Wow!

I thought I had updated you on Thursday but it seems I didn't and I apologize. I appreciate that you are here now! So on to your update...

Thursday was much of the same...I spent the day temping, had dinner with a friend and that's about it. Friday was a repeat except instead of meeting up with friends, I sent my information to ad agencies. I also contacted my friend's brother who works for one of the big agencies - at least he did the last time I checked anyway.

This weekend I'm spending some time contacting people I know with direct ties to Chicago so as to line up housing. I plan to spend a week there next month and during the week I'll interview with as many agencies as I can! It should be fun. Chicago is a terrific city - summer especially!

I'm also posting this article about copywriting to ezines and the like. Hope you enjoy it!

3 Quick Questions to Improve Your Response

Don’t have time to rewrite all of your marketing materials? Need to better focus your copy? These three questions will help you do just that.

Copywriting is both art and science and as a result it uses artistic, creative qualities that are refined with scientific tools to measure response rates so you can maximize your return on investment.

Ask yourself these 3 questions and use them as tools to inspire and recreate artistically copy with better results.

1.) Does each sentence engage and provoke your reader to read the next sentence?
This engagement starts with your first sentence and shouldn’t end until the last sentence of the P.S. Each sentence builds on the sentence before it and carries your reader along on a ride!
It’s that ride that will create and retain a bond with them as they learn about your product/service/company and how you’re going to help them and make their lives better.

2.) Does your copy tell or sell?
Truly great copy doesn’t “sell” anything…at least not in the traditional sense. Great copy tells your reader how your product/service/company will make their lives better. In his book Scientific Advertising, Claude C. Hopkins, writes “Ask yourself – would it help a salesmen sell goods?” “Would you it help me sell them if I met a buyer in person?”
The key word in both questions is help, help your prospect, help your client and help yourself. Again from Scientific Advertising, Hopkins says the best ads ask no one to buy.

3.) Does your prospect have an identity?
When you write your copy who are you writing it for? What does your prospect look like? What do they do? Where do they live? Are you talking to Fred/Frieda the weekend bowlers and avid baseball fans? Or are you writing to Donald and Ivana, exclusive country club members and Four Seasons brunchers?
Your advertising is reaching someone. Know who it is and it’ll be at least 10 times more effective. Conceptualize and visualize your prospect before and during the copywriting process for increased response rates. Get inside their minds.
Give your prospect all the likeness of your best friend and that’s how they’ll respond.

Questions? Comments? Interested in learning more? For more copywriting tips, contact Lara Kay Loest at lloest@gmail.com or leave a comment at http://goodtogreatcopy.blogspot.com/.