How to be a copywriter

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How’s your voice? Active? Passive? Shout? Whisper?

Nearly all of us nonfiction/business writing gurus (ye Gods, what an awful cliché) pound tables and shout loudly that active voice rather than passive voice is essential in marketing communications no matter what. Mea culpa here, in fact…

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10 Tips On Using Stories To Sell

Copywriting Skills

An effective and compelling story is one of the most powerful devices in sales letter writing. There is seldom a successful direct marketing piece without one. I’ve seen this for my most successful sales copy and that of many other high-converting…

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12 Email Marketing Credibility Boosters

Copywriting Skills

If you have no credibility with your email recipients, then it will be almost impossible to sell them on anything else. Trust is basic to any business to consumer or B2B relationship, and with the onslaught of spammers and other phishing attempts…

How to Create Ad-Copy That Sizzles

Advertising Copywriting Skills

Whether you're writing ad-copy for a sales brochure, website or email campaign, it’s essential that you have four key elements in place. Although these four elements are fundamentally different, when combined, they produce a highly effective…

How To Boost Your Email Reader Engagement

Work Habits

Email marketing is mainly a one-way communication channel. An email campaign sends messages to a list of subscribers, providing information as in a newsletter or a sales message with instructions on how to respond. The marketer doesn’t expect…

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Goal setting relevance in the online world

Work Habits

It is not the first time that I heard the magic words whilst listening to audio programmes in my car: ‘Goal setting is the first step towards achieving success’. Well-known speakers like Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki,…

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Why promoting your weaknesses is a smart idea

Copywriting Skills

In business writing, it’s common to only talk about our strengths – the positive aspects of what we offer. But there are two excellent reasons why you should also promote your weaknesses, rather than hide them: 1. it builds trust 2.…

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A Web Designer Asked: How Can You Tell If You Have Either a Good Copywriter or a Bad One? Copywriters of All Stripes Raced to Answer This Question

Content & Strategy Copywriting Skills

A web designer recently asked a question in “Advertising Copywriting” and “Copywriter’s Beat,” two very popular copywriting linkedin groups. He quickly received a large number of answers. The question was: “How can you…

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Are mates’ rates a good idea?

Freelancing

A close friend of mine is our family dentist. I choose her because I believe she is excellent at her job – and pure magic with my kids. (My kids actually get excited about a trip to the dentist.) After our appointments, the receptionist…