When I first heard about Swipe files, I was shocked. As a former high school teacher, I have always had an aversion to plagiarism.
But then it was better explained to me (so now I can explain it to you, too).
A swipe file is a collection of marketing materials that you use to get ideas for how you do your own marketing. Unlike what I initially thought, swipe files are not intended for you to rip off word for word other people’s hard work.
Instead, you let other people’s creativity spur on your creativity. In fact, studying other people’s sales letters can give you a nice shortcut in one of the toughest skill sets that you have to master for business.
Let me be more specific… Let’s say you’re stuck with writing a good headline for your website or salesletter. You could write down a list of 25 headlines, figure out which one sounds the best, and then use that.
Or you could get more geeky and split test 3-4 of the ones you think will work the best (if you know how to set that up).
Or you could take a look at some of the sales letters that persuaded YOU to buy, and deconstruct them, swipe them and put your own spin on it.
Change it enough to make your own, while using enough of the original psychology behind the words to keep their effectiveness.
You could look at direct mail pieces (Omaha Steaks are some of my favorite to study), or sales letters of the successful internet marketing products you see being pitched about.
Beyond the words, your swipe file also includes things like color choices, font styles, backgrounds, table widths, bold and underlining, use of …, etc.
Within emails, you take a look at the subject lines to get you to open them; how they use the From/Reply address for credibility; or even the structure of the email (how wide is the text).
Done ethically, swiping becomes your library of study materials in copywriting, marketing, and persuasion.
There are a few people I’ve been studying for the last year this way, and they happen to be good friends of mine, too (we’ve cruised together, many chats at seminars, phone calls and teleseminars together).
One is Erik Stafford, known as the Faster Webmaster. And another is Mike Morgan (the Morganizer – because of how well his sales letters convert). They were behind the recent Launch Tree promotion, and their new collaboration is Direct Response Marketing 2.0 (DRM 2.0 for short).
A couple of days ago, Mike called my cell and told me how excited he was about this particular project. Mainly because instead of just being the behind-the-scenes-guy who wrote the words, he’s actually one of the product creators.
And when he told me Erik was doing the graphics AND was one of the product creators, I knew that I had to study everything they did.
This is more than them just being my friends. Seriously – Erik has won a handful of ADDY awards with his marketing, and Mike’s salesletters have generated a lot of money.
So you can bet that I’m looking very carefully at their sales letter for DRM 2.0.
What I’m noticing are:
- How they’re split testing 3 different headlines (go to the page, and refresh)
- How they’re using bulleted benefits throughout the page
- How they’ve constructed an offer that is so insane people feel like they are truly missing out if they don’t take them up on it (free + shipping offer for a complete course)
- The blue “Johnson boxes” that explain the modules and the bonuses
- The call to action links throughout the letter, hitting emotionally significant triggers
And I’ve just started studying it.
Another excellent sales letter that’s being promoted right now is Russell Brunson’s MicroContinuity System. For the same reasons above, you should study how Russell communicates his message. But also notice how he adds video to the process for added credibility.
You also should take a look at how he presents his offer (it’s the point of the program as well). Part of getting great results with your marketing is knowing exactly how to present your offer to your customers so they understand how much value they’re really getting for such a low price. They should feel that way whether you’re selling something for $10 or $10,000.
Internet marketing and make money offers aren’t the only things you should be studying. You can also learn a lot from fitness products. Even if you’re in a completely different niche, you can see how people are using the same influence concepts and emotional hooks to help readers understand the value of their offers.
One example is from my accountability partner, Scott Tousignant. I’ve been brainstorming with him the last week or two about his sales letter, and it’s become really strong. You can see it at FatLossQuickieExperience.com.
Here Scott is connecting with a very specific target market – work at home moms and dads – who want to get into better shape. Instead of just focusing on how they look, though, Scott’s putting fitness goals into monetary terms. This appeals to his target market; the better shape they’re in, the more productive and profitable they become.
He’s also making sure that his offer is an overwhelming value for what people invest in his program.
And unlike the other two letters I’ve already mentioned, he’s relying on personal photos and action videos to help tell the story. This goes to show you don’t have to get all fancy with the graphics – just use the right words in your headlines, the offer, and points of emphasis.
Take a look at how they’ve put it together, print out the sales letter, and see if you can learn some significant copywriting lessons by studying the entire page.
Add them to your swipe file, then use what you learned on your next sales letter or marketing materials, and see how much your results improve.
Bob Jenkins
p.s. What do you learn from these sales letters? Post with a comment below what you like (or don’t like) about them…
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