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Strategies to help produce your brochure, advertisment or direct
mail. And make it achieve more sales.
1. Attract & keep the customer's eye
Your customer must be kept glued to your words. They may leave
at any point of your copy so keep it attractive and relevant to
their needs, right through to their decision to purchase.
Words, pictures and the customer:
Don't go overboard with pictures, its words that sell. You'll
need your product photo of course but its the caption or
headline that will make the difference. And the headline will be
a benefit.
People buy products for what it will do for them, not what it
looks like. Quite often, you'll see products like printers with
features listed below an image. Here the advertiser has assumed
that everyone knows the benefits of their printer and just need
to know the specific features.
However a lot of people don't respond to pictures and lists of
features, but they may respond to a photo of the product in use.
For example you could show a child sat using a computer.
But that's not enough. Add a headline such as...'Now YOUR child
can obtain higher grades' and that should get parents
interested. You get the idea. The body text would describe how
the computer helps children to learn.
Be very wary about using an agency to produce your copy writing.
They may not know the principles involved in successful selling.
The only way you can be sure is to have control over the
production..usually unlikely when dealing with agencies... or
produce the content yourself.
2. Content strategies
a) Descriptions: A lot of promtional documents leave the
customer to guess at the benefits of the product or service
advertised. They just describe it and their company. This is not
good. Don't do it this way.
b) Comparisons: Here you could compare your
product/service with your competitor's and specify how much
better your's is. You could get in trouble if you name the other
company and/or can't back up your claims with evidence. Works
best by you having a major provable advantage over your
competitors..and not naming them.
c) Storyline: A favorite with lots of folk. Tell a story
involving the person the customer will relate to in a situation
that shows the benefits your product/service gives that person.
Use a 'before using the product' and 'after using the product'
strategy. At the end the person will summarise how much better
their situation is nw after using your product. And you tell
your readers how it will help them as well.
The hard bit is writing a true story. It's less effective than a
made up one.
d) The most effective strategy is to use the well-known AIDCA
formula..see section 8 further down.
3. Inspiration
My answer is to go for a walk in the countryside. There are two
halves to our brains; the left being for logical functions and
the right half for creative thinking. Apparently few logical
people are able to take advanatage of the creative side at will.
You have to relax and trick the brain into releasing your ideas.
Walking and daydreaming are a couple of techniques to employ.
4. Ideas for copy
You need to saturate your brain with all the elements about your
product or service. Study what your product is made of, how
strong it is and how it is put together. Consider the
manufacturing process and the care taken throughout the
production.
Write down all these details with the angle of 'how much better
than our competitors is our product' and 'in what ways?' Write
down your conclusions.
Do the same for your service. Take your service apart and study
it as individual steps. Do your customers know about these
steps? What benefits do these steps have for your customers?
Maybe your competitors don't mention theirs and you could take
advantage of this.
Your customer needs to be in the fore-front of your mind.
Particularly your main customer group, the ones who share a
common need. Don't forget, you'll want to aim separate message
if you have more than one target customer group.
5. Producing your copy
Don't overdo it when you first start to put your ideas down on
paper. Go over your notes and details about your product or
service a few times and have a break from that particular
subject for a day or too if necessary. I'm not saying take it to
easy but don't try to force yourself, it won't work.
During this initial period you may well be getting flashes of
inspiration and ideas ay odd moments. Write them down. I would
advise always carrying a notebook or maybe a voice recorder to
ensure all your creativity is not lost.
When you have decided to formally put everything down, find
yourself a quiet room and ideally use a large A2 pad (which can
be found in art stores) to record your information. Remember,
you are writing down what it is you want to say to your
customers to make them buy.
Write down the most important 'buying factor' on the pad. Then
continue to put down all the others related to customer needs
and buying factors. Forget any logical order, put them down as
they come to you, adding detail as necessary. Keep relaxed and
don't censor any ideas you have (unless they are too far removed
from your area). You could intoruce others into this exercise
and in effect hold a group brainstorming session.
You should end up with several pages of ideas.
6. Compiling messages needed to sell
You will see many ideas that you are familiar with but there may
be some that you are not. Do some research on these. Your
competitors may not have bothered and there could be some gold
here.
Next you need to group together related ideas with colored pens.
You'll find some remaining that don't fit in a group, but keep
these. They may come to life later.
Now you need to structure your results so that you can develop
your 'story' to relay to your customer. Put the group headings
around a circle and then like the legs of a spider put the
related ideas along them in order of sequence, importance or
whatever criteria you have decided.
As you do all this your creative side will flag up more ideas to
add to the pool. Now you can get some feedback from colleagues
or even customers on what you have produced. This will optimise
your results even further.
7. Producing your copy framework
You have two choice here. Hand your work over to a copywriter or
carry on yourself. If you are carrying on yourself you need to
decide on the most appropriate approach as defined in section 2
above; descriptions, comparative, situation or benefits.
Your message will be built around the AIDCA structure.
Attention: You must get the readers attention within
seconds using your headline.
Interest: Get your prospect interested in your product.
Desire: This is where you detail how their needs can be
fulfilled.
Conviction: Provide proof that this is the product that
they need.
Action: Here you tell them what they must do to get it.
8. Using the AIDCA formula
Attention seeking headlines: Often the headline is left till
last as it is the most difficult part of the message. And you
may find it in the main copy itself. Short headlines rarely
work. Remember, if you are using a picture its the wqords that
will matter. The picture is a supporting element.
'Benefit' type headlines are best (even better if they are tiny
storylines) with 'News' type second best. Generally you should
include your product and the main benefit. Length is less
important. Brochures, mailshots and magazine adverts tend to
have longer headlines than straightforward advertisements.
Interest to be aroused: This is where you tell your main story
using one of the strategies described earlier; description,
comparative, situation or benefits.
Concentrate on how your product or service fulfils primary and
secondary needs. Relate how it satisfies the customers buying
factors and success factors that you have defined in your
marketing assessment.
Desire to be created: You need to be enthusiastic here in
describing what the product or service can do for the customer.
Convince them that they will really benefit from your product.
Expand on the detail. For example if your car is economical to
run then write about how much money they will save and then buy
a holiday with it.
Conviction needed: Here you need to prove to the reader that
your claims about your product are true. Assume that they will
disbelieve your cliams. If you have statistics use them. Show
graphs. Show testimonials or endorsements from satisfied
customers. Don't make them up. How could you prove they were
real?
Action: It is imperative that you tell your readers what action
you want them to take. And include a benefit along with it. For
example; "Send for our full color catalogue. Its FREE, there is
no obligation to buy."
There you have it! An 8 part strategy to help compile your
advertising message and get you more sales.
This article may be reproduced in its entirety provided the
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courtesy copy of your publication or web page URL would be
appreciated. 1537 words
About the author:
(c) Paul Curran, CEO of Cuzcom Internet Publishing Group and
webmaster at Wealth-Building-Secrets.com brings you sales &
marketing strategies, promotional marketing products plus strategies and
advice for personal and business success.
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