by: Alex A. Kecskes
Okay, you?re ready to write the ad of a lifetime. The one that will pull like crazy and leave them begging for your product like Somalians for food. So, do you whet their appetite with a short and sweet ad? Or write a long-copy ad that?s stuffed with information?
The 80-20 rule says 80% of the people only read the headline (and maybe a caption, if you have one). But the fact is, readers will read a long-copy ad. One McGraw-Hill study looked at 3,597 ads in 26 business magazines. What they discovered was that ads with 300 or more words were more effective that shorter ads in creating product awareness, inducing action and reinforcing the decision to buy. Another ad for Merrill Lynch crammed 6, 450 words into a single New York Times page. It pulled over 10,000 responses?even without a coupon!
The truth is, the reason people read ads has nothing to do with copy length.
?Nobody reads long ads?? and other urban ad legends
People shun too many of today?s ads?long or short?because several misleading myths have stubbornly remained with us. Things like ?negative headlines are a downer since people want to feel good when reading your ad.? Or ?show the product or they?ll never know what you?re selling.? Then there?s the stuffy axiom, ?there?s no place for humor in business advertising. ? Or the ubiquitous saw, ?all your ads should look the same, blend in or be swallowed up.? The list goes on and on. Presented with unabashed hubris by the high priests of advertising. The basic fact is, ads really fail for three reasons.
Your ads are all about you
You?re telling customers what you want to hear, not what they want to know. Impressive sounding features are fine to motivate your sales force, but your customer is only interested in one thing: ?What?s in it for me?? This offense is particularly egregious in business-to-business advertising, which is infamous for its addiction to phrases like ?the XP90 does it all? or ?now with Duo-Pentium Processor??without a hint of what these features do. Also contaminating many of today?s ads are such chest-pounding headlines as ?Taking the lead,? ?The promise of tomorrow, today,? or ?A tradition of quality.? They sound good but say nothing.
Your ads are boring
You?ve got to break the boredom barrier?big time. Many ad gurus say blend in, be one of the pack and survive. No wonder so many ads look alike, proudly showing big pictures of their products, or worse yet, featuring a giant photo of the company?s CEO?usually with a caption that?s been scrubbed clean of originality or compelling information. If you want people to stop and read your ad, you have to make the ad more interesting than the editorials in the publication you?re in. Give them real news, a fresh new way to look at what you?re offering them. Stand out from the crowd. Start trends, don?t follow them. One of the most interesting car ads I ever saw showed the car only sparingly; instead, it featured an animation of a human heart beating furiously to the soundtrack of an accelerating engine. Breakthrough stuff.
Your ads don?t make human contact
They?re not reaching readers on an emotional level. We all want to be liked, appreciated and loved. We want to feel secure in our lives and our jobs. So be a mensch. Create ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your visual, headline and copy. Don?t just show a car on the road; show the guy captivating his sweetheart with the car. If your buyers were on the moon, would they care about your car?s styling? No. They?d get an ugly, crawly vehicle that got them from crater to crater. Selling computers to business? Show the guy getting a raise or promotion for selecting your latest model. You?re selling the emotional end result, the human need-based bottom line, not a box, or vehicle with four wheels and an engine.
Alex Kecskes provides a full range of copywriting services. Visit www.akcreativeworks.com for more information and samples.
About The Author
Alex Kecskes is a former ad agency Copy Chief who provides a full range of copywriting services to agencies and Fortune 500 companies. For samples and more information, please visit: www.akcreativeworks.com
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How To Get Effective Sales Copy For Your Autoresponders
How To Get Effective Sales Copy For Your Autoresponders
by: Kevin Nunley
Autoresponders are the greatest sales tool ever invented. They solve the biggest problem in advertising--how to follow-up with interested prospects until they buy.
There are plenty of free or low-cost autoresponder deals available. Multiple autoresponders send ten or more messages automatically. For the person who used to spend their days flipping through a rolodex, this automated selling is a dream come true.
BUT where do you get the sales info to put in your autoresponders. Unless you love to write page after page, filling these labor-savers can be a very tall order.
Here are some strategies for getting good autoresponder copy fast and easy.
Simple 3-letter campaign.
Don't worry about coming up with ten or twelve quality sales letters when you are starting out. You can greatly increase sales with just a three letter multiple autoresponder. More...
How To Get Effective Sales Copy For Your Autoresponders
Dvd copy > How To Get Effective Sales Copy For Your Autoresponders
Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class - Part One
Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class - Part One
by: Keith Taylor
Have you ever wondered how to use movies in your ESL classes, without just sitting your students down in front of the screen, hitting 'Play' and sitting back to watch?
Here are a few ideas to get you started, using very short movie extracts to present and practise new language and develop communicative skills.
1 No picture
Choose a short extract (2 or 3 minutes) with plenty of sound effects. Play it with the screen covered or turned away from the students, and ask them to write down what they hear.
If two of the sound effects are birds singing and a baby crying, you could use the extract to present or practice any of these language points (and I'm sure you can think of more):
Some birds are singing / A baby is crying
Some birds were singing / A baby was crying
It must / might / can't be birds singing or It must / might / can't have been birds...
Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class - Part One
Dvd copy > Using DVD and Video in Your ESL Class - Part One
CD/DVD Master Preparation Tips
CD/DVD Master Preparation Tips
by: Adam Platzer
?CD/DVD Master? is the disc you provide to your CD/DVD vendor for replication or duplication of that media.
Here are some helpful tips for creating a high quality master:
- Always use high quality media.
All media is not the same.
Do your research and choose a brand that will produce a high quality disc consistently.
- Avoid burning from a network source.
If your source files are on a network drive, copy the files to your local hard drive before burning a disc.
If you cannot move the files to your local drive, please use the ?Copy To Hard Drive First? feature.
Your burning software will create a temporary image file during the burning process.
When the burn is complete, the temporary file is deleted.
- Avoid burning on a laptop computer running on battery power.
Fluctuations...
Dvd copy > CD/DVD Master Preparation Tips