It has a lot to do with simplicity, clarity and FROM THE HEART talk.

Though, looking around at your competitors, you’ll see there’s a lot of pompous strutting towards the first way.

Don’t go down their path!

If you’re struggling with commanding attention from your promotional material, especially the ‘headline’ you’d do well to stick to the proven… HOW TO!

In fact, almost any ad or promotional piece, can start with this dynamic duo.

Let’s test…

For an accountant: “John Nairn’s Small Business Accounting - if you’re looking for a cheap, affordable, friendly accountant, then give me a call on 021 23 123 1234 and let’s see what we can do”

Hmm… not too enticing, right?

Okay, let’s stick our tried and tested How To, and rearrange the furniture a little.

“How to Save a Ton of Tax, Breathe More Easily and Keep the Taxman from Sniffing at Your Door!” This special report is waiting for you courtesy of John Nairn’s Small Business Accountancy Practice who Specialises in Helping Small Business owners who have been in business from 1-5 years. Call freephone 0800 1234 123 today, as their are very limited copies available of this special report: Plus, if you are one of the first 35 to call, you’ll also receive a special bonus gift!

Okay, let’s play with another one.

How about…

Dentists!

Joey Jones Dentist Services for all the family. Why not book your family appointment and receive 20% off your first lot of treatments. We’ve been in the profession for 15 years and pride ourselves in our services. Call 020 7665 7773 now; you won’t be disappointed.

Sounds boring, right? Sounds pretty much like most ads in that category!

Though, I’m telling you, that’s what your competition is upto!

And… maybe… you too?

Okay, let’s turn this around.

“How to Make Sure Your Whole Family Can Get Their First Dental Treatment… FREE!” Joey Jones, The Family Dental Specialist, Invites You to A Tour of His Friendly Dental Surgery. Please Call Maria, our Family Dental Welcome Manager on 000 000 000 and she will arrange a time that is suitable to you. By the way, we love children under 10… they’ll be spoilt rotten here and they may not want to leave!

Study these ads for they hold a BIG KEY for you in crafting your own marketing materials.

a. Image.

b. Headline.

c. Greeting.

d. Lead paragraph.

e. Body.

f. Closing.

The Image:

If there is a logo or design for your business, use it in the sales letter only if it is really pertinent to what you are offering. You are not selling your business logo; you are selling benefits that the buyer will realize if he buys your product or service. Use a specific image that is inherent to your headline, content, and theme, or do not use one at all. Stick to words as far as possible.

Job Of The Headline:

The headline is usually 3 - 30 words long. It should be catchy. It should grab the reader’s attention and tell him what the ad (sales letter) is about. Ideally, the job of the headline is to get the reader’s concentration, target the viewers, list an advantage, and make an assurance.

Greeting And Lead Paragraph:

Any sales letter that influences the reader has a possibility of being opened and read.

- Spin a yarn that the reader can identify with, using a conversational tone.

- Announce a new product or service, an exclusive event, or important news, flaunting your unique selling proposition.

- Speak to the reader as your equal: “Dear fellow car purchaser, are you aware of. . . ”

- You could start with something innovative, perhaps a quote or anecdote.

- You could start by identifying the reader’s problem, one that your product promises to solve.

- Ask a question that might excite the reader.

- Let the reader in on some secret or uncommon information.

You could use a sub-headline to answer a query posed in the headline. For example, Part A could say: “Want to lose 15 pounds within 3 weeks at an affordable price?” Part 2 could say: “Well, this is how you can do it . . . ”

Body Of The Letter:

The body copy should use the same tone and endure with the theme of the headline. You should persist highlighting the benefits and offer proof of the claim you made. Provide details of the benefits and the features. Build credibility. Your basic objective is to create a need or want for your products or services and make people do what you want them to.

Closing Or Call To Action:

If you solicit the reader to order, support, or to contact you for the particular cause, you must make it easy for him to reply. You must support the sales letter with a prepaid envelope and an order form. If not suitable, supply a toll-free telephone number, an email link, and/or your URL. Always thank the reader for his patience. Always use a postscript.

