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Copy Tip 33: AIDA Formula
Just in case you’re wondering, I’m not talking about Verdi’s opera “Aida” here!
Although, I’d say there is a connection … like the four Acts in Aida, your copy also is a “performance” that captures the attention of your audience and draws a response.
No, the AIDA I’m referring to here is the “ever-popular advertising formula” — as described by copywriting giant Brian Keith Voiles.
This is a formula for writing copy that helps everything flow together.
In this case, AIDA is probably one of the most recognised formulas (although there are others, and I have another I generally follow instead of AIDA, which I’ll reveal soon. It’s still worthwhile knowing what AIDA is all about).
AIDA stands for …
- (A) Attention — getting the attention of your prospects
- (I) Interest — arousing their interest in your solution
- (D) Desire — intensifying the desire for your solution; and
- (A) Action — getting the prospect to take action.
In this simple form, you’d have to quite liberally interepret each step to include other essential elements that you should include in your copy.
As we’ve seen in earlier tips, people buy from people they know, like and trust — so you would include credibility elements in your copy to address this behaviour. You’d also very strongly back up any claims you make with proof they’re true. You’d also want to include scarcity elements, as we discussed with the ERBN and LRBN buying reasons — to give your prospect reasons to buy now.
Actually, Brian Keith Voiles uses an expanded version of AIDA that does this, and he calls it AICPBSAWN!
(That’s Attention, Interest, Credibility, Prove, Benefits, Scarcity, Action, Warning, NOW!).
The warning is part of Brian’s formula to make sure you let your prospect know what happens if they do NOT take action … what they’ll miss out on, the pain of not buying your solution, how remaining at the status quo is a painful choice.
And as part of your Offer, you should also ensure a strong risk-reversal guarantee is part of your copy.
Whatever you call it, it is the flow of copy that is persuasive in getting your propsect to take action towards your objective (from the MOOVE marketing formula).
Okay, so there’s a formula I can follow … how do I do that?
One great way to see this “flow” in action is to study a great sales letter or ad you find, and “pull it apart”.
Find each of the elements within it … Attention, Interest etc … see how much of that is used and how it flows through the piece you’ve selected.
Look at how benefits are included — using bullets, sub-headlines, and other graphics to convey the message. Find the difference between features, benefits, and the emotions met by the benefits. What is the main pitch, what’s the offer? Is it guaranteed? Is scarcity used? Proof? Credibility? Differentiation from competitors?
Sometimes, in ads or letters with less copy, these elements might not be so obviously separated: several may be used together in a section of copy.
When you’ve done this, you’ll see the elements in action — and you now have a “recipe” at your fingertips to follow yourself.
All good copy should include this …
Regardless of the length of the copy used (a future Copy Tip topic!), effective copy includes the essential elements, at a minimum having an attention-grabbing headline, an irresistible offer and a call to action with a reason to buy now. The offer is backed by proof, credibility, scarcity and a guarantee.
Next up, I’ll tell you about another copy formula — one that I follow — that’s a little different from AIDA.
Copy Tip 32: Awww Shucks (And Thanks!)
Well I had the awesome news today that one of my blog posts was the winner of a Grand Prize by none other than US copywriting legend Clayton Makepeace!
Have you heard the saying by Sir Isaac Newton that “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”? Well, in business, marketing and copywriting, Clayton Makepeace is that giant (and you’ll get a great view if he’s out on the road on his Harley!)
First I want to say thanks to Clayton, Wendy and everyone at The Total Package (from the amazing expert contributors to the brilliant support team like Martha) … TTP really is a must-have, must-read daily resource for every business owner, marketer and entrepreneur.
So it was well worth sharing this on my blog even just as we were about to sit down to our family Christmas lunch!
There were six Grand Prize winners in all — two for blog/forum posts, two for emails and two for YouTube videos, and there is, of course, a big lesson in just observing what Clayton does.
Congrats to all the winners, and all the loyal TTP readers who helped spread the word about Clayton’s wonderful resource. It was especially exciting to see fellow Copywriting Board contributor Mike Humphreys win in the email section (fantastic persuasive email), jump over to the Copywriting Board to see this post and the winning links.
So my Copy Tip today …
Yes, after my excitement … there is a Copy Tip here to share!
Leverage
Firstly, it’s a reminder: it’s a great idea to leverage the knowledge and skills of others in your field to continue to improve your own skill base and knowledge. For me, a resource like TTP is the perfect way to do this — and that’s why it’s my home page.
Best of all, implement what you learn!
Find What Works
The second part of the tip is to always keep your eyes open — look at what you see in terms of finding ways to make it work for your own business or project.
I’ve heard marketing masters like Mal Emery, Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy lament business owners who complain “but that wouldn’t work for me”, or “that won’t work in my business.”
Having a closed mind keeps you closed off for innovation and growth… having your eyes open, and an open mind as to how you can borrow and adapt concepts yourself, will find you be on the best path to success.
For example, you might be at a seminar and listening to a speaker. You can do this on two levels: firstly, to listen to and learn from the speaker’s content. But on a second level you can borrow the formula and use the speaker’s approach to be a speaker in your own business or industry — leveraging what’s working, keeping your mind open for new opportunities.
It’s great advice I’ve heard from the masters on this issue and I’m glad I follow what they recommend!
Copy Tip 31: Opening Formulas
This is where I love the nature of the internet to be able to share resources without having to re-hash the same content for you!
