The most important aspect of any business is selling the product or service. Without sales, no business can exist for very long! You win all the way! We take all the risk! If you're not satisfied, simply return the product and we'll quickly refund your money! Do it now! Get that check on its way to us today, and receive the big bonus package! After next week, we won't be able to include the bonus as a part of this fantastic deal, so act now! The sooner you act, the more you win!"
Offering a reward or bonus
of some kind will almost always stimulate the prospect
to take action, However,
in mentioning the reward or bonus, be very careful that
you don't end up receiving
requests for the bonus with mountains of requests for
refunds on the product
to follow. The bonus should be mentioned only casually if
you're asking for product
orders, and with lots of fanfare only when you're seeking
inquiries.
Too often the copywriter,
in his enthusiasm to pull in a record number of
responses, confuses the
reader by "forgetting about the product," and devoting
his entire space allotted
for the "demand for action" to sending for the bonus. Any
reward offered should be
closely related to the product, and a bonus offered only
for immediate action on
the part of the potential buyer.
Specify a time limit. Tell
your prospect that he must act within a certain time limit
or lose out on the bonus,
face probably higher prices, or even the withdrawal of
your offer. This is always
a good hook to get action.
Any kind of guarantee you
offer always helps to produce action from the prospect.
And the more liberal you
can make your guarantee, the more product orders you'll
receive. Be sure you state
the guarantee clearly and simply. Make it so easy to
understand that even a
child would not misinterpret what you're saying.
The action you want your
prospect to take should be easy - clearly stated - and
devoid of any complicated
procedural steps on his part, or numerous directions
for him to follow. Picture
your prospect, very comfortable in his favorite easy chair,
idly flipping through a
magazine while "half-watching" the television. He notices
your ad, reads through
it, and he's sold on your product. Now what does he do?
Remember, he's very comfortable
- you've "grabbed" his attention, sparked his
interest, painted a picture
of him enjoying a new kind of satisfaction, and he's
ready to buy. Anything
and everything you ask or cause him to do is going to
disrupt this aura of comfort
and contentment. Whatever he must do had better be
simple, quick and easy!
Tell him without any ifs,
ands or buts, what to do - Fill out the coupon, include your
check for the full amount,
and send it in to us today! Make it as easy for him as
you possibly can - simple
and direct. And by all means, make sure your address
is on the order form he's
supposed to complete and mail in to you, as well as just
above it. People sometimes
fill out a coupon, tear it off, seal it in an envelope and
HOW TO WRITE ORDER
PULLING ADS
The most important aspect
of any business is selling the product or service.
Without sales, no business
can exist for very long. All sales begin with some form
of advertising. To build
sales, advertising must be seen or heard by potential
buyers and cause them to
react in some way. The credit for the success or the
blame for the failure reverts
back to the ad itself.
GAINING CUSTOMER ATTENTION
The bottom line in any ad
is quite simple: Make the reader buy the product or
service. Any ad that causes
the reader to only pause in his thinking, to just admire
the product, or to simply
believe what's written about the product - is not doing its
job completely. The ad
writer wants the prospect to do one of the following:
Visit the store to see and
judge the product for himself
Immediately write a check
and send for the merchandise
Phone for an appointment
to hear the full sales presentation
Write for further information
Any ad that does not elicit
the desired action is an absolute waste of time and
money. In order to gain
a response from the prospect all ads are written
according to a simple master
formula known as AIDA:
Attract the Attention of
your prospect
Develop the Interest of
your prospect in the product
Create new Desire for the
product
Demand an Action from the
prospect
Never forget the basic rule
of copywriting: "If the ad isn't read, it won't stimulate
any sales. If it isn't
seen, it can't be read. If it doesn't grab the attention of the
reader, it won't be seen."
Successful advertising copywriters know these
fundamentals forwards and
backwards. Whether you know them already or you're
just now being exposed
to them, your knowledge and practice of these basics will
determine your future success
as an advertising copywriter.
CLASSIFIED ADS
Classified ads form the
basis upon which most successful businesses are
started. These small, relatively
inexpensive ads give the beginner an opportunity
to advertise his product
or service without losing his shirt if the ad doesn't pull or if
customers don't beat his
door down with demands for the product. Classified ads
are written according to
established advertising rules. The message of a
classified ad should be
the same as that of a larger display ad, but in condensed
form. Generally, however,
classifieds should only be used to create a lead or a
prospect.
To learn how to write good
classified ads, clip ten examples from ten different
mail order publications.
