The Secrets of Great Selling Copy
The Secrets of Great Selling Copy
The Secrets of Great Selling Copy
I was at a public speaking meeting the other morning. At these meetings everyone gives a 60-second elevator speech, and one lucky member of the group gets a full 10 minutes to promote their business.
Here's how Dave, the proprietor of a decorating business, went about his presentation.
I'd already noticed Dave in a room full of suits because he was dressed in spotless, navy blue overalls. He stood up and plonked his canvas workbag on the table in front of him. It was as though he'd just arrived at the front door. "Morning", he said, and he went straight into his pitch.
He unzipped his bag, rummaged about, and magician-like he produced a flat stick, about three feet long and three inches wide. He held the stick in both hands, running his palm along its smooth finish as he described some of the decorating jobs he'd worked on recently.
He'd painted the interior of a Victorian terrace (complete with awkward-to-reach cornices), primed and coated a matching pair of solid iron Edwardian garden seats, glossed an entire conversion flat, and even found time to varnish the floor space in a converted warehouse apartment!
Next he took us through the typical stages of a decorating job: sanding down the surfaces, applying undercoat, primer, gloss or emulsion. You could almost smell the paint and feel the shiny varnish beneath your fingers!
As he was speaking, he passed around the stick he'd been holding. He explained how it was divided up into three-inch sections, each one an example of the stages he went through to prepare, treat and coat the surface he was working on.
When the stick finally got to me, I couldn't wait to have a look! He was right: smooth brushwork, and not a kink in the surface.
Dave told us about his son who worked with him. He said he wouldn't let him work on his own until he'd completed his four-year apprenticeship. His work diary was full, he said, even at this time of year when half the city's on holiday! After fielding questions, he sat down with a round of applause ringing in his ears.
What's all this got to do with copywriting? In a word, it's salesmanship. 100 years ago, John E. Kennedy, a famous U.S. copywriter, dubbed advertising as "salesmanship in print" and the saying still holds true today. Great ads do what great sales people do.
Here's what Dave did:
He got my attention and my curiosity going by looking different.
He gave me a glimpse of how good my flat could look!
He showed me how he did it, with passion and imagination.
He proved to me that he cared about quality.
He made it seem very easy for me to take the next step (even if I would have to hurry).
Cast a critical eye over your next marketing communications. Run them through the litmus test. Do they grab your attention? Do you want to read on? Are you filled with a desire to know more? Ready to act? If the writer's talking to you, you should be. Take it from Dave.
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