The Copy Father on Raising Your Hand
Wouldn’t life be easier if you knew who was interested in your offers even before they’re even ready?
If you’ve ever come up with an offer or a product you know that it takes a fair amount of effort.
There’s the planning, writing, filming, and designing to get done.
That doesn’t even mention the technical side of things like creating sales pages, email sequences, webinars, Facebook ads, automation, and the million other things.
Frankly, it’s quite a ball ache and what is an absolute slap straight to the tits is when you go through all of that then no fucker cares what you’ve done.
It’s totally demoralizing.
However, when it goes well, it’s 100% worth it to share your knowledge with your audience and solve the problem that they’re having.
Now, I want you to imagine how much of your time you can save if you could be sure people are interested before you go through all of that effort!
By knowing that people want what you’re offering would make the whole thing a lot more worthwhile AND you would know that you’ve got money coming your way after all the effort you put in.
If only such a wonderful thing could be…
Oh wait, it totally can!
It’s called a hand raiser.
In a nutshell, you ask your audience which of them are interested in the offer you’re thinking of releasing.
However, it’s not that straightforward.
A lot of people tend to get this wrong…
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when doing this is they are way too vague.
They’ll ask something like “If I was going to do something that would help you get more money, would you be interested?”
Now, obviously, the answer to that question is going to be yes but no one is going to commit because they have no idea of how much, what it entails, the effort on their part and so many other factors.
Like with most things relating to Copywriting – specificity is key.
So when you’re creating your hand-raiser for your audience make sure to give specific details!
You don’t need the whole thing planned out but just mentioning things like…
- What problem you’re solving for them
- The rough time frame of when it’s happening and how long it’ll take for your audience
- And a ballpark figure they’ll invest
The last part is you need to put in some kind of call to action.
By asking who’s interested they won’t know what to say or how to respond.
Tell them a specific action to take like “If this sounds like something you want to know more about then give me a hell yeah in the comments”.
By doing this you tell them EXACTLY what to do so there’s no fear or confusion AND your post gets better engagement through all the comments.
Which means more people will see it.
The next time you have an idea for an offer, try a hand-raiser this way and see the reaction that you get.
If you like this and you want to receive regular copy advice in your inbox every Monday to Friday then you can join The Copy Father’s Email List and you’ll also receive a free copy of my Copy Check List that will show you the 13 Copy principles you need to increase your conversion rates.
The Copy Father On Writing Drunk And Editing Sober
There’s an old saying…
“Write drunk and edit sober”.
This is normally misattributed to Ernest Hemingway but it turns out he often used drinking as a reward for a day of writing well done.
Now it should go without saying that this isn’t actual legit advice but more a metaphor.
Writing drunk is more likely to end with all of your writing time being taken by being distracted and going to make microwave Pizzas.
Maybe that’s just me…
Anyway, the idea is that “being drunk” just means getting your creative juices flowing. Simply put yourself into an unfiltered, unedited creative state and let rip!
Just let those words pour out of you like the water from a kettle when you’re making a perfectly brewed cuppa.
After that, it’s time for the secret ingredient…
The editing.
Editing is a vital part of writing any copy.
After you’ve let your words stream forth from you the chances of you nailing the first draft are pretty damn slim.
Even the A-list Copywriters like Dan Kennedy, Eugene Schwartz, and the like very rarely got it right on their first draft.
So, how do you edit?
This is where the “Being sober” part comes into it because you’re not looking at your work with an analytical eye and not in a creative flow state.
It’s time to get brutal with yourself!
The way to do this is simple…
First, you give it a read-through out loud, and anywhere you stumble over your words or have to re-read something then you need to edit that.
Then you do that another 8 times.
Each time getting more and more brutal really questioning whether that word, hook, paragraph, or whatever is even really necessary.
Remember, your goal with writing Copy is to get the sale.
To do that you need to be clear AND concise.
After those initial 9 read-throughs, the next thing you do is sleep on it and then read it out loud one more time.
After reading it through 9 times you’ll start to get way to used to what you’re reading and begin expecting what’s to come and that means you’ll start getting lazy.
However, you’ll have got the majority of the mistakes you initially made anyway.
By sleeping on it, you’ll come back with fresh eyes so give it one more read-through to catch anything that may have slipped through the net.
At this stage, your copy should be looking incredible.
If you want to take it that one step further though, there is one last thing you can do…
Give it to someone else to read who knows what they’re doing.
