Copywriting & Marketing

Six Easy Steps to Winning Advertising Copy

Writing excellent advertising copy doesn’t have to be as hard as you might imagine. Here are several things you can do to make sure your advertising copy is the best it can be.

1. Specify your Goal

Before you even start typing your advertising copy, make sure you know exactly what it is you wish to accomplish. A phone call? An email response? An order? Laying out your advertising plan will get you on your way.

2. Acknowledge Your Audience

Ask yourself – who will read my advertising copy? You might want to write for the broadest audience possible, but don’t forget to target just one group now and then. Why?  You’ll have a better ad response rate when you can address a particular group’s precise needs, which is something you can’t do quite as well with general advertising copy.

3. Appeal to Their Concerns, Not Yours

Yes, you’re composing advertising copy to yield leads and sales for your business. Saying something like, “We’re the best lawn service in town’” means very little to your customers. However if you say, “You can have a lawn that will make your neighbors jealous,” that puts the focus on them. See the difference? When you do that, you have a much better chance at winning them over.  So keep your advertising copy focused on the benefits your business can provide and NOT the business itself.

4. Be Sentimental, Not Logical

Mr. Spock would have been a terrible salesman. Emotion always trumps logic when it comes to buying. That means you must focus on the emotional appeal of what your business offers if you want better results. Let’s look at perfume as an example. Women buy perfume to smell nice (logic). Women buy a particular perfume, like Calvin Kline, because it makes them feel beautiful (emotion). Get your customer’s emotionally involved with your advertising copy and you’ll see results.

5. Keep it Casual

Don’t talk down, but keep your advert copy simple and to the point. This is advertisement copy, not Tolstoy. Use light sentences, simple words and be clear. The powerfulness of the message comes through with the words you choose rather than the amount of words you use. So follow Thomas Jefferson’s advice - never say something in ten words when you can say it in two.

6. Limit Options

Once you’ve played up to the customers interest and emotions, encourage them to take a particular step. This is known in writing as the call to action. Tell them exactly what to do next to get the benefits you’re offering. It might be clicking a link for web copy, picking up the phone in a newspaper ad or filling out a registration form on a postcard.

How Can You Write Better Ad Copy?

That’s one the questions most business enterprises ask themselves at some point.  How do I write better ad copy? The reason is easy - compelling ad copy is the mainstay to your marketing plan and will propel your business into the stratosphere. Here are a few how-to points that will help.

All strong ad copy is comprised of the same standard elements. It should always grab the client’s attention, inform the customer of what benefits they’ll receive, keep them interested and generate action. Your advertising copy should always be crafted with these important points in mind.

Even before you can successfully write ad copy you should first visualize where your ad copy will be placed such as billboards, magazine ads, online web sites and so on. Understand first how the advert copy will appear. Then align your writing to reflect that medium.

Ad copy is truly a particular type of writing. Your job is to balance creativity and readability to effectively make persuasive and yet entertaining ad copy. How do you this incisively?

1.          Quash wordiness in your ad copy.  Look at some of the most booming ads in history like Got Milk? or Have It Your Way. The greatest ads in history seldom use more than five words. 

2.       Talk to your audience and not at them  As with Burger Kings Have It Your Way they’re not telling the customers to come to their restaurants. Instead they’re offering convenience and the feeling of being spoiled. And again, they did it all in under five words.

3.       Keep away from clichés. The full purpose of ad copy is to make it stand out so avoid using terms the world has heard for decades.

4.          Always proofread your copy - The simplest mistakes can throw your customers off and bad ad copy can end up costing you sales (not to mention all the money you used in your promotion).

There are really no short cuts when it comes to writing positive ad copy, but since it is so important to your business, you will need to start mastering these few points. As you gain more experience, then your business will thrive as long as you keep generating good ad copy.

Writing successful advertising copy doesn’t have to be as hard as you might imagine. Here are seven things you can do to make sure your advertising copy is the best it can be.

