Write to Sell: The Ultimate Guide to Great Copywriting

by Andy Maslen

How do you persuade someone to buy from you just by writing to them? What does effective copywriting look like – and sound like? Write to Sell has the answers!Read this book and you’ll learn:• The confidence and skills to write better copy• New ways to gain readers’ attention, respect and trust• Hints and tips on turning selling skills into copywriting skills• Simple techniques to improve the readability of your copy• The impact of design and layout on copywriting• The meaning of good written English – the rules you must follow, the rules you can safely ignore“If I were starting out as a writer tomorrow, I would definitely want to read this book. I pretty much taught myself most of the tricks all those years ago – and it took me far too long! Had I read this book, it would have saved me years of trial and, for the most part, error.”— Drayton Bird, the godfather of direct marketing

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Writing

191 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

MILLION COPY BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR KINDLE STORYTELLER AWARD

Andy Maslen writes thrillers across a number of genres: police procedurals, vigilante, psychological, suspense and horror. He spent 30 years in business before turning to writing full time.

Readers praise Andy's novels for their relatable characters, realistic dialogue, sense of place and kinetic action sequences, and for his meticulous research into police procedure around the world.

He is the creator of best-selling series featuring Kat Ballantyne, Gabriel Wolfe, Stella Cole and Inspector Ford, plus standalone novels and short stories.

Andy was born in Nottingham, England. After leaving university with a degree in psychology, he worked in business for thirty years as a copywriter. In his spare time, he plays the guitar. He lives in Wiltshire.

Reviews

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could have custom-ordered a book on copywriting just for me, it would have been this book. It's clear and concise. It says what to do, how to do it, and why. It even has a bit of humor. I needed to get better at this quickly, and this book has given me a much-needed foundation.

Notes:
p. 23 Ask customer--what keeps you awake at 3 am?

p. 28 Fear and greed--what are your customers frightened of, and what are they greedy for?

Identify a single reader and pretend you're having a conversation with just one person when you write your copy.

p. 39 Plan before writing.
What am I trying to achieve?
Who am I writing to and what do I know about him/her?
What do I want to say?
How much space do I have?
How do I want to come across?
How long do I have? (deadline to finish the piece)

--make notes/bullet points, doodle.

p.45 KFC -- what do you want to reader to Know, Feel, Commit to?

p. 49 remember, you're selling the "why" behind the product, not the product itself

p. 50 show don't tell--"picture the scene..."

What will happen if they do what you want?
What won't happen if they do what you want?
What will happen if they don't do what you want?
What won't happen if they don't do what you want?

p. 52 AIDCA

Attention -- Use a headline promising a benefit. If you can arouse curiosity and deliver news, too, bonus. Try starting with "how" or "now" if stuck.

Interest -- How will your reader's life be improved if they do what you want? What's in it for them?
p. 58 FAB Talk about Features, Advantages, Benefits. Make sure it passes the "so what?" test.
NIB--Noble, Immediate, and Basic benefits. Be specific.

Desire -- want is more crucial than need. Ideally, get both. Bring it to life and restrict the supply. More desire drivers, p. 65.

p. 65 Conviction -- they've got to be convinced before they'll buy. Try testimonials, free samples, stats, press coverage, third-party endorsements, guarantee.

Action -- Make a short, simple, direct, clear call to action. Make it a command ("order now" or "order by January 15")

p. 74 What works: staying focused on the reader, brevity, long copy, storytelling, asking open-ended questions, establishing rapport, fresh ideas. Ways for rapport: flatter them, say things like "as you know..."

p. 83 ways to stimulate creativity

p. 93 If tempted to hype with "exciting," "unique," "revolutionary," et al, ask yourself WHY you think that. Write it.

p. 103 power words ex. love, hate, sex, cash, risk, care, child, give, huge, chop, fizz, crash, best, worst, win, lose, burn. Use short, simple, punchy words.

p. 106 use verbs/action. -ment, -ance, -tion, -sion words are verbs turned to nouns. Turn them back.

Aim for a 3:1 (or greater) ratio of "you" to "I"

p. 122 Pay special attention to the last word in your sentence--it lingers in your reader's mind. Pick something you want lingering.

p. 124 explanation of moods

p. 146 Revision--Go big to small: Check against plan. Check for structure and unnecessary sections, paragraphs, words. Review for tone of voice, metaphors, fresh expression, style, punctuation. Proofread.

p. 149 Proofreading -- check one thing at a time. spelling, grammar, punctuation, word choice, errant double spaces. Check one level at a time: headings, body text, captions, etc.

[Mihkel Pukk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical guide to writing. My first on the topic.
The book demystifies the "arts" of copy writing and offers a very systematic approach.
Being non-creative person it definitely opened my eyes and gave courage to give it a try.

[Danijela Jerković · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Thoughts and Notes on Write to Sell...


"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."
~ Colin R. Davis

Four things you MUST remember about copywriting:
1: Copywriting is about selling
2: We must focus on the reader
3: Beautiful things come in small packages
4: Most people lack the necessary skills and experience to do it well


Ten ways this book helps you:

1. Gives you insights into how to gain your reader's attention, respect, and trust.
2. Gives you the confidence to try a new approach to copywriting.
3. Helps you understand the relationship between selling skills and copywriting skills.
4. Saves your time, effort, and heartache when you next want to write sales copy.
5. Means you won't waste money on doomed sales and marketing communications.
6. Gives you practical, easy-to-use tools to craft better copy.
7. Frees you from anxiety about so-called “correct” English.
8. Shows you specific techniques for improving the readability of your copy.
9. Refreshes your knowledge of some basic rules of good written English.
10. Helps you to get sales, marketing, and commercial results.


