Swiping defeat from the jaws of victory
Published: Thu, 07/12/18
Many moons ago, I wrote an email warning people who see blatant copy-and-paste stealing and, thus, think it's “okay”, so they then do it -- thereby hurting their sales, their market place positioning, and their very reputations.
It got a lot of amusing feedback, too
For example:
People who insist copying & pasting sales copy, emails, etc is okay because (and I quote from one prominent Internet marketer you would probably know of), "Dan Kennedy, Matt Furey, and almost every great copywriter say copywriting is assembling good copy from a swipe file not thinking up totally new ideas and concepts."
Is he right?
Well, let's take a look-see at what these gentlemen he name-dropped have actually said:
"Dishonest theft is taking actual trade names, book/product titles, brands or verbatim copy and/or utilizing someone's intellectual property in an environment where your advertising may very well bump up against his"
- Dan Kennedy
"NO BS Marketing Letter"
January 2004 issue
Doesn't sound like he's advocating cut & paste.
At least, not in a plagiarizing kinda way.
So how about this one, too:
"The lazy use of the word 'steal' by marketing teachers has done more harm than good as people who are fully capable of writing their own copy or coming up with their own product ideas, are too bone-headed to do so. Instead, they cut and paste others' emails or ads."
- Matt Furey
"Internet Marketing Money-Generator"
October 2006 issue
Incidentally, Matt Furey went into a lot more on this.
Including how he throws out anyone from his coaching program he catches copying & pasting and stealing copy, title names, etc. and will not give anyone who teaches or advocates stealing others' copy an ounce of his knowledge.
And this from an old school master (not mentioned by the IM guy above):
"The idea of an ad or a headline demands its own shape. It cannot be fitted into someone else's solution."
- Gene Schwartz
"Breakthrough Advertising"
(And, I would add, this goes double for email...)
Also, a quick note on this:
Ken McCarthy used to correspond with Gene Schwarz (by mail, this was before email) and said in his copywriting course that Gene was the nicest guy in the world, but swiping was something that really pizzed him off.
Wonder why...
More:
This goes beyond right-or-wrong.
Copy & pasting someone else's words is just flat out dumb.
Take the great Doug D'anna, for example. Doug is easily one of the single best direct mail copywriters on the planet. And I was curious about what he thought on the subject when I interviewed him for my "Copywriting Grab Bag" product.
What did he say?
He said…
"When I first started out I had a swipe file too. You know what the first thing I discovered was when I realized who Gary Bencivenga was and the game I was in? I threw everybody else's piece away. Why would I do that? Because I might have been thinking that I was swiping something that was good or using a model that was a winner when it wasn't. That was the first thing. You need to have control pieces in your swipe file. But, you've got to remember that control piece worked for that piece at that time in that market in that environment. So it's really more of a case study to look at."
I realize this is going a bit deep for the copy & paste guys.
So for the copywriting fanboys who want to appeal to non-existent teachings from various copywriting authorities to further avoid thinking and problem solving... I've never heard anyone of 'em say a swipe file should be used to steal and copy & paste anything verbatim.
Should you use a swipe file to get ideas?
Of course.
Use it to learn how to structure a persuasive argument (paragraph structures, flow of info & emotion, headline/opening sentence/bullet point formulas & templates, etc)?
Yes.
Be inspired by other ads?
Most definitely.
Apply ideas & concepts & offers you see working in one market to another market where nobody else is using it?
Absolutely.
But copy & paste verbatim?
Plagiarize?
No.
Not only is it flirting with being illegal, but it's just dumb to try to pass off someone else's personality, positioning, unique speech peculiarities, etc and think people aren't going to either see right through it or outright catch you (and notify the people you are stealing from -- further making you look like a complete noob).
When that happens, trust vanishes.
When trust vanishes, sales die.
And, when sales die, so does your business.
This is why in my "Email Players" newsletter I don't advocate copy & paste and plagiarizing.
I give email examples.
Lots of ideas & concepts you can run with.
And, show you what things are working for me.
But you have to be able to think. You have to problem-solve. And, you have to apply what you learn uniquely to your situation, and not be what Ken McCarthy once described as a warmed over version of someone else's leftovers.
Otherwise, it's wholly incompatible for you.
And, will just disappoint.
This is especially true of the August issue coming up in a couple weeks.
It's full of examples (most of the issue is examples, with brief commentary) from some of the most profitable ads and emails I've ever written (not swiped), to demonstrate the main principles taught inside, which can make anyone who uses them a lot more sales, with a lot less frustration.
People foolish enough to merely "swipe" it will miss the whole point.
But people who grasp the principles behind the copy (and apply them) will make out like bandits.
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http://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle