04 Jun 10 Essentials of Effective Advertisement Copy

Advertising profession aspirants often blindly jump into copywriting and then find themselves misfit for the same. Good writing skill, command on language and vocabulary are just not enough for it. Advertising copywriting seeks really different aptitudes. It seeks sense of humor, understanding of the consumer insight, and understanding of the market, playful attitude, sense of music, understanding of art and guts to experiment.

An effective advertisement copy is the one which successfully draws attention of its target audience, creates a favorable attitude towards the product and induces action. A good copy should have the following basic requisites.

It should be brief

Most important criteria for copywriting is the ability to craft short, crisp yet extremely interesting lines. That’s one major quality that copywriters often boast upon the content writers. Since our attention span is getting shorter day by day and readers prefer short, crisp advertisements it’s always recommended to keep the copy short and compact.

It should be simple and clear

Advertisements are means of communication and not means of confusion. So avoid the temptation of writing big, mouthful heavy words for the sake of showing your words prowess. Advertisements should be easily comprehensible, self-explanatory. Avoid ambiguous, incorrect words.

It should be apt

Copy should never be irrelevant to the target audience or the product category. Often the copywriter overlooks consumers or the product and get obsessed with the ambition of crafting award winning lines. An effective ad carries copy which matches with its consumers’ insight, product features and adds panache of creativity. Objective of the advertisement is not to be forgotten.

It should be personal

An effective ad is the one which portrays that it’s just talking to you. It carries personal touch. Words like ‘you’, ‘yours’ instead of a general message addressing all definitely works better.

It should be honest

Often advertising is accused of being manipulative and deceptive. But to remain in the business for a long run companies should always put forth honest and truthful communication. Communication can be wise and playful but not deceptive. It should not leave consumers with a false or wrong idea.

It should conform to the norms

All advertisements are supposed to conform to the standards, rules and regulations set by the advertising council of the country. Morally offending, community or religion humiliating, distasteful advertisement copies are banned all over.

An effective and nicely crafted copy is the backbone of any advertising communication.

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15 Jan 10 Is Copywriting Salesmanship in Words?

Copywriting is salesmanship in print. This classic statement has been a cause for major debate between advertisement copywriters and client servicing guy or advertisement account management guy in almost every ad agency in the world. Copywriters hold that copywriting is close to a high art, if not a downright high art, whereas, the other group tries to convince them that copywriting is nothing but mere salesmanship, a way to sell a product.

Having sat on both sides of the table, I am pretty much in position to see both side of the picture, and from the position I occupy, both the groups are right. Copywriting is indeed salesmanship in words but it is no less an art. Although I will not qualify it as a high art, but will always give it the credit of being a commercial art.

As I see it, advertisement copy performs two specific functions:

It attracts retain the attention of target audience by use of sight and sound.
Create a ground (emotional ground) for marketer to pitch in his product.

An advertisement copy needs to be creative in order to reach these two goals and that too in very limited times (typically in 30 to 90 seconds or in a few square inches). Attaining any of the goal using graphs, charts, numbers, and presentation will not be possible, as each one of them lacks the ability to form any connection with the audience which a well-written advertisement has.

An advertisement tells a story: a story that converts features of a product into benefits for the audience; a story that helps audience make sense of data; a story that touches their emotional chord; a story that helps marketer sell his product.

Each one of them is important: no matter how creative an advertisement is, it will not be considered good, if it fail to sell.

Selling is the end goal of an advertisement copy, and creative story telling is the tool a copywriter uses to meet the goal.

Tags: Account Management, Ad Agency, Advertisement Copy, Commercial Art, Copywriter, Copywriters, Copywriting, Creative Story, Emotional Chord, Graphs, Groups, High Art, Limited Times, Marketer, Salesmanship, Sight And Sound, Square Inches, Story Telling, Target Audience, Tool

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06 Oct 09 Can You Write an Effective Copy

The answer can be either yes or no. Do not say it depends. Either you can write an effective copy or you simply cannot. There is no mid-way, but there are times when you end up accidently producing effective copy, but those accidental geniuses cannot make you a good advertisement copywriter. To be a good advertisement copy writer, you need to write good copies every time you pick a product, at least most of the time. There are certain principles that you need to follow, if you wish to write real good copy, not just those “accidental geniuses”.

Let me give you a piece of good news: if you have written even a single brilliant copy then you already know the tricks, and all you need to do is standardize the process. And in order to do that you need to know the process.

5 steps to writing a better copy

Step1: Know your goal

You must be wondering why everything has to start with setting a goal. Let me help you in this. A goal is the end point where you want to reach when you set your sail. If you do not set a goal before setting sail, you will get lost in the sea. You need to define your advertising goal before you start writing your copy.

Step 2: Know your audience and their needs

A product is always made for a specific group of target audience. Although everyone can consume the product, it is never made for all. Similarly the advertisement created for the product should also not be created for all. Define a target audience, which often will be similar to the target user group of the product, and then find the reason why the target group will use this product.

Step 3: Appeal to their interest

I have seen many people who make ads to suit their needs and communication style, which I must add, fails to make any connection with the users. It is important to know the desire and aspiration of the target audience before writing an advertisement copy. When writing an ad, you should always remember that you are writing this to sell a product.

Step 4: Emotional appeal

Logic always fails to connect with the target audience. If you talk all logic, and reason in the ad then your ad will definitely fail. You need to connect with the target audience on the emotional level.

Step 5: Keep it simple

Do not clutter your ad by saying this and saying that. This will not take you anywhere. Keep it simple, and talk just about one benefit at one time. It may be possible that the product solves many problems, but in advertisement you are not supposed to write about all of them. Mention the most notable feature that matters to the audience.

Tags: 5 Steps, Advertisement Copy, Advertising, Aspiration, Communication Style, Copy Writer, Copy Writing, Copywriter, Desire, Emotional Appeal, Geniuses, Lost, Mid Way, Setting Sail, Specific Group, Step 2, Step 3, Target Audience, Target Group, Target User, User Group

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