To Swipe or Not (Copy)?

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A cubic zirconium diamond looks quite realistic to the naked eye, so much like a diamond but they differ in value... Like A Swipe copy may resemble a personal invitation. Until you look closer. People are smart and may notice the flaws, but still a diamond is worth way more, as a personal invitation may hold its value by the investment of time you have made.

Bear with me, the poet in my heart may sound confusing. I'll try to explain.

This has been on my mind since earlier

Inside Wealthy Affiliate live chat...

A couple conversations are on my mind and I'd love to hear some discussion from this group.

The topic is Swipe Copy, and if you are new to email marketing this term may also be new.

Swipe copy is an affiliate program email that members may copy and fill in their name, adding in the recipient name and email with basically the same chain letter. The affiliate link is embedded for commissions with each email.

One example I have seen is the Teachable Summit swipe copies, which have graphics and notes for your email list to join the content creation for commission.

In this case, the product or service is courses in any niche. The summits I have attended have speaking events from members who have had good results. They give a testimonial and advice at getting started with selling courses and marketing the content.

SWIPE COPY EXIBIT, the bullets are a suggested series, and the series may be more important for email marketing campaigns than using the content of swipe copies. They are based on research that many conversions to life customers do not happen overnight, or on the 1st email...nor the second.

It can take a series of well-crafted and personally catered emails to have a successful email campaign. Hence, the suggested schedule that Teachable recommends for their affiliates.

I have seen examples of poor swipe copies that sound quite robotic, that leads me to the live chat conversations. One member was looking for swipe copies, so I asked Kyle.

Kyle explained that with swipe copy, the voice of the writer can be lost and the campaign could suffer with fewer conversions. You can lose audience attention by being less than authentic, and it may take away from trust.

The main idea is the done-for-you swipe copies may not be appropriate for your audience. So I will quote the Teachable Affiliate email screenshot above "Do whatever is best for you and your audience."

This is a good thing to consider and investigate prior to engaging in swipe copies your audience may feel are spam.

With all the business closures and social distancing, one face to face element is lost of customer service. In this time, anything a business can do for their clients service really matters for your long term success.

I still think swipe copy can be carefully used, and members may opt to create their own. This may cater to your subscribers a little better than a copy of a note that seems written by a robot. The technique can be a skillfully executed part of the business plan. Swipe copy can be edited and tailored to segmented email lists, and this can also be split tested.

The research of conversion rates comparing individually crated email invitations to copy and edited for the names of the subscribers.

It has me thinking about what the community experience has been. Please participate with your thoughts even if you haven't started email marketing.

1. Do you use email marketing for your business?

2. Would you use a swipe copy for your subscribers for earning your affiliate commissions?

3. Do you think conversion rates could be dependent on how swipe copy is executed?

4. Do you think swipe copies can be diamonds if you look close enough, depending on the quality and where they are found? As well as who will wear them?

Here we go with my poetic comparison again, so I will leave it at this:

Thank you for reading my Swipe Copy Blog!

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Recent Comments

27

Great post and interesting things to consider. Here are my answers to your questions;

1. Not as much as I need to (but plan on stepping it up as soon as I get a few other projects completed) though I do see the absolute value there

2. Yes - however probably not without modification. Personally I hate spam and junk emails/scammy marketing tactics and other phony BS some people use trying to generate sales at any cost. Since I am in it for the long term and per my own rules I do not choose to play short term games. I see all such files as "Templates" or guides to use and reword in my own way (own voice). Right or wrong ? I do not know - but that's how I choose to do it anyway

3. I think that applies to it all, though I do not have in-depth experience specifically with email marketing using swipe files specifically. I did train recruiters and salespeople in person for years and I used scripts, templates, and guides to do that. I also used role-playing followed up with live calls or direct selling/recruiting. One thing I always taught is that you need to change the words to make it match you (your own voice, style, personality, etc.) otherwise you sound like a fool, sound phony and even worse - you will never enjoy it... and that means you won't keep doing it. It worked for my purposes, so I keep following the same approach in all I do more or less.

4. Yes and Yes (with modifications)

Okay, so here is my take on email copy swipes.

