Online Copy & Pay Per Click Advertising
Brandon Clay | December 30, 2009
Old-school copywriters had it hard.
Early practitioners of “scientific advertising” (aka – direct marketing) like Claude Hopkins and John Caples were meticulous in their efforts to measure advertising results. Hopkins would often count coupons after a test campaign. The results determined whether a larger advertising venture would be profitable.
Caples was no different. In his Tested Advertising Methods, 5th Edition, the author described the tedious nature the process…
Click for more Online Copy & Pay Per Click AdvertisingFour Things Cutco Teaches About Online Sales
Brandon Clay | December 23, 2009
Not long ago, a family friend came over to the house. But this was no courtesy visit.
Our friend wasn’t interested in small talk. “Joe” was out for a sale. Joe sold Cutco knives. He had a bag full of knives and head full of stories – not to mention a stack of order forms waiting to be filled out.
As I thought about Joe’s pitch, I noticed some similarities between his Cutco spiel and an online sale. I’ve outlined the process to help you map your process for selling online.
Click for more Four Things Cutco Teaches About Online SalesWhy Headlines Are Like Bait
Brandon Clay | December 17, 2009
As an online copywriter, you are a fisherman – or fisher if that suits you. Your job is to catch as many fish as possible while you’re at sea. But you don’t want just any fish. You want fish with the best prospects for a good meal. In other words, you want mahi mahi, not minnows.
To catch mahi, you’ll need mahi bait. Throw out something your beloved fish hates and you’ll have no chance for success. You’ll never get a bite. Without a bite, the fisherman goes hungry. Your bait is that important. But throw out the right bait and you’re reeling in mahi for hours.
Click for more Why Headlines Are Like BaitHumility in Online Copywriting
Brandon Clay | November 13, 2009
I’m a confident guy. It’s one reason I chose marketing as a career. I had this fool idea I could write winning sales letters and beat the best of them.
Even if my competition had been writing for 20 years, I figured I’d find an angle they hadn’t explored – a stone left unturned. Then I would turn a phrase better with my superior wordsmith abilities and win the control.
But I was wrong.
Click for more Humility in Online CopywritingThe Power of Words
Brandon Clay | November 6, 2009
Words are powerful.
Words launch armies. Words elect presidents. Words land you jobs and words convince someone to marry you. But words can do more than that – words can persuade you to take another step along a path where you ultimately pull out your credit card. Words convince you to buy something.
And that’s why we read this stuff: we want people to buy something from us – online.
Click for more The Power of Words