Why do information flow? Redefine the structure and creative writing of information flow copywriting

When it comes to redefining information flow copywriting , we have to start with the Golden Circle .

When you think of the Golden Circle, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the movie Kingsman…

But what I want to talk about is the golden circle rule of marketing .

The Golden Circle Principle is a theory proposed by marketing guru Simon Sinek. This means that customers don’t pay for “what” (what you do), but pay for “why” (why you do it) .

The Golden Circle Principle talks about three points: what to do (what), how to do it (how) and why to do it (why). When doing anything, clearly defining why is the most important thing.

Let’s look at it in the context of information flow advertising :

What is the entrance idea and landing page we want to make;

How is about how the idea is thought out and how the landing page is made ;

The why is the reason behind our creativity and landing page planning: Why do we do this ? What goals will this enable us to achieve ?

Everyone understands what it means when it is put into practice, but unfortunately, when it comes to actual practice, people often only consider what to do (what) and how to do it (how), and few people think about why (why).

It’s just like when we create entry ideas and landing pages, our original intention is to get the best possible delivery result. In fact, we always talk about the delivery effect, but when we actually do it, “why” becomes “my boss told me to do this”, “my client told me to do this” , or perhaps our goal is just to do our job as per the day.

Such a goal can guide us to get a monthly salary when there are no obvious mistakes. So can this goal guide us to become a competent and excellent optimizer? Obviously impossible. Therefore, redefining why is the basis of optimization.

This article will redefine the structure and creative writing of information flow copywriting by interpreting the why of information flow copywriting.

Usually, people understand the structure of information flow advertising as entry creativity + landing page, which breaks down the "delivery" from a physical level , with the aim of making the work execution more orderly.

For example, what people usually do is to make a landing page while thinking about the entrance title . Once both sides are completed and merged, they can be put into production - this kind of work seems to be natural and efficient.

But then everyone will find that the advertising results following this process are often not ideal . The most common problem is that the creative click-through rate is high, but the landing page conversion rate is extremely low.

“Since the creative click-through rate is very high, it means there is no problem with the creativity, so we just need to change the landing page?!” So ​​everyone started to modify the landing page.

Is this really the case? Let’s look at why this problem occurs based on the Golden Circle Rule.

As we said before, the key to applying the Golden Circle Rule is to know why. Translated, it means: we need to know why users click on you? Why do you stay on the page after clicking? Why does conversion occur after watching an ad?

Because: our copywriting and our landing pages make the seduced users feel that they must immediately comply with the changes in the advertising content! ——This is what we often say, the purpose of advertising is to influence the audience's decision .

So how do users make decisions?

Professor Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, believes that emotions are the decisive factor in our human decision-making .

Young & Richter once made a similar point: people buy products based on emotions and justify them with logic, so (advertising) should arouse emotional responses by touching on people's basic desires and needs.

In other words, only advertisements that trigger emotional responses from the audience can achieve the goal of conversion.

After understanding the basic principles, if we look at it from the user's perspective, we will find that the reason why many advertisements are ineffective is because they fail to understand user emotions. Few people realize that when an advertisement appears in front of a user, the user's emotional chain is activated, and each step in the chain is critical...

Let's try to imagine this: one weekend, you make an appointment with friends to get together in a commercial district. At this time, you are in a relaxed mood and your only goal is to relax with your friends. A friend says, "Let's find a place to sit for a while!" At this time, the aroma of coffee wafts from the Starbucks on the roadside, so you decide to sit in Starbucks for a while - it's like when we browse information on an information flow platform, it is aimless in itself, but we are impressed by the creativity of a certain entrance and click to enter.

When you enter Starbucks, you ask your friend to find a place to sit while you wait in line, ready to order two cups of coffee. But the line is long, the staff is slow, your patience is running out, and your friend comes back to tell you: There are no seats left! So you decide to leave - this is because your landing page did not catch the user at the beginning, and the user did not have the patience to understand what you wanted to express bit by bit, so he naturally left.

