How To Commit Copywriting Suicide
Want to write the worst sales letter ever? Follow this advice and kill your copy before it even gets read.
1. Be informative without being persuasive.
Sales copies are supposed to sell. Sure, informing the reader is an important goal. However, you must never lose sight of the end goal. Persuade while you educate and you’ll be fine. Of course, for the fastest copy suicide, remove all traces of trying to sway your readers’ minds.
2. Be a wallflower.
Copy that doesn’t grab attention will not be read. The purpose of a title is to get readers to start perusing the introduction; the introduction’s purpose is to get readers interested enough to peek at the next sentence; that next sentence’s goal is to get the reader to read the one after it; and so on. You should be generating interest all the time. Unless you want your copy to die, that is.
3. Make claims without demonstrating them.
Every idiot can claim they’re the smartest man in the world. Whoever can demonstrate it, however, will be acknowledged by everyone as such. That’s the same with your copy. If you tell people how great something is, you have to demonstrate the proof. Back up your claims with logical reasoning, statistics, testimonials and other supporting proof. If you don’t, then your copy might as well drown in the toilet.
4. Try to sell to everyone.
Who are the prospects that your copy is trying to reach? If it tries to sell to everyone, it’s never gonna sell to anyone. It might as well kill itself and that’s the truth. The more specific the target is, the better it can communicate to the potential customer.
P.S. Make sure to never use a proofreading software to correct any part of your copy. Leave it as you drafted it – no easier way to die than that.