Create A Marketing "Swipe" File
Direct marketing's a tough way to make a living but if you can
master certain skills it can be extremely lucrative. It takes on
many different forms, some of which are easily translatable to
the web.
Although the term may bring to mind door to door salesmen pushing
their wares to housewives in robes and curlers, it also has roots
in print ads such as classifieds and space ads and direct mail.
The internet has created a massive opportunity for the skilled
direct marketer to thrive without doing the customary legwork and
engaging in personal contact with their prospects, basically
expanding on the concept of direct mail.
So what skills do you need to hone in order to succeed at direct
marketing?
The top priority of anyone interested in making money on the
internet should be their copywriting skills. This is simply
putting your sales message into words.
Since the face to face encounter has been eliminated you need to
be able to convey your pitch through the words on the pages that
your prospects are reading.
A great way to polish your copywriting skills, even if you've
never written a single word of ad copy before, is to create a
swipe file. This is just a file of already successful ad
campaigns.
Swipe files are incredibly useful tools. Every major player in
direct marketing keeps a swipe file and for good reason.
Everybody gets stuck for words and ideas at some point. When this
happens it's good to have an example of past successes to go to
and freshen your creative juices and get the words flowing
again.
What should your file consist of?
You should gather any material that has spurred you to action,
whether its purpose was to get you to buy something or just leave
your name and email address. Copy the good stuff and study it.
Realize what was in the ad that made you act on the offer.
Look for layout designs (bulleted lists are a big direct
marketing tactic), action words, headlines and sub heads. You'll
notice certain words popping up along with questions and
statements that are all fairly alike but are tailored to specific
products and services.
That's the key to a good swipe file. Gather a wide array of
different styles and mold the message to your particular target
audience. Study the material and write out many different
versions of the same ad. Practice your art and perfect it.
A word of caution though. Never copy an ad word for word. That's
plagiarism and it's illegal. Use your swipe file as an aid only,
to sharpen your copywriting skills and make you better at direct
marketing.
Author
George Whitecraft
http://whitecraftshoppingmarketing.biz/info/l/tbp
http://whitecraftshoppingmarketing.biz/info/l/pba
posted by George @ 2:37 PM
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