We live in the information age. And boy do we get blasted with information. It’s dumped on us by the truckload.

Three pounds of stuff in the mailbox a day. 507 TV channels to flip through to find the weather report. 623 email messages selling male enhancement pills.

And that’s only a fraction of the information that bombards us. There are billboards along the highway, news broadcasts on the radio, memos and telephone calls at the office, instruction manuals for office equipment that won’t work, family schedules to remember, bills, books, seminars, random conversations at lunch time, business meetings, it never ends.

I even feel it when I walk into the supermarket cereal aisle and have to choose from about 200 boxes screaming with bright colors and promises of low fat and high fiber, when all I want is lots of sugar and a cool little plastic prize wrapped in cellophane.

It makes my head hurt.

There’s just too much information to process these days. And when people feel overwhelmed, they react in ways that aren’t good for your copywriting.

Whatever your copy is about or whatever you’re selling, it boils down to information, usually in the form of words people have to read. But people will avoid reading when they feel overloaded, or they’ll filter out difficult information and look for information that is easier to understand, or they’ll simply misunderstand what you’re talking about and wont’ respond in the way you want.

Or, worst of all, they may just ignore your copy altogether.

You can’t alter the flow of information out there, but you can do some simple things in your writing to make the information you present clear, simple, and easy to understand.

Make clarity your #1 objective. You can’t communicate or persuade someone if that person doesn’t understand your point. Don’t write to show off or call attention to how smart or clever you are. Simplify your message. Make it easy to understand. Get to the point and say exactly what you mean to say.

Good writing is like a clean pane of glass in a storefront—you don’t notice the glass, but you can clearly see what you want on the other side. Take a look at my headline and first paragraph on this article. No fluff. I get right to the point and you know what this article is about instantly.

Decide what you want to say before you say it. Don’t just hope something sensible will reveal itself as you write your copy. Plan and outline. Think about the point you want to make. Determine the tone or emotional feel. Know where you’re headed before you start.

This helps you stay on point and avoid distracting ideas. It also helps you organize your copy so that it reads in a clear and logical way from beginning to end.

Organize your information visually. Don’t be one of those copywriters who thinks subheads, bold face, and bullets are just for designers. They’re really for visual organization.

Take this article, for example. I’m using 8 bold subheads because I have a list of separate tips about my main topic. If I were explaining a process, I would have probably used a numbered list. You can also use italics, block quotes, underlines, sidebars, and other techniques for emphasis and organization.

Link information with familiar ideas. If there’s any chance for misunderstanding, use a simple analogy that relates to something your reader is already familiar and comfortable with. For example, if you’re trying to explain how anti-virus software works, say it’s like a doctor that checks your computer for infections, and when it finds one, it quarantines the bug and makes your computer feel better. That’s accurate and easy to understand.

Inject emotional content. Ideas are easier to understand and remember when they are linked with emotional content or intense feelings. If you’re writing copy for a political group striving to change the American tax system, don’t just explain economic theory and reel off dry statistics. Talk about how the IRS takes money from our wallets, how the government makes us work two hours every day to support a bloated government, or how frustrating it is to fill out all those confusing forms every April. People process emotional ideas more easily than intellectual ones. Make people feel so they don’t have to think so hard.

Avoid making counterproductive associations. Clever analogies, puns, and wordplay might make you look bright, but they will sabotage clear communication. This goes for gratuitous graphics, effects, and images that are used because they are trendy or cool looking.

I once saw an advertisement with a photo of a clown handing papers to a guy sitting at a desk. The headline makes a pun about the boss being a clown. You have no idea the copy is really about office equipment until you read all the way through. It makes sense if you spend the time to figure it out, but most people won’t. Be clear, not clever.

Focus on one big idea. Don’t dump too many messages on your reader at once. Start with a simple idea. Then build and reinforce that one idea, adding information paragraph by paragraph, always linking back to that one big idea.

In this article, my big idea is information overload. Each point I make refers to that one point. Even if one point isn’t as clear as I’d like it to be, the reader will never be lost or feel overwhelmed because I’m really only talking about one simple idea.

Present your main idea at the beginning and end of your copy. People tend to remember what comes first and what comes last. Things in the middle are usually forgotten. If you have a list of product benefits, for example, put the best up front, but have a few good ones for the end, too.

Follow the rule for good public speaking: Tell ‘em what you’re going to say. Say it. Tell ‘em what you just said.

The supermarket can’t do much to overcome my feeling of information overload in the cereal aisle. And I’m pretty sure we’re all on our own with channel surfing and deleting email spam.

But if you apply these ideas to your copy, you can reduce the feeling of information overload for your readers. If your copy becomes an oasis of clarity and simplicity in this sea of confusing information we live in, people will actually want to spend more time reading and responding to what you have to say or sell.

Related posts:

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2. Rules schmules: 11 rebellious ways to electrify your copy
3. Why smart copywriters write about people

Writing sales copy can be challenging even when times are good. But when the economy hits the skids, writing copy that actually sells can be downright hard.

No worries. Barry Densa has some advice about this to make things a little easier.

