Copywriter: New Ideas

The way people perceive adverts and sales pages change and this can be a problem for the copywriter. New prospects may accept your copy and become convinced your product is the one for them. However, readers who have been around longer will read it and say to themselves, I have seen this all before. "tell me something new."

It is therefore your mission; should you choose to accept it, to use new language in your copy to persuade readers that your product will do what you say it will. You will need to gain the trust of the prospect because they know you are trying to sell them something as you are a copywriter. New ways of catching the reader's attention and using original copy is our biggest challenge today.

If you picked out 100 sales pages on the internet today and scanned them for duplicate content you would probably find the same words make up about 80% or more of the copy on all of them. The late Eric Morecambe once said to Andre Previn when he was slated for playing the wrong notes for a piece on the piano, "I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order." I think this is what has happened to our sales pages and adverts. There are so many advertisements out there that, for the most part , the same language is being used but in a different order.

There is no better place to than checking out the your adverts and sales pages of similar products if there is any. Take note of what they are saying and how they are saying it. Now get your thinking cap on and brain storm some ideas on how to make your ad better? How can you make your sales page stand out from the opposition's run of the mill sales pages? What can you offer that they have not? This is what you need to think about as a copywriter. New and exciting ideas on your sales page will blow any mediochre opposition out of the water.

Telling a story is the tried an tested way of selling and it works to an extent as it keeps the reader interested. We could however modify this and maybe tell a joke with the punchline coming at the end. As long as the joke fits in with what you are selling. Even better, telling your reader you heard a really funny story the other day which you will share with them but first you want to tell you about this super product. Here's an example of one you could use for promoting weight related products.

A young man took a girl out on a first date to the fair ground. He bought her a toffee apple and after eating it she asked to be weighed. He took her to the stall where a man guessed her weight correctly and they carried on. One hour later she asked for a hot dog and after eating this she said she really wants to get weighed. The young man (getting fed up with this) agreed but insisted they should go home after this as he was tired. He drove her home to her parent's house. Her parents answered the door and asked how the evening went. She answered "It was wousy."

Using personal experiences, whether they are funny or amazing stories, is an excellent way of building trust with the reader. Even if the story makes you look a fool the reader will respect your honesty. Again, it has to be pertinent to the product you are selling.

Do the other sales pages or ads answer all the questions that the prospect will have. Moreover, does their copy generate trust : would you buy the product of them? If not, then the door is open for you to write a sales page that answers all their questions. You could ask them to email you with any further questions. Better still, ask them to phone you, how cool would that be? All this will add to the image you are trying to portray and eliminate any obstacles your reader may have about purchasing your product.

I'm sure you can come up with a many more new ideas of your own but the key point is, we cannot stand still. we must move onwards and upwards as they say. For today's copywriter, new ideas are will make your copy stand out from the rest and this is what copywriting is all about.