In this series of posts, I’m going to reveal 26 sales copy hacks I’ve discovered over the past 4 years. In this time, I have personally:
– Written Copy in over 12 different niches
– Strategically Created & Implemented $100,000 per month Marketing Campaigns
– Crafted Sales Letters that have Generated over $150,000
– Spent Thousands on Mentoring by the Best Copywriters and Marketers on the Planet
– Plus tonnes more
I’m sure you get the idea.
From all of my experience, here’s what I know:
There are tonnes of things that go into writing sales copy that will flood your pockets with cash…
But the reality is – anyone who knows these secrets will never share them for free.
Until now.
So I’ve analysed all of my successful campaigns and distilled 26 things you can do to dramatically improve your sales copy over night.
In this post, I’m going to reveal the first 9.
The remaining 17 will be split over the next 2 posts… because frankly, this stuff takes too long to write, and no one will read it all in one post.
So – in no particular order, here goes:
Copy Hack #1. Speak Your Ads
This is a simple hack but incredibly effective. Especially for people starting out.
Whenever you are writing an ad, speak it out.
Yep, physically say the words you want to write… record them on a voice recording app and then transcribe it.
Why?
Because copywriting is salesmanship in print, and salesmanship is the art of the spoken word.
So it makes sense that if you are creating salesmanship in print, you would speak the words first, and then write them.
The reason this is so effective is because most of us, have unfortunately been taught how to write in an academic matter… which never translates to the world of copy, marketing and sales.
Which is why 99% of business owners absolutely suck at writing ads.
If you’ve been to university or college, you are at a distinct disadvantage, because at these places we learn to speak in a very complex and convoluted way.
College improves our vocabulary. We end up speaking like a bunch of academic professors.
Just ask me… I studied engineering.
It’s not conducive to writing great sales copy at all.
The average person in the population is at an 8th grade level of reading and writing. So you need to write your ads as if you are speaking to a 14 year old.
The best way to do this is speak it.
You’ll thank me later.
Copy Hack #2. Fast, Quick & Easy
Everyone in the world wants things fast, quick & easy.
Nobody wants things slow, long and hard.
I can count the amount of times I’ve written headlines for clients… and they always want to soften the claim, or cater for the outlier who will complain that it’s too hypey.
But the facts are… hype sells.
Just look at the Mayweather V McGregor fight.
Humans want things fast, quick and easy – it’s an irrefutable fact of psychology.
For one of the clients I had, we ran a marketing campaign with the hook “get 10 new clients in 5 days”
Now is that realistic and doable? Of course.
But will most people achieve that? Probably not. The reason being is they don’t take action.
However, the marketing hook suggests that the results are fast, quick and easy to get.
Now you don’t want to be unethical in your marketing, I firmly believe you must ALWAYS tell the truth.
But you’ll find that most people want to believe your marketing claims.
That they can get results incredibly fast.
So ensure its ethical, but also make sure that your marketing follows the mantra of FQE: Fast, Quick & Easy.
Copy Hack #3. Be Specific
Be specific. If you’ve been around marketing for any period of time, you should know this.
Instead of having a headline that says “lose weight”
It should be much more specific, like “Lose 5kg in 21 days”.
People love specificity and by doing this, you make the result your marketing is promising 100x more tangible. Try it and see the impact it makes on your work.
When I write headlines following this format, I will always look to have a timeframe to the result and the number of steps required to achieve it.
I will elaborate on this in much more detail when I get to the section on Unique Mechanisms, and why every business owner needs one.
Don’t miss that.
Copy Hack #4. Open Loop
Use Open Loops.
The act of creating an open loop will make your readers more engaged than any other claim or series of words you can use in your copy.
For example:
“I’m going to show you 3 ways to burn fat in the next 7 days, but before I do… let me tell you a story”
You are seeding what you will say, but then leaving space to tell a story.
Or:
“I’m going to show you how to get XYZ result, but before I do… let me reveal the biggest problem you have right now”
This keeps the reader engaged, because they want to close that loop. They want to know how to get the result.
The brain must have all loops closed. It’s how we process information as human beings.
So by teasing and opening a loop, we keep the reader engaged and staying with our sales message.
And as the old saying goes:
“The more they read, the more they buy”.
That’s why short copy is not necessarily better than long copy.
It’s being boring that’s the real problem.
So remember, if we open a loop, its basic psychology. People will want it closed.
Copy Hack #5. Thatectomy
This is the one word you should rarely ever use in your sales copy… “that”.
You will find this applies in 80% of cases.
The word that does not need to be there, but we use it as a filler for some reason.
The word “that” creates a pause for the reader and slows them down.
For example, compare these 2 sentences:
– The department confirmed that there were some victims.
– The department confirmed there were some victims.
