31 Copywriting Secrets Jim Edwards… What are the Best Points?

No matter where you are in learning copywriting, whether you think you’re a pro or you’ve never written a word to sell anything ever, this book is full of great tips and strategies that will help you improve your copy across the board. 31 Copywriting Secrets Jim Edwards is a straightforward book about turning you into a master of your copywriting career. Through practice, your skills will become sharper.

Jim shares 31 secrets that will improve your effectiveness in copywriting for sure. I won’t cover them in as detail in all fairness to the author but I will describe them to you briefly with some context as to how the tip has helped me.  I didn’t enjoy writing in school but I do enjoy blogging because I can choose the topics I want to write about.

Copy really did change my life and it continues to do so. It is an amazing skill to possess and can help you and those you care about.

I started to realize that it wasn’t the product that made a company successful. It was that company’s ability to create a strong enough desire for that product that the customer would do anything to buy it.

I wanted to understand when your interest is piqued. I needed to understand the psychology behind why people buy because it was the difference maker in selling or not selling for your brand. You cannot afford to not have this knowledge.

This book teaches you how to model them for the things I was selling. As I made the shift and started to master copywriting, I noticed something very interesting…

• Creating a great product doesn’t make you successful.
• Building an amazing funnel doesn’t make you successful.
• Driving traffic doesn’t make you successful.
• Building a list doesn’t make you successful.

Until you learn how to write good copy, none of those things mattered because the products you tried to sell didn’t sell. The traffic will not convert very well without great copy that appeals to the emotions and desires of your reader.

Copywriting is what can really change the game for you. It is a terrific amplifier.

It has more impact on how much money you make with your company than anything else.

Do you want to know how you can make ALL of your customers MORE successful?” i asked him how and he responded, “You need to help them write better copy.

This book will help you to make more money, serve more people, and increase your impact so you can change the world in your own way.

If you want to make more money, writing good sales copy is the key.

Here’s the big thing to remember: nobody will write better copy for your stuff than you.
You want to be the one that creates your copy (or at least edits it) if at all possible because you’re the one who knows how to connect with your audience.

It takes time to learn how to write copy from scratch . . . but it’s worth the time and effort.

The cool thing is nobody is born a million-dollar copywriter. Nobody is born knowing the exact words to use for sales copy. But, the cool part is that sales copy follows patterns you can learn.

You can use and improve these proven patterns to create copy that sells.

It’s a very profitable skill to learn, worth the time and effort to learn the techniques.

The reality is nobody is born a million-dollar copywriter. Nobody is born knowing the exact words to use for sales copy. But, unlike a fiction writer or even a non-fiction writer, sales copy follows patterns you can learn. It’s worth scooping copywriting secrets Jim edwards.

Copywriting isn’t just putting down words on paper and hoping that it works. Copywriting is about structure and strategy.

Secret 1 – Persuasion

Sales copywriting is anything intended to persuade the right reader, viewer, or listener to take a specific action.

– Jim Edwards

Copywriting secrets Jim Edwards is about the nature of copywriting and why it exists plus where it is going.

It helps to read people’s books however one of the best things you can do is read any sales message that gets you to spend money. That is copy you should study because you’ve connected with it on an emotional level.

Secret 2 – Commit to lifelong learning

Learning to write great copy can change your life. It is much more than writing but a life journey of growth and self-development. Read the classics like Scientific Advertising.

This is a skill that will have a very large return on investment because of how we communicate online. Writing is a key part and will be for some time to come.

Commit to developing your skills with copywriting. Having this skill will make you nearly unstoppable. With the addition of marketing and sales skills then you are on fire.

Secret 3 – Know Your Why

Without A Strong Why, People Don’t Buy

Our why is what moves us. Nearly everything we do aligns with our why. When you consume content that resonates strongly

People don’t buy without a reason why. We want to be a part of something. We want to be moved by something that aligns with our values and who we are or who we want to be.

If you can do this with your products and your words, then you have a chance.

Secret 4 – People Only Care about Themselves

Nobody Cares About You In Your Sales Copy

“People aren’t interested in you. They’re interested in themselves.”

This is not just in copy this is in life and in business and something once you understand will give you a major age and everything you do you have to know that everything you post online and reference should be about the other person unless they ask about you and this will give you the best chance of being successful

you can have everything you want in life if you just hope other people get what they want Zig Ziglar.

Make your sales copy all about them, your prospect.

Go back through your copy and look for the words I, me, my, we, ours. When you find those words, change the perspective so it’s all about them—not about you.

Never forget: Prospects don’t care about you. They care about having their needs met, their problems solved, their fears calmed, and their desires satisfied.

