The copywriter’s checklist…I never leave home without it. I don’t know about you, but I have a terrible memory. As I get older, I find it gets worse and worse. Yesterday, I didn’t remember if I had my salad before dinner. That’s when you know you’ve really got problems. That’s why I keep a checklist for everything I do in regard to my business. That includes my copywriter’s checklist. Do you have one? If not, you might forget something important when you’re writing your sales copy. In this article, I’m going to share with you MY copywriter’s checklist. You can compare it to yours to see if you left anything out.

The first thing I do is make sure that I have a professionally made template for my sales pages. I have several depending on the look I am going for. You should try to have about three or four of these in your arsenal.

The next thing I have to take care of is the product itself. I have to read it completely to see that I have all the facts so that I can write my copy. I don’t know about you, but I can’t write copy for a product I don’t know inside and out.

After that, I work on my headline. The headline is going to be responsible for about 80% of your sales, so you want to come up with a few very good ones and test them against each other. Your headline can make or break your sales copy.

I then work on what I call my story board. This is where I map out the story that I am going to tell in the sales copy itself. For example, if it’s a product on making money online, I’ll start with my life before the Internet, then work up to how I started and the finally how I became successful…all in a logical sequence.

I then work on gathering my bullet points from the product I just reviewed. These bullet points will most likely be features of the product. I want to then take them and turn them into benefits. Features are fine, but it’s going to be the benefits that sell your product.

The next step is to gather any social proof I have, such as screen shots of income of whatever it is I have to prove that the product works. If you’re selling an acne cure, before and after photos of a person who used your cure work wonders.

I then gather up all my testimonials. If you have a lot of these, you’ll want to break them up in your sales copy. I try not to put more than four or five testimonials consecutively. I also try to keep them short. If somebody sends me a long one, I ask if I can shorten it.

Finally I gather any photos that I am going to use and come up with captions for them. Photos can add a lot to your sales copy if you use them correctly.

Naturally, you finish your sales copy with the call to action, but I consider that as well as pricing and guarantee as part of my story board.

If you go through your checklist and make sure you have all these items, you’re well on your way to making sure that you’ll be writing a sales letter that will be solid.

For more great copywriting tips, check out the link in my signature. You’ll be turned into a crackerjack copywriter in no time flat.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Want to write copy just like the pros? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.