During my time as a designer, I’ve always found it very useful to keep a swipe file. My design swipe file was chock full of graphics, saved websites, color schemes and many other snippets which I could use to draw inspiration from for future projects. It would often help me get started on a project when I was struggling for an idea, and probably saved me hundreds of hours of my time working on clients projects.
I have followed this swipe file concept through to my marketing business, and now keep a swipe file for any marketing pieces I think I may want to draw inspiration from later.
What To Keep In Your Marketing Swipe File?
The list of things you could keep in your swipe file is almost endless, but essentially you need to think about anything you may find useful to draw inspiration from in the future. My marketing swipe file includes:
Headline Swipes – If I find any headlines which really catch my eye, I will save these into my headlines folder.
Email Swipes - If another marketer sends me an email which had a powerful effect on me (normally ones which cause me to want to click through to the site) I will save these.
Email Subject Lines – I will look over my inbox and find any subject lines which catch my eye, and save these into my swipe file.
Power Words - I keep a collection of “power words” or words which work great in copy to add extra impact to calls to action or bullets
Sales Letter & Squeeze Page Swipes - I will save any new or innovative sales letter or squeeze page styles I find so I can implement similar designs in my own business in the future and test against my existing systems to optimize conversions
You should really be keeping anything which has a powerful effect on you in your swipe file. So if you have purchased a product and found the copy really compelling, you should go back and save that sales letter into your swipe file and perhaps draw some ideas from it next time you write your own sales letters.
How To Manage Your Swipe File
I use a fairly simple system to manage my swipe file. I have a main folder which is called “Business Swipes” and save this somewhere easy to find on my computer.
I then create sub-folders within the Business Swipes folder for each of the different types of content I have saved – for example “Headlines”.
With most content, I will save it in one of two ways into these folders:
1) Saved Into a Text Document – I have a text document within the headlines folder which is also called “headlines” and whenever I find a headline I like, I will simply copy it from the sales letter and paste it into this text document, leaving some space between the previous entry. I use this method with many of the swipe files including email copy swipes, email headlines and many others.
2) Save The Web Page – If I find a marketing piece such as a sales letter or squeeze page which I want to save in its entirety, I will use the Safari browser and use the File > Save As > Web Archive feature to save the complete page. I have found that this format works best for storing pages and keeping them looking as close as possible to how they appear online.
You will find that as you build your swipe file, it becomes a really useful resource for you to pull little ideas from as you are creating your own marketing materials. Sometimes you can really break through roadblocks with the help of your swipe file as it will inject that inspiration you needed to get a sales letter written or a promo email completed.
One important point I feel it’s important to make – swipe files should be used for inspiration. I do not recommend simply copying large chunks of a sales letter or squeeze page and using them “as-is” in your own business. Try and draw ideas and use these to improve your own marketing.
I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts on using swipe files in your business. What sort of thing do you store in your swipe files, or do you have any other ideas for getting inspiration in your business – I’d love to hear from you below!