Effective Copywriting

Professor Elena Rogalle

This month, I learned about establishing brand voice and tone. “Companies speak most authentically when there is no gap between who they are and how they talk” (Felton, 2013). I also created personas to represent a target market, which made a whole mass of people suddenly approachable, easy to get to know and easy to speak to.

A Call to Action closes the sale, creates an urgency to respond (Adams, 2011).

Expert copywriters connect product benefits with innate emotional needs. The 80/20 rules says that 80% of people will only read the headline.

To draw in readers, your headline can arouse curiosity, ask a question, make a provocative statement, promise a reward, give news, or provide useful information. Felton states “You don’t create copy by analyzing it, but by throwing yourself into a voice. But you do improve copy by analyzing it. Become a good critic of voices” (Felton, 2013).

9 Powerful Headline Strategies that Work

Say it simply and directly.
State the big benefit.
Announce exciting news.
Appeal to the “how to” instinct.
Pose a provocative question.
Bark a command.
Offer useful information.
Relay an honest, enthusiastic testimonial.
Authenticate your proposition with a little something extra.

Personas

The target audience for Samaritan’s Purse is composed of evangelical Christians who encompass a broad age, socio-economic and ethnic range. In creating the above personas to typify the target market, I chose both male and female from different age ranges, to illustrate that fact. A persona, according to author George Felton, is “the created self, the speaker people hear and the personality they sense through a brand’s language and imagery” (Felton, 2013). One thing that unites this disparate group is that they embrace the same biblical doctrines including the message of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). This moral story basically says that Christ’s followers are to be neighbors to anyone in need by lending aid, even financial support. This is the parable from which Samaritan’s Purse derives its name. In creating the advertising, I kept the personas I created in mind and spoke directly to them.

Staff Feedback: Excellent work on the personas, Dorothy. You have a strong handle on your target audience as demonstrated in your two audience profile narratives and you show some specific details that really bring your personas to life. Details like Brad being a software engineer and owning an English Bulldog named Elsie (the touch about her being named for his Mom is another telling feature!), and Annette being a grandmother, enjoys Mexican Dominoes, and being an Adelphi alumnus are the kind of details that bring your personas to life. The Long Island details are great! (I was born in Huntington, graduated from Central Islip High School, and went to college in upstate NY: SUNY Cortland, so her details rang true!). You are an outstanding storyteller!

Think about this: once you know your target audience so well, how will you direct your campaign messaging (your call to action) to your target audience members?

the power of effective copywriting

HEadlines that inspire

Rough Sketches

We were required to generate Testimonial Ad Sketches for our chosen charity based on 6 of Felton’s 9 testimonial types.

Headline: Help us help the Bahamas. This ad uses the Celebrities testimonial type (Felton 2013). NBA player and native Bahamian Buddy Hield teams up with Samaritan’s Purse to convince people to donate money to the cause of helping and restoring the island nation. Hield’s is a natural connection because of his nationality.
Headline: “I had never fed a starving child—until now.” –S. Johnson
This ad utilizes Felton’s Extreme user testimonial type. “Find the heavy user or the over-the-top user and let that person demonstrate, often with hyperbole, how great the product is” (Felton 2013). Ideally, the person speaking the words will not appear in the ad. Instead, there will be a closeup of a child being fed in the arms of a Samaritan’s Purse aid worker. The idea is: “I couldn’t be there myself, but my donation made this miracle possible. I played a part.”
Headline: “Whatever I can give won’t make a difference anyway.”
This ad employs The wrong person testimonial type because, as George Felton says, “Often consumers are persuaded to buy things because of a negative endorsement” (Felton 2013). It pictures small children eating bowls of rice supplied by donations—the antithesis of what the headline states. The wrong person, in this case, is the voice most of us probably hear when it comes to giving.
Headline: With similar tools Jesus established a whole kingdom. Surely, we can build some homes.
This ad employs the Not the person but something associated with the person testimonial type (Felton 2013). In the same way ad #5 uses Jesus’ words, this ad pictures a hammer and nails, reminiscent of His crucifixion, to tell a story. It appeals to the Christian’s feeling that they should be doing more to impact their world.
Headline: I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. (Matt. 25:35)
This ad employs the Historical figures, unreal people testimonial format (Felton 2013). It quotes the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:35 while showing a child pouring clean water over his head. Felton says “Characters from history, legend, literature, movies and cartoons can be used for their attention-getting quality as well as their unusual ‘relationship’ to the product” (Felton 2013).
Headline: Together, let’s do the greater works Jesus talked about.
This ad employs the President/CEO, founding mother or father, employee testimonial format (Felton 2013). Franklin Graham is the President and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse as well as a well-known Christian evangelist and son of the late Billy Graham. As Felton suggests, he puts a human face on the institution (Felton 2013), plus Franklin Graham is well liked and respected among the target audience.

