A Star, a Story, and a Solution

You may have heard of the AIDA model for copywriting.  Attention, interest, desire, action.  It is antiquated, and incomplete.  But still, as a point of reference, it's worth going through briefly.  Our headline, which we've slaved over, functions to get attention.  To stop your prospect in her tracks.  You may use a sub headline to focus this Attention.  The next sentence, the first line of the first paragraph must get the prospect Interested in what comes after, and so on, until they've formed and identify with a mental image of having/using your product.  Along the way you connect with and focus her Desire, the mass desire you're aiming for.  Last is a call to Action.  This should be strong.  But it should flow so naturally from the desire that a hard close isn't necessary.  Unless that  suits the tone of the letter.  This is a key point for testing later.

Now that that's out of the way, let's look at one means of writing copy.  The narrative.  Your headline sets up the reader for a story.  There is a hook that draws the reader in and causes him to ask what it's all about.  You can also use the first paragraph to throw some seemingly unrelated statements at him to confuse and frustrate, giving the prospect no choice but to scratch the itch and read on.  At that point, you begin a narrative.  A story needs a protagonist, in these case someone or thing with star power. 

Your star may be an actual celebrity; it may be someone unknown with an unusual experience resulting in newfound and hitherto unrevealed knowledge.  Either of these must be inextricably linked to the product.  Another option is to make the product itself the star of the ad.  To do so, you may tell the story of its creation myth.  How it beat the odds to get to market.  Whichever of these you choose, the prospect must come to identify with the star of the narrative so he feels that he, in fact, is the star.  It's his story. 

Finally, you may make the prospect the hero.  Who wouldn't want to read a relevant story where he was the hero?  Relevant meaning you got the message to market match right.  Just make sure you have the star of this story identify with and desire the product.  Otherwise, he'll leave feeling good with his credit card safely tucked away in his wallet.

You should be telling stories at every opportunity.  Get good at telling stories.  The better you get, the stronger will be your personal brand.  I make a habit of calling people just to tell my newest story and getting their feedback over the phone.  Then I use the same story in email.  Once I've got it right, it becomes part of my legend.  And having a legend, or strong brand with a back story, makes it easier for people to buy.  If you're really stuck for how to develop your story, try this basic formula: hero (you, star, product) has problem, goes away to discover solution (wisdom), returns to share solution. 

Once your star has the solution, present it.  Here you can load your copy with the benefits that it will provide.  You might want to use bullets here, perhaps interspersed with copy.  That can carry you through to the offer, or call to action.   

To your Copywriting Mastery

Sheridan Randolph