Effective Advertising Principle #3: Write It The Way You'd Say It Knowing who to target, what medium will best reach those people, and what to use as your most compelling offer are the foremost factors involved in effective advertising. But, unless your advertisement gets read (or seen, or listened to), you've still done your money. Apply the AIDA test to all your advertisements before approving them: Attention - Does it grab attention? Interest - Does it stimulate interest? Desire - Does it create desire for your product? Action - Does it demand that the reader takes action?

When you're writing headlines and copy, keep these principles in mind:

• Don't be pretentious, or use big words, complicated messages, or flowery phrasing. Keep it simple.
   

• Don't be patronising and don't boast. Who cares if you're the "biggest"? "What can you do for me? How can you fulfil my needs and desires?" This is what people want to know from you.
   

• Write the way you speak - and speak clearly.
   

•  Be enthusiastic when you're writing. You love your product, so let it show through. So long as you're genuine, people will respond to positive, enthusiastic writing.
   

• Be specific.
   

• Be honest and believable.
   

• Don't be afraid of using too many words. If you've got a good story to tell, tell it. If people are interested in buying something, they can't get enough information about it. But, make sure you have your compelling reasons in the headline and the first sentence or two to give people a reason for reading on. Think about it: If you've set your mind on buying such-and-such a new car next month, you'll read everything you can about that car - even stuff you might not ordinarily be interested in, like the intricate mechanical details - to fulfil the need to convince yourself you're making the right decision. Compliance professionals, like advertising agency people, call this our need for "social proof" - proving to ourselves that we're not going to make a mistake, or be conned, or be made to look foolish.
   

• When you're writing your copy, imagine you're a salesperson sitting face-to-face with a prospect. Write as if you're just addressing one person, honestly and enthusiastically.
   

• Try not to be too "arty."

Now, let's go back to the AIDA principles to see how to create an effective advertisement. (We're using a newspaper or magazine advertisement as our example, but you can apply the same principles to script writing, too):

ATTENTION - This is what the headline's for... to grab the reader's attention

Think of how you go about reading a newspaper or magazine. You scan the headlines (and advertisements) for subjects that interest you, right? And they're the articles (or advertisements) you'll start reading, and keep reading until you've finished, or they begin to bore you.

So, either make your headline so different, newsworthy, outlandish, scandalous, curious, or unusual that it "forces" people to read on. Or, aim it to appeal directly to your market - the people who are interested in what you have to sell. Remember, your headline represents at least 75% of the pulling power of your advertisement.


And here's the main point: The headline needs to express a promise of something - a benefit - for the scanners... the biggest benefit you can hit them with. Done properly, in one go it will answer what's in it for the reader and earn you the time to explain, justify, and excite enough interest for who has now become a prospect to keep reading. Here are a few more things to consider when you're writing headlines:

• You can increase recall by more than 25% by putting your headlines in quotes.
   

• Longer headlines out-pull shorter ones.
   

• Here's a short list of "winning" words: Free... Proven... Now... You... Discovery... Amazing... Suddenly.... Introducing... Health.
   

• Use sub-headings throughout the copy, if it's long enough, to lead your readers, and to make it easier for them to follow your logic.

INTEREST - Now that you have their attention, how do you keep them interested?

By "talking" to them, that's how. And by using tried and proven, face-to-face sales techniques.

• Explain the features of your product.
   

• Outline the advantages of those features.
   

• Explain the benefits they'll receive if they buy your product.

DESIRE - OK, they're interested.

So, now you have to make them desire your product. Simple! Tell them how it will make them happier, more attractive, healthier, popular, richer, envied, loved, better educated, and on and on.

ACTION - You've got them. They're desperate to buy from you.