A lot of home businesses owners focus on face-to-face selling, which can be very effective, but extremely time consuming. For the same time you spend giving someone a 20 minute spiel about your products, you could spend that time writing up some highly-effective promotional materials that can be used over and over again to sell your product to countless people. Instead of selling to one person at a time, you can sell to plenty with the same amount of work.

That’s what copywriting can do for you. If you’re not familiar with the term copywriting, it refers to the words you use to create your various sales messages and promotional tools. Copywriting can be used on everything from your business cards to flyers to brochures to websites.

The problem is, many home business owners don’t understand the power copywriting can have in generating more sales for their businesses. They throw together a business card or website and then wonder why nobody follows up with them. Effective copywriting urges your potential customers to take action on your sales messages. If you use well-crafted copy in your business, you’re likely going to be ahead of much of your competition.

Here Are Some Starter Copywriting Tips:

1. Understand your target market - The more deeply you understand who you are writing to, the more effective your copy will be.

2. Understand your product - Understand what is unique about your product and why it would appeal to your target market.

3. Focus on benefits - The features of your product are important, but it’s the benefits that will sell your products. For example, you may sell an aromatherapy candle in a particular scent and that scent is known to reduce stress. The scent is the feature and the benefit is stress-reduction. People want to know the scent, but they really want to know what they’re going to get out of using the candle.

4. Use simple language - Avoid using big words or long, complicated sentences and paragraphs. Respect the fact that the average person’s reading level is likely lower than yours and make it easy for them to get your message.

5. Focus on your reader - When we write about our business or products, we tend to focus on ourselves. Instead of using a lot of “we” statements, turn it around and speak to your audience. For example: Instead of saying, “We value customer service,” say, “Your customer satisfaction is guaranteed.”

6. Prove your claims - Back up claims with real and detailed testimonials, research facts, etc. The more believable your copy is, the more likely you are to clinch the sale.

For more copywriting tips and practical exercises to help you make more sales without so much work, grab your Mom’s Talk Biz Guide to Copywriting and get started right away.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 9:51 am and is filed under Resources, Work at home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.