Random Copy Tip: Writing is like digging. Sometimes it’s hard work. Sometimes it’s not. The treasure is at the bottom of the hole. Regardless of how you feel, that’s where it is. So dig.

I like to troll the outreach guys sometimes. I might be a bad person. Or maybe they should write better messages 🤷‍♂️

Copywriting Tip #18 How Shitty Copywriters Win Copywriting’s not about writing skill. It helps… and a talented writer always has an advantage. Why? Because conversions are about communication. And a good writer is a good communicator by default. But even a shitty copywriter can outperform that. Just takes a little elbow grease. How? Know the audience better. Understand their problems. Understand the existing solutions. Understand why previous solutions didn’t work for them. Understand why they’re afraid your current solution won’t work for them. Understand how they FEEL about that. Understand how they communicate those feelings. Understand how they THINK their life will change once this problem is solved. There are seven U’s there. I’m sure you can think of more. But the key thing is to UNDERSTAND. The more you understand the prospect, the more they’ll buy. And it doesn’t matter if you struggle to string a sentence together. Understanding trumps writing skill. PS- Combine high level understanding with high level copy skills and you’re unbeatable. You are in charge of both of those things. Put the time in and you’ll be rewarded.

Copywriting Tip #17 Read The Elements of Style. Then reread it. Then do it some more.

Copywriting Tip #16 Write faster than you think you can, and be brutal in your editing.

Copywriting Tip #16 The Formula For Stopping Scrolling & Creating Conversions Above The Fold is everything. “Above The Fold” means the area of your page or email that’s visible without scrolling. The ATF section is the one part of your page that EVERY prospect sees, by default. This makes it the most important and highest leverage point of your campaign, by default. Doesn’t matter how good your close is if the ATF sucks so bad that nobody scrolls as far as the close. Make ATF pop and you’ll see dollars rain from the sky. You can do this with a simple formula. I didn’t invent it. I learned it so long ago I don’t even know who did. It’s called the Four Ps. Make sure each of the Ps is covered in the ATF section, and you’ve got a MUCH greater chance of success. Picture- Paint a picture of their life with their main problem solved by the product you’re revealing. Promise- Show them the main benefit that will obviously lead to the Picture Proof- Give them proof. Testimonials, statistics… whatever evidence can be used to show the promise is not only achievable but LIKELY. Push- Push them further into the page. Make them curious enough to scroll, or make them watch more of the video. It’s simple… but difficult to pull off. Put the extra time in, and you’ll be rewarded. You can use this formula to improve probably 90% of sales pages and product pages online right now. Questions?

Copywriting Tip #15 Write simple. A lot of people are not great readers. And even if they are, simple concepts get absorbed faster. Fast absorption into the ol’ noggin equals higher conversions. Don’t use ten dollar words when a fifty cent word will do.

Copywriting Tip# 14 How I accidentally 5x’d results for one client. I had a client selling an online course. He’d been stuck at $20k a month for over a year and hadn’t cracked the cold traffic code. I wrote him a VSL and suggested we test some new headlines. I had 5 I thought were killers. At the last minute I decided to include a sixth, even though I thought it kind of sucked. It was a very simple How-To headline. “How To _______ in _______ Even Though _______”. Probably took me all of 7 seconds to write it. After a week of testing, I was floored. They all did okay, but the sucky one did best. It didn’t just win. It slaughtered the others. It performed 540% higher on cold traffic. 30 minute VSL. Five times the revenue just from a different headline. The client quickly saw his first six figure month after that. Moral of the story? Test more. Especially headlines. You never know what’ll win. Even when you think you do.

Copywriting Tip #13 It’s more important to be different than it is to be better. Create a category of one. If you’re trying to win with a “better” version of your competitors’ benefits you will be beaten in the market. You may see success for a while, but you’ll eventually be “outbettered”. Being different is better than being better.

