbreviations and decades:

• DVDs
• the 1980s

Brackets

Do use round brackets (parentheses) when you want to give some extra information to your readers. As for square brackets [], they are good in quotations to keep the meaning of the sentence once some words are left out:

• “It [Cleopatra movie] was really my hour of triumph,” admitted Elizabeth Taylor (born 27 February 1932).

Do not overuse the parentheses, as they are disruptive to fluent reading. Give preference to commas and dashes, where possible:

• Tomorrow my Bonny, who had been over the ocean, will be brought back to me.

Capital Letters

Do capitalize the word “branch” when it means a specific branch, the words “division” and “grade” when they are followed by a number, and subjects when you refer to specific courses:

• Both Division 3 teachers and Grade 1 students have come to listen to Contemporary Political Studies, a new popular course that the professor of Political Science Branch gave.

Do not capitalize these words when they are in plural:

• Neither divisions 1 and 2 of teachers nor grades 2 and 3 of students attended those scandalous – how do you call it? – political studies that casted a shadow on all branches of our college.

Colon

Do use a colon to introduce an explanation, a list or a quotation:

• Most web masters pay attention to grammar: they want to be treated like pros.

Do not put a dash after a colon:

• So, the Lord said: “Go down, Moses.”

Comma

Do use a comma in a list before the final “and” only if the meaning wouldn’t be clear without it:

• His favorite movies are about Indiana Jones, Rocky and Harry Potter.
• His favorite movies are about Indiana Jones, Harley Davidson and Cowboy Marlboro, and Harry Potter.

Do not put a comma between the month and year in dates, but add it if the day is mentioned:

• April 2008
• Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Dash

Do put dashes to explain, clarify and summarize a sentence:

• He had talked for an hour about one of his main qualities – exceptional modesty.

Do not mix up a dash with a hyphen which is meant to link words together:

• Her aunt – who is a cheerful 98- year-old lady – is quite fond of mountain biking.

Ellipsis

Do insert a space before and after an ellipsis if it is in the middle of the sentence:

• Basically three points are enough … don’t make a fly-blown picture out of your copy.

Do not use periods to create the ellipsis character. Hold down ALT and CTRL and press the period key instead.

Full Stop

Do use a full stop with an abbreviation for number 1:

• No. 1

Do not use it in other abbreviations:

• BBC

Quotation Marks

Do place commas and periods inside quotation marks, and colons and semicolons – outside them:

• Mark Twain said: “April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.”

Do not use double quotation marks if you refer to something new or unfamiliar – use single ones instead:

• This client is used to adding ‘asap’ literally to every message.

Semicolon

Do use a semicolon to separate either phrases containing commas or statements that are closely related to each other:

• Each department is headed by several managers: Ron and Sue; Joe, Tony and Liza; and Jake and Alice.

Do not put it, however, when a simple comma is more appropriate.

Slash

Do use a slash to indicate alternatives, to separate lines in poetry and in URLs:

• professional SEO copywriting/sales letter writing
• http://www.copywriting911.com/copywriting-services/

Do not put spaces before or after a slash.

And one more thing, next time you see that illiterate panda, just get him to read this

Image by pdxlogophile

Since times immemorial, when the art of promotion was invented, the humanity has succeeded in its development, but one question still remains unsolved: how not to go too far while praising the product? In other words, what words look authoritative and quite persuasive for prospects, and which ones just annoy them, being referred to as “spam”?

Just look around and you’ll see: spammy promotion is literally everywhere. When a salesman knocks at your door and, breathless with delight, informs you that “you’re so lucky today”, because he’s come to show you the best lawnmower in the universe – what do you feel? Do you like this person? I bet, you are ready to kick the poor fellow downstairs, staying completely ignorant about his great product.

The fact is that excessive praise can ruin even a well-planned promotional campaign. It is especially obvious while looking through a sales letter. People, all those “it is time to be the best of the best?” and “start earning billions” have become a commonplace and are unlikely to call to action even a monkey, let alone today’s experienced readers. Of course, Henri Matisse said “don’t be afraid of banality”, but first, he wasn’t a copywriter, and secondly, it was 200 years ago!

So, let’s look at the most common spammy techniques that copywriters use in sales copies and discover how to avoid them.

• First you have to invent a more or less tired headline. If you think that headlines like “Yes, you too can earn $100,000 a day quickly and easily” are ok, then either you are a beginner at sales letter writing, or you had worked in Herbalife for 10 years, and spammy promotion is already your second nature. To find more examples of commonplace headlines, visit Headline Generator featuring the most trite cliches.

To fight banality, try to stay deliberately accurate. Don’t write the vague and incomprehensible “Learn How the Ultimate Fitness Guide Can Fulfill All of Your Dreams”. Choose something more precise and definite – “Learn How to Make Your Legs Look Like Kylie’s in 3 Months!” The concept of “life” has too many meanings and seems obscure, while “Kylie’s legs” embodies the ideal each woman aspires to.

• Having got through the headline, you proceed to the product description, writing the lead, the bullet points and the body itself. Here the balance is your best friend. Even if you are absolutely sure the product is a treasure, try at least to seem unbiased and – what is more important – don’t exaggerate its benefits, telling a lie. Writing that a vacuum cleaner “will change your life once and for all” you not only deceive prospects, but also divert them from the product, as nobody likes hype. To be listened to and to be heard via the sales letter, you should first establish your authority. Show that you really know everything about the promoted product and the area of its application by providing more specific details and answering all the possible questions.

Keep aside spammy “the new Traffic Generating Guide will quickly bring you to the top on SERPs and create six-figure income!” If you are just selling a guide you can’t guarantee such a result, as many things depend on the customer’s activity. Be closer to the reality: “the new Traffic Generating Guide will teach you how to grow targeted traffic, to take advantage of off-page optimization, building credibility within your niche, and to run an effective PPC campaign.” Of course, this one isn’t the highest degree of perfection, but it looks more believable than empty promises of wealth and happiness.

Story: a friend of mine was already discussing the deal with his client when suddenly his competitor came into the room. With no doubt, the client got quite interested in what both of them could offer. My friend’s competitor hastened to tell their services were high-quality and cheap. There was nothing to add, and my friend just reported: “Well, our services are poor-quality. And very expensive.” The scene looked so comic, that the client just burst out laughing – and guess who got the deal? The power of humor is unmeasurable, in fact.

Of course it doesn’t mean you are to use humor in the sales page – it may be misunderstood by readers, but you should at least have it – in order not to be laughed at yourself.

• When all benefits of that “unique and irresistible” product are listed, you call readers to make a purchase by creating urgency. Look at the most widespread samples:

“Warning! The amazing offer expires in 24 hours. Don’t let this unique opportunity slip through your fingers!”

or

“Don’t procrastinate: only 10 first clients can enjoy the current discount!”

…and then the customer visits the site in a week, finds the same notification and feels duped. Don’t let this unfortunate mistake ruin your credibility and make money pass your pocket! Remember that apart from introducing time limits, there are many other ways to create urgency, like product update, bonus limits etc – actually, Michel Fortin describes them very clearly.

It’s time to get a better writing style, isn’t it? Yes, you too can earn $[fill in the blank] monthly. You can’t even realize how lucky you are to read all this! So, don’t waste your chance: get rid of spammy techniques today, and become a sales letter pro!

Image by Sam Foster