Copywriting - Better Copy: The Interview Is The Key

Better Copy: The Interview Is The Key

Most of us spend our days persuading others to buy our service, product or idea. Here is how to create powerful marketing copy to make your job easier: INTERVIEW YOURSELF.

If you hired a writer to create the copy for you, he/she would likely start by interviewing you. He would ask every question he could think of about your subject and keep probing until he found illuminating answers. You could find a colleague to help in this endeavor. Or, if you are feisty, you can interview yourself.

Write out a series of questions about your subject. (I'll suggest what kinds of questions below). Then ask your colleague to pose these questions to you and record your answers. Or you can write your own answers down.

The key to interviewing is to keep probing. If an answer doesn't make sense,say so. "I understand that your clients need to create strategy at the corporate level, but I don't understand how your software is going to help them do this." If you don't believe an answer, say so too. Keep asking for further and better particulars until you get answers that interest you and which you believe in.

SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

Here are some high-level questions to ask yourself.

What is the business problem?

Can you describe the problem in plain English?

How did the problem arise?

Is it a new problem?

Why is it hard to solve?

Why hasn't anyone found a solution to it yet?

Does your client know he has this problem?

Is he willing to pay the price in time or money to solve his problem?

What is his key concern?

What is your solution?

What services / products do you offer to solve his problem?

What benefits will these produce? (This is the hardest question to answer. It means going beyond the features we offer and really understanding the solution from the clients' viewpoint.) If you are going to work on producing only one answer, this is the one to work on.

Which benefit is the most important? (This will be your core message).

Why should your client trust you to solve their problem?

Who are you?

How long have you been in business?

What can you say about the stability and creativity of your organization?

Who are your clients?

Is your service unique? If not, why is it better than others'?

Do you have a robust marketing plan to execute against? How clear and persuasive is your website, brochure copy or direct mail? Call Neroli Lacey NOW to win more business TODAY.

CALL ++ 612. 215. 3826 NOW

or email: neroli@beyondcommunications.com

About The Author

I'm Neroli Lacey of Beyond Communications Inc. in Minneapolis, MN. I've been helping executives transform their businesses and their lives with outstanding marketing materials since 1995. VISA, 3M and Perot Systems are some of my bigger clients. I have worked with clients in Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Austin, Minneapolis, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin and Delhi. I used to be one of the top journalists in Britain writing for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, New Statesman, Vogue and Tatler.

Before newspapers I was an investment banker. I grew up in London, England, studying Latin with Greek at Bristol University.

Please visit my website: www.beyondcommunications.com

Created & Maintained by Empower! CMS Web Sites

Host2Sell Web Hosting | Emarketing Workshops | Site SEO Review | FREE Newsletter

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

19 Secrets To Making Your Ad Copy More Effective
The sales letter is the key; the sales letter is the key - echoes through the Internet marketing mountains.Ad copy, sales copy, sales letter, copywriting or whatever you want to call it ? the goal is the same for every Internet marketing business.Get the traffic and convert the hits into cash. And how do you do just that? With an effective sales letter.Let's find out how to make your sales letter more effective.1. Create a "teeth-pulling" headline. We live in a headline society. Ignore this fact, and you lose. With the overload of information, people don't have the time to stop at every webpage and read it. Instead, they use the headlines to direct their attention. If your headline doesn't pull them to your sales lett...(related: Copywriting)

How To Find Freelance Jobs - Writing About Food
Did you know that jobs writing about food are available? These opportunities are available in a variety of areas. Employment in these fields is an exciting concept. For many, getting their foot in the door is the most important and most challenging first step. In order to succeed, a wide range of knowledge is needed as well as a good base of experience.These jobs are available in all sorts of media. The internet is full of postings for good quality writers in a variety of fields. Some in this field write for magazines, newspapers, or even books. Others work right online. There are several avenues a prospective writer can tak...(related: Copywriting)

Yale University Researchers Reveal The 12 Most Powerful Words In The Human Language...
In this article, I am going to reveal a dozen words, which could change your life. Why? Because Yale University researches have identified the 12 most powerful words in the human language? proven to attract attention and stir emotion within their readers. Here they are...? You? Save? Results? Health? Love? Proven? Money? New? Easy? Safety? Discovery? GuaranteedSo how can these 'proven' 'new' words 'you' have discoveredbe used to generate 'results' and make 'you' more 'money'?It's 'easy.' 'You'll' 'love' the way you can 'safely'integrate them into your ads and sales letters. Plus,'you'll' 'save' thousands of dollars from burning a holethrough your pocket...(related: Copywriting)

