Direct response copywriting is sales copy with the purpose of driving an immediate response from your audience.
A lot of the ads you’ll come across, such as those big brand awareness campaigns of McDonald’s or Nike make up a different school of advertising entirely. and serve mainly to raise awareness of a brand. direct response is looking to get an immediate response from the customer. This sense of urgency is conveyed in the copy. You want the customer to feel he’s missing out on an opportunity if he doesn’t pick up the phone right now.
Early on in your copywriting journey, you should know, copywriting is scientific.
Over the years it has been tested and tested and tested with more money than you could ever imagine. In fact, people had it figured out 100 years ago, and the best practices developed over time are still 100% relevant today. The book Scientific Advertising, for instance, was written in 1923. It is still hailed as one of the most important books you should read on advertising and copywriting.
Why is direct response copywriting so valuable?
The success of your ad can be measured. Make a unique email address or phone number for this particular ad and you can see exactly how many sales it made. Copywriters can also ask for a percentage commission of those sales like any salesman and make a very pretty penny.
Of all the forms of copywriting, direct response gets the highest acclaim. It requires the highest skill. Top level direct response copywriters can thus command a very high rate. They are directly closing the sales.
Think of those landing pages you come across, driving you to buy now and on the next page up-selling you. Those pages can often make 100,000s alone. If the page is for an evergreen product, that page could generate sales for months or years to come.
Imagine yourself in the position of a small business owner with a limited market in his local town. You don’t have millions to spend on a big brand awareness campaign. You can’t try to get people subconsciously wanting the new burgers you’re selling. you need to see quantifiable results, but how do you know what works?
To maximise the potential of their ads, copywriters utilise A/B testing to compare what works. A copywriter writes two copies of the same ad, changing the entire copy or perhaps only changing the headline. The ad has two specific phone numbers for people to call, only used for these ads. The version that creates the most sales becomes known as the ‘control’ and the game from then on becomes ‘beat the control’.
Both the copywriter and business owner can clearly see the result and the business grows. Improving and adjusting the copy along the way.
Direct response has its roots in old mail order ads. People would write back and request to buy the product.
A copywriter with a portfolio of high return copy could charge whatever he wanted. This depends on the budget of the business of course.
Some examples of direct response copy are:
- Infomercials
- Brochures
- Landing pages
- Emails
- Leaflets/fliers
- Newspaper ads
Now how does this copywriting process work?
How do you write direct response copy?
Direct response is a step by step process. You’ll find some copywriters prefer to start with the headline, others with the main copy.
Copywriters each have their own style and workflow. It would be a good idea to look at best practices and use copywriting formulas until you get the hang of it.
The most well known formula is called A.I.D.A:
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
For instance you grab the readers attention with the headline and image (if there is one). You interest them with your opening. you pique their desire through a run through of the features that will benefit the reader. Then conclude with a firm yet simple call to action. Here the reader will then buy, sign up or whatever the purpose of the ad is.
To get to the point where you can effectively do this, you must understand your audience and their desires and pains. Copywriting is of course all about the reader.
A lot of companies write all their pages in the first person: “We are a company that always strives to be the best at managing assets.” As opposed to “Imagine your assets secure for years to come.” The personal touch reaches the customer and makes it more effective
The headline draws them in
You don’t need me to tell you how important the headline is. If it doesn’t instantly grab a reader’s attention, they won’t even get as far as the first paragraph. But your header needs to get the right people in, there’s no use trying to find that absolutely perfect headline that grabs everyone’s attention.
Grabbing everyone’s attention will lose the attention of the people you want to see it. They won’t know it’s for them.
Your headline introduces a promise. If it is not cultivated and delivered in the main copy, your reader will distrust your offer and be turned off.
You are establishing a frame of reference in your headline. For example if your product is a tool to speed up websites you need to position your product around all things speed.
‘The lightning speed of it leaves the competition in the dust… even downloading it takes just seconds.’
Find the right button and keep pushing it.
What about those ridiculous claims that are so obviously scams?
People often doubt those claims, but the real secret is these claims all came from somewhere (unless you’re dealing with an actual scammer of course).
A copywriter will often do a very deep dive into the business they’re advertising for. They are looking for a unique selling proposition. The thing that sets this business or offer apart.
From the data gathered, many hypothetical claims, that can actually be backed by a look into the business’s numbers, can be made. For instance look at this ad from ‘The Motley Fool”:
Big promises are one way to look at headlines.
The key to writing a good headline is truly understanding the specific audience you’re writing to.
You’re not writing to everybody.
You want that small corner of interested readers who will read through your copy. They’ll understand what they want to find out and what they want to solve.
Remember to keep the sales page very pointed, you are there for one specific purpose. Your copy should all align towards that one purpose, starting with the headline.
The headline introduces the promise and the copy builds upon it.
How to interest the reader
As a direct response copywriter you’ve done your research and probably found what makes this business unique. At least an angle to tackle the audience that the competitors haven’t yet tackled.
