Promotional WritingConcepts

Review

Nobody cares about you and your web site. People are only there to get their needs met. What does the visitor want from the site?

What questions does she bring that need answers? What problems does she want solved?

Different approach from traditional advertising that “disrupts.”

Applying AIDA Formula to Web

What is the AIDA formula?

Attention (and trust)+ Interest to Click (Review)

Home page as store window 4 Kinds of Content for 4 Kinds of Visitors Breadth and Menu Bars Headline and Images Organize information well on the page. After you get attention (and trust), the goal

is to persuade the viewer to click into the site.

Dominant image and Headlineget attention AND entice all 4kinds of viewers to click

Desire (New Info) The internal pages of a web site stimulate desire through

the details (another “D”)—for example, product descriptions, service explanations, FAQs, simulations, etc.

Show how the product/service will satisfy a need Answer all of the questions the visitor might have in

order to buy (different from traditional ads) Address any possible objections you anticipated the

visitor might have Prove the benefits of the product, service, or

organization

Action (call to action)

What are the actions you want your viewer to take? (buy, donate, etc.)

Make it easy for people to do that, right from the home page (example, a button to donate).

When possible, make an offer (free gift, percentage off, two-for-one, etc.) to give viewers a reason to buy immediately, right from the home page.

In addition, provide a guarantee if you believe one would help the sale. Examples: Satisfaction guaranteed, only pay when the work is done, try it free for 30 days.

Even hedonistic entertainment should move the viewer to take the desired action.

Creativity without strategy can even undermine selling (example, Retro Homes).

www.hungrysuitcase.com

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

What is it?

Unique Selling Proposition

What makes a person buy your product or service instead of a competitor's

Things that are not USPs: “high quality,” “great customer service,” and other things that everyone claims.

Branding, image, and design can function as USP as well.

Verizon claims that it has more extensive range of service areas and a better quality of network than other wireless services, so its home page headline today is “Richer, Deeper, Broader.”

What can you do if your product has no USP?

Create a USP Tout a feature or benefit that your

competition hasn’t focused on Develop unique branding

Apple has done all these things. Even though is only has 5% of the market share, runs only 1/3 of the software that PCs can run, and costs more for the product and support on average, it still survives by selling an image.

Here Apple introduces a hot new product and features its USP in the headline and dominant visual. Video appeals to all 4 kinds of visitors.

Internet Writing isSoft Sell with Valuable Content

However, some traditional advertising guidelines

still apply.

Writing With Visuals

Show the benefits of the product, service, or organization in action (example: VH1)

Color draws over black and white usually Photos draw over line art, w/some

exceptions

What to Sell

“Sell the Dream” (not mundane reality)

Sell benefits first (and features secondarily)

Sell the Sizzle Not the Steak

QUESTIONS?

(so far?)