I do not recommend using swipes as a fast track for you to put in place as is. I would never recommend anyone just using what is there and settling with it.

With online marketing niche being more accessible now for everyone from everyone. I think we can all safely say we know when we have signed up to a list of compiled copy swipes, they look like the junk mail you get in your letter box, you know the ones addressed: "to who ever lives here" . People don't want to read the same sales pitches from different senders. They want the personality behind the sales.

However, saying that, it requires a lot of learning and trial & error to master the art of good copy. So, this is where the added benefit of an email swipe comes in. They have tried and tested the sales copy to convert at a comfortable rate. They want their copy to be good, because it is their product they want you to sell. So why spend potential years on learning true copy, when you can swipe a working sequence and just edit and tweak it to fit your personal approach to your audience.

Email swipes are time savers if you wish to focus on something more important to your business, or they are great templates to start with if you are just discovering email marketing.

They can also be used as an addition to your already existing email sequence. Such as, "guys I've just found this product which I feel will work really well along side what I already offer. In a few days you'll recieve a promotional offer for it, I recommend you at least take a look at it". Then feed the swipe into your sequence.

Hope this allows you to understand why I was asking for email swipes. There is also the opportunity for you to promote products outside of your niche too. Like when you buy a magazine for Computers but a house hold electronics advert is tucked into the pages loosely.

I sent a reply and accidentally erased when editing. I will rewrite it drat why I do that oopsydoodle

Thank you so much for your response, I had the same feelings you pointed out here. So I pay close attention to swipe copy. I wondered after researching the idea.
It sounds like you have the process better than I understand but still learning. I like the idea of trying out swipe graphics, and customizing the image descriptions or adding specific hashtags for example.
And I agree, all about timestretching techniques and using the swipe tool carefully. It could be counterproductive if you send out something second rate and lose the attention of people who believed in your genuine brand.
I think ghost writers maybe good swipe copy creators, because they already have practice putting their self in other people's shoes. And if affiliates have practiced blogging, then email sequences should be a piece of cake with research and good effort. Do you think it would be useful to try segmenting email into lists to write for effective conversion, and evaluate whether the copy sequence is a good marketing strategy

My suggestions were directed toward those who wish to take the free to low budget route. Me, personally.. I take the ghost writing approach. In fact I'm outsourcing the entire process.

Few bits there though, which have caused me to want to learn more.

Me, too I've been googlebinging my brains with some ideas, I'd love to learn more 1st before jumping the gun

Mostly like you Becca. Thanks for the dip into a new topic for me, I knew nothing of it. But now I have a nail on which to hang more info.

Always like to hear from you,
Suzay

I love how you put it haha, I was wondering if I hit the nail on the head or not. Your reply makes me feel better at my attempts for looking into email marketing thank you Suzay:)

Putting together a protracted email campaign can be time consuming but only if you're not sure about what to write. 'Tried and tested' swipe copy provide you with two alternate choices. Send 'as is' in the hope that a decent percentage respond or, take the 'value' that is within and enhance it with your own personal touch.
Of course the third option is to create your own unique copy. Not having a solid background in 'sales techniques' I may well take the second option, at least then I know it's going to be somewhere near the mark.

Right, I think there are great arguments to either side with the revision per email segment being a great option. Many swipe copies are written by talented people, tested and proven to get good conversions. But I think the time invested in learning how to curate your own swipe copy could be worth it. Some people also use the option of hiring a ghost writer. Thst sounds mysterious and fun.
Any hoo thank you so much for reading and I saw the Twack bubble, it made my day.
Sincerely,
Nurse Becca

Always my pleasure.
Much of it comes down to 'time' but maybe it's worth taking that extra time, if it pushes those conversion percentages up a tad.

I think a study could be devised to assess in split testing or something to help guide which to focus on. Maybe try both and see what happens hmmm for a case study. I'll probably geek out on this for a little while.

Not heard of a swipe copy before Becca. But then as yet I haven't got into 'capturing' emails. Another job on a very long list.
Thank you for sharing, interesting knowledge to have.

You're quite welcome of course...email marketing is a great tool for many Affiliates. I hope this helps

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