10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy

by Maria Popova

“Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints.”

How is your new year’s resolution to read more and write better holding up? After tracing the fascinating story of the most influential writing style guide of all time and absorbing advice on writing from some of modern history’s most legendary writers, here comes some priceless and pricelessly uncompromising wisdom from a very different kind of cultural legend: iconic businessman and original “Mad Man” David Ogilvy. On September 7th, 1982, Ogilvy sent the following internal memo to all agency employees, titled “How to Write” and found in the 1986 gem The Unpublished David Ogilvy (public library):

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.
Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.
Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.
David

This, and much more of Ogilvy’s timeless advice, can be found in The Unpublished David Ogilvy, a fine addition to this ongoing archive of notable wisdom on writing. The book is long out of print, but you can still find a used copy by rummaging through Amazon’s stock or the library stacks.

http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/02/07/david-ogilvy-on-writing/

Using Titles Effectively on Blogs

My Mum drilled into me at a young age that first impressions are important.

Outside of the design of your blog (that’s a whole other post) perhaps the best way of creating that impression is though your post’s title.

Titles are so important on many fronts – including:

• Grabbing Attention in Search Engines – Head over to Google and type in virtually any word you can think of and you’ll often find millions of results. The interesting thing is that for most search results in Google (and other SE’s) there is very little for readers to go by in deciding which result to click on. There is a title, a short excerpt and a URL. The most highlighted of these is the title and I believe it is key in getting SE referral clicks.

• Getting RSS Readers Attention – in a very similar way titles have the ability to grab the attention of those following your blog via RSS in news aggregators. Even if your feeds are full post feeds rather than excerpts it’s likely that most news aggregator readers scan the titles of posts for things that interest them rather than reading full text. The same principle is true in other indexes and directories like Technorati, del.icio.us, digg etc

• Loyal Readers – Good titles also impact the way your loyal readers interact with your blog. As I’ve already mentioned – web users scan pages and one of the best ways to make them pause as they roll their eyes down your site is to capture their attention with a good title that intrigues them enough to slow down their frantic web surfing and actually read some of the content that you’ve pour time and energy into.

• Search Engine Optimization – While there are many factors that contribute to how search engines ranks a page of your blog, one of the most powerful onsite factors are the words that you use in the title of that page. This means making sure that the titles of your posts end up being in the <title tags> of your page (something I’ve blogged about previously here). Also important for SEO with respect to titles, in the opinion of many, is that your post titles form the basis of your URL structure and that your titles are live links.

Using Titles Successfully

There are many strategies that successful bloggers use to draw attention to their posts with titles. There is no real right or wrong and as with many aspects of blogging what is a ‘good title’ is a little subjective. Having said this – you might want to consider these six factors in writing titles for your blog posts:

1. Keep it Simple – Most research I’ve seen into titles seems to argue that the most effective titles are short, simple and easy to understand. While breaking these rules can help grab attention (see below) they can also confuse, frustrate and put a glazed look in the eyes of potential readers. Shorter titles are also good for Search Engines – keep it under 40 or so characters and you’ll ensure the whole title appears in search results.


2. Grab Attention - Good titles set your posts apart from the clutter around them and then draw readers into your post. Grabbing attention might happen using tactics of ‘shock’, ‘big claims’, ‘controversy’ or even ‘confusion’. While these tactics do work at getting people in – it should also be said that they can do more damage than good if the rest of your post doesn’t live up to the promises your title makes. By all means try to grab attention – just just ‘trick’ your readers into thinking you’ll provide them with something you can’t give them.
3. Meet a Need – An effective title draws people into reading more because they feel you’ve got something to say that they NEED to hear. Indexes like del.icio.us illustrate just how effective this is. Quite often the articles that get to the top of the list are ‘how to…’ or ‘tutorial’ type articles that show readers that they will learn how to solve a problem or need that they might have.
4. Describe – Some readers will be drawn into a post by a cryptic title that doesn’t tell them much about what they’ll be reading – but the majority of readers need to know something about what they’ll find if they read further. Titles should describe (in a word or few) what readers will get in the main post.
5. Use Key Words – As I mentioned above – titles are a powerful part of SEO. If you want to maximize their power you need to consider using the keywords that you want your post to be found with in your title in some way. This of course is challenging when you are attempting to ‘keep it simple’ and to also ‘grab attention and intrigue’ – but it can be done. Words at the start of titles are thought to be more powerful than words at the end when it comes to SEO.
6. One last tip on titles – Take your time with your titles. Many bloggers pour a lot of effort into writing engaging and interesting posts – but then just slap any old title onto it without realizing that in doing so they might be ensuring that their post is never read.

