Copywriting 5

Dr. Will Kurlinkus

Examples of Interactive
Copywriting

¡  Interactive marketing gets the audience to start

doing the desired action by interacting with the
copy text.
¡  Transforming a flat advertisement or copytext into
an experience.
Ritualizing an Experience
¡  Ritualized brands: wine (general), oreos, beers, tootsie roll pop

¡  How might you ritualize potato chip eating.

What type of little thing
could we give out at
graduation that would
immediately have students
sign up for the alumni list?
Top 5 Copywriting Tips
1.  Consider evoking subtle emotion
and empathy.
¡  Don’t try to evoke an emotion that
isn’t already there. Rather, tap into a
pre-existing frustration or positive
memory. RESEARCH!
¡  What are the negative emotions
you’re trying to solve or the positive
emotions you’re trying to associate
with?
¡  Think of emotion as a stressor to be
resolved. Whether that’s a feeling of
mystery, concern, or happiness.
¡  Try to evoke affect rather than
emotion.
¡  PAS: problem>agitate>solution (most
commercials)

"Great News! Sendible now has

scheduling!”
"Sendible just saved you a ton of time
and effort. See how here.”
“You won’t believe number 5”—creates
emotion not affect, though still works.
High Arousal vs. Low Arousal
Top 10 Copywriting Tips

2.  Show don’t tell. Active verbs and nouns are greater than
adjectives. Specificity is always better.
¡  I know this guy Brian who is intelligent, hard-working, and really
insightful.
¡  Brian found founded a successful company, he created a
popular blog, and he leads a talented team.
¡  Our world class widgets help you increase email sign-ups
¡  549,333 websites use our widgets to increase email sign-ups
¡  Highlight benefits not features:
¡  Oh that TV is great. It's a 120Hz HDTV.
¡  What does that mean? What’s the benefit?
¡  Avoid hedging words: replace might, could, may, possible with
will, can, is.
¡  Lead with your strongest point. We place the most emphasis on
what we read first.
¡  Shorter (words, sentences, paragraphs) is almost always better.
We trust shorter phrases.
Top 10 Copywriting Tips

3.  Provide an easy to follow plan of action that

resolves the stressor you set up earlier.
¡  This means everything you write should carefully imagine
an action the audience will take based on the text and
the path will take to get to that action.
¡  The call to action should be attached to a reason.
¡  Get updates (it’s free)
¡  Learn how to create persuasive content. Sign up to
receive free updates.
¡  Learn how to become persuasive and win more
customers. Sign up to receive free updates
¡  Ideally the action is immediate—it might set them up for
your real desired action later on.
¡  Ideally the action is pleasurable.
Top 10 Copywriting Tips

4.  Consider testimonials (social proof)—showing the

success of people who took the action you are
trying to promote.
¡  Can FOMO be employed?
¡  Testimonials ideally show don’t tell, are specific, etc.
¡  Good testimonials often over come a reader’s objections
¡  When it comes to digital marketing there are loads of
commentators that talk a good game, but Sonja and
Sharon help you make it happen. They have enabled
me, coached me and given me the confidence to
share Wealth Horizon’s story widely. It’s engaging
customers and industry commentators alike, and
bringing our new business great results.
Top 10 Copywriting Tips

5.  Visual Design=Scannability + Variety

¡  Headings + Subheadings: any time your topic
changes, add a subheading. Benefit driven headings
are best.
¡  A nice font
¡  Short paragraphs
¡  Pictures: High quality (JPEG or TIFF), relevant, copyright
free
¡  Pullquotes
¡  bullets
Top 10 Copywriting Tips

6.  Call Your Best Customers into Being

¡  Imagine who your ideal customer sets are and write to
them
¡  Create different copy for different target audiences
(see next Thursday)
¡  Create user personas
¡  RESEARCH the god terms of your audiences: Key terms
(but also emotions, memories, facts) that are almost
immediately positively received: You, free, instantly,
new.
User Persona
Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your
research in order to represent the different user types that might use
your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way. Creating personas
will help you to understand your users’ needs, experiences, behaviours
and goals. Creating personas can help you step out of yourself. It can
help you to recognise that different people have different needs and
expectations, and it can also help you to identify with the user you’re
designing for.

¡  Character Bio: Name, photo, job, motivations, skills, interests, values,

pain points, how the character has succeeded and failed at the
activity in the past.

¡  Scenarios: Tell short stories of this persona doing the task in action,
incorporating features of the bio. Shows why and how this action
might take place.

¡  Goals: Shows the character’s goals in doing the task.

*Note: An empathy map is based on a real person vs a persona is a
generalization based on multiple interviews/data.