Lecture on Advertising Principle

PRINCIPLE 1 

Advertising, public relations, marketing communications, news, and editorial all share a common
objective of truth and high ethical standards in serving the public.

PRINCIPLE 2 

Advertising, public relations, and all marketing communications professionals have an obligation to
exercise the highest personal ethics in the creation and dissemination of commercial information to
consumers.

PRINCIPLE 3 

Advertisers should clearly distinguish advertising, public relations and corporate communications from
news and editorial content and entertainment, both online and offline

PRINCIPLE 4 

Advertisers should clearly disclose all material conditions, such as payment or receipt of a free product,
affecting endorsements in social and traditional channels, as well as the identity of endorsers, all in the
interest of full disclosure and transparency.

PRINCIPLE 5 

Advertisers should treat consumers fairly based on the nature of the audience to whom the ads are
directed and the nature of the product or service advertised.

PRINCIPLE 6

Advertisers should never compromise consumers’ personal privacy in marketing communications, and
their choices as to whether to participate in providing their information should be transparent and easily
made

PRINCIPLE 7 

Advertisers should follow federal, state and local advertising laws, and cooperate with industry self-
regulatory programs for the resolution of advertising practices.

PRINCIPLE 8 

Advertisers and their agencies, and online and offline media, should discuss privately potential ethical
concerns, and members of the team creating ads should be given permission to express internally their
ethical concerns.

PRINCIPLE 9

Trust between advertising and public relations business partners, including clients, and their agencies,
media venders, and third party suppliers, should be built upon transparency and full disclosure of
business ownership and arrangements, agency remuneration and rebates, and media incentives.
10 Kinds of Advertising

1. Display Ads

This includes digital and newspaper advertising. Digital ads are the updated version of newspaper
advertising; it’s the same concept but in 21st-century form. It means buying ad space on sites that are of
interest to your target demographic. You can create text ads, which essentially look just like traditional
print media ads, the floating banner above the site’s contact and even wallpaper with your product or
service on the site background.

The major difference between display ads and the ads you find in newspapers is the use of search
engine optimization techniques to reach your target audiences more effectively when they search for
you. These types of advertisements are typically also Pay Per Click, which means you bid on keywords
most associated with your service or products and pay for your results to be at the top of the search
engine search. The another one is Cost Per Thousand, which means to pay a flat rate to show up in
search results 1,000 times.

2. Social Media Ads

Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and pretty much all social media sites offer relatively inexpensive
advertising. Paid social media ads are the kind of advertisement that focuses on reaching your target
audience with how much you pay adjusted to how many see it and engage with it. Organic social media
ads are the kind of advertisement that generates lots of word-of-mouth. Say you post something to your
business Facebook page that offers a free product if followers click Like and tag a friend — that is the
type of advertisement that is free to post and makes people aware of what you have to offer.

3. Newspapers and Magazines

These kinds of advertisements are traditional yet no less effective. Combining this type of advertisement
between local, statewide and national print media is a great marketing campaign strategy. Plenty of
people still reach for their morning newspaper or love to settle down with a hard copy of a magazine.
Also, most print media now has a digital presence and can combine these types of advertisements with
its virtual version.

4. Outdoor Advertising

Now that billboards have gone digital it’s a huge way to make an effective statement. Transit ads are
another kind of advertisement that falls under the outdoors umbrella — feature your product or service
on buses, taxis, bike messenger services and pedicabs. Promoting this way gives you excellent brand
recognition as these types of advertisements are seen everywhere daily and make your offering hard to
forget.

5. Radio and Podcasts

Verbal promotion is a type of advertisement that can be repeated often as part of radio or podcast
shows. You can have a traditional type of ad recorded to be played or there is also the chance of
sponsorship. Narrow down the types of podcasts your target audience subscribes to or the station they
most listen to for creating the kind of advertisement customers like and remember.

6. Direct Mail and Personal Sales

Direct mail, or the art of sending a compelling sales letter by snail mail to your target audience, can offer
a healthy return on investment for small businesses. The starting point is to identify your target market,
then send an enticing offer out to all of those prospects. Measuring the responses helps you to see
which type of customers are responding to this format, so you can use even more precision targeting
with your next mail shot.

In a similar vein, direct or personal sales is still a big area of advertising, especially for small businesses. A
good salesperson can use his or her skills to persuade a customer to buy a product. If the salesperson is
especially effective, the customer will continue to spread the word about your product through
recommendations and referrals.

7. Video Ads

This type of advertisement engages with your target customers on a digital level. Create a short video
and post it on your social media or pay to have it run on sites like YouTube, Hulu and blogs. A video ad
can be created by experts from an agency or even done by your in-house team — even if that team is
comprised of just yourself.

8. Product Placement

This kind of advertisement is seen more and more. If you pay for a podcast host to mention using your
product or pay a television show to feature a character talking about or using your service, that is
product placement. You can also talk to popular YouTube channel hosts about this type of
advertisement.

