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Every copywriter should know how to write a guarantee. It’s a powerful marketing tool.
A solid guarantee provides tangible proof that a business is reputable and helps lower the perceived risk prospects feel when considering the offer. It boosts response to nearly any sales message.
You can even use a guarantee in fundraising to assure that funds are used as promised. Don’t be afraid of a guarantee — ever. It will almost certainly create more profit than will be lost through the few people who take advantage of it.
Here are the basics of writing a guarantee
If there’s anything like a guarantee template, it’s this:
We provide the finest widgets in the world. If you are not fully satisfied, for any reason, just return your widget within 60 days for a full refund of your purchase price.
You can be more personal. Or stronger. Just keep it short and sweet and readable at a glance.
How to write engaging newsletter articles in 7 easy steps
When I recently asked for guest post submissions, I had no idea what I’d get. Well, what I got was nothing short of amazing.
It appears that I have some incredibly smart readers with plenty of know-how to share.
So I’m delighted to introduce my very first guest blog post, written by Sally Bagshaw, a writer and editor extraordinaire from the land down under (Brisbane, Australia).
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Corporate newsletters are an important tool to communicate with employees, clients, prospects, or suppliers. But like blogging, newsletters can become a victim of not enough time, not enough material to work from, or not enough inspiration.
What starts out as a regular, engaging and proactive tool slowly degrades into a half-baked email sent out once every blue moon. Subscribers slip away, employees disengage, and an important communication opportunity vanishes.
So what do you do? How do you come up with and write newsletter articles that are interesting?
How to write a 30-second TV commercial script
Every copywriter longs for the opportunity to write a TV commercial. But the type of commercial you’ll end up writing isn’t what you think it will be.
Unless you work at an ad agency or video production house, you’re not going to come anywhere close to writing a script for the next NIKE commercial.
You might get the opportunity to write a direct response or DRTV commercial. But you’re more likely to write spots for shoe stores, neighborhood banks, used car dealers, furniture outlets, fruit markets, and other local businesses.
Not too impressive, I know, but there’s a ton of small businesses who need these kind of TV spots. And someone has to write the scripts. Right?
How to write an advertorial to sell a product
Click picture to see advertorial sample.
If there’s any copywriting project that creates confusion for many of today’s new copywriters, it’s writing an advertorial.
Unlike most advertisements, the advertorial demands a different tone and a certain restraint in how copy is written. It must be less promotional and more “newsy.”
But let’s start at the beginning. What is an advertorial?
Here’s how Wikipedia defines advertorial …
An advertorial is an advertisement written in the form of an objective article, and presented in a printed publication—usually designed to look like a legitimate and independent news story. The term “advertorial” is a portmanteau of “advertisement” and “editorial.” Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946.
In other words, an advertorial is an ad written to look and sound like editorial matter. With the typical advertisement, you want the ad to jump off the page. But with an advertorial, you want the ad to blend in, as if it’s just another article in the publication.
How to write a fundraising letter for Sister Catherine
Imagine a local school asks you to write a fundraising letter to raise money for a new library.
You sit down at your computer and start typing.
They laughed when I suggested a new library, but when the kids started to read …
Dear Parent,
It hit me like a bolt of lightning!
The kids at St. Mary’s Middle School don’t read. For years, no one could figure out why. But now, a new breakthrough scientific study has revealed the shocking answer. NO LIBRARY!
That’s right. How can kids read if they have no books?
I ran into the same situation at my former school and after years of hand-wringing, trying every reading program under the sun, we experimented with a simple, book-lined library. And it worked!
Instantly, kids started to check out books and read them. The results were astonishing. And now you can get the same breathtaking results at St. Mary’s. With no risk or obligation.
How to write a mission statement to guide and inspire
Let me start off by saying that I’m not a poofy, hand-holding, kumbaya kind of copywriting guy. I’m more of the roll-up your sleeves and get down to business kind of copywriting guy.
So I have a love / hate relationship with mission statements. Too often they’re an exercise in overinflated ego and empty rhetoric. (The photo is a tongue-in-cheek reference to “the vision thing” that leads some companies to write a fuzzy, self-indulgent mission statement.)
However, it is important for an organization to have a mission and that mission should be expressed in a well-written mission statement. It’s the corporate version of an elevator pitch.
Recently while writing a mission statement for one of my clients, I realized how hard it can be to express in just a few words the whole of an organization’s purpose for being. But in my usual, step-by-step approach to projects, I came up with a set of rules for how a mission statement should be written to make it useful.
It’s important to understand that a mission statement must guide and inspire. It’s a verbal road map that shows where an organization is and where it’s headed. It describes why an organization exists, what principles it adheres to, and what it strives to accomplish.
In other words, it defines the philosophy, mores, and goals of the organization. Generally, there’s a somewhat lofty tone that lifts the mission statement above the task-oriented language of most marketing. However, as I’ve already pointed out, this can easily spiral out of control and become empty rhetoric. So be careful.
Here are 4 tips for writing a good mission statement.
How to write the perfect sales letter
The hot copywriting projects today are sales pages, email messages, auto responders, blogs, and all manner of online marketing.
But the good old-fashioned sales letter still works and its techniques are required for many online and offline marketing messages.
I fear that thousands of young copywriters now growing up in the Internet age are trying to learn how to write copy without ever learning how to write a sales letter.
Smart copywriters know better, of course. Trying to write copy without knowing how to write a sales letter is like trying to bake a cake without knowing how to turn on the oven.
How to write a direct response TV commercial that sells
Unless you specialize in television advertising, you’re not too likely to get a copywriting assignment to write a TV commercial.
But you never know.
I have a background in TV and radio, so I occasionally write for these advertising media, but not as often as I would like. However, when the opportunity arises, I need to know how to handle it. And you do too.
First, watch this classic TV commercial for Ginsu Knives and pay attention to how it is structured. This is the granddaddy of all modern direct response TV (or DRTV) ads. Even though it looks dated, today’s commercials work pretty much the same.
Read more
How to write a postcard for maximum response
In today’s down economy, more and more businesses are turning to postcards to advertise their products and services.
Postcards are cheap, versatile, effective, and easy to produce. Plus, you can get them in the mail fast and get results in just days.
The postcard shown here is an example. Click it to see both front and back as a pdf. This is a postcard I created for one of my clients a couple years ago to generate leads for a product. And it’s a prime example of how to make a postcard work.
Some copywriters have trouble with postcards because they don’t understand the format. Is it an ad you mail? Is it a small self-mailer? Is it like a billboard? Or is it merely support for other campaigns?
Here’s what I’ve learned:
How to write a radio ad that generates calls or traffic
As a copywriter, you may not often get the chance to write radio ads. Usually, the client or the radio production house will write the script.
But occasionally, someone will ask, “Oh, by the way. Can you write radio ad copy?” Naturally, you’ll want to say “Yes.”
In the back of your mind you’ll wonder if you can do it. It seems simple enough. But if all you’ve ever written is print ads, radio advertising will feel like foreign territory.
So let’s talk about radio ads and how to write a basic radio script. We’ll listen to one of my own completed radio ads as an example.
