MarketingForSuccess is growing fast. We never got the message that the recession was supposed to hurt our sales, so we’ve been busy growing instead.

Our sales are up a lot and I’m looking for one or two copywriters to handle the increased workload.

Are you a freelance copywriter?
Are you a student of marketing?
Do you love reading about and discovering new marketing ideas?

If you yes to all three, please keep reading.

I’m looking for a couple of copywriters. Use this link to apply >>

Thanks for your interest,

Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

“I have been reading your newsletter and very impressed with the knowledge you have about marketing. Your letters grab attention as well as provide substance.

My question is about email sales letter. How important is the writing of that sales letter? I’m surprised to see the big price range for copywriters. Is it true that one writer can have 50 percent more value over others, when they basically talk about the same thing? If there is indeed that much of difference, how would one tell, the good from the bad, the super good from the ordinary ones?” - Felicia

What’s the difference between good marketing copy and copy that kills sales?

Want to know which words sell? Use this link >>

A good copywriter can use the right words to grab your prospects’ attention and give them enough substance to keep them reading. Whether it’s your web page, a sales brochure or your email, you want the marketing copy to work to capture your prospects’ interest, engage their imaginations and get them thinking about how much better off they’d be with the solution you offer.

Most marketing copy is so boring prospects won’t read it and you don’t keep their attention and you lose the sale. Good copywriters can charge more, a lot more because their copy can generate 2 to 10 as many sales.

How should you pick a marketing copywriter to help you grow your business?

Find one who can give you proof! Any good copywriter should have examples of sales letters or emails he or she has written and testimonials from clients who can back up his or her claims.

If it’s results you want, don’t hire anyone who can’t demonstrate that they can help you get the business results you’re after.

Poor copy will not only not get any results but will turn off your prospects and can kill potential future sales.

Which words sell? Use this link >>

Good copy can send your sales through the roof. I have one client who happily pays her copywriter $500 to write their weekly email because the cost is a pittance relative to all the sales it generates.

- Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Sells

The web makes it easy for unscrupulous people to steal your content on the web its true but this same easy of access makes it easy to find people who do this. Take what happened today.

This morning I got a call from someone I’d never heard of. It turns out they had paid someone to write some marketing copy for them. When it was delivered they liked it so much they took notice. They noticed it was written in a different style and became curious. They’re curiosity inspired them to “Google” some of the copy.

What did they find? They found that the copy that they had just paid someone else to write had been stolen verbatim from this site and their copywriter and substitued her name. Being honest clients, they called me to let me know this “marketing communications” firm not only was selling my copy as their own, they were using it as their own on their web site.

A couple of emails and a phone call later and the president of the guilty firm, apologized, removed the stolen copy and promised to cease and desist from using my work illegaly.

It’s true it may be easy to steal marketing copy on the web, but it’s just as easy to find the theives. Of course its simplier to just ask for permission, provide attribution or hire a good copywriter to start with.
- Charlie Cook

“I want to get more traffic to my web site, generate more leads and increase sales. If I sign up with you can you do it?” - J. Bollard

Creating a web site that sells is like building a spec house. You need an architect to create the plan, a contractor to build it and a realtor to market it.

In the case of your web site, I can work with you to develop the plan and the marketing copy for the site. Next you’ll need your web site designer to follow the plan and put the plan and copy in place. If you don’t have a web designer, I can recommend a few I’ve worked with.

Once your site is built to spec, you’ll need to market it to the search engines, sign up for pay-per-click advertizing and use your articles to pull in traffic. I don’t do these tasks for any site except my own, but can refer you to a reputable firm.

In summary the three steps to creating a web site that sells are:
1. Plan & Write
2. Build
3. Attract Traffic

Discover how to improve your web marketing and increase your web sales with Creating Web Sites that Sell
.
- Charlie Cook

Your surfing the web, looking for information to help you solve a problem. With a seemingly infinite number of sites to pick from your task is simple. You want to to scan sites as quickly as possible to determine whether they have the information, product or service that can help you. You want to minimize the amount of time you spend on each site and click on to the next web site until you find one that gets your full attention.

Your prospects do the same thing when they are searching for information online. If they can’t instantly see that you can help them solve their problem or have what they need, they’ll be gone to your competitors’ sites.

You’ve got just a second or two to grab their attention, to let them know you can help them.

What do you do when you come to a web site that leads with the company name, a welcome message or worse yet is titled “home page”? Do you spend the time looking down the page to find the information you want or do you skip to another web site that leads with a headline that specifically identifies your concern and promises the solution you are looking for.

If you want more prospects to stop at your web site you need to make it stand out from the crowd with your marketing message You need to discover how to use the copy and the web design to prompt prospects to contact you.
- Charlie Cook

If you have a headline or an add that pulls in prospects like a magnet, think about other ways to use it to bring in even more business.