A Final Suggestion:

Getting the reader to spend his hard-earned money on you is the real challenge. The best way to ensure this is to use test readers. Test readers would be able to give their opinion if anything is missing in the letter.

1. Use plain language. If you use a lot of vernacular and professional jargon, people will tune you out. Keep the language simple and assume you are talking to an audience unfamiliar with your work unless it is targeted solely for your profession. This involves knowing your audience.

2. Know your subject well, or at least research it. If you are asked to write 700 words of copy on violins and you played the trumpet, you will need to do research. Because of the internet, this can be easy, although you will have to be sure your sources are reliable and cite them if necessary.

3. Study SEO writing. SEO-Search Engine Optimization-is a great way to get your copy noticed. This generally involves using a keyword or keyword phrase about 2% of the time for optimal rankings on customer searches. Make sure you don’t overdo it though-some search engines are sensitive to padding articles with keywords and your website could be blacklisted.

4. Be clear. Don’t pack your paragraphs with fluff just because you need to write 500 words or copy. If you don’t have enough information for 500 good words, find out more or consider writing a sidebar or a “Did you know…” section.

1 Be formal, but not stiff. Formal language makes your letter sound professional, but too much formality can lead to a letter sounding impersonal, as if you are using a stock template for every client. This appearance can be very negative to a potential client, and should be avoided. The best sales letter writing will sound formal but have a personal undertone. Aim for this.

2 Your letter should be original. Most of your clients probably receive hundreds of sales letters, and the best sales letter writing will include some means of distinguishing your letter from the masses. You don’t want your client to think that your product or service is just like everyone else’s do you? Of course not, which is why you also do not want your letter sound the same as all the others. Make your letter something interesting without making it gimmicky, and you’ll have caught your client’s attention.

3 Use their business name and name of your contact at least twice to let them know that you are aware of exactly who you are dealing with and that you have written your letter directly to them. Your client and contact should know that you are taking a personal interest in them when writing this letter. Not only does this provide a valuable distinction for you when competing against many other sales letters that are full of stock sentences and phrases, but it also gives a little ego boost to your client, which is one of the keys to the best sales letter writing.

Don’t forget to sell. Some sales letter writers get so caught up in the rest of conventions that they forget to sell their product and service and end up missing the point completely. The best sales letter writing requires that you tell your client firmly in your letter why your particular product or service is better and more worth their time and money. Be clear, concise and upbeat, and you will surely win your clients attention.

Some are more eloquent than I, and some are more brief. Yet the things I write about seem to strike a chord with people. . .big or small, old or young. I like to think it’s because I write like I speak. . .loosely. . .and hopefully, with a bit of a story to rouse one’s curiosity. Sometimes I use a few too many commas despite my status as a professional freelance writer and editor. But who cares. I like ‘em, and again they work with the way I pace things. . .kinda’ like those few dots right there. Yup. I like ellipses too. My grammar teachers would no doubt string me up if they knew where to find me.

But you know what? The entire reason we as humans write is to share ideas with other people via the written word. Only so much can be said and understood in one conversation, and only so much read in one sitting. Putting our ideas to paper allows our intended audience to re-visit and re-learn what has already been stated, and if you want that corporate magazine, company newsletter, white paper, or simple note to a loved one to actually be read, you’d better make it read well. The way to accomplish this simple feat is to write simply.

Last week I volunteered at the Chicago World Usability Day event held at the downtown office of Blue Cross Blue Shield here in the city. It was an event that, quite frankly, I somewhat stumbled upon while on-line searching for concepts and ideas related to my career as a technical writer. I write and edit all sorts of material, actually, but one of my greater joys has always been editing the work of others so as to help them make their message more clear. It is technical writing nirvana for me, really.

