Tips for Writing Better Technical Product Brochures

Given these conditions, how can you—as an engineer or manager who either writes brochure copy, edits copy, approves copy, or provides input for ad agencies or freelance industrial copywriters—do your job better so the finished brochure is the best one possible?

Here are some simple guidelines to follow:

Define the topic.

Is your brochure about a solution? A system? A product line? A product? A specific model of that product? A specific industry use or application of that product? The support services you offer for that product? The accessories?

Define what the piece is about.

The narrower the topic, the more focused, specific, and effective your brochure can be within the
limited space available.

Tip: Your brochure doesn’t have to cover everything. You can always decide to have other pieces of sales literature that go into more depth on certain aspects of the product.

The 7-Step Formula for Writing Powerful Articles in Less Than an Hour

Who says writing can be that difficult? All you need is some simple guideline for you to start coming up with powerful articles in a lesser time. Below is the simple steps for writing powerful articles in  less than an hour.

1. Know and target your audience.
   Do your research and those who are most interested in hearing what you have to say.
   
2. Use a headline that grabs the readers immediately.
   A good way to grab your readers is to state the benefits of using your product or service.
   
3. Make your case by showing how this will work for the readers.
   While you don’t say everything here, you can support what you are telling them by offering facts and results.

29 Places to Find a Good Newsletter Items

Coming up with good story ideas is one of the toughest tasks in publishing a company newsletter. Here's a checklist of story sources to stimulate editorial thinking and help identify topics with high reader interest that help to promote the company.

1. Product stories: New products; improvements to existing products; new models; new accessories; new options; and new applications.
2. News: Joint ventures; mergers and acquisitions; new divisions formed; new departments; other company news. Also, industry news and analyses of events and trends.
3. Tips: Tips on product selection, installation, maintenance, repair, and troubleshooting.
4. How-to articles: Similar to tips, but with more detailed instructions. Examples: How to use the product; how to design a system; how to select the right type or model.

Ideas for Selecting a Winning Premium

If you’ve been in direct marketing for more than a few weeks, you know that offering a premium can significantly increase response rates.

Well, in my opinion, the four most important factors to consider when choosing a premium are: value,novelty, relevance, and desirability.

1. Perceived value 
   A good premium either (a) has a highly perceived value or (b) has a value that the reader cannot determine. The worst premium is an item that the prospect sees as having a low value.
   
   Example: a well-known financial newsletter publisher did a series of blanket renewals with each offering a different premium for early renewal.

The Motivating Sequence for Copywriters

In direct marketing, structure is key: if your copy does not follow the formula for persuasion, it won’t work…no matter how creative you get.


In his copywriting seminars Bob Ly taught a variation on AIDA known as the “motivating sequence.”

The five steps of the motivating sequence are as follows:


Step 1: Get attention.
Before your promotion can do anything else, it has to get your prospect’s attention. It must get the prospect to stop, open the envelope, and start reading the materials inside instead of tossing your mailing in the trash.

You already know many methods of getting attention, and see dozens of examples of them in action every day. In TV and magazine advertising, sex is often used to gain attention for products ranging from soft drinks and cars to diets and exercise programs.

Or, you can make a bold statement…cite a startling statistic…ask a curiosity-arousing question…put a bulky object in the envelope…or use a pop-up graphic. You get the idea.

38 Great Ideas for Your Next Headline

The best way to get ideas for headlines when you are stuck is to keep a swipe file of successful headlines, and consult it for inspiration when you sit down to write a new ad or mailing.

As a shortcut, here’s a partial collection of such headlines from my vast swipe file, organized by category so as to make clear the approach being used:

1. Ask a question in the headline.“What Do Japanese Managers Have That American Managers Sometimes Lack?”
2. Tie-in to current events.“Stay One Step Ahead of the Stock Market Just Like Martha Stewart – But Without Her Legal Liability!”
3. Create a new terminology.“New ‘Polarized Oil’ Magnetically Adheres to Wear Parts in Machine Tools, Making Them Last Up to 6 Times Longer.”