***

There are, as you may have heard, 13 human motivators, or “hot buttons” that inevitably drive sales.

Employ any one, or two of them, in your marketing campaigns, with a deft and artistic touch, and you’ll easily deliver your customers to the precipice – the point at which he or she is presented with an all-important and consequential decision:

To buy … or not to buy.

Yet, use more than one, or at the most two hot button motivators in a single marketing campaign … and more than likely, you’ll lose the sale.

Just as a sentence should contain only one thought, lest in confuse and distract the reader, a sales promotion should appeal to one dominant motivator at a time.

So which one, or two motivators will work best in a recession?

First, let’s identify these 13 motivators.

In no particular order, they are:

1. Fear:
Fear of lost opportunities, or the loss of a possession. (Plus, millions of people just love it when they’re scared – why else Stephen King and Final Destination 5?)

2. Greed
The coveting of more … more … and more (And its still never enough)!

3. Vanity
Mirror, mirror on the wall … (Indeed, why mirrors at all)?

4. Lust
Sex sells. Dare to deny it.

5. Envy or Jealousy
It all began when we were little mini-me’s, and we pulled on mommy’s skirt and screamed: “I WANT ONE, TOO!”

6. Pride
Who doesn’t want to be valued and feel important … (And drive a BMW)?

7. Laziness
Why stand when you can sit; why sit when you can lie down; why work when someone else can work for you (otherwise known as outsourcing)?

8. Anger
You’ve been robbed! You’ve been cheated! And now you want REVENGE!

9. Strength
C’mon, do you know anyone who really wants to be weak?

10. Charity
The pleasure is in the giving (so they say).

11. Hope
Why else do we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune (Shakespeare). Because … after all, tomorrow is another day (Gone with the Wind).

12. Prejudice
We all have one or two. Because in some perverse way, it makes us feel better about our miserable, guilt-ridden selves.

13. Justice
The politically correct, socially acceptable and legal equivalent of revenge.

Ok, so which hot buttons work best in a recession?

Hold on, not so fast.

Along with these 13 motivators, we humans are also prey to 12 universal desires.

Indeed, at one time or another, regardless of our sex, age, race, political persuasion, or whether we watch CNN or FOX, we are all subject to these 12 desires – and some of us are subject to all of them all at the same time!

Again, a warning: Pander to more than one or two and you will muddle your marketing message.

Okay, these 12 desires are, in no particular order (and they need no explanation):

1. Money
2. Good looks
3. Comfort
4. Time
5. Praise
6. Popularity
7. Leisure
8. Self-confidence
9. Enjoyment or pleasure
10. Success
11. Health
12. Security in our old age

Now, which of these 12 desires appeal most strongly to consumers during a recession – when money is tight, the future is murky and an overall sense of anxiety and dread causes many a sleepless, frightful night?

Hmm. Well, truthfully, from where I stand, a recession won’t stop, inhibit or negate any of them!

They all belong to the basic human emotional and visceral food groups, regardless of whether Bernanke institutes QE3, or not.

Because they function in all climates – and in all economies – indeed, they will survive and thrive in the best of times and the worst of times (Dickens, sorta).

Therefore …

Great News!

If your product or service can successfully satisfy any of these 12 desires, your promotion could be squarely on the road to making you oodles of money – if you can combine it with a hot-button recession-proof motivator!

Important Caveat: The desire you choose to arouse and satisfy must be relevant to your product.

For example, if you sell car parts, security in old age or good looks might not be the best two desires to leverage.

But, if you sell pimple cream … good looks certainly works, as would popularity, praise, self-confidence, and, a case could even be made for health (after all, if you look good, you feel good).

Okay, now on to …

The motivators you should absolutely use in a recession …

Well, FEAR certainly works – but use it sparingly. For example, use it in the lead, to get the readers attention. After all, you don’t want to drone on and on about how terrible things are – they get enough of that watching the nightly news on TV.

What they really want, therefore, is HOPE!

Okay, so now we’ve got two motivators that go hand-in-hand: FEAR and HOPE.

Anything else?

ENVY or JEALOUSY works.

For example, your prospect grumbles to himself: “Gezus! How can Harry next door still take annual Hawaii vacations, when I can’t even afford to fill my gas tank?”

So, here comes your product to the rescue, allowing him to act like neighbor Harry, thereby restoring his PRIDE (and presumably filling his empty wallet and gas tank).

LUST, now that’s clearly a motivator for all seasons. Nothing will stop carnal desire, not rain, nor hail, not even old age (as long as your product has the horse power of a little blue pill).

GREED, on the other hand, wouldn’t work.

The average consumer isn’t looking for more – he’s looking to hold on to and protect what he’s got.

And for that same reason, CHARITY isn’t a big motivator in tough economic times either, unless …

Your customers are rich and philanthropic. And if they are, then GREED or CHARITY, and certainly VANITY can be used with wanton abandon!

What about ANGER? Absolutely!

Yes, play into the rage – the loss of privilege and comforts that a recession robs your customers of.

And by all means – pin the blame – join your customers in throwing rocks at the enemy!