Treat your title as an mini advertisement for your work. Take at least a few minutes before hitting publish to not only make sure your post is in order – but that your title is going to do everything it can to maximize the chances that people will engage with what you have to say.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/19/using-titles-effectively-on-blogs/

How To Sell Without Selling

 

Over the years I’ve had many a member worry that they were not good enough “salesmen” or “saleswomen” to make money online.

It’s an understandable thought, but the truth is different.

While there is absolutely an art to persuasion, in most cases being a Zig Ziglar level salesman is not necessary to make money online.

Let’s talk about how to sell without selling and how one of the greatest ad men ever did just that.

One of the greatest salesmen to ever live was David Ogilvy.

Starting out as a chef in Paris, he eventually moved to New York and founded Ogilvy & Mather, one of the most profitable advertising agencies in the world.

Here’s the thing about Ogilvy; for all his selling prowess most of his ads were statements of facts.

Just look at his world-famous Rolls Royce ad, pictured on this page. It’s a headline, sub-headline and 13 points of fact.

This way of writing ads still works today!

If you are worried that your selling skills are not up to the job, or just hate the idea of “selling” on principle, here are proven ways to sell online … without selling!

Make sure your ad copy (be that a solo ad or sales letter) includes the following.

A compelling headline

The headline can be simple. The headline has one job and one job only, to get the reader to read the ad.

To do that you can state the main benefit of your offer (lose 10 pounds in the next 14 days) or create curiosity (as in the Rolls Royce ad).

If you are tempted to make a headline long, follow this guideline – keep your headline to under 17 words.

The “under 17 words” guideline has been proven in testing to be highly effective.

Some of the best headlines ever were much shorten than 17 words, so don’t feel that you need to use 17 words.

If you need help writing headlines please refer to my article on headline writing here.

A real world reason why

Your prospective customer cares about one thing. They care about what’s in it for them.

• How will they benefit from what you offer?
• How will their life be better if they buy what you sell?

The key here is to make the reason why they should buy be both realistic and highly desirable.

Knowing the reason why a customer should buy is the first step to creating a great ad, and it’s something you can do in less than five minutes.

Knowing the reason why a customer should buy is the first step to creating a great ad, and it’s something you can do in less than five minutes.share this quote:

Here’s how.

1. Make a list of how a person’s life would change if they bought the product you are promoting and the product worked to its maximum effect.
2. Prioritize the list, putting the most valuable benefit at the top of the list.
3. Make that #1 reason your “reason why” in the ad you write.

If you do this with all the products you promote your sales should increase almost immediately.

The reason for this is that you will be speaking in the language your customer understands best. You will be telling him or her what’s in it for them.

And that is what they really want to know.

A list

People love lists. Love ‘em. So be sure to use lists in your sales copy.

Notice in the Rolls Royce ad how Ogilvy used a simple list to sell the product?

His ad is basically a list of reasons why the car is superior and why you will love owning it.

But he does not beat the reader about the head and scream out benefits in 36 point type.

No need for that.

He simply states the facts and leaves it to the reader to come to the conclusion that they want what he is describing.

This is a powerful, and effective, selling technique. Plus, it respects the reader because he is not telling them what they want but rather letting them choose.

And we all want to choose for ourselves, right?

A call to action

Finally, you need a call to action. So let’s talk about that for one moment, and let me share some guidelines.

First, what is a “call to action”?

It’s that place in your ad where you ask the reader to take an action, like “click here to learn more” or to buy.

There are many ways to do that, enough so that I will save that for another article. This one is getting long enough as it is!

Here are some guidelines.

• If your ad is under 200 words, you can use one call to action to get the job done.
• If your ad is more than 200 words you want to have a call to action once every 200 words.
• Start your calls to action with an active word. “Click here to learn more” is okay but “Start saving on your car insurance” is better.

These are guidelines, not rules. But they work so give them a try.

Writing great ad copy is an art, no doubt there. But far too many people believe they can’t write great ads because they don’t have the gift.

Nothing could be farther from the truth

Ogilvy started as chef, then sold stoves door to door, then entered the advertising business at age 38.

He learned how to write great ads by trial and error. In the process, he earned a fortune and built a huge business.

The good news is we don’t need a fortune or to build an Ogilvy & Mather. We just need to make a high six figure income and enjoy our lives.

Doing that, and serving others while doing it, now those are beautiful things indeed!

http://charliepage.com/how-to-sell-without-selling/

Four Steps To Writing a Great Classified Ad

 

Classified ads are everywhere! You see them when you read your favorite ezine. You see them on all the search engines in the form of pay per click ads like Google AdWords. And now you see them all over Facebook when you update your page or visit your friend’s pages.

