The Body Copyby Craig Warren
The headline and the subhead make
the promise. The body copy must
deliver on that promise. Here is
where you really make the sale.
Now that you have your prospect's
attention, you must continue to
feed them benefit after benefit.
But be careful! There is a right
way and a wrong way to list benefits.
You don't want to overwhelm and
confuse your reader.
Here is one of the most important
rules in ALL advertising:
You Can Only Make One Point In An Ad!While an ad can offer multiple benefits,
all of those benefits must be focused
on achieving a single goal. Ads which
concentrate on driving home a single
point have much more punch and power.
Ads which try to do to much are weak
and nonfocused. You don't want to lose
your readers in a swamp. You want to
focus their minds and attention like
a laser beam.
For example, an automobile can be sold
for a variety of benefits it has to
offer. A car can be fuel efficient and
economical, exciting and sexy, safe,
easy to afford and much more.
Experienced advertisers are smart enough
to zero in on just one of those qualities
at a time. When you watch car commercials,
you will notice that they will dwell on a
single feature like fuel efficiency,
prestige or luxury. They don't go on and
saying, "and by the way, this car was also
built with American labor and did we mention
that your neighbors will envy you and not to
mention the cool security option..." and
so on.
You should choose the main thing you want
to sell that is the main core need your
product or services will fulfill and list
your benefits toward fulfilling that one
need.
If you wanted to sell safety, choose a
number of benefits that plug safety. This
car has duel air bags, steel reinforced
side panels that also have dual air bags
to give you additional safety, a wider
wheelbase for more stability and so on.
Different benefits, one purpose.
In addition to focusing on one point,
body copy must have several other
attributes to make it effective. This
would include the writing style itself.
Body copy style must be extremely clear,
crisp and free of any confusion.
Never use big words which most people
will not understand. Just one difficult
word can be enough to cause a reader to
stop reading your ad. Favor the shorter,
simpler words. Don't use "approximately"
when "about" will do. Don't say utilize
because use means the same thing. And
the shorter the words, the more you can
say on a page. Don't try to impress anyone
with your bulging vocabulary by using
words like recalcitrant, lugubrious,
superlative or pulchritude.
Use words that contain only one or two
syllables each. Everything about body
copy style is short and punchy. Even
individual words should be as short as
possible. If you page through a few
magazines and examine the body copy,
you'll notice that a few sentences are
longer than a dozen words or so. Short
sentences and sentence fragments create
a feeling of crispness.
About the Author:----------------------------------------------
Craig Warren is the owner of
WarrensMarketing.comand reviews popular home business
ideas and opportunities. Craig's
most popular home business
recommendation is the Plug-In
Profit Site at:
PlugInProfitSitewhere you can get your own money-making
website setup in 24 hours!
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Labels: advertising, benefit, headline
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