A lot of brands do it and it seems to work.

Influencerscan be a very profitable way to promote your product or service.

The socials are their element, they are used to public exposure and have cultivated a close relationship with their followers over a period of time.

These factors don’t necessarily apply to you as the mind behind your brand. Remember, you don’t have to do it all yourself.

Letting influencersuse their power of appeal to advertise your brand can be a very smart strategy.

But as every time you consider investing in a new advertising medium, you need to take several factors into account to ensure that your investment pays off.

Many brands have done it really well and without investing lots of money; but for that you need first a good strategy, and that’s what I’m going to explain here.

Shall we start?

Choose your influencers wisely so your campaign makes sense.

Influencers are now also called “content creators”, because that’s what they do.

They create content that entertains, informs and engages their followers.

Some people don’t value this type of activity but the reality is that creating consistent, quality content is a full-time job.

Whether we like it or not, this type of character has gained unparalleled prominence and you as a business owner that wants to grow can gain a lot by working with them.

The key is to know how to choose the right content creator for you and the type of content you want them to produce.

There are several factors to consider when researching which content creators you’d like to collaborate with:

• Type of content: their content is in line with your brand and what you sell.
• Demographic group: the profile of your buyer persona matches that of their followers. This applies not only to age and economic level, but also to tastes and interests.  
• Brand image: their communication style matches your brand values and personality.
• Engagement: there’s genuine interaction with your followers, rather than just lots of likes, which could be from fake accounts..
• Frequency of publication: Do they publish often? Or only occasionally?

How many followers should the influencer have?

There’s a common misconception that the more followers an influencer has, the more profitable their campaigns will be.

This is not always the case.

Before explaining why, let’s first look at the different types of influencer based on their number of followers.

1. Macro influencers

They’re basically celebrities. We’re talking about influencers who have amassed between 100,000 and one million followers.

They’re content creators who appear in mainstream media and run campaigns for well-known brands, which are the only ones that can afford their fees. They’re often known to the general public because they are talked about outside their own communities of followers.

• Micro influencers

These are content creators with between 5,000 and 100,000 followers. While they may not have celebrity status, they are considered celebrities within their community.

They are often authorities in their field (fashion, marketing, entertainment, etc.), but are not well-known to the general public. They can charge affordable fees for promotional campaigns.

• Nano influencers

These are content creators with up to 1000 followers. These influencers often have higher engagement than macro influencers because they are more real and feel closer to their followers.

This is why nano-influencers can be very profitable.

Their followers trust them and when they recommend a product or a service, they throw themselves into the campaign, taking great care of their audience.

As creating content isn’t their day job, they can run campaigns in exchange for products or very affordable fees.

How to work with and how to pay influencers?

Content creators want to develop long-term relationships with brands, rather than just earning 200 euros here and there.

The more you involve them as partners in a campaign or initiative, the better. Greater collaboration has advantages for both parties and can be more cost-effective for your brand.

You can work with content creators to cover events, test products, collaborate on promotions or create discount codes.

Alternatively, you can run campaigns to promote each other through temporary actions, such as managing each other’s Instagram accounts for a while.

In the latter two cases, remuneration is not necessarily required; it all depends on the conditions negotiated with the influencer.

Influencers will often be willing to collaborate in exchange for free products or to gain more visibility, particularly if your socials have a considerable number of followers.

Your influencers may ask for any of these different forms of payment:

• by CPA (cost per action) – every time a person performs a certain action, be it a purchase, or hitting the subscribe button.
• by CPC (cost per click) or traffic – the number of people who click on the link that leads to the page you want to reach
• fixed price – regardless of clicks or conversions, you are charged a fixed price per post, reel or story.

Make sure that the price you pay makes sense for the type of campaign you want to run and that it is within your budget.

For example, if what you are doing is a brand awareness campaign, it makes more sense to pay them a fixed price per publication, or depending on the traffic they bring to your website.

Analyse the profitability of your influencer campaigns

Make sure their fees make sense for your strategy and that the investment pays off. On most platforms like Instagram or TikTok you can analyse the number of clicks and engagement on your posts.

Analyse periodically whether your investment in influencer marketing is paying off in the short, medium or long term.

You can ask influencers for such reports, or collaborate with them to see these reports directly in your Instagram or TikTok account.

Instagram collaborations work like this:

1. Before sharing a post, tap the ‘Tag people’ option.

2. Click on ‘Invite collaborator’.

3. Find the account you want to add and click on its name.

4. Tap ‘Done’ to confirm.

Oversee the entire process

To ensure that your influencer campaigns align with your brand and objectives, maintain clear communication and agree on every detail of their publications.

While it is important to give them freedom as they are the experts in content creation, if you feel that something is not right, you have the right and the obligation to discuss it — after all, it is your brand image.

This is why it is so important to work with influencers who share your vision and whom you trust to represent your brand.

You should agree in advance:

1. Number of publications
2. Format
3. Date of publication
4. Proposed content (text, location, visuals, duration)
5. Price and method of payment

Where the influencer makes the video or takes the photo is very important. The background can either enhance or ruin a post.

Use a ghostwriter

While there are influencers who are very good with images, such as those specialising in fashion, beauty products and travel, many of them struggle with words.

As we know, the message is as important as the image. If you’re working with influencers who struggle with words, hire a ghostwriter to write the post texts and video scripts.

You’d be surprised at how many famous influencers don’t write their own content, even though they give the impression that they do.

The aim is to make it seem as if what they say has occurred to them.

A ghostwriter adapts to the influencer’s personality and their audience to determine the type of content that will generate the most engagement.

Many copywriters write for influencers and celebrities behind the scenes — I do it too; it’s common in our profession.

Where to start

Finding the right influencers to collaborate with can be time-consuming.

You have to search and compare, and make sure that the audience is real and not bots.

This is where platforms that simplify the process of finding the ideal content creators for your brand come in.

One such platform is Upfluence, which uses software that indexes and updates influencers’ profiles in real time, analysing all their content to determine their reach and level of interaction.

