Here’s part II of my interview with Joseph Ratliff.
What is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your copywriting business?
That is an excellent question Stephen, and I’ve made only one (LOL, kidding). My biggest mistake was in my early days, I was an “order taker” for my clients. They had a project, and I wrote it…turned it in and got paid.
But if you want to survive as a copywriter, you have to be more than an “order taker.” You have to find a way to help a client in more ways than writing the project they are offering. In other words…
Local marketing is all the rage lately. Strangely enough, I’ve never written copy for someone in my city. The closest was across the river in Portland, OR a handful of times.
So when I got the chance to interview Joseph Ratliff I seized it. I know he has experience working both local and global. And this would give me a chance to share valuable information with you… and pick up a few nuggets myself!
Joseph did not disappoint. Here are my first 5 questions to Joseph and his answers.
If you want to bust out great copywriting every time you stare at the blank page, you’ve gotta learn the 3 B’s of copywriting.
Unfortunately, learning the 3 B’s takes time. I can tell you once, I can tell you twice – but until you practice APPLYING the 3 B’s in your copy… the science-slash-art of copywriting will remain just beyond your grasp.
Kind of like hitting a baseball. I can tell you not to drop your back shoulder when you swing, but you’re going to do it anyway. And you’ll continue to do it until you finally have a eureka moment – realize you’re doing it wrong – and take deliberate steps to fix it.
This article is an attempt to speed up the process and help you have the eureka moment sooner.
For maximum effect, read this article before and after your next copywriting project. Chances are, even though I’ll have you nodding your head in agreement the first time through… when you next read this article you’ll likely notice you “dropped your shoulder,” so to speak.
Last night I showed up at Gary Vaynerchuk’s book signing at Powell’s for the third time in three years – one for each book, starting with “101 Wines.” And I can tell you, Gary is hitting full stride!
My girlfriend felt I conned her when she realized the focus wasn’t on wine this time, but rather his new book “The Thank You Economy.” She doesn’t care too much about business. Yet still she came around and liked this speech better than his “101 Wines” talk. He really is CRUSHING IT.
I’m a big fan of all things entertainment: books, movies, music, sports games. And for years I threw money at these things.
I bought every movie that looked interesting, every book that looked interesting… and while I didn’t go too crazy on boardgames, I soon realized I had more than I had people to play them with.
That’s when I realized that buying new CDs, DVDs, books and games was practically an addiction. I was buying them even though I had a backlog of products I had yet to consume. For some reason, I felt good whenever I made a purchase.
Thankfully it didn’t take me too long to wise up.
The way I broke the addiction was very simple. I put all the products I had yet to consume in a box, and every time I got the urge to buy one of my vices I did something different. I went to the box rather than the store.
It wasn’t long before I’d completely forgotten what was in the box, and the items I found inside really did feel new.
Now I haven’t bought a book, movie or CD in years. Sometimes I’ll get them for my birthday or Christmas or something similar…
…but I’m no longer wasting money just to get a “dopamine” shot.
A lot of people who are addicted to infoproducts could take this technique to the bank.
I can tell you this – many of the gurus know you info-product junkies are just looking for something new to purchase. They’ll package up any old crap and put a $37 price tag on it just to be the one to provide your dopamine shot. I even had one client tell me exactly that.
Don’t let them get away with it. Don’t get duped for dopamine – make sure you’re using your current resources before wasting money on more.
Several years back I created Easy Split Test for marketers who want to improve their sales copy.
A split test is where you send one page’s traffic to two pieces of copy and calculate which page converts best. Afterwards you stop showing the loser and begin a new test with the winner and a new slightly modified version of it.
One myth is that there must only be ONE difference between the two pieces of copy to have a valid test. That’s not true at all, and marketers have been doing the exact opposite for decades.
Businesses often enlist copywriters to write copy to challenge their control piece.
They may have copy that has been running for years and converting a solid 2%, but they want to see if that copy can be beaten. So a copywriter writes an entirely different ad for the same product to see which ad converts better.
That’s a valid split test.
The only problem that may arrive is in the conclusions you may draw from the test.
If the control ad has a red headline and the challenger has a blue headline, you could not conclude which headline color converts best from the test unless that was the ONLY difference between the two ads.
So if the the control and the challenger are completely different ads, you will not find out the answer to small questions like which order button, background or font works best. But you CAN find out which ad converts best – and that’s useful information.
Once you know which ad converts best, you can begin slightly modifying the winner and testing it against itself to find out the smaller questions – like which order button converts best.
Another mistake is thinking you need a certain number of actions before you stop a test.
That can be a good rule of thumb, especially for offline marketers who struggle using a computer, but now there are calculators that can do the complicated mathematical formulas for you.
One such complicated mathematical formula is the Chi Square test. This test can predict which version will be the winner from surprisingly low amounts of data, so it doesn’t take as long to run a test. (Which is great when you want to optimize a sales letter fast.)
Easy Split Test has the Chi Square test programmed in to it, so you’ll be notified when your test hits 95% confidence.
And you can search google for “Chi Square calculator” to discover the statistical confidence of any test you’re currently running.
Either way, the marketers who are #WINNING are split testing. Go ready spaghetti and get to work!
Just six weeks ago the idea of posting to my blog every day seemed like a daunting task. I wondered where on earth I’d get all the ideas needed to come up with a new post every day.
In true Ready Spaghetti form, however, I didn’t let that stop me from just getting started. That’s because the first thing you need to do to post to your blog everyday, is just make a post ASAP. Let the rest of it take care of itself in due time.
Another Ready Spaghetti tactic is to ask people with experience for advice.
So when Ryan Healy decided to go blog crazy and published multiple posts every day for a week, I asked him where he got all the ideas. His answer impressed me.
