“Ten Most Lethal Copywriting Mistakes”
Jim Edwards hits it out of the park with this top ten list focusing on mistakes in copywriting.
A brief synopsis is the following:
1 – No headline or title (or crappy one)
2 – Features only with no benefits or meaning
3 – Don’t talk about yourself – Talk TO the customer
4 – No clear reason to buy
5 – No clear call to action
6 – Trying to write sales copy from scratch – use scripts
7 – No hook or curiosity factor
8 – Wishy Washy positioning
9 – No clear offer
10 – No offer summary / stack / value stack
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BONUS: Why People BUY:
– Make Money
– Save Money
– Save Time
– Save Effort
– Avoid Pain
– Get Clean
– More Love
– Higher status
– More popularity
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The Transcript
Jim Edwards: Hey guys, Jim Edwards here… Along with…
Stew Smith: Stew Smith!
Jim Edwards: And Stew is actually in the NYC or… just north of NYC doing a cool conference.
What are you doing up there?
Stew Smith: Working with some New York City firefighters
Jim Edwards: There you go…
Stew Smith: Group fitness stuff. And I tell you what man… I’m using an iPhone right now for this zoom pod cast.
Just using the zoom APP…
Jim Edwards: Yeah
Stew Smith: it’s phenomenal.
Jim Edwards: And so, you’ll notice that I have a change of scenery behind me.
I’m actually in my mom’s living room, not my mom’s basement.
No, my wife has not kicked me out or anything.
And this is… helping my mom and dad and my sister and my dad’s in the hospital.
but uh, this just goes to show that we can get stuff done from anywhere.
Stew Smith: That’s right!
Jim Edwards: So, what we want to talk about today in our podcast is…
The 10 most lethal copywriting mistakes people make and…
How to avoid them…
Because there are certain things that I see people doing over and over and over…
That absolutely kill their results.
And so, I figured I’d whip out a big… a big word like lethal….
Instead of saying 10 copywriting mistakes that kill your results.
I figured I’d say 10 most lethal copywriting mistakes people make and…
how to avoid them to let you off the hook.
So, let me tell you what they are real quick and…
then we’re, should I, should I give them a preview or we just dive into them?
Just dive in.
Stew Smith: I said every dive in, I’m taking notes.
I won’t be able to keep up if you rattle them off.
Jim Edwards: Okay, so the first biggest mistake… the number one biggest mistake is…
No headline!!!
If you, every single thing that you ever put out…
ever, ever, ever in your whole life sales letter product… a blog post and… podcast episode…
Everything has a headline or…
A title or… something that is designed to grab people’s attention and…
to make them stop!
All right, that’s a headline.
It can be a hook and we’re going to talk more about hooks in a minute, but…
That is the number one biggest mistake is…
Not having a headline in the second biggest mistake.
That goes right along with that one.
So, part two of this first one… excuse me… is having the wrong headline for the traffic that you’re getting.
So, we know that there are really three temperatures of traffic… There’s hot, warm and cold…
And hot is they know who you are and they know about your product.
Warm is they know there’s a solution out there somewhere
And cold is basically they don’t know about you…
They don’t know about your product… they even know there’s a solution.
They just know they have a problem.
And so, you have to know what the temperature is of the traffic that you’re sending so…
That you can put up a headline that is appropriate for them.
But, even if you don’t know the, the temperature of the traffic…
Just having a headline is going to get you further ahead of not having a headline whatsoever.
So, that’s the big thing.
Biggest mistake I see people making is no headline or… derivations of that.
Like they put the headline into a graphic at the top and…
Everybody ignores those graphics…
There are other mistakes with formatting and whatnot…
But the bottom line is… you need to have a big bold headline at the top of your page so that…
People can see, to let them know if they’re in the right spot or not.
So, that’s headline, that’s mistake number one.
Stew Smith: Not how about a sub title,
Jim Edwards: A subtitle or a sub headline.
Absolutely you can, you can do those.
But make sure that the headline, the way that it’s formatted…
Make sure that the headline is big and the sub headline is smaller.
Stew Smith: Yeah
Jim Edwards: So, it obviously is a sub headline because if you make everything all the same size…
Then it just looks like this giant blobby paragraph of…
Crap that everybody looks at and goes, “Wow, that really sucks… I can’t read that… Let me go somewhere else.”