They’ll come in with completely fresh eyes and an entirely new perspective to spot any parts you’ve missed by becoming copy blind.
By that stage the only thing left you can do is test it and see how it performs!
And testing is a subject for another day…
If you like this and you want to receive regular copy advice in your inbox every Monday to Friday then you can join The Copy Father’s Email List and you’ll also receive a free copy of my Copy Check List that will show you the 13 Copy principles you need to increase your conversion rates.
The Copy Father’s 5 Common Copy Mistakes
Over the past 3 years of my Copywriting career I’ve noticed that people tend to make 5 common mistakes in their copy…
If you’re making any of these mistakes you need to stop and I mean stop yesterday!
So without too much waffle, here’s the list of 5:
1 – They talk about themselves
It’s all me, me, me.
The truth is, people don’t really care about you, they care about themselves.
When your copy is all about you, your readers will switch off because it isn’t helping their life in any way shape or form.
What you should be doing is talking about how your life and experiences will benefit them.
For example the mistakes I have seen and how YOU should avoid them.
It’s a simple reframe but it works.
2 – A lack of specificity (I love that word)
People have a tendency to leave things open to interpretation. Especially marketers.
They believe it builds curiosity which will then get people interested and reading.
Now, curiosity 100% works BUT only in the right place – too much curiosity and vagueness will just lead to confusion.
A confused reader is going to just click away and not give you any money.
Think about it have you ever said to yourself “I’m so confused here. I need to pay them to find out the answers!”
No…
Say exactly what you mean and be clear.
3 – Zero confidence
Your readers will be able to sense when you aren’t confident in what you’re saying.
If you’re writing with a passive tone and beating around the bush with what you’re trying to say all you’re relaying to your audience is “I don’t really know what I’m talking about”.
The reason that people try to keep things passive and soft is simply down to their own mindset.
They don’t want to come across as pushy but what they fail to realize is you aren’t being pushy by being confident.
Own what you say like the expert that you are!
4 – HYPE!
This is one I used to suffer with.
Coming across as hypey just looks desperate and will end up with a bunch of people with buyers remorse anyway.
There is absolutely zero need for you to be hypey.
If you’ve marketed your offer to the right people and made it look attractive by demonstrating the clear benefits that your audience wants then you’ll make a sale.
Hype will only get people excited in the moment before they suddenly realise that they don’t actually want what you’re selling.
5 – You’re not being you
When people do this they tend to be trying to imitate someone successful they’ve seen.
The trouble with that is you just come across as a cheap imitation.
Instead, embrace you for you and you’ll attract the right people to you anyway!
To sum it up, just relax, focus on how you’re helping your reader, and just put your copy in front of the right people.
That’s the winning formula.
If you like this and you want to receive regular copy advice in your inbox every Monday to Friday then you can join The Copy Father’s Email List and you’ll also receive a free copy of my Copy Check List that will show you the 13 Copy principles you need to increase your conversion rates.
The Copy Father On The 3 Aspects You Need For Organic Marketing
Did ya know there are 3 things that are vital to getting your organic marketing to work?
Without all 3 of these things, you’re gonna have a bad time!
These 3 things are so vital in fact that without them it would be like making a cake without eggs, butter, or sugar…
You’re gonna end up with a powdery mess that no one wants in their mouth.
First, you need some kind of branding.
What branding does is make you recognizable and builds you as a trusted company or person.
Without that branding then people will just see you as one of the many other companies that are out there that do what you do.
By branding yourself using your core principles and motives you can make sure that you stand out from your competition.
Next, you need marketing.
Without getting your marketing right no one is gonna even see your branding so it’s all just a big old waste of time!
Any business without marketing is destined to fail.
To be honest, I’m really hoping that this isn’t something I need to tell you that you need because marketing is such a ridiculously vital part of any business.
No marketing = no business.
Finally, you need the one that’s possibly most important yet not enough people pay attention to or talk about…
Positioning.
This is basically your customers’ perception of you and how well you can help them.
If you fuck up your positioning you’re gonna be attracting the wrong kinda people to you and everything will pretty much crash and burn.
Let me give you an example here…
You see some guy online spouting about how they know how to make you all kinds of money.
You know the sort: “Earn 6 figures in just 6 seconds with my super-secret strategy!”
And the next thing you see is that same person posting about how they’re struggling to afford their car repayments.
Obviously, this is an extreme example but you see this kind of thing all the time.
