5 Immortal Ideas from Dead Copywriters
The art of advertising has been around throughout history; in fact, it is one of the oldest crafts ever invented that’s still very much alive and kicking. It may have undergone various facelifts through changing trends and advancing technologies, but its core foundations remain the same. And yes, if you are to compare copywriting agencies in Singapore, you will realize that they move around practically the same marketing concepts.
If you are to check out a copywriting agency, in Singapore or elsewhere, you will see that they have high regard for history. This is because by revisiting the past, they learn trends that worked in terms of convincing people to take a certain action–and these are helpful in understanding how audiences think, act, react, and be persuaded at present.
Also, there are advertising geniuses who have made their mark in history, and their ideas are likewise worth using today. These include:
- Creating an effect on your reader.
One of the most important aspects of copywriting is how you create a specific effect on your audience. Do you want them to feel an urge to buy your product because it is a necessity, or do you want them to be prodded by emotions such as sympathy to convince them to shell out money? For Robert Collier, knowing what effect you want to place on your readers is a key ingredient to making them follow your instructions.
This is because when you are able to set your desired reaction to your audience, the more in control you become of the situation. It would then be easier for you to convince them to vote for you if you are a politician running for office, or to donate to a charity, or for them to buy tickets to a concert of a band they initially don’t like.
- Target one specific desire.
We all have our desires, but there is always one that’s truly overwhelming once we achieve it. Eugene Schwartz, in his successful career as a copywriter, made use of this. He even inspired many other successful businesses by showing them the art of amplifying a person’s burning desire.
When writing a sales copy, you should not only decide on the effect you want to put on your reader; you must also unleash your readers’ desire towards achieving something, and convince them that the only way to get whatever it is they are aspiring for is through your offer.
- How do you use your product?
Another copywriting guru back in the day was Victor Schwab, who has been regarded to be the “greatest mail-order copywriter of all time.” His approach towards copywriting was scientific; he invested on heavy researched and monitored results. He also tested different technical attributes of his sales copies, from headlines, appeals, layouts, copy lengths, and as well as the calls to action that he used.
- Tease your readers.
A lot of today’s article headlines are clickbait: they arouse reader curiosity and interest to the point that audiences click to read the rest of the content. Teasing audiences isn’t new, and this has been going on for ages, and was pioneered by Jon Caples.
Caples believed that people desire to look cool, and that they wanted to belong to the “it” crowd, so he wrote headlines that teased them with regards to achieving their desires. But unlike today’s clickbait articles, he also infused his sales copies with facts, graphical representations, and specific pitches that make them convincing in the eyes of his readers.
- Relate to your audience.
We have our insecurities that we want to overcome. We indeed find ways to address these, but deep inside want to be understood by someone who can relate to our issues. Maxwell Sackheim saw through this human flaw, and he used this by writing ad copies that made the advertiser look like they understand and relate to the plight of their readers.
Hence, when writing sales copies, you should be able to create a connection to your audience by relating to their issues and insecurities. By showing them that you too have gone through the same struggle and that you can help them overcome them the way you did, the more they are inclined to follow you.