“What is the absolutely most important, do-or-die copywriting skill? It’s a mechanical skill. it’s not something touchy-feely, empathetic, hard to describe. It’s so important, that if you can do it, you are a great copywriter, you’re 99% of the way there. If you can’t do it, you will never get anywhere. What is that skill?”
That’s a little quiz that Ken McCarthy, who’s been called the “founding father of Internet marketing,” once gave to a room full of info marketers who wanted to learn copywriting.
“I was gonna offer $1,000 in cash to the guy that can get this,” said Ken. “That’s how confident I am nobody in this room knows it, except for maybe a professional copywriter.”
People in the audience started guessing:
“Know your market?”
No.
“Hand-copy great copy?”
No.
“Write every day, practice?”
That’s a good one, but no.
“Get your reader’s attention?”
Another good one, but no.
“List a lot of good benefits?”
Ooh so close, but no.
“Empathize with your readers?”
No.
Finally, somebody in the back of the room:
“Write a sales bullet?”
“Yes!” said Ken. “This is the entire craft of copywriting. And it amazes me how many people have read all the classics, written some great copy, taken thousands of dollars worth of training, met great copywriters, and didn’t realize that this is it. If you can do this, you are in the game. If you can’t do it, you’re outside the stadium, trying to find a parking place, circling round and round. It’s that night and day.”
“Why are bullets so important?” asks Ken. “Because they are the raw material for:”
– bullets (of course)
– headlines
– reasons why
– subheads
– calls to action
– sales arguments
– the order form
– the entire letter
Email marketer Ben Settle, who back in his freelance copywriter days used to write copy for Ken, and who reveres Ken and frequently quotes and references him in his emails, agrees. Says Ben:
“When written correct everything ‘comes’ from the bullets, including non-bullet copy or ads where there are no bullets.”
Which brings me back to my Copy Riddles program, and the “Unannounced Bonus” event I am running for it right now. This event ends tomorrow at 12 midnight PST. It involves:
#1. Copy Riddles, of course, which allows you to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe
How?
By drilling into you mechanical do-or-die skill of writing sales bullets, and giving you feedback from A-list copywriters, who wrote their own sales bullets starting with the same source material as you did.
(This feedback process is why past customers have called Copy Riddles “the best course I’ve taken, bar none” and “worth every dollar/minute/page.”)
#2. A lifetime subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ad Money Machine
… which sells for $997 on the rare occasions when Lawrence makes it available at all. $997 is what I paid Lawrence last year for it. (A-list copywriter Gary Bencivenga: “I would gladly have paid him ten times, even 100 times its price.”)
#3. The unique and never-to-be-repeated “Bullets With Bejako” live cohort
Many years ago, I used to run Copy Riddles as a live cohort to provide members with greater motivation, feedback, and results that an “asynchronous” content-only course frankly cannot match.
I stopped doing live cohorts for Copy Riddles because they are too much work.
I won’t ever do a live cohort in the future. But I’m doing as part of this “Unannounced Bonus” promo, so you can own those million-dollar copywriting skills in just the next few weeks, instead of never.
#4. 3-Month Copy Riddles Payment Plan
As part of this promo, for the next three days only, you can break up payments for Copy Riddles over the course of three months.
Again, this “Unannounced Bonus” event ends tomorrow at 12 midnight PST.
If you’d like to get in on the game and you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity: