There’s a Reason Why They Call It Copywriting

Is there anything more stifling to a good real estate postcard mailing than a blank computer screen?
Consider this scenario (not an uncommon one for many a direct marketer in any area): Your mailing list has been carefully chosen. Your printer is waiting for your postcard copy. And there you sit staring at a blank screen. You haven’t written a single sentence yet.
Your first instinct is to panic. (At least that would be mine!) But don’t. Because you’re about to learn how to turn your competitors ideas and words to inspire you. And in the process learn the one of the reasons crafting a sales letter is often called “copy” writing.
No doubt you’ve got a stack of postcards that you’ve sent out in the past or from your competitors’ mailings. Now’s the time to go through them. Go, ahead. Gather them in one place and start reading through these. This, you’re about to learn, is more than an exercise in idle reading.
Pick out the words, phrases, ideas that strike you as particularly good. Use these as your inspiration. Recreate a headline idea. Grab a good idea for a lead paragraph. What you don’t want to do, though, is to plagiarize. Don’t grab any sentence, paragraph or all the copy from another mailing wholesale and try to pass it off as your own.
But you can – and should – get some really good ideas for your own mailing. Soon, you’ll discover that blank computer screen you’re staring at is taking shape as a sure-fire direct-mail campaign.
I learned this trick many years ago when I first started working for a direct mail firm. The owner told me about his very first mailing. It was several pages long. He had never written copy before, but he didn’t have the money to hire a professional copywriter. He wasn’t about to let the lack of funds stop him.
He gathered up all the direct sales material he had been collecting, pulled out his trusty portable typewriter (yes, it was that long ago!) and started assimilating ideas, phrases and other inspirational copy from these various other sources.
It took him several hours to write a couple pages, but finally he had a sales letter that had his distinct imprint. And original document to call his own. And he mailed it.
And do you know what? It produced very good results for him. And some 30 years later, he’s still enjoying outstanding success in the business.
And just for your information, he still has a hand in writing all his copy. And he still gets some of his best inspiration from the advertising material that lands in his mail box.
So the next time you’re sitting at the computer screen wishing that a form of direct-marketing inspiration would strike you, gather up all the marketing material you can find. It’s time to kick start that inspiration into high gear with a little help from your . . . uh, competitors.