Great Web & email copywriting tips from an offline pro

[from Oct. 9, 2002 issue of WordBiz Report]

By Debbie Weil

Picture growing up in a family steeped in direct marketing (DM). Instead of “don’t stay out too late,” Donna Baier Stein’s father exhorted, “Benefits, Donna, benefits."

Did he teach her AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) instead of the ABC’s? It seems likely. Her father, Martin Baier, was the inventor in the late 1960’s of zip code marketing.

Stein herself is a highly regarded direct response copywriter with clients like Time-Life and IBM. She teaches several copywriting seminars for the Direct Marketing Association. She’s also the author of the classic guide to DM copywriting, Write on Target.

I asked her to distill for WordBiz readers - from her seminars and her book - how offline DM best practices can be translated to writing sales copy for the Web and email. Stein said she starts an assignment, offline or on, by posing four questions.

- What am I selling
- To whom am I selling it?
- Why am I selling this now?
- What do I want the reader to do?

Sounds straightforward, but wait till you hear her answers...

Donna Baier Stein's definition of a direct response copywriter:

"A good copywriter has to be two people in one:

1. A skillful writer who can weave words in a way that seduces and sustains interest.

2. A salesperson who sticks his or her foot in the door, keeps it there despite difficulty, and won't leave without an order or strong expression of interest."

From Write on Target: the Direct Marketer's Copywriting Handbook, page 3.

The good news

No need to reinvent the wheel. The process you go through to create an effective Web page or email promotion is similar to what's required for a direct mail package or print ad.

The bad news

It's a lot of work.

On or offline, you have to answer Stein's four key questions before writing copy that persuades:

Question #1 - What am I selling?

Stein explains, you have to understand everything about the product or service you are selling. You have to be able to turn features into benefits. She offers the example of a plant nursery. "People don't care how great the grass seed is. They care about how beautiful their lawn will be."

Question #2 - To whom am I selling it?

You've really got to understand your target reader. This means studying list data if you're renting a list of names, doing surveys, interviewing current customers, getting testimonials.

Question #3 - Why am I selling this now?

Setting a deadline is key to getting a response, Stein reminded. Timeliness can be related to a dollar discount, a new product, being the first, a holiday, an emergency crisis.

That sense of urgency is not something we usually associate with a home page. But it makes a lot of sense. Without it, what will prompt a site visitor to click through, sign up or take another desired action?

Question #4 - What do I want the reader to do?

"This is something a lot of online copywriters forget," Stein said. If you put on the hat of a direct marketer, your key objective is to get a response - buy, subscribe, join, click to sign up, etc.

And make this prominent, she advises. It's identical to "making the ask" in direct marketing speak.

Some think using the words "click here" is redundant. She disagrees. People read 20 percent slower online than off, she says. Make the click here benefit oriented. "Click here for dramatic savings" or "Click here to save now."

Other online copywriting tips

Stein offers more useful tips that apply to online copywriting:

- Use active verbs like delight, explore, discover, learn, understand, enjoy, experience.

- Sentence fragments, one or two-word sentences, are OK.

- Use the bucket brigade. Phrases and words like "That's why... " and "Since..." and "So..." to keep the reader moving from one sentence to the next.

- Watch out for stop signs in your copy, i.e. words people don't understand. Too much industry jargon makes it hard to read. Keep it simple.

- Never end a page with a period. (Pub note: Online, use a phrase like "Find out more" as a text link.) Make every sentence, including headlines, a cliff-hangar - so the reader has to read on.

She concludes, "The whole point, online and on paper, is to use words to engage your prospect/customer and to keep the dialogue going without the benefit of seeing facial expressions of boredom or disinterest.

Remember, they're looking for any excuse they can find to stop reading. Old-time vacuum salesmen sat across from the lady of the house and could switch tactics when she looked at her watch. Today's copywriters are looking at a screen... "

Useful Link:

Click here to read a sample chapter from Write on Target: the Direct Marketer's Copywriting Handbook