Are copywriting courses in Singapore worth taking?
This was a question I asked myself not too long ago. One incentive was because of the Singapore government’s SkillsFuture Credit scheme, which is aimed to “enable all Singaporeans to develop to their fullest potential, as well as realise their aspirations by taking advantage of a wide range of opportunities.”
If I’m not wrong, Singaporeans get a $500 credit towards course fees to better themselves, which you could also use towards a copywriting course.
Take this test first to see if copywriting’s for you
Now, if you’ve been reading up on copywriting, and the idea of making more money through writing entices you, check out Perry Marshall’s Marketing DNA website and test first.
This test will reveal your strengths and weaknesses, and if copywriting is something you will enjoy.
For me, the test results stated that I’d do well in technical writing, strategy, copywriting etc etc.. But that I was weak in video, graphics and other areas. So, my better half in marketing would be someone who was good in the areas I’m not.
Anyway, take the Marketing DNA test first to see if copywriting is suitable for you.
You’ll notice that it costs USD$37, not a small amount, but not big either. This isn’t an affiliate link too, so I don’t get paid anything for asking you to do the test.
There is a way to get it for free, though…
And that can be found in Perry Marshall’s book 80/20 Sales and Marketing. It’ll probably cost you less than the test fee, and you’ll get more knowledge from both book and free test.
Again, I won’t lie to you, when you do the free test, you’ve to submit your email address, which leads you through Perry’s sales funnel. It could also be useful for you if you find something that fits your needs.
Should I take a copywriting course?
But, back to the question on going for a copywriting course in Singapore…
Is it worth it?
How much can I learn?
A quick Google search will reveal that it might cost you almost SGD$1,000 to take a 2 day course.
This portion below is an edit done on 15 October 2017, and it’s probably the best advice I can give you
To cut short your learning time, and to prevent you from spending unnecessary money, get these first:
John Carlton and Stan Dahl’s Simple Writing System
Why? Because it shows you, step by step, a system that works.
John Carlton’s Freelance Copywriter Course
Why? Because you will need to learn how to get clients, get gigs and get paid.
Harlan Kilstein’s Value Based Copywriting
Let’s face it, getting paid by the hour for your work is NOT the way to go. Do surgeons get paid by the hour? No. Get this course so that you’ll learn and have the foundation to get the kind of fees you should be getting.
Why? Not cheap, but very, very good. Has courses like his US$3,997 Client Acquisition System training that you can get with your monthly Golden Ticket. There are other courses you can get with your Golden Ticket each month.
Now on to the rest of the content, if you want to know what other books to get and read…
This portion below is an edit done on 12 May 2021, and some great courses and Artificial Intelligence tools have also come up over the past 5 years since this post was written
Highly recommend you check out the courses below, especially if you want to get serious-er (haha) in copywriting:
RMBC Method: https://www.rmbcmethod.com/
“RMBC stands for Research, Mechanism, Brief, and Copy.
It’s a four-step copywriting process I developed back in 2014 so I could pump out 12 sales letters per month.
The reason The RMBC Method is so important is because it provides a systematized, step-by-step approach to writing sales copy.
By doing Research, you understand you gain a strong understanding of your prospect, the language they use, their pain points, and what solutions they’ve tried in the past.
With the Mechanism, you’re able to explain to the prospect why they failed to get results in the past, and how they can succeed in the future.
With the Brief, you end up writing several pieces of the sales letter, but in bite-sized chunks.
And with Copy, you have a follow-along template for producing high-converting sales letters again-and-again.”
Increase Academy by Sean Vosler: https://increase.academy/
Get Sean’s 7 Figure Marketing Copy book for only US$37 at this URL:
https://app.increase.academy/this-is-the-most-important-entrepreneur-skill
Conversion.ai (a.k.a Jarvis)
If you’re hard pressed for time AND still want to churn out great content, check out Conversion.ai’s copywriting tool.
I’ve been using it for a month as of this writing, and have found it to help me greatly. So far, I’ve applied it to a couple of online fundraising campaigns (with some human editing on my end) with good success. I went straight for their Pro Unlimited plan, as I knew I’d use their “long-form assistant” tool quite heavily.
Check out Conversion.ai with a free 5 day trial here: https://www.conversion.ai/free-trial?fpr=theofilus19
What’s your learning style?
Now, if listening to a lecturer is a better learning style for you, by all means go ahead.