World Usability Day was an enlightening event for me because until a few weeks prior to it taking place, I never even knew such a field existed! My first discovery of this “new” creature was through the US government’s usability website where I learned that usability is, quite succinctly, the means by which designers aim to make the things we use and interact with on a daily basis more useful, usable and to quote Don Norman who was the keynoter of the event, more “friendly”. The folks at Motorola, Whirlpool, GE and a host of other companies are working feverishly to ensure the stuff we use in our lives is indeed useful. As writers, we should always aim for the same.

When I was first learning to write critically as a history major in college, I was always instructed to assume nothing when writing. No matter how educated my professors were on the subject matter I was investigating, I was to write my papers as if they knew nothing at all about the topic at hand. It makes sense, of course, and this single lesson is critical to having your work understood. A lack of attention to this principle is often the reason why technical communication in the form of manuals, reports and proposals typically fail to educate their intended audience. As a result, if your firm is spending money on material no one reads or understands, it is spending away its profits on filing cabinet and trash can fodder. There is a reason why our parents never learned how to program the VCR and now their cell phones, and a lot of it can be attributed to those joyful how-to manuals which accompanied those shiny new electronic devices. So if we’re not writing well and using language we can all understand, then fundamentally, we’re not communicating.

So take a step forward and be a change leader. Work on those corporate and technical communications pieces and grab your audience by the short-hairs. Use great ledes, great graphic artists and great writers. After all, you’re competing for your readers eyeballs as much as your own marketing department is, so let’s make it count!

Wouldn’t it be great if after all the hard work you put into your corporate magazine or corporate history piece, your firm’s employees actually read it?

Cool link: The folks at Ragan Communications are the thought leaders in this arena. Check out their work!

As I explained in my previous article, the first thing I do when writing a headline is identify the customer. This is the “who” part of the “What, What, Why” formula. In the case of a weight-loss newsletter, the “who” part could be: People who want to lose weight.

Now I’d advise breaking “people who want to lose weight” down even further into specific groups, like “stay-at-home moms who want to lose weight”, “busy executives who want to lose weight”, etc., and craft your headline accordingly. The more precisely your headline is targeted to your audience, the more likely it is to grab their attention.

The next step in the formula is the “what” - meaning the product. What exactly are you selling? Are you selling a weight-loss book? A membership to a pilates class? A nutritional supplement? Once you identify the product, you have to decide which product features you want to highlight and how these features will benefit your customer.

Identifying features and benefits is a pretty lengthy topic, and I’ll probably devote an entire article to it, but to keep things simple, just remember that people generally buy things for two reasons: Either to gain PLEASURE or to avoid PAIN.

When it comes to weight loss, the “pain” can be anything from low energy, to risk of disease, to feeling unattractive. The “pleasure” part can be anything from being able to fit into your favorite outfit, to getting more attention from the opposite sex, to feeling healthier and more confident. These are your motivators. It’s your job to identify your product features and show the customer how those features will bring them pleasure or help them avoid pain.

The last part of the formula is the “why”, meaning your objective. What do you want the customer to do? Do you want them to visit the website for your weight loss e-book? Do you want them to order a bottle of your African herb dietary supplement? Me being a copywriter, most of my clients’ objectives will either be making the sale on the spot, or getting the customer primed for the sale and compelling them to take further action (visit a website, request more information, etc.)

So let’s put it all together. If I’m building a headline for a weight-loss newsletter, my “Who, What, Why” formula might look something like this:

Who: “Stay-at-home moms, age 25-40, who want to lose weight” What: “A set of weight-loss hypnosis cd’s” Why: “Drive prospects to the sales page at

So my headline might look something like this:

“In Less Time Than It Takes To Make Dinner For The Kids, This Little-Known Technology Can Give You The Fat-Burning Powers Of A 19-Year-Old”

This headline incorporates all three elements of the “Who, What, Why” formula. It targets stay-at-home moms aged 25-40 with the benefit contained in the phrase, “In less time than it takes to make dinner for the kids”, and by promising to give them the “fat-burning powers of a 19-year-old”. It also sparks curiosity with the phrase “little-known technology”, which makes them want to know more and draws them into the body copy, thus driving them towards the “close” - visiting the sales page on the website. This accomplishes the “Why” objective.

