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.

Why is copywriting so important for online business opportunities? Prior to understanding its importance in an internet marketing business, I focused my efforts of product creation. Even though I launched a new product every month, it did not necessarily make me more money. I needed a way to sell all of these new products I was creating and I needed it quickly. Therefore, I decided to focus on copywriting for my business.

Joe Sugarman, a master copywriter states that the job of good copywriting is to get a person to give up their money in return for the product or service you are offering. This is what your copywriting should do. Here are some tips on how to write copy that does this.

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.

You should also find out if the customer uses certain words in language or demonstrates a bias in the buying process. Engineers are a good example because you can expect them to be very analytical in their decision making process. They also have their own language that is specific to their industry.

Learn about your customer so you can draft a sales letter that is focused on that customer, not a general person. Personalization is the key.

Part of your research should also include looking at the product or service you are offering. You want to identify the features and benefits for any online business opportunities you are promoting. Make a list of them so you can refer back as needed. The features of the product are what the product actually does. The benefits of the product are how these features help the customer. One way to quickly identify the benefits is to go over the features and ask yourself ?So what?? Answering this question will make your copywriting better.

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.

When you create each card make sure you put on them sentences that you can add to the sales letter. This will help you get started. It does not have to be worthy of the final draft; it will just help you get started.

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.

With these simple strategies for copywriting for online business opportunities you will be amazed at how much better your copy is. However, if you fail to do this necessary research, you simply will not make as many sales as you could.

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