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: So, I mean, we could spend an entire podcast episode on each one of these and who knows?
We might…
Stew Smith: hey, that’s a great idea…
Jim Edwards: We’ll do an entire podcast episode.
Just do that. There you go.
Stew Smith: Two guests coming up by the way.
Jim Edwards: All right…
Stew Smith: I’ll surprise everybody later.
Jim Edwards: Nice.
Okay. So, the second lethal mistake people make is…
Talking only about features and a feature in your sales copy is…
There are three things you need to understand:
Their features… their benefits… and their meaning…
Feature is what it is.
Benefit is what it does and…
Meaning is what all of that means to you.
Now if you want to see a great example of only talking about features…
Go over to Amazon and look at any piece of hardware.
All right, look up a drill.
Look up a set of wrenches and they talk only about features…
Carbide steel, you know… All metric sizes.
Just all this different, you know, drills… One inch takes a one inch chuck.
Now let me tell you… don’t take a one inch Chuck out of context, especially if your Chuck, but the point is…
I love… I love making you crack up.
Um, the thing is though… the features only gets you so far.
You think about features like is on a SPEC sheet.
Nobody gets excited about features, but…
They started getting excited when you talk about the benefits and the meaning!
So, let’s use the example of a ratchet wrench… A multi size ratchet wrench.
You know, the feature might be works on 3/8 to 5/16.
Now the benefit is it works on 3/8 to 5/16.
Which means you don’t have to which means you don’t have to switch wrenches between, um, between jobs.
You can use the same wrench without going back to your tool box.
So, I’m making this up as I go, but…
So, you can get the job done without having to switch your ranch all the time,
Which means you’ll be able to get your job done faster and be able to hang out with your kids!
So, just pulling that out of thin air…
You want to think in terms of the feature… What’s the benefit of the feature?
And then what’s the meaning of that benefit to them?
So, that’s the big thing… You see this all the time though…
When people in all their sales copy, especially in their bullets, they’re only talking about features, which is what it is, but
People don’t buy it for what it is…
They buy it for what it does for them and what that means to them.
That’s important!
Any questions on that one?
Stew Smith: No, that’s a great one.
Jim Edwards: Okay, so the third mistake…
So, the first mistake is no headline.
Second mistake is talking about features lonely.
The third copywriting… lethal copywriting mistake.
I’m going to come back to that lethal copywriting mistake is…
Talking all about you and not about them!
Meaning have you ever been out to dinner with somebody or even been on a phone call with somebody and…
All they can do is just talk about themselves?
We did this, we did that, I did that. I think that I’m doing this.
This is important to me… All the stuff.
That’s not a good thing to do when you’re writing sales copy because…
The sales copy needs to be all about them… all about their needs…
All about their problems… all about their desires… all about their goals…
All about how they’re going to be benefited by what it is that you offer.
Nobody cares about you at all… They only care about themselves.
And so, one of the things that I like to do…
To make sure that my sales copy is… and this is especially important with written, but with all types of sales copy…
But, I see this more when you’re writing as opposed to talking on video, but…
At least for me, because I envision talking to somebody like I’m talking to you.
So, it makes it easier for me to make it about them as opposed to…
When I’m writing stuff… Sometimes, I can make it about me.
So, what I do is… I’ll go back through my sales copy and I looked for everywhere that I use the words “we, me, my, our and I”…
Which are first person pronouns… For those of you paid attention in 11th grade English class.
And what I’ll do is see how I can reword it… So, it’s about them…
Change it around so that it’s, you know, so you can… which means you will be able to, which…
So, an example would be… if I’m talking about my experience as a copywriter…
So, I might say, you know… I’ve got 22 years of experience as a copywriter and what that means for you is…
That you can benefit from all of my experience…
So, you don’t have to spend 22 years figuring out what I figured out over over two decades.
You see what I mean?… Just as an example.
You know, what that means to you.
Stew Smith: Yeah
Jim Edwards: So, that’s a good example of that… like with Stew, you know…
I figured out how to make it to through and after the hardest military training in the world.
