How to Write Ad Copy that Sells – Copywriting 101

According to Mike Dillard, copywriting or generating good ad copy is an essential skill for anyone trying to earn any money online. Mr. Dillard said this while introducing his “What’s Working Now” product. The other essential skill that he mentioned was lead generation. Since Mike Dillard makes a solid six-figure income every month online, I figure he knows what he is talking about. However, I find copywriting is a largely overlooked skill by most internet/network marketers. Marketers tend to exert a lot of time, money, and energy getting advertisements in front of prospects and customers only to let poor ad copy spoil all of their efforts. Good copy gets read and bad copy gets scrapped. Good copy persuades, influences, and leads to sales. Bad copy does not get taken seriously at all. There are just too many messages on the internet competing for our time and attention. So we tend to filter what is read and what is discarded. So if you want your message to get read, you need to take copywriting seriously. I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of internet marketers don’t have any formal copywriting training, and have no idea how to write effective copy. I hope that this article sparks a desire in you to learn how to do so.

There are three very important things to consider before you sit down to write your copy. The audience, the purpose of your message, and the message itself. First you need to determine who your target audience is. Who are they or what demographic group do they fit into. But more importantly, what do they need or want. You have to remember to keep the focus on them during your writing. So many of us get so caught up in trying to explain our product or program that we forget who we are talking to. Keep your eye on the audience and what they need. And what is the purpose of your message? Are you looking to inform, persuade, educate, or sell? What is it that you want your audience to know? More to the point, what do you want them to do or how do you want them to respond to your message? And in your message, you want to base your message on the benefits of your product, your unique selling point, and the reward (psychology of why they should buy).

You want your message to focus on the benefits and not the features of your product. People generally don’t care about features, but what the product or service will do for them. Remember, just about everybody wants to know one thing, “what’s in it for me?”. But if you have to talk about the features, be sure
to turn those features into benefits. For example, an ergonomically designed chair will ensure back comfort. As for your unique selling point, why should someone buy your brand instead of brand XYZ? What makes your company, product or service different or special? And with the reward you want to re-emphasize the benefit(s) of course. “This cream will make your skin appear younger”. You can also use fear here, i.e., buy today before the price goes up or before the limited supply is gone. In short, you want to make your product or service AIDA.

AIDA is short for Attention, Interest, Desire and Actionable. Some also add Convince before Actionable, so you have AIDCA instead. The way this works is:
Attention leads to Interest in the product or service. Interest leads to Desire to acquire the product or service. (Sometimes you might have to convince the prospect to buy), and Desire leads to the Action of buying the product or service or performing some other follow-up action. Attention is very important online. The best way to capture attention is through a well-devised headline. You might use a sub-heading to stimulate interest. You want the body of your message to create the desire and possibly convince. And your close should directly ask or tell your prospect to take the desired action.

Obviously, there is quite a bit more to copywriting, but I hope you found this information helpful. I also hope that you take it upon yourself to learn more about this skill, like how to construct a well-devised headline, or how to generate interest in your product. So go out and learn all you can about this skill. If you do so, you just might find yourself soaring above the competition.

I hope that you enjoyed reading “How to Write Ad Copy that Sells Online“.

Reginald Liggins is an internet marketing trainer and coach. The automated marketing system that Reginald uses to explode his business opportunities as well as generate multiple income streams can be found at “MyLeadSystemPro”

Reginald can be reached at reggie@superbodymagic.com

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