Its Live Capture tool finds the best influencers for your brand.

Another such platform is Later.

A different alternative: Organic ads – what are they?

They are going viral with well-known brands such as North Face.

Organic ads are ads created by real customers.

Brands find customers who are already fans and encourage them to create a post recommending the brand’s products.

They don’t have to be professional publications with expensive effects or graphic design; the simpler, the better.

The truth is that we are all a little overwhelmed by the constant stream of beautiful and seemingly perfect influencers.

That’s why organic ads from ordinary people work: they’re honest and relatable.

So go out there, find creators who are authentic and share your vision, and let them be themselves!

There are too many stimuli and too many brands fighting for the attention of your potential customers.

So before you spend a penny on TikTok, Meta or LinkedIn ads, make sure you understand the principles of persuasion.

A well-crafted ad will grab attention and hold it long enough to persuade your prospects to click on the link that takes them to a product sales page.

Too many social media ads fail to attract attention. It’s sad to see people throwing their money away.

That’s why I want you to learn the techniques the advertising pros use to create ads that get real results.

Knowing these principles will make it easier for you to create ads and SM posts that will make your prospects stop scrolling and pay attention.

Let’s see them all.

The (almost) foolproof formula for creating attention-grabbing social media ads

I learnt this formula from the copywriting group I belong to, The Fix, the teachers like to mess around so they called it D.I.E.

It’s a great name because it’s memorable, and that’s precisely what we copywriters are always looking for: Words that evoke emotions that stick in people’s minds.

D.I.E. stands for DISRUPT – INTRIGUE – ENGAGE

We will look at this formula step by step and with examples so that you can see very clearly how to apply it to your ads and posts on the socials.

How to shake people so they stop at your ad

We are so blinded by so much content and silly videos that almost nothing surprises us anymore.

But surprise is important to shake people out of their lethargy and make them pay attention.

That’s why you need to do everything you can to surprise your prospects with your ad.

And this is how you do it:

✅With a statement, promise, question or image that is completely unexpected or out of the ordinary.

You need to disrupt the pre-determined schemas that people have in their heads so that their brains get a (metaphorical) shock and pay attention.

It isn’t easy to come up with that unexpected or unusual idea, but if you want your ad to get noticed, you have to take the time to find it.

Don’t worry, in this copy lesson I explain several exercises you can do to get to that unusual idea.

They don’t have to be super clever ideas, often the simplest ones work best.

What can help you arrive at your big idea is to think about the end result your prospects want which your product can deliver.

For example, if you sell after-school tutoring, an ad that would work well would be a child saying:

– Dad, I passed!

That’s every parent’s dream: their children doing well at school.

Let’s look at another example to make it clear.

One that proves that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on dazzling images or videos.

With that headline, everyone will pay attention!

Because it shocks and makes us stop in our tracks. Even if we don’t have a husband!

After that headline, the ad goes on to say that this brand of shirts has different sleeve lengths because that is what often goes wrong.

Hence your husband being in another man’s arms.

Michael Gluck was the copywriter who created this ad and I’m sure it took him a lot of discarded ideas to come up with this great one.

A tip to stand out

Do the opposite of what your competitors are doing.

If they’re making videos, make static ads.

If they take themselves too seriously, try being more loose and approachable.

Once we have the attention of our prospect we now have to get them to stay with us so we can tell them why they should buy our product or service.

Intrigue, the most effective hook

Why are series so addictive?

Because they manage to hook us with the old (but super effective) method of intrigue.

We want to keep watching them because we NEED to know what will happen.

The same goes for an ad.

If you want to intrigue your prospects you should ask yourself the following question:

– What is it specifically that makes it essential for my prospect to find out more about this and why?

And this is the solution:

✅ Offer them an interesting fact they didn’t know or a new way of getting a desired result.

Often the novelty of that new way of getting something resides in how you explain it and not really what it is.

Let me clarify this concept with an example.

You would never have guessed that this ad is about a bank because it doesn’t follow the same ad style as all the other banks.

But why is it intriguing?

Because it starts with a very everyday question, especially in the lives of British people:

How long does it take to make a cup of tea?

The comic format of the ad makes you want to read more.

About the same time as it does to open a current account that pays 9% interest.

The above formula consisting of demonstrating the ease of a formality by comparing it to an everyday routine is tried and true.

What’s different here is that we’re more used to seeing this formula start with the action you’re trying to sell.

Like this:

It takes as long to open a BBXA bank account as it does to make a cup of tea.

But Steve Henry – the copywriter who created this ad – knows that this formula neither surprises nor engages, and has set out to turn it on its head.

He starts with the routine action we all identify with (making a cup of tea) and then moves on to the product’s main benefit, that 9% interest.

Notice that they don’t even mention the name of the bank until the very end, in big letters and with a phone number (call to action).

The difference between good copy and poor copy is that good copy emphasises the benefit to the customer, not the product itself.

The third step. Engage your prospects to take action

Engage is a buzzword in all things marketing and sales.

Its real meaning is to stimulate your prospects by giving them a powerful reason to take the action you want them to take.

And you do it by:

✅ Giving them clear instructions on what they need to do to get the benefit they’re looking for and reassuring them that they won’t regret clicking on the link. 

Think about the objections your prospects might have that prevent them from buying your product or service.

Is it the price?

Do they think they won’t use it and feel like they’re throwing their money down the drain?

Show them that they’re buying more value than what they’re paying for and remind them how your product or service is going to help them become a better version of themselves.

Remember, we all buy things to be more attractive, clever, successful, rich, free, in the eyes of others.

Let’s look at an example to clarify this point.

This is not an ad per se, but it could be the last part of one.

Ampliance is a platform that helps online shops sell more with simple tools.

In the image above, they encourage their prospects to book a demo by reminding them of the big benefit they get:

Bye-bye bad shopping experiences.

And by reassuring them that they have already helped more than 400 brands win.

This image sums up the final principle of our Engage formula:

Give prospects compelling reasons to take that action – book a demo.