So, if you basically if you’ll just do what I tell you… then you will be able to reach your fitness goals…
Including go getting to buds.
If you’re committed to doing that… you see how it’s awesome.
Stew Smith: But that was a little bit of you… but it goes back to your benefits and meaning.
You know, about how they can benefit from you… not all about you.
Jim Edwards: Right
Stew Smith: Yeah, I like that.
Jim Edwards: Okay. Any questions on that one?
Stew Smith: (shaking head no)
Jim Edwards: Okay.
So, just to recap…
First mistake… no headline
Second mistake… talking about features only.
Third Mistake… talking about you and not talking about them.
Fourth lethal mistake is… no clear reason why to buy.
And so, people are always asking… Okey, why should I buy this?
And so, in your sales copy… you’ve got to explain to them how…
They’re going to be benefited by whatever it is that you’re selling.
And I know this might sound obvious, but…
When you see people creating sales copy… a lot of times there’s no clear reason why…
No theme through it.
And so, there are reasons why people buy stuff and… they’re universal.
People buy stuff to make money…
Save money… save time…
Avoid effort…
Escape pain.
To be more clever…
To be more cleanliness… to be cleaner…
To feel more love…
To feel an increase in status…
To be more popular…
Those are the reasons why people do stuff!
I mean, why do people buy from you… to buy stuff, to get into military training?
For some it’s… I want to make this how I want to make my money.
For others, it’s… I want to have that status of being an elite operator.
So, there are reasons why they’re buying… that theme has to be clear in your sales copy.
So, you know, just thinking through that list…
Make money, save money, save time, void effort, escape pain…
Feel more or be more popular, increased status and to be cleaner.
I mean, why did, one of the biggest things and the biggest industries in this country is cleaning products
Did you know that?
Stew Smith: Yeah
Jim Edwards: People, they link status to that… They link love to that.
If you don’t use febreeze… man, you hate your kids…
I mean you’re making the little rats live in just a stinky cesspool… if you don’t get febreeze.
But if you do get febreeze… then obviously you love your children.
So, that’s the thing. You got to have a theme or several themes in there, but
it’s got to be real clear.
Stew Smith: So, it was a good example of that! Would buy now… buy while supplies last…
Is that an example of need a clear reason to buy or?…
Jim Edwards: That is more to do with the call to action and…
A mechanism of scarcity or a reason to, a reason.
Limited time now as opposed to just a reason why you’re going to buy this.
Stew Smith: Gotcha!
Jim Edwards: Okay. And, that’s a slightly different thing… that the reason why is linked to…
One of those top 10 reasons why people buy…
As opposed to why “buy now” can be linked to…
A fear of loss, like limited quantity, limited time, limited bonus, extra incentive type… stuff like that.
Stew Smith: So, that’s a that’s a different
Jim Edwards: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Okay. So that was the number five or number four.
Anyway, I can’t keep track.
Okay, so, right along though with you asking that question…
The next lethal mistake is… NO clear call to action.
Now part of the call to action what… and let me tell you guys what a call to action is real simple.
Telling people what to do when and where to buy or…
Sign up or… to try or… to call you on the phone.
See a lot of people also… well, two things I want to say about this.
Number one, no clear call to action.
It just meanders around and people are afraid to…
Tell people and ask people, Hey, buy now… here’s the place to buy.
So, the big orange buy now button.
I mean that’s a real clear call to action, but
Part of your call to action also can be… the reason why to buy now.
All right, that’s what we’ll lump that with there.
You can talk about that separately, but we’ll just lump it in there together.
As part of your call to action, you can increase your conversion by giving people a reason to buy.
Now again, it can be a limited quantity….
It can be a limited time… it can be some sort of something that disappears…
Those are very powerful techniques!
They have an Achilles heel because…
If you create something that the big reason why they should buy now is because…
After next Thursday… you’re never going to sell it again.
What happens after next Thursday?… You can never sell it again!
I mean, I learned that lesson the hard way when I created a product, sold it for $777…
I told everybody they could only buy it through next Thursday… I made enough money to pay off my house in a week…
True Story… Made enough money to pay off my house… In a week and when Thursday came I was totally depressed.
