Introduction

This book is probably for you. Perhaps you’re a great programmer with the solution to a problem, a business type with a great idea, or an entrepreneur with something to sell. You invest weeks of blood, sweat and tears into a project before, finally, hitting the “launch” button (I imagine it is big, and red, with flashing lights and fireworks). And then… Silence? Confusion? Criticism?

Like many people you probably missed a crucial step; learning how to write about your product. How to sell your product. To demonstrate how important this step is I want you to think about an example:

Consider a car. Now imagine that you have met someone who had never seen a car before, perhaps you have gone back in time to the 1800s. A time when the entire concept is alien.

How would you explain it to them?

Hopefully you can see the problem. If you say “A Car” to almost anyone you see on the street they would understand exactly what you mean. Behind that innate knowledge is a shared understanding; today everyone is taught what a car is. However, if the person you are talking to has no concept of this mechanical contraption then there is a communication problem. You have to distil information, of second nature to you, into a few simple, understandable lines.

It’s not an easy thing to do.

You have an innate understanding of your product, or at least so I would hope. After all, it is the culmination of months of effort. It seems easy to explain - “It’s a car,” you cry! But your audience is probably from the 1800s, your product is a new and unexpected concept. You have to distil your product to just a few lines that will clear them of their muddled, old fashioned thinking and bring them into the light.

In short; you probably need to rewrite that product description.

What this book is…

Writing copy, then, is not easy. Most people pick up the tricks through trial and error, which often means a trail of failed product launches. I’ve seen a good few of those, some of them my own. 10 years ago my parents started a business whose product was educational science talks in schools. Figuring out how to communicate with non-technical teachers (the customers) was a tremendous challenge. But we did it - and today theirs is a thriving business.

That was my first taste of how good copy could open doors - literally. And since then I’ve been working at honing those skills into a weapon of mass SELLING. In Write Copy RIGHT I cover the problems you will face communicating with customers, tips and tricks to fix them, common pitfalls that will kill your launch. And much more.

I can’t promise the perfect launch; but I do have the tips and tricks you need to ensure it isn’t a guaranteed disaster.

…and what it is not!

This book is about good copy, with a smattering of “design” tips like “Place a frickin big ‘Buy’ button here”. By the end you should be better at communicating with your customers. What I am not going to do is discuss topics such as landing pages, advertising/launch strategies, social media, and the so on. Those, along with writing the copy, are critical steps in a good product launch, but each is an entire book in themselves. If you want a dummies guide to product launching a product then I can recommend…

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Not about Product Launches in specific, but tons of in depth information on how to build something worth selling.

Launch by Jeff Walker

This one is definitely about launching a product. As with many books in this genre the sales pitch is very much “get rich quick”. But if you get around that (and please, be cynical) the book is rammed with usable information.

Who the hell are you?

I’ve been writing about and selling things for a decade; everything from tedious business products through to fresh consumer ideas, and even myself. I’ve worked with some of the most excellent writers, and written copy that sells products. When I’m not selling something my writing focuses on communicating about a topic, usually turning a technical discussion into something a layman can follow.

The other day I did a back of the envelope calculation, and figured out that in that time I’ve written more than a million words. Which if nothing else is damn good practice.

More important, though, is that I got you to buy this book.