Comps

I created these comps based on the three strongest concepts of the initial six above. Comp 1 shows a child smiling and drinking clean water from a new water pump supplied by Samaritan’s Purse. It is based on Felton’s Historical figures, unreal people testimonial type (the child is not speaking). The headline uses the words of Jesus Christ. Comp 2 is based on Felton’s Extreme user testimonial type. This is a person who is already a donor to Samaritan’s Purse who is ecstatic about what their money is doing in the world. Comp 3 employs the Not the person but something associated with the person testimonial type. Here, the hammer and nails, reminiscent of Jesus’ sacrifice for us is a reminder to go and do good for others.

Staff Feedback: Excellent work on the testimonial ad concepts and comps, Dorothy. According to Craig Smallish: “When we produce rough thumbnail sketches, it provides a stage for all of these pieces to come together. Essentially, it will be the first time our entire concept comes to life in one concise image. Rough sketches function as the first full visual prototype. They’re produced quickly and without much concern for composition or even aesthetics. A rough sketch is meant to communicate an idea, a rough image to tell a story.” You create six strong concepts and wrote convincing rationales.

Comps are presented to your client and represent the detailed concept images that are executed to a level that clearly illustrates every aspect of a concept. This includes how the concept is going to play out across the selected media platforms. Often times comps will include photo or illustration style references so the client can understand how the imagery may look and feel in its final form.

You have some excellent concepts started here for Samaritans Purse, but there are a few things you may consider revising to make them stronger.

Your ad copy is really good but it’s a bit too long. George Felton, in Advertising Concept & Copy says about body copy: “Great copy is lean and like an arrow: it goes where it intends, no waste or wobble…as a guideline, write your copy to the best of your ability – and then cut it in half” (Felton, 96).
Replace the drawings with actual images.
I would like you to choose a fourth ad from your six concepts and add that to your revisions for week 3.

Take these suggestions into consideration as you revise all three ads for week 3. Your rubric is attached for your review. When you revise consider that all three comps should look like they came from the same company with a branded, consistent look (you’re already there). Take these ads and create a campaign with an ad series that has continuity. Think of these revised comps as the ones you would send to the client for final approval.

Week 3 Ad Revisions

I revised the copy in all of the ads to make it shorter and leaner per Felton’s (and Prof. Rogalle’s) direction: “Great copy is lean and like an arrow: it goes where it intends, no waste or wobble…as a guideline, write your copy to the best of your ability – and then cut it in half” (Felton, 96). I also wrote about humanitarian aid projects from the website.
I replaced the sketches with actual photographs taken from the Samaritan’s Purse website. Their photo gallery is excellent and the actual images lend added credibility to the comps.
I added a fourth ad, as suggested…then a fifth. Why? Comp #3 doesn’t feel warm and personal like the rest of the campaign. So, using the same headline with a small tweak and the same body copy, I inserted a photo from the Samaritan’s Purse website to create comp #5, which is a better fit with the rest of the campaign.
The new ad, (Prof. Rogalle asked me to create a fourth ad from the original 6 sketches) #4 uses the voice of the non-user. I put the headline in italics because it’s meant to be more of a thought than an actual quote. The headline is, of course, paired with a visual that disproves that thought.
In comp #1, I replaced the image of the child with an adult man, again from the client’s website, because I wanted to give a more complete picture of the people who receive aid—not just children.

