Sean Romanoff’s Copywriting Truths

If you’re used finding my blog here, you can find it at its new location - www.seanromanoff.com.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks - Sean

If you’ve been looking for my AWAI review this week, you’ve already noticed that I’m two days late. Well, I’ll talk about AWAI in a minute, but I want to explain myself a little.

This week my life and work collided to make a perfect storm…a perfect storm of chaos.

First there was the holiday weekend. Honestly, I didn’t plan well for it. I thought I could do a little work during that time, but no chance. Family stuff dominated, as it rightly should on a three day weekend, so I moved work to the back burner.

With my work pushed to the side, I had to pick that up on Tuesday. So I had more work than usual…and because of the holiday, less time to do it.

Plus my kids went back to school yesterday. Since one of the reasons I freelance is to spend time with my family, and the first day of school is a big deal for my kids, you can see my dilemma.

There just weren’t enough hours in the day, and my beloved blog paid the price.

I apologize, and I’d like to say it’ll never happen again. But I can’t because life is that way. So I’m glad you’ve hung in there with me, and I’ll try to make interruptions like that few and far between.
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As for AWAI, I have good news to report. My homework was to review the mock DM packet and find additional sources for my work. I did that, but it doesn’t translate into moving forward in the workbook. So I’m still on page 125.

Still I can say that for whatever shortcomings I may find in some of the teaching sections, there was no scrimping when AWAI put together this mock assignment. It has a lot of information about the product, company, and typical consumer, and plenty of other details too. That doesn’t make the assignment easy, but it’s definitely easier thanks to all this information.

My opinion that the exercises are the strength of this program seems to be re-inforced the further along I go. And that’s OK. Learning by doing is a much faster way to learn.

Consider me impressed with the mock assignment so far.
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Remember that Monday my blog moves to my website, www.seanromanoff.com. I’ll post reminders here all next week for anyone who forgets. I look forward to seeing you there!
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

Well, you may remember that I promised you a tip of the week on my website which was supposed to begin today. After much thought and contemplation about the benefits - and more importantly my workload - I decided this would be a little much for me.

So in the alternative, I’m moving my blog to my website.

The reasons for this are pretty simple. One is that it will take people who may be interested in what I have to say to my website, which is where I really want the traffic to be. Plus it will make my website more popular with the search engines, which is another plus.

Now back in the beginning, I promised not to use my blog to sell anything. And I’ll continue to live up to that promise. The only thing I’m interested in doing with my blog is creating a place where freelance writers of all sorts and their marketing brethren can learn some of the latest info without having to buy anything, where you can get the straight scoop about other blogs and ezines that are selling you something, and where you can follow my growth as a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant as a path to initate or avoid, depending on the situation.

In other words, the only thing I’ll be selling is me. My thoughts, my ideas, and my expertise.

I’ll continue to blog here this week, but look for my blog on my website, www.seanromanoff.com, starting Monday. Until then, I’ll see you here tomorrow.
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Follow my continuing review of the AWAI Basic Copywriting Course in my post tomorrow.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

I spent last weekend sight-seeing in Washington D.C. as part of my family’s last hurrah to summer. The weather was unseasonably mild, and D.C. was in fine form. But something else caught my attention that brought my mind back to work and the value of my marketing philosophy.

So one of the reasons we decided to go there is that we got a complimentary 3day/2night stay at a hotel in nearby Arlington, VA. There were no strings attached, but it was provided by a time-share resort company. Once we got there the company offered us free trolley service during our sight-seeing and another 3day/2night stay anywhere in the company’s system, if we’d listen to one of their presentations.

Since walking around D.C. can be exhausting, we decided to check out what the company had to say.

Now keep in mind, we had absolutely no intention of buying anything, so I could sit back and listen to their sales pitch without trying to assess whether we should actually buy anything or not.

And wow, was I impressed. Plus I also realized that they, without knowing it, used my Selfless Marketing formula.

The entire presentation was focused on what they could do for us. We can use our shares anywhere, anytime in their network. We can use them on airfare and car rentals, too. We can let others use them and we can leave them to our children when we die.