So that, in a nutshell, is how I build headlines using the “Who, What, Why” formula. Play around with it and you’ll be crafting your own killer headlines…in less time than it takes to make dinner for the kids!

Sadly, letter writing is never out of fashion, and your instinct are just plain wrong. You will need to write a sales letter to get to ask many people as possible. You will need to write a sales letter to get that housewife to buy your set of plastic cutlery, or that football coach to buy custom-made towels for his team, or that CEO to grab that hotel membership to his favorite five-star resort. Respect and formality are still in.

A good sales letter needs to be terse, brief, succinct, but full of information about the product or service that you are selling. Many good sales letters take no more than a page or a page and a half to tell their story: within the first few words, they grab the reader; in the next few paragraphs, they can convince the most miserly recipients to shell out cash for a product or service. A good sales letter is also eager without being overbearing, and respectful without being stiff.

A good sales letter is admittedly, very difficult to write. It can be hard to tone down a hard selling tune, but likewise hard to keep oneself from being boring. If you are tasked to write a sales letter, you might want to take note of the following tips as you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard.

- Format is important. As with any other letter, a sales letter begins with the name and address of the sender, then the name and address of the recipient. After a formal address, the letter has a body, which contains, in order, an opening salutation, creation of a need, a sales pitch, information on how the product or service can be purchased, and a closing salutation. The letter is then signed by the sender.

Follow this format, as it can give your recipients an easier time understanding the letter and your goals. An organized letter, moreover, speaks well about your own sense of organization, and even the integrity of your company.

- Always start on a personal note, and avoid using the generic address “To whom it may concern,” or “To Mr. or Ms.” but without a name. Your potential buyers need to know that you care about them, and this knowledge begins by recognizing that you addressed them by name. In sales letter-writing, small details are key.

- Make your pitch in two hundred words or less. If you make a short pitch, you may appear as though you do not believe in your product. If you make a very long one, you might not be believable at all. Strike the balance with a medium-sized pitch that resonates with readers. Remember, you have to create a need for your product or service first before you can begin selling it.

- Do not compare your product or service with those of other companies’. This can be tempting, especially when a free market encourages stiff competition amongst competitors with like products and services. However, this can also speak ill of your company, especially if you do not have a name yet. Make your product’s or service’s qualities speak for themselves.

- Watch your grammar and spelling! Nothing can turn off readers more than a poorly constructed, badly written letter. If you cannot take care of your own writing style, you might not appear qualified to take care of potential buyers either. Always have a book of style next to you when you compose the letter. If you have time, show the sales letter to your writer or editor friends. They can give you tips on how to improve your writing, and you can practice your sales pitches on them as well!

- Sign the letter personally. A personal touch always makes you look good, and can soften your potential buyers’ hearts toward you.

If you want to write a sales letter, then you need to practice often, and believe in your product or service. As in any letter, or any product of the written word, passion shows clearly.

It is an undeniable that web sites as form of advertisement drive most of the client to purchase the product. It remains still as a powerful tool but suffer in some aspects. One of which is when the web site is not properly copywritten. Below are some of the most common things towards an outstanding website copywriting.

1. Give a hard to decline offer to obtain a client’s e-mail address. A lot of internet users are very cautious at giving their e-mail addresses due to the rampant spamming issues. Make them a deal to give their e-mail addy.

2. Who would ever want to use a site that is as complicated as an Algebra or Calculus subject. Make your site easy to use. Remember the keyword: USER FRIENDLY.

3. Write the site on the reader’s perspective. Learn to determine what your clients need and want. Only then you can be able to write effectively.

4. Make your product over edge your competitors. To do this, you have to invest a little in researching on how your competitor’s product is doing. Attack your competitor’s product waterloo and surface the best.

5. Do not forget to test your site. The only way to optimize the functionalities of your sites is to repeatedly test it. You may opt to run pre-test with clients and then get their feedback about it. Then enhance whatever it needs to enhance.