Select ads that you think are pretty good. Paste each of
these ads onto a separate
sheet of paper. Analyze each of these ads: How has
the writer attracted your
attention? What about the ad keeps your interest? Are
you motivated to want to
know more about the product? What is the desired
action? Are all of the
above points covered in the ad? How strongly are you "sold"
by each of these ads?
Rate the test ads on a scale
of one to ten, with ten being the best according to the
AIDA formula. Now, just
for practice and without clipping the ads, apply the same
test to ten different ads
from a Sears, L.L. Bean, or other mail order catalog. In
fact, every ad you read
from now on, quickly analyze and rate it somewhere on
your scale. If you'll practice
this exercise on a regular basis, you'll soon be able to
quickly recognize the "Power
Points" of any ad you see, and you'll know within
your own mind whether an
ad is good, bad, or mediocre, and what features make
it so. Practice examining
ads for an hour each day. Write the ads you've rated 8,
9, and 10 exactly as they've
been written. This will give you a feel for the
fundamentals and style
necessary in writing classified ads.
For your next project, pick
out what you consider to be the ten worst ads you can
find in the classifieds
sections. Clip these bummers out and paste them onto a
sheet of paper so you can
work with them. Read these ads over a couple of
times, and then beside
each of them write a short comment stating why you think
it's a poor ad. Is it lost
in the crowd by being too much like other ads? Does it not
attract your attention?
Doesn't hold your interest? Is there nothing special to make
the reader want to own
the product or no is there demand for action?
You probably already know
what's coming next, and that's right. Break out those
pencils, erasers and scratch
paper - and start rewriting these ads to include the
missing elements. Each
day for the next month, practice writing the ten best ads
for an hour, just the way
they were originally written, Pick out ten of the worst ads,
analyze those ads, and
then practice rewriting those until they do the job for which
they were intended.
Once you're satisfied that
the ads you've rewritten are perfect, go back to each ad
and cross out the words
that can be eliminated without detracting from the ad.
Classified ads are almost
always "finalized" in the style of a telegram. For
example, the original message
might read: "I'll arrive at 2-o'clock tomorrow
afternoon, the 15th. Meet
me at Sardi's. All my love, Jim." Edited for sending, the
same message becomes,"Arrive
2-pm - 15th - Sardi's. Love, Jim." Applying this
method to ads works in
much the same manner. Original Ad: "Save on your food
bills! Reduced prices on
every shelf in the store! Stock up now while supplies are
complete! Come on in today,
to Jerry's Family Supermarkets!" Edited Ad: "Save
on Food! Everything bargain
priced! Limited supplies! Hurry! Jerry's Markets!"
It takes dedicated and regular
practice, but you can do it. Simply recognize and
understand the basic formula;
practice reading and writing the good ones; and
rewrite the bad ones to
make them better. Practice it over and over - every day -
until the formula, the
idea, and the feel of good ad writing becomes second nature
to you. This is the only
way to gain expertise in writing good classified ads.
DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENTS
A display or space ad differs
from a classified ad in that it has a headline and a
layout, and the style isn't
telegraphic. However, the fundamentals of writing the
display or space ad are
exactly the same as those for a classified ad. The basic
difference is that you
have more room in which to emphasize the "master
formula." Most successful
copywriters rate the headline and lead sentence as the
most important parts of
the ad. You should do the same. After all, when your ad is
surrounded by hundreds
of other ads, information, and entertainment, what
makes you think anyone
is going to notice your particular ad? The truth is, it will
not be seen unless you
can "grab" the reader's attention and entice him to read
all of what you have to
say. Your headline (or lead sentence when no headline is
used) has to make it more
difficult for your prospect to ignore or pass over than to
stop and read your ad.
If you don't capture the attention of your reader with your
headline, anything beyond
is useless effort and wasted money.
Successful advertising headlines
are written as either promises or warnings. The
former offer to show you
how to save money, make money, or attain a desired
goal. The latter are cautions
against something undesirable. A promise-style
headline might read: "Are
You Ready To Become A Millionaire - In Just 18
Months?" On the other hand,
a warning-style headline will say something like: "Do
You Make These Mistakes
In English?"
Both of these examples posed
a question as the headline. Headlines that ask a
question seem to attract
the reader's attention almost as surely as a moth is
drawn to a flame. Once
the reader has seen the question, he just can't seem to
keep himself from reading
the rest of the ad to find out the answer. The best
headline questions are
those that challenge the reader - that involve his self-
esteem - and do not allow
him to dismiss your question with a simple yes or no.
