Words That Sell
Most Looked-Up Words Of 2012!
Since 2003 Merriam-Webster has been identifying the year’s most looked-up words on its website. Following capitalism and socialism, top 10 words of 2012 included touché, bigot, marriage, democracy, professionalism, globalization, malarkey, schadenfreude and meme. According to dictionary editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski these words show spikes of interest that often match with current events: news, weather, sports, or entertainment. Here are the words and their meaning:
- socialism (a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state ) and capitalism (economic system in which most of the means of production are privately owned, and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets.)
- touché (used to acknowledge a hit in fencing or the success or appropriateness of an argument, an accusation, or a witty point.)
- bigot (a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices)
- marriage (the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law)
- democracy (government by the people; especially : rule of the majority)
- professionalism (the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person)
- globalization (the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets)
- malarkey (insincere or foolish talk)
- schadenfreude (enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others)
- meme (an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture)
How to write a winning sales letter
“Tell me quick,
And tell me true;
Otherwise sir,
To hell with you.”
This old marketing axiom can help turn an otherwise mediocre sales letter into a winning sales letter with very little effort.
What it means is that your sales letter needs to get to the point quickly. A winning sales letter gets to the point at once; a losing sales letter is packed with meaningless adjectives, hyperbole and worn-out industry clichés. In other words FLUFF.
If your copywriting sales letters fail to produce incredible results then chances are you need to DE-FLUFF your copywriting.
I show you how below…
Read MoreThe art of connecting
Your copywriting must be in tune with the reader in order to attain his or her business. It all starts with a good headline…
Your headline is the ad for the ad. Studies show that 80 percent of the people won’t go past the headline. So your headline must be packed with words that sell. Select words that won’t be misunderstood or confused.
You should make it immediately clear WHY what you have to offer is of utmost importance to the reader.
Remember, people like to talk about what they are interested in or what they can connect with emotionally. The best way to do that is by beginning where they are. So, do you know where your readers are at right now? Here are some questions to help you find out…
Read MoreWant MORE SALES? Tweak your sales letter!
So you have a landing page or a copywriting sales letter that doesn’t convert traffic into sales. Or doesn’t convert well enough. Maybe you have written it yourself without any real understanding of how to write persuasive copy. You were short on cash, your business was just starting out and copywriting your own sales letter seemed like a great idea at the time.
Maybe you get good traffic, your bounce rate isn’t awfully high, and even the Adwords statistics look good and yet your sales…well, still suck!
Perhaps deep inside you feel that you have an excellent product but no one is buying it and you don’t know why. Before you give up, why not revisit your copywriting sales letter. Simply because chances are that your sales copy is letting you down.
Here are some ideas to help you improve your copywriting sales letter…
Read MoreWhy your copywriting doesn’t work (you might be surprised!)
There is an easier way to improve the effectiveness of your sales page or copywriting letter…but first you need an attention-grabbing headline and strong first few paragraphs in your copy for this to work. It’s a trick every good marketing copywriter knows and uses and one of the fastest ways to boost sales and conversions of your sales copy.
Your sales letter or copywriting piece needs to be more than just a sales pitch. It needs to inform, challenge and even SHOCK your readers. Simply because a bored reader will sooner or later click away from your sales page. Probably sooner.
That’s why you should share intriguing facts and information throughout your sales letter. You see, reading a sales letter needs to be like watching an action movie. You need to engage your reader and KEEP him on the edge of his seat with your copywriting piece. Here’s a question that should help you add punch, drama and suspense to your copywriting piece…
Read MoreSorry that we got caught
Rupert Murdoch sacrificed his best-selling 168-year-old paper, the News of the World, trying to ‘bury’ the phone hacking incident or maybe even incidents that shocked people worldwide.
It is believed that a murdered schoolgirl’s phone was hacked by the newspaper’s journalists. I guess they were looking for the most up-to-the-minute updates on a story that many people were frantically curious about. Apparently, they went further still by hacking into the voicemails of young murder victims and the grieving families of dead soldiers. Disgusting.
No doubt the 80-year-old media magnate would not approve of such illegal news-gathering practices. He made that clear. Publicly. More than once (it was expected).
A public apology was necessary. Probably not easy or convenient…but necessary. And, no doubt, Murdoch had his own copywriters working their magic to produce an apology letter. Question…
Was it perceived by the public as genuine?
