12Copywriting Tips to Make Your Advertising More Profitable
by: Thom Reece
Year after year people make the same mistakes in directresponse copy and advertising. You can avoid the most common and costly blunders by following the following proven tips…
1. WRITE IN DIRECT RESPONSE LANGUAGE:
Use short paragraphs and short words. This article has 68% short wordsfive letters or less. Strive for at least 65%75%. Never go under 50% unless you are writing to Ph.Dกs.
Make your sentences and paragraphs flow like a breeze.
Ignore good grammar when you have a good reason.
Keep the bucket brigade going: Start paragraphs with And, But, So you see, However…
Use the freshest concepts and the most colorful language you can without disturbing the flow.
Use hot words: free, profit, new, now, secret, easy, save, guarantee, today… and the hottest word of all: YOU!
Use bullets… lots of them.
2. WRITE LOTS OF HEADLINES.
Always think up dozens of alternative headlines. Put your strongest benefits in them and test your best alternatives. When writing headlines for web sites make sure they include key search words and phrases along with the benefits.
3. DROP THE WARMUPS…
Youกll destroy your entire letter/ad by starting off, กAs a homeowner, you know how maintenace costs are climbing every day…ก. Take your first draft and try cutting out the first two to three paragraphs… youกll usually find the real กmeatก starts to appear in your copy after you have started to กwarmupก to the writing.
4. STAND OUT.
Separate yourself from the competition as clearly as you can. Discover, isolate, and dramatize all the reasons for doing business with you…today…, instead of your competitor. Build your entire package or ad around these reasons (benefits).
5. SELL BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES.
Readers don’t buy products or features of products. They buy the benefitsofuse of the product or features. Be humble enough to realize that a buyer will not give you one red cent for any product or feature until you convert the features into benefitsofuse.
6. LEARN TO GIVE.
Most advertisers and charities think of direct response strictly as a device to กgetก. Unfortunately, most readers also want to get. So, to succeed, you must adopt a กgiveก attitude… beyond what you offer in the product or service. Give them something immediately in your ad, your letter, your web page. Give them news, business tips, interesting stories, resources, freebies, special deals.
7. USE TESTIMONIALS.
They’re proof that you’re as good as you say you are, and that youกll do what you say will do. Like…
กI increased profits by $100,000 last year using your services…ก Joe Smith, President, Smith Corporation
The more specific the testimonial the more power it has. Give full attributions whenever possible. Testimonials give you believability and credibility. You can’t do successful directresponse without these two essential factors.
8. OFFER A MONEYBACK GUARANTEE.
Whatever you are selling, make sure you offer a moneyback guarantee. Itกs a critical factor in getting someone to send in their monty to someone they don’t know or maybe never heard of.
9. CREDIT CARDS, TOLL FREE NUMBERS.
Credit card purchases and tollfree ก800ก numbers can increase your response by as much as 50%. If you’re on the web make sure you opt for secure online transmission (SSL) of credit card orders… or allow other means for your customer to provide their credit information to you.
10. ASK FOR ACTION.
Itกs amazing how often otherwise good copy never gets around to asking for the order. If you don’t ask for action… you won’t get any.
11. BUDGET YOUR TIME.
Devote about one third of your writing time to the lead elements, headline, subheads, teasers, opening paragraphs.
12. KEEP CURRENT.
Directresponse is more scientific than other types of advertising. Like any fastmoving science, it has itกs discoveries daily. This is especially true of writing for the Internet/World Wide Web. Subscribe to industry trade journals such as Target Marketing, DM News, Direct, and other relevant publications.
(C) Copyright 2004 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved
About The Author
Thom Reece is the CEO of OnLine Marketing Group, a direct response marketing agency with headquarters in Hawaii. He is the creator of the Online Marketing Resource Center [ http://www.ecomprofits.com ] & the major portal for the network marketing industry MaxxMLM.com [http://www.MaxxMLM.com]. Thom can be reached by email at: [email protected].
This article was posted on August 04
by Thom Reece