When you walk out of Starbucks and go to the Man Coffee next door, there are not many people there. You place your order smoothly. The staff hands you a doll and asks you to wait for your coffee at an empty seat next to you. Holding this toy rabbit, you feel very happy and make a secret resolution: never go to Starbucks again! Just drink coffee! ——This is how the good impression of details (specialty) and industry (industry) impresses users, makes them loyal, and then generates purchasing power.

This is what we mean when we say that, during the entire marketing process, the emotional changes of users are the clues that advertisers should follow . By understanding the emotions of users, you can gain control of users.

Similarly, the copywriting of information flow advertisements should also follow this principle: starting from the user's emotions, guiding and maintaining them all the way until they become customers of your product. After analyzing the touchpoints that may cause emotional fluctuations in users along the way, I split the information flow advertising structure into four stages: title, landing page home screen, landing page body, and landing page sales pressure. During this series of actions, our copywriters will be responsible for four tasks: arousing user interest, influencing user cognition, convincing users to believe, and urging users to place orders .

Based on the diagram above, let’s take a look at the emotional changes that users will experience from the moment they see the ad, and what our copywriting needs to do accordingly:

Through attractive headlines, the ads can stand out from multiple pieces of information on the same screen and entice users to read them - the keyword in this step is temptation , which is translated into English as Tempt, and we use "T" to represent it .

Assuming that four users are lured to click in stage T, the next place they will reach is the home screen of the landing page. The first screen copy is responsible for further influencing user emotions.

Why is it a gentle "influence" rather than a rough and direct force? Because the user’s state has just changed at this time. Before he saw your ad, he was still in another emotional state, but your title was attractive enough to him, his emotions changed, and then he clicked on the title and arrived at the landing page. At this time, you need to slowly let him continue to move forward along this emotion - so the key to this step is influence , which is translated into Influence in English and we use "I" to represent it .

Many advertising landing pages attempt to attract users directly at this step, so they pile up a lot of information on the page to explain how great their product is and how well it meets your needs. But in fact, the user's emotions have just shifted from browsing to watching your ad 2 seconds ago, and he has not yet reached the stage of believing you and buying your product. If you talk about money so rudely, it will inevitably hurt his feelings, and he will be impatient to leave, which is what we often call instant exit.

Assuming that three users stay after passing the first screen, the next part they will reach is the main part of the landing page.

After the previous part of the running-in, the user’s emotions are now somewhat close to what we want. He is willing to spend time on this advertisement to get a further understanding of it, and he may consider believing whatever you say. The difference is how much he believes. If he believes more, it will be easier to force the sale. If he believes less, it will be difficult to force the sale - so the key to this step is persuasion , which is translated into English as Persuade, and we use "P" to represent it .

After the persuasion part, there may be two users who stay, and this is when we have to force them to make a sale .

How to kick the final kick depends on many techniques. For example, if you want users to call for consultation, how can you say it so that users feel that this call is necessary? For example, if you want users to fill out a form, how can you make them feel that filling out the form is something that is beneficial to them? Or, you need to tell users the price of the product to encourage them to buy it. How can you state the price so that users feel they have to buy it? Wait - we call this part Sell, represented by "S".

From the seduction of the title, to the impact of the first screen of the landing page, to the persuasion of the main part of the landing page, and finally to the final push for sales, all these steps together form an information flow copywriting structure based on changes in user emotions. I abbreviate it as TIPS.

During these four steps, if you cannot control the user's emotions, they may flee at any step in the middle, but if you can control it, you can keep the user until the end to place an order, or even help you spread the word.

Where should I start writing information flow copy under the TIPS structure? Let’s look at it step by step:

The task of the information flow advertising entrance title is to entice users to enter the landing page to view details. The prerequisite for doing a good job of seducing is to know why users are seduced by you.

We all know that the information flow platform is a relatively open platform. What competes for attention with your advertising copy is various types of information that match the user's interest tags. You have to be more worthy of attention than other information that appears on the same screen with you in order to be selectively noticed by users. From this perspective, the writing direction of the entry copy is actually fixed.

