How do you write good copy?

A few weeks ago we told you about the book Web copy that sells by Maria Veloso.

You sent in questions and comments about how important copy is and how to write better online copy. Not wanting to keep you waiting, here are María Veloso’s secrets for achieving highly-valued copy.

1. First things first: KNOWLEDGE. To think up good copy, we need to have intimate knowledge of what it is we want to sell:

· Objective: what does the website that we are working on want to sell?

· Audience: what kind of people are we addressing and how do they think?

· Product or service: what’s important and what’s not.

2. And then… we need to ASK OURSELVES

· What’s the problem? Write down the problem that our product can solve.

· Why hasn’t it been solved yet? Write down why that problem has not yet been solved: identify the source of the problem, the number of times a solution has been attempted and why this has not been achieved.

· What can possibly be achieved? Write down what the user’s life would be like once the problem has been solved.

· What is different now? Write about the company and what makes your product or service different (not forgetting how this can help users)

· What should I do now? Write down what we want the users to do (call us, send us an e-mail, purchase the product, etc.)

16/4/2007