AIDA

Your new best friend

•  Attention (usually your headline)

•  Interest (why should your customer be interested)

•  Desire (have your customer imagine the benefit)

•  Action (tell your customer exactly what to do)

Attention
•  What will grab your reader’s attention?

•  How will you get your reader to read the first sentence of your
copy?

•  Does your headline offer the promise of a benefit for your

reader?
interest
•  Why should your customer care about what you are saying?

•  Capture the attention of your reader (identify their problem)

•  What are you promising to share with your reader?

desire
•  Make it clear what problem you are solving for your customer

•  Help your reader visualize what their life will be like with your
solution (product / service)

•  Use emotional copy to really make your reader feel what its
like to overcome their problem
action
•  Tell your customer exactly what step they should take next

•  Explain in great detail every single step

•  It could be get more information, sign up for an email list, buy

your product / service, etc…
Casual vs. institutional
Institutional (academic)
•  How you were taught to write in school

•  We make things more complicated than they need to be

•  Often we are guilty of using ‘big’ words to make us appear

smarter
Casual
•  You should write like you talk

•  Your writing is a conversation with a single reader

•  Use the simplest language possible to get your point across

Getting started and editing
‘White screen’
•  ‘Writers block’ is common when first starting

•  Anytime you get started a white screen can be intimidating

•  You do not want to start because you are afraid of writing the
‘wrong’ thing
Get started
•  Get something on the page

•  Write the first draft with no judgments

•  Write down all your thoughts. No one is going to read this

except for you.
editing
•  Editing is where the magic happens

•  You will most likely rewrite a piece of copy 5-10 times

•  Read your copy out loud and make sure it flows

Anticipate doubts
No product is perfect
•  Almost all products / services have some flaws

•  Avoid the ‘magic pill’ mentality

•  Even if your product/service is perfect your customer will

have doubts
Your reader has doubts
•  Don’t pretend your product/service is flawless

•  Bringing up flaws/doubts builds trust

•  Trust helps sell your product

(remember without trust your words do not matter)
Two readership paths
‘quick readers’
•  Don’t have time / interest in reading all your copy

•  Want to quickly understand your message

•  After reading sub-headlines will decide if they want to ‘invest

more time’ into your copy
‘long readers’
•  These are the people that will read all of your copy

•  They find your copy interesting / helpful

•  Are more likely to purchase your product / service

Ask locals to save money
When you are travelling in a
new location always talk to
the locals. They will give you
more valuable information
then you could find in any
guidebook. You can save a
ton of money when it comes
to buying food.
Safety is important
If you are in a new location
you have never been before
it’s important to think about
safety. Think about how you
are going to react if
someone were to try and rob
you before it happens.