How to Break into Financial Copywriting
Published: Mon, 11/12/07
Dear ,
As you know, the big money in copywriting is made selling
investment newsletters and financial advisories. Publishers will
pay top talent fees from $10,000 to $25,000, not to mention
royalties that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
annually.
Despite what you may read on other Web sites, breaking into this
field is not easy. Yet it's not as hard you may think. You can
get into this field with a little preparation and confidence.
When I say preparation, I mean it. Especially if you don't have
any written sales samples or results in this field.
Here's what you must do before you contact a soul.
1. Bone up on investing and investors. If you plan to sell
investment advice, you must know something not only about the many
facets of investing but also about how investors think.
2. Get a feel for the stock market. As I write this, the market is
rebounding from a number of wild swings from the subprime credit
squeeze.
The Fed just lowered the discount rate it charges banks, creating a
Fed-led rally. You must know what these actions mean to
investors and to stocks.
3. Think like a stock analyst. Most investment advisory promotions
are driven by stock recommendations. As a result, you must be able
to understand how investors are feeling in relationship to the
market and then connect the dots to a stock and then to the
publication.
You'll need to know what a contrarian is...the difference between
dividend and growth stocks...if tech stocks are good buys now...the
difference between oil drillers and integrated oil companies.
You'll also need to know why copper prices are spiking...how ethanol
production is affecting corn prices...why natural gas prices are at
all-time lows and how you can profit from this...and much more.
This is really just the beginning of what you should know.
But the payoff can be quite huge when you break into this business.
The checks can be mind-boggling. It all begins by gaining
knowledge of the subject and of how investment cycles work.
My Big Break
If you heard my interview with Clayton Makepeace, then you know I
caught a huge break in 1992 with an assignment with Phillips
Investment Resources. My first package was for The Retirement
Letter. It was called "The Great Retirement Betrayal."
When it finally fatigued, the company had mailed more than 20
million pieces and I had received--hold on to your hat--more than
$250,000 in royalties.
What I failed to mention in that interview is that I would have
never been able to write that piece if I didn't spend a year
working as contract writer at the Ruff Times, the largest
investment newsletter of the 1980s.
It was there I learned about the stock market and investors and
began honing my writing skills. Of course, nothing I created there
had the impact that my first piece for Phillips did.
Yet it was this training ground that helped me to gain the insights
and understanding that I credit for much of my success today.
So in order to break into the financial copywriting niche, you must
add this critical knowledge to your background before you write one
word.
In many ways, it's like training for a sport. Not only do you need
to practice before you can play, you really need to know the game.
How to Get Up to Speed on the Financial Markets
First and foremost, you're going to need to read the financial
sections of the newspapers and watch the TV shows. The reason is
simple.
You need to read what investors read and know what they know. That
way you can tap into their feelings and emotions.
(By the way, if you're not interested in writing for the financial
markets, this is good advice for whatever niche you specialize in.)
Once you begin to get a feeling for the financial markets and
investors, you'll read through other direct mail and email packages
with a whole new eye. You'll see how they tap into not only the
mass knowledge of investors but also the individual feelings that
investors have.
A great way to learn this business is to study other people's work.
Creating a swipe file is great way to do this. Just be sure
you're grabbing the right pieces.
If you're looking for winning ideas, you'd better be looking at
winners. As you've undoubtedly discovered, some really great
pieces you've read may not be controls at all.
So you want to make sure you know what's working and what isn't.
The reason is simple: so you know which ideas and themes are
working in the marketplace and which ones aren't so you can avoid
them!
Because I've seen more split-run copywriting tests that most
copywriters, I've been able to avoid what doesn't work while many
of my competitors work their fannies off developing ideas that will
ultimately go nowhere.
So you better believe there's promotional gold in knowing what
doesn't work and what does. The key, of course, is to know the
difference.
How to tell? Easy. If you've received it more than one time more
than likely it's a winner. If you receive a different piece from
the same source, chances are it's not.
Once you've separated the wheat from the chaff, your real education
begins.
How to Study a Financial Promotion
You'll notice I said "study" and not swipe. You can't simply swipe
your way to success in this business. The A-level clients I work
with have more than 20 years of experience in this business.
They have seen all the promotions, since they are renting their
lists to other companies. So what you must bring to the table is
something original and
unique.
How to do this?
By studying other people's promotions. I mean studying. When I
started out I would not only count paragraphs between arguments,
but also look deep into the arguments.
That's where the gold is. If you can hit your prospect with the
right idea at the right time with the right reasons why, the result
can be the equivalent of owning a broken slot machine.
All this circles back to knowing the market, the product, and your
end customer. This is just Part One of how to break into the
business.
Once you gain this knowledge, you're going to need to write some
sample promotions and then sell yourself. I'll go over all that in
the next few weeks.
Until then, the market is calling...
All good wishes,
Doug
PS If you'd like to learn the simple formula behind my copywriting success, I
invite you to view a clip from my classic 1992 video, How to Write Long Copy
that Makes Money.
You'll see a "young" Doug D'Anna at the beginning of my career and get few
ideas on how you too can break into the financial copywriting business.