Well, you can read it here and see for yourself…
(including the ‘unofficial’ apology you didn’t see!)
Read MoreGive your clients some ‘eye-relief’ …
Here’s a simple way to improve your sales letter conversions… simply spruce up your subheads. It goes without saying that the reason why many people don’t buy from you is because they lose interest and stop reading the sales letter half way through. They click away. Now a good subhead can make people stay on your sales page a little while longer…
In case you’re wondering, subheads are those bolded and oversized sentences you use to break up large blocks of text. Copywriting master Clayton Makepeace explains why you should use them:
“To give the prospect “eye-relief,” because reading large blocks of text without a subhead can be intimidating and straining.”
The problem is that your online clients are impatient with anything they can’t skim. So, many will want to skim right through your copywriting and if nothing hooks their attention then they will probably miss your biggest arguments and maybe even skip your offer. Intriguing and benefit-laden subheads are like little stop signs that will keep more people interested in reading on… and hopefully making a purchase.
Read MoreWhen silence is not an option
Sometimes the unexpected happens. Your mother-in-law shows up announced. A crawling baby decides to puke on your left shoe. Your scheduled flight gets cancelled…
The last one happened to me on my recent trip to Sydney. ‘It’s not our fault,’ mumbled the check out girl. Maybe she was right. After all planes can’t take off if things are not kosher in the air. And the weather was foggy and rotten. So, I waited… and waited… and waited.
Several hours later I was boarding the plane. Others weren’t so lucky. Their flights got cancelled. Among them teenagers, backpackers, families and the elderly. Some looked disappointed, others angry, and rightly so. If your flight was ever delayed or cancelled then you can imagine the frustration.
Somehow I couldn’t erase that ‘not our fault’ cop-out made by someone who should know better… Technically, it wasn’t their fault. Of course, a single emergency might tick off a few people but a string of incidents and flight cancellations can put the entire airline’s reputation on the line. What would you do if you were CEO of some large airline that has failed to deliver not once, twice but for up to a week?
Most importantly, how should you deal with situations where you fail to deliver on your promise, utterly disappoint or even upset your customers?
Read MoreHammer the competition… not your thumb!
A hammer is a hammer, right? Well, apparently there are dozens of hammers… For example, a nail hammer is great for light household chores and nail pulling. If you want more control when hammering large nails into lumber then a waffled-face hammer is a better choice. If you want to rip apart wooden fruit boxes then a milled face framing hammer should help you get the job done while reducing the effect of flying nails.
Ahem, is this a copywriting blog? NOPE. It’s Australia’s #1 Copywriting Blog! So WHY am I talking about some hammers, right?!?! Okay, hold on as there is an *IMPORTANT* marketing lesson for you here and I will bring it all down for you…
Now listen to this… You can use a small hammer to drive small nails and tacks and a sledgehammer to break up concrete. There are also straight-peen hammers, cross-peen hammers, claw hammers, lead hammers, rawhide hammers, club hammers, soft-faced hammers, roofing hammers, sheet-metal hammers, drywall hammers and a handful of other hammers that you and I probably don’t even need to know about!
Have you heard about the sore-thumb hammer? I have one of those! It’s the one that hits your poor thumb when you miss a nail. I missed several nails recently when wife decided to hang some pictures in the hallway.
But, seriously… What does that have to do with your business or website? Probably more than you think…
Read MoreHow to cut through the inbox clutter
Subject lines don’t need to be fancy or clever. They just need to be descriptive and enticing enough so qualified prospects want to open and read the email. Many business owners and marketers are too concerned with trying to stand out in the inbox that they often forget this fundamental truth…
“if you want your emails to get opened then you need to keep your subject lines simple and to the point.”
Others worry about words that trigger spam filters. Of course, they are important, but… Say your emails manage to get past those ruthless and unforgiving spam filters without causing any riots. Mission accomplished? Hardly.
It’s a good start but your ultimate objective is to get those emails opened. Certain words don’t trigger spam filters but they negatively affect your open rates. Why? I have no idea. But, a study which analysed the open rates for over 200 million emails proved that apparently those words exist.
In this study, open rates ranged from an amazing 93% to a dismal 0.5%. Imagine 93 emails getting opened for every 100 emails that you send out! Would that make you excited?
Read More