Then they showed us the model room. It was much more luxurious than the standard hotel room with larger beds, cleaner linens, and more space.

Everything about the presentation focused on what they could give us. Even when it came to price.

Of course the price per share is the price per share, but they offered all kinds of plans to see if it might fit in our budget.

As I said, we had no intention of buying, but I was just so impressed by the entire plan - from the freebies we got (something I always advocate - give something of value) to the focus on value without emphasizing price.

It made me realize how well Selfless Marketing works…because my wife and I were almost ready to plunk down some money on a time share. In the end, we didn’t, but we will be back for another stay…and probably another presentation.

As you can see, the right marketing philosophy can make all the difference.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

Well, I mailed off my restaurant letter to the good folks at AWAI for them to review. And while I wait for my feedback, I thought I’d forge ahead and see what was in the next section.

I’m not so sure that was a great idea.

The first problem I had was the next section (Part IV, Section 15) was yet another review. Yes, I understand the benefits of being a direct response copywriter. Yes, I know I don’t need to be a Wordsworth or Fitzgerald to write good copy. Yes, I know the difference between a “test” and a “control” and that writing a control is where the big money is.

I know the three fundamental rules of selling. And I know that there’s really a fourth fundamental rule that includes knowing your customer. I know the structure of promise, picture, proof, USP, close, and offer. I know the importance of research and seeding. And I know to write the way I speak.

Ugh!!! I was so frustrated with this little section that I went ahead and read Section 16 thinking there must be more…and there was.

Apparently there’s some real writing in my near future. With information provided by AWAI, I’ll be writing a direct mail package about a mock product for them to review. Once they feel that letter is a winner, I’ll write a live spec assignment. If the real client likes my spec work, it will be mailed as a test…for pay.

Gulp. I’ve never gone from annoyance to concern so fast.

At that point I decided I need to get feedback on that restaurant letter first and find out who I’m dealing with. So that’s where I am right now. I’m at the end of Section 16 on page 123. I’ll wait to do the homework for that section, which includes laying the groundwork for that mock direct mail package, until I get my first letter back. Then I’ll go forward with a better understanding of what the AWAI people are looking for.

So while I wait, you’ll have to wait too.

One thing I will say, though, is that this may be worth the price of the program right here. At the end of it, I’ll have written at least two direct mail packages. Those can be used in my portfolio, and if I do well enough, can open some doors for me.

So it seems I’ve gotten to what AWAI called “the nitty gritty”…and it gives me a chance to see where I really stand in this business. Wow.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

I often write about my philosophy of selfless marketing, but I want to make it clear this isn’t something I invented. In fact, I first got the idea about what selfless marketing is from reading Claude Hopkins’ Scientific Advertising.

In his now legendary book, Hopkins talked about how some of the best advertising doesn’t focus on selling or price or anything having to do with the seller. As I read it, I remembered something Michael Masterson wrote, which is that people don’t like to feel as thought they’re being “sold.”

A good example of what I’m talking about is my favorite local pizza place. As everyone knows, the cost of gas is affecting every aspect of the economy, including making pizzas. Every cost associated with making a pizza has gone up. Eventually, the pizza place had to raise it’s prices.

Now this business could have raised it’s prices and not said a word. But they were too concerned about the relationship they have with their customers to simply leave it at that.

The owners obviously thought about the potential negative effects on their business, and how to avoid them.

They didn’t just raise their prices. They visibly posted the price increase with an apology. Next to it the posted an online article which explained how their costs have skyrocketed. And they talked to their customers about it. They didn’t hide it.

Everything about this change in prices was handled in a way that would make the increase easier for customers to swallow. It would have been much more pleasant and easier in the short run to simply raise prices and say nothing. Most customers probably wouldn’t complain…but some might. But doing things this way leaves an awful lot to chance.

Customers might imagine other reasons for the increase that could have negative consequences. They may assume the pizza place was trying to gouge them. They may think the pizza place, which has built up goodwill over the course of decades, really isn’t any different than any other business trying to take its customers for all it can. That the pizza place has no loyalty to them, so why should they have loyalty to the pizza place.

