Tag Archives: Copywriting Tips

Car crash copy: why bad news is better than good

You get an email telling you the good news… If you act in the next two hours, you can claim a £100 discount on so and so’s latest copywriting seminar. That’s great news. But is it the best way to promote that offer? Is good news always a good thing? Not necessarily. When it comes […]

Bad news beats good news

You get an email telling you the good news… If you act in the next two hours, you can claim a £100 discount on Tony Owl’s brand new copywriting seminar. That’s great news – you love Tony Owl. But is it the best way to promote Tony’s offer? Is good news always a good thing? Not necessarily. […]

How sleeping with your readers will improve your copy

Coming up with a headline that will grab your reader’s attention is hard. You might spend weeks writing and testing different ideas for nothing. Even if the product or service you’re selling is amazing, it doesn’t necessarily make writing a captivating headline any easier… But there is an exercise you can do that will help […]

What Woody Allen can teach you about copywriting

Whatever you think about Woody Allen ‘the man’… As a filmmaker, he’s made some truly great films. That’s a simple fact. For what it’s worth, I think he’s a brilliant writer, a great director and a good actor…. You only have to look at Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Play It Again, Sam, Deconstructing Harry, […]

Discover how ‘found copy’ can help engage your reader

As with most things in modern art, the first time it happened, it was down to Picasso… He painted a picture of a chair, but not satisfied with paint alone, he stuck an actual chair on the canvas. Surrealist Marcel Duchamp, took it a step further, and in 1917, he just signed a toilet, turned […]

Repeat after me: repeat, repeat… repeat!

Dear Reader, It’s an objection that’s often raised… If handled badly, it can destroy a promotion. But get this right and it could be one of the most important things you do. AllGoodCopy.com reader, Jon Steel, asked an interesting question about this very subject on the website recently: “Is there a good technical reason why […]

If it’s boring: it’s boring. Don’t pretend otherwise!

Copywriters can be precious people… I should know… I am one. And sure, tell me my copy doesn’t work or that I could do something better and once upon a time I would have sulked for a week. Yup, I used to be like that. But these days, I’ve calmed down. I’m wiser. You see, […]

How you should start the perfect sales promotion

Aristotle’s idea was to start in the middle… And I have no doubt that in creative writing classes all around the world they’re preaching the same message as we speak. But hey, I was brought up under contrarian copywriter supreme, Bill Bonner, so why not throw a spanner into Aristotelian theory. Someone’s got to, right? […]

Spend more time on this forgotten part of your promotion

Copywriters aren’t often too kind to subheads… In fact, most of the time subheads are treated as nothing more than punctuation. Indeed, one of the uses of subheads in long copy sales promotions is to punctuate copy… but it is just ONE use. There are many more. The fact is, having strong subheads throughout your promotion […]

The copywriting skill that never goes out of fashion

It was about four years ago… Michael Masterson flew into London to meet with us young copywriters to teach us a thing or two. He actually taught me a fair bit, but one thing stuck above all else. Ironic really, because that one thing was his concept of ‘the power of one’! Seriously though, whether […]