The Online Business Plank Owner

Welcome back to my copywriting journey. The next chapter is getting ready to write. However, I want to bring up another point about long vs short copy.

In the last post, I wrote about Joe Vitale’s formula for determining how much copy to write, which is in his book Hypnotic Writing. He also learned from someone else (can’t find it in his book, but it’s in there) that people who are ready to buy are hungry for information. So give them all the information, which means long copy…just something I wanted to share with you.

Okay back to getting ready to write.

Bly adamantly states that research, getting all the information you can on your topic, is extremely important before you start writing. He has a 4 step process for research.

1. Get all previously published material on the product (service).
2. Ask questions about the product.
3. Ask questions about your audience (your target market).
4. Determine the objective of your copy.

Once you have all your information, you need to organize. He recommends you rewrite your notes on your computer because this helps you get reacquainted with all your material, puts the information in your mind, and will help you get a feel on how to organize your copy. However, everyone has their preferred method of organizing, so do what’s best for you.

Once all your material is organized, you can start writing. This too is a personal choice. Some people write the headline and then the body; others choose to write the copy and then the headline. The approach you use is neither wrong nor right. But the thing to keep in mind is that the first draft won’t be perfect. So don’t waste your time trying to get it perfect. Just get your copy down and work from there. Good copywriting is all about rewriting and editing…a lot.

Bly says that copywriting is a three stage process. First, you get your copy written down; second, you edit and rewrite; and third, you cleanup your copy, checking for spellings, grammar, accuracy, etc.

If you happen to be writing copy for someone, Bly recommends you keep all your notes and references available so you can refer to the source of a fact or statement if needed. So just like writing a research paper, document your sources.

Finally, Bly gives a 9 step technique for producing profitable advertising ideas. After reading these, I consider them an overall technique, not one focused just on getting ready to write. Here are the steps.

1. Identify the problem. Remember that’s what people search on the Internet for, a solution or information about a problem.
2. Assemble pertinent facts. This is your research.
3. Gather general knowledge. More research.
4. Look for combinations. This is looking for patterns or relationships between facts and general knowledge that you could possible use in your copy. This could be where you identify similes or metaphors, or you figure out a new idea based on combining two or more other ideas.
5. Sleep on it. Let your subconscious mind work on it.
6. Use a checklist. This will help you get started, stay on track, or make sure you cover everything.
7. Get feedback. Ask others to review your work and provide constructive feedback. Remember though that not everyone is going to like what you write because of personal preferences. So you’re looking for consistent feedback on the same items. And you don’t have to agree with the feedback. You still get to make the final call.
8. Team up. Work with someone else on the copy. Bly suggests that the best teams are two people. One is the copy writer and the other is the art director, the word people and the picture people.
9. Give new ideas a chance. The creative process has two stages, the idea-producing stage and the editing stage. Try not to edit when you’re in the idea-producing stage.

That’s it for today. See you at the next post.

Yoli

Today is the last post covering some other principles and techniques for writing to sell.

Long Copy vs Short Copy

The debate over long or short copy is about how much information to include in your copy, not how many words.

Robert Bly says that the length depends on the product, the audience, and the purpose of the copy. What can you say about the features and benefits of the product? How much information does your audience want? For example, are they detail oriented or not? Finally is the purpose of your copy to generate sales or to generate leads? If a lead, you can provide more information once they become a lead. If to generate sales, you need to provide the information a reader needs to make a decision to buy.

Bly had developed a tool to help determine how long your copy should be. He calls it the Copy Length Grid.

Draw a square with a cross inside to create four quadrants. In the top left quadrant write long copy; in the top right quadrant write medium copy, do the same in the bottom left quadrant; in the bottom right quadrant write short copy.

Label the outside left of the top quadrant “high” and the outside left of the bottom quadrant “low.” Label the left side of the square (which includes both the top and bottom left quadrant) “involvement.” Involvement deals with how much time and effort goes into making the buying decision. For example, a big purchase requires more thought in the decision, thus more involvement.

The outsideof the bottom left quadrant is labeled “high” and the outside bottom right quadrant is labeled “low.” The bottom side of the whole square is labeled “emotion.”

When deciding how much copy to write you rate how much involvement and emotion is requuired for the decision (i.e., to buy or take action). For example, a decision that costs a lot of money and comes with a lot of emotion (a “considered purchase”) means high involvement, high emotion; therefore long copy.  Something that costs a lot of money but doesn’t involve a lot of emotion would be medium copy.