9. Event Marketing

Paying to sponsor a sports team or a charity benefit falls under event marketing. These types of
advertisements mean a large cross-section of people hear your brand name and associate it with that
event. Many companies also look to conventions for this sort of niche advertisement.

10. Email Marketing

A kind of advertisement that is focused on your existing customers, email marketing involves them
signing up for promotional sales or newsletters focused on your brand. Email marketing is an updated
customer loyalty promotion and works very well when you treat customers as insiders with VIP
knowledge.

There are as many ways to utilize types of advertising as there are kinds of advertising. By diversifying
your approaches in both traditional and digital worlds as well as focusing on your core target market
while getting the word out about your brand to the people at large, you can grow by leaps and bounds.
Lecture

1. Target Market 

Small businesses often target customers by gender or age. For example, a women's clothing retailer
directs its promotional efforts at women. ... Similarly, some small companies market to specific age
groups. Companies selling life insurance for people close to retirement age may target people 50 and
over.

A target market is a group of consumers or organizations most likely to buy a company's products or
services. Because those buyers are likely to want or need a company's offerings, it makes the most sense
for the company to focus its marketing efforts on reaching them.

Three main activities of target marketing are segmenting, targeting and positioning. These three steps
make up what is commonly referred to as the S-T-P marketing process.

Target typically appeals to customers who enjoy higher incomes by emphasizing high-quality
merchandise and low-cost designer fashion. Walmart's emphasis on low prices typically draws shoppers
with lower household incomes.

2. Market segmentation 

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market of potential customers into groups, or
segments, based on different characteristics.

There are four key types of market segmentation that you should be aware of, which include
demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentations. It's important to understand
what these four segmentations are if you want your company to garner lasting success.
There are 5 ways to break down your customer profile into unique segments, including behavioral,
psychographic, demographic, geographic, and firmographic!

Segmentation helps marketers to be more efficient in terms of time, money and other resources.
Market segmentation allows companies to learn about their customers. They gain a better
understanding of customer's needs and wants and therefore can tailor campaigns to customer segments
most likely to purchase products.

3. Consumer behaviour

Consumer behavior is the study of individuals and organizations and how they select and use products
and services. It is mainly concerned with psychology, motivations, and behavior. ... The behavior of
consumers while researching and shopping.

There are four type of consumer buying behavior:

Complex buying behavior.

Dissonance-reducing buying behavior.

Habitual buying behavior.

Variety seeking behavior.

Consumer behavior or consumer buying behavior are all the aspects that affect consumers' search,
selection, and purchase of products. We can use the term for the purchases of services too. An example
of a new trend developing in society is children's influence on their parents' purchases. 

It is a study of the actions of the consumers that drive them to buy and use certain products. Study of
consumer buying behavior is most important for marketers as they can understand the expectation of
the consumers. It helps to understand what makes a consumer to buy a product.
4. Marking mix 

Once you've developed your marketing strategy, there is a "Seven P Formula" you should use to
continually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities. These seven are: product, price, promotion,
place, packaging, positioning and people.

A marketing mix is typically made up of "the four Ps": price, product, promotion, and place. It may also
include packaging, positioning, people, or other factors. ... That might mean advertising, media
coverage, contests, word-of-mouth, direct marketing, social media campaigns, or other efforts.

The four Ps of marketing are the key factors that are involved in the marketing of a good or service. They
are the product, price, place, and promotion of a good or service.

The marketing mix is a tool for considering the different elements that go into promoting a brand and its
products. It offers broad guidelines for putting the right products in the right place, at the right time and
price.

5. Functions of advertising 

The seven marketing functions are market planning, product/service management, marketing-
information management, pricing, channel management, promotion, and selling. These marketing
functions focus on understanding customers and making the products they want available to them.

The five functions of advertising are all essential to the success of an organization. In this lesson, we
discuss informing, influencing, increasing salience, adding value, and other company efforts.
4 function of advertising 

1)The economic functions. 

2) The social functions. 

3) The marketing functions.

4) Communication functions

Advertising is the best way to communicate to the customers. Advertising helps informs the customers
about the brands available in the market and the variety of products useful to them.

10 Major Functions of Advertising Agency

1. Attracting clients

Advertising agency needs clients (advertising) without them it cannot survive. 

2. Account Management

Within an advertising agency the account manager or account executive is tasked with handling all
major decisions related to specific client. 
3. Creative time

The principal role of account managers is to manger the overall advertising campaign for a client, which
often includes delegating selective tasks to specialists

Advertising agency put the advertising-plan into action under its creative function. Creation of ads is the
most important function of an ad agency. Generally, it involves activities like: 

Copy writing 

Drawing photographs 

Making illustration

Layouts

An effective ad message

These jobs are done by expers like copy writers, artists, designers etc. These people are highly skilled
and creative. They make an advertisement more appealing. Attractive ads help to increasethe sales of
the product. 

4. Researchers 

Full service Advertising agencies employ market researchers who assess a client's market situation,
including understanding customers and competiors, and also are used to test creative ideas. 

