Whenever you write advertising copy, you should be taking your prospect on a journey.
Right now they’re at point A. You want to get them to point B.
So before you do anything – and I grant you this seems obvious, but coming to writing copy for the first time a LOT of people seem to forget it – make sure you know what point B is.
What action do you want them to take? And I don’t mean eventually… I mean right now, directly as a result of reading your copy.
On a sales page, this is going to be about getting a sale.
On an e-mail, it’s all about the click.
On a squeeze page, you want them to opt-in.
On a direct mail package, you may want to get a sale but you might just want a response you can follow up later with a phone call or brochure.
(By the way, don’t be fooled by my frivolous use of the word ‘just’ there. Getting that response can be hard.)
Once you know what you’re doing, don’t deviate from it. Don’t play for the second prize, play to WIN. Focus all your resources on getting the response you’re after. If you want to have a downsell, fine – but don’t spend copy selling the reduced option if it doesn’t make your preferred option sound ten times better.
Of course, this is just the destination. For the JOURNEY you need to know a bit about point A as well.
That’s harder, and that’s a post for another day.
