After I finished taking my film photography class, I decided to pass down my camera to the next eager student who wants to dive into the exciting world of old school photography.
So I spent around one or two hours on Canva, and using my amateur graphic design skills I made an ad that looks like this:
Before I posted this around campus, I asked my friends what they thought of it, and their responses were, “Where’s the color?”
“What? Why does that matter?” I thought. “It’s the text that matters more. Whatever.”
I shook it off, made 10 more copies, and walked around campus putting it up on every bulletin board I saw.
The very next morning, I woke up to a text from someone who was interested in buying. Met up with the lucky student a few days later and we made the transaction.
How did it turn out so well? If I were to guess, it probably has something to do with how I applied my copywriting skills.
So let me walk you through my thought process while I was creating this ad, and my hope is that you’ll learn a thing or two that you can apply to your marketing.
Let’s dive in and take a look at the header first.
I put this text in a huge font size to make that the attention grabber of the ad, and right away I called out the type of people I wanted to target: Students who enrolled in a film photography class. If they are taking the class, they’ll want to read further.
Underneath the header, I addressed a pain point students would most likely experience: Being broke. If they thought textbooks were expensive, they’re going to faint when they find out how much they’re going to have to spend on a film camera, not to mention the hidden costs. So I addressed the pain by suggesting that they can buy a camera at a discounted price.
Now let’s take a look at the main part of the ad.
This is where I utilize the Contrast Principle, where I manipulate the reader’s perception by comparing the original price of the camera and lens to the discounted price. By seeing that the camera is discounted by $75 and the lens by $50, they can see that they can save $125 which is a lot more compelling than just seeing the discounted prices alone. And credits to Robert B. Cialdini, I got this principle from his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I definitely recommend you read this book.
On to the next section of the ad.
Looking back at this now, maybe I could’ve rewritten this header differently. But regardless, this is the section where I list two bonus goodies to push the reader further into taking this offer. The first thing I did was offer an extra $50 off. I could’ve combined this discount with the discounted prices of the camera and lens. But I decided to separate it into an additional discount to make it look like the reader will save even more money.
I also threw in photographic paper. I had extras lying around and wanted to get rid of it. They cost roughly $1 per paper, so the cost of those papers can add up. That’ll help the student save money in the future. And yes I had about 20 sheets leftover, so the $20 value is actually real.
Now to get the bonus goodies, the reader has to answer this question. To do that, he or she has to go to a specific part of the campus and physically look for the answer. Why did I do that? To make them show some kind of commitment. Again, this principle is explained in the book written by Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Getting the reader to commit to doing a small thing now increases the chance of them going through with the purchase in the future and not flaking out.
On top of that, I added a bit of scarcity and made it that only the first buyer can get the bonuses. But it doesn’t really make sense if you really think about it. Instead, I would’ve changed it to an expiration date for the bonuses or something like that. Either way, the goal was to set the perception that the bonuses aren’t going to be there forever.
Finally, I ended it off with the call-to-action.
I kept it short and simple. I told the reader to just text me at my cell number. I wanted to make it as painless as possible. Apparently, not everyone likes to talk on the phone from what I’ve observed. But texting is fast, it’s easy, and everyone is comfortable with it.
There you have it! Hope this was helpful and yes, you can take the principles I used in this ad and apply it to your emails. It’ll work just as well.
Also…color isn’t everything folks.
One last thing I want to mention is that I used the same framework that I teach in my e-book, “5 Steps to Create Money Generating Emails,” in this ad, only stripped down to it’s bare essentials.
If you don’t have the book yet, you can download it for free using the link below and read about it.