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