Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy That Grabs Their Attention and Compels Them to Bu: The Revolutionary Formula ... Grabs Their Attention and Compels Them to Buy [Paperback]

I have a slight problem with this book. It's clearly a book about direct response marketing that has been updated to cover the fact that this is not a popular approach to marketing on the Web.

Direct response marketing is a strong "push" marketing technique - you want to get your message out there, and make people buy your products. It has a long history and has built up a sizeable body of tenets on how things should be done, as well as anecdotes from marketing giants of the past.

Then, about ten years ago, marketing professionals started to think that these ways are not applicable on the web, for a number of reasons. Additionally, most customers and prospects now have a degree of immunity to strong, traditional marketing messages.

Since then, many books have been written on web marketing and other digital media. It's a very different, softer, more informative approach in which people are encouraged to opt-in to product information. This approach also has accumulated a body of proven marketing techniques.

And now we have Social Networking too, which has everyone excited, but has yet to find a successful vehicle for marketing. Rather like a cat looking at a bird in a cage, marketers are hungry to sink their teeth into all those millions of Social networking punters. But nobody is quite sure how. Intrusion and brassy commercial messages do not work. So most marketers and consultants are content to dabble a corporate toe in the water, with a view, perhaps, to establishing "thought leadership" or gaining a respected voice amongst online communities. That's the sort of idea.

And therein is a problem with this book. It shows its heritage in direct response marketing (especially in print), and it doesn't sit comfortably with the ways of thinking about online marketing. To be fair, I've yet to see a successful synthesis of these two approaches to marketing. I'm not at all sure they can be brought together. There's a fundamental difference in philosophy between the two.

The book has the feel of being patched up, and perhaps in need of a fundamental rethink and rewrite.

I also detected what seems to be a contradiction. On page 32 the budding copywriter is told to copy successful ads by hand, so that the wording and style become infused in their way of thinking. And then on page 43 we're told that we must not copy the style of other copywriters but must find our own voice. Perhaps I am nit-picking, but I think the actual wording used makes the contradiction seem even stronger.

This book says all the right things, and has some nice summaries of direct response marketing practises. I'm just not sure you could actually apply everything in practice. As someone who has read quite a bit from both sides of the marketing fence - direct and informative online, push and pull, intrusion and permission-based approaches - there is a distinct feel for me that this second edition of the book is just an attempt to keep the book current and afloat in a sea of changing practice and opinion. As such it seems a confusing mixture.

It has three useful chapters. Chapter 5 covers neurolinguistic (NLP) techniques and other legerdemain used in sales patter, presentations and law courts to slip people a mickey - making ideas seem like established facts when they are not, etc. Chapter 9 makes the very valid point that B2B sales is a very different beast from consumer sales and marketing. Chapter 10 explains how Web 2.0 has completely broken the established direct response marketing rules. This latter chapter pretty much says that all the preceding chapters are wrong, and the advice given and techniques adduced in them do not actually work on the web!

You might be better off buying two seperate books: one specifically about direct response marketing, and another about the "rules" of online marketing - likely to be less confusing.

My favourite book about copywriting for an online audience is probably "letting go of the words" by Janice Redish, though this covers more than just marketing. "The copywriters handbook" by Robert Bly is a pretty good intro to direct response copywriting. On direct response marketing in general, I always rather liked Drayton Bird's "Commonsense direct and digital marketing", though this has signs of patching applied too.

Take care though - there are some shockingly bad marketing books out there: some that regurgitate the same old and outdated tat, and are really nothing more than some marketing consultant's effort to add the word "author" to their CV.

Writing for the Web is different than writing for print, but what exactly is the difference? Veteran copywriter Maria Veloso has pondered this question and provides some solid, standard answers in her useful, straightforward manual, which helps copywriters produce great sales copy for the Internet. While maximizing the sales opportunities copywriters find on the Web, Veloso also explains how to adapt traditional emotive ad copywriting to meet the Web's restrictions, from the physical limitations of a Web page to the distractibility of the average online consumer. She explains how to use opt-in offers and how to write B2B and B2C copy. getAbstract recommends her practical, entertaining book to Web copywriters, particularly novices, who want to boost sales and better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their medium.

This is pretty straightforward, easy to read, great basic advice on writing copy for your internet site, a subject that so many businesses, large and small, screw up totally. It's slightly biased to content from the information marketing industry. But sensibly applied the rules that are clearly explained can be used for any business, whatever the size. I was led to this book by an authority on creating websites that sell, who claimed it was the best book on the subject. I haven't found anything better. I've given it to clients from a wide range of businesses, they all liked it and used it.