Robert W. Collier's The Copywriter's Handbook teaches three rules for better sales copy: build trust with a specific audience, not a broad one; write headlines that grab attention and deliver a complete message; and sell benefits, not features. A cologne example shows how benefits tap into what buyers actually want.
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What we do here is go back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back. Loud. There's so much noise about content online. Some people say selfies are the answer. Others say you gotta speak about business. And we've all heard this one before: just be your authentic self. And I think you would agree, guys, it's all becoming a bit confusing. What you really need is a simple, straightforward process that's going to help you to drink more Starbucks. Now I'm only joking with you, to make more sales, obviously. Heyo! What you need to understand, guys, is, you know, resources like this, they're one in a million. And they have a mind of their own. So we need to hunt it out. We need to look for clues. We need to hunt it down and we need to kill it. No, Ben, no, we're not going to kill it. We're going to read it. We're going to read it. Let's go. It's called The Copywriter's Handbook, and today we're going to go through 3 of the best bits, things that have helped me and Sam to write better quality copy and generate more sales. Let's get into it. The best copywriting books that have ever been written will tell you something similar, that Good quality copy is not about being popular. It's not about being cool, despite how much I love this picture. And it's certainly not about building massive followings. You know, some of the most successful people we know have, you know, very humble followings, but they're very targeted followings. It's really about building trust in your community, you know, demonstrating to people that you can be trusted, that they can trust you with their gnarly problem that they want to fix. It's also about demonstrating your experience. You know, showing people that you understand their market, showing people that you understand their problem, demonstrating to them that you can help and actually fix what it is they're going through. And fundamentally, it's about making sales. You know, there's no point being popular, having 500K followers, but, you know, not making any money from that following. I'd much rather our clients and the people that we speak to have 2 to 5K connections, targeted connections that they can actually make money from consistently. And if you can understand the fundamentals of good quality copywriting, it really becomes the bridge at communicating with your customers and winning more business. That's why you should buy The Copywriter's Handbook. Uh, this one. Buy this. Do it now. Number 2: Headlines. So if you've ever been on the tube, at some point you would have probably picked up a newspaper. The reality is you'll ignore 85% of the newspaper. Why? Because you have limited time and you'll only read the ones that really interest you. So in other words, there are just too many articles competing for your attention, and the chances are the articles that did manage to grab your attention, they had the best headlines. There are 4 functions of a good headline. Number 1, get attention. Number 2, select the audience. Number 3, deliver a complete message. And number 4, drawing the reader into the body copy. Grabbing attention— what's the best way to do it? Well, you've got to appeal to your prospect's self-interests. Here are some examples: How to post content that fills up your inbox, not your ego. A proven formula to get more consistent inbound leads. Number 2: Select the audience. Now, if you're selling baby products, you probably should be targeting mothers and fathers with children. Of course, if you're selling a dating app, you really want to be speaking to single men and women that's pretty obvious. But when it comes to your product or service, you need to be calling out the people that are likely going to buy— your ideal prospect. Because if you're not, then you're not going to attract the people you truly want to speak to. Here are some examples: 95% of recruitment companies look the same on LinkedIn. Recruiters, do this for 1 hour per day and build your pipeline. Delivering a complete message: according to David Ogilvy, 4 out of 5 people read the headline and then skip the rest of the copy. That's insane. With those numbers, it really does pay to write a complete statement in your headline. Here are some examples. How does a consultant who has never used LinkedIn for business before end up generating over $60K in less than 6 weeks? If you're not getting at least 5 quality conversations per week, follow this simple 3-step formula to start seeing results. Drawing the reader into the body of the copy, really important, but you need to arouse their curiosity. There's a few ways to do it. You can ask powerful questions, you can use humor, you can use intrigue or mystery. There's lots of different ways, but fundamentally you need to get their curiosity. Here's some examples: 500% increase in inbound leads from changing one thing. On 50+ sales calls, I had to lie when this question came up. And finally, number 3: make sure you're writing copy that describes the benefits and not the features. This is important, guys, okay? Too many people fall into the trap of listing out features almost like a shopping list, when in fact it's going to be the benefits that do most of the selling for you. So why do we focus on benefits? Well, simply put, benefits equals what's in it for them. So let's go with something that we all use and all buy on a regular basis. Let's look at Cologne. Now, some of the features for this bottle of cologne could be the actual bottle itself. It could be the sharp, slick edges. It could be maybe the ingredients they use. Maybe they could be natural— unlikely for Dior, but let's go with that. It could even be the color of the liquid, the fact that it's blue, the fact that it's sparkly, the fact that it looks cool. Now, those are features. Now, what most people actually buy cologne for are the benefits. Now, the benefits, guys, the benefits are far more powerful. Some examples could be, you know, you want your partner to embrace you. And sniff your neck and say, oh my God, that smells incredible. Maybe you're going on a night out and you want the confidence to approach people and even get complimented for how good you smell. Perhaps you're going to a professional event and you want to make a good first impression to the people that you're meeting. And what better way to look good and smell good? The point is, guys, benefits are far more powerful. They're a lot more convincing, and they touch upon the emotional side of what this product offers. So there it is, guys, uh, 3 of the best bits from The Copywriter's Handbook, a fantastic book that I really recommend you guys purchasing. It's going to be in the comments below, a link for you to purchase. No, we're not an affiliate, nothing like that. We just want you guys to learn and get the most out of it. Anyway, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed it, and best of luck. Boom! See you later.
