| |
| |
|
Copywriting Information |
|
|
|
Hook Your Direct Mail Sales Letter Readers With Good Transition Sentences
Anglers in Maine catch trout using dry flies with barbless hooks. Unless they keep tension on the line all the way to the net, they lose the trout. Your sales letters must do the same. But how? One secret to keeping busy business readers hooked is to use irresistible transition sentences. Transition sentences come at the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next. Good transition sentences leave your readers hanging in a number of ways. One of them is to tell your reader that a number of things are coming up, forcing your reader to transition to the next paragraph to learn what some of those things are. If you've ever listened to a person with a pronounced stutter, you know how hard it is to wait while that person completes a thought. Your prospects are the same. If you almost complete a thought at the end of one paragraph, they will begin reading the paragraph that follows to complete your thought. But that's not all. Another way to keep your reader hooked throughout your copy is to end one paragraph with "that's not all" or a similar phrase. Or to start your next paragraph with the word "another." Each device shows the prospect that you have not finished, that the prospect has more to learn. And so the prospect keeps reading. And yes, there are some other hooks you might want to try. You can start a paragraph with the word "you," the one word that prospects and customers never tire of seeing in print. Or you could try another proven tactic. And that is starting a paragraph with the word "and." Read the Gospel of Mark in the Bible sometime. It's one of my favourite books. You'll find the narrative almost impossible to stop reading, it's so exciting. That's because the writer begins so many of his sentences with "and" that you are compelled to continue reading to discover what comes next. (I won't give away how the book ends. Read it and find out.) But there's another device that's just as powerful as the word "and." Do you know what it is? It's the question mark. Put one at the end of one paragraph, with the answer at the beginning of the next paragraph, and you'll keep your readers headed towards your net. So here's the one thing you need to remember. You've figured out by now that the secret to effective transition sentences is to keep your prospective buyer in a state of suspended satisfaction, one where they must keep reading your letter to the end before they feel gratified. And there's only one sure way of doing that. © 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message). ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MORE RESOURCES:
Copywriting - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Promote Your Business and Get Paid for Doing It! How can you gain credibility and exposure for you and your business, reach a motivated audience, develop a far-flung network, hone your presentation skills -- and get paid to do it?Many writers, artists, speakers and entrepreneurs have found an answer: they teach classes in adult education programs.Adult education is big business. How You Can Find Freelance Children's Writing Positions That Will Last Freelance children's writing positions are always advertised. Rather, the schooling to learn how to write for these jobs is advertised. Three Tips For Magnetizing Your Copy The difference between good copy and great copy is the number of actions it generates. The more actions the copy drives, the greater the copy is. Buy My Book for $27 and Ill Give You Bonuses Worth a Gazillion Dollars! Subhead.. The Truth About Negative Commands (Dont Read This!) Everyday when I read promotional emails and advertisements, or listen to television commercials and dialogue in shows and movies, or hear people around me in everyday life use commands such as the following examples, I feel dismayed for them.This is because I understand something that many others do NOT!And, since learning what I now understand, while I am BOMBARDED every day from all directions with commands like those listed below, in all their variations, I feel worse and worse for not speaking up!I feel especially badly for all those advertisers out there who are ignorant about this, because I also realize they are often sincerely excited about what they are sharing and are working very hard to attract the attention of others. A Quick Free n Easy Content Writing Course I do not pretend that a one-stop shop solution to content writing exists, but my experience has taught me, that working toward a 100% effective writing formula isn't a complete waste of time.At my firm (a content writing business), we find it particularly useful to go through a number of steps before we put pen to paper. Copywriting: Engage Prospects By Involving Their Senses Imagine a bland, colorless existence. Where food had no taste, silence surrounded you and everything smelled the same. Segmenting Your Target Audience Through Your Copywriting Ask any copywriter what the first commandment of copywriting is and they'll quickly tell you "Know Thy Target Audience." In order to write effectively you have to know this one group of people and know them well. Are Long Copy Salesletters Scams? A passionate debate is currently raging in the Copywriters Forum about long versus short copy. (If you haven't joined, do so. How to Get Instant Attention Most of us have seen a heckler at a baseball game. Sure, he's likely to draw attention, both positive and negative. The One Word Every Prospect Craves It's arguably the most important word in the copywriter's arsenal. It ranks right at the top with words like "free," "new" and "savings. Headline Writing Can Lead To Fortunes: Here Are The Basics Of Writing Headlines Headlines attract attention. Headlines generate interest. Fill Your Readers with Confidence Site visitors generally stay with you for as long as they feel confident that they will succeed in achieving their goal. It's a simple truth, but important. Tech-writers: A Necessary Evil New to tech-writing, or thinking about starting? The key to success is recognising that tech-writers are a necessary evil.Tech-writers are necessary because someone has to write the user doco. How to Negotiate Rates with a Freelance Copywriting Expert Lots of people who seek out my copywriting services are concerned about money. Rightfully so. Killer Business Headline Templates - So How Do You Write Killer Headlines in Minutes? You Cheat! According to Branding and Advertising legend, David Ogilvy: 5 times as many people read the headline than they do the body copy in a sales message. This means that unless your headline actually helps sell what you've got to offer, you'll have wasted 90% of your time, money and energy. Top 7 Things To Do Before You Hire A Copywriter Now that you've decided to hire a copywriter, how do you go about finding one? Here are seven things to look for to make sure the match is a good one.#1 - Define your expectations. Copywriting for the Web: Do You Have What It Takes? In the world of web copywriters, many will try, but few will succeed. What category will you be classified as? Hopeless failure, or smashing success?Well, that's a foolish question, right? You want to be successful, of course! You know that you can razzle-dazzle 'em with your knock-'em-out, drag-'em-down copywriting skills. Tomorrow's Clichés Today I went to Google and entered a couple of different search terms.The first was, to my mind, the cliché of all cliché's: "Tomorrow's Solutions Today". Writing Online In Two Syllables or Less About once a month I fly off somewhere to give a one-day workshop on writing for the web. For part of the day, I invite the group to take part in a series of short tasks.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
