Michael Wilding

Category: Copy Writing

  • Are fitness DVD’s a lie?

    Are fitness DVD’s a lie?

    This morning in the paper, amongst all the stories about murder, was this…

    I mean… No S**t!

    Of course, a fitness “regime” will help. But there’s no way you’re going to drop vast amounts of weight in sixty days through fitness alone.

    Maybe over a year or two, but no way in sixty days.

    Heck, I know someone who works in the fitness and weight-loss market and with good lighting and a little bit of make-up, you can make it look like someone’s gained a six pack within sixty minutes!

    That’s not to say the fitness videos won’t get you fit. I’m sure they will. But what they won’t do is allow you to lose a gazillion stone.

    But hey… that’s marketing!

    And when you’re talking about a multi-billion dollar industry, a story in the paper isn’t going to change how people market.

    Damn, you’re not going to change the way people market in most industries.

    Why?

    Because telling people what they want to hear will always out-sell telling people what they need to do.

    Full stop.

    As marketers it’s our job to make sure that we tread the line of telling people what they want to hear and being truthful about what the product does at the same time.

    That’s the skill of a copywriter.

    Wind that into a story which your audience can relate to and…

    …you can call yourself a master copywriter.

    Not to diminish the skill of copywriting.

    But let’s be honest, it ain’t rocket science, it’s just practice 😉

    Ciao,

    Michael

  • One portion of fried blood please

    One portion of fried blood please

    Would you eat fried blood?

    It was a question asked this morning when we were served up black puddings.

    If you’re not sure what black pudding is, it’s a blood sausage eaten here over in Great Britain and Ireland.

    Some people love it, some people hate it.

    Me personally, I love it.

    I love it so much that I had two!

    But here’s what’s funny…

    Often you find that someone will say that they don’t like it even when they’ve never tried it.

    Why?

    Because of the thought.

    If you told them it was sausage meat and black oats, they’d try it and probably like.

    Perception is everything.

    And it’s the same in business.

    It doesn’t matter whether you’ve done something before or not. What matters is that the person who’s asking you to do it believes you can do it.

    Of course, if you can’t follow through with what you’ve sold, then you’re going to find yourself in difficulty.

    But you get the idea 😉

    When you look at marketing, this becomes even more important.

    Marketing is all about perception.

    Heck, there’s even copywriting known as “blind copy” which means you are selling something without telling the potential customers what they’re buying.

    In this case the product itself is completely irrelevant.

    What’s important is the journey and the emotional tones.

    I generally don’t recommend this because you will always end up with more refunds than normal, simply because customkers are buying without knowing what they’re buying.

    AND… that means it’s used most often for products which are sub-quality.

    But, like anything, in the right situation it can generate a huge amount of revenue.

    Bottom line, perception is everything. Always consider what perception you want your audience to have, and tailor your content and copy to it.

    Have a great weekend,

    Michael

  • If you have a mailing list, this matters

    If you have a mailing list, this matters

    Do you have a mailing list?

    Do you email it regularly?

    If so, today’s email’s going to be of interest to you.

    Recently I’ve spent a lot of time thinking, and working, on how we email people. Both from a hardware and software perspective, as well as a copywriting perspective.

    You need to have both working correctly if you want to get good deliverability.

    Most folk use autoresponder services, a bit like the free one I’m going to be releasing in the very near future 😉

    That means you don’t need to worry about the hardware and software side of it, someone else is doing the worrying for you.

    But you’ll still need to worry about the copywriting side of it.

    Your subject line is going to be the first thing that your readers are going to see.

    The subject line will determine whether they open your email, and one thing’s for sure…

    …if they don’t open your email they won’t be clicking on your links.

    So you’d better get that subject line right.

    But don’t worry if you don’t get it right every time!

    Because you won’t.

    I’ve been doing this nearly a decade and still don’t get it right every time.

    If I look at all the emails I’ve sent so far in March, and that’s just two weeks worth of emails, my open rates have varied from 5.70% to 20.50% to the exact same list.

    What’s affected this?

    The subject line.

    Of course, don’t forget open rates are kinda vague. If someone has images blocked, or the email provider hosts the images themselves, then their opens won’t count.

    So you can always assume you’re getting more opens than shown on your open rate.

    Anyhoo…

    One thing we can be sure about is that click through rates will be accurate because it only counts them when someone actually clicks on a link.

    So here’s the click percentage difference in my best and worst performing emails so far this month…

    In the email that got a 5.70% open rate, I got a whopping 1.94% clicks.

    Hold off the big guns.

    In the email with a 20.50% open rate, I got a 12.73% click through.

    Talk about a big difference.

    That’s why the subject line is so important.

    Enough talking, how am I going to give you the best opportunity to make your subject lines rock ‘n roll?

    By checking out these blog posts:

    1) https://michaelwilding.com/5-types-of-subject-lines-that-always-work/

    2) https://michaelwilding.com/headlines-that-convert/

    3) https://michaelwilding.com/frustrated-baby-is-pioneering-internet-god/

    Those are just three of my favourite ones from my blog. There are loads more if you search for them in the search bar at the top of my blog.

    Go forth and write some awesome subject lines,

    Michael

    P.S. If you enjoy my daily newsletter, please share it with your friends by hitting the Forward To Friend at the top left of the email, or by sending them straight to this link: https://goo.gl/zMzjwg

  • A pinprick to the nuts

    A pinprick to the nuts

    Occasionally, something will happen that gives you a shock.

    That happened to me today.

    It was like a pinprick to the nuts.

    I was watching Tiny Pops (a T.V. station) with Max this morning and there was an advert for the 25 year anniversary of Euro Disney.

    WTF!?

    I not only remember it being built, I remember being taken there as a child just after it had opened.

    Which means… I’m getting old!

    It’s funny how something like that can suddenly shock you.

    There’s two things that we can learn from this…

    1) You should do a promotion for every type of event, your birthday. Easter, Christmas, New Year, Bank Holiday etc.

    2) The subject line of this email is the perfect shock and awe type subject line. Check it out and try to write at least one email per month with this type of shock and awe subject line.

    Ciao,

    Michael

  • Let me fix your leaky tap

    Let me fix your leaky tap

    It sounds like the beginning of a bad seventies porno.

    In actual fact, I’m about to put my vast knowledge of plumbing to the test as I do the first fix plumbing on our new kitchen and bathrooms.

    Yes… a man of many skills. I know!

    Admittedly, Andy is going to be with me, so at least there’ll be someone there who knows what’s going on.

    I feel my roll will be more that of an assistant (tea maker), but I’ll do my best 😉

    I’ve got some good news…

    Thank you to everybody who responded to my survey about whether you’d use a free autoresponder.

    A whopping 96.9% of you said it would be something that you’d use.

    So… we’ve spent the weekend getting it setup!

    There’s still a bunch of work to do on it, but we’re powering away behind the scenes.

    Next up is the logo design and registration page.

    Then some solid testing.

    I’m hoping that by the end of the month we’ll be ready for you to start using your free autoresponder, complete with awesome deliverability.

    Exciting times.

    There’s a strong possibility I’m going to need a couple of people to jump in early and test things for me. 

    If you’d like to be one of those people, then please hit the reply button and let me know. I’ll work it on a first-come-first-serve basis.

    Have a great week,

    Michael