My wife says, “What is wrong with you?…
You just made more money in a week than we’ve ever made before in like a year or two”
And I said, “I know, but I just left millions of dollars on the table because I’ve got a screaming hot offer and I can never sell it again.”
So, what I would tell you guys… because I could never sell it again, because I said I’ll never sell it again.
I had to be authentic… So, you want to do is find emotionally compelling reasons why people need to buy now that…
Are NEVER going to change!
And so that’s where you say things like, again, using the example of, you know Stew’s thing…
Let me be clear on this with the fitness stuff…
Every day you wait to get whatever… what’s the book you have about, uh, flexibility and recovery and we’ll go
Stew Smith: Tactical Mobility.
Jim Edwards: Yeah.
Tactical Mobility and recovery is another day that your muscles are going to keep tightening up….
It’s another day that your run times are going to go down…
It’s another day, you’re going to be scared that…
You may lose the job that you’ve worked so hard to get and keep for the last decade.!
You can’t wait another day to start working on your tactical mobility and fitness!
That’s and that’s never going to end… It’s not like next Thursday…
You know, if you want to get flexible, you only have till next Thursday.
It’s NO so you’ve got to, you got a…
Stew Smith: Evergreen.
Jim Edwards: Now I’m going to give you guys a little bit of insider stuff…
That list I listed off for you about why people buy…
Make money, save money, save time, avoid for escape pain, be more clean, increased status.
Well, you can FLIP that… This is real insider stuff.
It’s like Ying and Yang!
You flip that and use that in… the reasons why they need to buy now as part of the call to action for fear of loss!
If you do this… You’re not going to make money…
Little Timmy is going to be begging in the street…
All right… it’s going to cost you a ton of money.
If you wait, you’re going to have to work much harder every day you wait…
It’s going to get harder and harder to get that strength and mobility that you need.
You’re going, I mean, you talk about decrease in status…
Everybody thinks going to imagine the look on your friends’ faces when they find out that…
You lost your elite job in the military because you failed a PT test.
Stew Smith: Ohhhhh…
Jim Edwards: So, so that’s just, you see how this stuff kind of fits together.
Stew Smith: Oh sure.
Jim Edwards: From here and you flip stuff around… But once you understand that you can, you can really do some cool stuff.
So, any questions on that call to action stuff?
Stew Smith: No.
So, my question is, I guess is uh, you know, like the call to action button is quite obvious on most people sales pages, right?
There’s a button there is the reason why near that button?
Jim Edwards: It can be, or sales copy or it can be even in the button.
Click here, click, click here… Now to increase your strength and mobility.
Stew Smith: Like how you scroll the mouse over something and something pops up to explain?
Jim Edwards: Nah, you don’t want to ever come… You don’t want to ever, um, depend on that.
You don’t want somebody having to interact with something to get more information.
But having a button that says “click here for more strength and mobility now”…
And then you have a little thing under, you know… “get started”
You know, whatever the payoff is.
But, I mean you can make the call to action include part of the payoff.
Stew Smith: I like that.
Jim Edwards: So yeah, definitely.
Okay, so… no headline… talking about features… only talking about you… not talking about them.
No clear reason to buy… No clear call to action… And the next one is real simple.
This one we don’t have to spend a lot of time on.
Next lethal mistake is trying to write your sales copy from scratch…
Not using swipe files… Not using scripts… Not using blueprints.
You are just a glutton for pain… punishment and… stupidity…If you’re going to do that!
There are certain patterns that work for selling people stuff and…
There are a lot of patterns that don’t!
People are people and people buy stuff…
I hear this crap about business to business versus business to consumer versus peer to peer.
It’s people buying from people…
And if you sell the companies you’re selling to people that run companies…
And work for companies… you’re still selling to people….
So, the thing to understand, is there a certain language patterns that work?
Yes, it might be a little bit different because you’re in a different industry, but…
Not as much as you think.
All right? People buy to solve problems and satisfied desires.
That’s why anybody ever buys anything… And so that’s the thing.
Do NOT try and wing this on your own… You need to use funnel scripts.
You need to use the Jim Edwards Method Premium.
You need to use these various tools that you have available to you…
That are going to help you to write your copy and create content and…
Get it done quickly!