Staff Feedback: Oustanding work, Dorothy. You created a strong, cohesively branded campaign for Samaritan’s Purse. I like the variations, too. In Ad D I would put the headline in quotes and lose the italics. It looks too different from the rest of the ads with the addition of italics. Otherwise, these are great! May I use them as examples for future classes?—Prof. Rogalle

Samaritan’s Purse Taglines

The mission of my chosen charity, Samaritan’s Purse, is to provide food, clean water, disaster relief and share the Gospel worldwide. The target audience is evangelical Christians who will identify with these goals.

Help for the hurting
This tagline works because Samaritan’s Purse does a number of things well: brings food, medical care, clean water and other forms of disaster relief. The word “help” encompasses all those things. “DON’T try to say everything. On the other hand, try to say something. Preferably one thing” (Morris, 2009).
Neighbor to the needy
At the heart of the parable of the Good Samaritan (from which Samaritan’s Purse gets its name) is the definition of a neighbor as one who helps those in need (Luke 10:30-37). This tagline relays a feeling of warmth and protection borrowed from the word “neighbor”, which is exactly the right tone for this brand. George Felton refers to slogans as “portable pieces of persuasion, little chunks of language people carry around in their heads” (Felton, 2013). This tagline is catchy, persuasive and memorable.
Hope. Help. Healing.
These three simple words encompass the mission of Samaritan’s Purse, and they are memorable, partly because of their brevity and alliteration. “A tagline is a catchy word cluster that speaks to a brand’s personality and consumer experience” (Morris, 2009).Though hope, help and healing are three things, they are close enough in emotion and meaning to relay one solid brand image.
Reaching many. Reaching far.
By repeating the word “reaching,” this tagline underlines the power and inherent human emotion in going to the ends of the earth for people one doesn’t even know. Potential donors will identify with that emotion and want to be part of it. George Felton warns copywriters: “Don’t sell features; sell benefits” (Felton, 2013). Swartz refers to repetition like that used in this tagline as “epizeuxis” (Swartz, 2006).
Giving all for the sake of Christ.
This tagline contains Samaritan’s Purse’s unique selling proposition (USP) which is giving aid andsharing the Gospel. Felton instructs readers that a good tagline should “Differentiate it from the competition” (Felton, 2013). Sharing the Gospel is important to evangelical Christians.
Serving in the name of Jesus
Like the previous slogan, this one also contains the USP of serving in obedience to Christ’s command—rather than simply doing good for goodness’s sake. As Felton instructs writers to “be authentic”, this tagline rings true and speaks like a human being would.
Hands and feet of Jesus.
This tagline refers to Samaritan’s Purse acting on Christ’s behalf and in His stead. J. Morris says in “The Lost Art of Writing the Sticky Tagline”that “Crafted well, a tagline functions as a handle, a simple way to gasp what’s different and special about a brand” (Morris, 2009).
Help is on the way.
By bestowing a feeling of comfort, reliance and heroism, this tagline elevates Samaritan’s Purse in the mind of consumers as rescuers who can be depended upon to render aid, almost as reliably as calling 911. “Taglines can focus on your audience’s deeply-cherished needs and aspirations, promising personal fulfillment or the attainment of a desired goal or outcome” (Swartz, 2006).
Gather. Go. Give.
This tagline works by invoking Felton’s Rule of Threes. “I can’t explain why, but a whole lot of things come in threes…and are better for it.” (Felton, 2013). This line succinctly explains that Samaritan’s Purse gathers the goods/individuals, goes to wherever the need is and gives the goods to whoever needs them.
Giving the goods. Giving the Gospel.
Beyond delivering good alliteration and repetition, this tagline positions Samaritan’s Purse as a charity that delivers aid as well as the Gospel. The Gospel is particularly important because it is their main point of differentiation from most charities. They do good, always with the goal of sharing the Gospel; that fact is important to evangelical Christians because Christ said “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). George Felton states: “Slogans are the art of the well-made phrase. But their real job is to be an ad in miniature: make the case for the product, position it relative to its competition, justify it (Felton, 2013).”

