Why? She’s brilliant at accounting, and I’m not at all embarrassed to admit I need her help figuring out debits and credits. I’m also not embarrassed to hire a mechanic for my car or a professional to cut my hair. I didn’t study those things and have no talent for them.

So what?

Unfortunately, too many people who think they “should” be able to write go ahead and do it. They write their own sales letters and ad copy – with results that are often detrimental to their success. A poorly written letter can be worse than no letter at all.

Realtors often have a second problem: time.

In addition to thinking they should be able to write, some people suffer from thinking that they should be able to write a good letter on the first draft, or turn out a winning ad in 15 minutes — and they should be able to do it in between other tasks that have their minds spinning seven different directions.

When they’re running from one appointment to the next and trying to take care of client details in between, that might be all the time they have to devote to the task, but it just doesn’t work that way.

The truth is good copywriting takes time, study, and plenty of thought. And after that it takes proofreading. Depending upon the subject matter, one simple sales letter could take all day to write.

One postcard could take several hours. In fact, sometimes the shortest copy can take the most time, because each word is so important. Copywriters spend a lot of time considering words and their impact and trying to choose exactly the right ones to evoke the desired emotions in their readers.

If you’ve been writing your own copy and not getting the results you want, try finding a good copywriter. Do the job you do best — such as selling homes, staying in touch with people, and tending to all the details involved in a closing — and let a professional write the copy that will bring you more customers.

Quit feeling guilty because you’re not a professional copywriter, web designer, auto mechanic, hairdresser, or accountant. Instead, keep on being the best expert you can be in your own field and be thankful that you don’t have to do everyone else’s job in addition to your own.

By the way, that thankfulness is a good trait to practice!

You probably know that the purpose of the headline or subject line is to get readers to read the first sentence. The purpose of the first sentence is to get them to read the second – and on and on.

But sometimes, a brilliant idea for that first sentence just isn’t there.

Here’s good news:

This morning’s email included a Target Marketing message that should help. It offers up a list of 48 “starters” that have been proven effective in marketing over the past many years. Some come from the pre-internet world of direct marketing, but that’s OK – our methods of communicating have changed, but human nature has not.

Readers STILL want an answer to “what’s in it for me” before they read on.

I personally disagree with a couple of the suggestions on this list. A couple would actually make me delete the message immediately. For instance “We’ve missed you.” My mental response is that I don’t care – I left/unsubscribed/quit buying your products because that’s what I wanted to do.

Notice that this irritant begins with the word “we.”

All of these have been proven to work, but to be on the safe side, I believe you should “choose and use” those that are customer-focused and avoid starting any message with “we” or “I.”

Anyway, if you’ve ever been stuck, take a minute to visit Target Marketing and print off their list of 48 “starters.” It just might come in handy one day.

Thanks to Brian Clark at Copyblogger for sharing…

His words of wisdom apply no matter what goods or services you’re selling.

“Excessive Adjectives – too Much of a Good Thing.”
Blame Your English Teacher
Blame Your Mom
Blame Fear of breaking the law
You aren’t addressing your prospects’ concerns”

Now that you know where to place the blame, you can start to do something about it.

That starts with taking the time to write. No good copy is written in an instant.

Begin with getting it all out on paper, then sort, re-arrange, and delete anything that doesn’t add to your main topic.

Next, tighten it up. That means getting rid of “fluff” and extra words that serve no purpose except to fill space. Replace long words with short ones and long sentences with short ones.

Eliminate any words that any person in your target audience might not understand. Even if you use terms like “experiential,” “protracted,” and “tertiary” in real life – get them out of your copy.

And if you can’t overcome the reasons why or don’t have the time to write effective marketing copy, get in touch.

Writing to help you succeed is what I do.

And yet, amateur marketers still pay too much attention to the rules their High School English teacher taught. The result is dry as a bone, stiff copy.

And you know, nobody reads dry words until they’re required to do so.

At the same time, being too casual makes you sound a little demented. And I HAVE seen it done. In fact, I’ve received emails with a subject line that went something like: “Like You Gotta Dig This!”

Uh – no, I like don’t gotta.