Who is the enemy? Those whom your customers may have a PREJUDICE against – Wall Street, Congress, Obama, the Tea Party, your landlord, your boss who denied you a raise, the list could be endless!

After all, your customers want, indeed they demand JUSTICE!

But be smart and sensitive about it. Use good taste. Don’t blame the Jews, the blacks, the Mexicans, the poor, or even your mother-in-law (unless you’re fully capable of cooking and doing your own laundry).

And what about LAZINESS? Silly question – that’s another all season perennial!

For example, there are millions of overweight men and women who would eagerly pop a handful of pills rather than run 5 miles on the treadmill, much less deny themselves the pleasures of chocolate, ice cream and cake.

And if a pill, powder, or chair (which easily folds and stores in a closet), can miraculously turn their pot bellies into a rippling rack of 6-pack abs in 90 days or less – and – give them the STRENGTH to bend steel in their bare hands and leap tall buildings in a single bound (Superman) – it’s a no-brainer!

My, my, my, what have we just discovered here?

There are no one, or two, hot button motivators best suited for a recession!

Depending on who the customers are, what they value, what drives them and what they desire – there are exactly 13 motivators… and 12 desires … to choose from.

In which case … what recession? 2012 is going to be a great year!

Barry A. Densa is a freelance marketing and sales copywriter at Writing With Personality.

Related posts:

1. How to write the perfect sales letter
2. How to write snappy headlines that make sales
3. Hype copy that sells and how to write it

It was a busy Thursday morning. I had just finished answering about 50 emails when one more message landed in my inbox.

It was a from Donnie Bryant, who said he has just finished reading The Art of Zen Copywirting and offered me another take on the subject.

I liked it. And I think you will too.

***

Supercharged salespeople and marketers love to make reference to the movie Boiler Room.

You may have heard them use this quote from the film: “A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close?”

It sounds good. It’s motivational. And it’s false.

A customer doesn’t have to “close” a salesperson. He doesn’t have to “sell you a reason he can’t” or won’t buy from you. All he has to do is hang up the phone. Leave the store. Click away from the website (even while the autoplay video is still running).

The truth is, you can’t sell anything without selling. But that doesn’t change the fact that people hate to be sold. Copywriters have to be able to take a different approach. How can we sell without appearing to sell? Here are 4 practical ideas.

Storytelling

There is quite a bit of literature available on why telling stories is such a powerful vehicle for communication and influence. I probably don’t have to tell you how effective they can be in selling situations.

Without a doubt, the two copy projects which produced the most startling results for me were pure narrative.

Stories get past all the barriers that listeners and readers erect as soon as they hear a sales pitch coming in their direction. The oft-mentioned truth is that the human brain is hardwired for stories. In a presentation at a TED event this April, Amanda D’Annucci talked about how stories affect us psychologically and neurologically.

“Story,” she says ”is an influential tool which can mold the most obstinate of minds by means of appealing to an individual’s pathos (emotion) … We dream in narrative. Daydream in narrative.”

You can use storytelling in both your online and offline marketing materials. Rather than stating feature after feature, or even benefit after benefit, craft a story. How were those features invented? How have those benefits changed lives? What will your business look like after you use this service?

When done properly, stories allow the audience to draw their own conclusions, which is a far more persuasive than telling them what to think. Good stories get the listener involved, invested in the outcome, and even participating in the plot in their own mind.

Think of some ways you can add narrative elements into your marketing copy. As I noted above, I’m sure you’ve heard this stuff before. But have you acted on what you’ve learned? Do it today. The results could startle you, as they did me.

Testimonials

Customer testimonials are related to storytelling. But testimonials have an added dimension of realness.

It’s always better to have someone else shouting your praises than tooting your own horn. Other people who have been enthusiastically satisfied with your product are doing the selling for you. See the difference?

They’re the ones offering proof that your product is worth what it costs.

They’re the ones who ease the fear that new customers may have of getting burned.

They have no incentive to lie. They’re not getting a commission check. But they’re smiling anyway, talking about how their lives are better because of the product.

I spoke with a colleague last week about the subconscious effect of testimonials. He was testing up an email sign-up page where he replaced long salesy copy (with all the reasons you need to sign up NOW) with nearly 400 positive comments he’d received from his current subscribers.

No one is likely to read all 400 comments, but the fact that so many people have taken the time to tell this guy how great his content is powerful.

A trend that’s becoming increasingly popular is video testimonials. Video adds another level of credibility to testimonials. These are real people (a little harder to fake than written ones). The emotion is more visible, and it’s easier to imagine that the person raving about the product is just like you (which makes it all the more seductive).

Teaching

I’ve had some interesting conversations over the past few weeks about the topic of teaching. Is teaching selling?

In my opinion, education is among the most powerful selling tools in any arsenal. Not all teaching is selling. But done properly, there is no better selling technique than education.

At its core, real teaching is the selling of ideas. Great teachers obtain the exact response they’re trying to elicit: improved lives and altered courses of action.

By creating awareness of a problem and showing us how to fix it, teachers really can change the world. Learning a life-altering lesson creates more internal tension than any other kind of sales pitch. It must be acted on.

Purposeful teaching is selling at its best.

