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3 Steps To Copy Research

by Trevor Stalling

One of the toughest parts of writing good copy is just the act of getting started. A few thoughts on paper can really jumpstart the creative process. Product research is a crucial first step. How are you going to write and effective sales page if you don't know your product, inside and out? I follow a simple 3-step process to performing research:

Immersion

Immersion is the process of becoming "one" with your topic or product. Read everything you can get your eyes on. The value of this process is that the subject matter begins to permeate your subconscious as well as your conscious thoughts. This becomes a huge factor when you move to the "flow writing" stage. You need to become an expert on your product. The level to which you understand your product and the industry space that it fits in will really show throught in your ad copy. If your readers get the impression that you're an amatuer or know even less than they do, they'll head for the hill after the first few sentences.

Note Taking

It's a good idea to takes notes as you run through the Immersion stage. If you're doing research on the web, (which undoubtably you will if you're reading this), notetaking is simple. If you run Microsoft Windows, programs such as Zoot and InfoHandler allow you to capture text from the web with a single click and store it in a personal database. Later, you can go back to your database and categorize what you've captured. The advantage that I've found to using this technique is that it doesn't interfere with your immersion process. Because the capture is so quick, you don't experience the "mental context shift" of taking written notes flipping back and forth between programs performing a manual copy and paste. When you go back into your database to organize your notes, it's like performing a mini review of what you've captured. It serves as reinforcement of the immersion process.

These notes will become the basis of your swipe file for the product. The more information that you can refer back to and draw upon, the greater your chances of uncovering the nuggets that will peak the interests of your readers.

Review and Ponder

Now it's time to take a step back and assimilate the information that you've captured so far. In this step you'll go back over the notes that you've captured and pay particular attention to those that make a strong point about your product space. Start to group related notes together and begin to think about how the various information you've gathered can begin to flow together into a single sale page. Some topics may not fit well with others, that's ok. They may be better candidates for a second sales page that you can test against the first.

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