Your Top 10 Tips for Writing Good Advertising Copy

courtesy of Business & Finance magazine

Because your success is of the utmost importance to Business & Finance, we'd like to provide you with these tips for writing effective advertising copy.helpin 737c21h g you put together an advert that is not only noticed by our readers but that is acted upon by your target audience.

Before you start your advertisement

1. Identify what you want the advert to achieve. Just as you wouldn't set off on a round the world trip without a map, you shouldn't start thinking about writing an advert without a clear idea of what you want from its placement. Without knowing what you want, how will you ever know if you've achieved it?

2. Honesty and integrity are key to repeat sales and business. Understand that your advert should present hard-hitting solid facts about your products/services that persuade the audience to act in the desired manner. Tricking potential customers into using your business through "special limited offers" that they later find they can get at any time of the year will only lead to unhappy ex-customers, poor word of mouth and no referrals.

3. Focus your advertising message on what's important to your target audience, not what's important to you! Your potential customers probably don't care if you become the market leader, or the only one in your field with purpose built offices, or the fastest growing and most profitable business in your sector. What they care about is getting the product/service that best suits their needs and helps them achieve their goals.

Don't focus on what your product/service gives - focus on the benefits the user will get from there use

4. Create a list of all the features of your products/services then imagine you're a potential customer and ask yourself "What will this do for me?" This exercise will provide you with the benefits to your customers of using your products/services i.e. don't just say your product is fast (a feature), tell the customer that it's speed will give them more free time (a benefit).

Get your advert noticed

5. Grab their attention with a headline. People are overloaded with information so if your headline doesn't get their attention then the chances are the rest of the message, no matter how good, will go unread. Your headline should clearly highlight what your product/service can do for them.

6. Once your headline has caught the eye of your target audience it has to be supported by a persuasive message - copy that persuades your target audience that by using your product/service their lives will, in some way, be enriched. For example, if you were selling toothpaste you could say "Contains fluoride" (a feature) but that doesn't mean much to the reader so instead, you bring the benefits into play by saying "Lessens tooth decay and helps you avoid the dentist's drill". By wording it this way, you've made an emotional connection with the reader and they can instantly see the benefits of using your product.

7. Convey your message in a language your audience will easily understand.   Just like you, your potential customers are very busy so they don't have time to decipher long words or guess the meaning of jargon. Spell out your message simply and clearly.

8. Tell the reader what to do - "Call now", "Check our website for the latest offers" and make this clearly visible. Don't let them off the hook now you have them interested.

9. Don't try to be too clever! Visually stunning and creative adverts might look great but if it doesn't produce results, what's the point! By all means use a visual, just don't let it dominate the advert.after all, it's your message that will do all the work.

10. Remember, always test and measure response rates for your adverts and copy. Sometimes, a slight rephrasing or adjusting of layouts can mean the difference between average and astronomical response levels.