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I was a little unsure whether to share this or not.

First of all, swiping is one of the biggest marketers’ trade secrets and I know that almost everyone does it but often does not do it well. And secondly, well … some people see it is a dirty practice!

When done well, swiping can be one of the most effective ways to ramp up your copywriting skills and see results from your marketing.

If you are not sure what a swipe is, it’s when you copy other people.

Steal their work if you like … hence the feeling of dirtiness that some people have towards it.

PLEASE NOTE: Swiping is not about copying word for word. That’s plagiarism after all and not only illegal, completely immoral, bloody lazy and, more to the point, will never get results in your own business. (More on this point below.)

is swiping good practice

Now I know there is a chance you get and read my emails just to swipe them.

You may never intend to buy any of my programmes or come to my events.

But that’s OK. Really it is (I have you tracked and tagged so I know who you are mwah ha ha!!)

In fact, I got a lovely email from someone earlier this week telling me she was thinking about coming on my next event on the 30th of this month, but even if she didn’t “I’ve got a lot of value out of your email as it helps me think about structuring my own offer.”

I could see how some people could get really annoyed by this. They are stealing my emails … using them in their own business … how dare they!

But this is life and business.

Nothing is original. And everything I’ve learnt about marketing has come from other marketers and mentors, who have all learnt from other marketers and mentors, too.

The trick to good swiping is knowing what to take and apply in your own business and being able how to apply to your own business so it speaks directly to your target clients with your own voice.

That’s the secret to good swiping.

And as mentioned above – plagiarism is illegal, immoral, lazy and won’t work!

This article came about from a Facebook posts yesterday. I shared an email that I got from a lawyer who emailed me cold from a business show I exhibited at last week.

It started like this:

Dear Karen. I recently attended the Guildford means Business show, saw your stand and got your name from the directory and whilst you hired a stand to sell and I did not I would like to take this opportunity to give you a brief synopsis of what we do here at XXXX Law and Legal Company in case you have need of information without the hard sell.

I shared it to demonstrate how badly thought out emails can be useful to swipe because they show you what NOT to do.

In this case, the opening paragraph bristled me because he highlighted the fact that I had paid to be there and he hadn’t … but he was going to try to sell to me anyway!

The rest of the email I shared on my FB profile (which if you are friends with me, you can read the whole thing) then went on to give a pitch and list the reasons why this company was good enough for me to give them a call.

It was ALL about them.

And nothing about me, my potential problems and the reason why I may be tempted to speak to him.

But the real trigger for writing this, was someone else then shared this with me:

Following on from your wince-worthy marketing email…I just received this: “You’re going to discover the EXACT low risk strategies that is working NOW for getting a FLOOD of clients reaching out to you with your Facebook PPC Ads’ [FACE PALM!!]

And this is what I replied:

Gone to the right person (which I imagine is someone looking to make passive online income) I think they’d get a good response TBH

It may not float your boat (and I can see why LOL – and it wouldn’t float mine!) but this IS all about what’s in it for the reader. It’s full of benefits and not selling the business who is sending the message at all – unlike that poor lawyer I outed out yesterday!

It’s just not done in the language you like to hear it in.

Lesson here is to speak your clients language & they’ve probably got the right language for the people they are looking to attract.

Swipe the structure but change the tone & you’ve got yourself a darn good formula that is worth giving it a go in your business, too.

Swiping is about modelling structure and flow.

It’s the process and systems you want to crack and this is probably why I’m so darn good at what I do because I am obsessed with looking under the hood and working out why what works and what doesn’t.

Copying word for word will not connect with your audience. It will not be your voice and show your character, which is your unique gift to the world.

And that is the secret to good swiping.

So when you read some of the umpteen emails you probably get from internet marketers from all around the world, look at the structure and the process.

The words you read may make you cringe and never tempt you to buy.

And that’s OK because you are NOT their target client and they are NOT talking to you.

If you don’t get umpteen emails and want to start swiping somewhere, head on over to your local newsagent and go grab an armful of women weeklies and tabloid newspapers.

It’s amazing what you can apply from headlines such as

“Who knew you could FREEZE avocados… and wine, cheese or even eggs! The revolutionary ways to use your freezer that’ll mean you never waste food again”

( … taken from the home page of the Daily Mail today … and yes, I hate this paper but the headlines are worth swiping!!)

So there you have it.

One of my trade secrets.

Swiping is something that ALL business owners need to do if they want to work out how to improve their marketing and hone their messages and offers.

And, of course, if you want to speed up the process and get better results from your marketing more simply and easily, you can always check out how you can work with me 😉


 

What do you think about swiping? And how do you go about it? I would love to read your comments below.

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