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23 June 2022
Do you make any of these common ad-copy mistakes?
[Note from Brandon: The following article was written as a follow-up to a training I did for a group of direct-response copywriters in April 2022. The organizer had given me 60 minutes to share “7 Top Copywriting Mistakes.” I soon realized that an hour wouldn’t be long enough to do the topic justice, so I presented four and then followed up with the other three as written below.
If you’re interested in having me present those first four to your copywriter- or marketer-focused group, feel free to get in touch here .]
(Extra) Mistake #1: Not spending enough time building trust.
We talk about it a lot, and it’s something everyone “knows” by now. And yet that knowledge isn’t translating into many of the letters I’m asked to review.
To explain why it’s so important, consider this…
If a man off the street promised to give you $1,000 for nothing, would you take it?
If you were like most people, you’d want to know the catch. Skepticism is the natural response. We all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
But what if the man off the street showed you that he was part of a very well-known charity that was randomly giving money to strangers.
You might still be skeptical, but you might just as likely be willing to hear more.
What if this man then showed you photos of all the other people he had given $1,000 to over the last hour?
You might still wonder but more likely be more receptive.
Then what would happen if this man, right in front of you, gave $1,000 to someone who was happy to take the money right away without question?
Then you’d be sold. Because enough trust was there – in this case, because you saw the offer play out in real-time before your eyes.
Most marketers are like the guy offering to give you $1,000 without any proof or credentials. Yes, a few people will take the deal. But many will not.
We all know we have to make really good offers if we want to get the best results. But if we haven’t done the work to make the great offer trustworthy, then your prospect is just as likely to say no than yes.
This principle is universal. It was with us long before the Internet made it so very important. It’s with us now. And I’m willing to bet it will be long after we’ve all headed to the big marketing seminar in the sky.
So what does mean in practice?
Yes, testimonials are important. But the most skeptical people think they’re made up.
Instead, this is what I suggest…
Use verifiable third-party evidence from reputable sources to support your broad claims.
This is especially true if your claim sounds “outrageous” to the target prospect. The more outrageous, the more credible the source has to be.
If you’re selling end of the world supplies to a general audience, you better bring quotes from USA Today, The Economist and the Washington Post to prove that the end of the world is coming and that you need to prepare. A reference to BobsEndOfTheWorldEmporium.com just isn’t gonna cut it.
You need to believe in what you sell.
Yes, a few (sociopathic) marketers can fake it. But most highly skeptical prospects can smell a rat most of the time. They will get the sense of “superficiality” that non-believers show through their work.
I don’t know how they do it. But experience has shown me they can.
Tone down the hype.
Unless you’re really sure your audience responds to it, keep the hype to a minimum. Big promises are good. But overly big promises to a skeptical audience without enough proof will kill your results.
Trust is especially important for online selling.
They’ve been getting screwed online for more than two decades. They’re more skeptical than the average bear. And they will punish those sellers who aren’t able to help them get over that skepticism.
For markets with large players known for “abusing” their customers (like information publishing, weight loss, crypto for instance), this is doubly-true. You really need to be credible to win in those markets.
(Extra) Mistake #2: Incongruence
In 1964, when it came to what’s considered, hard-core pornography, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart uttered his famous line, “I’ll know it when I see it.” In this particular case, he struggled to identify objective standards by which pornography could be considered “hard-core.”
It wasn’t nudity on its own; there are plenty of historical artistic examples that are not considered pornographic.
Nor was it necessarily specific actions or movements. Certainly, you could call some of them provocative, but not “hard-core.”
Rather, it was the context. And, at least to that point, it was hard to say exactly when something crossed the line from “mildly suggestive” to “in poor taste” to “hard-core.”
You, as the viewer, know it when you see it.
Incongruence in copywriting falls into the same boat. It’s hard to objectively define, but you “know it when you see it.” It’s the idea that certain elements of a promotion – the copy, the format, the images used, the je ne sais quoi, simply seem out of sync with other elements.
For example, you’re incongruent if you’re…
- Selling something positive but selling it in a way that most people would consider very negative. (“How to be happy by hurting everyone else.”)
- Selling a "beta" or "in the works" product with a slick presentation. How can it really be in the works if the presentation is so professional?
- Being “highly in demand” but have a clearly empty calendar on your Calendly booking app.
- Promoting your expertise as an artist but have an objectively ugly website.
- Telling everyone about your great attention to detail but missing obvious spelling and grammar mistakes.
- Writing a lousy sales letter to promote your copywriting services.
- Being a 24-year-old "life coach" (What insights could you hope to share about life without the experience?)
(Extra) Mistake #3: Focusing too much on copy and not enough on presentation
Most copywriters are (naturally) focused on writing copy. They’re writers; they ain’t graphic designers.
And so, many consider their job done once they hand in that final draft.
But the smart ones realize that’s not the end at all. They realize that how something looks makes an impression. If that impression is bad, you’ve lost that prospect. They’ll never get to your powerful headline, great lead and bold promises.
On the flip side, most graphic designers can’t tell a call to action from a hole in the wall. They don’t know the proper way to position a headline to maximize readership. They don’t know how to properly break paragraphs to encourage reading. They don’t know how to set headlines to create a double readership path.
And so, they use their creative skill to butcher all that psychology built into your piece.
It’s up to you to make sure they know how things “should” look.
If you’re working with a client, you need to push to have this phase of development covered in the services you provide to the client.
If you’re working on your own projects, you need to find the right graphic designer who knows what they’re doing, or you need to learn about this yourself and work with your team to get it done.
So, you might be asking, what is “proper” direct response graphic design?
That’s a hard question. Maybe because copywriters are focused so much on writing copy, there haven’t been all that many reliable studies. Even venerable mailers don’t seem to have terribly reliable stats (or if they do, they keep them well hidden.)
And even when there are studies, they may not give a clear answer.
(This recent article about the best online font for reading is a case in point. The end result? It depends.)
But… there are a few guidelines we can follow.
First, if we know a letter has worked over time, we can safely assume that the design, at worst, isn’t hurting the results. At best, it’s probably helping. (Csaba’s review of 100 successful sales letters is a good place to start.)
Second, consider the book, Type & Layout by Colin Wheildon and Geoffrey Heard. The original version came out in the 1980s before the Internet was a commercial media. But it’s been updated since and is a useful foundational piece for online and offline selling.
The endorsements read like a Who’s Who of direct response marketers, including the big man himself, David Ogilvy.
If nothing else, really understanding the difference between “understanding” and “comprehension” – and how that translates into more sales – will give you a big advantage over your competitors.
I would also highly recommend the Nielsen Norman Group. I’ve been following Jakob Nielsen for most of my career. His insights – along with the results of actual testing – can guide us.
About the Author
Brandon Roe is a direct-response marketing strategist, copywriter and best-selling author who has worked with clients in 8 countries and 3 languages over the last 20+ years.
He helps firms in the financial publishing and natural health industries use proven marketing to grow their sales faster.