Advertising agency gathers information related to the client's product. It collects following information
about a product under its research function:
Features 

Quality

Advantages and limitations of a product

Present and future market possibilities 

Competition in the market

Situation in the market 

Distribution methods

Buyers preferances 

And so on

Ad agency analyses (studies) all this collected information properly and draw conclusions for its
research. It helps in planning an advertising campaign, selecting proper media and creation function.

5. Media Planners

Advertising agency helps an advertiser to select a proper media (ad platform) to promote his
advertisement effectively. 

Media selection is a highly specialized function of an ad agency. It must select the most suitable media
for its client's ad. 

Advertising agency plans the entire ad campaign of its client. Advertising planning is a primary function
of an ad agency. It is done when its research function is completed. That is, after analyzing the client's
product, its competitors, market conditions, etc. It is done by experts who use their professional
experience to make a result-oriented advertising-plan. 

Once an advertisement is created, it must be placed through an appropriate advertising media.

Each advertising media, of which there are thousands, has its own unique methods for accepting
advertisements, such as different advertising cost structures (i.e., what it costs marketers to place an
ad), different requirements for accepting ad designs (e.g., size of ad), different ways placements can be
purchased (e.g., direct contact with media or through third-party seller), and different time schedules
(i.e., when ad will be run). Understanding the nuances of different media is the role of a media planner,
who looks for the best media match for a client and also negotiates the best deals. 

6. Advertising budget

Advertising agency helps an advertiser to prepare his ad budget. It helps him to use his budget
economically and make the best use of it. 

Without a proper advertising budget, there is a risk of client's funds getting wasted or lost. 

7. Coordination

Advertising agency brings a good coordination between the advertiser, itself, media and distributors. 

8 Sales promotion

Advertising agency performs sales promotion. It helps an advertiser to introduce sales promotion
measures for the dealers and consumers. This helps to increase the sales of the product. 

9. Public relations
Advertising agency does the public relations (PR) work for its clients. It increases the goodwill between
its clients and other parties like consumers, employees, middlemen, shareholders, etc. It also maintains
good relations between the client and media owner. 

10. Non-advertising functions

Advertising agency also performs many non-advertising functions: 

It fixes the prices of the product, It determines the discounts, It designs the product, It also designs its
package, trademarks, labels, etc

Lecture

Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is the practice of deliberately managing the release and spread
of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a
nonprofit organization) and the public.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is a short term incentive to initiate trial or purchase. Sales promotion is one of the
elements of the promotional mix. The primary elements in the promotional mix are advertising, personal
selling, direct marketing and publicity/public relations.

Publicity

Publicity can be defined as a form of public relations that provides news or information in the
media. Publicity is also how a business or organization is perceived in the media. Due to their closeness
in nature, publicity is often misconstrued with two other forms of mass communication: advertising and
marketing.

Marketing

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Media Vendors
Ad vendors are third party ad services that provide ads for your players. Ad vendors in the system are
management entities used to associate Ad campaigns and players for reporting purposes. ... Click on the
'Company' field and define the owner of this Ad Vendor as either your White Label or Affiliate company

Advertisers 

1. An advertiser is the one who pays the money to get his advertisements shown. A publisher is the one
who gets money for showing the ads on his site. 2. An advertiser owns or controls the actual product or
service that is being advertised because as he is the one who commands the product advertising.

Marketing Communications

Marketing communications uses different marketing channels and tools in combination: Marketing
communication channels focus on any way a business communicates a message to its desired market, or
the market in general.

Corporate Communications

Corporate communication is a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and
external communications aimed at creating favourable point of view among stakeholders on which the
company depends.

Trademark

A trademark typically protects brand names and logos used on goods and services. A copyright protects
an original artistic or literary work. A patent protects an invention. For example, if you invent a new kind
of vacuum cleaner, you would apply for a patent to protect the invention itself.

Philippines Trademark Law

R.A. 8293, otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Code, defines a trademark as “any visible sign
capable of distinguishing goods”. Early jurisprudence has taken it to mean “a sign, device or mark by
which the articles produced or dealt in by a particular person or organization are distinguished or
distinguishable from those produced or dealt in by others, and must be affixed to goods or articles”.

Consumer Act of the Philippines

The Philippine government adopted RA 7394 (Consumer Act of the Philippines of 1991) as the legal
basis for consumer protection in the country. The law embodies the state policy on the protection
of consumers and establishes standards of conduct for business and industry in the country.

8 Basic right of a consumer

The eight consumer rights are: Right to basic needs, Right to safety, Right to information, Right to
choose, Right to representation, Right to redress, Right to consumer education, and Right to healthy
environment.

REPUBLIC ACT No. 3720. 
AN ACT TO ENSURE THE SAFETY AND PURITY OF FOODS, DRUGS, AND COSMETICS BEING MADE
AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC BY CREATING THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION WHICH SHALL
ADMINISTER AND ENFORCE THE LAWS PERTAINING THERETO. CHAPTER I.

Republic Act 6675

An Act to Promote, Require and Ensure the Production of an Adequate Supply, Distribution, Use and
Acceptance of Drugs and Medicines Identified by their Generic Names.

