Copywriter Motivators--What Makes People Pay Attention? Part 4...EASE

Making life easy for clients and customers can be hard. But it's a superb way to attract clients and customers. Why? Because people LOVE ease. And will pay a premium for ease.

"I'm going to make your life easier." "I'm going to save you a lot of time." "You'll be more comfortable." Ease can be the solution to a pressing problem.

No more sitting in traffic jams.

Or it can be sheer luxury.

Drink champagne then sleep in a real bed as you cross the Pacific...far removed from the smelly hordes and ornery flight attendants in economy class.

It's always tempting to stress money and fear when copywriting. But ease can be a huge motivator.

When you play golf at Rolling Lakes, our friendly caddies will do everything a PGA Tour caddie does...many of them have caddied on the PGA Tour. And our hand-selected cart "attendants" will bring you a favorite beverage at any time...just text them at...

Make the guarantee easy.

Simply return your Top 10 Sunbathing Spots in Alaska DVDs within 30 days of purchase and we'll refund your investment. No questions asked.

People have always paid extra for ease...or to use a longer word...convenience. Simplicity. Luxury.

Ease is closely related to exclusivity. Ease can be exclusivity with a purpose.

Even if greed and fear are the main motivators, big doses of ease in direct response copy always helps.

Infomercials are often superb at stressing ease.

The amazingly powerful G9 makes cleaning your bath simple and FAST. Even if you're a total slob.

We make dealing with the government to get your halitosis supplies as simple as buying a cup of coffee.

Infomercials are often superb with testimonials...again stressing ease.

"These orange golf balls have made it so much easier to find my ball in the rough or woods."

Copywriter Bob Bly sent me an email with this gem...

"In your sales and marketing efforts, if you can show the customer how you can save him time or serve him faster, your sales will skyrocket."

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte North Carolina USA. My website is here.

Copywriter Motivators--What Makes People Pay Attention? Part 2...FEAR

OK...FEAR...it gets people to watch movies...it also gets readers to pay attention. Losing something important. Not getting something. A copywriter must use fear with great care as it can be extremely powerful. You have to be able to back it up. It's like my favorite headline, the Warning headline...

WARNING: NEW TAX LAWS COULD DESTROY YOUR RETIREMENT NEST EGG...

However, I read a lot of tepid Warning headlines...

WARNING: YOU MAY NEED NEW TIRES

Fear of losing your retirement nest egg trumps losing the opportunity to buy new tires.

How about this though?

WARNING: BALD TIRES LEADING TO CAR CRASHES WITH INFANT FATALITIES

OK...now I've got parents involved.

The copy must back up the headline or the reader departs. The body copy must keep up the pressure...which can be difficult. I use fear for products with a clear link to fear. Medical items. Financial instruments. Cures for Bubonic Plague.

The risk with the fear motivator is overuse or insulting the prospect with a false or convoluted premise...

WARNING: PLAY ROLLING LAKES GOLF CLUB AND YOU'LL SINK A LOT OF PUTTS...

Rolling Lakes may have great greens but...

Not sinking a lot of putts is not very frightening.

With fear, it's also important to get in and get out...state you have the solution quickly then detail the remedy, the salve.

I often add the other motivators, if applicable, to fear...greed, guilt, exclusivity...but only when it makes sense.

WARNING: GOOGLE IS "GOOGLE SLAPPING" HYPERVENTILATING LANDING PAGES AND BECAUSE YOU HIRED AN ELANCE COPYWRITER FOR $50 TO WRITE THE MULTI-EXCLAMATION MARK COPY THAT GOT YOU IN TROUBLE WITH THE 'BIG G' THIS WILL RUIN YOUR HARD-EARNED ORGANIC SEARCH RANKINGS AND REDUCE YOUR REVENUE BY UP TO 75%

But I can help you regain your Google ranking and improve conversion...

Next installment...GREED...still good?

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On another note...I like to write in a local coffee shop but this has disadvantages...like having to listen to a cell phone conversation...I was next to a person today who was "buzz word" proficient...chain of command...green...creative class...renewable energy..."I'll bird dog that." It's VITAL in direct response copy to avoid this buzz word piffle.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte North Carolina USA. My website is here.