And all of this gives people reasons to try other pizza places.

But by being selfless, the owners of the pizza place think about the impact of their price increase on their customers, and try to make it easier on these people. People who’ve been coming to their place for years. And by using selfless marketing, the pizza place actively maintained these relationships.

Now of course the pizza place is in business to make a profit, and their’s nothing wrong with that. But by treating the buying relationship as something personal, not just something financial, they’re engaged in selfless marketing. This way people don’t feel like they’re being “sold.”

And continuing the goodwill they’ve built over the years - slice by slice.

Back from a long weekend in DC, and I thought I’d share a little more about who I am -

My first step into my writing career didn’t come by putting pen to paper - or even fingertips to keyboard. It came by teaching. I’ve been teaching for several years, and I’ve loved almost every minute of it. And the funny thing is, I didn’t think it was possible before I started.

OK, you’re probably a little confused, since my gig is writing and marketing, but to make sense of this part of my story, you need know a little background.

Before I started writing or teaching, I was a lawyer, and an unhappy one at that. After leaving law and being away from work for a few years while I took care of our kids (yes, I did that…and that’s another story), I was ready to get back into the working world.

My wife asked what I TRULY wanted to do with my life and I said I was always a little jealous of a friend who teaches English at a liberal arts university. So she encouraged me to pursue that, and with a lifetime of negative thinking behind me, I told there was no chance. Especially since my background was in law - not English, not education.

But she wasn’t about to accept that as an answer.

She made me prepare a resume and send it out to some local universities, which I did. Lo and behold -I got quickly got a job teaching composition part-time. As I said, I’ve loved almost every minute of it.

And this has been a great benefit to my writing and marketing career.

How, you ask? I’m glad you did.

1. It forces me to fully digest the writing process. I’ve found you can’t teach what you don’t understand. And being able to write well doesn’t mean you understand why you write well.

2. It forces me to understand the fears and needs of others. Many people don’t like to write. They may have gotten bad feedback, or they may not have been taught well. It’s important for me to understand where their resistance is coming from while I’m teaching.

3. It forces me to communicate clearly and quickly. When your audience isn’t enthusiastic, you can lose them in a heart beat. Most of my students aren’t English majors, so they don’t like being there. This forces me to get to ideas with both clarity and speed.

And each of these qualities are elements of good copywriting.

Plus teaching keeps me in touch with a younger generation that I don’t otherwise have a lot in common with.

So by teaching I learn to write better…plus I make a little extra money, which doesn’t hurt.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a great question posed by copywriting legend Gary Bencivegna in an article he wrote for The Total Package. In it, Bencivegna suggested the most important question you can ask yourself when writing copy or selling, which are basically one and the same anyway, is, “What are we really selling?”

Bencivegna is, of course, right on the money and I said so on my blog. But I realized while working on a project the other day that he was only half-right.

For this particular project, I was writing descriptions of local communities with a lot of reasons why a person may want to live there. I did my research. I found attractive qualities to discuss. I tried to hit on the emotional trigger of creating a home. And I almost completely missed the mark.

No, I didn’t forget to ask myself the question. I was selling community. I was selling home. I was selling intimacy.

But I didn’t ask a second, equally important question. I didn’t ask, “Who am I writing or selling to?” My apologies to the grammarians out there - but good copy doesn’t always use good grammar.

Anyway - why was this question important, you ask? Well, I’m glad you did.

You see, I was writing to an audience in its early 20’s, generally single, with no kids. Sadly, I don’t fit that profile anymore. I was writing to someone like myself, in his late-30s or early-40s, currently or previously married, with children.

When I submitted the copy to the client for feedback, someone quickly caught my mistake. It was embarassing to say the least, but when I revised the copy I was really on top of my game and the final product ended up much stronger.

Plus it taught me a valuable lesson.

