Ways To Improve Your Ad Copy

I look at a lot of websites over the course of a week.

A few very good ones, a lot of that are simple okay and far too many that are completely ineffective.

One of the bigger problems I see involves the ad copy of the sites.

"Ad copy" or "sales copy" being the actual text of the site which is trying to make you receptive to whatever the site is offering.

The Art Of Good Ad Copy

Good ad copy is worth its weight in gold.

It can literally make a website's profits soar through the roof if done effectively.

There has been quite a bit written over the years about effective ad copy but I can save you some time. I'll cover some of the essential things to do and avoid in some upcoming articles.

A Golden Rule Of Ad Copy

This one is pretty basic, yet it gets overlooked far too often.

It is the concept of "selling the benefits not the features".

Focus on telling your visitors how much they will benefit from buying your product or service. Don't simply rattle of feature after feature.

Even if you are familiar with the concept, you could do yourself a favor by taken another look at your own website. See if you are applying this rule.

It can make a dramatic difference as to how your effective your site is.

What Does It Matter?

Think of the benefits versus features concept this way:

When you are writing about features, the people reading it are being expected to absorb facts.

When you focus on benefits however, your site visitors are likely to relate on a more emotional and personal level. The facts are translated into things that they can see themselves benefitting from. This is much more powerful.

If you happen to have a list of features already in place, here is an easy way to work the ad copy better. Simply fill in the blank:

You will benefit from FEATURE A by: ..........

Once you have filled in the blank, get rid of everything but what you filled in and then rework it into a nice benefit laden sentence.

Classic Example

There is a classic sales marketing story which is good to keep in mind.

It involves a salesman trying to sell a heating system to an elderly lady. The salesman goes into a long sales pitch. He told her how many BTU's it had, the warranty, quality of construction...

Finally the lady interrupts him.

She wants to know only one thing.

"Will it keep an old lady warm?". None of the features mattered to her. She wanted to know if she could benefit from it.

Some examples

Sometimes it is just a matter of elaborating and reworking the ad copy you already have.

"Soft supple leather couch" becomes "Enjoy complete relaxation as you rest on this soft supple leather couch"

"Double paned, insulated windows" becomes "Save money on your heating bill every month with these double paned, insulated windows"

"Free shipping" becomes "Save money with free shipping"

What's In It For Me?

Good Ad Copy Can Convince Them

The most important question you can answer for someone coming to your site is "What's in it for me?" (WIIFM).

You can state facts and figures all day long on your site. Until you start wording your sales copy correctly, the message isn't getting through that you are talking to THEM. When you start writing telling them how they will personally benefit, then you have their attention.

Too many sites over look this critical element. You want to change someone's thinking from "This sure has a lot of features" to "I could really benefit from all of the things this web site provides me".

Applying This To Your Site

• Print out some of the sales copy of your website. Reread your copy and circle any features that you have listed. You can then see try reworking them into benefit rich ad copy.
• As always, test your results. A good A/B split test is recommended. Keep the better result and rework it some more. (You can read more about how I go about A/B split testing here).

You will usually do well to try and keep in mind "how is having this feature going to benefit my customer?". The more that your site's visitors can visualize themselves enjoying the benefits, the more effective your result is likely to be.