Direct Response Copywriter on Alignment

I’m sure you’ve heard the word alignment. You’ve had your alignment checked on your car. It helps when your bones are in alignment. And so on.

But in this series, I want to talk about marketing and copywriting alignment.

To explain this concept, let me start with some marketing mis-alignment.

• A restaurant runs a promotion, sends out direct mail, yet the wait staff have no idea the promotion is taking place.
• I get an email talking about a special offer but the link in the email takes me to a page that has nothing to do with the offer.
• There’s a Google AdWords ad that advertises a deal on teeth whitening but takes the potential patient to a home page that talks about avoiding pain.

What’s happening here? There’s a mis-alignment of the marketing funnel. One of my jobs as a direct response copywriter is to make sure the copy is aligned.

It sounds simple to be completely aligned but it’s harder than it appears. And it gets even harder when you’re testing. Yes, testing is vital for long-term success in any direct marketing but the more you test, the more likely you are to mis-align the copy and the marketing. Quite honestly, I see copy mis-alignment as a rookie mistake.

Correct marketing and copywriting alignment starts with the company’s business model.

Before I write a word of direct response copy, I need to understand the model. What is the company itself trying to achieve? I don’t need to know the exact numbers but I need to understand the company’s overall strategy.

Next I need to understand the offer. How does the offer complement the business model? The company should also have a unique selling proposition (USP).

Let’s say a company provides real estate advice to buyers. The company collects a hefty fee for helping a busy person find a property. So the company model is to find at least 150 clients a year. The USP is to help the client save at least 10% off the market price of property. There are other benefits but the one the company wants to emphasize the savings.

The funnel is to direct traffic to a landing page where the company provides a free white paper in return for an email address. The company then follows up with a series of autoresponder emails.

This sounds simple but, as a direct response copywriter, it’s amazing how many companies are completely ‘out of whack’ when it comes to their alignment.

In writing the Google AdWords ads, I want to emphasize the potential for the savings.

So an AdWords ad might be…

Save 10% on a property

Easy way to get great property

And get it for below market value

In the next blog, I’ll get into the landing page and the special report.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I specialize in providing direct response copy for the direct marketing environment for clients around the planet. I specialize in sales page copy, landing page copy and copy that persuades readers to pull out their credit card and buy. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here if you have a project you'd like me to quote.

I'm also a Dan Kennedy Certified Copywriter for Info-Marketers.

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Disclaimer for the above.

The Dan Kennedy Copywriter for Info-Marketers Certification is awarded to professional copywriters who have successfully completed a course of study of preparation for such copywriting.  This Certification has not been provided by an accredited education institution.  It does not constitute endorsement of or liability for any individual copywriter by Mr. Kennedy or any companies or organizations affiliated with Mr. Kennedy. The client's relationship is solely with the individual copywriter retained via any agreement.