The book is divided into six sections and covers all promised areas at the opening of the book.

Getting what you want is what this book is all about. Its techniques and ideas are designed to help you with:

Letters—selling, enquiring, agreeing, informing, complaining.
Emails—to clients, colleagues, staff, managers, suppliers.
Reports—for clients, colleagues, boards, regulators, investors.
Proposals—to win funding, secure approval, generate new business, excite investors.
Public relations—press releases, articles, newsletters.
Marketing—advertisements, direct mail letters, leaflets, brochures, websites, emails.

In other words, this book is about goal-focused writing. In each of the above, you have a specific aim in mind. It could be anything from generating a simple sales inquiry to winning a multi-million-pound contract. But to achieve it, you have to do something special.


You have to change someone's behavior.



“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
~Dale Carnegie

[Rhoda Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I have to write a lot of copy now that I've got a few indie books out - writing blurbs, writing emails - I figured I should read up a bit on how to write copy. This book is easy to read and concise (which is good, since one of the main pieces of advice is 'be concise'!).
There are lots of useful pointers here. To be honest, a lot of what he says is what my English teacher taught me at O-level, but it's good to have it reiterated.
If you're looking for a book to help you write book blurbs, How To Write A Sizzling Synopsis by Brian Cohen is better, but this is a pretty good guide to start out with.

[Haroon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've decided to career change and become a copywriter and this is my favourite book for beginner copywriters so far.

It's incredibly detailed and allows you to build up your knowledge in manageable chunks. I found myself highlighting lots of useful parts of the book and implementing them in my role as a copywriter at a digital marketing agency.

I'll be using this book as a reference book and will use it to train new copywriters that I hire.

[Adam Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great guide to better writing. The subtitle 'the ultimate guide' is not an overstatement - there's a lot of handy tips that, if applied, will make you a far better writer. Definitely a big shift in the way I think about writing.

[Tgaldieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complete handbook to copywriting.

[Yoga Ferolisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about Copywriting there is.

[Alia Bosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great appetizer for beginners ❤

[Kasey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful and entertaining. Great tips for writers of any kind.

[Joe Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb.

[Bear Wiseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I desperately wanted to give this 5 stars, but I found a couple points of annoyance that prevented me from doing so. As such, 4.5 if that was possible.

Firstly, I loved this book. It was easy and fun to read, and full of great advice. A lot of it seems pretty obvious, but you should never take chances with writing - sometimes writers miss the obvious.

The best part of this book was how he snuck his copywriting advice into the way the book itself was written. He thinks copy should be left-justified? The book is left-justified. He thinks you should let paragraphs or pages have cliffhangers to keep people reading? The book has these too! Lists so people can find things easily? You bet! Very clever!

So what was my problem? Firstly, for someone so concerned with avoiding ambiguity, you'd think he'd promote the use of the Oxford comma, since it clarifies FAR more issues than it creates. I found this incomprehensible and inexcusable (I am one of those hyperactive pro-Oxford comma people, to be fair).

He also advises against avoiding cliches, but on more than one occasion makes up a 'bad writing disease' by adding "-itis" to the end of a word. I'm not sure if he's aware than "-itis" literally means "inflammation of" but that's a super cliche and often an incorrect use of medical terminology. I find this ambiguous, because in context, he could insinuate that his "nounitis" is an imflammation of nouns when people unnecessarily turn verbs into nouns... but I still just find it an annoying practice.

Otherwise this was a phenomenal book and a must-read for anyone interested in copywriting! I highly recommend it!

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful guide to writing great copy

Andy Maslen has produced a beautiful book on how to write well. His compact, easy- to-read guide offers plenty of useful information. Though designed for advertising copywriters, it will help anyone in business who must communicate with others in writing, that is, nearly everyone. Maslen outlines the basics of effective written communication: Employ the active voice, be brief, use short words and sentences and so on. Throughout the book, Maslen provides numerous examples to show what he means. This is a high-quality book, though not a perfect one. Maslen presents a great number of acronyms – perhaps one too many. And, the formatting of his guide may seem slightly messy to those who prefer a simple, clean page to one peppered with bold print, italics and emphatic capitalization. Other than a few similar minor gaffes, however, this is an outstanding book. getAbstract recommends it to anyone who wants to become a better writer.

[Azarine Arinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly like to write, that I know for sure. But to further ask what kind of writing that I like to write? I will become confuse and answer that I guess I like to write in general. Then I got an internship in which I was required to do social media campaign and write press release, articles, letters, and newsletter and a bunch of other stuffs to promote and basically scale up my office's image. That's how this book come in handy. I never learn to write anything except academic writing and other useless writing that I did back in school, it wasn't practical and it certainly wasn't convinient to use for copywriting. Maslen was an expert in writing a simple yet comprehensible message. His background in phsycology further completed his ability to expand writing beyond "what the writers want to write" but "what the readers want to read". I recommended this book for all struggling copywriters who were baffled by low response from our customers.

[Narjas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct useful, entertaining to read. Most enjoyable CPD book I have ever read. Definitely will change the way you think about your marketing content. A brilliant brilliant gem of a book. Cannot recommend it enough to business owners I meet.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about copywriting, would recommend to anyone in any field. You'll no doubt come across some mistakes most of us have been making.

[Berni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for today's salesperson.

Read my full review at: http://tsunamisales.wordpress.com/201...

[Kiera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful tips but I found his tone of writing a bit smug.