A couple years ago I had a huge “ah ha!” moment that forever changed the way I write copy.
I had spent two months writing a very ambitious ad for a high-end product I knew would make me a ton of money if I got it right.
And nothing if I got it wrong.
And […]
Written on February 26th, 2007
Read more articles on Copywriting.
A couple years ago I had a huge “ah ha!” moment that forever changed the way I write copy.
I had spent two months writing a very ambitious ad for a high-end product I knew would make me a ton of money if I got it right.
And nothing if I got it wrong.
And when I finished the ad, something seemed “off” about it.
I couldn’t put my finger on the problem…but I knew something was definitely wrong.
Luckily, a copywriter friend of mine (a truly “world class” copywriter if ever there was one) offered to look at it for me.
And it turned out that…even though I had everything “right” in the ad…the headline, the bullets, the offer, etc…there was a huge, glaring problem that would have killed my response.
I ended up making one small change to the copy (that took less than 5 minutes) and that ad has since earned me close to $30,000 in commissions and still going strong today.
What was the problem in the ad…and how did I fix it?
Actually, it doesn’t matter.
You see, the “magic” wasn’t in the change I made.
It was in having a savvy copywriter who was totally unattached emotionally and financially to what I was doing look at the ad and help me “see the forest through the trees.”
And you know what?
That one small piece of advice he gave has made a huge difference in every ad I’ve written since.
In fact, if he hadn’t shown me the problem in my ad, I probably would have kept repeating it over and over again…and choking my response every single time.
Why am I telling you this story?
Because I wanted you to see how having a good copywriter look at your ad can be worth its weight in gold.
It can literally mean the difference between zero sales…and tens of thousands of dollars in sales.
And so, if you write ads in any way, shape, or form, and if you want to give yourself the biggest advantage you possibly can, find a copywriter or group of copywriters to look at your stuff before you send it out.
If they are good at what they do, then know ahead of time it will be painful and it will not be fun. You will probably not hear a lot of things you want to hear. You will probably even bristle a bit at certain people’s suggestions.
But it will be well worth it. And you will improve. If in no other way than helping you see the forest through the trees and getting some perspective.
Trust me, finding a good copywriter (or group of them — search online for copywriter forums) is the fastest and cheapest copywriting “resource” ever invented.
And it will make your ads significantly better every single time.
About the Author
Ben Settle is a direct response copywriter and author of “The Copywriter’s Cheat Sheet” — which contains over 300 pages of advanced copywriting secrets and rare swipe file ads not easily found anywhere else. You can get a free copy of his book and read his latest copywriting ideas and tactics at http://bensettle.com
Written on February 26th, 2007
Read more articles on Copywriting.