Follow the advice of the world’s great advertising copywriters and watch your sales soar!

1. Target Only Those Who Can And Will Respond

Concentrate on those who can and will respond to your offer. Know your audience and write directly to them. Make your offer as appealing and persuasive for those people as you possibly can.

2. Write To Sell Not To Impress

The point of your advertising copy is to increase sales and profits not to make people gasp in astonishment at your cleverness.

3. Sell One Thing At A Time

Offer just one product, one service or one idea.

4. Tell Your Customer What To Do

Tell your customer to buy now and then lead them through the buying process.

5. Provide Compelling Reasons

Your copy must provide compelling reasons why your product is better than any others, why prospects should believe what you say is true and why they should act immediately.

6. Perfect Your Headline

The most crucial part of the advertisement is the headline… it’s the hook that captures your customer’s attention and motivates him or her to continue reading. It’s the first step you take in persuading anyone to buy your product or service.

7. Make It Easy To Understand

Keep your customer in mind when you write your advertising copy. Always make it personal: use the word ‘you’ throughout to emphasise the point that you are addressing the reader directly.

8. Don’t Bury The Treasure

If you have a great offer, reveal it (or at least make mention of it) at the beginning… don’t be too coy and make your reader wait until the end to discover your great offer because they may not bother reading that far and you’ve lost an opportunity for a sale.

9. Write Like A Thriller Writer

Keep your words, your sentences and your paragraphs short. It makes it easier for your reader to understand what you are saying and retains their interest.

10. The Most Powerful Word Is ‘Free’

The word ‘free’ is still the most powerful word that you can use in advertising.

Everybody wants to get something for free. Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioural economics at Duke University discovered the word ‘free’ acts like a drug for many people. In his book, Predictably Irrational, Professor Ariely says, ‘It’s no secret that getting something free feels very good. Zero is an emotional hot button — a source of irrational excitement.’

Robert Bly, one of the top copywriters in America, says other powerful words or phrases include: ‘how to’, ‘why’, ‘sale’, ‘quick’, ‘easy’, ‘bargain’, ‘last chance’, ‘guarantee’, ‘results’, ‘proven’, and ‘save’. Don’t be put off using them just because they are so frequently used, he says, adding that they are used because they are so powerful. ‘Grade your performance as a copywriter on sales generated by your copy, not on originality.’