Or you can spend 22 years building up your own swipe file and doing it!
That’s fine. Go ahead.
Okay, we call on that one.
Stew Smith: Yes. Cut and dry.
Jim Edwards: Okay, so the next lethal mistake is not having any type of hook or curiosity mechanism in your copy…
Now, what is a hook?
A Hook is what makes people STOP… Now a hook can be a quote…
It can be a headline… So, your headline can be a hook… It can be text…
It can be the first words that come out of your mouth… It can be an image…
So, don’t just think about a sales letter… A one page sales letter… or don’t just think about an optin page or…
Don’t just think about an ad on Facebook or…
Don’t just think about any of these things because we kind of get fixated in your as well.
I’m not… that doesn’t matter to me because…
Right now, I’m just worried about a… newsfeed ads on Facebook Jim.
Great.
You still need a hook, but you got to understand…
The hooks are going to work better based on wherever you’re creating your copy.
So, in video… one of the things that I have found works really well is…
Your hook on video needs to be the first words out of your mouth.
It can also be a funny expression on your face.
It can also be wearing these masks and different hats and things like that because…
There’s a visual hook of… it’s like what is going on? What is he saying?
So, instead of saying, you know, hey guys, Jim Edwards here and welcome to another edition of letting the chickens out with Jim…
I start with, now I’ve start with whatever, whatever the topic is, and turned into a hook.
Okay, what are the 10 most lethal things that people are doing with their sales copy that’s costing them money…
Making them lose their house and…
Causing their children to have to beg in the street.
Hey guys, Jim Edwards here and welcome to another edition of letting the chickens out with Jim.
I mean, how can you ignore that hook?… You know what I mean?
Stew Smith: That’s a good one
Jim Edwards: So, and if I’m wearing a chicken hat… that’ll hook you.
And so, there’s gotta be something curiosity driven.
Now if you think about newsfeed ads and Facebook though, what’s the hook Stew?… It’s not text.
Okay.
Stew Smith: Oh, it’s a pretty picture. It’s a picture, right?
Jim Edwards: Yeah.
It’s a picture or whatever’s going on in your video that starts playing without sound when you… when somebody scrolls through.
So, in that case, it’s a picture… It’s not words.
In fact, words are pretty much the least important part of that whole process when you’re talking about…
A newsfeed ad as opposed to a one page sales letter or…
The hook has gotta be those first words that anybody sees when they pull up to your page.
That makes sense.
Stew Smith: Absolutely.
Jim Edwards: And if you don’t have that, then not enough people stop to pay attention to what you’re selling.
So, you’ve got to have that hook.
You’ve got to have that curiosity mechanism… something to make people stop.
The next big mistake that people make is… what I call wishy washy positioning.
What do I mean by that?
Well, when you tell somebody something, especially in a video or in a sales letter or even an ad…
You can’t use words or body language or anything that would make people think…
You weren’t 100% committed to what you’re saying.
You know, hey guys, Jim Edwards here…
You guys might really think want to think about signing up for my copywriting group because…
We do some cool stuff over there…
And if you’re interested in copywriting… or content creation…
Sometimes we have some really great things that you might be interested…
As opposed to, Hey guys! Jim Edwards here!
If you are excited about learning how to write sales copy that…
Drives people to grab their wallet, pull out their credit cards and start typing to send you money…
If you want to know how to create amazing compelling content that sells people and…
Flies under the radar and they don’t even realize that you’re selling…
Then you need to join my Facebook group.
It’s amazing! And better than that, it’s FREE! We have people posting stuff in there all the time!
I get in there… I get live… we answer questions… we brainstorm… we do crowdsourcing… we do all sorts of amazing things!
If you’re serious, if you’re serious about doing sales copy or content marketing, you need to go join that group right now!
Stop what you’re doing!
Go to the JimEdwardsmethod.com/group and you need to join!
It’s free and you need to be in there because you’re missing out!
You see the difference? That you need to believe in whatever it is that you are creating copy for!
You’ve got to believe… You’ve got to be forceful…
You’ve got to be… you’ve got to be direct.
Well, Jim, I’m not like that. That’s not really my personality.
I’m not really into that kind of thing.
You know? And just if people, people wouldn’t like it… because it’s good and nice results… Bullshit!
