Why You Should Attend This Course

• How you reach out to your customers to get them to buy a product, service or idea could be in the form of a print ad, poster, brochure, catalogue, DM or even a personal letter or e-mail blast.

• An effective marketing collateral includes not just an attention-grabbing visual but highly persuasive copy that puts the customer in the right frame of mind to purchase that product or service or evokes the customer’s goodwill towards the company.

• Using the AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) structure, coupled with good grammar and attention to language use, you can reach out to your customers and convey your message effectively.

• As a portion of the course will be on discussing concept and visual, be prepared to work on these elements as well.

• Samples of B2B and B2C print ads (B2C ads comprise the majority of samples) will be analysed for effectiveness. E-mail and web ads, TV and radio ads will be covered only minimally as the focus is mainly on print ads.

  Learning Outcomes

• Produce an effective marketing collateral, write persuasive copy for various marketing print materials using the AIDA structure and a variety of tools.

• Understand the elements and concepts of what makes a good ad.

• Distinguish between Features and Benefits.

• Convey your message and reach out to your customers in the most effective way through good copy.

• Deploy DMs, print ads, brochures, press releases, catalogues, etc. to maximum effect according to “push” or “pull” factor of your product/service.

• Acquire tips on coming up with effective taglines, main copy and call-to-action.

Course Outline

Here come the wordsmiths

• What is copywriting?

• How do ads persuade?

• Six techniques of persuasion

  Gospel truths for copy

• Attention: taglines; universal copy themes for taglines

• Interest: features vs. benefits; USPs

• Desire: emotional and logical appeal

• Action: minimal length, maximum impact

  Get literary

• Descriptive, Explanation, Analysis and Narration in ads

• Dealing with old and new information

• Breathing life into dull facts/copy

• KISS: keep it short and simple

• The sound of words: alliteration, repetition and rhyme

• Picture this: using allusion and imagery effectively

Know your audience

• Checklist for customer profile

• The “you” attitude

• Tone: are you talking to, or talking down to, your customer?

  Briefly speaking

• Purpose

• Product/Service

• Target Audience

• Medium

  The concept

• What’s a strong concept?

• Case studies

• How to take a strong concept across different media

  Last words

• Grammatical mistakes: a sure-fire message killer

• Proofreading: word and sentence order

  Target Audience:

  Marketing personnel, especially those who have to write copy for their marketing collaterals, and anyone who has to deal with copywriters.

  Trainer Profile:

  Gael Lee conducts training in communications skills for tertiary students and working adults. A book editor and copywriter by profession, Gael has worked in the book publishing industry for a decade before setting up her own copywriting/training business. Her clients range from public service agencies and banks to interior design companies.

  Gael holds a Master of Arts Degree (Language Studies) awarded by the National University of Singapore. As a copywriter, Gael has worked on numerous projects including copy for companies in the travel and leisure, food, delivery, finance and medical industries. She has worked with government agencies, private companies and ad agencies. Her work spans annual reports, print ads, flyers, catalogues, DMs, articles in magazines and newsletters, web content, press releases and e-mail blasts.

  A corporate trainer specialising in written communications, Gael has conducted several workshops including Business Writing, Writing for the Web, E-mail Writing and Copywriting.