Drew Eric Whitman pointed out in his book "Money-making Advertising" that people are born with eight desires, namely:

• LF1 Survive, enjoy life, extend life
• LF2 Enjoy food and drinks
• LF3 Freedom from fear, pain and danger
• LF4 Seeking Sexual Partner
• LF5 Pursuit of comfortable living conditions
• LF6 Comparing with others
• LF7: Caring for and protecting loved ones
• LF8 Gaining social recognition

If we go up one level and look at it from the perspective of human evolution, the above eight items simply correspond to the human desire to survive or reproduce, which is also the natural attribute of humans as animals. In other words, these two types of content (i.e., the eight desires) are things that human consciousness cannot avoid, are not affected by subjective will, and will pay attention to autonomously.

Therefore, correspondingly, when we are working on the creative ideas for information flow entrances, we must try our best to move towards these two major categories of content. I call this method of moving closer to transfer classification .

For example, if we sell skin care products, we can focus the copywriting on content that is conducive to LF4 seeking sexual partners (i.e. reproduction), and users will naturally be more willing to pay attention to it. For another example, for financial advertisements, we can focus on LF5 pursuing comfortable living conditions (i.e. survival). For travel products, we can focus the copywriting on LF1 survival, enjoying life, and prolonging life (i.e. survival); and so on. No matter which point it is, it is what users want to know, so it is naturally easier to get into the user's circle of attention than other distant content.

After you have the right content, you also need the right way of expression to better attract users. Here I list 6 types of titles for you, namely:

1. Question
2. News
3. Emphasize the benefits
4. Fear of Losing
5. Arouse curiosity
6. Witness

It should be noted that these six types have their own applicable conditions, and in practice they need to be adjusted according to the products and services you want to sell in your advertisement. Let’s take a question-style title as an example and talk about how to combine content with form to attract users.

The so-called question-style title actually asks your target users a question in the title.

So how should this question be asked? We can think about what issues we are usually interested in. For example, the following three pictures are pictures I captured from Wukong Q&A on Toutiao:

The issues mentioned in these three pictures are all closely related to the relevant users. The first one is about people who love wine. The second one is about women born in the 1960s and 1970s, or may also attract the partners of some of these women. The third one basically covers all users.

These questions all have one thing in common, that is, they fall into the two topics that our attention is primarily focused on, either related to survival or reproduction, or both.

Therefore, when we write question-type headlines, we must also grasp this feature, starting from the target users of your advertisement, and ask questions that your target users may be concerned about, related to survival or reproduction - this is the first point to pay attention to, and it is a directional technique .

In actual practice, we still need to refine the problem. For example, what point of our product is the target user most likely to pay attention to? Which problem, need, or dream do they most want solved ? Then we ask questions about this problem, this need, and this dream - the advantage of doing this is that it makes it easy for users to think: "Hey, how did you know I wanted to ask this question?" Then he will naturally click on it.

Now that you know the direction and the specific needs, you can ask specific questions. There are seven ways to think about questions:

1. Why? why
2. What? what
3. who? who
4. when? when
5. where? where
6. how? how
7. How many? how m uc h

For example, when we were launching an investment project, we found that our target audience around 40 years old often said that if they could earn a little more money at one time, they could retire earlier! Then we can take the point that they want to retire early and ask questions like:

1. Why can he retire in another three years at the age of 40?
2. How to achieve your retirement dream within 3 years?
3. Retired at 39? What's going on?

You have to know that people's intuitive reaction to questions related to themselves is the automatic operation of the brain, and they will try to answer them, and then click to see the "answer" ( actually, to see the advertising content you want them to see ). If the content of your landing page can well take over the question of why they can retire so early, then users will stay and read on step by step, and have the opportunity to become your customers.

If we reach this step, it means that the user has been successfully attracted by our title and clicked into the landing page, then we should continue to lead him forward.

As mentioned before, unlike conventional practices, I split the entire landing page into three parts based on the emotions that users may have at different stages. They are the home screen, the main body, and the sales-enhancing part. Here we first talk about the first screen which is responsible for connecting the previous and the next screen .

