The Great and Mysterious Web 2.0 -- How can I apply Classic Copy Tactics to New-Fangled Stuff?

lol. hipster minefields. I sent you an idea.

Go here and browse through the "Archives" section:

MakepeaceTotalPackage.com

Plus, one of the best books I've read on the subject
is Ben Hunt's Convert!:

Amazon.com: Convert!: Designing Web Sites to...

And get hold of Michael Masterson's
The Architecture of Persuasion:

Amazon.com: The Architecture of Persuasion: How...

If you focus less on the tactic itself and learn the purpose behind them, the understanding will allow you to apply the same tactics to any medium in a way that is appropriate.

A good exercise also is writing google ads, which force you to write a persuasive message in very few words.

Look at successful landing pages on a site like swiped.co and identify the elements that are used and practice applying them yourself.

The experienced copywriters who frequent this discussion board use direct response writing techniques to write long form sales letters, video sales letters, presell pages, webinars, optin pages, email follow-ups, Facebook and Google ads, banner ads, and more.

If you see yourself as some trailblazer bringing direct response to the "world of web 2.0" you're late to the party. Been happening for over 15 years.

Articles, books, and courses are fine. But working with a copywriting coach is your best bet.

Alex

Oh there's absolutely NO way I see myself as a trail blazer. What I was looking for is like the replies above. If I wanted to be a trail blazer, I certainly wouldn't be asking about it.

I just wanted to know how the best of the best use these seemingly "dated" techniques to create content for grid websites, where to put the text, etc.

You are probably not going to believe me but there is no secret sauce. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying to you or trying to sell you something.

Writing for the web, radio, TV, billboards, mobile phones, no matter -- it's all writing and persuasion through writing has more less taken the same route.

The classic formula for advertising goes along the lines of:

A: Attention
I: Interest
D: Desire
A: Action

It all goes back to that. Want to sell something on a website or get someone to subscribe to a newsletter? You can't do it without first getting their attention. Heck, if you manage to get anyone to do anything without first getting their attention the you've stumbled into the world of miracles, my friend -- in which case you can forget copywriting and go into the religion business.

But I digress.

You see, there's a tendency to believe that as technology introduces more and more stuff into our lives then we automatically morph into some updated version of human being 1.0.

That is not the case and I can prove it using the very first part of the "formula."

Gary Bencivenga is a really, really, really good copywriter. In fact, many of the names mentioned as resources on this very thread worship at his keyboard.

Anyway, Mr Bencivenga (who is now retired because he made so much money!) is famous for a direct mail package that led with the headline: "Lies, Lies, Lies."

The headline was used to first get attention. Nothing else. Note that it didn't suggests or state a benefit. Gary Bencivenga wasn't trying to be cute with the headline. In fact, it wasn't even his creation.

A man called Thomas De Quincey using a rhetorical device called an Epizeuxis uttered those words in 1821:


“And, first, one word with respect to its bodily effects: for upon all that has been hitherto written on the subject of opium, whether by travellers in Turkey (who may plead their privilege of lying as an old immemorial right), or by professors of medicine, writing ex cathedra, -- I have but one emphatic criticism to pronounce -- Lies! lies! lies!”

Back in 1821 the rhetorical device worked and it worked nearly 200 years later to stunning effect. It all starts with getting attention, no matter the medium.

Note that Bencivenga could have picked from a multitude of strategies for getting attention but for the purpose of what he wanted to achieve, that one was probably the best -- for him.

So the guiding principle behind the first part of the formula is that how you get attention is not set in stone. Anything that is legally (Google, Facebook and the FTC are the police here) permissible will do; just make sure you can convert that attention into interest.

Here's another example sandwiched by nearly 100 years:

Gary Halbert (RIP) is famous for an awful lot direct response sales letters (he was also very, very good). One of his most copied piece involves a letter that opened with a dollar bill attached to it. The bill was his attention-getting device and it worked like a charm.

Now, can you imagine my surprise when I came across a book published in 1914 that talked about a Tennessee firm that used the very same attention-getting device? The book: Writing Business Letters Which Get The Business pg 11. (Archive.org).

There is nothing new under the sun.

Web 2.0, 3.0 or 20.0 won't change the core principles of persuading people to do stuff.

Think about it this way. If people were becoming more sophisticated (because of technology) and the human condition was really changing, then the people who ruled over the people of the earth in 5000 BC wouldn't be running the show today through their descendants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_r...ndidate_theory

BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama a distant cousin of Bush

Human beings are fairly predictable up to certain point. Once you get to the heart of that, persuasion (presumably your aim) will become easier.

So, your focus first and foremost, should be people and how they work. The formula is just a way to systematize your approach. Getting bogged down in the latest, greatest and (Oh copywriting blasphemy!) newest methods is a waste of your time. As a matter of fact, whilst many gurus are teaching you "new tricks" to copywriting, they are busy using the oldest tricks in the book to get you to part with your cash.

How many times have you seen a guru spout a new tactic and check their website and see they completely abandon what they teach? I see it all the time.

Here's how Drayton Bird (another really good copywriter) put it:
“But to be honest, the principles that apply to one kind of copy apply to all kinds.”


Dave Trott (another really good ad man) also proves here that the more things change, the more they stay the same: THE ONLY MEDIUM THAT DOESN

So, be warned. You'll come across all sorts of weird and wonderful ways of writing copy for the web and for the brave new world of mobile. You'll come across things like "pattern interrupt" and "social disruptive neural device theory."

These are nothing but fancy names for the classic part of the first step in ad persuasion. Google Adwords which some people have made an entirely new genre of scholarship, is nothing more than the good old classified ad transported to the web.

Any website, no matter how clean and modern is going to be accessed by a human being. At least we hope that's the aim. When that human being arrives you have to grab their attention (AIDA actually cycles its way through the entire process, even at the ad discovery stage). After that your job is to bring them to the point of taking action -- whatever that action may be. Its really that simple and your structure or architecture should be faithful to that process.

Of course it helps to know that the human being who arrives is armed. She will click away (or swipe away) in about 3 seconds if you fail to engage her. Knowing this should demystify your task and excite you.

Why should you be excited? Because by the time she arrives to the website, you'd have studied her and know intimately what makes her tick so there's no way you'll fail to get her attention. The classic rhetorical triangle has "audience" in it for one simple reason: anything you say, for it to have impact, must be said to the right people.

I hope this helps you and good luck!

P.S. I made up "social disruptive neural device theory" because it's easy to create claptrap like that.

P.P.S. Like you I am making fresh discoveries about writing and copywriting every day. Read long and wide enough and you'll see patterns. Its absolutely fascinating.

P.P.P.S Gary Bencivenga by his own admission was a dreadful copywriter in his first 10 years. I suspect what he really sucked at was writing. I am of the view that in the end, great copywriters are first great writers (however defined).