There are other factors to consider as well such as price, purpose, audience, importance, and familiarity with the product. The Copy Length Grid is just a rough guide to use in conjunction with these other factors.

Joe Vitale also has a very formula for determining how much copy you should write. The general rule of thumb for copy length is “the more you tell the more you sell.” Joe Vitale adapts that to say “The more money you are asking for, the more you should write.” Why? Because you need to prove to the reader that the product or service you’re writing about is worth the price.

Many studies have found that longer copy sells better than short copy. So the bottom line is to include as many facts as necessary.

Positioning

Positioning is transferring the perceived value of a known product or brand to your product or service. The example Bly uses to illustrate this concept is when he was shopping for an answering machine and the sales person said a particular model was the Rolls Royce of answering machines. That reference conveyed qualities of a Rolls Royce to the machine. You can also do the same to show the difference between products such as 7Up being the Un-Cola.

Positioning does not replace features and benefits, but it can complement them.

—-

That’s it for writing to sell. The next chapter of The Copywriter’s Handbook is about getting ready to write.  I’ll probably write a post about what I learn but I don’t expect to get to it until next week (maybe this weekend).

The chapters that follow cover how to write different kinds of media, like print advertisements, direct mail, brochures, and other. I don’t plan to write anything specific about these (depends on what I learn after a quick read) because I want to get to the chapter on writing for the web which is main media we internet marketers operate in.

I’ll keep you posted.

Yoli

Today we’ll be talking about the secondary promise, knowing your customer, and a checklist of motivators.

Secondary Promise

Generally speaking you want to make a big promise in your advertising because small promises don’t work. But what if your big promise sounds too good to be believable? You can still present the proof of the big promise, but you should also include a secondary promise.

A secondary promise is a benefit big enough to stand on its own, but small enough is believable. It’s your backup promise.

Know Your Customer

Understanding your customer and his or her motivation for buying the product is key to writing copy that sells. You do this by getting a feel for your readers likes and dislikes, needs, experiences, and other information that helps you understand where your customer is coming from. If you show you understand your reader, you build trust because the reader feels like they know you.

You reach your audience on three different levels, 1) Intellectual, 2) Emotional, and 3) Personal.
Use logic to reach them at an intellectual level. You can reach them at an emotional level by tapping into feelings such as fear, greed, love, and vanity. The most powerful way to reach them is on a personal level such as an experience they had (maybe avoiding a pain) or an experience they want (pleasure).

A formula to reaching your readers at all three levels is called BFD, which stands for beliefs, feelings, and desires. These get to the emotions, attitudes, and aspirations that drive people. Michael Masterson calls these the buyer’s “Core Complex.” Beliefs address the intellectual level, feelings address the emotional level, and desires address the personal level. You can write these out before you write your copy, which should be based on the BFD.

A Checklist of “Copy Motivators”

This is a list of motivators, reasons why people buy something, Robert Bly put together. The list is not comprehensive, but is a good place to start to when you’re writing to sell.

1. To be liked
2. To be appreciated
3. To be right
4. To feel important
5. To make money
6. To save money
7. To save time
8. To make work easier
9. To be secure
10. To be attractive
11. To be sexy
12. To be comfortable
13. To be distinctive
14. To be happy
15. To have fun
16. To gain knowledge
17. To be health
18. To gratify curiosity
19. For convenience
20. Out of fear
21. Out of greed
22. Out of guilt

Tomorrow will be the last post on this section. See you then.

Yoli

Hi. Welcome back. Today we’re covering some other principles and techniques for writing to sell. But before we go there, I wanted to share another formula with you. I’ve also been reading the book Hypnotic Writing by Joe Vitale (yes I have the bad habit of reading several books at one time, which is probably why I feel like it’s taking me forever to get through the Handbook).

Joe Vitale has his own formula for writing copy that sells. He tries to avoid addressing people’s pain (problems) as much as possible (but he does acknowledge that sometimes pain is the only way to get people’s attention). He prefers to address the pleasure people will get by taking action on your offer. His formula is Promise, Proof, and Price. The Promise is where you focus on what your customer might want. The Proof is where you say what the results will be. The Price is where you ask for the order and tell them the price in the case of selling a product. If you’re not selling a product, the Price is where you ask for the action and tell the reader what they must do to take action. Just wanted to share…

Now back on topic…other techniques to support writing copy to sell.

