Why Bad Writing And Lots Of Typos Can Actually Make You More Sales
By: Ben Settle
If you'd like to see the "spelling police" panic in the streets, weeping and gnashing their teeth, horrified and distraught beyond belief, then this article is going to make you smile from ear to ear.
Here's why.
There was once a time when I used to subscribe to every "copywriting" course and email report I saw.
It didn't take long to realize why they're free and I was going to have to shell out a lot of cash to learn this craft.
Case in point: I'm not going to name names or anything like that, but just last nigt I was looking at an article on writng copy by a self-proclaimed "ezine guru". This peron was saying what a lot of people tend to believe -- that gramatical mistaks and typos kill sales. Which is almost always never the case.
Look, let me just say I don't have anything against this person. For all I know they may be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to "writing". And I can guaratee this person's "writing" skills are ten times better than mine.
But copywriting has very little to do with "writing".
It's true. The actual "writing" part of the sales pitch is only about 10-20% (if that much) of the process. And if you break that 20% down, only a fraction of that has to do with any kind of tecnical writing "skill" -- while the other 99% has to do with how you structure the information.
Think of it this way: What if I sent you a letter that was typed with an old, beaten-up typewriter, with all kinds of grammatical mistakes and erros. And the letter said, behind all the misspelled words and incomplete sentences, that I want to give you a million dollars. That I picked you totally randomly out of the phone book and you can expect the check in a week or so.
Would you care if it was full of errors?
On the other hand, what if I sent you a letter typed up on the best quality paper, with perfect sentences and no spelling erros whatsoever -- and I even put some kind of scent on it so it smelled like your favorite food. But I was trying to sell you some land that is shut down by the EPA for radioactive pollution?
Would you listen?
Which leads me to my point: It's not how you say it that really counts, it's what you say. In fact, some of the old time copywriters -- the ones who used to sell books during the Great Depression, when money was tight -- sometimes purposely misspelled words to ADD to the "human" element of th pitch.
I've even heard true stories of how sales letters have been mailed out missing entire pages...and orders still kept pouring in. The customrs were so enthralled with the pitch, they just blew on by the typos and bought the product anway. One prominent online marketer sometimes even brags about how his sales actually go up when he has a bunch of misspellings and typos.
Anyway, here's the point: While there are exceptions to this, for the most part, if you ONLY focus on 1.) sending your pitches to people who have already demonstrated (with their wallets) they are interested in products similar to yours and 2.) crafting a truly irresistable (and believeable) offer...your chances of making the sale are astronomically higher than if you just put out a wimpy offer...to a semi-intrsted list...and with a perfectly "written" sales letter.
Oh, and one last thing. I didn't edit this article at all. Just sat down and \knocked it out in one sitting. If you've read this far, it obviously didn't bother you that much that there are a poor sentence structures and misspelled words, did it?
About The Author:
Ben Settle is one of the few direct response copywriters in the world who really puts his money where his mouth is - structuring his deals so he gets paid only from the results of the sales - and not on any up-front fees. Although Ben is not currently accepting new clients, he freely shares his ideas and tactics on his blog at: http://bensettle.com