Wrapping up

Many brands are now embracing video, and yes, it works.

But a well-thought-out static ad that follows the D.I.E. formula can work much better and it often implies a smaller investment.

Think about it.

To make people want to buy your product or service you first have to grab their attention, intrigue them and engage them to take that action that will benefit them.

If your message is attractive, they will listen to you, and whether it is attractive or not depends on how well you communicate that benefit they’ll get if they buy.

Remember:

You aren’t selling what a product or service is, but what it does and the result it brings.

So always think about the benefit of the benefit.

As Happy Ears has done here

This ad follows the D.I.E. formula to the letter.

Disrupt – It looks like an ad for a sex toy, but it’s not.

Intrigue – What saved their marriage?

Engage – it implies a powerful reason to take action – You’ll sleep better with them on. You’ll be less irritable with your partner. Or they’ll be less irritable with you.

I hope I’ve helped you to think better about your next SM ad or post.

Get started now!

I’ve read a lot on the subject and with this mini copy class, I want to save you all the time I’ve invested in drawing the conclusions I summarise here.

We’ll see what kind of images work best on the internet and which ones you should avoid in any circumstances.

Because just as images can help you grab your prospects’ attention and enhance your offer, they can also do the opposite: that people ignore you or don’t get your message.

And to better understand how images influence people’s emotions we’ll look at some examples.

But don’t worry.

We aren’t only going to look at brands with huge advertising budgets, but also at the more mundane ones with whom we surely have more in common.

The main objective: to wake a sleepy audience up

Advertisers of decades ago already came to the same conclusion: the images that work best are those that catch the eye.

Those that break our default mental patterns and make us pay attention.

David Ogilvy, the father of advertising, said:

“What do work are photographs which arouse the reader’s curiosity. He glances at the photograph and says to himself, “What goes on here?” Then he reads your copy to find out. This is the trap to set. Harold Rudolph called this magic element “story appeal,” and demonstrated that the more of it you inject into your photographs, the more people will look at your advertisements. […]”.

If Ogilvy already thought like this before Instagram existed, imagine now with all these brands fighting to get our attention all the time.

We must elbow our way in – or rather use powerful images and copy – to get our prospects’ full attention.

Sometimes the images are so powerful that they don’t need much copy:

And others in which the copy is what will make the message stronger:

Sometimes the impact of the image is created by the headline.

It might be a nothing-special photo but it’s the headline what grabs your attention:

If you see that headline, you’re going to look at the ad for sure, because it’s shocked you. You ask yourself, but why is the waiter calling names to that customer?

The ad copy goes:

“Have you ever doubted the sincerity of an Italian waiter’s smile? Wondered what it was you said that made those Spanish shop assistants giggle? Or questioned why that French doctor gave you headache pills for food poisoning?

Haven’t we all? But imagine for a moment how different these situations might be if you could understand and talk to people when you’re abroad”.

The copy goes on talking about Linguaphone, a language school.

Here the image is nothing out of the ordinary but serves to illustrate and complement a powerful piece of copy.

The copy without the image wouldn’t work as well, and the image alone wouldn’t make people stop and read the ad.

Together, they tick all the boxes.

Let’s look at more examples so we can apply all these important lessons to our mundane businesses.

Want to attract attention? Choose the right images for your #website, #posts, and #ads. #copywriting #socialmedia #design #SmallBiz
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How to use images to help you sell more

Choose images that help you convey your Unique Selling Proposition.

A website with images converts better.

They break the monotony of the text and help your website visitors understand concepts faster.

You should add images that help you convey your Unique Selling Proposition.

Let’s look at how I do it on my website.

My USP is that I give businesses a unique twist by creating original and compelling copy.

And I do that by shying away from boring and repetitive content everyone is using. What I call Zombie Copy.

This image helps me convey my USP in a fun and memorable way.

Illustrations are a wicked way to be more likeable as a brand.

They help you stand out from your competition and convey your main benefits in an original and memorable way.

Lemon.io does it as well:

Lemon.io is a platform that connects developers with startups.

Their USP is that they make sure their devs won’t turn out to be a fiasco since they have to pass a series of tests before they can be part of Lemon.io devs pool.

The image of the CV in a trap help visitors grab their USP quickly summoning one of startups’ most recurrent pain points.

Lemon.io knows their prospects had bad experiences with developers in the past who weren’t as good as their CVs made them out to be.

Illustrations also give personality to your brand since they’re unique.

The illustrators and designers from La Bola Ocho created my website. Together we also work for clients who need copy and brand design.

If you need someone to design your logo, website, or packaging or help you stand out with funny and original illustrations, don’t hesitate!

Images to build credibility

When you’re a service provider it’s important to show your face. Even if you’re a team.

Prospects want to see that you’re real people so they can trust your company to solve their problem.

That’s why you should show your faces on your About page. Or even on your Home page.

Moreover, images of people grab more attention because humans feel attracted by other humans.

And this principle also applies to customer testimonials.

Whenever possible add a photo of the person talking about their experience after working with you or buying your product.

Want to attract attention? Choose the right images for your #website, #posts, and #ads. #copywriting #socialmedia #design #SmallBiz
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Attention-grabbing images on social media

Social media has become a battleground where millions of brands fight for attention around the clock.

It can feel haunting.

But if we want to survive as brands we need to make some space for our businesses in this overcrowded party.

We’ve already seen some tricks to win this battle such as using images with people in them.

But you can’t post selfies all the time because you’ll be considered a narcissist. (And there are already too many around).

Use this resource for some of your organic posts but when it comes to ads better use images that grab people’s attention by breaking mental patterns.

You can do this by choosing images that have that “story appeal” Ogilvy talked about. Images that aren’t too common so when looking at them people wonder “What’s going on there?”

Or you can use images that aren’t so out of the ordinary but complement the copy and awaken people’s curiosity, as we saw with the image of the Italian waiter.

I’ll give you a real example of a product I worked with recently to show you how important the image is to enhance the copy.

