A swipe file is a collection of tested and proven advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 and sales letters. Keeping a swipe file (templates) is a common practice used by advertising copywriters

Copywriting

Copywriting is the use of words and ideas to promote a person, business, opinion or idea. Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing , the term copywriter is generally limited to promotional situations, regardless of the medium...

 and creative directors as a ready reference of ideas for projects.

Copywriters are not the only ones who can benefit from having a swipe file. As book publishing coach Diane Eble points out, authors and publishers can benefit from creating a swipe file of best-selling titles to give them ideas for their own titles. Publicists can create a swipe file of great press release headlines. Swipe files are a great jumping-off point for anybody who needs to come up with lots of ideas.

Swipe files are also commonly used by Internet Marketers who need to gather a lot of resources not only about products but also about marketing methods and strategies.

See also

• Search engine optimization
  Search engine optimization
  Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...
  
  
• Communication design
  Communication design
  Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media intermission such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people...
  
  
• Internet marketing
  Internet marketing
  Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing of products or services over the Internet...
  
  
• Commonplace book
• Morgue file
  Morgue file
  A morgue file originally was the paper-folders containing old files and notes that were kept by criminal investigators, and old article clippings kept by newspaper reporters, in case they became of later use as a quick-reference....