Lecture

Naming products 

 Be Descriptive. The first place most people start when they have to name a product is to simply
create a name that describes what the product does. ...

 Use Real Words with a Twist. ...

 Add a Prefix or Suffix. ...

 Create a Compound Word. ...

 Make up a Word. ...

 Change Spellings. ...

 Tweak and Blend Words. ...

 Use a Place or Person's Name.

 Create an Acronym or Use Initials or Numbers

 Use a verb 

Print layout design

Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement of visual elements on a page. ...
The high-level page layout involves deciding on the overall arrangement of and images, and possibly on
the size or shape of the medium.
The key to great layouts is to box up all the individual elements to form one whole, and keep the
amount of space between each one consistent. Again, the eye visually perceives things much better
when everything is grouped.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of
marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand
awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action.

Meaning of colors in psychology

Red is the color of energy, passion, action, ambition and determination. It is also the color of anger and
sexual passion. ... With the meaning of colors, in color psychology, yellow is the color of the mind and
the intellect. It is optimistic and cheerful.

The color amber is a pure chroma color, located on the color wheel midway between the colors of
yellow and orange. 

Colors in food packaging

In food packaging, red has always been universally accepted. Green is used for healthy and natural foods
whereas yellow is used for high energy serotonin-inducing products. Orange is associated with healthy
and filling foods such as oats whereas blue is used for fun foods, such as cakes or crackers.

Lecture

The two most common print media are newspapers and magazines, but print media also include
outdoor billboards, transit posters, the yellow pages, and direct mail.
Print advertisements usually contain four key elements: headline, copy, illustrations, and signature.

Higher Frequency of Viewing One of the best benefits of print media is that it has a higher frequency
opportunity of viewing than online ads. Since the newspaper or magazine may sit on a table or rack at a
business or home, repeated exposures are allowed.

9 Design Rules For Creating Effective Print Ads: Infographic

 Make Sure Copy is Clean and Concise. Skilled copywriters know how to communicate your
message in a clean and concise matter. ...

 Don't Be Afraid of White Space. ...

 Use Headlines Effectively. ...

 Simplicity is Key. ...

 Consider Images Carefully. ...

 Create a Call to Action. ...

 Be Unique. ...

 Describe the Benefits.

 Ensure Contact Information Stands Out

Top 3 types of print advertisements

 Newspapers / Magazines. Print ads in periodicals such as newspapers and magazines are a
classic type of advertising media. ...

 Mailers. ...

 Posters.

3 Disadvantages of Print Media

 Minimal Interaction.

 Lower Accessibility and Ineffective Marketing. As compared to electronic media, mainly the
Internet, print media does not have a global reach. ..
  Killing our planet.

The Benefits of Print Media in a Digital World

 Online ads have more competition. Most websites average four ads per page view, putting ads
per view at a four to one ratio. ...

 Studies show that 80% of people have never clicked on a banner ad. That's right. ...

 Print publications have a more predictable and loyal readership. ...

 Kinesthetic learners need attention, too!

Lecture

Complete Guide to Copywriting

What exactly is copywriting? Copywriting is the art and science of writing copy (words used on web
pages, ads, promotional materials, etc.) that sells your product or service and convinces prospective
customers to take action. In many ways, it’s like hiring one salesman to reach all of your customers. A
sales team contacts customers one at a time; a copywriter reaches all of them at once through
billboards, magazine ads, sales letters, blog posts, and more.

Design, content marketing, SEO, and growth hacking are all parts of a complete digital marketing plan,
but copywriting is the glue that ties it all together. Copy gives your design meaning and lays the
foundation for your content marketing, SEO, and growth hacking. Writing better copy enables you to
convert more readers into customers, and we wanted to provide a guide that would give you an
advantage when writing copy both on and offline.

If you can leverage your writing to tell a compelling story while convincing customers of the need for
your product, there is no limit to the growth your business can experience.

However, if you are stuck writing generic emails, ads, and sales letters, you can expect to spend the rest
of your entrepreneurial career struggling to make a single sale.

But how in the world do you actually become a good copywriter?

 Should you spend countless hours handwriting famous sales letters?

 Should you read hundreds of books on copywriting?

 Should you go to college and spend $100k on yet another advanced degree?

I think there is a better way to become a world-class copywriter—an easier way that requires almost no
investment from you and that will only take you about 30 days.

The first thing I want to point out is that this article is designed to help you become a world-
class  copywriter, not a master  copywriter.
To become world-class (the top 5%) takes only about a month of focused, intentional work.

Breaking through those extra four percentile points to become a true master copywriter (the top 1%)
will take you years, if not decades, of practice and dedication.

However, unless your entire career is dedicated to copywriting, all that effort is unnecessary. If you can
break out of the realm of good copywriting and become great, the extra four percentage points are
simply not needed to run a successful business.

Becoming world-class is completely achievable and can be done faster than you think.

Let’s begin.

