Salesmanship in Print

The Single Most Important Skill You Can Learn

Copywriting, sales-copy, sales-letters, ad-copy call it what you want, but “salesmanship in print” is in my humble opinion the single most important skill you can learn in your on-line quest for financial freedom.

Some marketers may say that building your list is the single most important skill, but this point is copywriters can basically write their own paychecks and great copywriters are usually ga-zillionaires!

Did you totally comprehend that last statement?

Sit back for a few seconds and really absorb that statement. Do you realize that there are people who can write a few pages and make thousands of dollars…whenever and wherever they want to? Imagine sitting on the beach with your wireless laptop and making more money with one letter than most people make in a single year! Don’t believe me?

Check this out. The going rate for hiring a top-notch, world-class, ad-writer to write a one to ten page sales-letter is upwards of $15,000.00 or more, depending of course on their notoriety, conversion rates, click through and response rates and other factors.

That may seem like an astronomical amount of money, but when you consider the fact that some marketers make millions of dollars from these sales letters, then that number doesn’t seem quite as large.

The great thing is that effective writing can be taught and learned. It’s not necessarily an art. Sure, there are some word-smiths that have more of a natural “gift” than others, but most great writers aren’t necessarily born made themselves great.

How do you make yourself a better “salesman in print”? Well, that term was coined somewhere in the late 1800’s, by the late, great John E. Kennedy. And that’s where I suggest you start, with the all-time masters from “back in the day.”

John E. Kennedy is one of the greatest ad-men of all time. He considered a good ad, “a rational, unadorned means for selling.” He stated that True, “Reason-Why” copy is logic, plus persuasion, plus conviction, all woven into a certain simplicity of thought – pre-digested for the average mind, so that it is easier to understand than to misunderstand it.”

OK, he got a little deep there, but that about sums it up in a nutshell! In other words, if you give a person enough good “reasons why” they should buy from you in terms that they understand, your conversion rates should go up.

Some other great ad-men to study, if you’re a newbie are: Albert Lasker (of the infamous Lord and Thomas ad- agency) Claude Hopkins, who wrote Scientific Advertising, Eugene Schwartz, (his hard to find book, Breakthrough Advertising is a must read) and John Caples just to name a few.

So, get your foundation from the all-time greats, and then couple that with the best in the business today. Folks like Gary Bencivenga, Joe Vitale, and the late-great Gary Halbert come to mind. This is because online writing today is slightly different from writing that was mostly all print back in the day.

Then formulate your own writing philosophy based on a combination of both worlds, coupled with your own experiences and personality.

Once you’ve increased your writing skills, every aspect of your communications with your clients and prospective customers will improve and thus your conversion rates. And not only will your conversion rates improve, just by polishing up your writing skills you’ll also naturally hone your verbal communication skills and thus your relationships in and outside of your business.

But remember, knowledge is nothing without action!