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4.
Meaningless, unrelated, or off-subject headlines don't work.
Saying "The Quality Of Value" or "King Henry’s Favorite Fruit"
or "Now Is The Time" are all pretty useless. They offer no
benefit, announce no news, nor offer any information. They don't
even raise curiosity. Think no one would do this? Open your
newspaper and look.
5.
Hard-to-understand headlines don't work. As always, use small,
simple-to-understand words. Even the smart people understand
them.
And there are many other types of headlines that
don't work. There are shocking headlines, silly headlines, and
off-colored headlines. Don't be tempted by any of them, because
they turn people away from reading your ad copy.
More Headline
Writing Rules
Don't make
people guess
at the meaning of your headline, because it doesn't work. People
are too busy to play games, and they will simply pass your
advertisement by. Being cute or coy with your headline is a very
bad idea.
Remember, your ad may be great. Your writing may
be excellent. Your offer may be irresistible. But if your
headline doesn’t grab the reader, you will lose them. And
leaving people guessing at the meaning of your headline will
substantially decrease readership.
You also want to target your headline at your
best prospects. Mention them directly in the headline if you
can. If you are going after bird lovers, then using the words
“bird lovers” in the headline will be a very powerful incentive
for bird lovers to read your ad.
Be specific.
Specific prices, numbers, dates, facts, and hard science are
believable. Be vague, and less people will believe you. [This
goes for your headline and your entire ad copy].
Example:
"Earn more money with training from the Computer
Training School"
or
"I Earned $33,467 MORE this year with training
from the Computer Training School"
The second headline is specific, and thus much
more believable. It is also reasonable. If it read "You can earn
$120,000 this year with our training", no one would believe it,
and response would be very low.
Remember to
suggest that your product or service makes life easy for
the customer. Take away the pain, and offer the benefits. People
are attracted to, and want to read about, the easy way of
getting things done.
Promise them
free information
with "How To..." headlines. You will get your prospect's
attention, and they will read your ad copy.
Make sure you clearly capture your entire
message in your headline, even if you must use 20 words or
more. Remember, your prospects may only read your headline. If
you don't capture your whole message there, many prospects will
pass you by. Longer headlines sell better than shorter headlines
anyway.
Your headline is
the most important part of your ad.
Think about that. If you don’t grab your readers with your
headline, they will never get to your offer, and they will never
get to your store. For something this important, spend all of
the time you need to get it perfect. Really. It has to be great.
Make An Offer
What do you say
in your headline or introduction? Nothing is more important to
success in advertising than the appeal of your offer to your
prospective customers. Nothing.
Let's make sure this is clear. You have many
options for the type of offer you can make to your customers.
You can:
Offer a discount. Or a superior selection. A
better guarantee. A longer warrantee. Financing. Cash discounts.
A better return policy. A nicer store.
A more convenient location. Longer hours.
Delivery. Personalized service.
How about better customer service? More
knowledgeable employees. Faster service. Guaranteed service.
Emergency service.
How about you can make them better looking.
Sexier. Richer. Healthier. Smarter. Thinner.
Make them live longer. Live better. Live with
more security. Live without worries. Live an exciting life
style. Live like a king.
Hide that ugly mark. Cover that bad breath. Get
rid of that dandruff. Whiten those teeth. Erase those lines.
One of these offers, and only one of these
offers, will get you more customers than any of the others.
Clearly there are many, many different offers you can make. The
trick is to find the one that works the best.
If you’re not sure what is most important to your
customers just ask them. If you interview 10 prospective clients
you will have a very good idea of what’s most important to them.
Don’t be worried about eloquence in your writing.
In advertising, how you say something doesn't really matter.
It's what you say that counts. Your offer is what matters. And
one offer will do better than all of the others.
Emotion In
Advertising
Your advertising objective is to get people to
respond. You want them to call, or make contact, or walk in the
door.
People are far more likely to respond if your
postcard or letter creates an emotional response or desire
within them. Emotions are stronger than logic. You don’t want to
make a logical argument in your copy. You want to generate an
emotional response. The stronger the emotional response you can
get from your readers, the higher the response rate you will get
from your direct mail.
And your advertising must be significant
(personalized with mail merge) for each individual customer if
you want them to respond. It must be significant, involving, and
intriguing. It should be interesting and entertaining to read,
and is should leave them wanting [or needing] more.
This does not mean that facts don't sell. Facts
are critical to the believability of your postcard or letter.