Okay, you’ve got to take a stand and have a position… Love me… hate me…
There’s no money in the middle… All right?
Now you may not be as crazy as me, but
You need to amp up yourself and really have a position.
Does that make sense? Did,
Stew Smith: oh, absolutely.
And yes, you’re sold me at knife hand.
Here you go. All right, so we at night.
But yeah, I mean if you’re not very good at doing that…
that’s where the scripts come in so handy.
Right?
Stew Smith: Because I’ll be honest with you, I’m not very good at it.
Right. And scripts are helping me tremendously.
Jim Edwards: Methodology of the patterning of the scripts or it’s language patterns ideal…
It’s just like exercise patterns…
I mean, you may not be good at pushups now…
But, if you do what Steve tells you… You get real good at pushups.
And you can activate the lunk alarm at planet fitness.
Um, well not really, but it would have been cool “Sir… We have to escort you out.”
“Oh, that’s cool. I was done anyway.”
NO clear offer… That’s number nine!
There’s no clear offer…
That’s the other thing that people kind of beat around the bush and…
Then they’re beaten around the bush and…
Then, well, you’re going to get this and you’re going to get done.
It’s really cool.
And this one’s good over here… Here’s the magic phrase that you put into a sub headline or words that come out of your mouth.
Are you ready?
Stew Smith: Yes.
Jim Edwards: Okay… “Here’s exactly what you’re gonna get”
Okay. You start telling them all this other stuff.
But at some point… once you’ve sold them…
Then you got to tell them… “Here’s exactly what you’re going to get”
And you list off and it’s okay, you’re going to get this.
This is what it is… This is what it does…
And you almost got to think about doing a feature, benefit and meaning for each thing that they’re getting…
All right. Here’s what it is… here’s what it says… here’s what it means to you…
And here’s what it’s worth… each thing that they’re getting.
And then that leads us to the final mistake that people make in their sales copy, which is…
There’s no offer stack… There’s no value stack.
There’s no offer summary…
So, right when you ask people to buy… you should, you don’t, sometimes you can’t always,
But you should have a little bulleted list of everything…
That you’ve told them that they’re going to get…
Not just what the little titles so that they can see…
I’m going to get this, this, this, this, this, this, this…
You know, they told me all about it. Up here…
I’m visualizing up above the ceiling… I’m visualizing this sales letter coming all the way down…
They told me up here that I’m going to get… this and this and this and this… and now it’s time to act.
And they got my call to action and…
I know that I’m supposed to be doing this now and this is a reminder!
I’m going to get this, this, this, this, this… click here now to increase my strength and flexibility.
Okay, I’m going to get all this shit and…
This is the thing I’d push to get it.
And that’s… those are the 10 mistakes.
So, I’m going to, I’m going to recap them real quickly…
Like the guy in the Fedex commercial.
All right, mistake number one.
Oh well I don’t need to do it now…
No headline talking about features… only talking about you… not talking about them.
No clear reason why to buy… no clear call to action….
Trying to write sales copy from scratch… No Hook or curiosity mechanism…
Wishy washy positioning… No clear offer of what they get.
And no offer stack that you stack offer summary at the end.
Stew Smith: Oh, love it.
Jim Edwards: The 10 most lethal copywriting mistakes people make and how to avoid them.
Stew Smith: So, so here’s the deal as the let’s do this officer… you’re not writing down these notes. You’re wrong!
Jim Edwards: That’s right.
Or send Stew 50 bucks and he will Xerox that for you and send it to you.
Stew Smith: I will also write it in the description of this video if you did not do that.
Jim Edwards: Oh cool. Thanks. No, I didn’t.
Awesome. All right, cool. Well thank you Stew.
I know you’ve got to get back to, to get after it with the firefighter guys and I got to go help my dad over at the hospital.
So, I would just encourage you guys… review this.
Take this to heart. Don’t feel as though… I guess I also don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by this.
I just want you to be conscious of this.
These are things that you need to pay attention to and avoid!
And if you do that… And you do the opposite as we told you…
You can really get much better results with less stress!
So, All right everybody…
We’ll have a great day and we will talk to you soon… Bye Bye everybody.
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