Copywriting Weapon: “Us and Them”
June 27th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comThere are baaad people out there. Scoundrels, louses, hijackers, charlatans, spammers, losers, heartbreakers, love-takers and people who are ready to steal your soul, stuff it into a Hefty Cinch Sack and take it to Mexico to be sold on the black soul market.
But we are not those people. Nope… we are on the Us team– the good guys; the honest; the just; the well-meaninged and good-intentioned. The Evil Others are an invisible force of shortcut-taking, dirty-trick-having, loathsome individuals, and we don’t want to associate with their kind.
They are invisible because… well, we don’t know who they are.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted in Copywriting Techniques, Copywriting Weapon, Dangerous Truth, Persuasive Copywriting, Wordfeeder Copywriting | No Comments »Know Thy Audience: The Marketing Survey
June 21st, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comBefore you can even think about crafting the ad copy, you’ve got to know your audience. I mean “know” in an intimate, psychological way.
Think about it, it’s all riding on the “attitude” you adopt in your marketing communication. Their desire to become a customer of yours is directly related to whether they can identify with what you’re saying (content) and how you say it (tone, style). You want them to feel like you understand their issues and urges - that you’re on the level.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Posted in Branding Strategy, Creative Platform, Target Audience, Wordfeeder Copywriting | No Comments »Copywriting Weapon: The Art of Telling Only Half the Story
June 19th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comThere is a distinct difference between journalistic writing and ad copywriting.
In journalism, you’re writing to inform, or share news. Therefore, you are expected to be objective, tell only the facts, give the full story from both sides, and remain impartial/opinionless.
In copywriting, you write to convince or persuade. The goal is to elicit a specific psychological response and produce an immediate action. For this reason, your message should always be biased, or tell only HALF the story.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Posted in Copywriting Techniques, Copywriting Weapon, Dangerous Truth, Persuasive Copywriting, Wordfeeder Copywriting | No Comments »Copywriting and the Target Audience Part 1: Who Are You Talking to Again?
June 12th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comHere’s a phrase that’s often bandied about the world of copywriting, advertising and marketing: target audience. Variations on this term include: target customer, ideal customer, target market. (And then you have the cleverly spun “tarket” by Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, which is a combo of target and market.)
When we hear a term like this used over and over, our brains tend to want to ignore it after a while. However, that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to do a full analysis of the target audience and their needs before plowing ahead with your marketing plan.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Posted in Creative Platform, Target Audience, The Creative | No Comments »The “How” of Writing Great Copy
June 5th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comIf you want to write articles that make people sit bolt upright and go, “WOW. I wish I’d thought of that,” or “Gee, that’s such a great point! I think I’ll try that,” or “Man, this guy/girl really knows what she’s talking about,” then you’ve got to go beyond the “What” of the story and into the “How.”
The “what” of the story could be something like…
If you want to become a stand-out in your field, you’ve got to develop a great branding strategy. Here are some companies who have already done so… (and then you cite four or five examples).
Popularity: 16% [?]
Posted in Article Marketing, Copywriting Techniques, Wordfeeder Copywriting | No Comments »Using Fear Based Copywriting to Sell Internet Products
June 4th, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comIn my last copywriting blog post, we discussed the means by which big companies “scare” their readers into buying their products. Today we’ll talk about how the Fear Factor can work especially well for an internet marketer selling internet business tools.
Mind you, I’m not suggesting you abandon your current strategy in favor of scaring the bejesus out of your customers. I’m simply sharing with you a very old, and highly effective method of writing sales copy.
Why would it be so easy to frighten folks over internet-related matters? Because a lot of people are confused about the web. When you don’t fully understand something, you can become fearful about it. Being fearful means you’re an easy target. Fear-based advertising generally works better on female audiences than it does males - although there’s no denying that both genders can fall victim to this type of persuasion.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Posted in Copywriting Techniques, Copywriting Weapon, Dangerous Truth, Persuasive Copywriting, Wordfeeder Copywriting | No Comments »Copywriting Weapon: The Fear Factor
June 2nd, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comWould an advertiser really try to scare people into buying things?
Fear-based advertising has been around since before there was even advertising. The Bible is a form of fear-based advertising, I think!
(Am I going to hell for saying that?)
Try to name one company who isn’t trying to scare you about something, so you’ll buy their product as “protection” or “assurance.”
You could get into a car accident and end up paying thousands in damage!
(Buy insurance from us and you can stop worrying).
Your kids are in danger of being approached by internet predators!
(Keep them safe with our content-blocking and monitoring software.)
The environment can give you cancer!
(Purchase these vitamins and protect yourself from diseases like cancer.)
Popularity: 16% [?]
Posted in Copywriting Techniques, Copywriting Weapon, Dangerous Truth, Persuasive Copywriting, Wordfeeder Copywriting | No Comments »Copy Blocked? Six Steps to Writing Short Ads that Sell
June 2nd, 2007 Dina at Wordfeeder.comWhich do you think would be easier: writing a high quality, 1.5 page article for the web? Or, coming up with a hard-hitting, 20-word classified ad?
If you said the 20-word classified ad is easier, you’d be wrong.
People who are about to take their first shot at writing a short ad usually have no idea what a pickle they’re about to get into. “A Google ad? No biggie, I can swing this easy!”
And then it hits them: I must figure out the perfect way to say this, but do it in as few words as possible.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted in Business Writing, Headline How-To, Recommended Reading | 1 Comment »