Write Effective Free Advertising for Your Online Business Branding Part Two

From my previous post “Write Effective Free Advertising for Your Online Business”. We talked about the importance of the subject line and how it hooks the reader to your ad copy/ad body of your advertising; it's amazing what works and what doesn't work.

If you're an accountant, lawyer, or business consultant with a marketing program, you don't have to know how to write an ad, but you should know some things about how to produce exciting ad copy. You should know also that what you think works, may not.

While a great deal is known about what works in ad copy, there’s even more we don’t know. What makes it difficult for new ad copy writers is that what you may judge to be great copy because of the poetry, imagery, sound, and lyricism, may be lousy for accomplishing the mission of the ad. “But have no fear your ad copy lesson is here.”

When the advertising expert, David Ogilvy, was told that copy should be short and terse, because nobody reads more than a few words of an ad, he wrote the classic, "At 60 miles and hour the only sound you hear is the clock." It was a full page of text, describing the features of the Rolls Royce. It sold a lot of cars. Now I want you to really think about how these twelve words attracted the reader/consumer.

Now take a look at very short one liner’s the really attracted million of readers and listeners. “Where is the Beef”, “Got Milk”, or even “The Other White Meat”, you all should know the companies and organization that branded these short lines. These very attractive words triggered and branded your mind to them. The same goes for creating good ad copy.

But in an imitative world, a great many ad people imitated not the selling aspects of the ad, but its length. We were then treated to a bunch of long text ads, most of which sold nothing. Some ad people simply didn't get it. The good news is you do and will write great ad copy.

Perhaps the hardest thing for people who are not marketers to understand is that the process is a function of imagination. All of which are what we usually mean when we use the word "creative." There are rules, and these rules are always made to be broken. Like the best abstract artists, who know better how to abstract because they are fine realistic artists, it's likely that those who know the rules best are those who break the rules best. So as you begin writing ad copy do something different, the sky is the limit, and breaks the rules.

Some Simple Suggestions for Writing Ad Copy

1. Sentences should not be longer than seven words,
2. The number of sentences should be no longer than seven.
3. Make sure to place a space between the sentences.
4. I use an ellipsis at the end of my sentences (What is next…) these three dots provides for continuous thought. The reader is going to go to the next line to see what is…
5. Next…
6. Single line ad copy can be just as powerful as using the above rule of sevens.

Now we have covered the basics. Let me use the previous example from “Write Effective Free Advertising for Your Online Business” blog post.

Subject/Headline: You've Never Seen This Before…

Ad Copy/Ad Body: Or you'd be DOING IT!

And you wouldn't be wasting your time...

Posting your BRAINS OUT here in the free ads!

Let us help you escape this mess!

http://www.WorldWideWealthBuilders.com

First the subject/headline is invoking interest and the power line in the ad body is “Or you’d be DOING IT” invites the mind eye to see what else the message has in it. It invokes emotion, mystery, and you want to see what’s next. The credit for this ad goes to Digital Don Hill. He really makes the mind engage with this ad.

Now lets look at a brilliant one line ad copy to get your mind thinking and unleash your creativity:

Subject/Headline: Your Secret To Internet Success Are Waiting

Ad Copy/Ad Body: Along With The Tools You Needed… http://www.BerryCritter.com

Now take a look at the headline, do you see two very powerful words? They both stand out. “Secret” and “Success” if you really study advertising you will find that these two words are in the top 10 of words to attract and evoke emotion. Again they trigger the minds eye. Now to the Ad Copy; “Along With The Tools You Needed” this connects to both Secret and Success. Your question is how these words connect to each other. Just think about it. “Secret”, you really want to know the secret. “Success” you need tools and help so you can be successful so the line “Tools You Needed” is the hook or the lock to getting the reader to respond by clicking on the url. I give the credit for this ad to Stephanie “Wavecriter” Haile. Stephanie one line ad is powerful and grabs attention and really attracts the reader by offering a solution to there need. To be frank, I really think one liner’s in free classified adverting campaigns produce results. They are simple, easy and really fun to create.

Now I will let you mind absorb this material and in my next post I will go in depth on your objectives and the elements of Writing Effective Free Advertising.