The initial thing any copywriting has to do is get attention. Sometimes this involves walking a fine line between respecting the boundaries of taste and decency and grabbing attention. Who would’ve thought that French Connection UK (frenchconnection.com) would have the confidence to brand themselves as “FCUK”? But they did, and it was a huge success at the time… at least, here in the UK. ;-)

So, the most important thing your copy has to do, whether it’s at the top of a webpage, on an Adwords ad, an email subject line, or on the side of a bus, is to grab attention.

I could’ve called this product “copywriting for the Internet”, “copywriting for the WWW”, “methodological analysis of copywriting”… or something similar… but what reaction would it have got?

YAWN!

Bored, Bored, Bored!

(sorry, I couldn’t resist that Lion photo!)

In my opinion you can get attention in one of two ways… the “safe” way where you use “trigger wordsb>” such as “secret, tips, hot, discover, insider” that are great for grabbing attention but are becoming ever more pervasive online… people are relying on them too much. Soon everyone’s sales copy will be similar… and that’s when the tectonic plates will shift. People will start going down “unique” street… grabbing attention by being original, doing something novel and interesting.

I’ve gone down the “safe” street… my product, “Auto Income Secrets” did phenomenally well with a generic title. However, I knew that product would appeal to a wide audience, so I wanted to use trigger words that appealed to everyone. Taking the “safe” street made sense because it suited the target audience.

With this report and website I wanted something different… something I could brand from scratch... something unique and memorable. Hence I decided to go with “Copywriting Lion”. This is more of a niche subject targeting people interested in learning or honing their copywriting skills. With that audience, I knew the “safe” trigger words would be less effective and the original, novel, interesting approach of “unique” street will be more appropriate. (see the FCUK example, above as another example of “unique” street)

Do you see that in both cases, the concept is developed based on understanding the target audience?

This is one of the keys to copywriting. If you can write your copy from a perspective where you can see the copy from the audience/visitor’s point of view, you have an advantage over 99% of other people who write copy.

If you use empathy, your copy should be head and shoulders above anyone who doesn’t try to empathize with their target audience. (more about that later!)

OK, back to Copywriting Lions.

I grabbed your attention from the moment you saw the URL or someone said it to you. But, on top of that, one of the bonuses of going down “unique street” is that I hit your “MEMORY ADD” button. You may not choose to click on the URL immediately and may not type it in the web-address when you get home, but will you remember Copywriting Lion? I hope so. It’s quite memorable, isn’t it?

At least I’ll have a better chance than “methodological analysis of copywriting”.

Originality = Uniqueness = Attention = Memorability

Following on from the same reason as grabbing attention, and being memorable, Copywriting Lion is also unique and original.

Why is that important?

Well, look at this screenshot:

Did you notice anything?

There were no search results.

When you DO remember Copywriting Lion sometime in the future and type it into Google, you’ll see my page at number one in the search results.

How do I know that when there aren’t any search results? Simple. I’ve taken copywritinglion.com and I’ll put up some pages with Copywriting Lion in the Title and on the page. Guess what? I have ZERO competition for the phrase if people use quotes. If people type the phrase without quotes I have 33,600 competing pages. I bet I can beat them all.

Go ahead, test me. I’ll wait…

Without quotes:

click for results - opens in new window

With quotes:

click for results - opens in new window

So how did I do?

(please don’t be surprised if my site doesn’t show up during March or April 2006… after all, I only started the site in March 2006 and a site usually needs several weeks to get indexed)

How about my competition? Which phrase would you rather target?

Data from Google:

OK, so you have your first choice… to go down “safe street” or “unique street”. Which would your target audience prefer? Do you know? Based on the information above and your target audience, which street is right for your product/service?

Of course, sometimes we choose safe street and sometimes we choose unique street… but if you understand when to use one and when to use the other, you’ll maximize the effectiveness of your sales copy.

Maximum Impact Through Association

OK, this may seem a little bit out of “left field”, but stick with me…

Did you notice what animal I chose? I could’ve been copywriting toad, copywriting frog or copywriting hamster, but I went for lion. Why?

What does the image of the lion evoke in your mind’s eye?

Is it Power? Good.

Is it “King”? Good.

Is it “Pride”? Good.

Is it “Regal”? Good.

Is it “Dominance”? Good.

Is it “Predator”? Good.

Is it “ROAR!”? Good.

As you can see, the instant associations with the word, “lion”, or the photo of a lion are numerous and strong. I’m trying to “borrow” those evocative images and responses to a Lion and tie them to my copywriting product. If you get the subliminal message that my copywriting is powerful and better than anyone else’s then the association has worked. You may not even have to “think” it… as long as your brain makes the connection… and it will as long as it knows something about lions.

Now what would you have thought of my product if it was “copywriting toad”? It would’ve got your attention, and it would’ve been memorable… but that’s not a whole lot of use if you think the product is going to be poor because of the negative associations you make to the word toad.

Let’s take this further. One of my products is called “Internet Success Blueprint”

What instant associations does that product name generate?

Internet = Online = Web.

Success = Wealth = Riches = Respect = Achievement.

Blueprint = Plan = Do-able = Step-By-Step = Building.

The product says to you that you’ll build a successful online business by following the step by step instructions.

I like that name.

Now take one of my products with a name I don’t really like… the "Internet Success Spider"

You can see that I was trying to build a “theme” of products around “Internet Success”, kind of like Armand Morin’s “Generators” and Jeff Alderson’s “Equalizers”. However, my theme wasn’t so successful. What instant associations do you get from Internet Success Spider?

Internet = Online = Web.

Success = Wealth = Riches = Respect = Achievement.

Spider = Eight legs? Arachnid? Creepy Crawly?

As you can see, this product name doesn’t work so well.

So, if your copy calls on any associations or links with other things, situations or experiences, consider carefully the positive and negative associations the associations may have in the mind of your target audience.

Summary: You have to… HAVE TO get the attention of your prospect… either by using “safe” trigger words, or through being novel and “unique” depending on how your target audience will reach. You may want to draw on associations your audience may have… in which case, be sure they’re obvious and positive… the best ones require no thought.

Next Page - You And Your Audience!

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