Copywriting Tip #12 How To Double Your Income With 4 Simple Tests That Even The Dumbest Kid In Your Highschool Could Do These moron-simple tests really can explode your conversions and send revenue through the roof. But almost nobody does them. Test these 4 things and you’ll start making more money TODAY. 1- Headline How did you choose what emotions and benefits to focus on? If you “guessed”, you’re leaving money on the table. 2- Offer What do people get in return for their hard earned money? How are you communicating that to them? Test some options. 3- Guarantee No guarantee? 30 days? 60 days? 365 days and if it doesn’t work they get double their money back? You’re leaving money on the table if you don’t know which works best for your audience. 4- Call to action When are you asking people to take action? And how? Too soon and it won’t work. Too gentle and that won’t work either. Test to success. It’s not unusual for each of those tests to give you a 20-30% conversion bump. I’ve personally seen a simple headline test get more than a 5x improvement - and the winning headline was the one I liked LEAST. Imagine making five times the money from changing one sentence. It’s possible, but you need to test. Start today. Every day you’re not testing is money you’re giving to somebody else.

What’s one thing about copywriting you’re unsure of? I’ll help you if I can.

Copywriting Tip #11 Piss people off. Be edgy. Be controversial. Why? Because writing good copy means you’re challenging common beliefs. This is how you get high conversions and motivated buyers. It is also how you upset people. Write with strength and conviction. Shatter those common beliefs. If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not pushing hard enough. Write without fear.

Copywriting Tip #10 How To Write Copy People Can’t Ignore. I can teach you this in 2 words: repeat yourself. When I need to make sure a prospect absorbs a vital point I repeat it multiple times. I call it The Law of 3. Tell them the same thing three different ways, and then make sure they agree with you. Or give three angles for the same benefit. “Our new fuel filter increases your car’s fuel economy by 20%. This means it pays for itself within the first month… And you’ll save time by stopping for gas less often. You’ll also be saving the environment. Makes sense when you look at it like that doesn’t it?” See how simple that is? Do that for several aspects of your product and you’re on your way to building an airtight case. Is this helpful? Let me know.

Free Copywriting Exercise To Immediately Boost Your Skills There’s a quick and easy way to make your copy instantly more effective. Even though it’s easy, most people either mess it up or don’t do it at all. It comes down to one simple sentence that will make your copy a thousand times more powerful… … or a thousand times more meh, if you do it wrong. I’m talking about your USP. You should spend time crafting an effective USP for everything you work on. It usually won’t make it into the copy verbatim, but the thought you put into it will still make every word more powerful. Here’s a starter USP formula that will get you over the finish line in most cases: “I help (AUDIENCE) (SOLVE PROBLEM) by (UNIQUE SOLUTION).” You can vary it somewhat but that’s basically it. Let’s say you’re helping sell an ebook about dog training. “I help dog owners stop their dog barking by using psychological positive reinforcement techniques on their dog.” For somebody who does marketing for car dealers it may be: “I help car dealerships increase their revenue by using modern data enrichment to focus their marketing only on buyers who already have approved finance.” See how you can adapt the formula to any situation? Developing your USP in the early stages will give you a solid foundation you can build an effective campaign on. This is because it forces you to do the work of identifying a specific audience, and the main benefit of your product. Let’s turn it into a little exercise. Use the formula to post your USP in the comments below, and I’ll help you refine it. Here’s the formula again: “I help (AUDIENCE) (SOLVE PROBLEM) by (UNIQUE SOLUTION).” Who’s first?

How To Puke Your Way To Success A good copywriter is like a professional athlete. And some athletes puke before every big game. You should do the same. No, I’m totally kidding. The puking I’m talking about is word vomit. Most people write like we were taught in school. Painstakingly agonizing over every word. This is bullshit. Writing shouldn’t be that way. Copywriting is about communication. It should be like a conversation with a friend. Do you speak slowly, painstakingly in a conversation with your friends? Of course not. Makes no sense to do it when you’re writing. The first draft of anything should be word vomit. Just getting it out of your head and onto the page. Stream of consciousness as fast as you can. Don’t stop typing for a minimum of ten minutes. Your hands cannot leave the keys. If you have done the appropriate amount of research on your audience and your product, the vomit will be high value even if it’s messy. I do mine in all caps, so I can separate the first draft from other little notes and ideas that come up along the way. Once that’s done, it’s time to edit. And that’s when you want to be painstaking and slow. The word vomit first draft gives you the clay. Editing is shaping the clay. Sculpting it into your own version of perfection. Take all the time you want to edit. Be fastidious. Writing is rewriting. Your 5th draft is miles better than your 1st draft. Write fast. Edit slow.