Copywriting for awards...or results?

Maybe I should be but I'm not big in the local ad agency scene in Charlotte. I might be mistaken but there really isn't a big-time direct response agency in the Charlotte area; if I'm mistaken, then let me know because I'm a direct response copywriter and I can help you get results.

The Charlotte ad club announced their annual creative winners. One of the big winners was an agency with the Bojangles' account. Bojangles is a fast food restaurant. The food is inedible, in my opinion and I'm not really that fussy. The ads are funny. Let's check back next year on results and see if the campaign, which bleats "It's BO TIME!" with Geico-esque frequency, is still around. And I'll email the company to ask about the ROI.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte North Carolina USA. My website is here.

This copywriter would like a little less hyperbole, in fact a LOT less...

I've published three magazines in my admittedly somewhat peripatetic career and so one of my email addresses is on a list of magazine editors...a list that someone is selling...A LOT. So I get a massive number of unsolicited press releases from PR people. And even when I unsubscribe, these emails continue to roll in with the type of tenacity the spammers in Nairobi, Ghana, etc., so ably demonstrate.

I won't complain more than I've already complained. There's an important copywriting lesson in many of these press releases: avoidance of hyperbole.

For example, I received a press release telling me:

Important Announcement - Arthur Rutenberg Homes Now Building at The Club at Longview, South Charlotte.

I'm sorry but this announcement is totally unimportant.

Another press release trumpets...

Compelling interview:  Man on the Cutting Edge of "Information Medicine"- changing the way people heal in the Carolinas.

I sent an email to the sender saying, "there's nothing compelling about this whatsoever."

I receive emails from four people I admire in the direct marketing business: Will Swayne, Bob Bly, Craig Huey, and Andrew Wood.

Let's take a look at some of their email subject lines and headlines.

How the "Down Sell" Hooks a Prospect for Life

4 recession-marketing tips

6 surprising keys to profitable direct mail in 2011

Client gets 870 paying client in 1 *week*

These are informational...giving me information I find valuable.

Sometimes, when copywriting, it's tempting to drift into hyperbole then I remind myself I have to back up everything with raw numbers. And even if the raw numbers are amazing, or compelling, or important, if they're off the scale, nobody is going to believe them.

Let's all remember, potential clients are intelligent...and skeptical. If they think it sounds too good to be true, they will stop reading...just like I do when I receive a press release telling me something is "compelling" or "important."

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte NC USA. My website is here.

What's your approach to direct response copywriting?

High Converting Copy Starts with a the Right Approach



One of the keys to converting website and landing page visitors into clients and customers is what the visitor sees ‘above the fold’ or specifically what’s on the screen before someone (hopefully) scrolls down. When the copy is strong, the visitor will keep reading. Strong copy starts not with a headline but with the formula or what I prefer to call the approach.

Let’s go through a few approaches, each of which can be extremely effective depending on what you’re selling.

The News Approach

You see this more in newspapers and magazines but the approach is to make an advertisement look like a regular article. The most famous example is the John Caples advertisement:

“They Laughed When I Sat Down to at the Piano…But When I Started to Play!”

If the advertisement looks like an article, which it should, the newspaper or magazine publisher will feel it’s essential to put the word “Advertisement” at the top of the ad. A good problem to have.

(A quick side note: we all know that copy set in reversed type is harder to read. The really intelligent direct marketers set the word “Advertisement” in reverse type on ads in newspapers and magazines. Brilliant.)

The approach is to make the advertisement seem like an article. The headline must simulate a newspaper or magazine headline so it must offer news. Let’s say we’re selling a fishing rod. A tepid headline would read: The Snapper Rod Helps You Catch More Fish! Here’s a more newsworthy headline.

10 Year Old Girl Breaks State Fishing Record at Lake Smails. Her Secret? The New Snapper Fishing Rod.

Stories can be extremely powerful in copy but be careful. A bad story is like a bad joke and will turn people away.

If you want to see great examples of newspaper headlines, forget the serious newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times: instead, look at the tabloids, especially the English and Scottish tabloids like The Sun, The Daily Record, The News of the World, and The Daily Mirror. Headlines equal sales.

