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Email: kt@copywritingcourse.com Copywriting Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
by Karon Thackston © 2004
http://www.copywritingcourse.com
I
was in shock. Honestly, I shook my head when I read his email. I meant no
disrespect; I just couldn't believe he really felt
that way.
"Karon, I
want you to write the sales letter for my site. How
much will it cost me?"
read his note. After looking at his home
page and evaluating his target
audience, I didn't feel a sales
letter would be the best type of copy for his
site. When I sent
him my suggestion he replied with something along the
lines of,
"No sales letter? What other kind of copy is there?"
Was he
a fan of sales letters? No, not especially. Did his
question come with a
sarcastic tone? No, it was a genuine
question. A lot of what he had been
exposed to online was sales letters. So much so that he thought this was the
*only* type of copy to have on a website. That's what all the "gurus"
were telling him, so it must be true. Even though he had been
to
countless sites that did not have sales letters, he never
realized the
differences.
I pointed him to several sites that had a wide range of copy
to
show him some of the other styles.
Catalog Copy - (one of my
favorite types to write!)
http://www.gortonsfreshseafood.com
Long
Sales Copy - http://www.copywritingcourse.com
Short
Sales Copy - http://www.landmarkcreations.com
Brochure
Copy - http://www.toyota.com
Shopping
Cart Copy - http://www.amazon.com (works
especially well for books)
Of course, these are just a few. What was
his response? "Now I feel stupid! Of course, there are several types of
copy. I don't know why I thought I had to have one particular kind for
my site."
From there we worked together to better understand his
audience and create copy that would appeal to them.
Copywriting is not
one-size-fits-all. I'm not saying sales letters don't work. Like every
other type of copy, they do, given the right environment and the right
product/service. What I am saying is you shouldn't box yourself in by
assuming you *have* to have a particular type of copy. Just because one
style
of writing works well with someone else's site doesn't mean it
is right for yours. Just because another person is selling a similar
product or service doesn't mean you have the same audience. therefore it
doesn't mean you should use the same type of copy.
In fact, there may
be several different types of copy that work
equally well for your
site/customer. After all, diversity is part of advertising. Take the time
to investigate your product, service, and customer then research copywriting
styles. When you
do, you'll likely discover that you have several options.
Test
those options in order to find the one that pulls the best response.
*That's* the type of copy that works best for your
site.
Copy not
getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your
visitors at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com.
Be sure to check out Karon's latest e-report "How To Increase Keyword
Saturation (WithoutDestroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.
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