Boost Your Chances for Success
with a Copywriting Maven
Creative Plan Makeover!

Nothing will kill the success of your pricey Pay-Per-Click or email advertising campaign faster than relying on a flawed creative plan -- or having no plan at all.

I knew it, of course. With 20+ years of hard-earned marketing experience under my belt you learn a few things. But it was clear to me after doing 11 landing page makeovers for my Copywriting Maven Makeover series on Copyblogger that nearly all the makeover participants had simply "winged it" and based their time- and cash-intensive promotions on guts and instinct.

Forget the guts. Let's do a little basic math:

A bad plan +/- [ no plan ] =
Little or no conversion at all.

Even the best designed, best written landing page will fail to convert visitors to customers -- even one developed by The Maven herself -- when the original thinking behind the promotion is off-base or just flat out wrong.

That's why for 2008, I wanted to help business owners, entrepreneurs, and other go-getters like you, build a smarter and stronger foundation for their promotional efforts with a “Copywriting Maven Creative Plan Makeover.”

Your only cost is a donation to Heifer International (see below for details). In return, you'll receive a multi-point critique of your promotion plan to be featured in an upcoming post on Copyblogger.

Step 1: Submit ALL the following information (just copy and paste) via this Maven Makeover Email link.

Project Summary:

• Clear, concise description of project background.

Promotion Medium:

• How are you going to reach your prospect? Pay-per-click? Email? What?
• Ongoing or one-shot?
• What is your budget for this project?

Creative Objectives:

• What are you looking to achieve? List in priority order. Be sure objectives are achievable, specific, and quantifiable.
• How will you measure success?

Target Audience:

• Who is the primary audience - demographics, psychographics.
• What, if anything, should be avoided in talking to this group?
• What, if anything, do they already believe about your product/service or this kind of product/service in general?
• Is there a secondary audience? If yes, describe.

Messaging Platform:

• Summarize your message in a single sentence.
• What specific proof do you have to support your message?
• What other, no more than 2, messages do you want to communicate?

Desired Message Tone:

• Describe how you want the message to sound/read: warm, cool, active, edgy? Be as specific as possible and describe why you believe this to be the case.

Product/Service Description and Price.

• Describe in a short, concise paragraph.

Key Benefits:

• Identify and prioritize the major benefits for your prospects - "What's in it for them?"

Key Features:

• Identify and prioritize (categorize if need be)

Product Price:

Key Competition:

• Identify 3 major competitors by name/URL.

Competitive Positioning:

• Market realities or obstacles? What is the key point of difference between your product/service and your competition?

Key Strengths:

• What does your product/service do better than your competition?

Key Weaknesses:

• What does your product/service do less well than your competition? How can we turn that into a positive?

Offer:

• Describe the kind of offer you're making, e.g., free-trial? Buy 2 get 1 free?

Research:

• Describe the kind of research you've done to support the material you've just provided.

Step 2: Make the appropriate donation to Heifer International via the Maven Gift Registry Page.

All "Maven Makeover Candidates" are required to make a contribution to Heifer International equivalent to the full purchase price of a single product/service offering.

So, for example, if you're selling software or a subscription at $97 a pop, you'll be asked to contribute in that range. If yours is a lead generation program, then your contribution will be based on the full value of one product or service item you're looking to sell down the road. (You're welcome to make a more generous donation!)

Note: Your gift may be considered tax-deductible. Check with your tax adviser for specific information.

Roberta Rosenberg, The Copywriting Maven, will personally review all your information and present a smart critique of your current marketing plan and offer ways you can make your thinking sharper and your strategy more on point. Plus! It will appear in a future post on Copyblogger — so not only do you get fresh ideas that will ultimately boost your revenue, you get a lot of new eyeballs for your upcoming product/service promotion, too. That's a win-win-win for everyone.

(Who exactly is The Copywriting Maven? You can read more about Roberta's marketing background here.)

1. Submit your initial information here.
2. Make your contribution to Heifer here.
3. Await the Maven's response.