Staff Feedback: Excellent work on the taglines for Samaritan’s Purse, Dorothy. A tagline is a succinct phrase situated under or alongside your logo that communicates a single but powerful brand message designed to resonate strongly with an intended audience. Slogans or taglines need to reinforce the brand, so #3, #4, #6 and #8 come closest to this. George Felton, in Advertising Concept & Copy, says if the logo doesn’t say what the product/service is, then the tagline should. The tagline is the essence of your brand and should resonate throughout your campaign. It’s the beginning of the story of your campaign. Letting people know at a glance as to what your campaign is about is where the tagline comes into play. Your rationales are strong and your use of secondary sources support your arguments.

You did a very thorough job of workshopping the taglines of your classmates. Your ideas were insightful and I’m sure they will appreciate the feedback.

The Process of Concept Development

We studied Craig Smallish’s video Developing Ideas and Advertising Concepts on Lynda.com to learn the process of generating ideas (concept building), creating rough sketches and refining sketches. According to Craig Smallish, a concept’s first goal is to hook the viewer. Then we need to keep the viewer’s attention. Great concepts capture the viewer, but they also need to be deliver the client’s message (Smallish, 2013).

Smallish recommends that the media designer generate a lot of ideas. “Having a wide array of choices is often the difference between delivering a good concept and a great concept” (Smallish, 2013). He also recommends that, when meeting with the client, to do note sketching. Note sketching is, of course, taking notes by sketching. It’s a great way to get input right away to see if you’re all on the same page.

While we are to avoid clichés in our concepts, don’t throw them out altogether. Study clichés to see what made them powerful enough to become so overused. After all, an overused idea was fresh at one time. Turn a cliché over and over to see what made it work. Then see if perhaps a parody could be made of it to create a fresh new concept (Smallish, 2013).

Craig Smallish’s Concept Plan Overview

See the product through the eyes of the consumer.
Create Free Association maps.
Generate descriptive words.
Make rough sketches.
Filter out your weakest ideas.
Pinpoint your top contenders.

Acquired Competencies

Creating personas: It was surprising how much creating personas helped me when it came to conceptualizing the ads and defining the brand voice. Picturing the personas and remembering who they are made the target real. It helped me to talk to them as to a real person, but on the client’s behalf. I will definitely use persona’s going forward in media design.
Settle and Alreck’s 15 Catalog of Needs: This really helped me to recognize all the needs, both obvious and not-so-obvious, that a product or brand can help to meet in a consumer’s life. I suppose intuitively I knew some of these benefits to the consumer, but I don’t remember ever having them so thoroughly spelled out. This was very helpful.
Brand voice: Felton says, “When you’re searching for a brand’s voice, take the time to write a manifesto of core principles (or a mission statement with some bite), then condense those principles into a slogan or a call to arms, whether you use it or not. Work hard on how you say these things” (Felton, 2013). I didn’t realize that so much went into creating a “voice” for a brand. He also suggests picking 5 adjectives to describe the brand in order to discover its voice. Good stuff.

Settle and Alreck’s 15 Catalog of Needs: Maslow’s hierarchy includes the physiological needs a human requires for survival, the safety needs of physical security, the need for social acceptance, the need for feelings of adequacy, and the need for self-actualization (understanding one’s highest inner potential). You want to look beyond these basic needs when advertising a product or service and make need-product connections.

