Ben Settle’s Weird Copywriting Tips – Part 4
Today I’ve got the fourth and final installment of my 4-part copywriting Q&A with Ben Settle.
In today’s installment you’ll discover:
- How Ben broke into the golf and martial arts markets. (The answer will surprise you.)
- Why copywriters who write lots of emails are better at writing sales letters.
- A simple way to write sales copy faster — without sacrificing the quality of your writing.
- Why “mega headlines” and yellow highlighting can actually hurt sales.
Jump into the interview below… and don’t forget to check out the limited time offer I’ve put together for you at the end.
12. How intentional were you in getting into the markets you’re in today (martial arts, golf, etc.)?
It was completely accidental.
But, there is a valuable lesson in this for anyone who wants to write for clients.
Here’s what I mean:
The martial arts market came as a result of that eBook I wrote after writing all those ezine articles back when I was devoid of any client work. Matter of fact, I got more than one big client just from that free eBook which people used to get when they opted in to my website.
I don’t even know how the martial arts client found me.
It was out of the blue.
One day I get this call from someone who I’d recognized as having advertised on some of my favorite news websites (drudge, worldnetdaily, etc).
He’s like, “Ben, I need help.”
I didn’t even have to do any selling to get the gig.
He realized he was too close to his market, needed a fresh perspective and anointed me as the guy to do it. But I think something I wrote in that eBook helped my cause — a chapter about how to use the movie “Batman Begins” to write better copy, which was completely in line with the attitude and tone he knew his market liked.
But it was mostly accidental.
As for golf, I don’t know why I got that gig.
I’d never even golfed before except on my old 1986 Nintendo system.
Heck, I had barely ever even played miniature golf!
But I’d done some work in the MLM niche and one of the guys there knew this guy selling a golf product and recommended me. Eventually it turned into a sort of partnership type model — where I got paid on the sales of one of the products.
Ultimately, it didn’t work out.
And that’s just how it goes sometimes.
But there is one valuable take away from that, too:
Both of the markets I was selling to are similar. And doing those ads simultaneously was very easy. The point being, if you can find clients who share the same market (but are not competitors) writing ads will always be a LOT easier and faster, with you doing a much better job.
Because again, it’s all about the market.
And you will know them better than anyone else.
13. How long does it take you to write a full sales letter, start to finish? How many sales letters do you write per year, on average?
Even as little as a couple years ago it’d take anywhere from 4-8 weeks to write a decent ad (from research to final edit).
Today?
I can usually do it in half the time.
A lot of it is just from writing lots and lots of emails. I have not only written hundreds of emails for my own business, but I have written hundreds of emails for clients, too.
(Sometimes I think I’m gonna turn into an email at this rate…)
That’s another reason to email daily, by the way.
You’ll get so much faster and better at writing. You’ll also get really good at structuring a persuasive argument in as few words as possible. Most ads are way too wordy and bloated. People who write lots of emails don’t seem to have this problem.
I don’t know how many sales letters I write on average.
Never really thought about it.
Last couple years I wrote a lot — both for my own products and my clients.
This year, I seem to be writing more emails than sales letters, which suits me just fine. But it all depends. And I will probably end up writing a lot of sales letters later this year for a series of products the client who currently has me on retainer has in the bullpen.
So that’s my long bloated “copywriter” answer.
The short answer is… I don’t know.
14. Why don’t your sales letters contain any mega-headlines or yellow highlighting??
Sounds like someone has been reading Mr. Subtle’s cartoons.
By “mega headlines” I’ll assume you mean the long 30+ word headlines that are all the rage in the Internet marketing goo-roo world.
Sometimes I do use long (even “mega”) headlines.
But it’s pretty rare.
Most often I try to keep them around 16 words. Any more than that can often be cut into a short (with big font) headline and a smaller sub-headline which is easier for the eye to read and the brain to digest. (Something, ironically, I learned from observing Mr. Subtle’s cartoons…)
Even better is this:
Take the big appeal of the headline and then bullet point the other benefits underneath it. I do that more and more these days, and it seems to work pretty well most of the time.
Here’s the important thing to remember:
The whole point of the headline is to get the ad read.
You don’t usually need 50 words to do that.
I’m not saying mega headlines don’t work or can’t work. But each ad is different and there is no set length that always works best. You just say what you have to say to get them to keep reading.
If that takes 25 words, so be it.
If only one word gets the job done, that’s fine, too.
As for the second part of the question…
I do use yellow highlighting.
I just don’t use it excessively.
It’s especially important for the skimmers. I write the subheads throughout the ad for the skimmers (that tell the general story on their own) and use highlighting to draw attention to certain dramatic or intriguing points I think will keep the reader’s interest (based on what I’ve studied about the market, of course).
It’s all about increasing readership.
But my opinion is overdoing highlighting is a mistake.
I once heard Matt Furey quote an old Chinese saying that goes, “any strength overextended is no longer a strength” and I think that’s very true with writing ads.
A lot of it is just common sense.
It’s not really about fireworks and goo-roo persuasion “choke holds.”
This is the end of Part 4 of 4 of my copywriting Q&A with Ben Settle.
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