E A CARTER

The Secret to Success Is Smart Copy That Sells (Without Being Salesy)

It’s true. Great copywriting is about writing copy that converts, but to get that coveted conversion you first have to engage your reader so they keep reading…

… all the way

…to the

…buy button (and then click it).

That’s great copy in a nutshell.

But what is great copy really?

It’s a magical combination of words.

Un-magical words are 100% the reason why our ecourses, masterclasses, workshops, and book promo ads end up unclicked and languishing in the lost corridors of the metaverse.

Our words just weren’t magical enough.

Why? Because they first need to do two things…

1. Capture attention in a crowded, noisy, distraction-driven online space

2. Gain trust when online trust levels are at an all-time low

And that’s where copy beats prose hands down. Copy is a unique writing skill that takes a bunch of words and abracadabras them into something magical.

But let’s go back to your product no one is buying. You worked hard on it and know it can add value to the lives of others. The problem is how to get it selling without sacrificing your ethics.

But you’re a creator. Not a copywriter.

Dilemma.

Because even if you are a bestselling, award-winning author, prose and copy are two very different animals. Like…jaguar to koala bear different. The only thing they have in common is they like to hang out in trees.

But one will have the other for breakfast. And that’s why copy makes creators like us edgy.

For most, writing copy feels a little bit shady, kind of predatory, and at times, downright icky.

But it doesn’t have to be shady, predatory or icky. There is another way.

Before we get to that, it might help to dive into a bit of copy history…it will be worth it. I promise.

On May 29, 1886, Coca-Cola hit the ground running with its first ad in the Atlanta Journal. It was a small, text-only ad that read:

Coca-Cola. Delicious! Refreshing! Exhilarating! Invigorating!

All hyperbole aside, this little line of text fathered a multi-billion dollar industry.

Building a bridge from product to trust was key to Coca-Cola’s success. As a brand new beverage no one had ever experienced before, they built relatability to their target market through a variety of ads, and by understanding the needs of each one, they gained trust, and with trust came sales, and then…loyalty.

Then, in a perfect alignment of factors: a homogenous target market, high levels of trust in consumer goods (thanks to the smart marketing strategy of Coca-Cola that other businesses mimicked), and large amounts of disposable income, sales/ad copy became a force to be reckoned with.

After WW2, during the 1950s direct sales copy hit its stride when folks were busy getting married, raising families, and enjoying the economic post-war boom.

Dropped into mailboxes, these flyers were usually comprised of double-sided letter-size ads absolutely crammed with tiny-fonted content about a product or service. Through clever copy, they navigated the reader from one pain point to the next, solving each with their solution, alongside sidebars filled with life-changing success stories, testimonials, tips, plus an array of exclusive bonuses and unmissable extras that would arrive only with an order of their product.

Generally, these products were items a housewife would care about, like the convenience of a four-slice toaster to get all the kids fed breakfast quickly, or, a new vacuum cleaner with a built-in sanitizing filter, or pairs of trousers guaranteed to never crease (to save time ironing obviously), or some new-fangled gadget for the kitchen no one else had yet…you name it, you can bet there was Direct Sales Marketing copy written about it.

Whatever it was, the most important thing was to first build trust.

And these long, long, LONG ads did exactly that.

They appealed to housewives stuck at home with engaging, relatable stories empathizing with their underappreciated pain points along with convincing, neat, easy solutions.

It was insanely effective.

Sales boomed and any business with a decent copywriter was making a mint.

Fast forward to 2022.

What was effective when people had the time and attention span to give copy the space to do its job has been whittled down to a razor-thin slice of copy trapped in a scrollable, hyper-saturated, eye-blinding metaverse of me-firstism.

So. Does that mean copy, as it came to be, is dead?

No. Well, sort of.

At least the way it used to be is definitely dead. I mean, unless your target market is the Silent Generation (age 75+) then maaaybe it might still work, and if that’s your target market, well, you can stop reading, in fact, I don’t even know why you’re here. Go make some money with your words!

Anyway, for the rest of us slogging it out in the bloody arena of cyberspace, what worked in the 1950s now needs to snort a truckload of Ritalin to have the chops to capture the target markets of this century. (And sure as heck, it’s not housewives taking a tea break from hanging laundry on the line).

So knowing who you are writing to, how they think, what they want, and how to engage them is only part of the battle. You also need to have a good grasp of SEO if you want any chance of your copy to even be seen in the first place.

Nightmare right?

Not much wonder our products get lost in the vast dark void of the Internet. And not much wonder so many people give up and go back to just being creative and hoping that their products will somehow sell on the back of their good name.

Good luck with that. Unless you’re Oprah-famous, then yes, you can coast on your name. But let’s stick to the majority.

The majority are stuck. Their products are stuck. And the more they try to sell their products with paid ads on Facebook or through Giveaways, the worse things get.

Because buyers are exactly like cats. The more you chase them, the more they run. The more you act like you don’t care about them, the more they want your attention.

Yes. Cats could teach us a lot about copywriting.

Except they can’t. Because they’re cats. But the concept is solid.

So here’s where the magic happens using a little formula I have found works - let’s go with the cat concept for this…

Cat is just sitting there, doing nothing, vegging out (potential client)

1. Walk into room and start to wiggle new feather toy (capture attention)

2. While ignoring them, build their interest with a few whirls and floofs of the feather (build trust)

3. Put it down and walk away (hand over the trust that you have captured their interest and gained their trust)

4. Two minutes later the cat is all over the feather toy, having a wonderful time (link clicked)

Why?

Because:

You’re all: Ohhh look at this new amazing thing (target market is important here, you’re hardly going to wiggle a feather toy in front of a cow, although you’d be surprised how many of us do just that and wonder why we don’t sell anything).

BUT, you are also super casual about it too, like: I’m just playing with this amazing thing. Oh look it does some other cute things too…this is important because it is as if you are discovering these things at the same time as them which builds trust.

Once you have finished enjoying it, put it down and leave it there. If you have targeted your market correctly, and you have demonstrated your product or service in a way that will capture their interest and make them want to know more, they will check it out. Meaning…they will click the link to either buy it or learn more.

And that’s the magic of copy.

Minus the oily used car salesman ick.

It’s honest, it’s interesting, and most importantly, it builds trust.

And as those very first writers of copy for Coca-Cola learned, trust is everything.

Trust builds loyalty.

Loyalty builds a brand.

And brands that are trusted, sell.

If you need help with your copy. I have been writing copy that converts for the last 3.5+ years. My copy goes out to more than one million subscribers in the writing and self-publishing niche and its conversion brings in tens of thousands of dollars of profit for my US client.

I can help you with headlines that get clicked (minus the clickbait), SEO keywords, and crafting magical words that do the work of capturing attention and building trust, ethically, honestly, minus the ick of sales hype.

I’m going to leave this here. If I have built your trust, you’ll think of me, and when you get stuck, you’ll know where to find me. In the meantime, bookmark this page. You’ll be glad you did.

Find out more about my services and what I can do to help your products sell (without being salesy) below.