How to Build a "Swipe File" that Will Make You a Better Copywriter

"How to Build a "Swipe File" that Will Make You a Better Copywriter and Give You all the Great Ideas You Need!"

How would you like to have access to the ideas of some of the greatest copywriters in direct marketing today - copywriters who earn several thousand dollars plus royalties for every letter they write? In just a moment I'll show you exactly how you can.

Do you think you could write better sales letters if you could just examine the works of the "masters?" You almost certainly could!

Do you think you could begin to grasp what makes a sales letter so great that it attracts money like a magnet if you could just see a few of those great letters? Yes, I can almost guarantee it!

And do you think you could come up with a few new ideas to sell your own product or program if you could just see how someone successful does it? YES!

And that's exactly why you need a "swipe" file!

Not so you can copy someone else's work word for word (and get sued for violating their copyright if you do!) But so you can see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears exactly what a million dollar sales letter looks and sounds like! So you can examine for yourself exactly what "secret" techniques a million dollar copywriter employs in every letter he or she writes.

With a quality "swipe" file built from the works of the "masters," you won't have to wonder whether an email you receive is worth emulating. You will have a file of proven, blockbuster moneymakers right at your fingertips to study and to inspire you.

You will be able to examine exactly how a real pro shares the benefits of a product or service with a prospect. You will notice how the pros build emotion and create desire for the product. You will find out just exactly how to move your prospect to action, how to ask for the sale, and how to make it a no-lose proposition. You will find out what kind of words the pros use to paint an irresistible picture that will result in a sale!

If you want to write really great web pages, followup, and sales letters for your primary MLM program, or to sell any product, for that matter - a good "swipe" file is the most powerful resource you can possibly have!

Once you have read a dozen or so really great sales letters you can't help but write better letters of your own. You will absorb some of the techniques and the style almost without effort.

For most MLM'ers, the problem with building a really great "swipe" file is that most of their email is filled with junk and overused hype, not copy that you would ever want to emulate. Most MLM mailings are very inferior when compared to more mainstream direct marketing campaigns.

And since most of us work in this industry, we don't always get on the mailing lists of the best direct marketers. That means that we don't often see samples of good sales letters. If we see a sales letter at all, it's boring, uninspiring, and does a poor job of selling the program and the hopeful sponsor. Many of you have seen few samples of a really dynamite, knock-‘em-dead, blockbuster sales letter. And it is less likely that you'll find one in your email in-box, which is why it is so important to read direct marketing letters.

After all, a direct marketer has to pay printing and postage. They aren't going to send out large mailings of poor, uninspiring letters and stay in business! The same is not true online, which almost guarantees that most online sales letters are worthless junk.

Well, that's not an insurmountable problem! All good direct marketers are constantly looking for new prospects to add to their mailing lists. And since most direct marketers rent their mailing lists to each other, getting on a few of these lists will get you all the research materials you need for your "swipe" file. Your research materials will be the sales and marketing letters that have brought millions of dollars of sales to the companies that mailed them. And a letter that has produced that kind of response is definitely a letter that you want to study and emulate!!!!

Let me give you an example. I subscribe to a couple of investment newsletters. Subscribing to these newsletters placed me on a couple of mailing lists as someone who is interested in investing.

As a result, I receive 10-20 direct mail offers every week for other investment newsletters, books, courses, and software. Many of these come from 2 or 3 of the largest direct marketing organizations in the country and are written by the top copywriters in the business.

These letters are so good, that I have to hide my checkbook when I read them! They absolutely compel me to buy. And you had better believe that I file these letters away for future reference. They are an absolute goldmine, containing all the secrets of the masters.

So just who are these direct marketing powerhouses and how can you get on their mailing lists? I'm going to list a dozen or so to get you started. All you have to do is write or call them and tell them that you are very interested in hearing more about their products and would like to be added to their mailing list. Once you get on a few of these lists, you can start watching your mail and building your collection of copywriting masterpieces!

Top Direct Marketing Organizations

Agora Publishing
1217 St Paul St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
(800) 433-1528
(Financial, health, etc.)