Why Understanding the Product Is So Important

The first step in any copywriting project is fully understanding whatever product you’re selling. David
Olgilvy, a legendary copywriter, is famously known for taking three weeks of meticulous study to come
up with a winning concept for a Rolls-Royce ad. The final headline read “At 60 miles per hour the loudest
noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” It took him that much time to find a detail
compelling enough to sell a Rolls-Royce.

And if it took Mr. Ogilvy that long to discover such an important selling feature, it’s surely worth taking
some time to study your product to learn which features will stand out to your customers. That’s the
real goal of this chapter — to find out what makes your product unique and what benefits and features
will appeal to your customers.

This is step one for any copywriting project.

The good news is that as a business or blog owner, you already know your product inside and out. You
know the features, understand how it works, and are familiar with the benefits it provides your
customers. This offers a great starting point for writing copy. Instead of needing to do in-depth research,
you can begin by writing down what you already know. You won’t need to spend hours researching the
product and taking notes.

On the other hand it’s still worthwhile to follow the steps in this chapter in order to capture all of the
details of your product. By writing down a complete product description along with a list of the features
and benefits, you’ll save this important information where you can refer back to it in later chapters. It’s
better to have everything saved in one place so you’ll always have it available at your fingertips.

So before you start writing copy, complete the following exercise to write down a description of your
product or service. After finishing, you’ll know every detail of what you’re selling and have a better idea
about how to sell it.

Create Your Product Description

Get started by answering the following questions about your product (questions may need to be
tweaked slightly if you’re providing a service instead of selling a product).

For the sake of illustrating each step of the process, we’ll create a hypothetical product that we can
reference throughout this guide that is titled “Simple Survey Tool.”

Question 1: How would you describe the product?

For this question, provide a simple, two to three sentence description of the product. It doesn’t need to
be super long or detailed and don’t worry about providing a fancy answer. Simply write down a short
description as if you were describing the product to a customer.

Sample answer:

Question 2: What’s unique/special about this product?

The goal here is to identify something unique or special about the product. What does this product offer
that others don’t? Is it made in the USA? Is it easy to install? Does it provide analytics that other sites
don’t offer?

Eventually, you’ll use this to identify a unique selling proposition (USP). A USP is something unique that
other companies don’t offer. Is there something special about your product? Is there something that
makes it stand out from the competition? Record anything here about the product that makes it special
or unique.

Sample answer:

Question 3: What big benefit does it provide?

Not only do you want to know how a product is unique, but you also know what benefit it provides
customers. Many companies stop at describing the product and don’t go on to conveying the benefit of
using it.

For example, a company may talk about how they offer web analytics software but don’t tell customers
about the benefit of using the service. Instead, they should tell customers that the software helps them
build a more profitable site, generate more revenue per customer, or accomplish something else along
these lines. The focus should be on providing a benefit, not just describing the service.

So what big benefit does your product provide?

Sample answer:

Question 4: What pain does it alleviate?

People generally buy for one of two reasons — to increase their pleasure or to minimize pain. In the
question above, we identified the benefit that would “increase pleasure;” in this question, we’ll identify
which pain is minimized by using the product.

For example, a car insurance company could use a headline like this: “Are You Paying Too Much for Your
Car Insurance?” The ad would then go on to talk about how most customers pay more than they need
for car insurance, and how company X can save them more money (which is something similar to what
GEICO currently does). The purpose of the ad is first to focus on the pain, and then to talk about how
Company X alleviates that pain.

Another option is to focus the ad on the pleasure customers experience from saving money. It could use
a headline like this: “How Will You Spend the Money You Save Using [Specific Car Insurance Company
Name Here]?” Instead of focusing on the pain, it draws attention to the pleasure experienced by
switching to a different insurer (which is what GEICO did in 2008 with their “the money you could be
saving” ads).

Often, focusing on the pain eliminated is more effective than focusing on the pleasure provided, but
both approaches can be tested to evaluate their effectiveness.

So what pain does your product alleviate? Let’s write that down now.

Sample answer:

Question 5: What features are included and what are the benefits of each?

The first thing you want to do to answer this question is write down each of the product’s features. You
may not end up using all of them in your copy, but at the very least, you want to record them all in one
place so you have them at your fingertips if needed. Some products have a lot of features, others have
less. Either way, list all of your product features here with a short description of each.

In addition to listing the features, be sure to list the benefit of each. We’ll talk more about benefits later,
but in short, customers care more about benefits provided by features than the features
themselves (but you still may need to list the features in your copy so be sure to record them all here).

For example, customers care more about high speed internet that helps them watch streaming videos
without interruption than internet that provides 15 mbps download speeds. The “15 mbps” is a feature,
in this case, and “streaming videos without interruption” is the benefit provided by the feature. Record
the features of your product and the corresponding benefit now.

Sample answer:
As you can see from these sample answers, there’s a big difference between features and benefits.
Features are the technical aspects of the product, and the benefits are the way those features help
customers accomplish something they want to accomplish. It’s good to record both, but we’ll talk more
about the importance of benefits in a later chapter.

