How to Write Ads That Sell – Part I

Here are some tips and ad writing techniques to help those of you who plan on selling products with your blog. If you’re getting into Affiliate Marketing you may have to write your own ads. Ad writing is also helpful for anyone with a blog. If you want to make money online or you have a blog with ads you’ll need to sell ads in your posts from time to time. Even if you don’t sell a product or ads, you will want to drive traffic to your blog from another site (either from a social networking site or from another blog). In other words, you will have to “sell your blog”. Knowing the basics of ad writing can be a big help for anyone with a blog or a business.

I’ve had some experience writing ad copy for other companies as well as for my own retail business so I know that most advertisers use a formula for ad copy writing. Formulas are great because they take some of the guesswork out of writing. The best formula for ad writing is to ask yourself some questions and answer them for the customer. I’ll explain a good formula for ad writing in the next post but first we need to understand human behavior. I’m into studying human behavior and psychology so this is the part I like most about writing ads.

Appeal to the Customer’s Emotions

Good ads should appeal to the reader’s emotions. All humans are driven by the same basic needs… but they will vary a little from one country/culture to another.  We choose a product or service because of how it makes us feel… or how we think we will feel when we buy the product/service. Basically, people want to feel rich, powerful, successful, loved, safe, healthy, beautiful and happy. (Our most primal needs are for food, shelter, clothing and comfort.) Any product or service you sell will have to draw on one or more of a person’s basic emotions for it to sell, otherwise there would be no reason for anyone to want it.  For an ad to be effective, you must first decide which emotion it is that you are selling. (For more on Emotional Motivators)

For instance, if I’m selling a teeth whitening product then I know it will appeal to a person’s need to feel beautiful and healthy. Whiter teeth will not make you healthy but it does make a person feel healthy. If my teeth whitener has calcium in it, I would be sure to use the health motivator in my copy along with beauty. These are the two main emotions I would appeal to in my advertisement.

Images Can Help Your Customer Feel an Emotion

An image can go a long way in conveying the emotion you want your readers to feel. (Just make sure you’re completely aware of what feeling the image could conveys.) With my teeth whitening product, I could even add the need to feel happy and loved by putting a picture of a beautiful woman in the arms of a handsome man (both smiling with very white teeth, of course! lol) Taking it even further, I could choose an image where they look successful and rich too. So in that one ad, I could possibly hit 6 different emotions at once. 

It may sound tricky and a little corney when written out like this but we all buy products because of our emotions whether we realize it or not. As an ad writer you need to identify which emotion(s) your product appeals to and use that emotion to sell your product. 

Appealing to the Need to Save Money

You should also know that everyone wants to save money because that goes hand in hand with feeling rich, powerful and successful. Don’t ever think that saving money only motivates people who don’t have enough money. That is not true. No one wants to buy something for more than it is worth. When writing ad copy you want your readers to feel that they need your product/service but you also want them to feel that they’re getting a good deal. If you don’t address both feelings in your ad they could decide to buy the product, but leave your ad and start comparing prices. Even if your price is better, they might not come back. So always let the reader know they are getting a deal when they buy your product.

In my next post (or 2) I will bring it all together and let you know of a good formula that makes almost makes ad writing a no-brainer! (I said ALMOST… sorry, you will have to use your brains!)