Discover the
4 Hard and Fast Rules for Writing High-Impact Copy That
Generates BIG Sales, Subscriptions, and Click-Throughs... In
SMALL Spaces
We all know that
well-written copy is one of the most highly effective methods of
getting people's attention and attracting them to your product or
service… but the importance of the shortest copy is often
overlooked. A lot of people don't even realize that things like
their navigation menus, links, or even their newsletter subscription
offers ARE copy and require careful consideration.
Ironically, this
kind of copy is one of the most valuable tools you have. Think about
your…
- Banners
- Classified
ads
- Newsletter
subscription offers
- Navigation
menus
- Links ("click
here," "buy now")
This sort of
copy is typically asking people to take some sort of action that is
vital to your business: visit your web site, request
more info, subscribe to your newsletter, click
through, buy the product… which is why it requires so much
more attention than it tends to receive.
Of course it's
more difficult to get your message across when you have limited
space, but short copy is the glue that holds your marketing
campaign together. And if every button on your menu, every ad,
every link isn't as absolutely compelling and effective as it can
be, you're not going to get the results you're hoping for, be it
more sales, more subscriptions, more referrals, etc...
So I'm going to
show you four Hard and Fast Rules of copywriting that must be
followed in even the shortest of copy to guarantee you always make
the most profitable use of the little space you have.
Hard and Fast Rule
#1: |
You MUST emphasize
benefits, not
features |
I know, I know,
you've heard this one before. But I so often see copy -- short and
long -- that neglects to mention how the features of a
product or service will benefit customers that I'm guessing a good
number of you aren't sure what this really means. So let me clarify
for you…
- A
FEATURE is one of the components or functions of your
product or service. For example, if your toothbrushes come
packaged with glow-in-the-dark toothpaste, that's a feature --
not a benefit.
- A
BENEFIT is something your product or service will do for
your buyer to somehow offer a solution to a problem. So if your
toothbrushes that come with glow-in-the-dark toothpaste make
stubborn kids thrilled to brush their teeth before they go to bed,
then you've got yourself a benefit!
Are you
following me? An online real estate agent advertising "real-time
mortgage calculations" is advertising a feature of her site;
however, if she writes, "Avoid wasting time haggling at the bank
with my real-time mortgage calculator," then she's advertising a
benefit.
Emphasizing
benefits is the number-one most overlooked rule of
copywriting, and this lack of emphasis is one of the top reasons
advertising falls flat. Short copy is no exception -- and you don't
need a lot of room to do it right.
Let's take a
look at a short classified ad. If you posted an ad that
read:
Real estate on the Internet. Plenty of listings.
Shop at your convenience.
…you probably
wouldn't get the greatest response. The ad is brief and to the
point, but it lacks clarity. First of all, what kind of property is
being advertised? Are the listings for commercial buildings or
family homes? What part of the world does the ad refer to? How many
listings is "plenty"? How do we get to see these listings?
And, most
important, how does this service benefit me?
There is a vague
reference to the benefit of "convenience" in this ad -- but it's not
really explained. Let's dress it up a bit:
Take a Personal Tour of 375+
of Seattle's Hottest, Most Affordable Single-Family
Homes
Skip the hassles of house hunting when you search our
HUGE online database of single-family homes:
- 375+
homes with pictures, video tours, and detailed
descriptions!
- Search
by price, location, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms,
and more!
- Get
FREE local school reports, neighborhood information, and
mortgage calculations!
Click here now to begin searching
our online database of Seattle's hottest, most affordable
family homes -- without leaving your computer!
|
This version expands on the
benefit of convenience and details the different ways this
convenience offers solutions to the house-hunter's problems.
So the benefits we're clarifying for the reader
are:
- House hunting is a hassle and now you can avoid
it.
- Physically going to see 375 homes would be practically
impossible but you can easily do it online.
- You can search the database by very specific criteria to
effortlessly find exactly what you want.
- Plus you'll get free reports that detail all the
information you'll want to know about a new home and neighborhood
that you wouldn't get even if you went there in person.
Also note that this ad targets a specific niche:
single-family home buyers in the Seattle area. Targeting your
advertising
is the only way to get your benefits in front of your best potential
customers, as we'll discover in the next section...
Hard and Fast Rule
#2: |
You MUST write to a
targeted audience |
The fact is,
your product or service is just not going to appeal to everyone. And
if you try to market it to everyone, you'll wind up with far fewer
sales than if you choose a select group to direct your copy to. So
once you've defined your target market, you need to turn your
attention toward making sure your copy addresses them
directly.
For example, let's look at pay-per-click advertising.
Let's say you bid 17 cents per click in Overture.com for the key
phrase "single-family homes." Because you pay every time someone
clicks through this link, whether they purchase from you or not, you
want to make sure that your ad carefully targets your best
potential customers.