It’s harder to use this approach on the web because the visitor knows they’re going to a page that’s advertising something. So use the news approach for banners and buttons on news and information sites.

The Empathy Approach

“I know your job is terrible and difficult! I’m here to help.” When the product or service is targeted at a highly defined audience, this approach is worth trying. And you don’t need a headline so much as a series of sub-heads. For example:

Being a Marketing Executive is a Tough Job…Especially Today...



Just keeping up with Internet technology is a full-time job THEN you have to run all the marketing.



We’re going to make your life a lot easier…



Very soon, your CEO will praise you for being totally up-to-date with everything in today’s eCommerce universe and staying up-to-date will only take you 30 minutes a week—or less.

It’s a good way to state a problem then tease the reader about the solution. You will almost always get someone’s attention when you make them feel you understand their problems and issues.

The Straight Ahead “Here’s the Benefit” Approach

It’s basic, perhaps, but there’s a reason so many successful direct marketers use this ‘default’ approach. If you’re not certain one of the other approaches will work, use the straightforward approach. In most cases, you’ll see a “How to” or “Are you…?” headline.

How to catch more fish with less effort.



Are you ready to avoid traffic jams?



Are you ready to pay 50% less for tires?

“How to” and “Are you” headlines can be used but headlines that state the benefit even more directly are fine.

With The Ultimate Guide to Increasing Wedding and Banquet Business, Your Club Will be Swimming in New Revenue in Just Three Months.

Specificity is mandatory: a set time frame…an increase in distance…a number of extra fish…be specific when detailing the benefit.

The “Successful” and “Unsuccessful”

There’s a famous direct response advertisement for The Wall Street Journal. In the ad, the writer details two students who went to the same university. The one who reads The Wall Street Journal is now a successful top-level executive while the other has not been very successful. Martin Conroy wrote the original letter.

Here’s the first paragraph:

Dear Reader:



On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men.

And later in the piece…

About those two college classmates, I mentioned at the beginning of this letter. They graduated from college together and together got started in the business world. So what made their lives in business different?

Knowledge. Useful knowledge. And its application.

The comparison approach includes significant quantities of empathy…always a powerful ingredient. There’s a book using this approach: Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

The Offer/Bonus/Discount Approach

Perhaps the most direct approach of all…go straight to the offer.

Order before December 15 and you get FREE next day shipping PLUS a FREE pair of goat skin slippers.

Buy THREE tires, get one FREE

Often, with this approach, there’s no need to get into pages and pages of copy, especially with a widget or commodity. With a country club membership asking for a $15,000 initiation fee instead of $30,000 you need more copy.

This approach can be effective in email marketing.

The Guarantee Approach

Absolutely one of my favorites. Maybe it’s just me but I often think the guarantee comes too late in most direct response copy: a solid guarantee can be the clincher, especially when a potential customer is on the fence. I’m not alone in this thought, which is why a number of copywriters use the guarantee approach: detail the guarantee immediately.

“I guarantee my seminar will increase productivity at your lumber yard by 25% in just six months or I will refund your investment, send you a check to cover your travel expenses AND send you a check for $1,000 for wasting your time.”

It’s not enough to leave the reader with just the guarantee. The copy MUST pound away with the guarantee.

The Fear Approach

Fear, as we know, is a powerful motivator, especially when combined with major issues, like death or parenting. For example, you may have a product that will help parents keep teenagers from starting to smoke. The fear approach provides an opportunity to use the WARNING headline.

WARNING: If your teenager starts smoking now, there’s a 70 per cent chance they will be addicted by age 18 and will smoke at least two packs a day until they die from lung cancer…

What keeps your potential clients awake at night? If it’s a powerful motivator, the fear approach might work.

The most popular direct response copywriting strategy is AIDA, which stands for

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

The approaches listed above have one goal: get your attention and lead the reader to the facts, figures, and benefits they will find interesting.

And test like crazy to see which approach starts to get the best results: one of my clients used to write copy for a company in Japan that sold products through newspaper ads. They kept trying different approaches before they found the one that generated the best leads. Once they had the approach they liked, they continuously tweaked the copy until just one minor change produced an advertisement that brought them a ton of sales.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte NC USA. My website is here.