The same qualities that make email attractive to legitimate advertisers also make email attractive to spammers.

To combat the ongoing flood of spam, Internet Service Providers, email marketing services, and even email program companies (such as Mozilla or Microsoft) analyze millions of messages and compile lists of “trigger” words and phrases most often associated with spam. These trigger words and phrases are then used to filter incoming messages.

This is a good thing, since it helps reduce the amount of unwanted messages we all receive. But it’s also a bad thing, since it invariably snares legitimate messages from honest advertisers.

This means that when you’re writing email messages for a client or for your own business, you face a unique challenge. Because, like it or not, seemingly innocent copy, especially in the subject line, can kill your email copy.

Here’s one example of a spam trigger word list from Vertical Response:

#1
100% satisfied
4U
Accept credit cards
Act Now!
Additional Income
Affordable
All natural
All new
Amazing
Apply online
Bargain
Best price
Billing address
Buy direct
Call
Call free
Can’t live without
Cards Accepted
Cents on the dollar
Check
Claims
Click / Click Here / Click Below
Click to remove
Compare rates
Congratulations
Cost / No cost
Dear friend
Do it today
Extra income
For free
Form
Free and FREE
Free installation
Free leads
Free membership
Free offer
Free preview
Free website
Full refund
Get it now
Giving away
Guarantee
Here
Hidden
Increase sales
Increase traffic
Information you requested
Insurance
Investment / no investment
Investment decision
Legal
Lose
Marketing
Marketing solutions
Message contains
Money
Month trial offer
Name brand
Never
No gimmicks
No Hidden Costs
No-obligation
Now
Offer
One time / one-time
Opportunity
Order / Order Now / Order today / Order status
Orders shipped by priority mail
Performance
Phone
Please read
Potential earnings
Pre-approved
Price
Print out and fax
Profits
Real thing
Removal instructions
Remove
Risk free
Sales
Satisfaction guaranteed
Save $
Save up to
Search engines
See for yourself
Serious cash
Solution
Special promotion
Success
The following form
Unsolicited
Unsubscribe
Urgent
US dollars
Wife
Win
Winner
Work at home

I know what you’re thinking: “This is ridiculous! Solution? Urgent? Phone? Those are spam words?” It’s not pretty, but this is the world you live in when you’re writing email copy.

Your email won’t get snared just because you include one of these words. Filters use formulas that assign spam points to each message. The words above, or words on other lists, add points. When your message accumulates enough points, the message is filtered.

Talk to the email service that will send your message and ask for their most current spam trigger word list. Be particularly careful about your subject lines.

There’s no way to know whether any particular message will get snared by any particular filter, but you can improve the odds by staying current on the trigger words spammers are using.

Related posts:

1. How to write email marketing messages that get clicks
2. Merlin’s 5-step method for managing your email inbox
3. Why vanity phone numbers can kill your ad copy

There’s nothing more challenging to a copywriter than taking on a sales letter assignment.

And there’s nothing more discouraging than staring at a blank screen because you have no idea how to get your sales letter started.

I try not to follow any rigid formulas for sales letters, but I do try to keep the opening line short and punchy.

Here are some popular sales letter openers that can help get your creative engine running. If you have some of your own favorites, leave a comment and share it.

• If you’re like me …
• Have you noticed …
• What if …
• I need your help …
• Congratulations!
• You are invited …
• I have a free gift for you!
• As you know …
• Good News!
• Did you know …
• Have you ever wished …
• I’ve enclosed …
• Believe it or not …
• Imagine that …
• If you like _____, you’ll love _____ …
• Now you can …
• At last!
• They think I’m nuts, but …
• Wouldn’t it be great if …
• Wow!
• How would you like to …
• Looking for … ?
• Remember when …
• Ouch!
• Chances are …
• When was the last time you …
• Your _____ is ready. May I sent it?
• You are part of a unique group …
• You don’t know me but …
• Don’t _____ before you _____ …”

Related posts:

1. Storytelling and the greatest sales letter of all time
2. 4 practical ways to sell without writing a sales pitch
3. P.S. Don’t forget to include a sales letter postscript

The supreme calling for any copywriter is to write direct response advertising. This is a form of advertising where you make an offer and solicit a direct response from your prospect.

The offer is the key to successful direct response advertising. Specifically, you must include 3 things in your copy:

1. You must make an offer.

2. You must provide sufficient information to allow your prospect to accept your offer.

3. You must provide an easy means of responding to your offer.

A direct response ad MUST include all of these or you are not doing direct response. This is why direct response advertising is all about offers, whether it’s a direct mail piece, print ad, online sales page, or email solicitation.

Years ago, I assembled a list of offers that have been used successfully in millions of ads over the years. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of possible offers. However, these 60 are some of the most common and successful.

