|
I have been in the ad game for a long, long time. I have trained hundreds of writers,
and I’ve been responsible for moving of millions £ & $ in product
worldwide. Here are just a few tips that I hope will help you do a better job,
and make a bigger name for yourself.
One.
Whatever copy job you are working on – brochure, mailer, sales letter,
press ad, website – always include a headline. A pertinent headline. A
selling headline.
This headline will be, or should be, powerful enough or intriguing enough to
draw your target into the compass of the body copy. If it can do that, you are
on a winner.
To put it simply, your headline should be a snapshot of your sales message –
a précis of your offer or promise. In other words, a headline that says:
Buy this product and get this benefit.
Two.
Always remember, people don’t buy products, they buy the benefits of owning
those products. A man doesn’t buy a sportscar because it is precision engineered
or aesthetically designed. He buys it because of the ego-boost it gives him.
It shows the world that he has made it.
Likewise, a woman doesn’t by a cocktail dress by Camille of Paris simply
because of the cut or the exquisite stitching. She buys it for the cachet that
is attached to the label. She would probably look as good in a dress from a
High Street department store, but she wouldn’t feel as good. And that’s
the benefit.
Three.
Around 30% of all copy headlines are both useless and irrelevant. The worst
of them often take the form of puns or are re-workings of current film titles
or song titles. Puns are fine if they are appropriate, which they seldom are.
And the writer who tries to demonstrate how cool he is by working his product
message into a film or song title is usually doing a lot for the sales of movie
tickets and CDs, but very little for his client.
The moral is this. State your sales proposition cleverly, wittily, stridently
or emotively, but never ever employ a device simply because it’s the easy
thing to do. If you can’t be original, at least be positive.
Four.
If it doesn’t quack, it ain’t a duck. And if your copy doesn’t
make some kind of selling proposition, it isn’t advertising – it’s
an announcement. So many writers these days fail to understand that copy is
nothing more than salesmanship in print. They play with words for the sake of
playing with words. They lose sight of the fact that they should be trying to
sell something. Thus, copy must use the psychology of the salesman; and it must
say, right up front: Here’s what’s in it for you.
Five.
Always be a little circumspect about experts who try to tell you how to write
better copy. And that includes me.
About the Author:
Patrick Quinn is a copywriter, with 40 years' experience of the advertising
business in London, Miami, Dublin and Edinburgh.
Over the years, he has helped win for his clients just about every advertising
award worth winning.
His published books include:
The Secrets of Successful Copywriting
The Secrets of Successful Low Budget Advertising
The Secrets of Successful Exhibitions
Word Power 1-2 & 3
He also publishes AdBriefing, a free on-line newsletter. |