This Spanish brand sells tablets to feel less hangover after drinking. For them, I wrote some emails and ads for Instagram and Facebook.

The copy of one of the ads said:

FORGET IT. HE’S NOT GOING TO SLEEP 2 HOURS LONGER BECAUSE YOU HAD A BIG NIGHT.

Don’t regret it.

One tablet just before you start drinking and a second one before you go to bed and forget the word hangover.

100% natural ingredients. No side effects. Ask for Sayonara at your local pharmacy.

This is the image I proposed to enhance the copy:

It was just to give them an idea, they didn’t have to use this exact one I’d created on Canva.

I chose this image because the baby looks you in the eye with that mischievous smile that goes perfectly with the headline.

Moreover, baby images attract a lot of attention because of our natural instinct to protect them.

But oh no!! My heart dropped when I saw the image they’d chosen for the ad:

The baby’s back is turned so there’s no connection with the audience and no mischievous smile directed at the viewer.

Besides, there are too many elements in that picture that distract from the main point. The baby.

With this image, I’m sure the ad won’t work as well. Such a shame!

So remember: if you want people to pay attention to your organic posts or ads:

1. Choose an image that creates a connection with the viewer and enhances an already powerful headline.
2. Or a shocking image that breaks mental patterns and attracts all the looks

Like:

This ad is from an insurance company.

And yet most insurance companies still insist on using boring images and bland copy…

Want to attract attention? Choose the right images for your #website, #posts, and #ads. #copywriting #socialmedia #design #SmallBiz
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Images to sell an experience

And by experiences, I don’t just mean tours, amusement parks or festivals.

Often a product is also an experience.

Air stream knows this very well when selling their caravans.

They sell the experience you’ll live with it, not the caravan itself.

When selling experiences choose images that anticipate the joy of living that precise moment.

Images that generate the desire to be there and nowhere else.

Better show common and real people because it’s easier to identify with them. Models with perfect bodies and faces aren’t always the right choice, they seem too unattainable and therefore less relatable.

Want to attract attention? Choose the right images for your #website, #posts, and #ads. #copywriting #socialmedia #design #SmallBiz
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Images to express a benefit

Images can help you express all the benefits of your product at a glance.

A perfect example of what I mean here is this one:

This ad is for Keloptic, a French optician brand, created by the agency Y&R Paris.

It’s striking because it ticks all the boxes:

1. It breaks our mental patterns (we’ve never seen Van Gogh’s face so clearly in one of his self-portraits) and therefore it forces us to look and pay attention
2. and it expresses at a glance the main benefit of their product.

Images also serve to demonstrate other types of benefits.

For example, size, as Squareup does to show the compactness of their chip readers:

You can also demonstrate the size of your product by taking the photo from below and putting your product next to other objects that serve as a reference.

Burger King does it to show their burgers are big:

The before/after images work very well in many cases to show the benefits of your product or service. Like this one of a hair transplant clinic:

Which images not to use

• Don’t choose bland stock images. Like those of people working on a MacBook with a latte.

These photos don’t contribute anything and won’t help you stand out because you can see exactly the same ones in different places. They don’t compel any benefits, they aren’t striking and they don’t make people want to be there at that moment.

• Photos of large groups of people don’t work as well because it’s more difficult to identify with one of them.

Best use images of individuals or small groups.

• Be careful with images that are too heavy and slow down your website.

Use a plugin to optimise the images’ size. I use optimizador.io.

• Poor quality images. If you don’t want people to think your company is shoddy, watch out for those blurry, low-resolution images.

Don’t upload photos that have been sent to you via WhatsApp. They always lose in quality.

• Images of beautiful landscapes that have nothing to do with your product or service.

I see this a lot. Coaches, SaaS companies, plumbers, whatever, who randomly add in a picture of some snowed peaks and a blue lake.

These images serve no purpose to your business. Visitors haven’t landed on your website to look at pretty landscapes. They just want to find our quickly how you can help. Use images that make sense and help you express your value.

• Metaphorical images that confuse the message

Imagine you are a coach and you say on your website “Take the bull by the horns” and you decide to accompany the copy with a picture of a bullfighter.

This image may confuse your reader. What’s this? A coach or a bullfighting school?

Keep in mind that people often don’t read the whole copy, but scan it and read only single sentences.

Want to attract attention? Choose the right images for your #website, #posts, and #ads. #copywriting #socialmedia #design #SmallBiz
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To sum up

Before choosing an image for your website or socials ask yourself these questions:

• Is there a clear advantage? For example, does this image present my product or service well?
• Does it help people understand what I mean?
• Does this image create an emotional appeal? For example, does it help prospects visualise themselves using the product pictured?
• How does this image relate to my brand and does it appeal to my target audience?
• What message does this image send – if any?
• How will prospects respond to this image and will it change their opinion? For example, will it help facilitate the buying process?

If you aren’t sure about the answers to these questions, think again before uploading that image.

Maybe you want to choose a different one that better conveys what you want to transmit and that will attract your prospects’ attention.

I hope this mini-copy class has helped you better understand how to choose your images.

Now you know how important images are to enhance your copy and vice versa!

See you around!

Want to attract attention? Choose the right images for your #website, #posts, and #ads. #copywriting #socialmedia #design #SmallBiz
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For that, you should create a campaign and filter the audience so your ads reach the right buyer persona and give you better results.

But I’m not going to talk about strategy here, but about copywriting and how to generate great ideas so your ads stand out and move people to click.

If your ad goes unnoticed, doesn’t engage, doesn’t bring anything new and doesn’t encourage people to click on the link, no matter how spot-on is your strategy, you aren’t going to get the results you want.

In this copywriting lesson, you’ll learn several techniques to generate ideas that will help you create original, fun, exciting and clickable ads.

We’re going to see how to decide which image or video best expresses that idea, and which copy will make the whole thing make sense.

Because the image is as important as the copy that accompanies it. One without the other won’t work.

I’m not going to fool you, it’s not easy to stand out, there’s already too much of everything and people are tired of ads.