Seven Step Process for SEO Copywriting

When writing Web pages, I use a simple 7-step formula for SEO copywriting.

My proven SEO copywriting process results in highly persuasive pages that are written first and foremost for the human reader—your prospect.

Yet these clear, smooth-reading pages are fully optimized. Result: significantly higher Google rankings generating more unique visitors.

1. Keyword research - someone—you or I—has to determine the keywords for which your site should be optimized. For more information on do-it-yourself keyword research and discovery, go to the following Website: www.thekeywordmoneymachine.com

A Proven Outline for Writing Winners

Having a outline is one of the most effective way on achieving a winner writing masterpiece. Here are some of the Proven Outline for Writing Winners by Clayton Makepeace.

• Grab ‘em by the eyeballs: Use the headline to grab the readers’ attention so they will have to read more.
• Support your headline: Enhance the headline with a supporting argument to reinforce the point. 
• Bribe him to read this: Let the readers know what they will be learning about and the added benefits you plan on giving them if they do so.
• Get his juices flowing: Use creative and emotion-based story telling which appeals to the senses.

"Works Every Time" Copywriting Tips

Here is a great little formula to use anytime you get stuck and can’t figure out what to write. Justin Brooke, www.myinternetbizcoach.com, uses this 8-step formula to jumpstart his work when he needs a little help.

Step #1: Nothing is more important than your headline
It’s always a great idea to look at and collect great headlines whenever you see them in a written sales pitch. Keep headlines assorted by products and also by types of headlines so you can easily find what you need when you must come up with a new headline.

In fact, you can make a game out of it by trying to come up with five different headlines for everyone of them you collect. You can never use exactly the same headline someone else has written but you can alter it and change it to say what you need, without using someone else’s work directly. Two questions you can ask yourself are: “What is it?” and “What will it do for me?” And keep your headlines short, snappy, and to the point.

The Copywriting Formula for Business Websites

Copywriting online for Websites, a blog, anything that represents your product or service, will still have many of the same necessary elements that print copy has required. What might be different is how long to make the copy.

Traditionally, print copy can handle a 10-12 page sales letter because the customer is just sitting there relaxing and reading. On a screen, like television, customers tend to get the drift of the letter within the first few paragraphs, if written well, and will skip ahead to make the purchase.

10 Headline Formulas That Work Like Magic

The most important part of your copy will be the headline. Spend time getting this part right and the rest will follow. Your first few sentences can mean life or death for the message in the rest of the copy. Therefore, it’s crucial to get it right, to hit the customers and reel them in for the rest of the message.
Miguel Alvarez, Copywriting.com, has come up with his own system for headline formulas. Try these out to help you develop your headlines to be all that they can be. His suggestion is that you write at least five different headlines for each type of headline listed below. That helps you get creative and thinking about different ways to present your product or service.

The 12 Step Internet Copywriting Formula

If you are setting up a Website, then the primary goal is to bring in the customers and the money. You will get neither if your copy doesn’t do what it needs to in accomplishing that goal. Graphics are great, and good eye-catchers, but the copy has to give the information the right way to get the sale.

To be successful, here are three important points your Website must include:

1. Everything written must be valuable information concerning the product or service. Don’t waste time talking about anything else. All written content must focus entirely on the product or service and should include everything the customer needs to know while making the decision process.

Escape Copywriting Deadend

What will you do if your copywriting formula won't work, like AIDA—which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action—you can’t for your life come up with the right stuff. It’s driving you crazy and so what you need at this point is something of a kick-in-the-butt method of finding your copy. John Forde, another well-known prolific copywriter, has worked out a system of questions to ask yourself that will get at least a decent piece of copy onto the page. Then you can build from there. So, if you find yourself stuck without anything to say, try the following questions and use the answers to build your copy.