Now that we’ve taken some time to understand your product and record it’s features, let’s move on to
the other critical step in the copywriting process.

2.Understand Your Customers

Next to understanding the product inside and out, the most important step in any copywriting project is
knowing who you’re selling to. Here’s why.

How you sell whatever you’re selling is determined by who you’re selling it to, what they want to buy,
and what will convince them to make a purchase. It’s all about the customer, not your company.
If you’re selling to stay-at-home moms, you’re going to write differently than if you’re selling to high-
net-worth business executives, and if you’re selling to Fortune 500’s, you’re going to write differently
than if you’re selling to startups.

You may be wondering, “Why is this so important?” It’s important because each group of customers has
different hopes, fears, dreams, and expectations. Moms, for example, have different priorities than
business executives. Saving money is more important for moms, whereas saving time is more valuable
to executives.

These differences influence the way you write and how you sell the product. It also means you really
need to know what appeals to your customers.

So as you can see, defining your customer is a critical part of the copywriting process.

Understanding your audience and their fears, wants, and needs is the first step to writing great copy.

How do you do this?

First, put yourself in their shoes. This should be relatively easy if you are selling a product that solves a
problem you once had.

For example, my company Crazy Egg helps entrepreneurs figure out why customers are leaving their
websites. Quite frankly, it’s easy to write copy to sell my services because I used to struggle with the
same problem.

There are no hypotheticals or guesswork involved when I am writing posts for The Daily Egg. It’s like
biking downhill. No effort. I know the pain of having a high bounce rate; I know how it affects people’s
businesses; and I know how to fix it. This makes it easy for me to speak to other entrepreneurs facing
the same issues.

However, if you are selling a product or service you would not use yourself (a common problem among
freelance copywriters), you need to gain more knowledge about the issue.

This is where customer surveys are a lifesaver.  Instead of having to guess what your customers are
looking for, just ask them directly.

Ideally, you’ll have some sort of marketing persona already created and can use this to target your
customer.
If you are not working directly with your final client (for example, if you are a ghostwriter or run a
copywriting firm), make sure to find a way to survey the end user.

This will allow you to gain deep insights into what your audience is looking for whenever you are writing
your copy.

Do Customer Research

Answer these 4 questions (again, the questions will need to be modified slightly for service businesses):

Question 1: Who currently buys your product?

The first question identifies who your current customers are. You may be selling to both startups and
Fortune 500’s, but whatever the case may be, it’s important to know who your current customers are
because you need to know who pays your bills. (If you haven’t started selling anything yet, skip this
question and move on to the next one.)

Sample answer:

Question 2: Who would you like to buy your product?

This second question identifies who you would like to be selling to. As mentioned above, you may be
selling to startups and Fortune 500’s, but you’d rather focus on the Fortune 500’s because they have
larger budgets and are less likely to be price conscious.

It’s ok to sell to both, but if you’d like to target one over the other, you’ll end up writing your copy
differently. That’s why it’s important to know exactly who you’re selling to and who your target
customers are.

Sample answer:

Question 3: What does a typical customer look like?

The goal of this question is to create a detailed picture of your typical customers. The other questions
create an overview in broad brushstrokes, but this question zooms in on individual customers. We’re
zeroing in on a handful of real customers in order to find out what’s important to them.

Sample answer:
Question 4: What do customers love about your product?

In addition to needing to know who your customers are, you also need to know what delights them
about your product. Why did they buy in the first place, and why do they keep coming back?

Prius owners, for example, buy because they’re interested in doing their part to save the environment.
That’s more important to them than how the car looks. So Toyota is smart to play up that angle and not
to focus on how sexy the car is (which is good because Prius’s aren’t the best looking cars on the road).
BMW owners, on the other hand, care less about the size of their carbon footprint and more about their
self image. They want a car that makes them appear successful and elite. Their image is more important
than gas mileage, and that’s why they buy a BMW in the first place.

With both of these examples, the copy needs to focus on what appeals the most to the target customers
and what they love the most about the product. This will be different for every product, even within the
same industry.

So take a minute and reflect on the main reasons people buy your product. What do they love about it?
Once you’ve figured it out, record your answer in the document.

Sample answer:

At this point, you should have a good idea of:

 How to describe your product or service in a simple yet understandable way

 The main features and benefits of your product/service

 The big benefit, i.e. the main selling point(s) of your product/service

 Who your customers are and what matters to them

The notes you’ve taken up to this point will provide a solid foundation for the copy you’ll write.

Write attention-grabbing headlines

Headlines can make or break your copy.

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing for ads, a website redesign, Facebook posts, or landing pages.
Headlines convince readers to click on your article and give your copy a fighting chance.

How do you write attention-grabbing headlines? There are 3 keys to attention-grabbing headlines.

1. Your headlines should be unique

The Internet and advertising world are full of copycats and people who thrive on plagiarizing other
people’s content.

Don’t be one of them.

If you want to stand out from the crowd and sell your products, you need to have unique, attention-
grabbing headlines.
2. Your headlines should be extremely specific

As soon as your audience reads your headline, they should know exactly  what they’ll receive from your
product or service.