The words you use and the message should feel about your reader. Use their language too.

Secret 5

The Most Valuable Skill You’ll Ever Learn
“Every product has a unique personality and it is your job to find it.”
Joe Sugarman

First class copywriting, you’re probably going to have to learn to do it yourself.

You see, the few of us who really can do it, write copy that sells, are so much in demand, you can’t even think about hiring us unless you’re willing to spend an arm and a leg. Even then you’ll still have to wait in line.”

It’s going to cost you an arm and a leg and you’ll have to wait forever to get that copy back from the copywriter.

Why should I learn to write sales copy when it feels easier and faster to outsource it?

More valuable for you to know how to use the skill

We all need to get good at writing sales copy for several reasons. The first one is speed. If you need it fast, it’s expensive.

Copywriting mindset

First Step: Become great at creating headlines

Second Step: Become good at writing bullets.

Secret 6 – Headlines Are Most Important

On average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.”
David Ogilvy

The number one copywriting skill everybody needs is to write great headlines. I’ve seen statistics that eight out of ten people who see an advertisement or a webpage read the headline, but only two out of ten read the rest of the copy.

If your headline sucks, nobody reads your sales letter, nobody reads your ad, and nobody watches your video. But, if you have a great headline that grabs someone’s attention, people read your sales letter, read your ad and watch your video.

The purpose of a headline is simple: to get people to stop what they’re doing and to start reading (or watching) whatever it is you put in front of them.

Whether it’s a physical sales letter, a sales letter on the web, a video sales letter, an ad, a Facebook post, whatever it is, the headline will determine your success every single time.

You have to learn to write great headlines. Use all of the free blog posts that have done research on the most effective headlines.

That’s the number one skill everybody needs to develop, no matter what you sell or who you sell it to.

He also gives a lot of great headline structures you can use.

Secret 7 – Respect Your Audience

Acknowledge the different audiences who can use your product or service. Don’t just say this message is for everyone. Think about what stage your reader is when they read your content and how they will interpret it.

Identify those audiences and commit to putting the right messages in front of them. Not any message but the RIGHT message. This takes time to develop. Don’t be lazy and do like most who fall into the trap of one-size-fits all mindset.

Secret 8 – Know Your Audience Deeply

Know your audience better than they know themselves. All this takes is research and not being selfish but rather thinking of someone other than yourself. Be sincere and develop a customer profile.

Pay as much or more attention to psychographics as you do demographics.
Know Fred’s PQR2.

Secret 9 – Bullets are Vital

Bullets are the workhorse you use to create curiosity in your copy. Learn how to create concise bullets to strengthen your messages and show people the most important points that you want them to understand.

Five amazing bullets will outperform 30 good bullets.

Then I was exposed to the idea of a long-form, one-page sales letter, where people came and scrolled down a single page with a giant sales pitch. If you printed it out, it might have been ten pages long, but it was one page on the website.

What makes great copywriters is their skill in catering to emotions in their work. People buy on emotion and then justify with logic. The primary emotional motivations to buy are fear and desire. Think about what your reader fears and desires and infuse those elements into your copy.

Learn about the common emotions humans have and think about the emotions that relate to the last purchases you have and write those down I think about what emotions you want to have related to your product’s service or brand aimed intentionally design those into the experience learn more about customer experience because this helps to put emotions into more contacts.

You should strive to make an emotional connection with your prospects and buyers by tying your product or service to as many different reasons why as you can.

Secret 11 – Testing Leads to Better Results

If you’re not testing, start testing immediately. This is how to learn and optimize your content over time.

Never test more than one variable at a time. If you do, then you will break the validity of the split test and may come back with mixed results.

We use split testing to become more effective and finding out what works and what does it and we double down on what works.

Test for actions like purchases, clicks, or subscriptions. Automate your testing. Don’t do it by hand if at all possible.

Secret 12 – Research first

Never write sales copy without doing research. Become better with Google search, looking on Reddit, and niche forums. Twitter is also a great resource.

You want to see what the other people are in the market are doing and see if you can find something that’s working first that gives you ideas.

The more data research and market data you can do to find out about who you’re writing towards the more effective your copy will be not necessarily because you’re trying to manipulate the person but because you’ve spent your time to find out how you can refine a generic message into a more detailed and specific one.

Research gives you the words and the intel you need to write better copy. Only a fool sits down at the keyboard and starts writing copy cold without warming up first.

Secret 13

A confused mind always answers “No” in a sales situation. Re-read over your content once you’re done writing it to make sure it’s very simple and that somebody who even doesn’t know what you’re doing can come in and tell you exactly what’s going on.

