The 3 golden rules of writing kick-ass ad copy

Whether you’re an entrepreneur trying to showcase your brand or a budding copywriter trying to impress a client, you know the importance of ad copy that grabs eyeballs. A sales-oriented ad copy can put you or your product on the path to success. Irrespective of the medium, an ad is a powerful marketing tool that can make or break a product. You might feel that writing ad copies is hard, but neither is it rocket science nor do you have to be a Ninja Warrior to get it right.

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Unlike over-the-top, hard-sell sales letters, writing an ad copy needs more than just swanky words and an extravagant design. It doesn’t need to be set in bold typeface or capitalisations to stand out. A great ad copy conveys the message to its audience spot on, which is its primary purpose. Keep these golden rules in mind when you sit down to write your next ad copy.

Exploit the product’s benefits and address the ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ aspect

What is the value of the product you’re writing about to the customer? What can it do to improve your customers’ lives? Understand the benefits of the product and put into words why it is the best solution for your target audience, even better than the competitor’s product. Only when you understand the product in and out will you be able to relay the message through your ad copy and ensure that your audience can relate to it. For communicating your customer’s what’s-in-it-for-me question, include anything that makes them feel better and helps them save money or time. Describe how your product affects them directly.

Make use of the competitor’s weaknesses

To write compelling ad copy, you should know what sets your product apart from that of your competitors. When you know their weaknesses, you should ensure that your target audience, too, knows and understands them. Wondering how you can do that? Research about your competitors and their offerings, and list out what makes them inferior compared to your product. As long as the comparison is realistic, you can tear your competition apart. But be ready to support your claims should they be challenged.

Know your audience and medium

Besides knowing your target audience, knowing the medium you’re writing the ad copy for is important as well. Every medium requires a different style and tone. To persuade your audience to act, you’ll have to make different ad copy for different media, whether it is a local newspaper, a magazine, a billboard or a website. Your ad copy should also differ for different marketing pieces. The bottom line is that a particular audience of a specific medium must understand your marketing message.

Don’t worry about taking calculated risks. If you’ve done your research properly and apply these rules to your copywriting, you can create ad copies that convert. Are you ready to write a kick-ass ad copy?