6. Create an air of desire to do an action from a reader. Think of how to excite your readers to drive him to action.

The biggest secret to getting into copywriting as a job is to do something you are interested in. There are many types of jobs that involve copywriting. Figure out what you like or would like to get into and start looking in that field. Wherever you find that someone has written something in that field that’s a lead for you to get copywriting as a job. Many times the person doing the writing is not even called a copywriter, but the job description involves writing.

You can write books, instruction manuals, research reports, white papers, web copy, emails, direct response ads, brochures, instructional videos, seminars and so on… Copywriting as a job opens up all kinds of possibilities for you.

Here’s a little used secret to get into copywriting as a job: If you know about something approach some companies that would be interested in having someone write about it. Better yet, write an informative series of articles or research report and send it to some companies that deal with that subject. Offer to write more material for them or give them the rights to distribute your material for free to people who would be interested. Just make sure they give you credit for writing the report.

You will find that if you are writing about something “that turns your crank” your writing will have a special quality that people will find interesting. When word gets back to the people handing out your report for free that that they like your writing, they will come back to you for more…

This is where the interesting, exciting and lucrative part starts!

As your notoriety builds, you will be able to charge more and more for what you write. People will be willing to pay you in advance for bigger projects. They will pay for sending you to conferences and events that you would gladly have paid for and gone to on your own.

The best part is that as you get more and more of your writing out there, life will get easier for you. People will approach you instead of you having to approach them. If you want to just get a job in a certain field all you need to do is show them your portfolio and some of the recognition you have received in terms of testimonials, printed articles, awards etc. and you will command a higher salary than someone who can’t produce all these references.

Ultimately you might find that freelancing will pay better and give you the lifestyle you want, but copywriting as a job is a good place to start.

This should be your first step in writing a good ad: Study the ads that pique your interest. This can be ads in the newspaper, in magazines, on Google and Yahoo, and on the free classified ad sites.

You want to study the type of ads you want to write. Create a swipe file. This can be a simple text file of ads you liked, that made you want to click through, or write for more information, or whatever.

The purpose of a good ad is to get you to do something. To act.

If you’ve ever written an ad, then you’ve probably heard of the ad writing formula AIDA, but it’s worth repeating here:

A - Attention

I - Interest

D - Desire

A - Action

Attention applies to your headline. You want to generate attention and get readers to read the rest of your ad. You need to write a good headline. Your headline should be short, to the point, and demand attention.

Here are some examples:

The Secret of Making People Like You

A Little Mistake That Cost A Farmer $3,000 A Year

The shorter your ad, the shorter your headline needs to be. Make every word count.

One thing you should remember here is before writing your ad, choose your audience. Your ad can’t be all things to all people. Your ad must appeal to those who are looking for what you have to offer.

If you have the attention of your reader, the next step is interest. Focus on the main benefit of your product or service.

If you are writing a short ad, then you can only focus on one benefit.

Remember, a benefit is different from a feature. A feature tells you what something will do. A benefit tells the person how it will help him/her.

For example:

If you are selling a product to end baldness, a feature might be that it’s easy to use. A benefit would be that the person would have a full head of hair that makes him look 20 years younger.

Here’s the beginning of an example ad:

Headline: End Male Pattern Baldness Forever?

Interest: Unique formula ends male pattern baldness forever.

Next, you want to create a desire for your product.

Example: In just 15 minutes a day, you can be on your way to a full head of hair.

Finally, you want the reader to take action. Send for free details, write for free details, click through, etc.

Example: Get your free subscription to the “Male Pattern Baldness Newsletter” now.

These are just examples, and I’m sure that they can definitely be refined.

Once you’ve written your ad, it’s time to start posting. You will need some way to track your ad. You can use different email addresses, different links, or some type of tracking software.

It’s important that you track your ads because you want to know which ones are getting results and which ones aren’t.

You can change your ads one element at a time to increase effectiveness.

The point is:

1. Study good ads.

2. Create a swipe file.

3. Know Your Audience.

4. Apply the AIDA formula.

5. Test and Track Your Ads.

Not only will you write better ads, but you’ll also get better results.