Happy Holidays Crucible Readers

December 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I’d imagine you’re too excited about the holidays to concentrate on a persuasive writing lesson this week. So instead I’m going to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and I look forward to seeing you all with your pens ready in a week or so.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with this informative video (link via Michael Stelzner’s blog), which tells you everything you need to know about becoming an internet millionaire, but without having to waste your time writing copy:)

Happy holidays!

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog 

Writing Persuasively 3 – Features Tell, Benefits Sell

December 11, 2008 | 1 Comment

rainingmoney

“In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.” – Charles Revson

Whenever someone reads your website’s landing page or sales letter they’re not thinking about how clever the wordplay is but ‘what’s in it for me?’

They want to know how your product can solve their problem and benefit them personally, not how great your company is or how many speed settings your widget has.

If you’ve provided them with the right triggers, their imagination will also be picturing what life would be like if they took advantage of your offer. Justifying their purchasing decisions with logic comes after.

So your writing needs to be able to make the reader feel what they’d gain from agreeing to buy from you, which means you need to be able to write in the emotionally charged language of benefits, and not just features.

[Before the comments section gets flooded I think I should mention that there's an exception to this rule. If you're writing for experts in your industry, the technically minded or no nonsense business people then stick to features. These readers are more interested in what you're product actually does and how it's better than your competitor's, rather than reading emotionally driven prose. Give them hard data, facts and the bottom line if you want to earn their trust].

Features or benefits? What’s the difference?

In basic terms, features are what a product does and the benefits are what customers gain.

An electric drill’s features might be its multiple speed settings and four drill sizes, whilst its benefits are the smooth holes in a wall and being able to put up some shelves to showoff your sporting memorabilia.

Features are a product’s practical information and specifications.

Benefits are the basis for painting an emotionally charged picture of a better life with your product in it, which seduces your prospect and makes your offer sound irresistible.

Writing about benefits helps your reader to understand the full meaning of what your product promises to do for them.

So you need your writing needs to appeal to your target’s personal motives and emotional triggers.

What are my product’s benefits?

To assess what benefits you can use to create desire in your target reader, it can be helpful to write lists of:

  • The features – what the product actually does
  • Why each feature is included and what problem it solves
  • Why it solves the problem better than the other products available
  • What the customer gains from a problem being solved
  • What customer motives does the product appeal to
  • How will gaining a benefit make the customer feel

From this you should be able to compile a list of the problems your product solves and the benefits customers will gain, such as gratitude for finally hanging the wedding photos or becoming so filthy rich they can take twice daily showers in money.

When writing you’ll need to go through each benefit explaining in personal and emotional terms how your product can improve the reader’s life.

Give them real world examples of someone who’s reaped the rewards you promise, and keep piling on the benefits until they cant say no.

So whilst your competitors’ bland corporate copy continues to waffle on about cold features and their paradigm shift in forward thinking solutions, make sure you’re talking about benefits and the emotional rewards readers will gain from buying from you.

But before you start hammering them into your keyboard, we’re not quite at the writing stage yet.

You still need to structure how you communicate the benefits, so they seduce readers with a precisely worded, persuasive argument.

And, funnily enough, persuasive writing structure just happens to be the topic of next week’s article, so stay subscribed people.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting 

Writing Persuasively 2 – Planning Why You Are Writing, Who To And What Action You Want Them To Take

December 5, 2008 | 4 Comments

iStock_researching

“The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.” – David Ogilvy

As any lawyer knows, it’s not the strength of your words but the strength of your arguments that wins.

The same rule applies to persuasive writing.

Dazzling the reader with your use of a thesaurus or adopting a pushy tone isn’t the best way of convincing them to respond the way you want.

Persuasive writing is thinking on paper and salesmanship in print, rather than clever wordsmithing.

The aim isn’t to impress the reader with stylish prose, but to present your case as clearly and logically as possible. And this takes planning.

Before you go near the keyboard you need to know what your points are so you can organise them into a cohesive structure that takes the reader along a clear path of thought and leaves them enlightened and pulling out their credit card at the end.

And trust me, taking the time to plan what to write before you start saves a lot of time in the long run.

When composing your points, you need to answer:

  • Why am I writing?
  • Who am I writing to?
  • What action do I want them to take?

Why am I writing?

Why should someone agree with your point of view or buy your product?

If you don’t already know the answer to this then you’ll need to research your product in depth.

Tenacious research is crucial for shaping your argument, and you should have more information than you can use before you start writing.

It’s only through developing a thorough understanding of your product or service that you’ll work out how to make it sound enticing.

Crucially, you need to know:

  • What does my product do?
  • Why is it better than the competition?
  • What problems does it solve?
  • How can I prove its benefits?

After compiling your notes, write an ordered list of the points you need to make to persuade a cynical reader that agreeing with you is the smart thing to do.

Who am I writing to?

After your product the most important element of writing persuasively is your reader (although some copywriters would say it’s the other way around).

Different people have different motivations and aspirations in life.

So you need to understand what makes your target reader happy, annoyed and what keeps them awake at night.

Consider:

  • What motivates them?
  • What are they afraid of?
  • What do they want to gain in life?
  • What do they want to avoid?
  • How can you offer to make their lives easier?
  • What style of language appeals to them?
  • What counter arguments would they have to your proposal?

It’s through getting inside the head of your target reader that you’ll understand what triggers will propel them into buying your product.

People make decisions based on two types of triggers:

1. logical motivations e.g. saving time, money or being more productive

2. emotional feelings e.g. being more successful, popular or wealthy

So when structuring your writing you need to identify how you can appeal to both.

How can you make them feel that buying your product will make them more popular or successful, and what are the practical reasons why it’s money well spent?

Emotions can be powerful buying motivators, so use them responsibly.

What action do I want them to take?

Whether you want them to visit your website, signup for your newsletter or buy that instant, you need to be clear on what it is you’re ultimately asking your reader to do.

Because the action you want the reader to take gives you an indication of how much you’ll need to write. The higher the cost of taking action the more you’ll need to say to convince them of the benefits of doing so.

And it’s vitally important that you’re writing about benefits rather than features, which I’ll be discussing in my next post.

Posted by Matt Ambrose | Filed Under Blog, Copywriting