3 “Contrary” Copywriting Secrets You Never Hear From Loud Mouth Gurus

You can no longer swing a bat without running into a bunch of so-called “killer” copywriting secrets that promise to make your ads more responsive. Unfortunately, following much of the popular copywriting advice can mean leaving money on the table, and A LOT of it.

Here are three little-talked-about copywriting tips that go against conventional copywriting “dogma,” but can help you drive far more sales and conversions.

Without further ado, here they are:

1. Forget the benefits

At least, at first.

Why?

Because copywriters who only focus on “benefits, benefits, benefits!” they shoot themselves in the foot.

Yes, the benefits are important.

But they are secondary to building trust.

People rarely buy from other people they don’t trust.

And if you don’t build trust first, no one will stick around to read your benefits. Also, even if they stay, they won’t believe you’ll go ahead with those benefits.

So before you rack up profits, build trust first.

2. Realize that copying is not king

Copy is far from being “king”.

It is more like a “jack” or a 10 of spades.

Your list, offer, positioning and product are much more important than the words you use.

Without these other elements in place, even the best copy won’t do you any good.

By the way, this is not to say that the copy is not important.

Frankly, all things being equal, the “winner” goes into business with the best copy.

But he is definitely not king.

3. Get rid of the hype

In most cases, covering your ads with hype destroys response.

Yes, there are some cases (and markets) where hype works (and by all means, try it if you want).

But in most cases it destroys sales.

In fact, if you look at the ads for the best copywriters of the last 100 years, like Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga, David Ogilvy, John Caples, Max Sackheim, etc., you don’t see hype.

You see a lot of drama, enthusiasm and energy.

But you rarely (if ever) see any “hype”.

Anyway, there you have it.

The above tips can break established copywriting “dogma” in many cases.

But if you at least try them out in your ads, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.