I thought that “like” habit had fallen out of fashion years ago – but I was wrong. I not only heard it in the grocery store this week, I heard it on a television commercial tonight.

But there are a couple of other common errors that I’m seeing more and more lately.

One is the over-use or mis-use of commas.

Look how difficult it is to read this:

By now, you know, that following instructions, from your high school English teacher, will cause you to write dry, dull, uninspiring copy.

This one is SO easy to avoid. Here’s the trick:

After you write a sentence or a paragraph, read it out loud. Pause at every comma. If it sounds like normal conversation – great. If it sounds choppy or clunky or halting (as if you were really not sure about what you wanted to say) get rid of a few commas.

The other is the over-use of descriptive words and phrases.

Take this sentence from a property description one of my ezine readers found on an agent website: “Well-favored uncommonly modern kitchen equipped with top-of-the line appliances and unpredicted materials.”
(No, that’s not a typo. It said “unpredicted.”)

Sadly, all those words draw attention to themselves and away from the message they were meant to convey.

Keep it simple – and communicate.

Before you sit down to write, think about the people you want to reach. Then narrow that down to just one of them. Picture that person in your mind’s eye…

What will they be doing when they get your message? What will they be thinking / worrying / dreaming about? That’s what you want to discuss with them.

Now pretend that you’re sitting across the kitchen table from them, sharing a cup of coffee and perhaps a plate of cookies – and just talk.

The message you write will be much more natural. Your words will flow easier and you won’t be tempted to throw in any “$40 words” for emphasis. (You wouldn’t do that in person, would you?)

The best part – people will enjoy reading what you write, and they’ll respond… What could be better? (The cookies, maybe??)

That means instead of writing “large kitchen” you should write “12 X 14′ kitchen offers space for friends and family to help with holiday meals.”

And instead of saying “surrounded by trees” you should write “tall Pines surround the property, assuring privacy.”

I know – some places on the web you don’t have room so you have to be boring and uninspiring. But some places – like your own website – offer all the space you need. So use it!

The rule is: Remember that it isn’t about you.

Your marketing, if it’s to be effective, HAS to be about your prospective customers/clients and what they want or need.

Test each of your marketing messages (including web pages) by checking to see what the first sentence is about. If it says “we” or “I,” rewrite it.

Then count the number of times you say “we” or “I” or any variation thereof. Next, count how many times you use some version of the word “You.”

Unless you’ve used “you” at least 3 or 4 times as often as you’ve used “I,” – rewrite it.

Just yesterday I spent nearly an hour on the phone with a client who was trying to decide on the best word to describe an offer he was making.

It can be a long process, pondering each word and trying to decide how it might affect a reader’s perception of the offer.

Most copywriters and marketers go through this same process… and sometimes they come up with words that are just plain annoying.

At least, they annoy me. Once I see them in copy I am stuck with the feeling that the person is “All hype and no substance.”

The problem, of course, is that the words that annoy me might not be the same ones that annoy you.

But for what it’s worth, I’ll share two of the words/phrases that turn me away…

Both of these are used by marketers who are promoting their expertise and asking you to buy their program or listen to an audio or video – which you know will only promote what they have to sell.

One is “drill down.” They say “We’re going to drill down and …”

The other is “grill.” Just yesterday I got a promotion for a teleseminar, “In which XX will grill me until he discovers my secret for…”

Yeah sure. Delete.

Before you send your promotion out to the world, check to see if any of the words you use make you sound like “All hype and no substance.”

If they do, choose better words.

They make you lose track of what you were reading while you go back to re-read the last sentence and think “Huh?”

The one I found today wasn’t a major thing – but it was enough to make me stop. And I’m sure I know just how it happened. The write made some edits and changes before submitting the article. But he didn’t quite finish.

Here’s what I read: “There is still a huge backlog of these cases or foreclosures that have never been brought forward yet,” The sentence would have been fine if the writer had left off the word “Yet.” It would also have been fine if he had said “that have not been brought forward yet.” But “Have never been brought forward yet” was jarring.

Before you submit an article or a blog post – proof read your copy. See if there’s a word or two stuck in there that needs to come out.