Copywriting, as noted by Ryan in the last post, has been a part of your life since you were little.  But there is something I want to point out from his last sentences…

It can help you sell your products and services online.  But it can also help offline, helping you phrase together the right words to “sell” people on your website.

You may not even realize how many ways you sell your business. Let me list a few beyond your salesletters…

• You sell at the entrepreneur meetup
• Your landing pages sell your autoresponder
• Your emails sell your prospects on company and staying on your email list
• Your press releases sell your news and your website
• Your blog posts sell your knowledge

Now, I hope you are starting to see all the ways you “write copy” and sell your business.  In all honesty, that list is just a small portion of the ways you sell.  Each person who asks “What do you do?” gets the brief salesletter of who you are and what you do.

While you consider this, any hesitation you had about learning more about copywriting is probably fading.  You may want to learn quite a bit more.  Fortunately Vin talks today about the top seven copywriting books he recommends.  These can help your business and change your sales in ways you don’t expect.

Read the StomperTip and learn more!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

 

“I don’t know the rules of grammar. . . . If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.”

~ David Ogilvy ~
In 1962, Time called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.”

A Copywriter’s Bookcase 

By Vin Montello

Hello Stompers.

Everywhere you go in copywriting circles these days you come across the topic of reading – specifically answers to the age-old question, “What’s the best book on copywriting?”

My personal answer is, “All of them.”

Don’t misunderstand me. All the books on copywriting aren’t great – not by a long shot. Many are worthless because they are derivative of others.

The reason I say “all of them” is that you almost can’t find a book out there that’s wrong.

I’m not kidding…

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a book on copywriting that tells you the wrong thing to do.

Many may be pretty thin on content and may lack the depth of knowledge you get from others, but rarely will you find a single book on copywriting that says:

“Don’t engage the reader.”

“Don’t write in a smooth and easy-to-read manner.”

“Don’t ever ask for the sale.”

So, if you know little or nothing about the art of copywriting, reading just about any book is going to help you get a little better.

But who wants “a little better”? No one.

We all want the Holy Grail of copywriting books, the end-all, be-all book, the final word on copywriting in the whole wide world, no questions asked.

The Only Book You Will Ever Need To Read…

Um, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but…

that elusive, magical book can only be mounted on the back of a unicorn on his way to Never Neverland with Bigfoot, a leprechaun, and Saddam’s WMDs because like those other things, that book doesn’t exist.

Instead, there are a bunch of game-changing books that anyone writing copy should be familiar with. Amidst all the crappy books on my office shelf are the must-haves for any copywriter and marketers who write their own copy.

Today, that list is yours because I’m giving my bookshelves a deep cleaning and tossing out all but the seven I’m revealing to you today.

OK, so I’ll call this list:

The Top Seven Books You Must Read if You Want to Stop Leaving Money in Your Customer’s Pockets         

1. Scientific Advertising  (Claude C. Hopkins)

Written in 1923, this book is considered by many to be the starting point for all things related to direct-response advertising. Hopkins worked primarily in mail order and was among the first known to measure an ad’s success by sales.

Madison Avenue mastermind David Ogilvy has said that anyone who advertises anything needs to read this book seven times. And those who advertise nothing need not read it at all.

I’m going on reading number nine.

2. The Robert Collier Letter Book  (Robert Collier)

The edition I have was written in 1937, but there have been others. Aside from this being a good first- or second-step “how-to,” this book is best used as a desktop companion. I keep it nearby whenever writing a sales letter.

Warning: Unless you enjoy the English language of a long-gone era, you may not enjoy this read. It’s woefully outdated in its use of language. But if you can get past that, you’re golden.

In fact, the language use is so antiquated at times it becomes a good reminder about writing colloquially in the language your audience wants to read.

3. How To Write a Good Advertisement (Victor Schwab)

OK, we’re slowly getting more current. This book is from the early 1960s. What’s so great about this book is that each chapter comes with a little quiz at the end. What I recommend is reading each chapter (they’re short and easy to swallow), then taking the quiz without peeking back into the chapter.

You can always go back and double check your answers.