Find some unique aspect of the product. It could be a story, part of its manufacturing process, or anything unique. It sets it apart from the other products in the same category and compels a person emotionally to buy it. This will fulfil the main or primary promise of the product.
Look at the amazon bestsellers and you’ll find this book ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A counterintuitive approach to living a good life’. People want to live a good life, that’s the promise and they have an emotional investment in that. “Counterintuitive you say? ‘Does that mean I’m doing it wrong, maybe that’s why I’m not living a good life…?” Then you have the main title, the mechanism to achieve this promise, by this ‘subtle art of not giving a f*ck’. Interest raised, sales, sales, sales.
How to write the main copy of your sales page
Now the headline is pinpointing the audience that wants this product. You’ve interested them to achieve the primary promise of your product. Your job now is to answer every question they could possibly have that might stop them from buying. Now you are continuing to interest and build desire.
Does it solve the problem they want to solve? A good practice when working with a client is to either get past survey results they have or do a new survey of their audience. See the viewpoint of their buyers, how do they think, feel and live their lives?
When they interact with your copy they are only thinking of their own benefits. How can this product help them?
So you must be able to envision yourself in their position reading this copy. Does it speak to their pains, their desires and concerns?
What are features and benefits?
In different industries, the focus shifts between benefits and features.
Features are the qualities or aspects of the product. Benefits reflect on the the reader and tell him why this product helps him. Features tell readers what, whereas benefits tell them why.
Here are some examples for a car:
| Features | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Leather padded seats | Comfort for those long drives |
| Air conditioning | Keep cool on summer days |
| In built navigation | Never get lost |
| Reinforced suspension | Smooth driving on whatever terrain |
Give it a go, have a look around for a product you could sell in the room. Make a list of 10 features and translate them into benefits for the reader. If you want, try it with different products and determine if the product would best be described by its features or benefits.
In a hyper-competitive industry such as smartphones, it may be beneficial to highlight the features. The techno-centric audience wants to know them. Each company ends up often trying to one-up their competitors like with new camera upgrades every year.
We’re just interested in what is practical and workable, not just for the big companies. If your reader wants this product he’ll consume every piece of content about it until he’s ready to make a decision.
If you haven’t provided any more than a catchy slogan and a paragraph of your company’s ethos, then you’ll get nowhere.
They need to make an informed decision, and higher priced items often take a person more time to consider the purchase. Especially if you’re trying to take them away from a competitor whose product they’ve used and they know works.
Grab their attention with the headline, pique their interest and desires and finally call them to action.
How to write a call to action
In direct response copywriting, the call to action (CTA) is the final piece of the puzzle. It’s the point where you get the reader to do something and it must have some weight to it.
You are getting them to do something very specific. if you allow them to be distracted you could lose the sale, which is why in most direct response there is only one call to action.
Sometimes a call to action can be dotted around the page for those already closed to easily access. that can be tested to find the best placements, but usually it’s at the end.
A key point on this is to try to avoid generic CTAs like ‘submit’ or ‘get now’. Try to make it fit in the overall frame of the copy, see this Adespresso post for great examples.
How to become a direct response copywriter
Interested? I thought so… this is still a very lucrative field, and a field so well mapped out.
To get into this field you have some reading ahead of you. What better place to start than the reading list suggested by Gary Halbert:
| “Scientific Advertising” -by Claude Hopkins |
| “The Robert Collier Letter Book” -by Robert Collier |
| “Tested Advertising Methods” -by John Caples |
| “How To Write A Good Advertisement” -by Vic Schwab |
| “The Gary Halbert Letter” (all back issues) -by Gary Halbert |
| “The Boron Letters” -by Gary Halbert |
| “The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches” -by Joe Karbo |
| “Break-Through Advertising” -by Eugene M. Schwartz |
| “7-Steps To Freedom” -by Ben Suarez |
His suggestion, read them all, don’t take notes, engulf every one, then read them all again and start taking notes.
Next: successful ads, a great resource is swiped.co. They store and analyse classic and modern ads. Study them, rewrite them in your own way, compare them to the fundamentals of copywriting, learn why the advertiser did what he did.
Next: find a company in a niche you like and apply what you’ve learned to write an ad for one of their products. Do this a few times, build up a file of these, they’re known as ‘spec ads’.
Next: directly reach out to companies already advertising. Ones with landing pages and content, offer your services, never mind you don’t have experience, somebody will take you. Start with low risk short form copy, such as copy to place around the website. Build yourself up, getting testimonials along the way and gradually working up to larger companies.
You’ll be on your way, this tactic is commonplace amongst copywriters. You are eliminating competition by placing yourself directly in your future client’s mailbox. you’d be amazed at how willing companies are to accepting cold emails like this.
You show up often when a company needs your services. They don’t want to sift through job sites for hours, you’re right there.
Remember to use email tracking software to see when they read your emails. Follow up on them multiple times. It may take a few emails to close them.
Good luck!
Rafael