For Copywriters: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Copywriting (10 Tips to Boost Sales TODAY)

 

To be honest…

No matter what anybody tells you…

There is only ONE goal of copywriting.

To make sales (hence – sales copywriting).

If you want to make good money as a freelance copywriter, you MUST be able to generate sales for your clients.

This ultimate guide will show you how.

I’m going to cover what sales copywriting is, the best way to quickly learn sales copywriting & improve your skills, and 10 sales copywriting tips to explode your income.

 

What is Sales Copywriting?

Sales copywriting is salesmanship in print and salesmanship multiplied.

Instead of selling face to face, to one person at a time… you are selling to hundreds, thousands, even MILLIONS of people through the words you write.

This is the POWER of copywriting.

It kicks traditional sales in the beehive.

As a sales copywriter, you write persuasive copy for companies with the main goal of generating sales and new customers.

You can write on a variety of different media – like social media posts, landing pages, email campaigns, Google Ads and much more.

 

The Best Way for Beginners to Learn Sales Copywriting ASAP

In the next section, I’ll hand you 10 sales copywriting tips to apply ASAP so you can experience instant results.

However, if you don’t already know the basics of direct response copywriting (sales copywriting), you’ll want to read some books and study the top sales copywriters.

Start off by reading these 10 sales copywriting books:

1. The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
2. The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman
3. How to Write a Good Advertisement by Victor O. Schwab
4. Scientific Advertising By Claude Hopkins
5. The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy
6. Ogilvy on Advertising By David Ogilvy
7. Tested Advertising Methods By John Caples
8. Cashvertising By Drew Eric Whitman
9. The Copywriter’s Handbook By Bob Bly
10. Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel By John Carlton

For more details on these books, see this blog post...

The 10 Best Copywriting Books for Beginners (#1 Way to Learn Copywriting FAST)

Read these books twice (2^nd time, take detailed notes).

Also, while plowing through these books, practice your sales copywriting skills by doing a few copywriting practice exercises.

Here are the 10 Best Sales Copywriters to Study

These 10 sales copywriters have paved the way in this industry and have proven their humongous success through products sold and sales earned.

You’d be wise as a dolphin to study these legendary copywriters:

1. Gary Halbert
2. Gary Bencivenga
3. Joseph Sugarman
4. Eugene Schwartz
5. David Ogilvy
6. Claude Hopkins
7. John Caples
8. Victor O Schwab
9. John Carlton
10. Clayton Makepeace

Quick recap:

To quickly get good at writing sales copy…

Read the top sales copywriting books, from the best sales copywriters (and study their advertisements), and put what you’re learning into daily practice.

 

10 Sales Copywriting Tips to Explode Your Sales

#1. Write to Your Ideal Reader (and ONLY Them)

When you write copy, you’re only writing to one person (even if thousands are reading).

You want to tailor everything you write to your ideal reader.

Who is your ideal reader?

Your client’s ideal customer.

Find out who they are and then spend a LOT of time studying them.

Uncover the emotional reasons why they are currently in the market and looking to buy your client’s product/service.

To help you out…

Answer these 8 questions (they are from Dan Kennedy’s Magnificent book – The Ultimate Sales Letter)

1. What keeps them awake at night, indigestion boiling up their esophagus, eyes open, staring at the ceiling?
2. What are they afraid of?
3. What are they angry about? Who are they angry at?
4. What are their top three daily frustrations?
5. What trends are occurring and will occur in their business or lives?
6. What do they secretly, ardently desire most?
7. Is there a built-in bias to the way they make decisions? (Example: engineers = exceptionally analytical.)
8. Do they have their own language?

 

#2. Be Specific

Specificity is a powerful psychological trigger.

When you describe something with specific details it is more believable (and is easier to imagine in our mind’s eye).

This is important, because when your readers BELIEVE your claims, they are a LOT more persuasive.

Whenever you write sales copy, include specific details throughout your writing, like:

• Features
• Benefits
• Stats
• Figures
• Stories
• Comparisons
• Number of steps to take
• Vivid descriptions

Here are a few examples of headlines that tap into the power of specificity:

• "FIVE FAMILIAR SKIN TROUBLES – WHICH DO YOU WANT TO OVERCOME?"
• "SIX TYPES OF INVESTORS – WHICH GROUP ARE YOU?"
• "$80,000 IN PRIZES! HELP US FIND THE NAME FOR THESE NEW KITCHENS"

 

#3. Keep it Simple

If you want to persuade your readers to buy now, you’ve gotta make your sales message VERY easy to understand.

So easy that a 5^th grader could understand what you’re saying at a glance.

There’s a great app called thehemingwayapp.com.

It was designed to help you write in a clear, simple, easy-to-understand way. They even have a feature that scores your writing based on grade-level readability (strive to hit 5^th grade).

Here are some tips to help you simplify your writing:

• Use short sentences, paragraphs and words
• Use easy-to-understand language
• Avoid jargon

The easier it is for readers to grasp your message, the easier it is for you to persuade them.

