In the world of sales, you come across customers selling to whom is a real pain. They want to make absolutely sure of the product before they purchase it. Haven’t you found customers who read the entire manual before making a decision, and ask the most unlikely questions at the salesperson? In the world of copywriting, the situation is no different. Here are the persuasion techniques you can use on your ad copies to sell to the most intolerant customers.
1. A Gripping Title
The backbone of a great ad copy is its title. Even the search engine traffic is highly dependant on the title of the post. Hence, you got to have all keywords on the title as well as get the attention of the customers.
For instance, “Purchase the Best Forex Trading Software Program out There!” won’t be an efficient ad copy title for a Forex trading software you are promoting. However, it is good in terms of SEO, since all required keywords are appearing on the title. To attract customer attention, the title should be rewritten to something like “Learn How to Make a Kill With Automated Forex Trading!”
The second title obviously attracts far better than the first and also has enough keywords to get high sales.
2. Details! Details!
Without enough details, your ad copy is never going to snatch profit. Give all the available features of the product in the copy. If your product has any feature any competing product doesn’t have, you can heighten this with comparison charts. If your product lacks any feature, mention it as briefly as possible.
For instance, if you have a registry cleaner software, and it doesn’t have option to clean up the obsolete ActiveX controls on the Registry, you shouldn’t mention that it is a ‘complete’ registry cleaner. Instead, you have to point out an advantage due to the lack—memory efficiency for instance. Give all the details of the software, with emphasis on its special features, memory efficiency in this case. It is a skill to make a positive thing out of a negative one.
3. Compare With Existing Products
It is essential that you compare the product with the existing competitors. This ensures that the product is better than any of the existing products. Also, if your promoted product is inferior, there is no point in showing off it is inferior. So, only target the superior features of the product. Also, any product that is inferior than any existing product in every way is not going to be successful.
4. Don’t Sound Like a Salesman
Your review of the product should not show that you are desperate to make a sale. This is an area where most of the copywriters are failing. Show the voice of a professional reviewer rather than a desperate salesman, whose salary is dependent on some sales. If you are professionally reviewing, make sure you touch all the positive and negative aspects of the product. However, as I said above, it is a skill to lessen the effect of the negative features, and heighten the positive effects of the product, while remaining professional.
5. Experiences
Testimonials are very important to make sales. If you have any authorized testimonial to present, by all means present it. Testimonials are like rain at an oasis in the middle of the desert (don’t feel that I am saying an inappropriate comparison, your ad copy should be an oasis more than a desert).
In almost every advertisement you see, there are testimonials from at least five people. In your testimonials, if possible, also give the contact information for customers to contact the testimonial providers to know more about the product.
6. Word Power
How loaded are your words to fire the accurate shots of persuasion? The words have to be powerful enough to get the ideas across most accurately and effectively. Simplicity is the most effective weapon. Use as simple a language as possible. Also, target the needs and experiences of your potential customer. Anything targeting human emotions is sure to get most attention.
For instance, if you are selling a weight-loss product, target the physical and social problems caused by overweight, medical requirements, etc. You can use some exaggeration in these areas, just to heighten the problem, but don’t misrepresent the data.
7. Authority Suggestions
Your research has to be impeccable in ad copywriting. Include suggestions from professionals. For instance, in a weight-loss product, you can include reference to doctors’ suggestion to keep the BMI (Body Mass Index) below 25, or having a weight corresponding to the height of the person.
8. Social and Personal Needs
Targeting the needs of the potential customers is an art by itself. In order to well target the needs, you have to heighten the effect of not possessing the product. Also, there is a fine line between successful heightening of the effect and an inept one.
For instance, for promoting an online movie subscription program, you cannot say “You can avoid going to the cinemas with a subscription.” Neither going to cinemas is an obligation, nor not having to go to cinemas is a need. A potential customer doesn’t feel any need here. Instead of this, use this sentence: “In a year, how much money do you spend on cinemas? With this program, you can watch all those movies for your entire life, at extremely reduced costs.” Here, we are targeting a real need, that of cutting the movie expenses.
9. The Language
It is also important to use professional at the same time colloquial language in copies. The language should be understandable to laypeople. Though you may be copywriting for an entirely technical product, you have to get the idea across to your readers in layman’s terms.
Which means, for a software to scan viruses, instead of “Scanning for Trojans, malwares, and adware is made quite easy with the industry-standard SmartScan technology of our product” use “There are programs that can steal your personal data and delete your important files. Our industry-standard SmartScan technology guarantees your protection from all such known programs.”
10. Redundancies?
Though in long ad copies, I see quite a lot of repetition of content, I don’t advice you do that. Always a short copy performs better. A short copy tires the reader less than a long one. It gives facts straight and doesn’t alienate her by the end of the copy. However, it would be wise to wrap up the main points at about the end of the copy.
11. Heighten the Perks
If you have free giveaways with the product, it is very wise to give the reader the total effect of the product.
For instance, if you have an email program offer with added security features and professional antivirus scanning (free with it), then give your readers this fact with a comparison chart with other email providers, stating the antivirus scanning within it. Also, you can devote a paragraph for this feature itself. Idea is to make it sound more like a feature of the product than a free giveaway.
Conclusion
Write more and more ad copies, as it is a skill acquired through continuous hard work. In order to get the maximum out of your ad copies, you have to work hard on your persuasion techniques. Read the work of professional copywriters to know the trade better.