Franklin Mint
Franklin Center, PA 19091
(800) 523-7622
(Collectibles)

Nightingale-Conant Corp.
7300 N Leigh Ave.
Chicago, IL 60648
(800) 525-9000
(Business/Self Improvement)

Readers Digest
Readers Digest Rd.
Pleasantville, NY 11050
(800) 234-9000
(Books, Magazines, etc.)

Time-Life Books
1450 E Parham Rd
Richmond, VA 23280
(800) 621-7026
(Books, Music, Video)

Dow Jones & Co.
200 Liberty St
New York, NY 10036
(212) 597-5600
(Financial)

Phillips Publishing
7811 Montrose Rd
Potomac, MD 20854
(800) 301-8969
(Financial, Health, etc.)

Rodale Press
33 E Minor St
Emmaus, PA 18098
(610) 967-5171
(Books, Health, Magazines)

NRI Schools
4401 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
(800) 321-4634
(Correspondence Courses)

Once you start receiving piles of great sales pieces for your "swipe" files, you'll probably notice a couple of things. Many of the sales packages you receive will contain sales letters of 6-12 pages or more. In fact, many sales packets used by newsletter publishers are an 8-1/2 X 11 booklet containing 12 or more pages.

Does that mean that these packets have no value or application to your business? Of course not! Whether a sales letter contains 1 page, or 20 pages, the great ones use the same techniques to sell. You should notice that the price of the product or service sold by these packets is usually over $100. The more your product or service costs, the more copy you need to write to sell it.

Believe me, the top direct marketers have tested this quite thoroughly. Don't you believe that if they could sell their $100 product in a 2-page letter that they would prefer it over a 12 page booklet?

Considering the fact that most of these mailers send out 50-100,000 packets in a mailing, they could save many thousands of dollars in printing costs alone! If they could do it, they certainly would. But their tests, and many, many years of direct mail experience, has taught them that their 12-page booklet will bring in far greater profits, even after the printing cost is taken into consideration.

Always keep in mind that the more expensive the product you are selling, the more benefits you need to include. And the longer your sales letter is going to be.

When you get a few of these booklet sales packages in the mail, don't make the mistake of assuming that it is the graphics and pictures and "glitz" that sells the product. It is most assuredly not. As we've already discussed, the glitziest brochures don't sell an MLM program, it's the sales letter that does. The same is true of these packages.

Top direct marketers continuously test one marketing package against another. They have their "control" that all new packages are compared to. If a new package exceeds the response of the control, it becomes the new control. All future improvements to the packet are now tested against this new control.

The copywriter who writes these packets is usually paid several thousand dollars for the letter, plus royalties based on how many copies of the letter is mailed. The top direct marketers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to copywriters - and they consider this expense money in the bank, considering how much profit a great sales packet can generate.

One of the most important things you should notice is the tone and the style of these great sales letters. Great copywriters make their letters sound as if they are having a personal, one-on-one conversation with you. They don't use fancy words or jargon. They don't present point-by-point logical arguments. Great copywriters sound like your neighbor talking to you over the fence about that great new restaurant he just discovered!

They make their prospects feel that they know them and their concerns intimately. (And, indeed, a good copywriter has done the research into his prospects that makes that possible, as should you!) I'm often amazed when I read some of their copy at how skillfully they seem to be pushing all my hot buttons, at how they hit on just the benefits that I am most concerned with.

Great copywriters do exhaustive research into their prospects and their needs. And they spend just as much time researching the product or service they are selling to find all the benefits that will meet their prospects needs. You cannot do any less if you want to write powerful, results- generating cover, followup, and sales letters. The aim of those 12-page blockbuster, powerhouse letters is to sell, just as it is for your email sales letter. If you emulate the techniques of the pros, you can't help but be more successful!

Too many MLM'ers assume that the rules of selling that are applied so effectively by the direct marketing profession don't apply to them. They think that MLM is an entirely different product, a completely different ballgame. That the "good" programs sell themselves. That all we have to do is be the messenger that delivers the tape, video, brochure, or website URL.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! If you don't use the rules and techniques of successful salespeople in all industries the world over to sell yourself and your program, quite simply, you won't be successful. Your email sales letter should use the same techniques that the great copywriters use to produce their 12-page masterpieces. You may not use as many words, or share as many benefits, but your goal is the same.

