|  | The motivating sequence Advertisers have developed a lot of "formulas" for structuring all kinds of ads, commercials, salesletters, brochures, panphlets, etc... but there is one formula that works for creating any kind of marketing piece. This formula is known as "AIDA" and it stands for: Attention Interest Desire Action Let's break these elements down and explain them to you one by one so you can get the feel on how to structure your advertisements. Attention.- The very first thing you need to do is grab your prospects eyeballs and stick them to your ad. This is done by creating an attractive layout that makes it impossible to ignore the headline. Interest.- Once you have your prospect's attention, you should generate interest in your product or service. This part is usually accomplished by using riveting headlines that your reader would be crazy to pass-by. Desire.- Make your lead paragraphs as seductive as possible... try to lure your reader into your copy and hit hard with the most appealing benefits you have. Show your prospect how others have benefited from your product by using testimonials. Use bullets to point out your most compeling selling points. In short - make the prospect want your product so bad that he or she just can't resist it. Action.- Most copywriters stop after getting their sales message across; and this is where they fail. If you want your reader to buy, you have to ask for the order... if you want your reader to call a toll-free number, you should say so! A call to action is crucial to close most sales and it's really easy to do... just tell your reader what the next step is and he or she will take that action! As I told you at the start of this article, there are many formulas that have been developed and tested... most of them are based on AIDA. Here's two of them so you can see what I mean: ACCA (Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction, Action).- In ACCA, the consumers are first made aware that the product exists. Then they must comprehend what the product is and what it will do for them. After comprehension, the readers must be convinced to buy the product. And finally, they must take action and actually make the purchase. PPPP (Picture, Promise, Prove, Push).- In the four P's the copywriter first creates a picture of what the product can do for the reader. Then promises the picture will come true if the reader buys the product, proves what the product has done for others, and pushes for immediate action of purchase. As you can see, those two formulas are in esence the same as AIDA. Use the one that you understand the best and try to model it every time you write a marketing piece. Back to section 2 |