Every ad that appears on a feed feels like an interruption, so, as Bob Thacker says: “If you’re going to crash the party, at least bring champagne”.

If you’re going to interrupt, make it worthwhile.

Many of the techniques you’ll learn in this lesson are taken from the book “A Self-Help Guide For Copywriters” by Dan Nelken I strongly recommend you to read.

We’re going to talk about how to entertain and make people smile with an ad, but also how to make an ad effective.

Because you should never lose sight of the ultimate goal of an ad, which is simply to SELL. And let’s be clear, if your ad is cringeworthy or goes unnoticed, there will be no sale.

Let’s start!

What makes an idea stick?

The ideas that catch our attention are those that break predetermined patterns and are easy to get and memorise.

In the book Made to Stick, the Heath brothers decode the formula for a brilliant and catchy idea. These are the ingredients:

• Simple – goes to the essential and universal
• Unexpected – captures people’s attention by breaking predetermined patterns
• Concrete – the idea is specific, 0 generalities
• Credible – it isn’t too fantastic, it seems real
• Emotional – touches an emotion
• Story – any concept is best understood through a story

The majority of great ads have most, if not all, of these ingredients.

Pay special attention to the first ingredient of the formula, it has to be simple. But don’t confuse simplicity with something vapid or silly.

Good ideas have been carefully thought through. If an idea is simple, it means that you first had to go to the core of the concept in order to get the essential and universal out of it.

And to get the gist of it you have to go to the heart of the matter.

For example, imagine you sell an accounting software. One of the features is that it sends alerts when invoices are about to reach their due date.

What’s at the heart of the matter here?

That you won’t pay penalties for delays (this is the benefit).

You can start with this idea and add the other ingredients to transform it into a great idea.

Now think, how to make this idea more unexpected? This idea is quite obvious and doesn’t break any predetermined patterns.

What if the first thing we see is a picture of someone with a bump on their forehead? The image generates curiosity as to how they got it:

The copy would be:

“Jimmy gets a bump on his forehead at the end of each month.

He can’t help but bang his head against the wall every time he misses a due date.

Never pay penalties again. Download the HappyAccounting App”.

It’s an unexpected idea because you don’t know what the ad is about and you’re curious to know why Jimmy gets a bump so often.

It’s concrete, it refers to a specific and universal act of banging one’s head against the wall.

It’s credible, it’s something that has happened to everyone at some time.

It appeals to an emotion, the fact that you feel like an idiot every time you miss a due date and have to pay a penalty.

It tells a story, the story of Jimmy missing a due date

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This idea is something I came up with on the fly and I would certainly not present it to a client like this. I’d first have gone through the process of coming up with several original ideas until I decided which one was the best.

Let’s see how to generate lots of ideas and come up with the winning one.

The process of creating lots of good ideas

Dan Nelken in his book calls this process filling buckets.

It consists of thinking of a benefit of the product or service you want to sell and creating several buckets with other benefits derived from that main benefit.

Let’s look at this with the example of the previous section, the accounting software.

“It sends you alerts when payments are due”.

We’ll create several buckets with benefits derived from that benefit.

“You won’t pay penalties”.

“You’ll have more money to invest in your business”.

“You’ll be able to concentrate on new ideas for your business to earn more income”.

“You won’t damage the relationship with your suppliers”.

“You can utilise your memory for other things like remembering your husband’s birthday”

Keep adding ideas to this bucket until you have 10 or 20, the more the better.

What we’re really doing here is filling this bucket with benefits, features, truths and facts that serve to draw out ideas we’ll use later in our ad.

The next step is to fill each of these “ideas-buckets” with 5 or 6 new ideas to get “the benefit of the benefit, ” which we use a lot in copywriting.

Ask yourself often: “what’s the benefit of the benefit? “

In the previous example, I’ve added “you won’t damage your relationship with your suppliers” the benefit of that benefit could be that you will be able to negotiate better prices.

I’ve filled this bucket with fairly “common” and expected ideas, but if you want your ad to be fun or unexpected or both, you have to think outside the box.

And how do you get out of the ordinary?

Now comes the fun part.

How to come up with unusual ideas your competition will wish they thought about them first

The previous process is necessary and will give you good ideas for your ads, but it may not help you generate those original ideas your competition hasn’t come up with first.

To generate more unusual ideas you should ask yourself different questions. You know the old saying:

“To get to different solutions you have to ask different questions”.

This part of the process is where you can play around and get a bit crazy. It doesn’t matter if the ideas seem rubbish to you, the important thing is to write them all down and get on with it. Bad ideas lead to good ideas, but you have to go through the whole process.

To generate new and unusual ideas, you should create other buckets with answers to questions like, What would life be like without your product? Or with too much of it?

Exaggerate life with and without it and go to extremes to explore unexpected dimensions. An example of this would be the bump on the front, we’re exaggerating what life would be like without the product.

This billboard is an excellent example of exaggeration done well:

Another trick to get more original ideas is the so-called 180-degree thinking. This method consists of directing your mind to the opposite end of the spectrum from where you would naturally go.

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Let’s look at this with the example of the accounting software. One way to go to the other extreme of the product or the benefits it offers would be to think of doing the accounting manually, for example with an abacus.

We could see a man dressed as an ancient Roman using an abacus and a headline that reads:

“Your accounting made easy, fast and without having to dust it”.

(It’s not brilliant, but it’s what I came up with on the fly without filling the buckets. If I had filled them, this headline would be much better.)

How to get out of a creative rut

Coming up with new ideas isn’t always easy. There are times when you feel uninspired and nothing comes up to your mind.

And you start panicking because the deadline is immovable and fast approaching.

In these moments you need to sit your bum on the chair and do the following exercises that will help you unblock the creative part of your brain and make it want to collaborate.

One is to set yourself a challenge. Set yourself a time limit of 15 minutes in which you have to write down 20 or 30 ideas.

No one is looking, people won’t even see them, it doesn’t matter if they are crap, the important thing is that you write down 20 or 30 ideas in those 15 minutes.

