Great Copywriting is Merely 'You And Me Talking' - The Rest of The World Can Go to Hell!


by Raja Hireker - Date: 2007-04-15 - Word Count: 779 Share This!

Have you ever opened a sales letter or any other type of promotional material and you said to yourself "what on earth are they telling me... what's the bloody connection here... surely they cannot be saying that... who the heck understands all that?"

Well, let me tell you that you're not alone in your thinking.

You see, the way we read, the way we write, the way we converse, stems all the way back when we were in school.

We were told the PROPER way to write and understand English.

We then add to the confusion in later life by reading and listening to the jargon and academic speak of professors, article writers, 'traditional' advertising people who feel the need to 'educate' us about the sophistication of the English language.

Of course, little, if none of it has any real worth in the day to day of communicating with each other.

I mean, come on, who on earth talks to each other using words such as...

Indestructibility... effervescence... revolutions... convolute... incumbent... petulance...

Well, okay, maybe intellectuals, academics, aristocrats... maybe... but pretty much on the whole, most of us talk okay, in a kind of chatty, friendly, sit around a cup of coffee type way, do you not agree?

If that IS the case, and if you yourself agree that that's how you most likely talk, then doesn't it make sense that we WRITE MARKETING COMMUNICATION AND BUSINESS PROMOTIONS IN THE WAY THAT WE MOST LIKELY SPEAK?

And, do you know what?

I know this core message is troubling for a number of people. Especially those who have been educated in a particular way...who have been told that they need an ADVANCED VOCABULARY in order to reach the top in life.

In fact, a number of English teachers all round the globe will be jumping up and down in frustration and disbelief at the mere thought of written communication being littered with colloquialisms, chatty style writing and the breaking of a number of grammar rules.

But do you know something? As hard as I try, I'm hard pressed to find a really rich English teacher! Now isn't THAT telling us something?

THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING...

I was literally blown away when just the other day, I saw a letter that had exactly 361 words on it, contained none of the pompous, intellectual, high brow language... but... was mailed in the millions, created a business that spawned 8 countries and made millions for the owners!

And the funny thing about that letter was I showed it to a number of advertising and marketing professionals and they universally scoffed at it, saying it was nothing more than a waste of space and that it was too simple and too basic.

There lies my point.

Communication in print or in any other form needs to be sincere, warm, clear and absolutely shot of the boredom factor.

Of course, seeing their jaws drop open in pure astonishment when I showed them the documentary evidence, was a piece of pure magic that will stay with me till the day I drop.

Yes, for simple marketing solutions really do bring the most astounding of rewards.

In fact, if you want to put that last sentence to the test in your own business, here's what you should do:

Find out who's the most successful sales person in your business (if you're the sole 'sales person' for your business, practice, consultancy, then you'll have to get someone else to help you with this exercise)... and eavesdrop on their client/customer conversation.

In fact, do more than that... record their conversation... and do it a number of times in order to capture the best selling conversation you can, whilst they're in full flow. Just capture it!

Either get it on tape, video, mobile phone, whatever. Just record it.

Then, what you do next is to simply transcribe that 'SELLING CONVERSATION' and create it in print.

You can remove all the unwanted ums and ers, references to the weather and the general chit chat, and then, what you'll be left with is the bare boned essence of a truly wonderful selling sales script. One that can be converted into a number of media formats...

Sales letters, websites, postcards, adverts... you name the media, you'll have a basis to adopt adapt and apply the winning sales script you have now created.

Would you like to know how publishers Boardroom Reports, A 100 MILLION A YEAR BUSINESS started out?

It started out EXACTLY the way I just handed out to you in this valuable article.

It happened by simply taping a conversation between the owner Marty Edelston and a copywriter by the name of Gene Schwartz, and then transcribing it in print.

I hope you study it well, for it contains the seeds to propel your business like you won't believe.

Raja C. Hireker


Related Tags: writing, advertising, competitors

Raja C. Hireker is a publisher and editor of the Marketing and Life Strategies Newsletter 'Swinging for The Fences' He has ghostwritten over 130 articles and is sought after advertising and email copywriter. You can go to his copywriting blog at: http://copywritingforprofessionals.wordpress.com as well as his website http://RajaHireker.com/copywriting. He lives in London, UK and can be contacted by FAX on 44 208 764 1085 and by email on RCHireker@Simple-Marketing-Solutions.com

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: