Copywriting Tips

Does your copy pass the cup o’ Joe test?

    Have you ever noticed how you suddenly sound more formal when you write a letter or type an email? Take a typical past due letter. So many companies talk about customer service and developing customer relationships. Then they shoot stuff off like this: Dear Mr. Smith: We appreciate your business. However, our records [...]

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A dead billionaire’s secret to selling

Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon Cosmetics, is famous for saying, “Look, kiddie. I built this business by being a bastard. I run it by being a bastard. I’ll always be a bastard, and don’t you ever try to change me.” What a guy. Revson was so offensive, vendors often refused to do business with [...]

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Creating sales-driven taglines

Do you have a tagline or a slogan? What’s the difference you ask? Here’s my non-marketing-speak definition: Slogans are rather generic and can apply to different industries. And taglines show a unique and specific benefit of the product and can’t apply easily to other products or industries. A slogan example is Nike’s “Just do it.” [...]

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The selling style that gets repeat sales

Do you like being sold to? The kind of selling where the salesperson talks fast, doesn’t let you get a word in and almost shouts things at you Of course, there’s a place for everything. And if you don’t want referrals, if you don’t want your customer to buy from you again, and you enjoy [...]

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How to offend your prospects

The other day, I got the type of email you’ve probably seen dozens of times in your own inbox. It was a cold-call sales letter. You know…junk mail…sp*m. Confucius said you can learn something from everyone. So we’re going to look at the offending email to see what NOT to do when soliciting prospects. Starting [...]

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Generate 3X more responses with these two sentences

You probably know when people read a sales letter (online or in print), they read the headline first. Once you capture their attention with your eyeball-grabbing headline, what do you think the reader looks at next? The postscript.  Yep, they skip all the way to the end. After feeling intrigued by your headline, the reader’s [...]

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Rodent feces and other details that sell

Years ago when I picked my boys up from school, they’d scramble into the car as if each second spent on school grounds infected them with some incurable disease. They couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I’d ask, “How was your day?” In a synchronized monotone they’d answer, “Fine.” “What made it fine?” I’d [...]

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When NOT to use Facebook for business growth

When I hear a business advertise on the radio or read an ad directing people to their Facebook page, I scream, “NOOO!!” Here’s why: Facebook is famous for changing the rules constantly on personal and business pages. What’s worse is they do it without telling you. So you find out the hard way. This can [...]

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Are you linking authority to sales?

I was driving along when the cars in front suddenly slowed down from 42 mph to almost 35 mph.  After a few minutes of crawling along, I saw what caused the slowdown: An electronic sign was clocking our speed. Granted, the speed limit was 40 mph, so we weren’t speeding that much.  But why did [...]

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Sell more by treating men like women

A friend emailed this joke, which I found simultaneously funny and educational: The Wife’s Diary Entry: “Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that [...]

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