"You'll Be The Envy Of Your
Friends" is another type of reader appeal to
incorporate into your headline
when appropriate. The appeal has to do with basic
psychology: everyone wants
to be well thought of, and consequently will read
further into the body of
your ad in order to find out how he can gain the respect
and accolades of his friends.
Wherever and whenever possible,
use colloquialisms or words that are not
usually found in advertisements.
The idea is to shock or shake the reader out of
his reverie and cause him
to take notice of your ad. Most of the headlines you see
day in and day out, have
a certain sameness with just the words rearranged. The
reader may see these headlines
with his eyes, but his brain fails to focus on any
of them because there's
nothing different or out of the ordinary to arrest his
attention. For example,
"Are You Developing A Beer-Belly?" grabs the attention
much faster than "Are You
Gaining Weight?"
Another attention-grabbing
headline is the comparative price style: "Three For
Only $3, Regularly $3 Each!"
Still another of the "tried and proven" types of
headlines is the specific
question: "Do You Suffer From These Symptoms. . .?"
And of course, if you offer
a strong guarantee, you should say so in your headline:
"Your Money Refunded, If
You Don't Make $100,000 Your First Year."
"How-To" headlines have
a very strong basic appeal, but in some instances,
they're better used as
book titles than advertising headlines. An approach with a
very strong reader appeal
can also answer who else is interested in your product
or service. The psychological
need of everyone to belong to a group - complete
with status and prestige
motivations - can be addressed by your advertising
appeal.
Whenever, and as often as
you can possibly work it in, use the word "you" in your
headline and throughout
your copy. After all, the ad should be directed to one
person, and the person
reading your ad wants to feel that you're talking to him
personally, not everyone
who lives on his street.
Personalize. Be specific.
In advertising, you can throw many of the teachings of
your grammar teachers out
the window - the rules of "third person, singular" or
whatever else tends to
inhibit your writing. Whenever you sit down to write ad
copy intended to pull orders
and sell a product or service, picture yourself in a
one-on-one situation and
"talk" to your reader just as if you are sitting across from
him at your dining room
table. Say what you mean, and sell HIM on the product
you are offering. Be specific
and ask him if these are the things that bother him.
Are these the things he
wants? Let him know that he's the one you want to buy the
product.
The layout you devise for
your ad, or the frame you build around it, should also
command attention. Either
make it so spectacular that it stands out like lobster at
a chili dinner, or so uncommonly
simple that it catches the reader's eye because
of its very simplicity.
It's also important that you don't get cute with a lot of
unrelated graphics and
artwork. Your ad should convey the feeling of excitement
and movement, but should
not tire the eyes or disrupt the flow of the message
you're trying to present.
Any graphics or artwork you use should be relevant to
your product, its use,
and the copy you've written about it. Graphics should not be
used as artistic touches
nor to create an atmosphere. Any illustrations with your
ad should complement the
selling of your product, and prove or substantiate
specific points in your
copy.
Once you have your reader's
attention, the only way you're going to keep it is by
quickly and emphatically
telling him what your product will do for him. Your
potential buyer doesn't
care in the least how long it's taken you to produce the
product, how long you've
been in business, nor how many years you've spent
learning your craft. He
wants to know specifically how he's going to benefit from
the purchase of your product.
Generally, his wants will
fall into one of the following categories: Better health,
greater comfort, more money,
increased leisure time, heightened popularity,
greater beauty, success
and security. Even though you have your reader's
attention, you must follow
through with an enumeration of the benefits he can gain.
In essence, you must reiterate
the advantages, comfort and happiness he'll enjoy,
just as you have implied
in your headline. Mentally picture your prospect -
determine his wants and
emotional needs - put yourself in his shoes, and ask
yourself: "If I were reading
this ad, what would appeal to me?" Write your copy to
appeal to your reader's
wants and emotional needs and ego cravings.
Remember, it's not the "safety
features" that have sold cars for the past 50 years -
nor has it been the need
of transportation. It has been and almost certainly always
will be, the advertising
writer's recognition of people's wants and emotional
desires. Visualize your
prospect, recognize his wants, and satisfy them. Writing
good advertising copy is
nothing more or less than knowing "who" your buyers
are, recognizing what they
wants, and then telling them how your product will fulfill
each of those hopes. This
is one of the "vitally important" keys to writing
advertising copy that does
the job you intend for it to do.
The "desire" portion of
your ad presents the facts of your product; creates and
justify your prospect's
conviction, and causes him to demand "a piece of the
action" for himself. It's
vitally necessary that you present "proven facts" about your
product. Survey results
show that at least 50% of the people reading your ad -
especially those reading
it for the first time - will tend to question its authenticity.