Demonstration

Giving stuff away doesn’t feel like selling to the recipient. But samples and free trials can be perfect bait to get people to try what you have to offer. After all, what do they have to lose?

When there’s no risk, potential customers can take a sneak peak at your product or service without fear. If you provide an amazing experience, there’s a very good likelihood that they will continue to hire you or buy from you.

A personal example: Gillette sent me a Mach 3 razor for my 18th birthday. It probably cost them less than $5, including shipping. I loved it, and now I’ve been buying replacement blades for over a decade. Sounds like a smart investment. Spending five bucks gained a lifetime customer. I’m sure there are thousands of others who responded the same way.

I didn’t feel “sold” or pressured. In fact, I remember saying that the razor was my favorite gift that year. There was no resistance on my part. There’s still not. I’m not out shopping for new shaving utensils. I know what I’m buying when I go to the store.

How can you use this same principle? Make sure to offer a product or service that people will find value in. If you disappoint them with your free trial, you will not get them to pay for the full service.

Donnie Bryant is a direct response copywriter, author, and speaker. Visit his website at donnie-bryant.com.

Related posts:

1. 7 defensive copywriting strategies to close the sale
2. How to sell by not selling: the secret of the cedar plank
3. 30 sales letter openers to kick start your sales pitch

In part 1 of this post, we considered what many copywriters might think is a radical idea: hard sell copy isn’t always the best option.

Why? Because it’s overused, it can destroy your credibility, and many copywriters just don’t feel comfortable being so aggressive.

We also looked at 4 basic principles behind the idea of a different, less in-your-face approach. Namely that people want to buy from you, you cannot force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do, selling does not require brilliant copy, and you must remove the barriers to buying.

If you’re clear on these preliminaries, let’s now get into the meat of Zen Copywriting and how you can make it work for you.

First, what can this “radical” sort of writing do for you?

The Benefits of Zen Copywriting

Going beyond the Behaviorist approach of hard sell and adopting a barrier-removal mindset presents a host of benefits for the smart copywriter:

• You see your audience as real, individual people, not just faceless targets.
• You start making a genuine effort to help people, rather than just sell stuff to them.
• You decrease your reliance on random copywriting techniques.
• You increase your chances of finding meaningful appeals that hit the real hot buttons.
• You reduce the “perceived risk” your potential customers feel about buying from you.
• You ensure more long term business by avoiding tricks and deceptive ploys.
• You develop a more realistic, practical approach to writing and selling.
• You have a better sense of when to follow copywriting rules, when to break them, and when to make up your own.

Overcoming The Barriers to Buying

The barriers to buying include everything that may stand in the way of your prospective customers responding positively — physical, emotional, intellectual, and financial. Your goal is to ask yourself questions about your copy to identify and remove every conceivable barrier so that absolutely nothing stops the sale.

The Identification Barrier
All of us have a certain image of ourselves which helps determine how we think and act. Does your copy make your prospect think, “Yes. A person like me would buy this” or maybe “I want to be like people who would buy this so I’ll buy it, too”?

Does your copy clearly target the prospect you’re aiming for? Do headlines get the attention of your particular prospect? Is your message interesting to your prospect? Does your copy have a distinct personality to which your prospect can relate?

The Clarity Barrier
Don’t expect to sell something to someone who doesn’t understand what you’re selling or the benefits of accepting your offer. Does your copy prevent clarity by calling attention to itself instead of focusing on the offer? Is your offer absolutely clear? Does your copy say what you really intend to say? Are all the details about your product or service fully understandable to your prospect? Is your copy easy to scan and easy to understand at a glance? Is it simple, straightforward, and to-the-point?

The Product Identity Barrier
Your product or service should have a distinct identity. Remove your product from your message and replace it with a competitor’s product. If your copy still makes sense, you have not established identity. Do you provide a “big idea” for your product or service? Can your prospect instantly grasp your “unique selling proposition”? Have you proven your superiority? Have you turned all your features into benefits that are meaningful to your prospect?

The Involvement Barrier
Have you given your prospect a choice to make? Do you encourage involvement with a quiz or checklist? Do you ask your prospect to complete something (like an order form) to accept your offer? Have you offered your prospect something of true personal value? Do you use audio, video, photos, illustrations, or animations to help activate the senses?

The Credibility Barrier
You may be truthful, but does your prospect actually believe you? You can’t argue a prospect into trusting you. You must remove all doubt with tangible displays of credibility. On what authority do you make your offer? Do you show how other people have used your product or service? Do you communicate your reputation without chest beating?

Can you show how there’s a trend for using your product? Do you provide testimonials from satisfied customers or experts? Have you featured your guarantee? Do you show who personally backs up the guarantee? Do you make clear any qualifications to your offer? Do you have teeny legal type that might arouse suspicion?

The Immediacy Barrier
Have you expressed why it’s so important to respond now rather than later? If your offer is really urgent, does your copy make it sound urgent? Do you tell people what you want them to do in clear, specific terms? Have you painted a “word picture” of how your prospect will immediately benefit by responding? Do you have a deadline? Have you talked about the scarcity of your product (only 100 remaining)? Instead of punishing those who order late, can you reward those who order early?

