Posts Tagged ‘Copywriting’

I had a great marketing consultation with a client last week who really got me thinking. Just how ‘accessible’ is AIDCA? To me, it’s second nature. Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction, Action. And yet to Julian, it was only when I explained the concept in plain English that the lightbulb really came on. And so I now share my ‘Plain English’ AIDCA formula with you.

(Just in case you’re wondering what on earth AIDCA is, in brief it’s a fantastic tool to help you make your marketing more effective – a process, a structure, which mirrors the way that people buy. For the full story read my detailed AIDCA breakdown.)

Although I always encourage my clients to write from the point of view of their customer, it often helps to just draft something from your perspective to start with, just in note form, to get your head around it. So the process I’m about to share with you won’t be the finished article. You’ll need to do a LOT more tweaking, refining and most importantly, writing from the perspective of your customer rather than your own business. But just to enable you to get your head around AIDCA, here’s my plain English version of what it actually means to you as a business:

Attention: We sell widgets that will help your business
Interest: Here are the benefits of this widget to your business
Desire: This is why I know you can’t live without this widget
Conviction: If you’re worried you’d be making a mistake, don’t be – here’s some reassurance (in the form of testimonials or a guarantee)
Action: Here’s what I want you to do

How about for your business? Can you see this working? Does this ‘plain English’ version make AIDCA any easier to understand or to apply?

If you’d like to understand how to put this, and other marketing techniques into practice then you will definitely find the Marvellous Monthly Marketing Workshops useful – you can find out more on our website at www.marvellousworkshops.co.uk

Tagged as , AIDA, AIDCA, copy, Copywriting, literature, marketing, writing in AIDCA, Copywriting, Workshops

I had a one to one marketing consultation with a Personal Trainer yesterday who was frustrated that her leaflets weren’t bringing her in any business. She recognised that the paper quality and design were having an impact on this, and realised that she needed to invest in some professional design and print. But what surprised her was that her copy wasn’t pulling enough of a response.

Be brave and just use one proposition
Heather had used a common copywriting technique to grab her reader’s attention by asking them lots of questions. “Would you like more energy? Would you like to feel fitter and healthier? Would you like to lose weight? Would you like to invest more time in YOU?” It’s a common technique, but the challenge with this approach is that you’re confusing the reader with too many propositions. What are you trying to sell? Weight loss? Vitality? Time for yourself? Successful copywriters are brave, they just stick to one proposition and then ‘unwrap’ that proposition by leading the reader on a journey, via subheadings and body text, which makes the product or service they’re selling irresistible.

Create interest and generate desire
Secondly Heather had made another common mistake – assuming that her readers would be as passionate about her services as she was. And so she’d skipped straight from her questions to the call to action. “If this sounds like you, call me on 07xxx xxx xxx.”.

The challenge with this approach is that she simply hadn’t built up enough desire in her reader’s minds. It was all to easy to do nothing, to take no action at all.

So to combat that you need to make sure that you save some space to build the story. Imagine if you were selling your products face to face with someone. You’d talk to them, understand their needs, overcome their objections and only then would you ask them if they’d like to make an appointment with you. And you need to follow exactly the same process on paper. Persuade, engage and entice your target audience and then ask them to buy.

Tagged as , AIDCA, Copywriting, direct, leaflets, mail, marketing, text in AIDCA, Workshops

Can I share one of the most effective free marketing tools that every business has at their disposal? Testimonials. Happy clients are your best asset. Happy clients will sell for you harder than your best salesperson. They’re genuine, impartial, and most importantly, they’ll sell the benefits of your product or service from a client’s perspective.

You can use testimonials everywhere – on your website, your blog, your corporate brochures and your leaflets and postcards. They really do add a lot of value to the power of your marketing. Can I just make one suggestion?

Please, never, ever make them up. They’ll undermine your credibility. And with lots of happy customers, why would you need to!

Tagged as , agency, copy, Copywriting, design, farnham, godalming, guildford, marketing, strategy, surrey, testimonials, web, Websites, woking in Blogging, Copywriting, Web Design, Websites, Workshops

I’ve just spent the last couple of months rewriting and redesigning my new website. I’ve got to be honest, I’m pretty chuffed with it, but boy has it been hard work. It’s been a real exercise in restraint (and those that know me will understand that’s pretty hard for me to deal with!). The reason [...]

Tagged as , copy, Copywriting, website in Websites

Does your website talk about your business or your clients? Does it talk about what you’d like to sell them or how you can help them? I know it sounds like a subtle difference, but it’s an important one. Take a a piece of paper and divide it into two columns. On the left hand [...]

Tagged as , copy, Copywriting, web, Websites in Websites