Advertising Content – Short, Simple and Direct
The temptation usually is to write as much information to the copy as much as possible. Unless the opening line is super catchy and the message along the body can maintain the interest of the reader to go, or unless the product in the advertising copy have already created initial interest prior to the publication of the long copy, do not bank on it. Provided the copy is a stand out. A long copy is a risk.
No two different people will have similar reaction to the same article. One might find it engaging, the other wont. That is for short copies. For long copies, there simply is not enough time to browse through.
• Ads should tell people what they want to hear. Spell out what it the product can do. We are flooded today with opening lines like “simply amazing”, “we do it all for you”, “taking the leadership in…” “Tomorrows technology, today”, nice to know, but what is in it for the customer. Ads have become so boringly similar that unless the brand that is being advertised is a household name, chances are your advertisement can get buried in the debris. Unnoticed and forgotten.
Remember how people stops by a tube when the announcer calls out “breaking news”, that is the stuff that people want. Remember however that opening lines can only get attention, the body of the message sells and if the product being offered does not live up to what it claims your repeat order will not happen. Start a trend. Give them news, breaking news. Stand out from the crowd. If you blend in like most advertisers do, well…you know how it is.
• Advertisements that succeed are those that can reach their customers on an emotional level. We all want to be appreciated and reassured. A mobile phone TV commercial shows an employee getting promoted from one position to the next because the phone stores so much information that is required in his job. The ad may be more like promising the moon but at least it addresses an emotional appeal.
Don’t just show a box with four wheels. Sell a family car that is designed for example for safety. Don’t just say it prove it. A show once featured a car that has passed from torture to torture. First it wheezed through a barn, a piano was dropped on it, hit by a ball wrecker, left under salt water, burned, and every time the ignition is turn on, it started. That spelled big letters for safety and durability. That appealed to the emotion big time.
• Provided you can back it up, “shocking claims “headlines are effective”.
• Under line, highlight, use a different color make bolder fonts and try these combinations for the keywords and key phrases your headlines. If it is not overdone that your prospective client will see as a cheap trick to grab them, apply it.
• Use before and after photographs. This is an old trick that works well.
• We interpret visually. Whenever it is appropriate, attach visuals like photographs, charts.
• Use adjectives that attract attention, if that is believable and convincing, traffic to your product will improve.
But use short sentences or sentence fragments whenever you can. If you can scrimp a lot of message in one short sentence, the better.
Short, concise, words that really talk to your customers at the skim of the eye. Most of us just do not have the time for long advertisement.
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