Copywriting -- Two Golden Rules of Sales Copy

By Ugur Akinci

No matter what type of sales copy you are writing (catalog copy, newspaper display ad, e-mail pitch, hand flyer, highway billboard, radio commercial, etc.) there are two rules that you should never violate if you need good results:

1) Focus on the "Maddening Problem"

If you can identify why people are frustrated and upset, you've got a sale. And for that, you need to observe the world without any prejudices or preconceived notions of what gets people upset.

One good way to do that is to watch the popular TV shows and read the best selling main-stream publications because there is a reason why these media products got to be the monsters that they are.

Consider Oprah… or the National Enquirer… why is the former the top TV talk show and the latter the best selling periodical in the United States? Because they both address people's frustrations and they do it well.

They correctly identify what bothers tens of millions of people the most and then they either suggest solutions (Oprah) or, as in the case of the National Enquirer, they assuage that frustration by assuring the readers that "the rich and famous are not that happy and classy at all."

For example, if you are writing copy to sell a home-based business opportunity, don't tell your prospective buyers that now through this opportunity they can visit all the foreign countries that they always wanted to visit.

Instead, focus on the overworked wage earner's top frustration that they cannot spend more time with their families and enjoy life together. That's why a number of successful and long-running home business advertisements draw a warm picture of "ideal balance" where you can earn good money "while still wearing your pajamas," with your kids and loved ones "in the next room."

2) Stress Benefits, not Features

The average car buyer could care less if that new model has a Xenon Carbide headlights that won the French Concorde Award last year and is 37.2% brighter than the traditional highlights, or, it has a HB-22 Generation Four auto-combustion cycle regulator under the hood designed by none other than the "one and only" August Rochelle.

But what they care about is if the new model can parallel park automatically, with no manual steering, and save you the anxiety of parking in tight spaces and busy traffic; or if it switches on a sonar radar to warn you against collisions when the road visibility drops below a certain threshold and thus secure your family's safety under hazardous conditions.

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Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a writer with 20 years of experience. He is available for a wide variety of freelance assignments. Visit his web site http://www.writer111.com for more information on his services.

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