I found this product the other day:

http://www.directmarketingtools.com/power.html

Does anyone use tools like this to help them organise and structure their copy?

I think it's a bit pricey and I can't quite visualise what it does. It's a shame they don't provide any screenshots or more detail. In fact, when I emailed them to find out more about how it works I just got an email back saying "I don't know and I don't have further information" which I thought was very strange.

However, I do find the prospect of a tool to help me create copy more quickly and easily, quite appealing as this is an issue I have been struggling with.

Also, this site raises some interesting questions relating to recent discussions here. The copy is quite short, and they haven't bothered to put in any guarantees or bonuses (for this particular product).

Yup, looks pretty fishy to me. The lack of information makes it hard to fully grasp what this software is or does. From what I gather, it's a combination of template or writing "assistant," and tester.

The same kind of testing program is available from Duncan Carver for free at http://www.marketing-strategy.org/

Essentially, it's a script that lets you split-test a variety of variables. For example, let's say you want to test headlines. You create a salesletter, copy it but replace the headline. (You can have as many as you like.) When someone hits the page, the script randomly pulls a page.

After a while with some traffic and sales under your belt, you can check the stats to see which letter performed best. And that includes a variety of data. I used it and it's great.

As for a writing assistant, a great tool (also for free) is Joe Vitale's Hypnotic Writing Wizard at http://www.hypnoticwritingwizard.com/

Bonsoir Michel,

What I realised early on in my business is that I need formulas and standard processes and procedures in order to complete work quickly, easily and in a uniform way. For example, when planning a website for a client, I ask them to fill out a questionnaire so that we both know what is being asked and what is expected.

I will probably also produce a copy questionnaire similar to your own. Once those questions are answered, I need some way of storing that information for easy retrieval. My biggest problem is organising and storing that data.

I took a look at Joe Vitale's software, and I don't think it's for me - but thanks for the recommendation. It's rather simplistic, and way over priced. $299 for something that is basically an e-book with a few questions and some audio files is not particularly good value. The analysis is just not sufficiently in depth. I want the answers to questions like "what are the three main problems that your product or service solves for this market segment"? "What pain or loss is your prospect trying to avoid?" Or, "what pleasure are they trying to gain, and what is the overriding motivator behind that"? In B2B sales, are there organisational objectives (e.g. we want the most efficient service) and personal motivations (I want to look good in front of my boss as a result of deciding to buy this product or service)?

What I would like is something that organises all that information for me. I took your tip from your ebook about getting textpad, but I still need some kind of database of facts and figures about a product and it's target market.

I've tried putting information into excel in different worksheets, but I fear I will end up having to write my own system in Access - sigh!!

How do you organise your information? Alan - do you have any pearls of wisdom to impart on this one?

You mean, information gathered through your own testing, testing done with your copy, or testing done by the client prior to commissioning your services? Or all of the above?

One way to do that is to hire a programmer to create a data entry form, perhaps on the web, with data posted to MySQL (or similar, relational database) and extracting that information through specific, customized query strings. Another way is to use a contact management software, like ACT! by Symantec or Maximizer, and loading the information in customized fields/forms for easy retrieval.

But again, I'm guessing what you're looking for, here.

(And Joe Vitale's software used to be completely free. I guess he was 'beta' testing it and now charges for it. Sorry.)

Michel,

No - I think we have had a misunderstanding. What I mean is, once you have collected the answers (data) from your questionnaire, how do you then organise that information? Do you just keep it all in a Word file, or do you have some snazzy system for organising it all for you. Nothing to do with testing or those types of stats.

For example, what I would like is a piece of software where I can click on a button and see all the benefits and advantages of my client's product (that I earlier entered). Click on another button and see how and why the product was developed. Click on a another button to see the features. With yet another button see the demo and psychographics of the target market.

When I used to write essays for college I would write copious notes and then make sure that everything was included in the final version by simply going through and crossing stuff out as I wrote it. However, with sales copy, you need heaps of background information that never gets directly translated into the copy, but which you need to know in order to write the copy. It's a different type of writing and needs a different approach to raw data management.

How do you do it? Once you have some verbose answers to your questionnnaire, how do you then file that information? How do you make it easy to access in order to write the copy?

Hope you can help.