You can find them on blogs and forums too!

The reason you see so many classified ads in ezines, on web sites and other places is simple.

They work! (And they are cheap too!)

But are they working for you?

Writing classified ads is actually easy once you know how. And today I’m going to share the formula I use for writing great classified ads so that you too can crank out profit pulling ads anytime you like!

Classified advertising is one of the most cost effective forms of advertising on the Internet today. They may seem very simple on the surface, but to get a great ad you need to put some thought into how the ad flows.

Like many things, what appears simple on the surface is actually carefully orchestrated to make a specific impact.

Happily, you can learn to write great classified ads in the next 10 minutes!

If you want to add power to your classified ads, consider following my four-step process.

First it is important to understand that there are three parts to these tiny little ads.

Each part works in harmony with the others to create an overall effect that causes the reader to do what you want them to do … click on your ad and visit the site you are promoting!

The three parts of a great classified ad are:

1. The Headline
2. The Body
3. The Call to Action

It is very important to understand that each part has one purpose and one purpose only.

When you think of ads in this way it becomes easier to create them because you will be using a “building block” approach.

Here’s what you need to know.

• The purpose of the headline is to sell the ad.
• The purpose of the body copy is to set up the call to action.
• The purpose of the call to action is to sell the click.

I will explain what I mean in further detail below. If you keep this in mind as you write you will see how easy it becomes to cause readers to take the action you want.

The Headline

The headline’s job is to sell the ad. When I say “sell the ad” what I mean is that the headline convinces the reader that you have something to say – that they should continue reading the rest of the ad.

Because of this there is one cardinal rule when writing any ad copy.

Your headline must grab attention! 

Period. End of story.

Some people use sensational headlines with no relationship to their offer to grab attention. That approach may work in the short term, but damages your integrity in the long run. Honesty is always the best policy.

The last thing you want is disappointment when someone arrives at your website. So my advice is to avoid the temptation to hype up the headline thinking that will help. It will often hurt, not help.

Here are a few tips for writing headlines…

• Begin with an action word
• Create curiosity
• Ask a question
• Make a startling statement
• Ask for the reader’s opinion

There are many ways to craft a winning headline. I hope these help you get going.

Last tip: when writing headlines, always remember that people care about exactly one thing; what’s in it for me?

The Body Copy

The purpose of the body copy is to set up the call to action. What I mean is this – the only reason your ad exists is to get the click to the website you are promoting. But before asking for the click it is very important to give the reader the reason why they should click.

This “reason why” usually comes in the form of benefits. This is the “what’s in it for me” I mentioned earlier. The body of the ad must tell your reader what’s in it for them. What benefit will they get by making that click?

People don’t want to ‘learn more’ out of idle curiosity. They want to learn more in order to get to the benefits you promised them, so don’t be shy about what your offer will do for them.

The first step to writing the body is to list all the features of your product or service then, next to them, list the benefits of those features. You must write at least one benefit for each feature, or don’t use that feature.

People buy what your product or service will do for them, not only what it will do.

The Call to Action

In most cases the action you want the reader to take is clicking the link in your ad. That’s simple enough. But how you ask them to do that can literally mean the difference between the success and failure of your ad!

What I like to do is use an action word that includes the main benefit of the product I’m promoting.

So if I am promoting a product that helps people save time I might write “Save time today by visiting my site now!” instead of “Click here to save time”

Both are good, but the first one is stronger.

Why is it stronger? Because the reader wants to save time.

He or she does not want to “click here”. They will “click here” to get what they want but why make them interpret what they get for clicking when I can just say it straight out?

A subtle but important difference.

One reason that this is important is that your ad will be interrupting their current process. No problem there. In fact, most great ads are based on interruption of an existing pattern. Some people like to call this “pattern interruption”.

No matter what you call it, the thing to remember is this … You must lure them away from what they are doing now in order to visit your site.

Make your call to action simple to understand and not at all tricky or something that has to be interpreted.

What’s Next?

One last step and you’re ready to begin making money. Don’t forget to read your ad! Classifieds aren’t supposed to read like a novel. Check that spelling too!

Once you have your profit pulling classified written, don’t forget the #1 rule in advertising.

The #1 rule of advertising — TEST YOUR AD!

Test, test and test again to know what works. Testing allows you to spend small money now to make big money later.

By following these steps you will begin to create classifieds that work. Once you have an ad that works, use it everywhere you can afford to and you will rake in the profits!

And that is a beautiful thing indeed!

http://charliepage.com/four-steps-to-writing-a-great-classified-ad/