4 copywriting formulas
“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”
Leo Burnett
As I said in the article I wrote last night about copywriting techniques and because I felt inspired, I continued with this article sharing some formulas of copywriting. Some of them were also presented by Cătălin in his course. Some of them can be used in training and I found it fantastic that they can be used in creative writing as well.
The first one, maybe you have met it in training:
AIDA
Attention - or brand awareness - here you need to do a little research to know what message you want to convey and to whom (marketing persona). This is Google's organic area for your website and social media;
Interest - here, if you have the attention of the reader you need to keep its interest. You can do this through storytelling or other methods so that they know they have a need and should look for solutions;
Desire - this is the area where you show your clients how your product/article can help them;
Action - is the moment when you come with a call to action: to buy, to come, to read, to share, to like, to follow.
AIDA is often used in marketing, especially in the quite known marketing funnel. It can be used in all kinds of digital and print materials such as website pages, emails, paid posts, even on radio and TV. Elias St. Elmo Lewis wrote about the 3 principles of advertising he found useful in his career, anonymously in a newspaper article.
The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.
In 1898 the concept of AIDA was recognized by offering to Elias a place in the Advertising Hall of Fame. The article on this subject appeared in Inland Printer - one of the most fashionable magazines in the 19th century and where all successful advertisements should use a certain formula - and this is how AIDA was born.
1-2-3-4
What do I have for you? article, blog, service, product
What will he do for you? benefits
Who am I? Why should readers trust you
What do you need to do? A clear call to action and to tell the reader/client what you want to do.
A FOREST
A Forest - is a mnemonic formula to keep in mind the key components of a success story when it comes to a selling item.
Alliteration - a nice word game with a positive effect.
Facts - Clear data can help readers rationalize an emotional decision.
Opinions - comments, readers' opinions or reviews can convince potential customers.
Repetition - repeats key benefits to define the decision.
Examples - tell stories and solve problems to which the reader can connect.
Statistics - Be specific. For example, a clear number is much better than an approximation: 24 versus tens.
Three - repeating something 3 times makes it memorable.
So what?
I loved this! I found it in an article some time ago, and the writer took it from the book called "The Art of Starting Anything, Anytime" by Guy Kawasaki. It uses the question for entrepreneurs presenting their business to investors, but it is a great way to use it to check the effectiveness of a text. This is coaching for writers :).
Example: Whenever you say something, ask yourself the question, "So what?" The answer shoes most often the most important benefits your readers want to know.
I will post the Toastmasters tag as well because these formulas can be used just fine in making beautiful articles, texts for commercials, or developing an impacting speech for those who listen to you.
I often get the question from the mentee - where do I start or I don't know how to arrange my ideas - so with this article, I will answer two questions in one.
Please let me know in your comments what is your experience with copywriting? Mention a memorable commercial text or social media post that made you say ”wow” :).