Thinking at that speed will help you silence your inner critic who paralyses you by trying to sink your self-esteem and telling you how much you suck.

Since you have to think very fast, you won’t give him time to bother you.

Another way to unlock your creativity is to set yourself other types of challenges such as limiting yourself to 3-word sentences or finding an analogy for that product and writing 10 sentences starting with “It’s like…”.

“This software is like having an accountant but without paying her annual leave.”

Something that can also help you activate the creative part of your brain is to use pen and paper and to draw even if you aren’t great at it.

Remember, no one will see it, it’s just for you until you find that Big Idea that will be the one you present to your client.

Other ways to unlock creative thinking:

• Imagine you are addressing 6-year-olds.
• Think of a character or celebrity and try to write as if he or she were speaking (one often used is Master Yoda and his peculiar way of speaking, but it could be Boris Johnson or Antonio Banderas).
• Write sentences as if they were book or film titles (The software that came from the future to save your business).
• Write a page telling a story about your product and start with “Once upon a time…”.

And above all, don’t judge yourself, take it as if you are just playing and trying it out, so your inner critic will be less likely to ruin your morning.

And when he does, tell him, don’t worry, I’m not going to show it to anyone, it’s just for me and he’ll leave you alone (just for a little while, because the bastard always comes back).

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To sum up

We often think we aren’t creative because we push ourselves to write something GREAT on the first try and that’s impossible.

All the great ideas you see out there are the result of a lot of discarded copy and crumpled pieces of paper thrown away (metaphorically, thank goodness we don’t waste so much paper anymore).

Everyone can come up with good ideas if they put their mind to it. Some people may find it less difficult than others, but if you put your mind to it and you allow yourself to play with all the possibilities, I’m sure you too can get there in time.

It’s all about showing up and silencing your inner critic in every possible way in order to let you think clearly.

Go and get those great ideas!

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You’ve got that perfect product description and you’re ready to sell like hotcakes.

But now it’s time to introduce the price in the copy and you are stuck.

You haven’t added it yet and already feel you’ve grown scary fangs.

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

It was the same for me at the beginning, as it’s for most people.

You want the price to reflect all the value of your product or service but you’re always afraid prospects will consider it too expensive.

Luckily, in copywriting there are some techniques to avoid sounding like an unscrupulous salesman and, above all, to make people feel they’re getting great value for a more than reasonable price.

Shall we see them?

Sell something that people want and don’t need

Very rarely do we buy things we genuinely need.

Most of the time we buy a product or hire a service because we just want it.

It’s much easier to sell something people want than something they need.

People should feel they’re free to choose whether they want to buy it or not. They shouldn’t feel we’re pushing our product or service down their throats.

The difference between selling something they need and something they want is both simple and complex at the same time.

Or rather, you need to do both.

Let me explain.

You have to:

First > Embellish your product, so people want it.

Second > Justify their purchase, so people believe they need it.

If you can convince them they want it, and then that they need it, you’ve got it.

And how do we get them to want it?

If you’ve written a great headline, followed it up with a compelling lead, conveyed all the benefits of your product, added powerful testimonials and justified the purchase with features and authority, you should have already put a very clear picture in your prospects’ mind of what your product or service will do for them.

You’d have achieved for them not to consider the price an issue, and that everything revolves around the value.

Sure, in an ideal world!

But the truth is that when it comes time for our prospects to get their credit cards out, they can’t help but worry about the price again and question whether they can afford it.

That’s why you need to present the price of your product or service in a way that makes it look like a bargain compared to the amazing value prospects will get.

And how do we achieve this?

There are several ways. Let’s look at the main ones.

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Introduce your product or service immediately after a more expensive one.

It’s psychological.

When you introduce an expensive product your prospect is already mentally prepared for what’s coming because they start to understand what kind of business they’re in – physically or virtually-.

If you’ve been to London you’ve probably visited Harrods, the luxurious department store.

You’re well aware that everything costs an arm and a leg there.

So you’re wandering through 500 pounds table linens and suddenly you notice a lovely, very British mug with little painted flowers and you see that it’s on sale for £19.99 which in Euros is about 24 €.

And you run to the cashier and buy it.

A 24 euro mug that you would never have bought if you had seen it at Zara Home!

But being in Harrods and seeing super expensive products made you consider that mug a bargain.

In your business, you can use a similar technique but without having to set exorbitant prices only for millionaires.

It’s about putting one of your most expensive products or a Special service and then the product or service you really want to sell.

When your prospect sees the product or service considerably cheaper than the previous one will think it’s a bargain and will be more willing to buy it.

Have you seen this technique with the label saying “most popular”?

It’s always the plan or package with a price in the middle, neither the most expensive nor the cheapest.

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Introduce the price in a smaller unit

This technique works very well for memberships.

Instead of introducing the price per month or per year, do it as a price per day, so it´ll make it seem much more affordable.

As, for example, some services and software do:

Note how they highlight the membership they are interested in selling, which is the Standard Edition.

Compare the price with an unnecessary but common product or service.

I’m sure you’ve seen this technique somewhere before:

“For the price of a latte”.

“For the price of a jumper that will become just another piece of clothing in your wardrobe”.

When your prospects put these things into perspective, they realise that their money could be better spent buying your product or service.

But be careful, you should compare it to something that isn’t an absolute necessity.

For example, don’t compare it to the cost of a loaf of bread because bread is considered necessary.

Or with something unusual that your prospect would never think of buying, such as “for the price of a pair of VR goggles” because they won’t feel related.

Add extras or bonuses

Sometimes adding a few bonuses, if it’s a digital product such as a course or an e-book, or small accessories or surprises, if it’s a physical product, helps to increase the perception of value and therefore the price seems more than justified.

An extra can be a webinar, a manual, lipstick, a sticker, etc.

They don’t necessarily need to be expensive things but knowing that these extras are free will encourage the purchase.

Because there’s nothing more magical than the word FREE.

