If you are writing a lot of call to action and direct response ads – then Ben Settle’s “Copywriter’s Crib Sheet” will fast become one of your go to books on your bookshelf.
The claims on the back of the book made me stop in the book shop and look, I turned it over and read the cover, and without even opening it – I bought it – now that’s a powerful statement about good cover design, and short sharp copy. The words on the inside were just as good.
Each chapter is to the point – there is no fluff, no long winded explanations, and only tried and tested examples and ideas.
Yes… Ben does talk a LOT about long copy, sales letters and he does spend some time pitching his own site to join his mailing list – but there are gems here too – diamonds in his text that could have been written specifically for radio copywriting.
For example:
Chapter 5 – How to use negativity to multiply your sales?
In this chapter he talks about using the lack of knowledge in ad copy such as “10 tips to make your car run smoothly during winter” and change it to a more dramatic “The 10 biggest car mistakes people make in winter”.
I used this myself to write an ad that had an announcer and an average Joe character in it- the announcer ran through a short list of mistakes that people make in X industry – and then the Average Joe responded with the clients name – the response, according to the client was great – he had many people coming in and saying that they didn’t know that the client did X, Y or Z? Even though they had always done it.
I’m not going to give too much away – but if you can get your hands on Ben’s book, it serves as a great guide and even blueprint for direct call to action style ads – directing people to act, to search to buy.
I was lucky to pick up my copy when it was on sale – but you should seriously grab a copy when you can. You won’t regret it.