Have your copy reviewed by many people and ask them what they got as the main meaning or call to action.

Keep your messages simple and direct. Don’t use big words and don’t make people feel stupid. It’s not about how smart you are; it’s about how much you can help them. It just takes some time and patience to iron out your content. Read it aloud.

Secret 14

Don’t let lack of testimonials stop you. You need proof to help them feel comfortable making the decision to buy from you. But you can get that proof long before you have your first “legit” case study. Proof comes in many forms, including celebrity endorsements, statistics, and quotes that support your sales message.

Give your product away to people in exchange for an honest testimonial. You have the ability to barter for certain services and to get clients in when you really have a solution to help them.

Yet have these testimonials selling will be easier and more effective when you present them in the right message format

Secret 15

These three sales formulas just plain work!
These formulas take people through a mental process that sets them up to buy.
Test each formula to find the one that works best with your audience.

They are as follows

Secret 16 – Power of Video Sales Letters

If in doubt, start with a video sales letter.
In the end, you have to test long vs. short vs. video to find the best option.
Beware of anyone who deals in absolutes when it comes to sales copy. The only way to know anything for sure is to test.

Beware of falling into the trap of only doing things one way, especially if you’ve gotten “good” results from it in the past. Always be looking for new ways to shake things up because you may get better results.

Secret 17

The sales letter is like stepping stones across a pond—leave one out and you’re going to stumble and get wet.
This process works for a one-page letter, a video, or a twenty-page letter.
Remember to stack up the value if you want people to buy from you.

Secret 18

99 times out of 100 the only purpose of your email is to get a click from the right person.
Keep it short, concise, and aimed at getting the click.

Grab their attention and build their curiosity to entice them to click.
Though you may send that email to a million people, remember this: they will read it one person at a time

Secret 19

Get the first draft done as fast as you can. Since copy is a process of evolution, time, development, and sharpening. You want to be quick at outlining and drafting your work. Then have a process for revisiting it and improving it over time.

Use your swipe file to help you get it done instead of creating from scratch.
Once you have the first draft it’s a hundred times easier to edit than it is to write.

Secret 20

There’s no difference between the stories you use in content marketing and in your actual sales letters and sales videos. Those stories have strong similarities in the difficulties and wins.

If you structure it right, you can give away a TON of content without giving away anything that would prevent people from buying from you.

Remember: Stories make people “thirsty” and sales copy tells them where to go and how to buy a drink.

Secret 21

Love me; hate me. There’s no money in the middle.
Stand for something! This sometimes means your statements are polarizing.

Sometimes polarity and picking aside makes us feel a certain way but it’s very important for your audience because they use your content or what you’re selling as identity and they want to be able to say yes that’s me or no that’s not me.

Be consistent in your message, opinion, and what you stand for. You cannot attract everyone. Someone still hates peaches.

Don’t be afraid to change direction and explain why to people if the situation warrants it.

Secret 22

The promise you make in your sales copy directly affects how many people buy from you.
When you make an amazing promise (and fulfill it) your sales can go through the roof.
Include each part of the formula because each hits a critical point in your prospects decision making process.

Never, EVER make them feel like it’s their fault they don’t have what they want yet. Your job is to take the blame off of them, blame something else, but ultimately you have the solution which will change their lives for the better. You communicate that through your words.

Secret 23

If your copy is not performing, try putting some lipstick on it. That means going through this list to ensure you haven’t missed anything.

The number 1 thing to test is your headline (assuming you have one) to see how that affects conversion.

Make sure your offer is very clear and they know what they’re getting.
Try selling dollars to dimes to see if you can improve the performance of your copy.

Secret 24

There’s a good way and a bad way to “go negative.”
Use negatives to get in sync with people and the conversations going on in their heads.
Never go negative by attacking someone or a company by name. It never pays off and very often backfires.

Be careful how you use negatives as to not offend your reader but rather to strengthen your level of agreeance.

Secret 25

People’s sales radar defenses are up all the time.

Stealth Closes help you fly under their defenses and get them to take the actions you want them to take.
Make the commitment that you will include a Stealth Close somewhere in your free (and paid) content to drive people to your sales copy and offers.

Secret 26 – Should You Hire?

Hiring someone to write sales copy for you is not a set-it-and-forget-it affair. You should audition people with smaller jobs. And you will need to help them mold the copy. This is why its great to learn the skill and practice first so you know exactly what you are hiring for.

First to find people who can do work for you and weed out the ones who can’t. Understand that you will still have to do work to get good sales copy back from any copywriter you hire. And you cannot rely on them to do an exceptional job.

