April 22, 2018

Why Hiring A Copywriter Is More Challenging Than You Think

Howdy,

I’m going on a bit of a rant today.

You see, most copywriters do suck … and suck hard. Investing in most copywriters is just draining money down the toilet. You have better chances making sales by copying a letter of your competitor and changing a few details than 80% of all people out there.

The sad part is that some of them charge $100 for a sales letter … while others charge $1000 and even $2500. Since it’s hard to make the difference between what works and what doesn’t if you’re not an experienced buyer, way too many people fall into the trap of hiring someone they like and get zero ROI on their investment. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

April 20, 2018

What Are Advertorials And Why Should You Start Using Them.

Howdy,

Advertorials deserve a special place in copywriting’s heaven. In the past, they were amongst the most effective forms of advertising. This is because an advertorial is an ad disguised as something offering valuable information. Instead of screaming “I’m an ad, I want to sell you something”, it educates and persuades you at the same time.

While some may argue with this, advertorials spanned an entire new school of marketing. The best known is the catalog copy. This would be a small magazine containing both articles and ads. You can find them on every plane or receive them in your mail from direct mail companies. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

April 19, 2018

Why Copywriting Is Like Judo, Not Like Kung-Fu

Howdy,

I feel the need to confess (to) something.

I’ve read many copywriting books. I estimate about 60 – 70 so far. I do this because I love to learn. I know that some of the best copywriters in the world don’t read that much but this is my fix. Some people take drugs, others sleep with random strangers in Vegas while I read self-improvement and business books.

Yet, while I’ve educated myself considerably on the topic, I’ve failed many times. When I’ve failed, I’ve blamed the marketplace, I’ve blamed the product or I’ve blamed the other person. And if you were in my place and if you had dealt with some of the products that I’ve tried to sell, you’d agree with this. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 23, 2018

People Are Irrational In Their Buying Decision … And The Only Thing You Can Do About It Is To Embrace It.

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

Most people do not take decisions that make sense.

It is said that 95% of any group will take decisions because it sounds nice, it feels right or the outcome that may come out of that decision looks good. All are emotional estimations.

On a more technical level, it is about the tone of voice your self-talk (inner voice) is using when thinking about this / the feelings it triggers in your body based on your map of beliefs or the pictures you imagine in your mind.

The other 5% are said to be overly analytical type that take data driven decisions, similar to how an accountant would balance a budget. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 23, 2018

Two Effective Ways To Become A Better Copywriter

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

There are basically two ways of learning something.

The first one is to take a big picture approach.

When you read ten books on the topic, you are doing this. You end up reading about the same problem from different perspectives and you make your own connections in your mind. It’s similar to working on the job. You notice the “map” of how something is done.

This is my favorite method. I read a lot but I don’t take notes. Each book teaches me something new and this generally connects with what I’ve learned before. I treat learning as a garden in which I’m throwing seeds after seeds. It’s not the most effective method but it is the most time efficient one – as I can study anywhere in almost any circumstances. I guess you can call this learning by osmosis. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 22, 2018

Why You Shouldn’t Fantasize When It Comes To Your Marketplace

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

There’s a joke in the start-up world. It goes like this …

“If only the market would have read our business plan and followed it to the letter. Then everything would have worked out perfectly.”

This is the engineer type of thinking. If everything made sense in the schematic, then the engine must work. If it doesn’t work, then it is the fault of the engine, as we’ve followed the schematic.

Yes, it’s a quite moronic way of looking at life but it’s something we do all the time. We make a plan or we have some image of how something is supposed to happen and then when it doesn’t happen, we dismiss the only thing that can’t be dismissed – market data instead of our initial assumptions. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 21, 2018

Five Lessons I’ve Learned From My Wins As A Copywriter.

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

In my last article, I’ve explained what I’ve learned from my failures. In this one, I’m doing the opposite – explaining what my victories taught me. To be honest, this is a lot harder, because a lot of things happened in very specific circumstances and I do not know if they would happen otherwise. So for all intents and purposes, I’m sticking to universal, evergreen principles.

Principle #1 – Networking matters

No matter if you are a copywriter or a product developer or a marketer, you need other people. It is too slow and sometimes too hard to do everything yourself. Building a list of 10000 people may take you two years but if you find someone who has such a huge list and you offer a win – win deal, you can build it in three months. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 21, 2018

Five Lessons I’ve Learned From My Failures As A Copywriter.

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

I’ve failed as a copywriter. I’ve failed more times than I’ve succeeded. I’ve made stupid mistakes that had cost me and others money. Some of these mistakes were because I was lacking the specialized knowledge. In others, I was lacking the common sense.

I’m content with my failures. I have failed which mean I have tried. Whoever tells you that failure is bed never tried anything. Any venture in life involves the risk of failing and chances are that no matter if you’re launching a dieting product or you want to get a six pack abs, you will fail forward. Things are never going to be as you want them to be, you will always be one step away from losing the game but since you are making progress, you will eventually win. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 21, 2018

Common Sense Will Take You A Long Way In Copywriting.

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

The biggest danger with most copywriters is not their lack of skill. It is their lack of common sense. I have worked with copywriters who are technically savvy, who know 49 ways to write a bullet and who can tell you 15 formulas for writing headlines and yet, don’t understand basic facts about human nature.

Usually these people are very heavy on intellect (book smarts) but very light on life experience. They are the nerds of yesterday transformed into the professionals of today. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a geek too. The problem is that while you can be a great geek and succeed in engineering or IT or any other field (Elon Musk can be considered a geek after all), geeks don’t really succeed in sales. Click Here To Read More!

• • •

February 19, 2018

Why You Shouldn’t Offer Discounts In Your Marketing Materials

From the desk of Razvan Rogoz,

When I was a kid, I didn’t receive a lot of disposable income. Most of the clothes I’ve bought were from local stores or bazars. Yet, there was one store which offered some good discounts. Almost everything was 50 – 60 – 70% discounted. If you bought for $100, you would pay only $50.

So each time there was a major sale, I would buy from them. The problem was that the discounts were so big that it trained me to wait for them. It made no sense for me to purchase anything but the one weekend per month when it was discounted. Years later, I’ve realized that I wasn’t the only one who did this. This store was full during the sale period, empty during the rest so right now, the discounts are year long. They’ve killed their profit margin by giving too many discounts and training their marketplace to wait for them. Click Here To Read More!

• • •
1 2 3 4 … 7