The Acceptability Barrier
Have you put yourself into the shoes of your prospects to consider whether your offer is really acceptable to them? Have you made an appeal to your prospect’s emotional needs? Do you also make an appeal to logic? Is your product, offer, and overall presentation “likable?” Does the idea of responding make your prospect feel good?

Have you made an effort to show how desirable your offer is? Does your offer allow prospects to feel that responding is consistent with their self-image, goals, and past actions? Do you give prospects the logical justification they need to make a purchase?

The Accessibility Barrier
Is there any physical barrier your prospect must overcome to respond? Is your order button easy to see? Does your web page load quickly? Is your site able to handle the traffic you expect to generate? Are you using popups, scripts, or animations that may cause problems with certain browsers? Are links obvious or do you confuse people with underlines that don’t link to anything? What can someone do if there’s a question about your offer or if something goes wrong?

With hard sell copywriting, you try to beat your prospective customers into submission with line after line of copy. With Zen Copywriting, you offer something of high-quality that people want and focus on making it so easy to buy, people can’t refuse.

Wearing a tie-dyed shirt while you’re writing your copy is optional.

Related posts:

1. The Art of Zen Copywriting – Part 1
2. Credible copywriting: Who ya’ gonna trust?
3. Sell anything with this universal copywriting formula

I originally wrote this 2-part post for Copyblogger. But I thought readers here may enjoy it as well.

If you’re like most copywriters, you truly want to help your clients (or help yourself) sell more products and services.

Your instinct will be to write the sort of hard sell copy you’ve seen so much of, because you will assume that’s what always works. But will it? Maybe. Maybe not. The trouble with hard sell is that it’s overused, it can destroy your credibility, and many copywriters just don’t feel comfortable being so aggressive.

So what do you do?

I’d like to show you a different approach to selling that turns conventional wisdom on its head, replacing hard sell with a less aggressive and more natural way to write copy. We’ll call it Zen Copywriting.

But first, let’s look at exactly why hard sell isn’t always the right answer.

The Limitations of Writing Hard Sell Copy

Most of the techniques for hard sell copy come from the world of “direct response” marketing, which is the business I work in. Often, this sort of selling can be highly aggressive. We want to “capture” the attention of our audience, “push” their hot buttons, and “force” them to act immediately.

It’s a good approach. It’s based on sound Behaviorist principles that do, in fact, work. We operate with the functional analogy that copy is a “sales person” speaking to prospective buyers. We want our sales person to coax, urge, persuade, and sell just like someone going door-to-door.

However, this is only an analogy, a way of thinking about what we do. It is not reality. Unlike face-to-face sales, words can’t force anybody to do anything. A car salesman can grab you by the lapel and sit you down in the vehicle he wants to sell. He can, to a certain extent, push you past many of your doubts and objections with an aggressive approach and make a sale. But written words can’t be that forceful.

In copywriting, there is a line beyond which the aggressive approach cannot take you. When you reach this limit, it’s time to think of a different analogy.

Zen Copywriting: The “Passive” Approach to Selling

Let’s reverse our typically aggressive thinking that casts us as the hunter and our prospects as the prey. Instead of thinking “I’m going to capture a sale,” think “I’m going to remove the barriers to buying and allow people to follow their natural inclination to make purchases from me.”

No, I’m not wearing a tie-dyed shirt and hugging trees here. I’m just talking about understanding the modern consumer and writing copy in a way that’s more natural and appealing to a wider segment of your audience.

Consider a few basic principles:

Principle #1: Your readers WANT to buy from you. We live in a highly evolved consumer culture. Shopping and buying is the modern equivalent for the hunting and gathering of our ancestors. People don’t just buy necessities, the majority of purchases today are discretionary. Luxury cars, smart phones, designer clothing, gourmet food, books and magazines for every interest. People are in a daily frenzy to purchase products of every kind, including yours.

Principle #2: You CANNOT force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. No matter how good your copy might be, it is not endowed with magic powers. For all the huffing and puffing we copywriting gurus do about persuasive communications, the reality is that you can’t force a sale with words. The best you can hope for is to capitalize on an existing need or want and turn it into a buying action.

Principle #3: Selling does not require brilliant copywriting. (Don’t tell my clients this. It will be our little secret.) Since people are natural consumers, we don’t need clever ideas to sell them our products and services. They are actively looking for things to buy, because they want to solve problems and better themselves. Yes, there’s a certain amount of want-making you can do, but you’ll find much more success if you offer items for which there is an established need or want.

Principle #4: You must remove the barriers to buying. If we agree that people naturally consume, that you can’t force a sale, and that clever copy is not a requirement, we must ask ourselves why prospects accept one offer and reject another. What is stopping the natural inclination to buy? What are the barriers to buying? All things being equal, isn’t it reasonable to conclude that if we identify and remove these barriers, our sales will increase? When we take away all the reasons prospects have to say, “No,” what can prospects do but say, “Yes?”

Are you starting to feel excited? Can you see the possibilities here? Stay tuned. In the second part of this post, we’ll look at the benefits of Zen Copywriting and see how to overcome the barriers to buying.

