Copywriting for Advertising and Marketing: 3 Ideas for Financial Services

Producing compelling copywriting for advertising and marketing campaigns must be a priority. But how do you present effective, persuasive copywriting in your presentations?

As an AWAI-trained direct response copywriter, I have found two sources that give you valuable information on producing compelling copywriting for advertising and marketing.

The first is an article written for the NYC Digital Marketing agency JCSurge. The report, titled “7 Copywriting Tips for Advertising and Marketing Beginners”, written by Joshua CT, offers advice to help direct response marketers who struggle with writing persuasive ad copy.

My second source is The Copywriter’s Handbook, a book written by copywriting expert Bob Bly. The Copywriter’s Handbook is a guide for anyone who writes or approves copy – from freelancers to creative directors. This book offers a variety of techniques that can help direct marketers produce effective offline and online campaigns – from print advertising to email marketing.

3 Marketing and Advertising Copywriting Tips for Financial Services

Based on the resources I presented, as well as my experience as a direct response copywriter, I have produced three tips financial services can take to create effective copywriting for advertising and marketing:

Get Your Market’s Attention

You are advertising to your target audience. Therefore, to get your audience’s attention, you should focus on “what you offer the market” instead of “how formidable you are.”

Regardless of what you hear, people are continually thinking about them:

how THEY can solve their problems
which ways THEY can improve THEIR situation
what THEY can do to fulfill THEIR desires

And there lies your opportunity to get your market’s attention: appeal to your prospects’ interests and passions with a compelling headline.

Think of every magazine cover or TV commercial that has made you turn your head. I bet every time it happened, the ad presented something that you considered attractive. Interesting enough to make you stop what you were to pay attention to them. And it all starts with the headline.

Always use your headline to bring to the front, something that the market desires. That’s how you get your prospects’ attention.

Communicate Your Brand Message Concisely

Marketing and advertising are most effective when they’re easy to understand. Then the reader can figure out – without much thinking – what you’re trying to sell.

Yet, some advertisers use their presentation to try and highlight how smart they are. Using lengthy sentences filled with jargon and elaborate vocabulary to impress their audience. But what ends up doing is leaving their reader scratching their head, trying to figure the message behind all that repetition. Don’t be that type of marketer.

Put your reader first when delivering your marketing message. Use short sentences and paragraphs whenever possible. Be specific with what you’re trying to convey. And avoid technical jargon when you’re marketing someone other than an engineer.

When speaking to your market, do so in an easy-to-understand way.

Persuade into Action with Easy Calls to Action

The object of business is to make money. To make money, your marketing and advertising – whether it’s short-term or long-term – must sell what you’re promoting. And to sell what you’re promoting, you must guide your audience into taking the proper steps into making the purchase.

That is something a lot of marketers today forget to do.

YES – for some unknown reason – to me, at least – marketers nowadays are afraid to ask for the sale. Is it because it’s socially immoral now to ask people to buy something? Or because they confuse persuasion with manipulation? If the latter is the case, then let’s clear the air on it.

If you’re trying to convince someone to buy something they don’t care for, then you’re trying to manipulate that person into a purchase. But, if you are talking to someone who has an interest in what you’re selling, then you’re looking to persuade that prospect into buying something that they want, need, or love.

Now that we got that out of the way, how do you persuade a prospect into action?

Easy – by (again) focusing on what the reader wants. Bring them the benefits they get when they buy your offer. Rely on your unique selling proposition to set yourself apart from the competition. And position your offer as a VIABLE solution for your would-be buyers.

Sell your products, services, ideas, and causes using your marketing advertising. It’s the only way you’ll be able to make money. And the only way your business will continue to run.