Given that you're targeting single-family home buyers in the
Seattle area, you'd want to make sure your ad includes this vital
piece of information. That way, you can be sure you won't waste
money on people searching for single-family homes in San
Diego!
And if you bid 41 cents per click for the key phrase "Seattle
homes," you'd want to make sure to write an ad that clearly states
that your site features single-family homes... so you don't waste
your advertising dollars on condo-seekers or recreational property
buyers.
By
writing a separate ad for each of your keywords that carefully
targets your market, you'll ensure that you attract the most
buyers for the least cost.
Of
course, if you're writing copy for banner ads, your approach will
need to be a bit different. Whether you're:
- Purchasing blocks of impressions (i.e. you pay a set dollar
amount for your banner to be displayed 1,000... 10,000... etc...
times on other web sites), OR
- Participating in a banner exchange (i.e. you're trading
banner impressions with a network of other site owners)
... you've paid for your advertising up front, so you'll want
to do everything you can to attract viewers' attention and persuade
them to click through to your site. And this means you'll want your
ad copy to be a bit more general, to ensure it attracts the
highest number of click-throughs.
The title of the above classified ad would make a great
banner:
Take a Personal Tour of 375+ of Seattle's Hottest,
Most Affordable Single-Family Homes! Click here
now... |
...You're targeting your best potential customers! But
you might also try testing banners with more general copy that read
something like this:
Search HUGE online database of 375+ Seattle Dream
Homes and skip the house-hunting headaches! Click here
now... |
The first ad is
going to attract the most qualified audience -- those people who are
looking for a single-family home in Seattle for a reasonable price.
The second version, however, will attract a slightly broader
audience. Still in Seattle and still looking for homes, this
group is not necessarily looking for a single-family dwelling, and
they're not necessarily worried about price. They're just checking
out homes in the Seattle area and they're attracted by the size and
convenience of the online database.
While the first
ad may generate a higher visitor-to-sale conversion rate (the
percentage of people clicking through who then sign up for the
service) because it is more specific, the second ad will probably
solicit more click-throughs in total, because it has a more general
appeal. You'd have to test to see which version would pull the most
sign-ups altogether.
Hard and Fast Rule
#3: |
You MUST include a call to
action |
Okay, easy
enough. BUY NOW! There's a call to action.
But hold on a
minute. If it were that simple, everyone marketing online would be
rich, and every online shopper would have to move into a bigger home
to accommodate all that happily purchased stuff.
There are two
very important things that you must include in your call to
action:
- You must
determine exactly what action you want people to take,
and
- You must
provide a reason why people should take that action.
Isn't buy
now exactly the action you want? Not necessarily. Think about
what exactly it is that you are trying to do. Are you trying to
generate leads? Do you want people to sign up for your free
newsletter? Are you trying to attract a specific audience and hoping
to convert as many of those people as possible into sales?
It is important
to understand that ALL copy, if possible, should contain a call to
action that clearly identifies what action is desired. I can't
emphasize this enough.
Think about the
buttons on your site menu. Each one is a call to action! And they
are all very important! If they're not as direct as possible,
telling visitors specifically what to do, they will be
useless.
For example, if
you have a button that is labeled "sales," you are doing nothing but
confusing your visitors, leaving them guessing whether you are
referring to product sales (i.e., online ordering), products
that are on sale (i.e., specials or discounts), or maybe the
opportunity to sell your product (i.e., merchandising
opportunities). But your visitors won't guess for long -- why would
they bother? They'll just leave your site.
If you change
the button copy from "sales" to "order online," you are now asking
viewers to take an action -- to order your product. This clarifies
the purpose of the button and tells the viewer what to do to get
your product. Another example: instead of writing "E-mail," you
could ask your viewers to "Contact Us" -- again, you're asking your
visitors to take a specific action!
Of course, you
will not always be able to include a call to action in every button;
you won't always have the space. Your best bet in this case is to be as clear as
possible.
For example, it would be difficult to include a call to
action in a button of your navigation menu that leads to your
newsletter back issues. There would not be room to say "click here
now to read our newsletter back issues." So in this case, you'd just
want to make sure that your copy is clear. Label the button
"Newsletter Back Issues" instead of "More" or "Old
Stuff."
Now let's think
about your links. Supposing "buy now" is the action you want…
You have to give people a reason why they should buy. Huge,
garishly colored words on a screen won't do the trick; added
benefits will.
And in your
links, you have a little more room to move. The call to action
should remain the central focus of the link, but pack in as many
benefits as possible around it. Something like...
"Click here now to claim
your 'Golfer's Guide to the Green' and instantly
receive the downloadable video that features
up-close-and-personal interviews with Pro Golfers who reveal
their hottest golfing secrets, guaranteed to improve your game
in 2 weeks or your money back!" |
...will win out
every time over "Buy now."