Related posts:

1. 7 defensive copywriting strategies to close the sale
2. 5 copywriting judo moves every copywriter should know
3. Convincing the gatekeeper: writing copy for the real decision maker

In marketing, people are always looking for the next new thing. New technology, new lists, new creative formats, and all sorts of new whiz-bang stuff.

But when it comes to copy, the old ideas are generally the best ideas. Why? Because selling is about communicating with people, and people are pretty much the same today as they ever were.

Oh, is that boring? Would you rather that I reveal some spectacular new copywriting discovery?

Well, too bad. Because for the most part, the stuff that worked a hundred years ago still works today. And a hundred years from now, it will be working just as well.

Buzzwords come and go, of course. The style of marketing copy is generally shorter and more to-the-point now.

But if you pick up an old magazine or catalog or look at a direct mail package from decades ago, you’ll see the same principles at work as you would in any of today’s efforts.

Here are a dozen of the most important:

Make your copy sell. In direct marketing, writing is not about words per se. It’s about selling. And the way to sell is to combine your communication skills with knowledge of psychology. As the eminent Herschell Gordon Lewis once said, “Psychology + Communication = Salesmanship.”

Sell as much or as little as needed. Ask yourself, “How much selling do I need for this audience? How familiar are people with this type of product or with this particular product?” If you are selling a familiar product with a common offer, such as a magazine with a free trial, you don’t need to push as hard as you might when selling a less familiar product with a less common offer.

Use a proven copy formula. There are as many copywriting formulas as there are copywriters, but they all boil down to the same ideas. You need to 1) Establish your objective, 2) Clarify the benefits to your prospect, 3) Show how the benefits will be delivered, 4) Prove your statements, 5) Add sweeteners and facilitators, and 6) Tell your prospect how to respond.

Use the imperative mode. Or as I call it, command language. That’s a fancy way of saying, “Tell people what to do.” On your envelope, say “Look inside” or “Open immediately.” In your letter, say “More” or “Read on” to bump readers to the next page. On the order form, say “Complete and mail within 14 days” or “Ask for your free issue today” to encourage quick response.

Focus on one clear, big benefit. This will simplify your message, select your audience, and differentiate your product from others. If you’re selling a computer design program, your big benefit might be that it can automatically translate any print design into a web page. There may be other benefits, such as low cost and speed of operation, but these would be secondary. Usually, your big benefit is the subject of your primary headline.

Make clarity your #1 goal. People do not interact with advertising the same way they do with game shows and sitcoms. They’re not looking for entertainment, they’re looking for relevance. “What’s in it for me? Why should I do this?” This is why you should strive to avoid clever verbiage and make your message clear and direct.

Make a strong offer. An offer should be more than simply presenting your product and mentioning the price. An offer is a deal you make, a special low price, an exclusive premium, the opportunity to try the item free for 30 days, etc. Your offer is the crux of every promotion, so you should make it as strong and appealing as possible.

Provide enough information for a decision. This includes product information, the offer, ordering instructions, guarantee, etc. If a decision will prove difficult for products that are expensive, complex, new, hard to explain, or that require a considerable commitment, you may need to use a softer offer (such as a free trial) or break the sales process into multiple steps.

Guarantee satisfaction. Because people cannot see or handle your product ahead of time, there is always the perceived risk of being disappointed or ripped off. A guarantee is not a legal throwaway. It’s a powerful benefit you should highlight.

Provide a good reason for immediate response. Studies show that people are more likely to respond to requests when a good reason is given. Is there a limited supply? A seasonal rush on the way? Can you sell only a limited number to each customer? Do you have to plan your production by a certain date?

Make it easy to order. Exclusivity and convenience are the two primary reasons people make transactions via mail order. So it is imperative that you make ordering as quick and effortless as possible. Make your offer easy to understand and complete. Give short, simple ordering instructions. Provide toll-free numbers, postage-paid envelopes, and the ability to respond by fax, e-mail, or over the Internet.

Use the word FREE. This may be the only word in the language that stands no chance of ever becoming a cliché. Always look for features, benefits, accessories, and premiums that can be offered for free. “Free” almost always generates more interest and response.

If you’re a smart copywriter, this isn’t boring stuff at all. In fact, it’s pretty exciting because knowing what works and what gets results is what it’s all about.

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Insurance policies everybody buys but nobody needs.

How to spot an honest auto mechanic.

Eight things to leave out of a job resume.

Where to find the best buys in a supermarket … positioned where you’re least likely to look!

Outwitting hotel thieves: The best places to hide valuables in your room.

You’ve probably seen teaser copy like this and thought to yourself, “That’s damn good copy. I wonder who wrote that?”

But if you ask someone, they’ll just shrug their shoulders. Even most copywriters have no idea.

His name was Mel Martin. And he’s been called the best copywriter nobody’s ever heard of. And for good reason.

Before his death in 1993, he worked for Marty Edelston, publisher and founder of Boardroom Reports, who kept Mel’s identity a secret for many years for fear of losing him to a competitor.

Mel perfected a form of teaser copy called “fascinations.”