People saying one thing yet positioning themselves an in entirely different way.
So, remember the 3 things you need to be mindful of with your online content:
- Branding
- Marketing
- And Positioning
Without these 3 you’re not going to be seen, you’re going to be seen in the wrong way or you’re just going to blend in with everyone else.
If you want more copy nuggets like this in your inbox every Monday to Friday then all you need to do is click the button to join my email list and get yourself a copy of my Check List that shows you the 13 psychological that your copy needs to convert.
The Copy Father on Choices
There’s so much choice in the world…
I was listening to Mark Mansons’ “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck” not to long ago and he mentions ‘The Paradox of Choice’.
Basically, this is where the more choices a customer is offered the more they feel overwhelmed. That often ends up in them giving up and not purchasing anything.
For example: If I give you the choice between a chocolate yogurt or a strawberry yogurt – it’s not going to take you long to decide.
Now if I give you a menu full of about 20 different puddings with all different flavours you’re gonna take your sweet time (pun intended) deciding on the right one.
This is due to the fear of missing out.
When we decide on one pudding we have said no to 19 others.
If you’re a parent you are going to know this better than most. What happens when you give your kids a choice?
They’ll agonize for AGES over which option to take. Even when they FINALLY decide they will still be looking longingly at the other option (especially if a sibling has decided on the other one).
So, how do you stop your customers or clients (or kids) freaking out over too much choice and leaving?
It’s simple – limit the choice!
Tell them they have this option or that option.
They won’t be wondering about the other choices they missed out on. They’ll just be happy with what they got. That equals more money in your pocket!
Much Love from my family to yours…
The Copy Father
The Copy Father Begins…
Everyone likes a good origin story and this is the story of how The Copy Father began…
Spider-Man being bit by a radioactive spider.
Batman’s parents being shot.
Spawn being killed by his partner and being made an agent of hell.
There are some awesome origins out there and now it’s time to discover the origin story of The Copy Father!
Strap yourself in and lets go on an adventure…
Christmas, a Wedding and a Broken Toilet…
It was a rainy day in September, I can’t really remember the weather but I live in England so it’s a good bet that it was raining.
Anyhow, like most days I was worrying about money. My wedding was coming up, I had a Son under the age of one, step kids under the age of 10 and Christmas wasn’t a million miles away.
It was around that time that one of the kids decided to block the toilet up as well which wasn’t a cheap fix.
If I said money was tight? That would be putting it lightly…
Fun times!
So, being in that position I started to hunt around for a way I could make some extra money. I spoke to the boss at my job (Yeah, got a job and still struggling!) and he suggested doing some freelance writing.
Genius idea!
… But where do I look?
Now, whether this is fate or luck who knows but I’m happy it happened either way. I spoke to my friend and Marketer, Jake Baugh.
Jake and I had been training in Kung Fu for about a year and we had a lot in common. One of those things happened to be he was getting into the freelance writing world and he had more experience than me.
He gave me my first taste of freelance writing for hire ($50 for writing an eBook on e-Commerce!) after that I saw a world of possibilities open up in front of me.
I dove into a rabbit hole of online marketing, copywriting, freelancing and the entrepreneur life style.
Since that day I have studied my ass off day in and day out, got various paid gigs from content to direct response copywriting and I got my self my mentor, Adil Amarsi – but that’s another story for another time.
With Great Power…
Why did I do it though?
Referring back to Batman, Spider-Man and Spawn – they all have their reasons for doing what they do.
Batman doesn’t want anyone to go through what he had to and made a promise to his parents. Spider-Man lost his Uncle and realised that with his great new power comes a great responsibility and Spawn realised that even though he’s an agent of hell he can use his new found powers to protect his wife.
There’s a running theme here that I share.
Family.
Everything I do – I do to support my family.
Every time I want to quit, things get difficult or I just don’t know what to do – I look into the face of my wife and children. I think about how they’re life would change if I didn’t work as hard as I do.
Thinking about what could be both inspires and scares me into getting back to work, studying and getting the results.
Success Is The Only Option
Now you know what started me off and why I do what I do – if you find yourself in need of a Copywriter you know exactly why I make sure that everything I do is done to the very best of my abilities.
I will make sure that your campaign is a success because if it isn’t?
My family don’t get the life they deserve.
Click here if you want to see if we are a fit to work together.
From my family to yours!
Much Love
The Copy Father