3 Major Mistakes People (and Some Copywriters) Make In Digital Advertisement Copywriting
With the advent of digital advertising platforms available to all of us, just about everyone is writing their own ads. However, there are many rules to writing copy for advertisements, known as, “Copywriting”. For centuries, this task was done exclusively by advertising agencies, but today, everyone is having a go at it.
Copywriting is not ordinary writing, it is a kind of writing designed and targeted at generating sales, and there are rules to follow. Many people who do not know the “Rules of Copywriting” shall fail at generating sales or engagement from their ads if they do not apply these rules or principles. This is why advertising agencies charge a lot of money for this special skill, yet, it can be learned and applied by anybody.
Here are the 3 major mistakes people, and some Copywriters, make in writing Sales Copy or Copywriting:
1. No Headline
The headline of any advertisement is the most important feature of any ad. If the headline does not grab the attention of a reader quickly, the effort of developing and paying for the ad is completely wasted. A headline must be short, preferably no more than 8 words – shorter the better. Within these 8 words, you must sum up what your product or service is all about.
2. No Benefit in the Headline
Every headline MUST communicate a “Benefit” to the reader. People buy Benefits, but the untrained writer usually writes about product “Features”. People do not buy Features, they buy Benefits. The writer must sum up the Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) of his or her product or service and should communicate them as Benefits in the headline as succinctly and clearly as possible. However, only one Benefit should be used for each headline, not a few. Many Copywriters make this mistake too.
3. No Call-To-Action Statement in the Ad
Again, an untrained writer of advertisements will never know this. Every advertisement MUST have a Call-To-Action (CTA) statement in the ad. The function of this is to tell the reader what to do next. Do you want the reader to perform a specific action, such as, “Buy Now”, “Download” something, “Contact” you, or “Visit your website”? Whatever it is, this must be stated within the copy of the advertisement. Without this important statement, the reader may simply wander off, and the effort of creating and paying for that ad, shall be again, wasted.
So there you have it, these are the 3 main areas an untrained writer of advertisements usually makes based on our observation. Some or all of these mistakes are made even by Copywriters working at ad agencies. This is why Marketing Managers and anyone who wishes to produce advertisements can benefit from a Copywriting class so that you know when the Copywriter at the ad agency does not conform to these rules.
If you would like to learn more on how to write advertisements the right way, do consider the courses offered by the School Of Digital Advertising, where you shall be learning Copywriting from advertising practitioners who have almost 30 years of Copywriting experience.
You may also benefit from my other article – “5 Copywriting Tips to Write Your Facebook & Google Ads That Get Better Results”.
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If you have any questions in the meantime, you may send me an email at – learn@joynandy.com.
Chat soon.
By Joy Nandy – Founder of the School Of Digital Advertising – Malaysia’s ONLY Training Centre that specialises in Writing & Content Creation for Digital Marketing
