Copywriting Shortcuts from Jay Abraham

This video gives a priceless copywriting tip from the legendary marketer Jay Abraham.  Many of us in the marketing, copywriting and adversiting business know there’s a goldmine of information in ads, sales letters and other media written by other copywriters.

We have massive swipe files (c0llections of ads) stored away to use when we work on a project. For me, my swipe file is often gives me the mental boost I need to get through writer’s block and crank out a great letter or ad.  In this video,jay shares a great strategy and a free resource for copy help.  You GOTTA see this one!  Enjoy…

What are you talking about?

Are you writing copy for a newsletter, blog, web site or sales letters?  Do you write your own brochures or business letters?  Do you ever wonder if your message is getting through?  When you proofread your materials, do you stop to wonder if it is even interesting?

What’s my point?  Okay, bear with me and I’ll share a small business marketing tip that can make a huge difference in response rates in the response rate to everything that you send out.  It is a secret of top copywriters and has meant a big difference in my income and that of my clients.

To quote Dan Kennedy, “Write like ya talk.”

That’s right, pretend you are having a conversation with your prospects and clients.  Forget that you are writing anything related to business.  Just pretend you are talking and let it flow like you would in a conversation.  Can’t think of what to write?  Then start talking into a recorder, play it back and take notes about what you’re saying.

Summarize your notes and begin writing.  When you’re done, pull out the recorder and read what you wrote and play it back.  Is it interesting?  Ask someone else to read it aloud to you.  What’s it sound like?  Is it interesting?  Does it catch your attention?  Does it compel you to learn more about your product or service?

If it’s not interesting to you, what makes you think someone else will want to read it?

What’s the lesson here?  If your intention is to communicate an idea to a stranger (which is what you are doing with a brochure, letter or web site) then you want to make it easy to read.  It’s often hard to be interesting when using formal business language.  Try to be conversational when you write and more people will read what you write.

I’ll be writing a lot more about this topic in different blog posts.  If you find what I am writing to be interesting, then you want to do a couple of things.  Learn from my style and try to see how you can weave it into what you are writing.

The other thing to do is to be sure you are signed up for my Marketing Moments e-zine so you get my e-course and the other great bonuses I send to my readers.  You can subscribe by completing the form below.  Have any comments or ideas about what I’m writing?  Then go ahead and comment on my posts. I’d like to get a community going here with input from a lot of great minds like yours!