Copywriting Tip #9 How To Get Higher Prices AND Higher Conversions… At The Same Time. Before you read this, I need you to promise you won’t abuse this technique. Promise? Okay let’s get into it. People are predictable. There are certain psychological laws that most people are bound by. Not everybody. But most. One of those laws is that people will fight ten times harder to keep an existing $10 than they would to obtain an additional $100. Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make sense to me either. But it’s human nature. How does that apply to copy? We do a takeaway. Wait until you’re deep into the promo. They’ve absorbed a ton of your message. They’ve seen the proof. They’ve seen the testimonials. They’re starting to understand that you are the ONLY solution to their problem. They’re picturing their life with the solution in place. This is important because it’s roughly the time when they’ve started to “own” your product mentally. They may not have made the purchase yet… but in their head the deal is done. And that’s when you take it away. You do this by adding a condition. A reason they may not be able to purchase after all. Maybe they won’t qualify. Maybe there’s a time limit or a cohort. Maybe there’s only so much stock. Your job as the copywriter is to find a reason like this and make it real. Don’t just make shit up. It HAS to be real. Figure out the correct thing, position it the right way, and then watch the conversions climb… … and you can even increase prices too! Why? Because you switched the conversation. It’s no longer about you convincing them to buy the product. It’s about them trying to KEEP the product they already bought in their head. Different ballgame entirely. Ps - Pro tip: Use takeaways sparingly. Do it often and the prospect will figure out you’re full of shit and it’ll hurt more than harm.

Copywriting Tip #8 Make your first line so easy to ready that people don’t even realize they’ve read it. This should be the intro to the “greased slide”. It should be so enticing and so quick to read that once they’re on it they struggle to get off. Two of the most simple ways to do that are to make it very very short, and to fill it with curiosity. One of my go-tos is “Let’s face it…” Three words, full of curiosity. And then after the ellipses I trigger their main pain point or show them I understand where they are in life. Their “pain of now.” So as an example that might go something like: “Let’s face it… … it’s hard to focus at work when your 1 year old kept you up half the night so you haven’t slept.” If you’re living through it, that sentence would resonate with you like ringing a bell. And you’re likely going to keep reading. But more importantly, that short first line immediately got the prospect into the second line, and now they’re on the slide. That’s the entire job of your first line. Questions?

Copywriting Tip #7 Smash Your Conversions Through The Roof How? Write to one person only. Get a clear picture of your prospect in your mind, and then build an Avatar. Start with what journalists call the Five Ws. Who, why, when, what, and where. Who is the prospect? Think about her daily life. Why would she be interested in your product? What does she hope for? What is she afraid of? And so on. The more questions like this you can answer, the better shape you’re in. By the end of this your Avatar should be a walking, talking human being with thoughts and feelings and hopes and desires. You’re no longer selling to women aged 38-55 who buy skincare products. You’re selling to Tracy, a 46 year old mother of 3 in Wisconsin. She works in middle management for an insurance company. She’s tried several skincare solutions previously but never saw the results she was promised. She’s terrified of aging like her older sister did, and she’s willing to pay to get real results. Flesh your Avatar out to that level and the writing part will take care of itself. Any questions?

Copywriting Tip #6 Short sentences hit harder. Delete unnecessary words from everything you write. Do it as you edit. Line by line. Cut anything that’s removable without changing the meaning of the sentence. Be brutal. This will reduce reading time and increase conversions. Write with muscle. Not fat.

Copywriting Tip #5 Curiosity is a devastatingly effective human motivator. Before I tell you why, check out an example headline: “This 17 Character E-commerce “Cheat Code” Makes Each Customer Spend 29% More” Curiosity makes your specific ideal prospect stop and read. And then it keeps them reading: “In just a moment you’ll see how this odd “glitch” is allowing Shopify store owners to increase AOV within 3 hours of applying it… … but first you need to understand the mistake in their store that makes the glitch possible in the first place. Here’s how it was discovered...” Why does curiosity work? Because human nature makes us want to close the loop and understand the full story. It’s the same hardwiring in your brain that compels you to watch a movie until it ends. Take advantage of that in your copy.