Great sales letters are filled with provocative, powerful, attention-getting headlines and sub-heads. The pros know that headlines are the most-read copy in the entire letter. This is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to improve your letters right from the start. Write a subject line that will make your prospect stop and pay attention and want to know more. If you succeed, they'll read your letter rather than tossing deleting it from their in-box.

Great sales letters are full of passion!!! They aren't dry, logical, boring tomes aimed at your intellect. They aim right for the heart!

The pros know that people don't buy based on logic, they buy for emotional reasons. Only when they are sold do they then try to justify their purchases with logic. So they fill their letters with emotion and words that evoke pictures in their prospects minds.

I would challenge you to go through some of the letters you accumulate in your "swipe" file. Next to each paragraph, write the emotion (fear, excitement, wonder, greed, love, pride, loss, envy, ecstasy, joy, self-satisfaction, etc.) that is evoked by the copy. You are going to be very surprised at how much of the letter is devoted to evoking these feelings in the prospect! And you are going to realize that much of the power of these letters is due to their passion, not their logic!

Unfortunately, most of the emails I'm sent for review are about as devoid of passion as the Wall Street Journal. Think of what you are trying to accomplish. You are asking your prospect to make a very important business decision, a decision that could forever change their life - to become your PARTNER, to have a very special relationship with you. You won't get much response to a question like that by writing as if you were reciting a weather report.

What words would you use to tell someone that you love them, or to ask them to marry you? If some of you talked to your beloved like you write your email sales letters, I'm afraid you would be forever alone and single!!!

If you really want to SELL (and don't think that courting a lover isn't selling), you've got to get PASSIONATE about what you're selling! You've got to explore every benefit of your product or service and convey that to your prospect in emotional terms aimed at the heart, not the head. You must talk to your prospect just like you would talk to your best friend about what excites and moves you.

When you speak to your prospect's heart, you've reached the place decisions are really made. But you'll also go a long way to earning your prospect's trust. We may often use logic to justify ourselves, but when someone tries to convince us using logic, we are often suspicious and may feel that we are being manipulated and sold a bill of goods. (We don't want to be sold, we want to BUY. There is a very crucial difference between the two). Statistics may not lie, but they can be used to prove just about anything.

We trust genuine emotion. We don't trust page after page of logic and technological jargon. If you can put genuine emotion and excitement into your cover letters, there is nothing you can't sell!

It is much easier to add emotion to your sales letters if you are passionate about what you are selling, if you are so passionate about your business that it has become a necessary and integral part of your life. If you truly love what you are doing and express that in everything that you write, your prospects will be eager to join you, will want what you have to offer.

If you truly love what you do, you won't be just another would-be MLM'er sending out junk emails that no one reads! You'll be exciting the imagination of your prospects and inspiring your downline to emulate you!

More Writing Sales Letters Resources:

"Advanced Hypnotic Writing:" the unparalleled sequel to Joe Vitale's blockbuster "Hypnotic Writing." It reveals how to use the phenomenon of hypnotic suggestion to turn your words into cash. Learn the top hypnotic secrets that master hypnotists have been jealously guarding - which empower you to get all the orders you desire from your customers. How to easily lead your prospect into a hypnotic state, and program him to be receptive to your offer - without his realizing you're doing it. Learn the exact words you can use in a sales letter that will make your customers whip out their wallets and buy from you.

"Killer Copy Tactics" A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be. Killer Copy Tactics is the key to making more money - no matter what business you’re in. David Garfinkel has earned millions of dollars for his clients by writing killer copy that sells hard. His awesome new Killer Copy Tactics Course shows you in an easy- to-learn, step-by-step way how to do this for yourself. And writing persuasive ads, sales letters, brochures, web pages, e-mails, etc., is the most valuable skill you will ever learn. Get this course NOW and prosper!

"Sales Letters that Sell" by Christian Godefroy. This is the secret copywriting book that many copywriting masters refer to on a regular basis. Here's what Joe Vitale had to say about it: "When I moved from Houston, Texas to the Austin area, Godefroy's book was one of only three books I put in my car with me for safe keeping. In fact, just a few weeks ago I used that very checklist to rewrite a letter that a famous, successful copywriter had written. My new and improved letter -- using Godefroy's secret checklist -- helped my client get $45,000 from one client from one test mailing to only 20 people! Whew!"