He said he has TOO MANY ideas to blog about – and only a fraction make it in to a post.
Wow. Six weeks ago I didn’t feel it’d ever be that way for me, but I should have known better.
It all comes down to Momentum. If you haven’t posted to your blog in a while, coming up with a new idea for a blog post can seem like a giant task.
But once you start to rock back and forth a bit…
…once you start to break free from the ground that’s held you in place the last few months/years…
…and once you get the ball rolling…
…it’s easy to come up with ideas for posts.
In fact, just as Ryan said, the challenge is writing all the ideas down as they come so you don’t lose them.
I get ideas while writing copy, while surfing the web, while checking out Twitter or the news… even while cooking dinner!
Ideas for blog posts come all the time.
If I’m at my computer, I just quickly log in to wordpress and click to “Add New” post. I give the post a title that will remind me of the idea and then save it as a draft.
Then when it’s time to write some more blog posts, I just log in and start working on one of the saved drafts.
Now writing a new blog post everyday seems easy!
So that’s the secret. Just get started. Maybe ask people for advice (but I just gave you some), and then work to build momentum.
Once the ball is rolling, it’s all down hill from there.
“The Most Important Letter You’ll Ever Read.” Ya right.
Ever read that line in a sales letter? I think it has it’s place. And this isn’t it…
“If you’ve ever wanted to go birdwatching in your backyard, then this is the most important letter you’ll ever read.”
Could anyone possibly believe that birdwatching is the most pressing issue a person has experienced in their ENTIRE life.
Nope, it’s unbelievable. And in copywriting, every time you make a claim you need to back it up. This claim is indefensible here, and even laughable.
In fact, I laughed out loud yesterday watching a TV commercial use the line for a product equally trivial.
As it turns out, “the most important letter you’ll ever read” is often a sign of lazy copywriting. And I know that from my own experience.
The only time to use that line is when it may be true – like for life insurance or identity theft protection. With products like those, it’s not too hard to back up the claim.
Another alternative is to change the line, like Ryan Healy did for the Copywriting Code:
“…then this may be the most profitable letter you ever read.”
Ryan then goes on to back up this claim throughout the letter. That’s doing things right.
For those of you who remember James Brausch, he reemerged last year for a bit and wrote some interesting blog posts before disappearing again. One in particular was titled “Interesting Data Comparing Income To Stickiness.”
In the post he describes an exclusive joint venture he could only offer to one person at a time, and apparently lasted for as long as that person “stuck with it.”
Always the scientist, James found an interesting correlation between how long the JV partners “stuck with it” and their personal income. In James’ words…
Those who earned over a million dollars a year had stuck with this JV for an average of 50.3 weeks. Those who earned less than $100K stuck with this JV for an average of 5.0 weeks.
It seems James found a pattern. That the ultra-successful are able to stick with a task 10 times as long as the less successful. And that the less successful tend to wane out after 5 weeks.
That’s important to me today, because 5 weeks ago I set a goal for myself that also takes stickiness. Posting to this blog every business day.
I have now posted to my blog every business day for just over 5 weeks.
Non business days were Saturdays, Sundays and Valentines day.
I guess we’ll find out what I’m made of tomorrow if there’s no post
That said, blogging every day isn’t the key to success. And I don’t intend to blog every day for 50 weeks to prove myself.
But I do intend to continue until I create a new blogging schedule that fits strategically in to my business plan. And it’s nice to see I’m exhibiting the stickiness to stick with that.
Grizzly quickly went over the formulaic way to brand yourself a guru – track down the biggest know-it-all in the business forum and tell him he’s full of BS. It’s kind of like in prison, or so the movies say.
It’s a King Of The Hill mentality. Make a name for yourself by pushing someone off the top of the mountain – then do your best to stay on top.
This often splits a crowd in to two camps. Those who support the know-it-all and those who support the challenger.
Both camps can develop an emotional need for their leader to be right. And BAM, now you have a polarized audience of likely buyers.
Want an example? Polarizing figure Glenn Beck’s media company is bringing in $30 million-plus per year. And that doesn’t count his TV salary.
Back to the story. OK, you’re a newly elected leader, albeit informally. What’s next?
A leader needs followers who will emulate them. So it’s time to start teaching your audience how to act and speak.
Talk radio host Norman Goldman refers to Republicans as “RepubliCONs” every night on his show and hopes it will stick. Robert Reich, a former US Secretary of Labor, tried to do the same with the term “RadCONs.”
Norman refers to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as Snot Walker. And a promo for his show kept repeating over and over again, “I have a new name for Sarah Palin.”
As if that’s cool, or something.
But what radio talk show hosts know, as well as IM gurus that shall remain nameless, is that getting a crowd to speak in your language is huge. It’s like swearing allegiance to you every time they speak.
Now that you’ve achieved cult leader status, it’s time to protect yourself from anyone else who may want to play leader and knock you off the mountain.
So question: who’s a threat?
Answer: Anyone who doesn’t use your language or do things the way you do. When you catch them doing or saying something different than you, you attack them to keep your position.
A passionate crowd is a buying crowd. And yes, a polarized crowd is a passionate one. But it’s the passion that really creates the buyers, not the polarization.
I think my blog readership has several leaders among them – both present and future – and I’m confident they’ll take the Gary Vaynerchuk approach. It’ll be awesome to watch.
"I have two words about the sales letter. Mind blowing!"
"You're a genius copywriter."
"Business has been doing great. My conversion rate has skyrocketed ever since you wrote those sales letters for me. I can't thank you enough for doing such a marvelous job."
"You're the first person I'm going to think about every time I start a new project that requires copywriting."
If you want to bust out great copywriting every time you stare at the blank page, you’ve gotta learn the 3 B’s of copywriting.
