The Art of the Click

How to Harness the Power of Direct-Response Copywriting and Make More Sales

Glenn Fisher

• Publisher: Harriman House
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780857196958
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Digital Marketing
• Index: Business

Every business making sales online is engaged in a battle to get customers to click. More clicks equals more sales equals a more successful business. How do you write copy that will encourage more people to buy from you? How do you persuade customers over the line to make that final buying decision? What is The Art of the Click? The answer lies in the power of direct-response copywriting.In this entertaining and highly readable guide, copywriting expert Glenn Fisher boils down over a decade of experience to present a huge array of techniques, tactics and industry secrets to improve your copywriting, get more clicks... and ultimately, get more sales.You will discover:-- The single thing every great writer must do if they want to improve.-- How anyone can learn to write a headline that will stop all potential customers in their tracks.-- Where to find inspiration and how to feed ideas.-- How you can get a customer physically nodding along with every word you write.-- How to avoid waffle and make your copy more succinct.-- How you can write irresistible offers than no one can refuse.-- And much more!Pick up The Art of the Click now to improve your copywriting. You'll soon be wondering how you ever made a sale without it...

Part One: Before You Write A Word

Chapter One: All Great Copywriters Start Here

“Good advertising does not just circulate information.”

— Leo Burnett

There are too many like Jimmy in advertising

Jimmy’s just started as a junior copywriter at a big information publisher, which mainly publishes financial advice. Jimmy doesn’t know anything about copywriting. He did media studies at university, but has since struggled to find work. He’s always enjoyed telling stories, but isn’t much of writer. Still, he managed to fluke his way through an interview and now he’s here in the office looking around, wondering what to do.

He’s been told to write two short messages. He’s been given the contents of the message and he’s been told whom the message is for. He just needs to write it out. Each message is about 500 words. He does his best and hands in the two messages to his boss, who looks at the messages and asks, not politely, “What’s this?” Jimmy’s not sure what to say. He did what he was told. He’s had no training and doesn’t really understand why he was doing what he was doing. He just did it. The boss – who’s a little stupid – thinks Jimmy is a flake and has already resolved to sack him; just as soon he’s got more evidence of his shortcomings.

Poor Jimmy. Of course, we know that Jimmy has done nothing wrong – he was told to write two short messages, he was told what to write and he carried out his task accordingly. At no point was he asked to understand why he was doing what he was doing. And at no point was he given the opportunity to do so. It’s not his fault his boss is stupid. It plays out that Jimmy spends three months trying to understand what his boss really wants, until finally he’s sacked, just at the point he’s started to understand the job he’s tasked with.

Jimmy’s is a sad story, but it’s one that happens all too often – especially in the world of direct-response copywriting. Sadly I’ve seen too many like Jimmy go through the system – and worse, I’ve seen too many bosses like that. Yet this is how most people attempt to learn direct-response copy – writing short messages first, without really understanding why. They don’t see the bigger picture. Sure, some grow into half decent writers, but their vision is tunnelled. They’ll never be truly successful.

That’s not good. And it’s not what I want for you. This is why I changed the way I teach copywriters.

The champagne fountain of good copy

You know those slightly tacky champagne fountains you see, where there are layers upon layers of glasses on top of each other until you reach a single glass at the top? And then you pour the champagne into that one glass and the sparkling goodness flows down from the single glass, filling all the glasses beneath it?

That’s how this will be.

You see, we’re going to start with learning about long copy, and everything else will flow from there, to make learning how to write other types of copy a lot easier.

Jimmy’s problem was that he didn’t know that the two small messages he was being asked to write were part of a much longer message. If he had known that, he would have been able to write the smaller messages more easily and to a standard that his idiot boss was happy with.

But hold on one second. What is long copy? Ah. Yes. I’m getting ahead of myself again. We need to do a little bit of defining before we go any further. So, long copy – what do I mean by that?

The key characters in direct-response

Depending on whom you speak to, you get all sorts of definitions for things in the world of direct-response copywriting. It can seem daunting when you’re starting out, but don’t worry – these things become second nature after a while. Indeed, as you work your way through this book, all this jargon will slowly but surely work its way into your brain. The best thing I think we can do is to quickly run through a few of the main characters in direct-response copywriting and give you a brief explanation of what they are.

The first thing I need to introduce you to is the long copy sales letter.

The long copy sales letter

Usually between 20 and 50 pages, the long copy sales letter is the pinnacle of direct-response copywriting.

In the coming pages of this book, I’m going to teach you how these letters work. I’m going to break it down into easy to understand pieces so that you’ll be able to follow my lead and write your own long copy sales letters. Of course you might never want or need to write a long copy sales letter, but by understandin...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Praise for The Art of the Click
• About the author
• Preface
• Introduction: Direct-Response Copywriting in the Internet Age
• Part One: Before You Write A Word
• Chapter One: All Great Copywriters Start Here
• Chapter Two: The Importance of Rote Learning
• Chapter Three: Understanding Your Audience
• Chapter Four: Doing Your Research
• Chapter Five: The Importance of Good Ideas
• Part Two: Writing Copy
• Chapter Six: Features Versus Benefits
• Chapter Seven: Promise, Picture, Proof and Push
• Chapter Eight: Urgent, Useful, Unique and Ultra-Specific
• Chapter Nine: Writing Headlines
• Chapter Ten: Grabbing and Holding the Reader’s Attention
• Chapter Eleven: Salutations, Fellow Copywriter
• Chapter Twelve: The Importance of Narrative
• Chapter Thirteen: The Paradox of Testimonials
• Chapter Fourteen: Making An Offer
• Chapter Fifteen: If In Doubt, Cut It Out
• Chapter Sixteen: Time Management Tips for Writing Copy
• Chapter Seventeen: Sell, or Share?
• Part Three: The Interviews
• Chapter Eighteen: The King of Research
• Chapter Nineteen: The Million Dollar Man
• Chapter Twenty: A Friend from Down Under
• Chapter Twenty One: Psst… One More Thing
• Acknowledgements