Understand that what you get back from a copywriter is only the first draft. You’ll still need to tweak it, edit it, etc.

Copy evolves over time so it is best to put in your reps and make it great over time. The practice will be invaluable to your writing and business career.

Secret 27 – Be More Empathetic

Better copy comes from higher levels of empathy with your customers and prospects. The more you understand on a deep level who you are writing for and what they are focused on in life, the better chance you have at getting an engaged reader.

Using a ICP exercise document or a guided meditation helps you synthesize lots of information and data through the eyes of your prospects.

Develop a higher level of EQ and empathy for your customers. Perform exercises where you “live like them” and “think like them” so you can format a stronger understanding of their experiences in life. This will help you frame your copy with a more relatable tone.

If you think it’s weird, it won’t work. If you do it with an open mind, your results could be truly life-altering.

Secret 28 – Get the Click

The only purpose of an online ad is to get the right people to click your ad. The majority of the time, you have to test a LOT of ads to find the few that work. This is a matter of testing and marketing and not getting discouraged through the process of trial and error. It can be a long process but every moment spent will make you a better tester.

Once you find ads that work, don’t rest on your working copy. Run that and continue to improve because things won’t work forever.

You still have to come up with more ads to replace the ones you’re running that will eventually stop working. All campaigns have a birth and a death so anticipate when your ads have run out of steam and begin running new ones.

Grab attention. Build curiosity. Drive them to click . . . that’s the magic formula for online ads. And really this is the formula for any type of media online so learn how to master these steps.

Secret 29 – Draw Up Curiosity

A hook is usually a one-sentence story you can use to grab attention and create intense curiosity at the same time. Curiosity is what keeps people attentive and attention spans are the main commodity every company is competing for today. Curiosity unleashes chemicals in our brain and when we finally discover what we are curious about, dopamine is released and we feel satisfied.

If you want to do well in copy, then master the art of leaving people on the edge of their seats. Copywriters that understand psychology, how the human mind works, and how to use words to draw up curiosity to know more.

Hooks can be seen as great headlines for blog posts or YouTube videos because they catch your attention and make you curious.

Hooks are as much art as they are science. You can use formulas to combine different elements to create effective hooks.

If you ever get intrigued by an ad, pay attention to what hooked you. Jim has recorded this awesome video of how to create headlines with better hooks that you can watch.

Secret 30 – Swipe Files are Helpful

Swipe files get your sales copy juices warmed up and going, just like cardio before a great work out.

I also wrote this article about copywriting and its use in sales funnels, you can read that here.

A swipe file can contain anything you see that grabs your attention and works. Over time your swipe file will grow and it will give you ideas quickly. Evernote and Notion are great apps to create your swipe files other than a simple cloud memo pad like Apple Notes.

Your swipe file does not have to be industry specific. I use inspiration from YouTube videos, Twitter, and Reddit to apply to my business as well as catchy tweets. And if I catch a commercial or ad that gets my attention, I will take a screenshot to save in my collection.

If you don’t have a swipe file, start one today. If you do have a swipe file, use it to speed up your production. The goal is to be more efficient with your time and still produce high-quality writing content.

Secret 31

People judge your sales copy by the format, form, grammar, spelling, and punctuation as much as they do the content. This is your chance to form the right kind of impression because first impressions are everything.

So use a tool like Grammarly as your first level of support.

Get a second pair of eyes on your copy to look for errors. Listen to the candid reaction of your audience.

Nudge them as to what feedback you may be looking for specifically.

Ensure your secondary reading path makes sense.

People should be able to skim your sales copy and get the gist of your sales message in a way that catches their interest and emotions.

If they cannot skim your writing, then keep revising your work.

Watch your video sales letters with the sound off would you still buy? –

This is a tip from the author that will help you understand body language and how people sell through video.

Take a look at ads too, don’t skip all of them. Look at the visual cues and the presentation of the ad. Is the product and benefits clearly explained?

Conclusion

Copywriting is the one of the most valuable skills you can learn today. Here is a good basic copywriting video to review and then you can apply the rules and practice. I decided to give it a try and quickly learned that selling wasn’t the hard part, getting in front of the people at the right time was. That’s when I first got exposed to sales copywriting in the form of writing ads and scripts. Getting people at the right time is a key piece of converting copy.

Successful copywriters make bank. They serve a need in the market and assist with selling products that make people’s lives better.

They have a unique skill that will be needed for many decades to come, even with the implementation of artificial intelligence.

And they can sell their library of work, not just their work itself.

And it has made all the difference in my journey as a blogger.

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