As a marketer of your business, writing is part of your activities. You may have to write e-mails to clients and prospects, sales letters, postcards and direct mail campaigns.

Writing copy that generates direct response is a must in business today.

I’m going to list some tips on copywriting that can be very useful when marketing your business. They are valid for your online and offline efforts to generate direct response. I know we talk a lot about online strategies to promote a business but you know as well as I do that the perfect marketing strategy is a multi-media one and direct response marketing is extremely powerful. You should always have online and offlines campaigns going on. You can use direct response copy in websites, TV, radio, mail, e-mails etc.

1. Develop a brand personality and a copy voice and be consistent using similar words and writing style.

2. Know your audience really well. Prospects and clients.

3.People usually don’t read every word you write so have the scanner in mind. Use bold words, headlines, sub headlines and bullet points.

4. Focus on benefits, not features. A feature is used to describe and a benefit answers the question, "What’s in it for me?"

5. 30% of your readers will read a P.S. first, so don’t forget to use one.

6. Use the word "you" a lot more often then the word "I".

7. A compelling copy is mixed with long and short sentences.

8. Avoid paragraphs with more than 6 lines- 5 or less lines for e-mail.

9. Don’t get too complicated. Remember that the average person reads at an elementary school level.

10. Use active verbs rather than passive. Here is an example: She handed him the bowl vs The bowl was handed to him.

11. Start key sentences, headlines with a strong verb.

12. The most powerful words should be at the beginning of the sentences, paragraphs and headlines.

13. "Free" is the most influential word in the English language, not the word "complimentary". You need to avoid the word "free" on e-mails due to the spam filters.

14. Don’t lead your reader away from your call to action. Avoid distractions, especially when doing online copy.

15. Repetition is important. Repeat your call to action and tell your reader what you want him or her to do and how they should do it. Repeat in different ways.

16. Sell the offer, not the product or service.

17. Your offer needs to be a package of elements, not just free shipping.

18. Be specific and give examples.

19. Include a guarantee to build trust with prospects.

20. Add always some testimonials. They bring social proof to your offer.

21. It is a good thing to read your copy out loud to make sure it is appropriately conversational.

22. Under photos, add benefits.

23. The copy needs to be as long as necessary to tell the story effectively. Studies show interested readers trust longer copy even if they don’t read every word.

24. Make it simple to respond and give several points of contact: e-mail, phone number, website etc.

25. Don’t pay more attention to the design. Your job as a direct response copywriter is to generate immediate response and not win awards.

P.S. Don’t forget that writing copy for direct response pieces is not the same as writing a doctoral dissertation, it is a lot more informal. You will notice that some of the tips above is not exactly what you learned at school. That is ok because direct response copy uses words to influence the reader to take action.