I can only speak for myself here, and maybe a few others… My learning style is by reading, and lots of it.
It was how I got halfway decent with photography, so I decided to go the book route to learn copywriting.
Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of cash to blow on a course. Especially when I have a family with 2 young children, a house to pay for and bills coming in every month.
What did I do? Bought books bit by bit, of course.
Which books? And how do you know which books to get?
I was led to one of my first few books from Colin Theriot’s group, The Cult of Copy, which I recommend you join too.
A member posted something on Drayton Bird, and it brought me to his superb book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing.
You might not find lists including some of the titles I’ve listed below, as they were mentioned in some of the books themselves.
While not an exhaustive list on copywriting and marketing, they are what I bought after spending quite a lot of time researching which were the best books I could buy for my penny-pinching budget. (Gotta set aside some for the kids, heh heh)
Here’s what SGD$1,000 (or maybe a bit more) got me
In no particular order:
- My Life in Advertising/Scientific Advertising, by Claude Hopkins
- How To Make Your Advertising Make Money, by John Caples
- Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene M Schwartz
- Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy
- Confessions of an Advertising Man, by David Ogilvy
- Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, by Drayton Bird
- How To Write Sales Letters That Sell, by Drayton Bird
- The Robert Collier Letter Book, by Robert Collier
- How To Write a Good Advertisement, by Vic Schwab
- Reality in Advertising, by Rosser Reeves
- The 100 Greatest Advertisements, by Julian L Watkins
- Write Everything Right!, by Denny Hatch
- Million Dollar Mailings, by Denny Hatch
- Secrets of a Freelance Writer, by Robert W. Bly (This link to Bob Bly is an affiliate one)
- The Copywriter’s Handbook, by Robert W. Bly
- The Marketing Plan Handbook, by Robert W. Bly
- On The Art of Writing Copy, by Herschel Gordon Lewis
- Marketing Mayhem, by Herschel Gordon Lewis
- The Ultimate Sales Letter, by Dan Kennedy
- No B.S. Direct Marketing, by Dan Kennedy
- Direct Marketing, by Ed Nash
- The Boron Letters, by Gary Halbert
- The Halbert Copywriting Method Part III, by Bond Halbert
- The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, by Joseph Sugarman
- Ca$hvertising: 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology, by Drew Whitman
- Write To Sell, by Andy Maslen
- 100 Great Copywriting Ideas, by Andy Maslen
- Persuasive Copywriting, by Andy Maslen
- How To Write Copy That Sells, by Ray Edwards
- 80/20 Sales and Marketing, by Perry Marshall
- Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, by Perry Marshall
- Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising, by Perry Marshall
- Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, by Luke Sullivan and Edward Boches
- Words That Sell, by Bayan
- More Words That Sell, by Bayan
- Start and Run a Copywriting Business, by Steve Slaunwhite
- The Everything Guide to Writing Copy, by Steve Slaunwhite
Further reading:
- Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got, by Jay Abraham
- In For a Penny, by Peter Hargreaves
- The Economist Style Guide
- Writing That Works, by Roman and Raphaelson
- 1 Page Marketing Plan, by Allan Dib
- The Elements of Style, by Strunk
New and upcoming as of today:
- The Advertising Solution, by Craig Simpson and Brian Kurtz
- Sell With a Story, by Paul Smith
Think spending $1,000 on books will get you more out of them than a course? I’d like to hope so… But again, reading is simply a learning style that works for me, and may not for you.
Anyhow, I really wish that the SkillsFuture credit could be used towards book purchases like these, since it helps to give us a new skill or improve it!
If you’d to know more about marketing and copywriting, I strongly suggest you do the same as I did…
Join AskDrayton.com. Drayton Bird truly knows marketing and copywriting, and he has worked with and was praised by ad giant, David Ogilvy, himself.
Again, this isn’t an affiliate link, and I don’t get paid for recommending you this.
Got a question? Ask Drayton!
If you ask why I’m going out of my way to save you money, or make better spending recommendations for your hard-earned cash…
It’s only because living expenses in Singapore are going up, while your salary is either stagnant or even decreasing thanks to inflation! So, people like you and me have to spend very wisely. If we don’t help ourselves and each other, no one will.
P.S. I bought most of the books from Amazon. You can probably find some from good bookstores like Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City, under the Sales, Marketing and Branding corner.
