Any trained monkey can type a profit producing sales message

by Andre Bell

Published on this site: February 6th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

...if you believe that, I've got ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you!

Skill, intuition, experience, and knowledge are necessary to write a cash-producing sales message.

Don't leave your next promotion to chance.

(I'm about to shoot myself in the foot by committing the number one mistake all copywriters know never to make)

To be successful at any sales pitch you must first align your message with the preconceived beliefs of your target market. Otherwise you risk alienating them.

Well, I'm about to take that risk right now by telling you something you may not agree with...

If you believe that anyone can write a strong, cash-producing sales letter or marketing campaign without any kind of training, you are making the same mistake others make when they say a trained monkey can do the same.

A monkey, a dog, a cat, not a bird or any other animal can write a sales message that will make money. How could they when they don't know what elements to include to guarantee success?

A strong sales letter must:

• communicate benefits
  
• persuasively communicate your offer
  
• compellingly explain your guarantee
  
• strengthen your USP
  
• speak believable testimonials
  
• position you and your company as credible
  
• create an irresistible order device
  
• capture and maintain attention with a strong headline
  
• use 'cliff hangers' to keep your audience glued to your message
  
• determine the best voice for your offer and market

Then there's the questions of:

• Should you use an under dog tone, authoritative tone, or a layman's tone?
  
• What psychological persuasion strategies do you use to align yourself to your audience?
  
• How do you make them "hurt" so that they want what you are selling more than the money it costs?

Then comes the structure of your marketing materials...

• Do you use a sales letter format, editorial layout, magalog, traditional web page layout, catalog format, envelope copy, lift notes, SASE, BRPE?
  
• What type of postage produces the best response and profits for your offer? First class? Bulk? Presorted?
  
• How should you properly format your headline to maintain flow? How do you format your subheads, prehead, and other elements to keep attention and interest high?

And once you've decided that, then you must determine:

• Should you use graphics?
  
• Should you omit graphics?
  
• Is the space used for graphics better put to use by filling the space with content instead?
  
• Where do you place the graphics if your offer will not sell without graphics?
  
• How do you properly format bullet points?
  
• What color ink sell best?
  
• What color paper sells best?
  
• What weight of paper sells best? And so on.

Then comes tracking response.

• How do you track each offer?
  
• What elements can you tweak to get better results?
  
• When do you test headlines?
  
• Why should you test headlines?
  
• When should you not bother testing headlines?

...I'll answer that one for you right now.

Testing headlines is ineffective when your offer is perfectly aligned with people who already have a love for what you are selling. They will buy anything as long as it is something they are already fanatical about (like fanatical golfers buying golf stuff). Also, if you have a dog of a product or service, testing headlines won't matter. No one will buy it no matter what you say in a headline.

Theses are just some of the 698 considerations proven to affect sales response that I've collected over the years and added to my copywriting checklist. I review my checklist before I take on any project.

Tell me something...

How many of the above items do you think a trained monkey knows about?

How many of the above elements are new to you? How many do your marketing staff not know?

Don't be surprised if some of the above seems foreign.

I once asked the following questions of seven marketing graduates who were employed in senior marketing positions with various corporations:

• How do you boost response to your offer if few people respond?
  
• What design layout for display ads in print advertising generally works best?
  
• What design layout in web pages work best for selling? (the answer is the same as above)
  
• How can you track exactly how much return is generated on every dollar spent on an ad?

Can you believe everyone of them was stumped?!?

This surprised me because a couple of them worked for a billion dollar corporation.

[I think they are being overpaid!]

Hint: If you want to know the answers to the last four questions I asked those marketing 'executives' you have two choices.

• Hire me for your next project
  
• Grab a copy of David Ogilvy's book, "Ogilvy on Advertising"

In a roundabout way Ogilvy answers each one of those questions. Plus you will learn even more copywriting 'secrets' most ad execs will never take the time to learn.

Anyhow, back to the trained monkey thingy...

I hope by reading this article you realize that more goes into creating a profitable sales promotion than just hitting a bunch of keys and hoping money falls out.

It takes time, research, knowledge, and experience.

I'm convinced that anyone with enough time on their hands can learn to create a good sales letter. After all, we're all humans. What one person can learn any other can learn too.

In fact, I bet because you know your product or service intimately you can create a sales message that is more effective, responsive and profitable than any that a copywriter could ever create for you.

That's if you spend the time studying, learning, and testing what others before you have already found out.

But lets face it...

There are times you need the work done immediately. You just don't have the time (and sometimes the resources) to go through the learning process.

That's when you hire a copywriter.

Andre Bell is an author, copywriter, and marketing advisor. Andre is committed to helping entrepreneurs like himself discover what it takes to maximize profits from every marketing communication and effort. Visit his official site at www.AndreBell.com for fresh marketing tips and resources