Have You Got Style?

"Wild Bill

Writing Ad Copy with Style takes practice, patience and preparation.

I cant give you the practice or the patience, but I can help you to prepare!

Product Vocabulary List:

Start by building a "Product Vocabulary List". You may be asking yourself, "What the heck is a Product Vocabulary List?" Well, a Product Vocabulary, are actually the building blocks of your ad copy. When you are preparing to write new advertising copy, begin by creating a list, actually 4 separate lists.

Broken down, you should be compiling the following information that describes or relates to your product:

1. Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Synonyms.
2. Slang, Familiar Phrases, Clichйs and Puns.
3. New Ideas and Ways to approach your product.
4. Product Facts (positive and negative).

Write down everything you can think of. Much of this material you will compile while creating, devising and defining your Advertising Strategies. Once you start using these lists in this manner on a regular basis, youll wonder how you ever got by without them.

Themes

Whats a theme? A theme is the "Punch Line" of your ad copy. Your theme could be conveyed by written, visual or oral means. Its how and where you want to go with
your copy. You will most commonly notice Themes in banner advertising, but they are used in almost every form of Advertising. Most successful advertising campaigns have great themes. An advertising theme should focus on one point and be "catchy" or easy to remember. The theme will help you decide how you will get their attention and what thought they will leave with. The key is to leave a thought embedded with them. Whether its one word or a slogan, dont let them leave without planting that one thought in their mind.

When deciding upon the theme for your ad, start with one theme. Now examine it and reexamine it. Find as many different ways to use this theme as possible. Turn it inside out and upside down. Play with each new idea or variation of the original theme that you come up with. Enjoy it, have fun with it, but get it all down on paper. Do yourself a favor, write down everything!

Got Rhythm?

Rhythm, cadence or flow; Its all the same and you have to have it! Great ad copy is always simple. Use short simple sentences, "active" verbs, rhyme, puns or wordplay and positive attitude. Normally you should use only active verbs. Pay heed when using "passive" verbs in your ad copy. Rhymes, puns, double meanings and wordplays make for most memorable of ad copy, but remember, keep it simple. If they dont get it, you dont get it. Get it? Another example of good rhythm is "parallel sentence construction". Here is an old, but good use of parallel construction in a headline: The Quality Goes In, Before The Name Goes On! (Sound familiar?). It doesnt matter which approach you take, as long as the copy has rhythm and flows from one point to the next. Dont jump from point to point, move smoothly from one leading into the next.

I hope that this will help you write better ad copy and remember "Do it with Style"!

"Wild Bill"

gotstyle@greatdesignz.com
http://www,greatdesignz.com