Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Secrets To Effective Research When Copywriting

By Stephen Beck

One of the biggest mistakes many business owners make is to focus more on their product than their marketing. The greatest product in the world will not sell without great marketing. Marketing is a major requirement in the success formula of a business and a huge part of that is copywriting. Therefore, you cannot run a successful business online without good copywriting.

Copywriting is vital when promoting online business opportunities. I thought the key to success in promoting real home business opportunities was to have a great product. I was wrong because even though I had new products every month there was no increase in my income. I realized that I had to sell these products to make money. At that point I made a decision to focus on writing good sales copy.

One of the best copywriters in the world, Joe Sugerman once said that you can tell if copywriting is good if it gets the person reading the copy to get their money and buy the product or service. Words mean nothing in copywriting if there is no action. Here is how you write copy that causes action.

1. Research

Failure to research means failure to write good copy in promoting your online business opportunities. What does research consist of? It begins with researching the prospective customer. You want to know as much information about the customer as possible including frustrations, fears, concerns, etc. When you take the time out to research and identify the ideal customer for your product this will help you to write good copy.

As part of your customer research find out if you can identify specific vocabulary the customer uses and biases the customer might have. For example, engineers tend to be very analytical about making decisions. They also use a vocabulary that is unique to their profession.

By researching your customer this results in sales letters superior to the competition. Personalization sells and this is what you are doing.

In addition to researching your customer you should also research your product. Point out the features and benefits that your product possesses when promoting online business opportunities. Keep a list of them nearby so you can point them out in your copywriting. The features list what the product does. The benefits list how the features help the customer. To identify the benefit, read the features and ask how each feature helps the customer. This is what your customer thinks when he or she reads your sales letter, so make sure you address it.

2. Index Cards

You probably recall index cards being used when writing papers in school. What you may not know is that they are also great for copywriting. When you answer the questions you come up with for the customer put them on the card. This will give you a lot of valuable information about your target customer. You should also include the features and benefits on the card also.

The index cards should also keep track of the words and sentences you want to appear in your copy. This makes it easier to write. The card should communicate the idea and not necessarily be the final draft of your copy.

Taking the time to use index cards to prepare is a very effective tactic. In fact, Dan Kennedy himself uses this tactic when writing copy.

By utilizing these strategies for writing copy for online business opportunities your marketing will be more effective. If you fail to take the time to research you will fail to make the sale to the customer.

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