Why it’s dangerous to consider yourself a copywriting expert

Every time I think I know everything about something a warning voice goes off in my head…

I’ve been writing for clients for five years and studying for longer than that. So in relation to a lot of people I could I guess call myself a copywriting expert. But even experts who’ve been in the copywriting business for longer than me sometimes hesitate at using the word expert.

Because it implies that they don’t need to learn anything else. And one thing that unites all the people I study is that they never stop learning.

They never stop trying to understand what makes buyers tick.  Just when they think they have it sussed, a piece they wrote bombs and they have to figure out why.

And if I’ve learned one thing in my copywriting business it’s this. Guessing isn’t good enough. If you’re writing for a website or sending out a sales letter and you don’t have any means to test it then you’re wasting your money.

How do you know whether someone will react better to a price written in words than a price written in numbers if you don’t test it? Or prefer the words read on to click here.

Yet every day businesses waste money on websites that don’t test, adverts that have nothing to do with what customers want and sales letters that insult the readers’ intelligence.

Don’t guess. Test. You’ll probably be amazed… or shocked. But either way it’s better to know isn’t it?