Main Tips for Copywriting - Essay Example

Copywriting Advertising in all its forms adds much to the quality of the product and the result of its production. Different mediums also make special demands as to the form and content of the advertising copy. In the following survey three kinds of advertising materials will be observed. All of them belong to the same company, producing online, shareware and CD games for PC, PDA and smartphones. These materials are as follows: a newsletter with the advertising of a new game, a printed advertisement of a new CD released and a banner as the sample of online advertising. It is necessary to observe the main tips that a copywriter needs to observe while writing this or that kind of material. The first item to be examined is a newsletter that is delivered to the user by mail. The main points that are to be considered mostly concern the form of the future writing. The heading should be informative and brief. It should contain the information that would grab a customer's attention and make him read further. (Hallahan) The best of all would be to indicate the benefit which would be available for the customer with the help of the product advertised. Of course, creativeness and figurativeness are welcome, as they add emotional element. Surely, headline may also implement other idea - it may be intriguing, but not obscure, or it may contain some underlying theme, but this should be clear enough to be understood by any customer.(Hallahan) The newsletter we observe starts with the headline "Bubble Obsession marches into battle". It may seem unclear and senseless at first sight, but some clarification will be helpful. This newsletter is delivered to the existing clients of the company, not to the potential customers to engage them to buy a new version of an old product, a "Bubble Shooter" game, so they know what it is going about and they are getting informed that the following text will tell them about new features of an old product. In case this text is seen by a person who didn't see the previous release, he is likely to be intrigued and to proceed reading. The other guideline advices to enumerate the most outstanding features of the product, and put them as a list of be clear and brief points, like, for instance the point "user profiles with photos of each player" in the letter we observe. The only one remark that can be referred to the point is that it is more preferable to describe a feature from the point of view of the benefit the customer would gain, rather than the feature of the product. (Hallahan) So, the point cited from the letter is to sound like "you may now create and save your profile with photo". As far as the body is concerned, it should be divided into several passages, each of them describing the features that are listed above. Here is the sample passage: "Your whole family is sure to get involved into endless hours of playing. Due to the possibility of creating player profiles, everyone's game and settings are saved separately. Here you may create your profile with the photo, your own one or one of those included into the game." The other necessary point to be followed refers to the style of the writing. It should be written in short sentences, with easy words. Active voice and present tense are also preferable. Of course, it is necessary to watch punctuation and grammar. (Hallahan) Those requirements are fulfilled in the writing: "Flexible 3D graphical effects make the game really live and breathing. You may adjust the effects fully to your taste and computer." The second copy to be examined is printed advertising. Printed ad should contain headline, subtitle, body, signature, mandatory, illustration. Subtitle elaborates the headline, giving more information, signature contains the name or logo of the company, mandatory includes terms and conditions and illustration may contain graphics. (Marcus) This copy contains all of these elements. Here is the example of the subtitle: "Our company wishes you and your families Merry Christmas and Happy holidays! We present to you our Christmas gift - Bubble Shooter Deluxe on CD. The best game only for you!!!" The body of the copy should describe the product, give its major characteristics: "Different modes, great music, stunning graphic effects and the opportunity to use your own pictures in the game". It should also engage customer into action: "Make nice Christmas present for you, your relatives and friends - get Bubble Shooter Deluxe Christmas CD". It is also necessary to stress why this product is better than others, but the profits should be real: "Replay mode helps you to analyze the last game and work out the most successful strategy. Demo mode just allows you to sit and watch relaxing movie." This copy should also be written in active voice, divided into short paragraphs, but it is necessary to use both long and short exclamatory sentences. (Marcus) It is important to address to the customer, using the pronoun "you", but not "me" or "they": "Marathon will lead you through the maze of levels with increasing difficulty." It would also be helpful to adjust the text to a standard text printed in typography, and its design will add to the subject, rather than draw customer's attention, which may break the process of sell. The third item to be examined is banner advertising. A banner is a small picture that contains advertising. In most cases it is animated, it contains the logo of the company or a screenshot of a product advertised and a small slogan or brief information about the product, company or service. Banner is designed especially for web pages, and the user is supposed to see it by chance, while surfing the internet. It means that banner should be bright and informative; it also must be original, as there are millions of banners that are rotated on the web pages. It should contain something special to make user stop and click it for more information.(How To Kick-Start Your Sales) The banner that is observed in this paper, advertises the company. It shows the name of the company and the words "online games" replacing each other. The words are yellow on the deep blue background. The banner seems not to be a really good sample of the banner, as it doesn't contain any graphics or logos, and the user will probably pass it, while looking through the pages. The only advantage of this advertising is that it includes the information about online games that are among the most popular searches in the Web. User may be attracted by this word, and this will force him to visit the site where he will find online games and a lot of shareware games that he may purchase at once. After examining three samples of copywriting it is possible to make conclusion as for the content and potential gain in sales. All these copies to some or other extent correspond to the demands, but newsletter most probably will lead to gain in sales. It is designed especially for the customers that are already aware of the product and its features. As they are addicted to the game, they are sure to try the product that combines all the features of the old one and new additional benefits. They also usually share the information with their friends and relatives, and they not only inform them about a new release, but also share their delight and advice this product to others. As the game has gained extreme popularity with the previous version, this writing would probably lead the customers to a purchase and application of this new version. Sources (1) Hallahan, Kirk. Write the ad, I pray you. Hallahan Course Resources. (2) Marcus, Bruce. Ads, Writing Effective Print. Print Advertising Copywriting and Layout: a Primer. The Marcus Letter. (3) Copywriting Tutorial - How To Kick-Start Your Sales. AdCopywrtiting Read More