False Logic

False logic is manipulating the facts in a way to support your argument, without lying or misrepresenting the truth. My initial reaction is to question if this ethical. The word false logic was coined by Michael Masterson, a well known copywriter. The idea is to lead the reader to a conclusion they would otherwise not reach without the copywriter leading them there.

For example, a statement about pears. “Not one person in 1,000 has ever tasted them.” The idea is to imply scarcity, but when you really analyze the statement, you can conclude that the pears are not that popular if only every 1001 person has ever tasted one.

Another example: McDonald’s advertising “Over a Billion Sold.” This implies that McDonald hamburgers are popular, but are they really.

You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using false logic and if it’s something you’re comfortable using. Robert Bly says you need to think of it in the same way lawyers argue for their clients. You be the judge.

The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

According to Herb Ahrend of Ahrend Associates, a copywriter has to create perceived value. That is what a USP is. The USP is what makes you stand out from your competition. What’s the one thing you can offer that no one else can?

USP was coined by Rosser Reeves, author of Reality in Advertising. Reeves believe that advertising is “the art of getting a USP into the heads of the most people at the lowest possible cost.” Bly adds a twist: “Getting a USP into the heads of the people most likely to buy the product, at the lowest possible cost.”
According to Reeves, you need 3 items for a USP. 1) You ad must make a proposition (offer) to the reader. Buy this you get this. 2) The offer has to be unique, not one else offers it. 3) The offer has to be so strong it even draws in new customers.

You have to know and keep your USP in mind when writing copy. Sometimes a brand is strong enough to be a USP, such as Coke a Cola and Intel. Usually you have to come up with a USP.

One technique for coming up with a USP is to base it on a feature your product or service has that no one else does. But you need to be picky. Chose a feature that provides a benefit important to your customer. Another technique is to take a feature every other similar product has, but highlight a benefit the others don’t claim, for example, “M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hands.” You still need to focus on a benefit your customer cares about.

There are four different ways to advertise similar products according to Malcolm D. MacDougall, former President and Creative Director of SSC&B.

1. Stress an underpublicized or little-known benefit.
2. Dramatize a little known benefit in a compelling fashion.
3. Dramatize the product name or package.
4. Build long-term brand personalities (your brand has a personality).

There’s more to cover. Tomorrow’s post will cover the secondary promise, knowing your customer, and a checklist of motivators.

Yoli

Now that we know how to write clearly and concisely, we can start learning about writing to sell.

Writing to sell is about convincing the reader to buy or do something. This is different than writing to inform, educate, or entertain. It takes a different kind of thinking about your words.

The first step in writing to sell is to write about the benefits, not the features. You want o take the feature of whatever you’re writing and identify how those features will benefit the reader. It’s thinking about what the end result will be. For example, Perry Marshall says that someone who wants to buy a drill is not really looking for a drill; he wants to make a hole.

One approach to figuring out the benefits is to make a 2 column table. In the left side write down the features of your product or service. Then in the right column write down how that feature provides a benefit (an end result). Once you have your benefits figured out, you can then decide which one is the most important and use it as the basis for your headline. Then you use the rest in put them is some sort of order.

A well known formula for structuring your ad is called AIDA, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. First get the reader’s attention, create an interest, turn the interest into a strong desire, and then ask for the buy or action.

Another formula is ACCA which stands for Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction, and Action. Make the reader aware of your product, help them understand what your product can do, convince them to buy your product, and then ask.

There is also the 4 P’s formula. Picture, Promise, Prove, and Push. Draw (via writing) a picture of what the product can do, promise that the product will perform if reader buys your product, provide proof that the product does as advertise, and push (ask) for action.

Robert Bly has a 3 step formula.

1. Get Attention.
2. Show a need.
3. Satisfy the need and position your product as a solution to the problem.
4. Prove your product can do what you say it can do.
5. Ask for action.

I heard another formula the other day that’s not in Bly’s book: Problem, Agitation, Solution. State the problem, write about the frustration of the problem, and then offer the solution and ask the reader to take action. (Maybe the formula should be Problem, agitation, solution and ask so you can use the acronym PASA.)

As you can see, these formulas (and I’m sure there are many more) all follow the same kind of logic. They all get the reader’s attention, address a need, provide a solution to a need, and call for action.

The rest of the chapter goes over some other principles or techniques for writing to sell which will cover in my next post. Until then…

Yoli