Here's the link if you'd like to see this blast from the past along with the
techniques I used to write one of my biggest promotions ever.
http://www.dougdanna.com/how_to_write.html
As you know, the big money in copywriting is made selling
investment newsletters and financial advisories. Publishers will
pay top talent fees from $10,000 to $25,000, not to mention
royalties that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
annually.
Despite what you may read on other Web sites, breaking into this
field is not easy. Yet it's not as hard you may think. You can
get into this field with a little preparation and confidence.
When I say preparation, I mean it. Especially if you don't have
any written sales samples or results in this field.
Here's what you must do before you contact a soul.
1. Bone up on investing and investors. If you plan to sell
investment advice, you must know something not only about the many
facets of investing but also about how investors think.
2. Get a feel for the stock market. As I write this, the market is
rebounding from a number of wild swings from the subprime credit
squeeze.
The Fed just lowered the discount rate it charges banks, creating a
Fed-led rally. You must know what these actions mean to
investors and to stocks.
3. Think like a stock analyst. Most investment advisory promotions
are driven by stock recommendations. As a result, you must be able
to understand how investors are feeling in relationship to the
market and then connect the dots to a stock and then to the
publication.
You'll need to know what a contrarian is...the difference between
dividend and growth stocks...if tech stocks are good buys now...the
difference between oil drillers and integrated oil companies.
You'll also need to know why copper prices are spiking...how ethanol
production is affecting corn prices...why natural gas prices are at
all-time lows and how you can profit from this...and much more.
This is really just the beginning of what you should know.
But the payoff can be quite huge when you break into this business.
The checks can be mind-boggling. It all begins by gaining
knowledge of the subject and of how investment cycles work.
My Big Break
If you heard my interview with Clayton Makepeace, then you know I
caught a huge break in 1992 with an assignment with Phillips
Investment Resources. My first package was for The Retirement
Letter. It was called "The Great Retirement Betrayal."
When it finally fatigued, the company had mailed more than 20
million pieces and I had received--hold on to your hat--more than
$250,000 in royalties.
What I failed to mention in that interview is that I would have
never been able to write that piece if I didn't spend a year
working as contract writer at the Ruff Times, the largest
investment newsletter of the 1980s.
It was there I learned about the stock market and investors and
began honing my writing skills. Of course, nothing I created there
had the impact that my first piece for Phillips did.
Yet it was this training ground that helped me to gain the insights
and understanding that I credit for much of my success today.
So in order to break into the financial copywriting niche, you must
add this critical knowledge to your background before you write one
word.
In many ways, it's like training for a sport. Not only do you need
to practice before you can play, you really need to know the game.
How to Get Up to Speed on the Financial Markets
First and foremost, you're going to need to read the financial
sections of the newspapers and watch the TV shows. The reason is
simple.
You need to read what investors read and know what they know. That
way you can tap into their feelings and emotions.
(By the way, if you're not interested in writing for the financial
markets, this is good advice for whatever niche you specialize in.)
Once you begin to get a feeling for the financial markets and
investors, you'll read through other direct mail and email packages
with a whole new eye. You'll see how they tap into not only the
mass knowledge of investors but also the individual feelings that
investors have.
A great way to learn this business is to study other people's work.
Creating a swipe file is great way to do this. Just be sure
you're grabbing the right pieces.
If you're looking for winning ideas, you'd better be looking at
winners. As you've undoubtedly discovered, some really great
pieces you've read may not be controls at all.
So you want to make sure you know what's working and what isn't.
The reason is simple: so you know which ideas and themes are
working in the marketplace and which ones aren't so you can avoid
them!
Because I've seen more split-run copywriting tests that most
copywriters, I've been able to avoid what doesn't work while many
of my competitors work their fannies off developing ideas that will
ultimately go nowhere.
So you better believe there's promotional gold in knowing what
doesn't work and what does. The key, of course, is to know the
difference.
How to tell? Easy. If you've received it more than one time more
than likely it's a winner. If you receive a different piece from
the same source, chances are it's not.
Once you've separated the wheat from the chaff, your real education
begins.
How to Study a Financial Promotion
You'll notice I said "study" and not swipe. You can't simply swipe
your way to success in this business. The A-level clients I work
with have more than 20 years of experience in this business.
They have seen all the promotions, since they are renting their
lists to other companies. So what you must bring to the table is
something original and
unique.
How to do this?
By studying other people's promotions. I mean studying. When I
started out I would not only count paragraphs between arguments,
but also look deep into the arguments.
That's where the gold is. If you can hit your prospect with the
right idea at the right time with the right reasons why, the result
can be the equivalent of owning a broken slot machine.
All this circles back to knowing the market, the product, and your
end customer. This is just Part One of how to break into the
business.
Once you gain this knowledge, you're going to need to write some
sample promotions and then sell yourself. I'll go over all that in
the next few weeks.
Until then, the market is calling...
All good wishes,
Doug
PS If you'd like to learn the simple formula behind my copywriting success, I
invite you to view a clip from my classic 1992 video, How to Write Long Copy
that Makes Money.
You'll see a "young" Doug D'Anna at the beginning of my career and get few
ideas on how you too can break into the financial copywriting business.
Here's the link if you'd like to see this blast from the past along with the
techniques I used to write one of my biggest promotions ever.
http://www.dougdanna.com/how_to_write.html