Rule 1. If there is one directive that is most important, it’s this: KEEP IT SIMPLE. Imagine every headline you write is a billboard on a highway. When it comes to words, less is almost always more. Use only as many words as it takes to make your point. Not one word more, but not one word less, either.
Rule 2. There is room for just one good idea in each effective ad. Often, the client will want to insert every piece of information imaginable about the product. Consequently, there’s so much to focus on that the reader doesn’t focus on anything—the copy becomes a haze of multiple points, none of which can be emphasized because there is no room to do so, either on paper or in the reader’s mind. Stavros Cosmopulos, founder of several major advertising agencies and a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame, has a demonstration he does regularly. He prepares a wooden board by pounding several dozen nails into it; then, he takes a second board and pounds in a single nail. He picks up a sheet of foam core and slams it on top of the first board. None of the nails penetrate the foam core. He picks up the foam core and slams it on top of the second board. The single nail penetrates easily. He relates the single nail to a single advertising idea that penetrates more easily when it is all by itself.
Rule 3. The headline must involve the reader and pull him/her into the ad in some way. The cleverest headline will not work if it is irrelevant to the reader.
Rule 4. Think of the copy that you’re writing for your ad as a conversation on paper. If the words you are writing are words you wouldn’t say out loud, don’t write them. For example, “We at … (insert client’s name here)” is probably not the way you would introduce the name of your client in conversation. Don’t write it on paper.
Rule 5. Use active verbs not passive ones. “You will be pleased” doesn’t please anybody.
Rule 6. Avoid “invisible words“—trite, overused adjectives that no longer carry much meaning—amazing, incredible, revolutionary, extraordinary, special, etc. If you need to communicate these ideas, find fresh ways and words to do it.
Rule 7. When you introduce the name of the product or service in the copy for the first time, use the complete product name. In subsequent mentions, shorten it to the brand, or to “we.”
Rule 8. Since an ad is a conversation on paper, use the first person to talk about your product, and the second person to talk to your reader. Try to avoid the third person. There are clients who like to speak about themselves in the third person. Third-person communication only distances them, and you, from the reader and potential purchaser.
Rule 9. Body copy is a form of sales shorthand. Edit, edit, edit. If you can use a sentence fragment (a phrase missing either the subject or verb that would complete it as a sentence) in place of a sentence, do. Try stringing fragments together, concentrating the copy points. Often, connectives, subjects, verbs, etc., can work against you, diluting your ideas. Here’s a case where more is really less.
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