It’s a big no-no for any business person and writer to copy the work of others when writing their own real estate marketing materials.
But you have probably read or heard about the practice of direct marketers to keep all the copies of direct mails they receive for reference. So is this considered plagiarism or a dirty practice of real estate direct mail heist? Not at all, so let me explain how you do this and why.
A swipe file is your personal stash of direct-mail copy. It comes from any number of sources. Some of it, no doubt, will be from your direct competitors. Other sources may be from areas of direct marketing that have absolutely no connection to your real estate investing business.
You then use your new knowledge on the marketing impact of these words in your own real estate direct marketing copy. You don’t use the same sentences or even impart the same idea in your real estate direct mail. You are just using the ‘words’ to market ‘your own ideas.’
In order to come up with something your own, you need to be creative with the help of other people’s work. In fact, some people gets to be more inspired and come up with better ideas when “using” other people’s work.
You are merely studying other people’s direct marketing materials and this is totally different from copying their mails. In fact, this method has been used by some of the most successful real estate marketers for years.
If you still don’t have enough collection of real estate direct mails, why not call them up and tell them you want to receive from them. This way you’ll be able to study the make up of their sales letters.
If you can, why not read out loud these real estate marketing materials like what poets and creative writers do. This is actually an effective way in hearing and feeling the impact of the words used in the copy.
So take time to collect and study other people’s marketing materials. Use them as a brainstorming device to help you get started writing.
It wouldn’t help if you somehow feel a little guilt when you do this method. The truth is even the most creative and experienced copywriters have collections of other people’s work. David Ogilvy, a successful copywriter, even admitted that he uses other people’s ideas as inspiration. So if you are having a hard time starting your own copy, why not study other people’s work today.
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