The best way I can define a fascination is this: It’s a teaser that almost reveals a fascinating fact.

I fell in love with fascinations years ago when I began getting mail from Boardroom. I studied them and have used the technique in countless ads and direct mail pieces.

Click here to see the first page from one of Mel Martin’s letters. It’s the same one pictured above. This is from a direct mail package for Boardroom’s Bottom Line Personal newsletter.

Here are a few more fascinations from the same package:

How to get the lowest prices in the entire U.S. for any make of new car. (Deduct 10% – 20% from what you normally pay your local dealer.)

Why some patients are given favored status in hospitals … almost preferred treatment. This little-known information could save your life.

What you don’t have to tell an IRS auditor — and how to prevent a “fishing” expedition through your records.

Collect interest from two money market funds at the same time, on your same spare cash.

Health club routines that can ruin your back and knees.

The 10 best places to retire in the U.S. — everything is almost perfect: Climate … health-care … recreational and cultural facilities … etc. Best of all, they haven’t yet been “discovered,” which means property values are still reasonable.

What to read twice at real estate closing.

Instant tipoff that phone bill contains error.

There’s no formula for writing fascinations. Some are long. Some are short. Some seem poetic. Some are almost clunky. Some are grammatically perfect. Others bend or break the rules (such as the famous “Bills it’s okay to pay late” from one of Mel’s print ads) .

Yet they all dangle a bit of valuable, specific information just out of your reach. Fascinations are the ultimate teasers.

Info Marketing Blog maintains a small swipe file of some of Mel’s ads. I suggest you check it out.

Practice this technique and add it to your copywriting tool box.

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Did you ever get a catalog in the mail and want to read it cover-to-cover?

Most catalogs are pretty boring. And since I’m not the shopping type, most catalogs go right in the trash.

That is, unless my wife intercepts them. (I have to start sorting the mail in the garage before I come into the house.)

Anyway, I received a Duluth Trading Co. catalog the other day and I was hooked. I’ve seen the catalog before, but never took the time to browse.

The copywriting is superb.

I talked about Duluth Trading’s catalog copy on my business blog, but I’m so pumped about it, I wanted to turn my enthusiasm into a challenge.

Can you write engaging catalog copy like this?

Here’s just one scintillating sample from page 53 of the April 2011 edition:

Peaches O’Reilly’s Sunblock Hat

Peaches was our guide as we rushed down the Colorado River in the midday sun, wetting our pants in more ways than one. He wore a hat like this one, to protect his creamy Irish complexion. 100% nylon, it has an ultra-wide, 4″ brim for sun protection, and side vents on the crown to keep you cool as you sweat. Sweatband wicks away perspiration — nice when you’re in a precarious situation. Locking chinstrap keeps it on during fast descents and high winds. Why the nickname Peaches? He was from Georgia. Imported.

It’s a $20 hat. You could probably find something like this in a dozen other places, but would it be the same?

This copy tells a story, creates mystique, and imbues an ordinary product with extraordinary qualities that make you want to own it.

So here’s the challenge: I’ll give you a list of ordinary items and you have to write scintillating “Duluth” style copy.

Here’s the list:

• Swingline stapler
• Durango boots
• American pocket comb
• Lawnboy snowblower
• Henkel duct tape

Google an item. Find out what you can. Write your copy and weave your spell. Let’s see what you can come up with.

And if you want to share it, please do.

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I’ve always liked to do things the easy way. It just makes sense. Why make something complicated when you can get the results you want with less effort?

That’s the basic idea behind Donnie Bryant’s copywriting judo moves. Seek the path of least resistance for greater selling success.

***

If you’ve been involved in copywriting for any length of time, you’re painfully aware of how challenging it can be to grab the attention of your desired readers.

Once you succeed there, you still have an intimidating uphill climb ahead of you. It takes hard work to keep that attention, channel desire, and close the sale.

You may have heard it said that marketers and salespeople without a system for selling are at the mercy of the prospect’s system for not buying.

A million thoughts and emotions scream for attention. Distractions seem to pop up at least once a minute. Then there’s the ever-present resistance to “being sold.” Like I said, your copy has a tough uphill battle.

But what if you could leverage the mind’s strength against itself, much like a judo master redirects the force of an opponent?

Let’s briefly consider 5 points of psychological leverage you can use in your copy. Each can strengthen your persuasive power by causing forces already active in the mind to overcome its own resistance.

1. Self-Perception
The most important factor in the buying decision is how people categorize themselves. The way they think about themselves and their place in the world affects everything they do.

To a tremendous degree, they choose products, services, and brands because of how they tie into their perception of themselves. That applies to both how they see themselves now, and how they hope to see themselves in the future.

For example, how many millions of dollars does Nike make selling equipment to people who are athletes? How many more millions do they earn from those who dream of being athletes?

Find out how your customers identify themselves. Use the insights you gain from that research to make your business and your offers more relevant to customers.

Develop serious rapport instantly by connecting with who your prospects and customers really consider themselves to be.

2. Belief
Gary Bencivenga said, “Almost everyone in the world, in every field of human endeavor, is desperately searching for someone to believe in. Be that person, and you can write your own ticket.

