Pulling Sales with Your Ad Copy

One of the best marketing tools available to your internet business is good sales ad copy. This can pull in sales faster than just about anything.

If you're not a writer or cringe at the thought of writing your own sales copy, you can always hire a professional, however if you're on a budget and have an adventurous spirit, writing your own ads can be a worthwhile option.

So how do you write sales copy that pulls sales? Let's take a look.

Get their attention. You have about six seconds to grab the attention of your reader so you have to act fast. Verbalize your benefits at the onset. Use words and phrases that are enticing and compelling. Use color, large fonts and exclamation points. Get the readers attention in the heading and keep it focused in the body of the ad.

Benefits and Solutions. How is your product or service going to benefit the reader? How will it solve their problem? Does it offer a solution and how fast? List all the benefits. How will it make their life or business better? Tell them why they can't live without it. If someone's going to buy something they have to know what's in it for them.

Credibility. You must convey to your audience that you are credible. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by using testimonials. What have people said about your product? If someone has bought your product, email them and ask them to comment on it. Get their permission to quote them in an ad. Get several testimonials and use photos if your can. Better yet, include small audio clips in your copy. To hear someone verbally testify to something can be very convincing.

Emotion. Appealing to the emotions of your audience is an excellent way to attract attention. What emotions do your products or services generate? What will trigger your reader's response?

Money, beauty, health, success, more time and making life easier are all emotional triggers. If you can appeal to someone with making more money, looking more beautiful or having better health, and really appeal to that emotion, your ad copy will attract their attention and entice them to keep reading.

Interest. Once you have their interest and attention you have to hold onto it. Telling short interesting or personal stories in your ad copy can hold that attention. People love stories and can relate to them. A section of questions and answers also generate interest for readers. People like it when questions that come to mind are answered right in the ad copy. This gives them the confidence that you can relate to their needs and concerns and are familiar with them..

Action. The final step is to generate a call to action. Urge the reader that it's time to act now. You can do this by offering a limited time free bonus or offer money off your product if they act now. Convince the reader that they can't wait. The time is now.

Know your products and customers. It's important to know who your customers are and what they want. A teen boy interested in body building may require totally different needs than a middle aged woman interested in body building. By understanding your customers you'll understand their needs and what kinds of problems they have that depend on you to solve. Focus on what your customer is willing to buy, not what you have to sell.

Additional Guidelines

Use simple, familiar words. Your ad should be easy and fast reading. Don't use big words and long run-on sentences. Offer a tangible result. Phrases like 'lose weight in two weeks', get rich online', 'find love now' sound cliché but they all offer your reader a solution to a problem or need. Avoid ambiguities and jargons. Get to the point and keep it flowing.

Write like you are talking to a friend Use bright, cheerful language. Don't be too formal and don't lecture.

Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. There are many ads that misuse grammar intentionally, and this is ok as long as it fits a specific purpose or theme of the ad. Unintentional poor grammar, misspellings and poor punctuation can hurt your credibility.

About The Author

Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. You can contact Elizabeth at mail@pro-marketing-online.com or visit her website at http://www.pro-marketing-online.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Copywriting Information:

Related Articles

10 Keys to Copy That Sells!
Whether you're selling a product or service, the 10 tips below are your keys to writing great copy that communicates and persuades ..
3 Ways to Increase Conversion Rates
In a previous article I talked about a few similarities between writing direct mail packages and writing web sites. In short, I concluded that as online writers we could learn a lot from direct marketers.
8 Reasons to Outsource Your Copywriting
Thinking of hiring a staff writer? Think again. Below, I will give you eight geat reasons to reconsider and outsource instead.
The Secret to Drilling Down Deep in Your Target Market
Here's another drill ripped out of the Field Guide for my Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp. There are 20 drills total which take 15 minutes per day (my "recruits" get weekends off).
The Second Most Important Element of Your Ad... after the Headline
Hi {FIRSTNAME Friend},Next time you're flicking through your local newspaper, take a good hard look at the ads. And notice how many of them give you a compelling reason to pick up the phone and get in touch with them now.
How to Write Adverts that Forces People to Respond
Think for a moment some day and consider the kind of advertising you see in your post box, on the TV, on your computer, on the radio, etc. Then ask yourself this question, "Would I buy this or not?" If you say "No," then ask yourself why.
Writing Effective Sales Copy
Whether you run a home-based business or Microsoft, one thing is always true: products do not sell themselves. So what makes customers buy? Words.
Cleaning Up Your Copy
When you are beginning to write, you gather as much data as you can. You continually add allied thoughts.
Copywriting: Engage Prospects By Involving Their Senses
Imagine a bland, colorless existence. Where food had no taste, silence surrounded you and everything smelled the same.
Hook Your Direct Mail Sales Letter Readers With Good Transition Sentences
Anglers in Maine catch trout using dry flies with barbless hooks. Unless they keep tension on the line all the way to the net, they lose the trout.
The Truth About Negative Commands (Dont Read This!)
Everyday when I read promotional emails and advertisements, or listen to television commercials and dialogue in shows and movies, or hear people around me in everyday life use commands such as the following examples, I feel dismayed for them.This is because I understand something that many others do NOT!And, since learning what I now understand, while I am BOMBARDED every day from all directions with commands like those listed below, in all their variations, I feel worse and worse for not speaking up!I feel especially badly for all those advertisers out there who are ignorant about this, because I also realize they are often sincerely excited about what they are sharing and are working very hard to attract the attention of others.
Three Tips For Magnetizing Your Copy
The difference between good copy and great copy is the number of actions it generates. The more actions the copy drives, the greater the copy is.
Deciding What Voice to Use in Copy
You have to choose a character or an angle that you, the copywriter plays. Copy is interactive.
Stop Chasing Away Customers! Bad Copy is Your Worst Enemy
Every day, more and more of us begin new online businessventures, hoping to make a better living or just a little extraon the side. And every day, more and more of us fail.
Pulling Sales with Your Ad Copy
One of the best marketing tools available to your internet business is good sales ad copy. This can pull in sales faster than just about anything.
Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?
I confess--I'm a marketing heretic! I've built my career on breaking all the rules--and one of the rules I break is that I don't hype.Do I put the best possible "spin" on the truth? Of course! But I refuse to deceive my readers into action.
Touching the Prospect's Emotions in Your Sales Letter
Your prospect has emotions? and you MUST touch these emotions in your sales letter. Your copy has to excite.
The Write Way To Grow Your Business
Hone your writing skills to project a more professional business image.The sales letter you can't put down?the advertising copy that makes you want the product?the resume that prompts you to call the job candidate this second?All these are examples of exceptional business writing.
Grammatical Mistakes DONT Sell
When you receive a sales letter with typos or grammar mistakes in it, do you take it seriously? Probably not. As soon as I see a few eighth-grade English blunders in any marketing effort, I quickly decide the author's product or service is not deserving of my time.
Its Time To Start That Swipe File
Just as great fiction is an art, so is great copywriting. Beneath the art, however, there's a foundation of basic knowledge and skills.