But cold facts and blanket statements alone do not sell. Your
facts must point out and prove the benefits which will generate
an emotional reaction in your prospects.
That's how it's done.
Advertising can make people laugh, cry, sing,
scream, lust, get angry, get happy, long for days gone by, or
any other human emotion. It’s in the words that you use. And
those words had better be aimed at the emotions of your
customers.
What’s the best way to stir this emotional pot of
gold? You help people to picture themselves blissfully enjoying
the benefits of owning your product or service. Benefits
generate positive emotions. Features do not.
Benefits
Versus Features
You knew this was coming – but don’t skip this
section. Let’s just make sure that you are not mistakenly
listing features instead of benefits in your ads.
The extra strong motor on your new vacuum cleaner
is a feature, not a benefit. The fact that all the dirt will be
removed from your carpet is the benefit.
Now let's get a little more complicated.
A low price is a feature, not a benefit. What
your customers can do with the money they save is the benefit.
Example:
If you just say "save money", you have not given your customers
anything to think about. But if you say "Save Enough Money To
Take An Extra Vacation", you have really given them something to
think about - A Great Big Benefit.
A great guarantee is also not a benefit. The
security and peace of mind that your guarantee provides is the
benefit.
You want your letter or postcard to get your
customers to think about what they get out of the deal. A "one
year guarantee" is fine, but not worrying about being stranded
at the side of the road on a dark and stormy night because your
car won't start is the benefit.
Find The
Benefits
Make a list of all the features of your products
or services. Now pretend you are the customer, and ask the
question “What does this do for me?” for each feature.
The answer is the BENEFIT to the customer.
People buy benefits, not features. People get
emotional over benefits, not features. “Saves Three Hours” is a
feature. “Three Hours To Relax In The Hammock” is a benefit.
It is easy to mistake features for benefits. So
look at your offerings and ask:
-
What does this do for the customer?
-
How significant is this to the customer?
-
How interesting and entertaining is this for
the customer?
-
How intriguing is this to the customer?
-
Are they left wanting more information?
Your Unique
Selling Position
In your advertising, you want to clearly and
concisely tell people about what makes you special and different
from your competition.
You know your prospects will only give you a few
seconds of their time. If you can’t deliver a strong message
that offers something special, your advertising will fail.
You need to take the most significant benefit
your company offers that makes you unique in the marketplace,
and capture it in a simple, exclusive, easy to understand
message. In advertising it’s called a Unique Selling Position (USP).
It’s what differentiates you from all of your competitors, and
it makes you special.
Let’s repeat a (USP) example given in our Advertising
Planning chapter:
USP Example: Dominos
pizza – “Free Delivery”
That’s it. Dominos differentiated themselves by
offering free delivery, and they repeated that one message over
and over and over. The message is clear, concise, and easy to
understand. The benefit is self-evident and real.
Your message needs to be just as clear, concise,
and easy to understand. The benefit you offer needs to be just
as desirable.
Make a list of the benefits you offer that make
you unique in comparison to your competitors. Now:
-
What benefit is most important to your
customers? [Ask them].
-
What benefit is hard for your competitors to
copy?
-
What benefit can be clearly communicated to
your customers? Is it easy to understand? Is the benefit
really desirable to the customer?
Remember – you can compete on price, quality,
geographic location, services or products, knowledge,
implementation, follow up, targeting, doing something better
than the next guy, and many other ways.
The key to success with your advertising is to
pick the strongest one benefit that makes you special.
Unless you have a very big advertising budget, you will only be
able to communicate one message to your customers. Make sure it
is the strongest one you can.
And where do you announce your USP benefit? Right
up front – preferably in the headline.
Body
Copy – Interest & Desire
You got your prospect's attention with your
headline and graphics. Now they will read the subheads in your
ad, and maybe the first fifty words. You have precious little
time, so get to the point. Your postcard or letter should never
be wishy-washy or build to a climax. Start with the climax,
and then build on it.
You need to grab your reader and never let go.
Build an excitement and desire that they can feel. Your offer
must be hot to the touch, from start to finish. Remember, you
are working on the emotions of your prospects, not their logic.
Start with the climax, and add to it. Build
excitement until they can’t resist contacting you. Scream. Jump
up and down. Hug them. Grab them. And don’t let go. Words that
build excitement will bring you customers.