Notice that I have grouped them by function to help you apply them correctly in your copy. You may want to bookmark this list for future reference.

Raising Response

• Free Trial — This may be the best offer ever devised. People can try out your product free and without obligation for 10 days, 15 days, 30 days, or more. The time frame should fit the product. This offer removes risk for the prospect and overcomes inertia.

• Money-Back Guarantee — This is perhaps the second best offer. A customer pays upfront, but if dissatisfied can return the item for a full refund. Like the free trial, this offer removes risk but allows you to use customer inertia because only a small percentage of people will take the trouble to return something.

• Free Gift — When you offer a freebie that your customer wants, your offer will usually outpull a discount offer of similar value. That’s because a gift is a more tangible benefit.

• Limited-Time — An offer with a time limit gets more response than an offer without one, especially when you give a specific deadline. This forces a decision, and the faster you can force a decision, the more likely it will be in your favor.

• Yes/No — You ask your prospect to respond positively or negatively, usually by affixing a “yes” or “no” stamp, checking one of two boxes, returning one of two reply forms, etc. This offer creates involvement and usually pulls more response than an offer that does not offer a “no” option.

• Negative Option — This is generally used with a free trial. You allow your prospect to try your product for free and then automatically ship unless the prospect specifically refuses the order within a certain time frame. This often results in higher returns and a few more irate phone calls, but it pulls better up-front and can produce higher overall sales.

• Credit Card Payment — Nothing is easier than paying with plastic. These days, there’s no reason not to accept payment this way whether by phone, mail, fax, or the Internet.

• Sweepstakes — This can dramatically increase your order volume. Just remember that running a sweepstakes can be a pain. And sweepstakes customers are seldom loyal. Plus, many marketers find that once they start using sweepstakes, it’s hard to go back to more traditional offers.

Lowering Risk

• Double-Your-Money-Back Guarantee — Since most people never make a return, this is a simple way to dramatize both your offer and your guarantee for low priced items.

• Long-Term Guarantee — Another way to dramatize your offer and guarantee. Instead of a 30- or 60-day guarantee, you offer a one-year, multi-year, or lifetime guarantee. If you can reasonably expect your product to last, this puts inertia and forgetfulness on your side because few people will take advantage of or even remember your guarantee later on.

• Guaranteed Buy-Back — This is just another way of offering a standard money-back guarantee. You offer to “buy back” the item if your customer is not satisfied. It is often used with collectibles.

• Guaranteed Acceptance Offer — If people usually go through an application process to use your product, access your service, or join your club, you can give them a guarantee to accept them. You’ll often see this offer with credit card or financial products.

• Limited-Time Introductory Offer — This lets prospects try something with little risk before making a greater commitment. “Try 13 weeks of The Wall Street Journal for only $34.00.” You must track responses, though, and be sure your conversions justify the lower price.

• Yes/Maybe — This is another way of making a low-commitment or no-obligation offer. You’re happy to get the “maybe” response, which could be for a free trial, product information, introductory offer, etc. And if you get some “yes” responses, that’s gravy.

Reducing Price

• Dollars Off — You offer a certificate or coupon with a dollar value that may be redeemed toward a purchase. However, test carefully, because a free gift of equal value usually works better.

• Refunds and Rebates — With a refund, you may ask $3 for your catalog then send a $3 discount certificate to be used on a first order. With a rebate, you offer a delayed discount, encouraging a purchase then sending a check or coupon with a particular value.

• Sales — A seasonal sale is a trusty standby to raise volume. A “reason why” sale is similar, but gives some explanation for lowering the price, such as going out of business, inventory reduction, overstock, etc.

• Introductory Price — A way to allow people to try something at a reduced cost for a short period of time. You can use this to get new customers, though it may annoy loyal customers who might feel they should get the best price.

• Relationship Discount — The opposite of the introductory price. For example, new customers pay $30, while regular customers pay just $25. The goal here is to reward customers, not to get new customers.

• Group Discount — A special discount exclusive to a type of profession, industry, club, etc. An investment magazine can offer a “professional discount” for accountants, for example. This lets you target certain markets.

• Quantity Discount — The more ordered, the better the deal. If your customer orders 5 books, you provide a 5% discount. Or you offer a lower per-issue price for a 2-year subscription than for a 1-year subscription.

• Step-Up Discount — Like the quantity discount, but based on the amount ordered. For example, a 5% discount for orders over $50, a 10% discount for orders over $100, and a 15% discount for orders over $250.

• Early-Bird Discount — A good way to encourage more and faster orders. Make sure the discount is a real discount. Don’t just raise prices for those who order later.

• Price Matching — If you compete on price, you offer to match any competitor’s price. The idea is to assure prospects that you offer low prices.

• Trade-in Offer — You offer dollars off when a customer trades in a previous model or version and buys a new one. The trade-in can be your own brand or a competitor’s.