Steer clear of generic or ambiguous phrases, and describe what your potential customers will get very
specifically (this is where the elevator pitch comes in handy).

3. Your headline should convey a sense of urgency

You want your audience to think about what they’ll lose if they don’t take immediate advantage of your
product or service.

Are they losing clients? Are they missing out on potential social opportunities? Capitalize on people’s
fears of missing out (FOMO), and your headlines will help your copy convert like crazy.

Write persuasive copy

Copywriting, when compared to other forms of writing, is a different kind of animal.

It’s not necessarily about writing well.

It’s about writing persuasively.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a world-class wordsmith or a literary genius.

If you can’t effectively move readers through the proper sequence of steps and ultimately convince
them to buy, your conversions are going to suffer.

Here are my favorite copywriting tactics for converting traffic into paying customers.

Start with a killer value proposition

Research from Nielsen Norman Group found that you have a very small amount of time to grab a
visitor’s attention before they leave your page.

In fact, you usually have a max of 20 seconds.

Your first order of business is to make it abundantly clear what your value proposition is.

Now, there are several ways to go about this, but I believe in keeping things simple.

Getting too complex tends to dilute the message and confuse prospects.

What I’ve found to be most effective is keeping my value proposition short, sweet, and clear.

Like this:

I think the Moz homepage does a really good job at this as well:
Don’t make them guess what you’re offering.

Let them know in a split second what you are offering with your crystal clear value proposition.

To accomplish this, try to condense the essence of your product down to just a few words.

Swiftly move to the benefits

“What’s in it for me?”

That’s what most visitors are thinking after hearing your value proposition.

But here’s the thing.

Most people have a tendency to emphasize features over benefits.

But it should be the other way around.

Just look at this Venn diagram from ABC Copywriting:

Notice that benefits are valued over features.

Of course, you need to explain how your product works. But you can elaborate on that later.

What you want to do first is explain how the product fulfills a need or desire.

In other words, explain how your customers’ lives will be better after they buy your product.

Here’s a great example from Moz:

See how prospects instantly understand the benefits of using Moz?

It will save them time and make things more efficient.

They also don’t have to worry about deciphering complex data because Moz takes care of this for them.

When it comes to describing benefits, there are three main types to cover:

 Tangible

 Intangible

 Commercial

This illustration from ABC Copywriting explains these various types of benefits in more detail.
As they point out, “Benefits need not be unique, but they must be compelling.”

Keep this in mind when deciding on an angle.

I personally find that it’s best to highlight the benefits before getting down to the nuts and bolts of the
features.

That way prospects should be more receptive and willing to wade through the details.

But if you go the other way around and cover the features before the benefits, you’re probably going to
lose a sizable portion of your leads.

Just sayin’.

Now explain the features

“What’s in the box?”

That’s what Brad Pitt’s character David Mills wanted to know in the closing scene of the movie Seven.
While the contents of the box were quite grisly (his wife’s severed head), this question demonstrates the
importance of promptly telling your leads what they’ll get by making a purchase.

In other words, let them know what’s in the box.

They already know what you’re offering and what the benefits are.

Now it’s time to succinctly break down the features of your product.

Again, I feel like Moz pulls this off flawlessly, so I’ll use this as an example:
I prefer breaking features down into bullet points or concise little sections like Moz does.

“Digestibility” is huge, and you want to present your product’s features in an easy-to-absorb, intuitive
way.

You also want to touch on specifics to distinguish your product from competitors and to add a sense of
value.

Here’s how I did this with Quick Sprout:

Keep it simple, but include a few key details that explain why your product is the bee’s knees.

Strong call to action (CTA)

By now, your prospects should understand what your product is, how it will benefit them, and what the
features are.

Your final task is to tell them what to do next.

In other words, it’s time for your CTA.

You can liken this to battling a boss in the final level of a video game.
It’s arguably the most challenging aspect of the process, but if you’ve done what you were supposed to
do in the previous steps, you should see a reasonable conversion rate.

Once again, simplicity reigns supreme, and I see no reason to complicate your CTA.

Here’s how I approach it on Quick Sprout:

And here’s what it looks like on NeilPatel.com:

Notice that it’s very clear what action I want prospects to complete.

As always, I strongly recommend doing at least some basic A/B testing on your CTA to see what works
best.

Some specific elements to test include:

 button style

 button color

 wording

 positioning

Be hella persuasive

Okay, now we’ve covered the basic structure of well-crafted copywriting.

The general structure of a landing page should be roughly as follows:

 Value proposition

 Benefits

 Features

 CTA

But how do you ensure you’re hitting all the right notes and being highly persuasive?

Obviously, the value proposition and benefits will offer some motivation, but here are some other things
I’ve found to be impactful.

Make your content scannable

I’m not going to launch into a huge sermon about the importance of creating scannable content.

You probably already know people read online content differently than they do offline content.
But if you want to efficiently get prospects from Point A (your value proposition) to Point B (your CTA), it
helps to make everything in-between easily scannable.

