Are You Really Getting Your Message Across?
Ad & Web Copywriting / Conceptualizing Ad Copy

To begin the writing process, you need to have a concept. (We used to call them ideas; but something happened along the way.) First you will need to identify the characteristics of your product/service, and the needs or wants of your targeted market. Then brainstorm (with yourself or someone else) ideas that correspond to your product’s benefits — benefits that match your market’s needs.

First identify your reader’s practical needs. These would be basic things like saving time and energy; saving money; or reducing the workload.

You also need to identify the emotional needs of the reader. These would include words like “feeling attractive”; “having more cool things”; or “reducing (or eliminating) worry”. Benefits are verbs, often in the imperative form. These are words like “feel”, as in “feel better fast!” “Improve”: “Caffeine improves your performance at work!”

You also have to identify the features of the product vs. its benefits. A feature is factual: how does the product work? What comes with it? A benefit is emotional: it satisfies a need or want that your customer has. Does this product make me popular? Will I look more beautiful? How does it help me? When you’ve identified a practical need for the product, define a clear, concise emotional benefit that meets that need.

At the right, you see 2 banners for Stonyfield Farm Yogurt (that were written by Martha Shaw of EarthAdvertising). Instead of saying “this yogurt will satisfy you when you’re hungry” or, “it has lots of calcium”, they’ve taken an eco-friendly approach to their product.

Emotional benefits sell better than practical ones, so they’re calling it Stonyfield Farm ORGANIC Yogurt; and they have the cow saying, “You are what I eat.” To underscore that message, they have a tagline: “No hormones — no phony ingredients — no yucky stuff.” They call themselves “Yogurt on a mission.” This definitely hits an emotional chord with their readers, because nobody wants to feed “yucky stuff” to their children!

Next, you will have to begin writing, using the following guidelines: ”A.I.D.C.A.” [thanks to Shaun Crowley, author of 100 Copywriting Tips for Designers.] This industry standard for sales people is also useful when you are writing your draft or your final copy.

• “A” is for “attention”: an arresting headline and visual grabs the reader’s attention.
• “I” is for interest”: state the USP (unique selling point) of the product, and show how it meets the reader’s needs.
• “D” is for “desire”: whet their appetite by communicating the coolest benefits of the product.
• “C” is for “conviction”: statistics and testimonials help demonstrate the product’s superiority, close the sale, and convince the reader that this is the only choice s/he has — that is, to act on this information.
• “A” is for “action”: create a sense of urgency to make the reader respond NOW through your clear-cut call to action.

This is the fun part: Enjoy!!

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