Earlier this summer I wrote a 35 word newspaper ad for a client. The first week it ran their phone started ringing with interested prospects. Based on the success of the ad the client’s secretary took the lead copy and printed it on the back of their envelopes and sent out their monthly invoices. Days later the phone started ringing like crazy with even more work.

Have marketing copy that works? Use it again and again to attract more clients and increase your sales. Or if you need marketing copy to get your phone ringing off the hook, contact Charlie Cook at 1-800-795-1858.
- Charlie Cook

During a vacation to Scotland this past week I noticed the following front page news,

“Revealed: The True Cost of Potholes”

Yes, revealed is a great word to use in your headlines. Unfortunately you’ll need to do more to get attention for your small busines than include the word revealed. Unlike the above headline you’ll want to include copy that motivates your prospects to read your marketing copy and to contact you.
- Charlie Cook

Ever run an ad or a send out a mailing and get hardly any response? I get calls daily from people who believe advertising can help their business generate leads and sales. What happens when they spend money on advertising? Too often, a whole lot of nothing.

Is advertising a waste of money?

I’m a skeptic about most things so when clients ask me to write ads for them I always wonder, will it work? I don’t want to embarass myself by charging big money to write them an ad and then have it flop. So last month when a client called and wanted me to write a 35 word newspapaer ad for their property management business, I was skeptical. Their current ad wasn’t generating a single response and I wasn’t sure if their target market was paying any attention.

I’d never written a marketing piece for a residential property management firm and didn’t want to embarass myself. I bit the bullet and wrote the best 35 words I could come up with.

Did it work?

The only way to know whether an ad is any good, is to test it or at a minimum quantify the results. Three weeks after the ad began running in a couple of local papers I called my client for the good or bad news. I hadn’t heard a word from him since I’d delivered the ad copy so I was curious and concerned.

What news did my client have about the ad’s performance. In the first three weeks it had brought in a flood of inquiries resulting in nine new clients and $180,000 of additional revenue for the year. He been so busy handling the new business he hadn’t had a chance to call.

Now with those type of results its hard to be a skeptic about advertising!

Looking to bring in more clients and revenue with your marketing and your marketing copy? Give me a call at 1-800-795-1858. - Charlie Cook

When a prospect visits your web site you have 3-5 seconds at most to get their attention. What are the most common reasons web sites fail to do this?

1. Barriers to viewing. I love movies, colorful logos and pictures as much as the next person but its information that your prospects want. Research shows 80% of people find Flash movies annoying and will just go elsewhere instead of waiting it out. Other design elements may not be as much of a hurdle to your readers, but you’ve only got a couple of seconds to help your prospects understand why they should view your site. Make the most of it to focus their attention where you want it.

2. The over use of your company name, logo and generic taglines. The object of your site is to get the attention of prospects who don’t already know and trust you, people whose biggest concern is if and how you can help them. Give them a headline which explains what you do and why they shoud contact you.

3. Marketing copy written by your webmaster or the people on your staff who developed the products and services. Webmasters are expert programmers but in most cases writing compelling marketing copy is not one of their skill sets. If you had the people who developed your company’s products and services write your marketing copy, you may have found someone who can write in easy to read English but my experience is they don’t write for the people you want to attract. As a company insider it is hard to realize how little your prospects know and most company authored marketing materials tend to bury the content that should be in the foreground for your prospects.

4. The absence of enough reasons to act. If you want your prospects to read your copy, to trust you, to call you or order from you they need reasons to do so. Don’t assume your prospects will figure out that by calling you they’ll learn more. Tell them how they will benefit from each action you want them to take.

Discover how to avoid these common web marketing mistakes and instead use your web site to increase sales with Creating Web Sites that Sell or if you’re too busy to learn another skill set ask Charlie to show you how to write and structure your web site or have him write the copy for you so you can focus on processing more sales.
- Charlie Cook

Want to see what your prospects see when they scan your ad or your web site’s homepage in 3-5 seconds in order to determine whether they are going to read the rest of it?

Before you launch an ad campaign pin your ad to the wall and step back, fifteen feet or so until you can barely read the words in the largest type. In the case of your web site moving back seven feet from your screen should suffice.

Which words do you see?

Do you see copy that appeals to what your prospect is looking for?

If you look at most small business web sites or ads, you’ll see the company name as the easiest to read item and then a phrase like “our top three priorities” or “we’re a …. company based in …”.

Most companies lose their prospects in the first 3-5 seconds with their ads and their web sites. Don’t make this small business marketing mistake!

Use your marketing copy, your headline and the words that appear below it to grab your prospect’s attention, get them to understand why they need your products and services and to contact you. Find out how to write a marketing message that gets results or use a business marketing expert to write your marketing copy for you so that your ads and your web site do what you want them to, help you grow your business.