It also helps to add the price of that free extra to give it even more value, and to present your digital product with an image that looks like something material as Udemy here:

Offer payment facilities

When your product involves a significant sum, think of all those prospects who are willing to buy but cannot afford it.

But what if they could pay for it in several instalments?

Then they will be happy to buy.

Think about it, it may be the solution to increase your sales.

Add the price in a smaller font

Some studies have found that adding the price in a smaller font size helps to create the perception that the price is not so high.

Psychologically, we are used to perceiving big things as big.

So a small price has to be small too.

Take the focus off the price.

Besides writing it in a smaller font, don’t emphasise it with flashy colours.

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Explain clearly what prospects need to do to buy

Your prospects are on a thousand things at once.

She is reading your sales page or ad, but she is also making sure the tomato sauce in the saucepan doesn’t get burnt, that her toddler doesn’t eat a cat’s hairball and thinking she needs to call her mum with whom she hasn’t spoken in days.

So don’t be afraid to state the obvious when you add your Call-to-Action buttons and when you explain how to pay.

Tell your prospect exactly what to do, how to do it and that you want them to do it right now.

When your prospect is about to take an action that will cost them money, time and effort, this level of detail gives them certainty and comfort about what to do next and what to expect.

“Click here to add it to your cart.

After you make the payment you’ll receive an email of confirmation. A day later you’ll receive another email with your tracking number so you can track your package.”

Having a good knowledge of UX copywriting will help you write all the messages your prospects need to read to understand what they need to do next.

If you want your reader to take action, use specific language with clear and concrete details.

Leave no doubt about what you want to happen. And don’t be afraid to be “too obvious”.

Remember, your prospects aren’t stupid, it’s just that they aren’t giving their full attention to your sales page or ad.

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You’ve invested some cash in social media ads and AdWords but people don’t click on them, and, therefore, don’t buy.

And you ask yourself,

why? What am I doing wrong? My product is great but I can’t stand out from the rest.

Before giving up, stay and read this post.

It may help you find the best way to sell your product on the Internet.

There are several reasons why a product doesn’t sell enough.

But if you think your product is really good and there’s room for it on the market, you should ask yourself the following question:

Am I really transferring my enthusiasm to the audience?

Let me explain.

What’s in reality the act of selling?

Selling is a transfer of enthusiasm. It’s getting people to see your product or service with the same enthusiasm as you do.

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Isn’t that the base of every sale?

Unbridled enthusiasm is when we buy something online and we hear the doorbell some days later, and we sense it’s the delivery man, so we run like crazy to open the door.

Because we can’t wait to get our hands on that product.

But how do we transfer that enthusiasm to prospects in the first place so they click the buy button?

This is what we’re going to see in this post.

Are you staying?

Then, let’s go!

Sell a concept rather than just a product or service

If you limit yourself to just selling a product or service itself, it’ll be much more difficult to get people excited.

The only exception to this rule is when the product is so new and unique that the product itself becomes the concept.

Like the first iPhone.

The copywriters who wrote the copy for the first iPhone only had to highlight its features for everyone wanting one.

But if your product or service isn’t unique and revolutionary you will need to create enthusiasm with more resources than just listing features.

You’ll have to put all your sharpness on the table in order to differentiate it from the competition and transform it into a desirable concept.

People don’t buy products or services, they buy the promise of how that product or service will make them feel.

You need to keep this in mind when advertising your product.

How to transform your product into a desirable concept

Sometimes the concept will be intrinsically associated with the product (the first iPhone), and other times we’ll have to create the concept from scratch.

Even for boring products, you can come up with a concept that stands out from the rest.

Like this ad.

What could be more boring than simple rubber bands?

Still, the copywriter has found a concept to make them more attractive.

They are no mere bands, they are weapons of class disruption!

Finding the concept that will differentiate your product isn’t a piece of cake.

You’ll have to study it from all angles, talk to prospects, spy on your competition, etc.

All the information you can gather is more than welcome.

And with that information, you’ll have to think long and hard to create a winning concept.

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Often, telling a story about your product helps to sell the concept more than the product.

Like in the next example:

This is a great story told by Joe Sugarman – one of the best direct response copywriters in history – which I read in his book Copywriting Handbook.

Back in the 80s, in the middle of the Cold War, Sugarman wanted to sell a small chess computer.

It was a good product but it didn’t sell well since there was a lot of competition.

Sugarman decided then to make use of the current affairs to create an ad with a hook. An ad that told a story and didn’t just list the computer’s features.

He asked Anatoli Karpov, the Soviet chess champion, for permission to use his name in order to endorse the product.

The ad reads as follows:

Headline: “Soviet Challenge”

Subheadline: “Can an American chess computer beat the Soviet chess champion? A confrontation between American space-age technology and a Soviet psychological weapon”

Copy: The Soviet Union regards chess as a psychological weapon, not just a game. It’s a symbol of Communism’s culture struggle with the West.

So when the Russian Anatoli Karpov competed against the Russian defector Victor Kornochi, he had the entire Soviet Union’s resources at his disposal, including a hypnotist and neuropsychologist.

Karpov won. And with it the world’s undisputed chess championship. Karpov, however, has never confronted American space-age technology and in particular JS&A’s new chess computer.”

The ad didn’t end there but went on about this great challenge adding drama to it.

Isn’t it wonderful?

Try to get into the average American’s mindset back then.

The Cold War was making all the headlines.

The Americans were obsessed with the topic and there was nothing they wanted more than to show their superiority over the Russians.

Sugarman wasn’t selling the computer itself, but the concept of the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the U.S., and as a result, he sold more than 20,000 computers while his competitors were scratching their heads.

This example helps us to realise how important it is to be aware of what’s going on around us and to use current affairs to create enthusiasm.

Like this clinic has done. Brilliant use of the current state of things.

Catchy slogans and headlines

Smart slogans and headlines can also help to sell a product better.

Because they make them stand out and get stuck in our minds.

Have you ever wondered what makes a slogan catchy?