Hard and Fast Rule
#4: |
You MUST pay attention to
layout |
Making the most
of your layout is especially important when you're writing short
copy. The right blend of emphasis and information is the best way to
attract viewers. Don't underestimate the effectiveness of bolding,
italics, underlining, color, and white space.
But don't overdo
it either!
For example,
an offer to subscribe to your newsletter must be brief,
compelling, and effective. It will not be the main feature of
your web page or anyone else's, so it must be attractive enough to
grab the attention of a distracted reader. But it also needs to
remain readable and informative, without a gross misuse of
formatting tricks.
If your ad has
too much going on in it, it will look unattractive, unappealing, and
unprofessional -- and the clutter will detract from the meaning of
your message.
On the other
hand, too little emphasis leaves you in danger of never catching
anyone's eye. If your ad is totally boring, no one will ever even
see it -- and if they somehow do, they probably won't look at it
long enough to find out what it's about.
So let's try to
find a happy medium, emphasizing without crowding….
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Catchy, effective, and professional in appearance, this
version draws your attention and doesn't distract you from the
information it contains once you're there.
The ad is clearly laid out and easy to read. The title is
underlined and in blue, as is the link. This is the standard way to
handle links, and it lets the viewers know they can link to the
sign-up page from either place. Giving readers two chances to
link through to your sign-up will always work better than one.
(And never have any blue, underlined text that is not a
link!)
I've used only subtle formatting tricks to provide emphasis
while keeping the ad visually appealing. The title of the newsletter
is in quotation marks to give it additional emphasis. The main
features of the newsletter -- what you'll learn from the experts --
are emphasized by the use of bullet points and a nice amount of
white space. And the main benefits of the newsletter -- reduce
your expenses and dramatically increase your annual income
-- are italicized and strategically placed right before the call
to action.
Because the call to action comes at the end of the ad,
it is supported by all that came before it. And because it is the
last bit of text and it is in blue, the viewer's eye is effectively
drawn through the ad after being attracted by the title.
Of course, some
of the formatting techniques discussed here are available only to
people formatting their ads in HTML. Obviously, you have more
options in HTML and can do pretty much whatever you like. But in
text format, you don't have the choice of adding color, bold,
italics, etc. You DO, however, have the ability to use characters,
spacing, capitalization, and indentation for effect.
So if we had to
format our ad in text, it might look like this:
================================================== "FREE
Subscription to 'Potato Farmer's' Newsletter"
Subscribe today
and on the first Tuesday of each month you'll receive tips and
strategies from INDUSTRY LEADERS who'll reveal...
- Secrets for
selling your crops for the HIGHEST PROFITS!
- Tricks for
cutting down the time you spend in the field!
- Cost-effective
strategies for TRIPLING YOUR CROP YIELD!
- Plus much, much
more!
Each issue
contains tons of easy-to-implement techniques, guaranteed to REDUCE
YOUR EXPENSES while dramatically INCREASING YOUR ANNUAL
INCOME!
Visit
http://www.PotatoFarmers.com to
subscribe! =================================================
Because we don't have the option of hyperlinking the text,
effectively highlighting it in blue, I've moved the capitalized
"FREE" to the beginning of the title to attract attention. I've also
enclosed the headline in quotation marks for emphasis, and put the
newsletter title in single quotes (which should always be used
inside double quotes).
I've capitalized the benefits that were italicized in the
HTML version along with a few more benefits to make the ad as
eye-catching as possible. The general rule in text is to
capitalize whatever you would have bolded or italicized in HTML, but
be careful with your use of caps -- they're difficult to read if
used excessively.
Final Thoughts:
So now that you
know the secrets of fitting high-impact copy into small spaces, I'll
let you in on another little secret… there's a lot more to learn!
In fact, this
article itself has been an exercise in fitting tons of information
into a relatively small space! Writing sales
copy, designing banner ads, writing powerful classified ads, putting
together an effective newsletter subscription offer... these are all
topics that I've devoted entire lessons (i.e. hundreds of
pages) to in my Insider Secrets course.
However, now
that you have some of the basics under your belt, you should be able
to start making dramatic improvements to your short copy...
improvements that will attract a much bigger response and increased
sales! If all your copy is written with the rules of benefits,
audience, calls to action, and layout in mind, you simply can't
lose.
And remember: no
amount of copy is so small that it can be overlooked… every link,
button, banner, and classified ad is either making or breaking your
marketing campaign as we speak!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Corey Rudl is
the owner of four highly successful online businesses that attract
more than 1.8 million visitors per month and generate over $6.6
million each year. He is also the author of the #1 best-selling
Internet Marketing course online.
Click here to check out his site that's
JAM-PACKED WITH THE EXACT INFORMATION YOU NEED to start, build, and
grow your very own profitable Internet business starting from
scratch.
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