But if you take these quizzes and put all the chapter answers into a Word document, you end up with a pretty cool cheat sheet to keep at your desk.

I did this with my mentor, David Garfinkle, and all of my students do it, too.

Note: As I said, this book was written in the 1960s.

There are some old notions on selling to men vs. women that might not sit well with you, but if you’re like me you’ll just find these old theories humorously quaint.

4. Advertising Secrets of The Written Word (Joe Sugarman)

This is the first copywriting book that truly turned me on. If you don’t know Joe Sugarman, he’s the mastermind behind the marketing of hundreds of products over the years.

One of his most famous (and biggest seller) is Blublocker Sunglasses. Rumor has it he personally sold more than 50 million pairs of these (ahem) beautiful (double ahem), stylish glasses.

The book explains in detail the behind-the-scenes workings of those ads and many others. Lots of illustrations mean even lazy readers love this book.

True students of modern copy will read this book many times over. I’ve read it three additional times just for entertainment. It’s really that good.

Note: Sugarman’s “Adweek Copywriting Handbook” is a slightly updated soft-cover version of the same book.

5. You Can’t Teach a Kid To Ride a Bicycle at a Seminar  (David H. Sandler)

Subtitle: “The Sandler Sales Institute’s 7-Step System for Successful Selling.” Boy, that’s a mouthful.

This book isn’t really about copy. It’s about selling. But because copy is defined as “salesman ship in print,” I’m surprised books like this are rarely recommended. I’m here to fix that.

This Sandler book is my favorite on how to close like a star salesman without lying, hyping or losing your self-respect. That’s not their description of the book. It’s mine.

Basically, “Bike At A Seminar” is a unique system of selling that really allows the customer to do much of the selling while you sit back and just “assist.”

Imagine that. The customers sell themselves while you do little more than stay out of the way.

Pretty sweet.

Now, not all of this system conveys to copywriting but enough to make it definitely worth a read.

6. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini, PhD)

An Arizona State psychology professor, Cialdini takes a scientific approach to the “art” of persuasion and negotiation.

What’s great here is also what’s unique. Cialdini explains the scientific reasons people do what they do. Again, not a book on copywriting but a book anyone writing copy needs to be familiar with.

The biggest part of the book is the “Six Weapons of Influence” (Reciprocation, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity).

If you know even a little about copy, you’ve heard of these things. Now you can learn why they’re all important.

7. Story (Robert McKee)

Subtitle: “Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting.

Sure, this is a book on screenwriting. No, wait. Check that.

This is THE book on screenwriting from the perspective of storytelling, at least.

Coming as I do from writing television, this is a book I read long before the others listed here. But I don’t recommend it because it relates to my former life. I recommend it because story is so important in selling. Weaving a compelling story into your sale letters is one of the most effective ways of keeping attention and leading your readers to the sale.

And while I say “sales letters,” the same is true for videos, e-mails, newsletters; heck, any marketing works best when done in conjunction with a good story.

Well, there you have it. My top seven books you should read to suck cash out of your readers’ pockets like a carwash vacuum sucks change out of your ashtray.

 

By Vin Montello

Vin Montello is a former stand up comic and Hollywood television writer that brings his 20 years experience as a storyteller, to every direct response sales letter he writes. These days Vin’s crew is responsible for crafting some of the most successful online marketing campaigns, earning Vin the nickname “The Millionaire Maker.”

Vin invites you to his wildly successful marketing blog at MarketingClambake.com. You can also learn more about him at MontelloMarketing.com.

 

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Secret Sauce Checklist

The Top 7 Books for a Copywriter

• Scientific Advertising  (Claude C. Hopkins)
• The Robert Collier Letter Book  (Robert Collier)
• How To Write a Good Advertisement (Victor Schwab)
• Advertising Secrets of The Written Word (Joe Sugarman)
• You Can’t Teach a Kid To Ride a Bicycle at a Seminar  (David H. Sandler)
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert B. Cialdini, PhD)
• Story (Robert McKee)
• Highly Responsive Copywriting

 

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Winning Mindset

 

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