Related Entries:
Copywriting Industry and Advertisement Scams: A Review
Copywriters, Who Are They?
Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008
1. A Gripping Title
The backbone of a great ad copy is its title. Even the search engine traffic is highly dependant on the title of the post. Hence, you got to have all keywords on the title as well as get the attention of the customers.
For instance, “Purchase the Best Forex Trading Software Program out There!” won’t be an efficient ad copy title for a Forex trading software you are promoting. However, it is good in terms of SEO, since all required keywords are appearing on the title. To attract customer attention, the title should be rewritten to something like “Learn How to Make a Kill With Automated Forex Trading!”
The second title obviously attracts far better than the first and also has enough keywords to get high sales.
2. Details! Details!
Without enough details, your ad copy is never going to snatch profit. Give all the available features of the product in the copy. If your product has any feature any competing product doesn’t have, you can heighten this with comparison charts. If your product lacks any feature, mention it as briefly as possible.
For instance, if you have a registry cleaner software, and it doesn’t have option to clean up the obsolete ActiveX controls on the Registry, you shouldn’t mention that it is a ‘complete’ registry cleaner. Instead, you have to point out an advantage due to the lack—memory efficiency for instance. Give all the details of the software, with emphasis on its special features, memory efficiency in this case. It is a skill to make a positive thing out of a negative one.
3. Compare With Existing Products
It is essential that you compare the product with the existing competitors. This ensures that the product is better than any of the existing products. Also, if your promoted product is inferior, there is no point in showing off it is inferior. So, only target the superior features of the product. Also, any product that is inferior than any existing product in every way is not going to be successful.
4. Don’t Sound Like a Salesman
Your review of the product should not show that you are desperate to make a sale. This is an area where most of the copywriters are failing. Show the voice of a professional reviewer rather than a desperate salesman, whose salary is dependent on some sales. If you are professionally reviewing, make sure you touch all the positive and negative aspects of the product. However, as I said above, it is a skill to lessen the effect of the negative features, and heighten the positive effects of the product, while remaining professional.
5. Experiences
Testimonials are very important to make sales. If you have any authorized testimonial to present, by all means present it. Testimonials are like rain at an oasis in the middle of the desert (don’t feel that I am saying an inappropriate comparison, your ad copy should be an oasis more than a desert).
In almost every advertisement you see, there are testimonials from at least five people. In your testimonials, if possible, also give the contact information for customers to contact the testimonial providers to know more about the product.
6. Word Power
How loaded are your words to fire the accurate shots of persuasion? The words have to be powerful enough to get the ideas across most accurately and effectively. Simplicity is the most effective weapon. Use as simple a language as possible. Also, target the needs and experiences of your potential customer. Anything targeting human emotions is sure to get most attention.
For instance, if you are selling a weight-loss product, target the physical and social problems caused by overweight, medical requirements, etc. You can use some exaggeration in these areas, just to heighten the problem, but don’t misrepresent the data.
7. Authority Suggestions
Your research has to be impeccable in ad copywriting. Include suggestions from professionals. For instance, in a weight-loss product, you can include reference to doctors’ suggestion to keep the BMI (Body Mass Index) below 25, or having a weight corresponding to the height of the person.
8. Social and Personal Needs
Targeting the needs of the potential customers is an art by itself. In order to well target the needs, you have to heighten the effect of not possessing the product. Also, there is a fine line between successful heightening of the effect and an inept one.
For instance, for promoting an online movie subscription program, you cannot say “You can avoid going to the cinemas with a subscription.” Neither going to cinemas is an obligation, nor not having to go to cinemas is a need. A potential customer doesn’t feel any need here. Instead of this, use this sentence: “In a year, how much money do you spend on cinemas? With this program, you can watch all those movies for your entire life, at extremely reduced costs.” Here, we are targeting a real need, that of cutting the movie expenses.
9. The Language
It is also important to use professional at the same time colloquial language in copies. The language should be understandable to laypeople. Though you may be copywriting for an entirely technical product, you have to get the idea across to your readers in layman’s terms.
Which means, for a software to scan viruses, instead of “Scanning for Trojans, malwares, and adware is made quite easy with the industry-standard SmartScan technology of our product” use “There are programs that can steal your personal data and delete your important files. Our industry-standard SmartScan technology guarantees your protection from all such known programs.”
10. Redundancies?
Though in long ad copies, I see quite a lot of repetition of content, I don’t advice you do that. Always a short copy performs better. A short copy tires the reader less than a long one. It gives facts straight and doesn’t alienate her by the end of the copy. However, it would be wise to wrap up the main points at about the end of the copy.
11. Heighten the Perks
If you have free giveaways with the product, it is very wise to give the reader the total effect of the product.
For instance, if you have an email program offer with added security features and professional antivirus scanning (free with it), then give your readers this fact with a comparison chart with other email providers, stating the antivirus scanning within it. Also, you can devote a paragraph for this feature itself. Idea is to make it sound more like a feature of the product than a free giveaway.
Conclusion
Write more and more ad copies, as it is a skill acquired through continuous hard work. In order to get the maximum out of your ad copies, you have to work hard on your persuasion techniques. Read the work of professional copywriters to know the trade better.
Related Entries:
Copywriting Industry and Advertisement Scams: A Review
Copywriters, Who Are They?
Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated very strictly