Painting, baking, gardening – these are just a few of the many things you can take a DIY approach to and have success with. Sure, sometimes it can make sense to do it yourself, and sometimes it’s a very good idea to hire a professional.  When it comes to copywriting for your marketing or advertising – homemade hardly ever works!

Strong calls to action, compelling benefits, fascinating points, and magical phrases – these are just a few of the important pieces that get perfectly blended together, so that your message on hold script copy captures the callers attention, keeps them engaged and boosts profits. Sure, everyone wants to think they “know-how” to do things better, but truth be told,  copywriting is an art form and science, in which most people don’t have the proper knowledge or skill-sets to accomplish successfully, and as a result – are usually met with failure.

In marketing and copywriting, the first rule of thumb is; “your product or service is far less important than its ability to fulfill your customers’ needs.”  It’s essential to understand that consumers may not even realize they have any needs.

Great copy makes people think they want your product.

Great copy makes people think they need your product.

In quote-unquote “official” marketing terminology, this process is called creating a “perceived need.” But, let’s call it what it really is — an art form of seducing someone to act in a certain way through the use of persuasive language. That’s right. The best copywriters can convince consumers to buy things for which they have no need.

Do people need a Mercedes? No. Do people need an automatic dishwasher? No. The copywriter’s job is to persuade consumers to think they need these items when in fact, they are not essential. They do it with great advertising copy that convinces consumers to give up their hard-earned money in exchange for a product or service, but there is a lot more to writing that great copy than smoke and mirrors. While we won’t give away our secret recipe for crafting effective, results-driving ad copy, we will however reveal a few of the nuances in crafting your marketing message with  copy that sells, along with a few helpful do’s and don’ts.

Tips for Creating Great Copy:

1. Where to begin?

Before you start, take a few minutes and make a list of the necessary points that you need to have included. These should be key attributes, selling points and benefits that set your business apart from the competition.

2. Sell Benefits,Not Features

It’s pretty simple. Features ‘tell” but benefits “sell!”  If your company is blessed with multiple key attributes, consider running multiple ads that incorporate the different attributes, but be sure to maintain the same “feel”. You want your script to have a natural flow, not be crammed full of as many words as you can fit within the time limit.

3. Ditch the Laundry List

One of the most common copywriting sins we see is creating a laundry list of points and packing it into your  message. Remember, these are short sound bites designed to pique interest, and leave the caller wanting to hear more. You need to be clear and concise. Listing too many points, leads to confusion on the listener’s part, thus causing them not to retain information, become bored and tune-out what they’re listening to.

4.Tell the Audience What You Want Them to Do

Right up  there with crafting a laundry list, another fatal sin is, “not telling your audience what you want them to do.” That’s right, not including a call-to-action in your marketing message. Your CTA (call-to-action) is the part of your advertisement that tells your audience what they should do once they’ve heard your ad.  The simplest example of a call to action is “Buy Now!” With a little thought and some creativity, there’s plenty of strong CTA’s you can include to get callers to act.

Crafting those magical words in order to write effective ad copy takes a great deal of research, thought, and analysis. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your product or service is if you can’t communicate that to customers. Every company needs to communicate a powerful message — and that means you need strong copywriting.

Original On Hold has been helping brands create results driven on hold messages for the past 26 years. We’ve written and produced over 1 million ads for a variety of companies, in a variety of industries, ranging from Fortune 500’s and multi-location national brands, right down to the local, small family business. We’ve literally seen and done it all, and we’ll make sure your copy gets the attention it needs.