A couple days ago, I got an email from a new reader of my 10 Commandments book. He had signed up to my list to get the apocryphal 11th commandment. And he wrote me to say:
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I LOVED the book, John. But I need more help with my copywriting. I write a 1,000 word blog post every day. I have also written 6 best selling books. Can you give me some guidance?
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I wrote back to clarify exactly what kind of guidance he meant. He replied to ask if I would critique some of his existing copy.
I winced. What a bind.
Because I don’t do copy critiques any more. And yet…
This reader had bought my book, and then he wrote in to say nice things about it. Plus, he’s written 6 best-selling books himself. Plus (something not obvious from his message above), his books are about B2B sales.
So he can write, he knows sales, but he still needs help with copy?
I got curious.
I asked him to send over one piece of copy. He did — an email promoting a $1,500 training program.
I won’t repeat my copy critique here. It wouldn’t make much sense or have much meaning for you.
All I will say is that, yes, there were problems with the copy. But there were more important problems with the actual promotion of this offer, and the way the promo was structured.
The stuff that I told him is stuff you would know by osmosis if you read my emails regularly… that you would take for granted… that you couldn’t imagine any other way, simply because it’s always there in every promotion I ever run, to the point that I don’t even think of mentioning it because it’s so transparent and so obvious to me.
And yet, here was somebody who knows sales… and who knows how to write… and yet who missed this stuff completely.
That’s not to rag on this guy. I’m sure he could make a big corporate sale where I would lay an egg. And the stuff I know wouldn’t be hard to teach him.
But the point remains:
Don’t underestimate the legitimate value of what you know. If you know copywriting and direct marketing, even at a basic level, you have real and valuable skills that business owners can profit from.
In 2024, I’ll create some kind of offer to help business owners structure their own successful promotions.
But 2024 is such a long way away.
For now, the closest thing I can offer you is an email I wrote this past summer, after finishing my promo of Steve Raju’s ClientRaker training.
It’s far from a complete how-to run-a-promo offer. Plus, I already shared this email a few days ago.
And yet, if you sell stuff online, via email, you might get an idea here to guide you to making more money. Here’s the link if you’re curious:
https://bejakovic.com/10-lessons-from-the-clientraker-promo/