The hardest part about copywriting is not the writing part. That’s actually fairly easy once you get started. What’s hard is getting your copy to convert prospects into customers.

To say I’ve written a lot of copy during the last eight years is an understatement. And I’m continually surprised by how well some pieces do compared to others.

Here are four things that always surprise me:

1. When a sales piece converts far above expectations.

2. When a sales piece doesn’t convert as well as I’d like, and none of our efforts to improve the conversion rate seem to have much effect. (Rare, but it happens.)

3. When I split-test a letter and the version I expect to win, loses. (Or when the version I expect to lose, wins.)

4. When I split-test two completely different sales letters — and there’s almost zero difference in the conversion rate!

It will always be a mystery to me why one specific combination of words works better than another. But it doesn’t stop me from learning whatever I can and pressing forward.

I always appreciate what Claude Hopkins says in Scientific Advertising. He says the market is the court of last resort. Only the market can tell you what copy works and what copy doesn’t.

So the hardest part about copywriting is not the writing, but rather the rewriting, the testing, the tweaking, the struggle to improve conversions. This process never ends and requires constant attention.

Which means writing the sales letter is often just the beginning.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Want to get an inside look at split-tests I’ve conducted and their outcomes? Then sign up for Copywriting Code today.

Most copywriters and direct response business owners know that even the best of sales letters will fatigue over time. The market gets tired of seeing it… or times change such that the old copy is no longer as effective as it once was.

This recently happened to a letter I had written for a client. Conversions were falling, sales were slowing. What to do?

Rather than test a new headline or lead or guarantee — I simply wrote a new letter.

Sometimes you can’t revive a dying sales letter; you just have to let it die.

But before passing the old letter on to the “sales copy morgue,” I set up an A/B split-test to make sure the new letter and sales process were going to beat the old one.

And so far, the test results haven’t disappointed me.

First, a little background:

1. Most traffic comes from Google Adwords, although there’s some organic traffic.
2. The product sells for $97 up front plus overnight shipping, then $97 a month.

The old sales letter is converting at 0.31% — that’s one third of one percentage point. Not good.

But the new sales letter is converting at 1.89%, which is…

A 509% Increase in Conversion Rate!

The only question now is, will the results hold for the remainder of the test?

I certainly hope so.

And if the old letter picks up a little, or the new letter slows down a little, I’ll still be happy with a 300% increase in conversion rate. ;-)

Now, here’s something you should know: I was kinda scared to put up this new letter because it’s a bit different from most of the work I’ve done in the past.

In fact, it takes TWO pages to make the sale instead of just one (not counting the order check-out pages). The average direct response copywriter might look at the page and think, “That’s not direct response!”

But it is.

The lesson here is this:

Be Willing to Experiment with New Approaches

And certainly be willing to experiment with new tested approaches.

The approach I used for my client’s new sales letter probably wasn’t as risky as I’ve lead you to believe.

It was an approach I’d gotten from reading Terry  Dean’s Monthly Mentor Newsletter. And he got the tip from Glenn Livingston, the guy who runs the only PPC ad campaign management company endorsed by Perry Marshall, Howie Jacobson, and a host of other trustworthy experts.

Hint: When you listen to the right people, and apply the right strategies at the right time, things just work.

But the guy who keeps doing what he’s always done is probably going to find that his results decrease over time.

Changes happen — both in the market at large and in your market specifically. So be bold. Try new approaches. Many times, your creative effort will pay off big.

-Ryan M. Healy

Last week, the Dow experienced its worst week in 112 years of history.

And yet, it’s not all bad. There are many opportunities to be taken advantage of. You only have to have the eyes to see them.

Here’s an example…

Imagine the most difficult business you could possibly be in at the moment. The one segment of the economy that is hurting the most.

I’m currently in that market… and with a single direct mail letter plus a single broadcast email, we’ve produced nearly 50 inquiries with combined MONTHLY volume of more than $40 Million.

If even half of these inquiries become clients, it will produce $240 Million of ANNUAL volume for my client. (Key word is volume, not profit.)

For the online piece of the equation, we’re using a forced opt-in combined with a sales letter. After a prosect opts in, he is taken to a “thank you” page that instructs him to go to his inbox and confirm his request.

After the prospect confirms his email subscription, he is automatically taken to the sales letter. The sales letter is not that long… maybe five pages or so. It asks the prospect to turn over his name, email, address, phone, and some additional details about his business.

To drive traffic to the opt-in page, we sent a single broadcast email to a cold list. It wasn’t an endorsed mailing — it was a broadcast to people we’ve never met nor talked to before.

So far, 46.92% of page visitors are opting in to the list. Of those, 64.58% are giving us ALL their information in order to be contacted by a sales person.

Basically, this means that if we send 100 people to the page, 30 will become “hot leads” — leads that have completed all the steps.

Here’s the screen shot of the test results to date:

And remember: this is the WORST business I can possibly imagine being in at this moment.

So while you should be aware of what’s happening in the economy, you should also have your “opportunity sensors” set to high sensitivity.

Even in the midst of hardship, opportunity abounds.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. I’ve got an in-depth article planned for Tuesday, October 15. It’s called “Business Growth in Hard Times.” Make sure you check back on Tuesday.

I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise. My email inbox was filled with PayPal receipts.

I sat there scratching my head for a moment… “Did I run a promotion I forgot about?” Well, the answer was “yes,” kind of.

I did run a Glyphius promotion a few months back and sold half the copies I had. But I hadn’t promoted it much recently.

That’s when I knew that somebody must have linked to the blog post where I had originally announced the promotion. It turns out, it was my friend Eric Graham, a.k.a. “The Conversion Doctor.”

Here is what Eric discovered based on 181 split-tests he conducted in 2007: “Glyphius actually ‘predicted’ the winner 70.1% of the time.”

This is no fluke.

Eric is not one to leap to conclusions without enough evidence on which to base them. When you go to his blog, you’ll notice the screenshot from his Google Website Optimizer account shows the winning headline in one test with a 99% confidence rating.

In most of my headline tests, I’ve found Glyphius to be fairly accurate in predicting the winning headline. But I’ve done nowhere near as many split-tests as Eric has done. Which is why I greatly appreciate his willingness to share the results of his study.

I highly recommend you read Eric’s Glyphius study here. (And don’t forget to register for the “Headline Testing Secrets” webinar he’ll be conducting on Monday night, February 4, 2008.)

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. I have no more copies of Glyphius or Muvar available. I am completely sold out (not counting one copy of each program I’m keeping for myself).