Thus, the more facts you
can present in the ad, the more credible your offer.
As you write this part of
your ad, always remember that the more facts about the
product you present, the
more product you'll sell. People want facts as reasons
and excuses for buying
a product - to justify to themselves and others that they
haven't been "taken" by
a slick salesman. It's like the girl who wants to marry the
guy her father calls a
"no good bum." Her heart and her emotions tell her yes, but
she needs facts to nullify
the seed of doubt lingering in her mind; to rationalize her
decision to go on with
the wedding. In other words, the "desire" portion of your ad
has to build belief and
credibility in the mind of your prospect. It has to assure him
of his good judgement in
the final decision to buy, and must furnish evidence of
the benefits you've promised,
thereby affording him a "safety net" in case anyone
should question his decision
to buy.
People tend to believe the
things that appeal to their individual desires, fears, and
other emotions. Once you've
established a belief in this manner, logic and
reasoning are used to support
it. People believe what they "want" to believe. Your
reader "wants" to believe
your ad if he's read it through this far. It's up to you to
support his initial desire.
Study your product and everything
about it - visualize the wants of your
prospective buyers - dig
up the facts, and you'll almost always find plenty of facts
to support the buyer's
reasons for buying. Here is where you use results of tests
conducted, growing sales
figures to prove increasing popularity, and "user"
testimonials or endorsements.
It's also important that you present these facts -
test results, sales figures,
and/or testimonials - from the consumer point of view,
and not that of the manufacturer.
Before you end this portion
of your ad and get into your demand for action,
summarize everything you've
presented thus far. Draw a mental picture for your
potential buyer. Let him
imagine owning the product. Induce him to visualize all of
the benefits you've promised.
Give him the keys to seeing himself richer, enjoying
luxury, having time to
do whatever he'd like with all of his dreams fulfilled. This can
be handled in one or two
sentences, or spelled out in a paragraph or more, but
it's an ingredient you
must include prior to closing the sale. Study all the sales
presentations you've ever
heard - look at every winning ad. The mental imagery
created by the ad is the
element included in all successes that actually makes the
sale for you. Don't try
to sell anything without it.
Every one of the fundamentals
in the "master formula" (AIDA) is necessary.
Those people who are "easy"
to sell may perhaps be sold even if some of these
factors are left out. However,
it's wiser to plan your advertisement so that it will
have a powerful impact
upon those who are "hardest" to sell. For unlike
face-to-face selling, one
cannot in printed advertising come to a "trial close" in the
sales talk in order to
see if those who are easier to sell will buy without further
persuasion. Always assume
that you are talking to the hardest ones - and that the
more thoroughly your copy
sells both the hard and the easy, the better chance you
have against the competition
for the consumer's dollar.
ASK FOR ACTION! DEMAND THE MONEY!
Lots of ads - beautiful,
almost perfectly written, and quite convincing - fail to ask
for or demand action from
the reader. If you want the reader to have your product,
then tell him so and demand
that he send his money now. Unless you enjoy
entertaining your prospects
with your beautiful writing skills, always demand that
he complete the sale by
taking action now - by calling a telephone number and
ordering, or by writing
his check and rushing it to the post office. Once you've got
him on the hook, land him!
Don't let him get away! Probably, one of the most
common and best methods
of moving the reader to act now, is written in some
form of the following:
"All of this can be yours!
You can start enjoying this new way of life immediately,
simply by sending a check
for $XX! Don't put it off, then later wish you had gotten
in on the ground floor!
Make out that check now, and "be IN on the ground floor!"
Act now, and as an "early-bird"
buyer, we'll include a big bonus package -
absolutely free, simply
for acti don't know where to send it. The easier you
make it for him to respond, the more
responses you'll get.
There you have it, a complete
short course on how to write ads that will pull more
orders for you and sell
more of your products. It's important to learn "why" ads are
written as they are - to
understand and use, the "master formula" in your own ad
writing endeavors.
Now that you have the knowledge
and understand what makes advertising copy
work, you should be able
to quickly develop your copywriting abilities to produce
order-pulling ads for your
own products just by conscientiously studying good
advertising copy and practicing
the writing of your own ads. Even so, once you do
become proficient in writing
ads for your own products, you must never stop
"noticing" how ads are
written, designed, and put together by other people. You
must keep pace with new
trends, methods, and approaches to winning the
confidence of the reader.
The best ad writers are people in touch with the world in
which they live. Every
time they see a good ad, they clip it out and save it.
