Copy... at the Point of Customer Contact

What Makes Great Copy

“People buy based on emotion, then rationalize the purchase decision with logic.” Copy reaches prospects on three different levels:  Intellectual – Weakest level; solely based on logic  Emotional – Taps into emotions such as fear, greed, love  Personal – Most powerful level; uses “you” to connect with consumer To reach consumers on these levels, determine your audience’s BFD profile:  Beliefs – What is their attitude towards your product?  Feelings – How do they feel about the major issues in their lives? Fearful? Nervous? Confident?  Desires – What do they want to accomplish? What change do they want to see that your product could help them achieve?

Good copy does three things: Identifies Informs Persuades

The Copy Checklist Does it fulfill the promise you made in the headline? Does it align with your business’s goals? Is it interesting? Is it relevant to your audience’s BFD profile? Does it integrate corporate branding strategies? Is it in an active voice? Have you given buyers all the benefits for an easy purchase decision? Does it have short words, sentences, and paragraphs? Is it easy to understand? Is it visually stimulating? Is there a consistent voice throughout? Is it believable? Is it free of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes? Does it call readers to action?

The points of customer contact Catalogs Websites Flyers

Persuasive Catalog Copy Three years ago, a new CEO at the women’s appeal store, Cold Water Creek, came in looking for a way to save money. After dramatically reducing the number of catalogs printed and mailed out, sales began to plummet—even Internet sales, because the catalog had been driving customers online. Coldwater Creek reverted back to sending out a large number of their catalogs, sparking a rapid turnaround. 1 1 Tim Feran, “Despite the prevalence of digital media, catalogs remain a huge part of retail business,” 2012, The Columbus Dispatch, 05 Aug

Persuasive Catalog Copy More than 12.5 billion catalogs were mailed to U.S. homes in 2011 and 89.6 million Americans bought an item from those catalogs. –The Direct Marketing Association The Two Jobs of Catalog Copy: Interest the reader so they want to see the product in person. Help them remember your product’s name and why they want it.

Persuasive Catalog Copy Keeps sentences crisp, clear, and concise Use an active tense to encourage customers to take action Watch out for redundancy Tips for Great Catalog Copy Use your hot spots. These include the front cover, inside cover, back cover, center spread, and pages adjacent to order form Make ordering simplistic Use colorful, specific description words Make the information stand out with large headlines, subheads, and bursts

Persuasive Catalog Copy The Beauty of Crate & Barrel Crate & Barrel uses only key copy elements throughout their catalog. Instead, they rely on vibrant pictures, limiting copy to motivational introductions and selective, benefit-driven callouts.

Persuasive Copy “Communications should be personalized and not one-size-fits-all. You’ve got to determine who each person is and where do they stand out.” – Nick Swinmurn, Zappos Founder

Persuasive Copy The Subject Line The Four U’s of Subject Lines:  Useful – Is the message valuable to the reader?  Ultra-Specific – Does the reader know what is being promised?  Unique – Is it unique and compelling?  Urgent – Do they feel as if they need to read it now? Elements of a Successful Subject Line: Action Language – Words such as “take,” “buy,” “listen,” and “reserve” let readers know exactly what they can do by opening the . Personalized – Highly segmented s have a 39% better open rate. Think about ways to make the subject line stand out to a specific target audience. Clarity – Subject lines should be clear. Readers should see at a quick glance what the will be about and why it relates to them. Copy Tip: Using ALL CAPS in a subject line can be interpreted as screaming when being read online.

Persuasive Copy Popular Subject Line Terms

Persuasive Copy Did You Know? 27% of s were opened on a mobile device during the second half of 2011, up from 20% during the first half. The Message Should… Establish Relevancy  Personalized  Convincing  Recalls why readers are getting an Be in Second Person  Focus on customer, not brand  “You” and “your,” not “we” and “our” Talk about Benefits  Identify why product is worthwhile  Benefits vs. features Be Simplistic  Summarize in a compelling way  Keep copy on-point Describing the benefits of the shorts, not the features

Start making copy about Caring for Customers Engagement Education EFFECTIVE content is created by:  Research  Focusing on the story and key issues  Targeting and tailoring to audience  Involving the consumer Take Action