Redbull gives you wings

Because you’re worth it

Every little helps

A slogan exists to express that promise contained in the Big Idea.

The Big Idea is the concept on which we’ve based our marketing strategy.

 Recommended reading: The secret to selling more: The Big Idea

You don’t have to rack your brains to get your slogan to rhyme (although if it rhymes it’s more likely to be catchy) but it does have to be written in simple language.

Using humour also works, although you need to be careful since, lately, it’s difficult to make jokes without offending some group or another.

The most important thing is to know your audience really well so you can connect emotionally with them.

See, for instance, the excellent campaign from Ikea with the catchphrase Tomorrow starts tonight.

IKEA highlights the benefits of good sleep by comparing it to “miracle” products that promise the same result but seldom deliver, featuring vitamin supplements, energy drinks and anti-ageing creams.

So they make a case for the power of having the right bedtime accessories.

This is another brilliant example of how to sell the concept rather than the product itself.

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The truth is that no one has time.

We are in a constant hurry, we’ve got children to pick up from school, work to finish, dinners to prepare, Instagram stories to watch… In short, life keeps us all very busy.

So your ad or organic post isn’t going to get people’s attention unless it does one of these things:

• Awakes our curiosity
• Amuses us
• Promises to improve our lives in a way we consider important
• Solves a problem we are suffering from
• Protects us from danger

Depending on the nature of your product or service you should appeal to one or more of these attention triggers.

Today, more than ever, attracting people’s attention is a real challenge.

It’s already difficult enough to get your partner’s or children’s attention!

So imagine getting the attention of someone who doesn’t know your brand and has thousands of distractions at her fingertips.

That’s why connecting emotionally with your audience is so important and above all, expressing perfectly how your prospect is going to benefit from what you’re offering.

Tell them something they don’t know and it’s interesting for them, use a story that moves them, explain clearly how their lives will improve, show the before and after…

Show and not just tell.

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Luckily, advertising agencies don’t create only masterpieces at Christmas, but we can recreate ourselves with greats ads throughout the year.

If you like the art of advertising as much as I do, you’ll love this compilation of some of the best ads from different countries.

We will also see why they are so good and what emotions they appeal to in each of them.

You know, we only manage to sell something when we appeal to some of the main human emotions.

Without emotion there is no sale, this is something that the first experts in advertising realised back in the 1920s.

Some things never change.

Today, we have devices that talk to us and to whom we can give orders at home, we can operate introducing micro cameras in the body and talk to someone who is thousands of miles away, watching him smile, without paying a cent for the call, just with an Internet connection.

And yet, human emotions today are the same as they were years ago, people’s desires and concerns haven’t changed much since we have recollections of them in literature.

And if you don’t believe me, take any book by Shakespeare or Dostoyevsky.

Now, without more delay, let’s see that list and have some fun!

Are you staying?

Believe in good

This life insurance ad won the best ad award in 2014. It’s full of emotion, it’s an ode to life and love.

In general, life insurance ads appeal to the most important emotions, love and care for your loving ones.

The catchphrase of this ad is one of the best I’ve seen: “Believe in good”. On one side the company is reminding us what really matters in life and by extension, they tell us that we can trust them since if they believe in good they must be good.

An insurance company knows that people usually mistrust them because we hear stories every day about insurance policies having abusive terms on fine print creating difficulties to receive compensations.

This company wants to tell us that they are not like that, because they believe in good, so they are also good.

Quite a scare

This ad is very effective because in just some seconds makes us laugh introducing at the same time the new features of the 4 seat Smart.

It shows us that the car is as compact as always but that now it fits 4 people.

The main emotion we appeal here is the humour but also how great is to do things with friends.

Mannequin factory

A national tradition since 1812, Spaniards look forward to the annual Christmas lottery even if it means standing in line for hours to purchase the tickets. Nicknamed El Gordo, which means “the fat one,” prizes are valued up to more than €2.2 billion, making it the biggest lottery prize in the world.

It’s common to “share” the lottery by buying “participaciones,” or “shared tickets” at working spaces, with friends and family, and in local bars. The belief is that the Christmas lottery is very special because it’s one that Spaniards participate in together, and if they win, they win together.

Every Christmas Spaniards look forward, with great anticipation, for the “Gordo” ad because they are always excellent, but the one of the year 2015 was definitely the best up to now.

This ad is a small film that stirs many emotions and one never gets tired of watching it.

No one wants to be alone, we all want to feel loved and part of the group.

Ameriquest

Ameriquest is a mortgage lender that has become famous in North America for its series of hilarious advertisements.

The creators play here with the situation most people encounter when they need to borrow money from a bank or mortgage lender, they feel scrutinised and unfairly judged.

Tidy up your stuff

Ikea has a team of brilliant advertisers who know exactly how to captivate and entertain audiences. They tell little stories of every day’s life, with which we can all feel related.

Every day little problems that we can all face at some time, like this one…

Penguin

Buying Christmas presents is often a headache but John Lewis, the British department stores, reminds us of how much they can mean for our loving ones and therefore we should try our best to surprise them with just what they need…

Brothers

Coca-Cola has been making great ads since the 70s. And you know why they are so fantastic? Because they always manage to appeal to the emotional part of ourselves, displaying every-day life snapshots that make us feel tender.

Music is also very important in their ads. Music can magnify emotions much more than anything else.

Caterpillars

I love this ad from Japan. It’s funny, it’s tender, it’s clever and it’s original.

And most of all, it does its main job: convince us that we can trust the quality of the product.

But I don’t tell you more so you can enjoy it without knowing too much in advance!

We’ve already seen some of my favourite ads.

They all have a bit of genius but above all, they do their job. While some of them are more effective than others in generating the desire to buy, in general, TV ads need to entertain.

They don’t seek a direct response from prospects as an advertisement on social media does, but rather to build brand awareness. So that when we go to the supermarket or decide to buy a car we choose that product.

Do you want to join the fun? Leave me your favourite ads in the comments!

Download the free guide here.

Featured photo by Rhett Noonan on Unsplash