Increasing Urgency

• Last Chance — Usually a reminder that you’ve previously made an offer, but time is running out. If you say “last chance,” mean it.

• Limited Edition — Good for collectables, such as art, plates, coins, special book printings, etc. The idea is that the item is special in some way and that there are only x number available, or there’s a time limit.

• Enrollment Period — You establish a “window of opportunity” when prospects may enroll for insurance, home study, business services, whatever.

• Pre-Publication Offer — A popular offer used by book publishers, especially expensive reference works. The idea is that you need to plan your print run, so you offer a special deal and reserve copies for readers ahead of time. Readers are guaranteed to get a copy and save money, usually 10 or 15% off what the general public will pay.

• Price Increase Announcement — If prices are going up, you can announce it ahead of time so people can take advantage of the old prices one last time or stock up.

• Charter Membership — You offer a prospect the chance to be one of the first to subscribe to a publication or join a club or organization. There is generally a special introductory price, a gift, or other incentives.

Improving Terms

• Payment With Order — Not a motivating offer by itself, but it is often used with a money-back guarantee and other incentives, such as credit card payment option, free shipping, premiums, etc.

• Bill Me Later — Used with free trial offers. The customer gets the item first, then pays a bill later on. This appeals to the modern consumer who has been trained to postpone payment till the last possible moment. It can double response over a straight cash upfront offer.

• Installments — This offer takes a larger price and divides it into a set number of smaller monthly payments, often with no interest. This makes paying a high price seem painless. Installment terms are most effective when the total price is de-emphasized or not mentioned.

• Positive Option — The reverse of a negative option. If used by a book club, the customer must ask for shipment of one or more books to get them. Response to this offer is lower than to negative option, but customer quality is often better long-term.

• Reservation Option — You offer to reserve or set aside an item that will soon be announced to the general public and may sell out. You also give a special price or a premium for response by a certain date. Similar to the pre-publication offer.

Offering Services

• Gift Shipment Service — A customer sends you a gift list, and you send the gifts to the names given either for free or for a nominal charge. Here, you’re selling convenience for those who are too busy to shop.

• Rush Shipping Service — You promise to ship an item overnight or within a short time period by UPS, FedEx, or other service. This works only for things people may want quickly.

Offering Bribes

• Free “Keeper” Gift — To encourage prospects to make the decision to try your product or service, you offer a gift. They may then keep that gift, even if they change their mind later on.

• Free Gift with Payment — This encourages payment. You can offer a gift for every paid order or for orders of a minimum value. But you don’t have to offer just one, you can offer two, three, four, or more.

• Choice of Free Gifts — Here, you offer a choice between two or more gifts. While this seems very appealing, it often does not work as well as offering a single gift, since the choice may create indecision and inertia (and means losing the other gifts).

• “Stepped” Free Gifts — You reward a customer based on the size of the order. The more they order, the more gifts they get or the higher the quality.

• Two-Step Gift — Small gift for first step, bigger gift for next step or free something for trying it, free something else for buying it.

• Cumulative Incentives — A customer loyalty reward, such as points for buying books, frequent flyer miles, every 13th video rental free, etc. Works best when the building value is tangible and visible, as in a card that gets stamped with every purchase and when full may be redeemed.

Increasing Sales

• Deluxe Version — You offer a second version of the same item with enhanced features for a little more money. This can boost total dollars.

• Good-Better-Best — This gives your prospect a choice. It also subtly urges people to spend more than they might if you can demonstrate that the best choice is the best value. Ideally, you should show more features for higher-quality items.

• Do-It-Yourself Offer — You allow your prospect to decide the offer. With a subscription, you might offer 95 cents an issue, and let the prospect fill in the number of issues he or she wants. Or you might make several suggestions and let the prospect chose one. This is used in fundraising all the time, where the donor picks the level of giving from several choices.

• Load-Up — In a continuity series, you send all the books in a series after the first few are paid for, allowing your customer to continue paying month-to-month. In a CD club, you might offer 6 CDs for a dollar each, but get a commitment for buying 6 more CDs at regular prices within a certain time frame. Either way, you’re “loading up” the customer and assuring more purchases.

• Lifetime Membership Fee — You ask your prospect to pay a one-time fee to become an exclusive “member” of your club or organization. In return, he or she gets reduced prices and other benefits not available to the general public, though there is no requirement to buy anything. The idea is that once someone makes such an investment, they are more likely to buy from you and remain loyal.

• Annual Membership Fee — Similar to the lifetime membership fee, but the fee is assessed yearly.

• Ship Till Forbid — Often used with continuity programs, business services, or perishable products. This offers your customer the convenience of regular shipments and the option of canceling those shipments at any time.