1. Define your Goal
   Before you even start typing your advertising copy, make sure you know exactly what it is you wish to accomplish. A phone call? An email response? An order? Laying out your advertising plan will get you on your way.
2. Know Your Audience
   Ask yourself – who will read my advertising copy? You might want to write for the broadest possible audience, but don’t forget to target just one group now and then. Why? You’ll have a better ad response rate when you can address a particular group’s precise needs, which is something you can’t do quite as well with general advertising copy.
3. Appeal to Their Interests, Not Yours
   Yes, you’re writing advertising copy to generate leads and sales for your business. The problem is the people who control that money, the customers, simply don’t care about what you want. Saying something like, “We’re the best lawn service in town’” means very little to your customers. However if you say, ‘You can have a lawn that will make your neighbors envious,” that puts the focus on them. See the difference? When that happens you have a much better chance at winning them over. So keep your advertising copy focused on the benefits your business can provide and NOT the business itself.
4. Be Emotional, Not Logical
   Mr. Spock would have been a terrible salesman. Emotion always trumps logic when it comes to buying. That means you must focus on the emotional appeal of what your business offers if you expect better results. Let’s look at perfume as an example. Women buy perfume to smell nice (logic). Women buy a particular perfume, like Calvin Kline or DKNY, because it makes them feel beautiful (emotion). Get your customers emotionally involved with your advertising copy and you’ll see results.
5. Keep it Simple
   Don’t talk down, but keep your advertising copy simple and to the point. This is advertising copy, not Tolstoy. Use short sentences, simple words and be clear. The power of the message comes through with the words you choose rather than the amount of words you use. So follow Thomas Jefferson’s advice and never say something in ten words when you can say it in two. It worked for the U.S. Constitution and it works for advertising too.
6. Limit Options
   Once you’ve played up to the customer’s interest and emotions focus them taking a particular step. This is known writing a call to action. Tell them exactly what to do next to get the benefits you’re offering. It might be clicking a link for web copy, picking up the phone in a newspaper ad or filling out a registration form on a postcard.

Brochure Copy That Hits The Target

Your business relies on skilled writing and that’s particularly true with your brochure copy. If you’re spending a lot of money on design, printing and postage then keep in mind that words sell you, too. It’s always better to hire a professional copywriter for brochure copy, but if you do resolve to publish your own brochure copy, there are a few matters you want to keep in mind.

The Cover Tells It All

The first thing your customers see when they see your brochure is the cover. Many brochure copy writers often feature the company’s name or product name here rather than the concept that distinguishes your company or product from the competition. This is the perfect place to let your client know what he stands to gain by reading the great brochure copy inside while also pulling him in with your originality.

It’s always advisable to use short compelling words here too, rather than composing a paragraph. Think of a novel with an engaging cover. You encounter a few words and an alluring photo; not a whole synopsis of the book. Brochure copy should be set about this way also.

Headlines Enhance Brochure Copy

When you’re writing brochure copy, don’t forget that your headlines are just as important as the rest. People are in such a hurry these days that they may not take the time to study the rest. They may, however, read the headlines alternatively to get the information they want. So make a point to write headlines which really stand out while being descriptive.

Always Go For Benefits And Not Features

Poorly written brochure copy concentrates on features. Yes, people want to know what something does or how something works. But they make their purchasing determination based on, “What’s it for me?”

For example, let’s assume you sell tires. Knowing the tires are steel belted (feature) is important to inform. Nevertheless, what will make people buy these tires is the belief of security (benefit) and knowing that they are protecting themselves and/or their loved ones. Your brochure copy needs to focus on the benefits to your customer just as much, if not more than, the features. So sell the features through the benefits; not the other way around.

You Must Be A Credible Expert

When your client sees one of your brochures, the first thing they should observe is a professional design. Once they’re pulled in and set forth to read the brochure copy, it should tell them exactly why they should trust you. Your brochure should constitute your credibility through testimonials, case studies or independent test results just to name a few examples. Publish these in your brochure copy and you’ll hit the mark. In fact, some marketing experts and analysts have pronounced that customers are 80% more likely to hire a company when they have shining testimonials above any other kind of brochure copy.

So keep in mind, brochure copy should fascinate the reader and motivate them to action. If you wish to make sure your brochure copy accomplish this, it should provide useable information, a call out to the reader’s emotions and be something beyond plain advertising hype.