Luckily, the formula for scannable content is quite easy.

Just include headers, bullet lists, and a considerable amount of white space along the way.

Apple, being the savvy marketers they are, do this perfectly on their MacBook Pro landing page.

Here are a couple of screenshots:

It’s seamless.

Use persuasive words

An article on Business 2 Community talks about the three different brains we have:

 the new brain

 the middle brain

 the old brain

According to the article,

the old brain is the part that controls decisions, and it also happens to be the most primitive. In this way,
the words you use to market to the old brain will often be the most direct, simple, arresting, visual words
you have.

So if there was ever a copywriting hack, it’s using highly persuasive words that make the “old part of the
brain light up.”

Here’s a list of those words:

And according to research, the five most persuasive words in the English language are the ones in blue,
which are:

 New

 You

 Free

 Because

 Instantly

Peppering these words throughout your copy in key locations should have a noticeable impact on
conversions.
Social proof

This is my last point, and it’s a biggie.

Incorporating social proof into your copy is the icing on the cake.

This was actually one of Robert Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion,

which maintains that people are especially likely to perform certain actions if they can relate to the
people who performed the same actions before them.

I’m not going to go into all the gory details of social proof here.

But I will say that testimonials are usually your best bet, pound for pound.

You can also use things like:

 ratings

 media logos

 subscriber counts

 social connections (your number of followers)

 clients you’ve worked with

Just be practical, and provide whatever type of social proof you think would most persuade your
prospects to take action.

Next Steps

Now that you have the basics read through all of the additional posts below to complete this entire
guide and become a better copywriter in a flash.

Each post stands on its own and can be read separately, but to get the most out of this guide, it’s best to
read through each one in its entirety.

Let’s continue with copywriting research which will help you learn how to better understand your
customers and write more compelling copy, which is up first in our list.

1. Copywriting Research

2. Copywriting Strategies

3. Copywriting Tips from 4 Legendary Books

4. Long vs Short Copy: Which Is Better?

5. Copywriting and Design

6. Copywriting Call to Action

7. Headline Writing 101

 8. The Formula for a Perfect Headline

9. Headline Tips

10. Stop Writing Boring Headlines

11. Headline Trends

12. Copywriting Tweaks

13. Copywriting Testing

Putting It All Together

Once you have read all of the posts above to complete this entire guide you will have learned a LOT
about copywriting.

To help tie everything together, we’d like to provide a checklist you can use for all of your copywriting
projects.

This checklist will help you to remember what we’ve learned and enable you to employ all of the tactics
included in this guide.

Here’s the list:

Start by researching your product and customers to catalogue the benefits and features of your
product and to identify who your customers are.

 How would you describe the product?

 What’s unique/special about this product?

 What big benefit does it provide?

 What pain does it alleviate?

 What features are included, and what are the benefits of each?

 Who currently buys your product?

 Who would you like to buy your product?

 What is a typical customer like?

 What do customers love about your product?

Survey your customers to learn more about them and to find out what words they use to describe
your product or service.

 What’s your job title?

 What company do you work for?

 How would you describe our product to a friend or colleague?

  What questions did you have before buying, i.e. what almost prevented you from making a
purchase?

 What ultimately convinced you to buy this product?

 Which features were the most important to you when deciding whether or not to buy?

 What did you hope to accomplish by using this product?

Write an attention-grabbing headline that converts by employing the four u’s for headline writing.

 Your headline should be unique

 Your headline should be ultra-specific

 Your headline should convey a sense of urgency

 Your headline should be useful

Use the four persuasion techniques of professional copywriters.

 Emphasize benefits over features

 Be as specific as possible

 Target emotions

 Leverage testimonials

Make sure your copy isn’t focused on you and follow six more tips for better writing.

 Write conversationally

 Create a slippery slide

 Write quickly

 Use simple language

 Use short paragraphs

 Always get your copy edited

Follow five more secrets for powerful copy that convinces customers to buy.

 Make people feel like they belong

 Create a feeling of exclusivity

 Prove the value of your product

 Establish yourself as an authority

 Provide “reasons why”

Close the deal with your copy by using the following four tips.
  Use calls to action

 Create a sense of urgency

 Make a compelling offer

 Provide a guarantee

Know when to use long and short copy by following the rules below.

 Write as much as you need to write but no more

 Use long copy to answer more objections

 Remember that sometimes short copy is better

 Keep in mind that people read things that are interesting to them

Learn how to use design and copy to get optimum results.

 Use design to set the stage for your offer

 Remember that the point of your copy is to get read

 Use high contrast for fonts and backgrounds

 Make sure the font doesn’t blend into a background image

 Use graphic elements to draw readers’ attention to headlines and copy

 Employ reverse type sparingly

Finally, you need to test, test, and test some more to make sure your copy resonates with customers
and convinces them to take action. Four test options are listed below.

 Subject lines

 Designs and layouts

 Concepts

 Offers

That ends up being quite a list. We hope that reading this guide will empower you to write copy that
grows your business and increases response rates and conversions.