In their book, Why They Buy: American Consumers Inside and Out (1986), Robert B. Settle and Pamela L. Alreck identify 15 needs. You want to position your product/service so that it covers more than one item from the Settle and Alreck’s 15 Catalog of Needs (Settle, R. and Alreck, P., 1986) which include:

Achievement: the need to perform difficult tasks, exercise one’s skills
Independence: the need to be autonomous, have options, be different
Exhibition: the need to gain public attention, show off, be noticed
Recognition: the need to be highly regarded by others, to be held up as a good example
Dominance: the need to exercise power over others, direct and supervise, have influence
Affiliation: the need to be closely associated with others, the need for relationships
Nurturance: the need to provide care for others, to have and protect
Succorance: the need to receive help from others, be comforted, be encouraged and supported
Sexuality: the need to establish and develop one’s sexual identity, be sexually attractive, give and receive sexual satisfaction
Stimulation: the need to stimulate the senses, pursue vigorous activity, engage the mind and body, stimulate the palate, be active
Diversion: the need to be distracted away
Novelty: the need to alter routine, be surprised, acquire new skills, have new and different experiences
Understanding: the need to comprehend, teach and learn, discover patterns, make connections
Consistency: the need for order and cleanliness, to control uncertainty and avoid ambiguity, to make accurate predictions
Security: the need to be free from fear, feel safe and protected, avoid accidents, acquire assets

References

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/about-us/

Adams, D. (2011, February 14). What is Copywriting and How is it Important for a Designer? Retrieved from http://www.instantshift.com/2011/02/14/what-is-copywriting-and-how-is-it-important-for-a-designer/

American Bible Society. (2010). Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments: King James Version. New York.

Felton, G. (2013). Advertising: concept and copy [VitalSource Bookshelf] Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780393733921/ 

Morris, J. (2009). The Lost Art of Writing The Sticky Tagline. Brandweek, 50(32), 54.

Settle, R. B., & Alreck, P. L. (1989). Why they buy: American consumers inside and out. New York: Wiley.

Smallish, C. (2014, May 27). Concepts are the main ingredient. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/Design-Page-Layout-tutorials/Concepts-main-ingredient/155264/174690-4.html?autoplay=true

Smallish, C. (2013, August 16). Reflecting on the process path. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/Design-Business-tutorials/Reflecting-process-path/126121/145424-4.html?autoplay=true

Swartz, E. (2006). Tagline Guru: Wag the Tagline. Retrieved from https://taglineguru.com/wag_the_tagline.html

Resources

Copywriting

Advertising Concept and Copy, Chapter 9, Words 1: Establishing Voice, by George Felton

In Copywriting by Rob Bowdery, read pages 7-15

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QWlC0pnk1IcC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=copywriting+basics&ots=_7ODzLlsrh&sig=G6xMWEue9WT_7M4c6bgWvGreWng#v=onepage&q=copywriting%20basics&f=false

headline writing basics

Royalty Free Images

https://pixabay.com/

http://search.creativecommons.org

http://www.apimages.com/fronts/creative.aspx?sh=100527

http://all-free-download.com

http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/research-writing/public-domain

Designing Ads

Advertising Concept and Copy, by George Felton, Chapter 19, Testimonials: The Power of Personality

Developing Ideas and Design Concepts with Craig Smallish

http://www.lynda.com/Design-Business-tutorials/Developing-Ideas-Design-Concepts/126121-2.html?org=fullsailold.edu

Designing a Print Ad with Craig Smallish

http://www.lynda.com/Design-Page-Layout-tutorials/Designing-Print-Ad/155264-2.html?org=fullsailold.edu

Chapter 1: The Power of a Well-Composed Ad

Chapter 3: Great Ad Designs Begin with Great Concepts

Chapter 8: Developing the Final Comp—Part 1: What Is a Final Comp?

Image Advertising