So from now on, I’m going to ask myself two questions before starting a project. After I ask what I’m really selling, I’ll ask who I’m selling to.
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I’ll be away tomorrow, so you’ll see my next post on Monday, August 25th…Have a great weekend!
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Remember - my Tip of the Week and free Selfless Marketing Special Report are coming in September.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

With this week’s section I’ve gotten past page 100, which seems to me like a milestone worthy of special mention. That’s 25% of the course. Although I know there’s more work in the next 25% than in the last.

And this section is noteworthy for another reason too. I’ll get to that in a moment, though.

First, some more about Part III - section 14.

In the past few posts I’ve praised the course for emphasizing new skills and explaining them to the reader as he goes, even if the skills in question are relatively basic. After all, it is a basic copywriting course, not the masters course.

However, the course spends this section repeating itself in some places, or raising new skills without really explaining how to develop them.

For example, Michael Masterson, the writer of this section, said it’s important to write the way you talk. And that it’s a difficult thing to do. But there isn’t much explanation of how to do that with words. Instead he explained that I can emphasize certain points by putting them in bold, italics, or capitalizing them. I’ll have to progress through the course to learn to do more than that.

I was also told to write with passion, but not to fake it. Still there isn’t much about how to create that passion.

And Masterson said writing in my own voice is critical to sounding authentic, and authenitc copy is copy that sells - and fast. But I should be patient as I wait for this to happen.

Keep in mind that the end of this section puts me on page 116 of 427. It’s tough to stay patient having read this far.

Still, I didn’t let my frustration stop me, and I finished another exercise. In it I identified the places in a sales letter where the writer tried to connect with the reader, places where he gets personal or initimate. Although I was still grousing about the lack of new information in this section, the exercise was a useful thing to do.

And it did put me in the right frame of mind to write my letter. The first piece I’ve sent to AWAI.

Masterson asked for a letter that sings the praises of my favorite restaurant. And since I enjoy food, it wasn’t so easy to pick a favorite. Anyway, I picked one, figured out a strong USP, and tried to sell it.

I wrote it up using Masterson’s promise, picture, proof method, and I’ll send it out tomorrow morning. When I get some feedback, I’ll share what I wrote and how it was received.

But it does feel like I’m getting past the sizzle and I’m about to bite into some steak. In this section, the AWAI folks just wanted to remind me about what I already swallowed when I was ready to take another bite.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me at sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.

Well, it’s not all wine and roses.

I lost out on a part-time position to write, edit, and manage a couple of monthly newsletters for a company not far from me. For reasons I’m not quite sure about, it seems they’re going in another direction.

And I have to admit, this one got to me a little.

I thought the money would be good, the work would be interesting, and it would position me very nicely to do similar work for other companies. And I made a key mistake - I started daydreaming. Now I advocate positive thinking, but I was thinking about the result instead of the process. That almost always leads to trouble.

But after thinking about it some more last night, I realized this is an opportunity. It got me thinking about my business in a new, more concrete way. So much so that I started thinking that I could do this any time for anyone. I don’t need to tie myself to one company, or to one vision.

So I started thinking about some fields that I have an innate understanding of, either through my previous work or the work I’ve done for my clients. That gives me a group of businesses to approach.

The next thing I’m doing is contacting some graphic designers I know to see if an ongoing relationship like that interests them, and if it does, what kind of rates they would charge for print and online versions of a newsletter. That way I can advertise us as a package deal with set rates.

So after having one door close, I’m now even more excited about the prospect of creating something like this on my own - a freelance gig, working with a great designer, giving clients, new and old, a top-notch product. What’s not to get excited about there.
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Look for my continuing review of AWAI’s Basic Copywriting Course in tomorrow’s post.
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Amazingly, I made a mistake yesterday. My Tip of the Week will not be launching tomorrow, as I said in yesterday’s blog post. Rather it will launch Tuesday, September 2nd. Look for it then.
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With my Tip of the Week’s new launch date, comes a new launch date for my free special report on Selfless Marketing, the term I coined for an anti-hype, less self-focused kind of marketing. That new launch date is now Friday, September 12th. I’ll let you know when the free download will be available.
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If you’d like to talk about your project, contact me a sean@seanromanoff.com or 908-692-1852.