The job of the online copywriter is to attract attention, stoke interest, create desire, and incite action. AIDA. Attracting attention used to mainly involve stopping the reader dead in his tracks. A good headline will do that.
Before the web — in the world of print — advertisers bought space in magazines and newspapers. Naturally, promoting an ad in spaces with high volumes of traffic would increase the number of times eyeballs saw the ad.
This meant the front page, back page, inside front, and so on.
In the early days of the web, the sales letter was static. It sat on a page on your website. You drove people to it by banner ads and email. It was all about pulling people to your message.
Then along came social media and the meme. You don’t have to pull people to your idea any longer — if it is good, people will spread it for you.
And in this wake, the online copywriter must adjust.
In this 8-minute episode of Rough Draft, host Demian Farnworth discusses:
- The oldest copywriting formula in the world
- How the Subservient Chicken became an Internet sensation
- Whether social media ideas actually lead to sales
- Why the 4 Us headline formula is not enough anymore
- What you need to remember about testing
Rough Draft on iTunes
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