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How To Ramp Up Your
Business With Sizzling Ad Copy
By Cathy Qazalbash ©
all copyrights reserved
What is the importance of Ad copy?
Your ad copy, sales letter will make or break your business.
You can have the best product/service but without a good sales
copy, you cannot sell anything. Website visitors are becoming
increasingly savvy, hype and hard selling no longer work, as
they used to. A subtler approach is necessary and gets good
results.
Common mistakes in business ad copy:
Features not benefits
Too much hype
Misuse of graphics
Using the negative trigger words
Font hard to read
The most frequent error in ad copy,
is listing features not benefits. Your visitor does not need
to know how fancy the product is, they are just looking for
the answer to “what’s in it for me?” Why should they buy your
product, or use your service? You will need to persuade them
that the benefits for them are irresistible and they would be
seriously missing out if they did not buy your product/use
your service.
Here is one of the most irritating
of all mistakes, hyping up your product/service. Nobody likes
to be played for a fool least of all your prospective clients.
Unbelievable exaggeration (hype) does just that. It insults
the intelligence of your reader and will alienate them very
quickly from the sale. Would you buy from someone who treated
you like this? Besides if your product is good you will have
enough real benefits not to need any useless hype.
Graphics, be careful with these.
Small relevant pictures can go a long way to helping sell your
product, especially if you are selling hard goods and e-books.
Some websites try to use cartoon graphics and different eye
catchers, this can divert your visitor and take away from your
sales message. Again this can bring down the prestige of your
site. Presentation is very important with a business site.
Your visitor needs to take you seriously in order to buy from
you, they need to know you are a professional. Presentation in
your ad copy is especially important if you are offering a
service.
Here is a more subtle mistake and
one that with some careful planning and knowledge does not
need to happen. The use of negative “trigger words.” If you
have been on the internet for any length of time you will have
heard about “Mr. Fire” Joe Vitale, a legendary copywriter and
article writer. Joe Vitale is the master of the use of
“trigger words” and subtle “Hypnotic Selling.” What are
“trigger words?” These are words that subconsciously spark a
feeling of well-being and urge to buy in a reader. For example
“Ramp Up” your business with... “Boost" your business using
this... “Discover the secret”.... I am sure you have seen
these and many more (there are over 200 ) When you have looked
at good sales pages.
Alternatively negative “trigger
words” will have the opposite effect, for example “low-income”
“failure” and many more that you can probably think of. These
words generate an unconscious feeling of depression and
sadness with a reader and deter him from buying. Don’t you buy
more when you are in an upbeat mood? Be careful how you write
your sales letter or even a small ad, words are very powerful
in copywriting and will make or break the sale. As all good
copywriters will tell you selling is all about understanding
your visitors’ mindset.
Readable font, includes use of
punctuation, capitalization and color arrangement. Let me
explain:
Excessive use of punctuation,
especially the !!! exclamation point and sometimes the???
question mark. This distracts the reader and is a turn off for
sales. Respect your reader’s intelligence and do not belittle
your reader with this unprofessional technique.
Too much CAPITALIZATION is also
unprofessional and has the same effect. Capitalization is
known as shouting a word. Do you the reader want to be shouted
at? I am sure this does not put you in a buying mood.
Color combination is also a sign of
being a good sales person. Always write with credibility in
mind. As mentioned credibility is very important in convincing
your prospective buyer. Unusual fonts and color combinations
will take away from your sales copy and leave an unfavorable
impression with your reader. Size is a factor too, make sure
the font is normal sized. Style of font should be Ariel, Times
Roman, Veranda, or similar styles, do not make a sales letter
in fancy type set, it will distract your reader, (selling art
work and cartoon drawings may be an exception to the rule).
Always keep
your reader in mind. Write your sales letters as you would to
a respected friend. Remember your visitors are taking time out
of their busy schedule to read your sales letter, write in a
concise, persuasive, polite way, as you would expect to be
treated by a sales person when you want to buy something. With
these points, you will be able to ramp up your business with
sizzling ad copy and improve your sales 110% and more.
Cathy is a freelance writer and
copywriter. She has written
over a hundred articles on small business
development and
marketing. She has also written
promotional articles and
sales copy for a variety of businesses.
and is the
publisher of 2 online publications. Her resource websites are:
http://advertise-your-business.com
http://a1-newsletters.com
If you need help with this tactic please feel free to contact me
cathy@advertise-your-business.com
I can also write or rewrite your ad for
special subscriber rates
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