Regularly, they pull out
these files of good ads and study them, always analyzing
what makes them good, and
why they work. There's no school in the country that
can give you the same kind
of education and expertise so necessary in the field
of ad writing. You must
keep yourself up-to-date, aware of and in-the-know about
the other guy - his innovations,
style changes, and the methods he's using to sell
his products. On-the-job
training - study and practice - is what it takes. If you've
got that burning ambition
to succeed, you can do it too!
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
1) WHAT'S THE MOST PROFITABLE WAY TO USE CLASSIFIEDS?
Classifieds are best used
to build your mailing list of qualified prospects. Use
classifieds to offer a
free catalog, booklet or report relative to your product line.
Rarely will a classified
become your primary selling tool.
2) WHAT CAN YOU SELL "DIRECTLY" FROM CLASSIFIEDS?
Generally, anything and
everything, so long as it doesn't cost more than five
dollars, which is about
the most people will pay in response to an offer in the
classifieds. These types
of ads are great for pulling inquiries such as: "Write for
further information"; "Send
$3, get two for the price of one"; "Dealers wanted,
send for product information
and a real money-maker's kit!"
3) WHAT ARE THE BEST MONTHS OF THE YEAR TO ADVERTISE?
All twelve months of the
year! Responses to your ads during some months will be
slower in accumulating;
but by keying your ads according to the month they
appear, and carefully tabulating
your returns from each keyed ad, you'll see that
steady year round advertising
will continue to pull orders for you, regardless of the
month it's published. I've
personally received inquiries and orders from ads
placed as long as 2 years
previous to the date of the response! Obviously, there
are certain product lines
that are more viable during certain seasons. For
example: don't advertise
water skiing equipment during November and
December!
4) ARE MAIL ORDER PUBLICATIONS GOOD ADVERTISING BUYS?
The least effective markets
are mail order ad sheets. Most of the ads in these
publications are "exchange
ads," meaning that the publisher of ad sheet "A" runs
the ads of publisher "B"
without charge, because publisher "B" is running the ads
of publisher "A" without
charge. The "claimed" circulation figures of these
publications are almost
always based on "wishes, hopes and wants" while the
"true" circulation goes
out to similar small, part-time mail order dealers. This is a
very poor medium for investing
advertising dollars because everybody receiving
a copy is a "seller" and
nobody is buying. When an ad sheet is received by
someone not involved in
mail order, it's usually given a cursory glance and then
discarded as "junk mail."
Tabloid newspapers are slightly
better than the ad sheets, but not by much. The
important difference with
the tabloids is in the "helpful information" articles they
carry for the mail order
beginner. A "fair media" for recruiting dealers or
independent sales reps
for mail order products, and for renting mailing lists, but
still circulated among
"sellers" with very few buyers. Besides, the life of a mail
order tab sheet is about
the same as that of your daily newspaper.
With mail order magazines
it depends on the quality of the publication and its
business concepts. Some
mail order magazines are nothing more than
expanded ad sheets while
others strive to help the opportunity seekers with
on-going advice and tips
he can use in the development and growth of his own
wealth-building projects.
5) HOW CAN I DECIDE WHERE TO ADVERTISE MY PRODUCT?
First of all, you have to
determine who your prospective buyers are. Then do a
little bit of market research.
Talk to your friends, neighbors and people at random
who might fit this profile.
Ask them if they would be interested in a product such as
yours, and then ask which
publications they read. Next, go to your public library for
a listing of the publications
of this type from the Standard Rate & Data Service
catalogs.
Make a list of the addresses,
circulation figures, reader demographics, and
advertising rates. To determine
the true costs of your advertising and decide
which is better buy, divide
the total audited circulation figure into the cost for a
one inch ad. An ad that
costs $50 per inch in a publication showing 100,000
circulation would be 100,000
into $50 or 50 cents per thousand.
Write and ask for sample
copies of the magazines you've tentatively chosen to
place your advertising
in. Look over their advertising - be sure that they don't or
won't put your ad in the
"gutter" which is the inside column next to the binding.
How many other mail order
type ads are they carrying? You want to go with a
publication that's busy,
not one that has only a few ads. The more ads in the
publication, the better
the response the advertisers are getting, or else they
wouldn't be investing their
money in that publication.
To properly test your ad,
let it run through at least three consecutive issues of any
publication. If your responses
are small, try a different publication. Then, if your
responses are still minimal,
look at your ad and think about rewriting it for greater
appeal and pulling power.
In a great many instances, it's the ad and not the
publication's pulling power
that's at fault!
