Get a Lot Better at Writing Persuasive Copy: Copyblogger’s Brand-New Copywriting Course is Open

Last week, one of our very dear community members, Hashim Warren, said something I loved about our new persuasive copywriting course.

“A copywriting course that’s positioned as a copywriting course???”

Because, yeah, there are all kinds of classes and programs out there that are positioned as anything but the art of putting words together in a way that persuades your audience.

There are “success” seminars and “launching” workshops and plenty of “money getting systems.”

And they’re all (if they’re any good) … copywriting courses.

When we arrange our words in order to persuade someone to take action, that’s copywriting.

There ain’t no magic words

Some resources will tell you that there are “hypnotic” terms that will do some kind of crazy magic on your buyers and “make” them buy from you.

Yeah, no.

Basically, good copywriting boils down to three things:

• Desire
• Relationship
• Safety

What you’re selling has to be something your audience actually desires.

You have to have a solid enough relationship that you can keep their attention while you make your point.

And they have to feel safe through every step of making the purchase — no monkey business, no dodgy games.

Finally, you need to wrap those three elements in a message that’s delivered with perfect clarity … so your audience actually gets what you’re trying to convey.

Most of the copywriting “tricks” that actually work are just techniques for communicating those three points with greater clarity.

Content creators are usually fantastic at the Relationship part of that trinity. We’ve put the time in to really understand the audience we serve.

But we’re often a little weak on Desire

“Um, I have a thing, I don’t know if you want it, but, er, you can get it if you really feel like it. I mean, if it’s not too much trouble or anything.”

That kind of waffling actually bites into Safety as well. Your audience is asking themselves,

“If they don’t believe in it, why should I?”

A good copywriting course will help you edit out all that hemming and hawing, and distill your message so you can make your point with confidence.

If you’re good at content, you’re really close

If you’re comfortable creating blog posts, email newsletters, podcasts, or other content, you’re really close to being able to write for a persuasive purpose.

But you still need some structure to get you the rest of the way there.

Things like,

• Learning to use copywriting “formulas” without being formulaic
• Making your case clearly and with confidence … without getting pushy
• Presenting persuasive arguments with respect and integrity
• Framing your offer to illustrate how desirable it is
• Creating an atmosphere of safety, so your potential buyer feels great about moving forward

The money is in the copy

People on the internet like to say that “the money is in the list,” which is sort of true. Without an audience of people paying attention to you, it’s pretty hard to sell anything.

But if you can’t get the right message to that group of people, you can have a audience of tens or even hundreds of thousands, and still not make any real revenue.

Online-based business (including selling physical goods online) is made possible when we can communicate desire, relationship, and safety effectively to our audience. So they can make an informed purchase, and feel great about doing business with us today and tomorrow.

It doesn’t have to get weird

I certainly don’t mind advanced copy techniques, or even some of the fancy “money-getting” approaches. (They’re really about business building, but “money-getting” appeals to a certain kind of audience.)

But they all rest on a foundation of solid copywriting. Clear, relationship-building language describing why your audience would desire what you have to offer, delivered in a context of safety.

That’s what Chris Garrett and I have put together for you: Four weeks of solid, pragmatic advice — designed for content creators, not salespeople.

And you can snag it at a very “non fancy” price for this launch period. Pick the course up by the day after Halloween (November 1) and you’ll get a very substantial discount.

But wait! There’s more!

You might have heard that headlines are kind of important for copywriting.

(That’s an understatement, in case you didn’t catch that. Compelling headlines are crucial to effective copywriting.)

That’s because if your headline doesn’t pique your audience’s interest, they’ll never go on to read all those fabulous persuasive words you wrote.

To celebrate the launch of the course, we dragooned browbeat nicely asked Copyblogger founder Brian Clark to join us for a live headline clinic.

Show up with your headline and Brian and I will critique it for you. We’ll help you deconstruct it and put it back together to be as irresistibly attention-getting as possible.

The right headline can make a huge difference in the success of your persuasive copy. This clinic will help you nail it.

(And of course, we’ll give you lots of food for thought and best practices for your future headlines!)

The clinic will be held live in December. If you can’t make the session live, we’ll happily take your headline in advance and you can catch all of our advice in a recorded version.

Ready to join us, or to pick up a few more details?) Click here to join us inside Copyblogger’s Persuasive Copywriting 101.

We’ll close enrollment on November 1 for a few weeks, to make sure we’re delivering the best experience for our new students. And when the course re-opens, that sweet discount will gone, along with all of the really good Halloween candy.

I look forward to seeing you inside the course!