How To Find Out What Your Competition Is Up To

By Beth Ann Erickson, FilbertPublishing.com

As a copywriter, you need to know what your competition is doing.  Actually, that’s good advice for any business owner, right?

So, here’s what you do to know exactly how your competition is drumming up business….

All you need to do is get on their mailing list.  If you don’t want to do it yourself, have a family member contact them and get on the list.  That way you have access to all their mailings and you can study their style, find out their selling techniques, find their weaknesses, and make your services better.

And if you’re a copywriter who’s serious about their craft, you’ll not only get on your competitor’s mailing lists, you’ll collect junk mail.

 Collect junk mail?

Yup.  You read right.

Never throw out another piece of junk mail – especially if it’s for a local company.  In fact, read every piece of mail you get and then place it in a filing cabinet. 

Study it carefully. Dissect the sales argument. Look for interesting phrases and the way the writer turned features into benefits.

File all these little gems carefully and pull them out when you receive an assignment. You’ll not only have a ton of ideas for your project, but you’ll also know what your client’s competition is up to, you’ll know where their sales message falls short, and you can blow their marketing efforts out of the water.

Knowledge is power.  (It also takes up a bit of floor space….)  And if you want to sail ahead of your competition, study your mail.  File it.  And learn from it.

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Beth Ann Erickson is Queen Bee of Filbert Publishing and the only writing ezine that'll make your writing sparkle, help you write killer queries, and get you on the road to publication fast. Better yet, you'll receive the e-booklet "Power Queries" when you sign up for your free subscription. Subscribe today at http://FilbertPublishing.com

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