 

#4. Tap Into Your Reader's Emotions

In order to sell, you must convince your readers to make a decision.

Believe it or not, it’s literally impossible for humans to make decisions without EMOTIONS.

So, you must tap into your readers’ emotions.

Tap into negative emotions and positive emotions.

Negative emotions: pains, fears, insecurities, anxieties, guilt, worries.

And…

Positive emotions: joy, happiness, pride, hope, inspiration, desires.

As the late great Victor Schwab wrote:

“Sell with emotions, and justify the purchase with logic.”

If you aren’t getting the response you desire, tap into your reader’s emotions.

Your readers should FEEL an outpour of strong emotions as they read your copy.

If they don’t, you have not done your job correctly.

 

#5. Tell Them What to Do Next

Sales copy is all about triggering IMMEDIATE ACTION.

Right now!

You ask for action in your call to action (CTA).

This is usually placed at the end of your sales message.

You want to tell your reader what to do next (the next steps to take – which is usually clicking a link)

Here are 5 tips to boost response rates:

• Tell your readers exactly what to do next by giving them step-by-step instructions. Hold their hand and guide them through the sale.
• Make it stupidly simple to purchase.
• Give them an incentive to act NOW – discount, limited number of products available, re-framing everything they’ll gain or miss out on.
• Summarize the main benefits of purchasing your product.
• Tell them everything they’ll miss out on if they delay buying.

The key to boosting sales is to close your sales copy with direct, clear and concise instructions on what to do next.

 

#6. Grab Your Reader’s Attention

The first part of the sales process is to grab your ideal reader’s attention.

After all, if you don’t grab their attention, they’ll never read your copy.

This is the job of your headline.

And the ONLY job of your headline is to grab your ideal readers’ attention and get them to read your first sentence.

The top sales copywriters spend a LOT of time writing killer headlines.

I typically write dozens of headlines for each copywriting project.

To learn all about how to write attention-grabbing headlines, see this ultimate guide.

 

#7. The Most Important Word in Copywriting

Victor Schwab, a founding father of sales copywriting, explained that the greatest word in copywriting is…

YOU.

Why?

Because your readers only care about themselves.

They really don’t care about how “neat” your product is, your achievements or how much experience you have.

The ONLY thing they care about is WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM.

What do THEY get by reading your sales copy?

What do THEY get by buying your product?

Why should THEY choose you over the fierce competition?

Tailor everything to your ideal reader and make sure you add plenty of “YOU” language.

 

#8. Make the Skeleton Dance

As a sales copywriter, one of your biggest tasks is to handle your prospect’s objections.

You see, your prospects have dozens of objections rattling off inside their brains as they read your copy.

My favorite way to handle objections:

Make the skeleton dance

I learned about this VERY PROFITABLE concept from sales trainer – Barry Maher.

Maher would find creative ways to turn his perceived flaws into advantages.

Here are 2 examples:

ONE: Does your client have the most negative reviews in their industry?

Turn this BIG red flag into a benefit by saying something like:

“Yes, we have the most 1-star reviews. But we also have the most customers out of anyone in our industry because people know our products are superior.”

TWO: Most expensive price?

Turn your high price into a reason why customers should buy, by saying something like…

“Yeah, my product is expensive, it’s also the most valuable. Its value is 2x greater than its price.”

See how this works?

Write down your client’s perceived flaws and turn them into reasons why customers should purchase.

 

#9. Create Vision

Jim Camp (the world’s most feared negotiator) explained how vision drives decision.

If your reader does not have a clear VISION of their problem, they will not take action.

So…

You must paint a VIVID vision of your reader’s problems.

The easiest way to paint this vision is to talk about their problems using specific details, personal stories and word images that tickle their 5 senses (see, smell, hear, touch, taste).

TIP:

The more emotionally charged your reader’s vision is, the more successful your sales copy will be.

 

#10. Proof

Gary Bencivenga, one of the greatest copywriters of all time, revealed his secret weapon for selling BILLIONS worth of products and services…

PROOF.

You see, in order for readers to buy from you, they must BELIEVE your claims.

This ain’t easy.

Especially nowadays, where we’re bombarded by thousands of ads fighting for our attention, each day.

To make matters worse, most ads are filled with unbelievable promises and hyped-up claims.

This has turned a lot of people into skeptics.

How do you bypass people’s natural skepticism and persuade them to buy from you?

3 ways:

1. Social proof: testimonials, reviews, case studies.
2. Avoid hype trigger words & phrases – “get rich quick”, “become a millionaire”, “FREE”
3. Use the “If…Then” technique. If readers meet a specific requirement, then they can experience a big benefit. Example: “If you have 5 minutes per day, then you can lose 10 pounds this month.”

Good rule of thumb:

Never make your claim bigger than your proof. 

Surround your claims with stronger, bolder proof elements.

 

Conclusion

Writing sales copy CAN be easy if you have a solid understanding of the basics and research your target audience like a mad scientist.

Use the tips in this post to instantly sell more products and services.

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