On one of my favourite free online business resource sites that I revealed in Copy Tip 16, Daniel Levis recently posted two articles on riveting opening body copy:
- 5 Proven Ways To Get Started; and the sequel,
- 5 More Proven Ways To Nail Those All-Important First Few Paragraphs.
The ten strategies that Daniel covers are:
- You Have a Choice — a choice between staying where you are (the status quo), or taking action and getting successful results;
- The Genie Within You — unlocking knowledge you already possess (the product will reveal how to do that);
- Do You Know This? — If you don’t know the answers to these questions that you should know, you won’t get the results you’re after … the product will provide the answers;
- Winners and Losers — and the difference between the two is owning your product!;
- Let Me Tell You The Story — a concept we’ve covered in our Copy Tips — the power of story telling to get your readers into your copy
- Opening with a Damaging Admission — again, another concept we’ve covered — grab attention and trust by admitting something your reader wouldn’t expect you to say — great for believability;
- The If/Then Opening — I love using this one — qualifying with the “if” section, and agitating a problem (“if you’re sick and tired of __________, then _____________”) — and the “then” section promises a strong benefit / the outcome your prospect is looking for (by reading your copy);
- Make A Prediction — as Daniel says, ” by taking a topical happening, making a prediction about how it will play out, and relating that outcome to your reader”
- Emotional Release opening — identify the main problem your reader needs solving and really agitate what that problem is doing to their life. You’re showing a lot of empathy for their situation, and this helps to get them hooked on your copy;
- Will You Do Me A Favour? Opening — As Daniel points out, I’ve seen this many times in Robert Collier examples — this is very much connected to the “puppy dog close”: take the puppy home for a week to “try it out”, and if you don’t like it, just bring it back. But how could you resist doing that?! There’s a strong element of reciprocity in here too — helping to get readers to comply to future requests you make of them, because you’re giving them something now of value (and they feel obliged later to return the favour).
You should read Daniel’s two articles, as he goes into some great detail and examples about each of these opening formulas.
Sharing Resources — Dangerous?
So for me to point out someone else’s expert published content, I’m using the power of leverage … referencing and using “other people’s content” to help demonstrate valuable information I want to get across to you.
You may be thinking to yourself though why I’d do this? Wouldn’t I be better off writing it up myself and not “exposing” my sources? Doesn’t that mean you’d then just go to the source and have no need to come to this site?
Couldn’t you just bypass my content?
When you look at what’s going on, I don’t think that’s how most people will approach it.
Instead, there’s another thought process that takes place: “Hey, Dean shares with me some great free resources, I’ll keep a tab on what he says to see what else he’ll share with me.”
Or something like that!
The benefit of leverage for me is not having to re-create something that’s already been well said — and for you the advantage is more the time saving in tracking down the “good stuff”.
For me, this is part of my day-to-day life. My resources and references are quite varied and I really get immersed in this kind of content.
You might not spend anywhere near that time — for good reasons — doing the same thing.
Also, pointing out one of my resources still implies — which is completely true — that there are lots of other useful resources I’d probably know of, use and learn from too in my professional life.
You’d be right if you made that assumption. My knowledge has come from dozens and dozens of sources over a VERY long time — I was earning money before I was even old enough to go to school!
I’m also happy enough to admit that I’m a constant student — studying marketing, psychology, persuasion, story telling, copywriting, professional sales and presentation, design and usability … topics I love!
So if you didn’t keep on following the tips, then you’d likely miss out on these other resources, as well as other lessons of my own to share and tips and advice I’ve put to good use on dozens and probably hundreds of client marketing, copywriting and public relations projects over many years.
That means to me that there’s really no danger here in sharing my resources with you … it helps me build my relationship with you, and you see that I can add value to your business, mixing in my own content with some valuable resources I’ve previously identified, evaluated and thought to be worthwhile.
Copy Tip 30: Bringing Copy To Life
Before I reveal several formulas for “openings” in your copy — I want to expand a bit on copy and rapport and bringing your copy alive on paper.
Now, in print, you can use formatting, images and graphics to help persuade — carefully selected graphics and images designed to build rapport.
Yesterday’s tip mentioned 4 ways to build rapport on paper …
- Language
- Match and Mirror
- Stuff in common
- Engage all of the human senses
Using headings, icons, images, hand-written notes, graphs, photographs … all of these elements help engage more senses, especially visual senses, to convey meaning about what you’re trying to say.
For example, if you’re an accountant, and relating to accountants, you can use a photo of you in your accountant branding to help build empathy and rapport.
Or — if I was talking about apples, you might have one of several images in mind … any of these could be in your mind — the company called Apple, a red apple, a green apple, or even just the word apple, not in pictures but just in lettering …
So the image someone may think of may not match what you intended — that’s where a photograph or image helps keep your reader in tune with your message … helping to bring your copy alive.
There are other advantages of images, but that’s for a later post!
Using headings, hand-written graphics, CAPITALS and other formatting emphasis also can help deliver a more effective message.
Or quite often, as I see in charity direct mail, the photographs used in the mailing really help reinforce the main message … helping put you in the picture to see, hear, feel and experience what’s being explained … and to help increase the effectiveness of the message.
Better still, once you get online, you also have video and audio to help convey emotion, to help deliver an effective message.
We’ll spend quite a bit of time covering formatting in your copy — but for now just consider that it’s not just the words themselves in your copy and can build rapport, create empathy and achieve other important results for you.