Incidently, ending a headline with a period has been found to lower response. But I guess that makes this headline in keeping with the subject at hand.
Well, this is my last task for the night. Almost blew it off. But I thought you might like to hear one of the deepest, darkest secrets in all of copywriting.
Come closer, I don't want everyone to hear this. It's likely to ruffle a few feathers. Perhaps even expose a few gurus; I might even name some names.
So what am I talking about?
You know, I almost wrote about discovering a lenient Ph.D. program in Hawaii. How I might go there, working from the beach with my laptop and mobile broadband, getting an easy degree on the side. But that didn't excite me tonight.
So I thought it was time to let you know the truth. And why you shouldn't be intimidated to write your own copy. (Writing for someone else, with their dollars on the line is another story. Don't misunderstand, writing doesn't have to be hard, but it does take a lot of energy, and commitment.)
Well here it is. When top
copywriters -- and I mean top -- send their work in to the big direct mailers and online direct response companies, their work... doesn't work. Guys that make hundreds of thousands, and more, per year writing long copy ads are, generally, failures.
That's why we test.
I guarantee, if you've walked around the internet marketing circus once or twice, you'd recognize these big names. And while many are great copywriters, they do often miss the mark, and have to do rewrites before it they can roll out the campaign.
So now that we can accept failure as part of the marketing path (go ahead and reframe it), let's get to the really good news. If you're passionate about what you're selling, and if you have an ounce of empathy for your market, you've got a great shot at producing copy that will win your prospects over to your side of the shopping cart.
Which is another reason to finish this post tonight. Not every ad (or post) has to be a home run. Instead, study the fundamentals, and put things out there quickly. Test, and adapt. Now that the internet has given us the world's cheapest printing press, there's no reason to hold back on getting going.