Boost Your B To B Marketing Copy: 3 Major Copywriting Blunders And How To Correct Them
When you're writing or evaluating copy for a B to B marketing (also referred to as b-to-b or business to business marketing) campaign of any kind, you may think it's only appropriate to write formal copy in which you refer to yourself as "we" or "our organization" and let lots of other copywriting basics fly out the window.Sadly, these sorts of mistakes are the result of the major misconception that you have to be cold and impersonal in your copy if you want to seem professional. If you're guilty of this copywriting crime, you probably learned this rule from a well-meaning, but misguided communicator who doesn't understand that business writing is designed to sell.But fear not -- there's no reason for your B to B marketing to be bland and ineffective. You just need to know what to look out fo...(related: Copywriting)

Working On The Internet: Role Of Proofreading And Copy Editing Online
When one is in a creative state, rarely can one also be in a detail state. Thus, mistakes in correct grammar, spelling and continuity of all details, may happen. Also, proofreading our own work can be very difficult, for all of us. This is because the same mental processes that went into composition are the ones we use to correct our work. Hence, so many websites are launched...(related: Copywriting)

Copywriting For The Web: Do You Have What It Takes?
In the world of web copywriters, many will try, but few will succeed. What category will you be classified as? Hopeless failure, or smashing success?Well, that's a foolish question, right? You want to be successful, of course! You know that you can razzle-dazzle 'em with your knock-'em-out, drag-'em-down copywriting skills. You even have a power-packed portfolio to prove it. So: what's the problem then?The problem is that the web is overflowing with copywriting talent. A copywriter on the web is a little like being at a Friday night concert at Madison Square Garden for some big headliner. In that vast audience, you're just a teeny speck.Likewise, in the elbow-to-elbow web copywriting arena, you're not much of a standout, eve...(related: Copywriting)

Deciding What Voice To Use In Copy
You have to choose a character or an angle that you, the copywriter plays. Copy is interactive. There's a copywriter and a copy reader. As soon as one is gone, the relationship is over (at least for the time being). Readers don't have to stick around. There's no locked door. And they won't?if you don't keep them interested. So you need to write as if you are talking to that person directly. How do you do this? Nine ...(related: Copywriting)

Top 3 Rules For Writing Effective Copy
One thing all successful Internet marketers have in common is that they're good copywriters. If you want to have a profitable online business, you need to know how to write a copy that motivates people to buy your produc...(related: Copywriting)

Three Tips For Magnetizing Your Copy
The difference between good copy and great copy is the number of actions it generates. The more actions the copy drives, the greater the copy is.My friend John Reese, a master at simplifying what we often tend to unnecessarily complicate, says it best. He says the only metric you should ever really count on is this: "Yes" or "No."That's it.Now, what makes great copy nudge people into action requires a variety of different things -- things I often find missing with most of the copy I critique.<...(related: Copywriting)

What A Ghostwriter Can Do For You
Do you ever have brilliant ideas for articles, books or a website, but never get around to doing anything about them? Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Trust and credibility are vital in creating consumer confidence. Being able to tell the world who you are, what you do and how you do it is the best kind of confidence-building free publicity?producing results rivaling those of standard advertising. But even if you could crank out passable copy yourself, most businesspeople should be spending their time doing what they do best?minding the store, not staring at blank sheets of paper!If that's you, and your marketing plans inclu...(related: Copywriting)

Creative Copywriting?
There is a difference between creative writing and copywriting. It took me a while to come to terms with this but it's true, there is a difference. When I first started my home based business on the Internet I read a lot of advice about publishing articles and doing copywriting to advertise your website. There was always a distinction drawn between copywriting and creative writing. I did not understand this: surely copywriting is creative? Eventually the logic dawned on me: all copywriting is creative writing but not all creative writers can write decent ad copy. If you have never studied that particular branch of philosophy, it's like ...(related: Copywriting)

Are You Making These Press Release Mistakes?
You've done it. Gotten that press release written. Now you're ready to send it out to your carefully chosen list of media contacts.But before you hit that "send" button, take a moment and run your press release through this checklist. Remember, you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of busy journalists and editors -- don't blow it over an easily corrected mistake.Some of these may seem painfully obvious. Alas, even the obvious gets overlooked from time to time (even from professionals ? I know, I've made my share of mistakes) so it's always a wise idea to take a few moments to double check that your release is up to s...(related: Copywriting)