BIJLAGE :
The 21 Most Powerful Copywriting Rules of All Time
by Joe Vitale
1. Know your USP.
USP = Unique Selling Proposition = a one line statement (proposition) that explains (sells) how your
product or service differs (unique) from the competition. You can't know it unless you research your
product as well as your competition. What does Federal Express say? Dove soap? You must know your
basic offer before you can begin to persuade anyone to accept it.
2. Use layout that supports copy.
Graphics, fonts, and layouts don't sell, but they can help bring attention to your sales message. Use
proven formats. Look at the famous Maxwell Sackheim ad in my book, The AMA Complete Guide to
Small Business Advertising. Consider an advertorial style. It can get 80% more attention than any other
ad layout. You must know the form your sales message will take before you begin to draft your actual
message. Knowing you are about to write a classified ad will lead you to write differently than if you were
about to write a sales letter or a display ad.
3. Create a riveting and relevant headline.
Round-up your prospects with a headline that makes them sit up and take notice. Best place to see good
headlines is on the cover of Reader's Digest. See my AMA advertising book for 30 ways to write
headlines. A headline calls out your readers. A change in headline can bring 19 times more response.
4. Write simply, directly, and in the conversational style of your prospects.
Who are you trying to reach? Housewives, business executives, children? You must know the type of
person you are writing to. Write to one person from that group and you will speak to all people in that
group. Forget trying to impress people, win writing awards, or please a past English teacher. Good copy
often violates the rules of English but still makes the sale.
5. So that -- ?
Write of the benefits, not the features. A feature generally describes a product; a benefit generally
explains what the product does for you. A good way to write about benefits would be to keep saying you
get this...and the product does this...so that you get.... Look at Kodak. People don't buy film for the
pictures they create. They are buying memories. Look at their advertising and you'll barely see film
anywhere. What you will see are family reunions, graduations, weddings, etc. You get film which helps
you take pictures so that you get memories. Keep asking So that -- ? to dig up benefits. For example,
This computer is a 486...so that...you get a computer that is twice the speed of other computers...so
that...you can get twice the work done in the same amount of time...so that....you are free to have longer
lunches, make more calls, or focus on something else.
6. Use emotional appeal.
People buy for emotional reasons and justify with logic. Gene Schwartz wrote an ad that ran for 20 years
and sold so many flowers it exhausted nurseries. It's packed with emotional appeal. It read in part:
When you put this into the Earth, and you jump back (quickly), it explodes into flowers. And everybody in
your neighborhood comes and they look. And people take home blooms because you've got so many
you could never find a house big enough to put them. And you've become the gardening expert for the
entire neighborhood.