legendary: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new
Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”
Dan Kennedy once told me a copywriter’s job is to pull out of
the company owner what he can’t or won’t say. Talk to the people
who sell the product. Talk to the owner. In conversation, they may
say something you can use in your copy.
This is the “feeding your brain” part of copywriting. Soak up all
the facts before you can write a word of copy. Otherwise, you’re
writing fiction.
My own little secret is that I look at a product or service for
what is exciting about it. Since excitement is contagious and ex-
citement sells, I assume that once I find the excitement in a prod-
uct or service, I can then radiate my own feelings of excitement,
through my words, out to my readers. Those readers then turn
into buyers.
Another secret is that I try to come up with a working head-
line based on my research. The headline acts as a “thought han-
dle” for me. It anchors the basic message of the letter for me.I
may change the headline later. For now, it serves as a focal point
for my mind.
Robert Collier, author ofThe Robert Collier Letter Book(the
greatest manual on writing letters ever written by anyone, ever),
said people want news. What I do is think like a reporter. I review
the literature for whatever I want to sell, and I look for what is new
about it. Is the product new? Is there a new use for it? How will this
product be new to my readers? News will grab and hold attention,
so I eagerly look for it in my research.
Spend a few minutes here jotting down some points, some facts,
based on your research about the item you want to sell.HYPNOTIC WRITING