AIDA

Finally you've reached the final stage of the AIDA saga. The past few articles have shown you how to grab your readers’ attention, get their interest, and create a desire for your product. Now all you have to do is get them to take action. The best way to get your reader to take action is through the use of testimonials. These are a fantastic motivator and a tool that every freelance copywriter should have in their writing armoury. Avoid the temptation edit client testimonials. They may contain the odd grammatical or punctuation error but this is exactly what you want – it makes them real. Another way is by offering free samples, statistics, a free trial or money-back guarantee. If you have the option of using these why not use them all or a combination ...

My previous two articles have looked at how to attract attention and interest so now we are onto the 'D' of AIDA - so just how do you create a desire? Any sales person will confirm that getting someone to interested in something is one thing, but to get them to want it is entirely different. That's because what we actually want makes up only a small percentage of the things we are interested in. As a freelance copywriter I always keep one thought in mind whenever writing for clients - when someone wants something they’ll convince themselves that they really need it. Bring the product to life You need to use words to create a picture and make your readers 'see’ what their lives would be like with your product. Play on their emotions. Will they appear ...

Following on from my last article, we're now going to discover how you can attract your readers' interest in what you are selling. How do you do that? Well, your reader has a problem – they are feeling stressed, bored or unfulfilled. It's down to you to find a way to tie your product to their problem as the solution. A metaphorical arm around their shoulder Freelance copywriters can be described as counsellors. We have to be able to show our readers that we understand how they feel. We then we promise to take the problem away - all  they have to do is buy your product. The golden rule here is to make sure you write about the solution not the problem – negativity won't help your case. Think about this question - ‘How will my reader’s life be ...

Every freelance copywriter lives by a certain set of letters. AIDA provides all the elements your writing needs to make a sale. If your copywriting skills are going to be effective you have to learn how to: - Capture your readers Attention - Arouse their Interest - Create a Desire - Get them to take Action. I am going to break this down over the course of the next few articles. So to start with we'll take a look at how to go about grabbing your readers Attention. How does a copywriter grab their readers’ attention? If you're writing direct mail, web copy, reports etc., your attention grabber is an effective headline. If you are writing an email, it's the subject line. To save complicating matters this article will concentrate on the writing of a sales letter. Your headline will be ...