“Belief is today’s most overlooked yet most powerful key to boosting response to any ad, in any medium. Harness it and you unleash the core atomic power for exploding response. Because the hunger for belief is so vast in every market, so deep-seated in human nature itself, you can tap into it again and again — infinitely — to make yourself and your clients rich.”

Actually be trustworthy. Then present yourself or client to your prospects and customers as an individual or business with integrity. Never abuse their trust. Never give the impression that you’d deceive them.

Finally, build whatever credibility you can, and exploit it to the fullest. Experience, education, endorsements, etc. They all make you more believable.

3. Mental/Emotional Momentum
We hear it said all the time, but you can never hear it too much: good copy, good advertising, good sales pitches all enter into the conversation that the audience already has going on inside their minds.

Hitch a ride on a train that’s already in motion. Grab onto a motivator your reader is already being driven by. The stronger the motivator, the better.

Which do you think is going to get better results: adding another voice to the noisy cafeteria of your customer’s mind, or talking with him about something he’s already thinking about, caring about, and ready to do something about?

4. Curiosity
Claude Hopkins mentions in Scientific Advertising that curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives. Once it’s been aroused, we can hardly sleep until we satisfy that curiosity.

How can you add curiosity to your business, product, or service? To your marketing message?

5. Likeability
People like to do business with people they like. I’m sure you know of instances where the only reason people continue to hire less-than-ideal service providers is that they have good relationships with them.

When customers like you, barriers are removed, doors are opened, and everyone feels good about the process.

Personality is of the utmost importance when attempting to be likeable in print. No one enjoys stuffy, emotionless, impersonal wording. Write until it sounds as if you were talking directly to one of your prospects. Be yourself. Don’t manufacture a personality. Sounding contrived can be worse than being boring.

Even great copywriters in hot markets convert less than minor league baseball players. In many cases, you’re getting legendary results if you can close 5 sales from 100 leads.

That’s why I encourage you to stop fighting against potential customers and simply use their mental and emotional momentum to get the results you want.

Kinda like judo …

Donnie Bryant is a direct response copywriter living in the metro Chicago area. He is author of the upcoming book, It’s Still Selling … Just Not the Way You’re Used to Seeing It. You can visit his website at http://donnie-bryant.com.

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It’s hard enough to write good copy in one language. Writing copy that works in two languages is at least twice as hard.

I’ll be honest … I have little facility in other languages.

I spoke a little German when I lived in Europe and stumbled through Spanish class in high school, but whatever communication skills I have exist only in English.

Whenever I’ve faced a situation where my copy had to be used in other languages, I’ve always turned the job over to specialists who could do it right.

Here are some of the most common mistakes you should avoid if you’re ever in a bilingual copywriting situation for the first time.

Mistake #1: Doing a simple translation. Let’s say you have a direct mail package that works for an English-speaking audience. Now you want to break into the Hispanic market with a bilingual package. So you figure all you have to do is hire a translator. Right? Not quite.

As an experiment, take a few paragraphs of English copy, paste it into an online translator, translate it into another language then back again. Not too good is it? That’s because language is more than words. Meaning, ideas, and cultural references often don’t translate well.

Just for giggles, I used Google Translate for a quick translation to Basque and back to English just as an example:

Don’t risk disappointment. Call today to get your free sample of this revolutionary 5-minute fish tank cleaner. No mess. No scrubbing. Your fish will love you for it.

Ez arriskua etsipena. Deialdia gaur zure hau 5 minutu iraultzaile arrain depositua garbiagoak lagin free lortzeko. Ez dago gaizki. No scrubbing. Zure arraina maite du jartzeko.

Do not risk disappointment. Today this call for your free sample of 5 minutes to achieve revolutionary fish tank cleaner. Not bad. No scrubbing. Your love to fish.

Mistake #2: Always writing in English first. This will be your first instinct if English is your native language. But sometimes it’s a good idea to start with the other language.

For example, some languages are more verbose. So if you start with 2,000 words in English, the version in the other language might be 2,500 or more words. It can be hard to cram that much extra copy into the same layout. By going in the other direction, you may end up with a more workable result.

Mistake #3: Making the same sales pitch in both languages. Never assume that everyone’s hot buttons are the same. Price might be the main motivator for people of one culture, while social status might be the main motivator in another. Once again, bilingual marketing isn’t about translation as much as it is about appealing to the sensibilities of two different audiences.

Mistake #4: Using culturally-base phrases and ideas. The advertising world is full of horror stories about how copy can go haywire in translation.

Pepsi’s upbeat slogan, “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated poorly in China, where it meant “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.” The Parker Pen company goofed when it tried to sell a ballpoint pen in Mexico with ads bragging, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” Unfortunately, the translation proclaimed, “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

Mistake #5: Going it alone. There’s just no way to market in another language if you’re not fluent in the language and don’t understand the culture. If you’re serious about bilingual marketing, you have to bring in people who understand both languages and cultures and have experience selling to each. There are no shortcuts.

Have I missed anything? Have you had any bad experiences with bilingual copywriting?

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