Generating Inquiries

• Free Information — This is the ideal offer for identifying interested prospects for a sales staff, making two-step sales, creating a list, and initiating a first contact for a long-term relationship or sales cycle. You can offer a catalog, booklet, video, fact kit, checklist, etc., as long as it has value for the recipient. In all cases, offering free information should be more than just the distribution of literature. It should be the first step in a sales process.

• Samples — If you have a good product, it can sell itself if you can get a sample into a prospect’s hands. You can offer a sample free, or charge a nominal fee (which may encourage the prospect to actually try it, since they’ve invested in it, and then buy it).

• Free Gift for Inquiry — You offer a gift as a reward for requesting information about your product or service. As you might expect, this can boost the number of people who inquire but lower their quality.

• Sales Call — Your prospect asks for a sales person to call and set up an appointment. This produces high-quality leads, but lower overall response. Generally those who want to talk to a salesperson are ready to buy.

• Free “Survey of Your Needs” — You offer to analyze your prospect’s requirements with no obligation. Then you show how your product or service can fulfill those requirements. This is an attractive service and a low-threat way for your prospect to consider your product or service.

• Free Demonstration — This is especially good for equipment that is new or complex. You offer to bring the item to the prospect or invite the prospect to a particular location for a demonstration.

• Free Cost Estimate — For businesses who get bids or analyze costs carefully, this a good first step to get your foot in the door.

• Free Subscription — You offer a subscription to a newsletter, journal, or other company publication to educate prospects and build your database. There should be solid editorial, though, not just promotional puffery.

• Member-Get-a-Member — You give your customer a free gift for providing the name of someone else who may be interested in your wares. A good way to build your customer base.

Related posts:

1. How to write a powerful, response-boosting guarantee
2. 30 sales letter openers to kick start your sales pitch
3. Ask this one question to close more freelance sales

Good copywriting starts with thorough research. So ideally, you should be able to take as much time as you need to gather background information.

But in reality, copywriting is always done on a deadline. Too often, you barely have enough time to write about a product or service, let alone do extensive research.

The answer? A copywriting research checklist. Below is a generic checklist I’ve used for years. I’ve also developed others for specific industries or project types. You can use a checklist to collect information quickly or as a structured interview guide.

ALWAYS do as much research as you can BEFORE you brainstorm idea or write a single word. Not only will a checklist save you time on research, it can significantly reduce your writing time because you’ll have something relevant to write about.

1. DESCRIPTION. What is the product or service you want to sell?

2. PURPOSE. What does the product do? What’s the “big idea” behind it?

3. FEATURES. What do you know about it? Facts, statistics, specifications?

4. BENEFITS. What will it do for people? Does it solve a problem, save money, save time, make a task easier?

5. UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION. What is it about this product that is really different, new, better, unique?

6. COMPETITION. Can you describe similar products?

7. POSITIONING. How does this product fit into the market relative to competitors?

8. YOUR COMPANY. Does the company have a special history, unique owner, awards?

9. PRICE. How much does it cost?

10. SAMPLE. Can you look at it or try it for yourself?

11. PROSPECT. Male or female? Income level? Family situation? Lifestyle and general description? In business, what is his/her title/responsibility? Biggest concerns, fears, attitudes? How will he/she use your product to get ahead or to keep from falling behind? For consumers, what main interest/desire/action does it appeal to?

12. SECONDARY PROSPECTS. Who else might want this product?

13. OBJECTIONS. Why would someone NOT want this product?

14. TESTIMONIALS & ENDORSEMENTS. Letters from happy users? Media coverage? Celebrity endorsements?

15. COMPLAINTS. Letters from unhappy customers? Phone calls?

16. ASSIGNMENT. Print ad? Direct mail? E-mail? Brochure? Insert? Broadcast spot? Complete campaign?

17. OBJECTIVE. Inquiries or leads? Direct sales? Traffic building? List building?

18. OFFER. Free trial? Introductory price? Premium? Time limit? Free information?

19. CALL TO ACTION. How will you ask for the order?

20. BUDGET. How much can be spent on this promotion?

21. SCHEDULE. When does this need to be done?

22. LISTS/MEDIA. What have you used in the past? What worked and what didn’t? What statistics do you have?

23. SAMPLES OF PAST PROMOTIONS. Winners and losers?

24. TESTS. Will you test lists, offers, price, creative, etc.?

25. REQUIRED COPY POINTS. What information or legal copy must be included?

26. TABOOS. What can never be said or promised?

27. RESTRICTIONS. Are there parameters you must work within?

28. METHOD OF PAYMENT. Check? Credit card? Purchase order? Bill me later? Installments?

29. METHOD OF ORDERING. Mail? Phone? Fax? Online?

30. GUARANTEE. What are the exact terms of the guarantee?

31. OTHER. What else is important? Research and background material? Demographic studies? Focus group reports? Creative briefs?

32. BACKGROUND READING / PEOPLE TO TALK TO.

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