This is one reason why a larger letter can work
better than a smaller postcard. The larger space also allows you
to list more exciting benefits.
With a letter or an over-sized postcard ad you
can present a complete, emotion-building sales pitch. You can
give your readers all of the information they need to make a
contact decision. Remember, if you don’t provide the required
information, your advertising will fail.
Your customers want and need that information,
and they have questions. You want to answer their questions as
convincingly as possible, while you let them feel the silky
softness of the fabric. When you start talking about research
and development, you've lost them. Talk about swinging in the
hammock and the warm summer breeze as you answer their
questions. Build trust with your facts, but create warmth with
your ideas. Let them picture themselves enjoying a perfect life.
And don’t let go.
Call To
Action Copy - Action
Never assume that your customer will take any
action unless you explicitly tell them what to do. Maybe it
sounds a little silly, but if you don’t tell people to call now
– they won’t. You must ask for their business.
And make no mistake here. People won’t respond if
you don’t tell them to. Now here is a warning: It is estimated
that sixty-eight percent of professional sales people never
ask for the sale during a presentation. They never ask.
Don’t make this mistake.
You absolutely must ask for the order. Give
explicit directions telling your customers what to do. Tell them
exactly how to place an order. Tell them to come to your store
today. Tell them to call right now.
Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? Ask for the
order in your mail piece. Train your salespeople to ask for the
order in their presentations. It is critical to increasing the
effectiveness of your advertising.
Copy Format
Here are some tips for the format of your copy.
1. Keep
sentences and paragraphs short. Really.
2. Vary
sentence and paragraph length. Eight words per sentence will get
the highest readership. [All of this stuff has been tested].
3. Use
simple, everyday language. Don’t use technical jargon. You will
lose way too many readers.
4.
Editorial style advertising increases readership by over 50%.
With editorial style advertising, the copy is laid out like a
regular news story. The word "advertisement" always appears
above the copy. If you have a story to tell, think about using
editorial style advertising.
5. Your
letter or postcard should be easy to look at and easy to read.
Poor use of capitalization, bolding, or italics will decrease
reading comprehension by 50%. Bad sentence structure will also
reduce comprehension. Try not to write over a photograph.
6. Use only
serif typeface for copy. It boosts reading speed, and can
increase comprehension by up to 300% over other fonts. Use #12
font for copy. Use #14 font if your customers are senior
citizens.
7. Use
subheadings under your headline and throughout your ad or letter
to increase comprehension and readership. Just like a headline,
a subhead will stop the quick glance and start the reading.
8. Reversed
copy gets attention, but it is hard to read. If you use it, keep
the copy very short, and the font very big.
9. A
smaller postcard should have a single focus – one solution for
one problem.
10.
Use benefit captions under your photos. These will get read.
11. Word
your offer carefully and clearly. Your offer is a promise about
the level of service you will deliver to your customers. Your
offer will set your customer's expectations, so you want to be
very clear.
12. Always
use the grammar and spellchecker on your computer. Proofread
your copy by reading one word at a time, from right-to-left, out
loud. Don't forget that your spellchecker is not perfect. You
really want a friend, or a professional editor, to carefully
read the copy.
13. Have
several people review your copy, and LISTEN to their comments.
Have someone read your copy out loud to you, and watch to see if
they clearly understand what you are saying, or if they have to
reread the copy. If your 10 year old understands it you are
doing well.
14. Use blue
ink for your signature, and print out your name underneath it.
Write legibly so that your signature can be read [it’s a matter
of trust]. And any handwritten notes on your letter should be in
the same writing as your signature.
15. Go
through your ad or letter and eliminate as many of the
references to yourself as possible. State everything in terms of
benefits for your clients.
16. Always
use a PS in a sales letter. Read Direct Mail Advertising
for lots of tips on sales letters.
17. For your
headline, start every word with a capital letter. Do not use all
capitals unless it is a very short headline, and don’t use a
period. You may also want to enclose your headline in
quotations.
18.
Normally a longer headline will get you better results
than a shorter headline. Using six to twelve words is better
than using two to five words.
Tips For More
Effective Copy
The job of the copywriter is to sell. Sell the
excitement. Sell the thrill. Sell the desire. List benefits, and
ask for the order. List more benefits, and ask for the order.
List more, and ask again. Make sure that your ad or letter is a
complete, exciting sales package that delivers everything the
customer needs to make the desired reaction, and ask for them to
take that action. Sell, sell, sell.
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