OR:
– Officials acknowledge that they are hampered by a lack of information.
– Officials acknowledge they are hampered by a lack of information
As you can see. Removing the word ‘that’ in the sentences above has no impact on the sentence structure, yet makes them smoother and easier to read.
‘That’ is the one word I eradicate from most people’s sales copy when I read it, because leaving it in their creates unnecessary words.
This slows down the reader, and any ‘pauses’ that your copy creates, increases the likelihood that they stop reading.
Now, obviously make sure your copy still makes sense, because sometimes you do need the word.
You can read more about this here.
Hack #6. Discover not Learn
This is a quick one.
Always use the word “discover” instead of the word “learn”.
No one wants to learn anything because it reminds them of school.
Most people had to go through a 13 – 20 year process to ‘learn’ everything. Which as you would know, is not exactly fast, quick and easy.
Why is the word discover powerful?
Because it implies that the answer to your prospects problem was already out there and they just didn’t know about it yet.
It makes it seem as if they will easily be able to solve their problem, now they are aware that their is a solution.
I will very rarely use the word ‘learn’ for these reasons. Because again, it doesn’t fit into the FQE mantra.
Copy Hack #7. Not Your Fault
It’s not your fault. This is a really powerful phrase to use in your copy, especially mid way through an ad.
People love to believe that their problems are not their fault. And genuinely there are a lot of things in our life that are out of our control.
Like where we are born, who our parents are, how wealthy our family is… and so on.
So as humans, we have a deep rooted belief that things aren’t our fault because of how we grew up… I mean they really aren’t, right?
Even though we are 100% responsible for the things we do and don’t have in life, most people want to believe it’s not their fault.
They want to be victims and not believe they can change it.
It’s the unfortunate reality.
So when you use this in your copy, it lets your prospect off the hook from a psychological standpoint, and let’s them believe that you totally understand and sympathise where they are at.
I can display examples of exactly how to use this if people are interested.
Copy Hack #8. Emotional Density
This is a big thing that’s lacking in a lot of people’s copy. Words that carry emotional value.
Last year, I created a list of 39 words that have extreme emotional value. I’ve reposted them below here:
Suffocate
Slaughter
Drown
Drench
Kill
Murder
Divorce
Rape
Dead
Addict
Vulture
Destroy
Crush
Vandal
Steal
Suicide
Explicit
Caution
Death
Burn
Moist
Ignite
Strangle
Choke
Scratch
Bite
Stab
Slash
Abuse
Assault
Arrest
Punch
Jab
Grind
Cut
Demolish
Junkie
As you’ll see, most of these words are negative, as this is what people respond to.
Think about how you feel whenever you hear the word MURDER?
It stops you in your tracks and makes you pay attention.
So I’ll always ask myself… how can I add words to my copy that elicit an emotional reaction?
Stories are a great way to do it.
But think about it at a more macro level with your word use.
If you pick up a gossip magazine, like the National Enquirer, you’ll see headlines like:
“Trump Must Build the Wall”
“Charlie Sheen’s Aids Cover Up”
“What America doesn’t know: Michelle’s Secret Divorce File”
“Hillary’s going to Jail: Sex Tape Found”
All of these headlines have a high emotional density. It draws you in and keeps you compelled to read to the end of the page. Or in this case buy the magazine.
So always remember to ask yourself… what adjectives can you add into your copy that cause an emotional reaction?
Make sure you put them in.
Copy Hack #9. Short Sentences
ALWAYS use short sentences in your copy.
This is something we do terribly that school teaches us when we are writing.
Most people will write sentences like this:
“I went down the street and then I got an ice cream and then I went to the movies.”
When you’re writing copy, you should write like this:
“I went down the street.
I got an ice cream.
I went to the movies.”
This may sound weird, but look at the ad copy you’ve written where the sentences are long and drawn out.
It creates these issues:
1) The person reading is mentally strained by the different ideas raised in a sentence. They need to remember everything they’ve read before they reach a full stop and can take a break.
This strain makes it harder to digest the ideas being presented, which will ultimately lead the reader to bounce from the page.
2) It adds rhythm to your writing. Read those sentences I’ve written above out loud and you’ll see what I mean.
The short sentences make the copy rhythmic, fun and entertaining to read… as opposed to long, drawn out, and hard to retain.
All of these seemingly smaller points I’m sharing with you are important for this reason:
Reducing mistakes.
Most people make really simple mistakes that destroys the reader’s engagement and kills their conversions.
Anyway.
If you’ve made it this far, I commend you for reading this post.
Action these 9 point and you’ll see drastic results with your lead costs, conversion costs and impact from your sales copy.
Stay tuned for parts 2 & 3.
Trust me, there’s always more to come.
JH