Like the entry title, the purpose of the first screen is to attract users to continue reading. To accomplish this task, your home screen must meet three conditions :

1. We must conform to our cognition, that is, carry on the previous knowledge. What did you say in the hooking phase (entry title), then deliver on it now, otherwise users will think you are irrelevant and deceptive, and then bounce;

2. Use the first screen copy to stimulate users' deep interest in your product. In other words, the focus of this part is to consolidate the initial interest and further influence the user's emotions, so that the user consciously or unconsciously puts aside the original thinking and decision;

3. There is hook copy or visual effect that connects to the second screen. Avoid full screen display. A full screen image often gives users the feeling of a single image, and they may leave after viewing it. But if you leave some context, they will be more likely to continue reading and have a chance to learn more about you.

Since I started helping some projects with landing page diagnosis last year, I have looked at more than 300 landing pages. Among them, more than 70% of the landing pages are very long-winded on the first screen, and look very crowded visually, almost filled with text.

Most advertisers explain this by saying, “We don’t know how many pages users can view, so we just put as many as possible on them and they will eventually view them.”

So the question is: Will users always watch it?

I believe that in most cases, the answer is no, especially when the user is visually uncomfortable and does not want to stay any longer.

Trout's positioning theory repeatedly emphasizes that people's mental capacity is limited, they hate chaos, and they have an instinctive rejection of new information. When users are browsing ads, their patience is very limited. They can actually spend very little time watching your ads. Their patience is very poor. When they are watching your content, there may be many things that distract them, and they may leave at any time. Therefore, you basically have no time to warm up. You have to be efficient and fast, and consider from the user's perspective how to design content that will not make them feel bored.

For example, you can guide users to read on by designing a question that interests them. The quotation form was very popular some time ago. Apart from the abuse of many projects, it is itself a good example of question-based guidance. When users want to decorate their homes, their first concern is naturally the price, so this quotation form naturally caters to the needs of users and attracts users to continue to learn more.

It should be noted that the key to using question-based guidance is: you must clearly know who your copy is written for? You know what the current problems and worries of the audience of your copy are, and then, you can bring up a topic based on this worry, and they will continue to read.

Of course, you can also use invitation-based guidance, which simply means telling others directly what you want them to do.

For example, if you want to promote a limited-time super discount event, there is no need to beat around the bush, just tell him directly: There is a discount here! I invite you to come and have a look!

Another example is advertisements for admissions consultation sessions. During the admissions period, the anxiety of parents or students is obvious. Our advertisements do not need to trigger their anxiety. Their motivation is also directly present. Our advertisements do not need to trigger their motivation to want to learn about the school's admissions. We just need to tell them directly that children with XXX points or who rank in the top 30% of the class can/need to come here to attend the consultation session, and they will automatically come.

We use the title to lure users into the page, and then further influence their emotions through the first screen, attracting them to invest more time on our page. The next step is to seize the time and convince them in just 5 seconds or less to make them want to act. What exactly do we do?

This step needs to determine the specific approach based on the content focus of the first screen, which can be divided into two situations:

The first one: explain the products/services you provide and what problems they can solve for users and what benefits they can bring.

For example, if the focus of your first screen is to point out the user's headache or the problem that causes the headache, then what you need to do now is to tell him how to get rid of the pain, and then use this solution to bring out what your product/service is like and how it can help users solve the problem.

Second: Explain what special solutions you provide?

For example, if the content on the first screen is straightforward, then at this step you only need to tell him your specific plan. For example, as we said before, we will invite the top 30% of parents or children to the consultation meeting, then you need to say what kind of specific plan this consultation meeting can give him, such as there are professional teachers who can fill out applications for consultation, or there are school admissions offices for you to consult, or there are a lot of first-hand information that can be obtained on site, etc.

In the previous step, when we listed the benefits that the product/service can bring to users and solve their problems, users generally will not believe it immediately. Even if they believe it a little, they are easily shaken. Therefore, we need to add a proof step depending on the situation to make users firm in their confidence in us. In short, it is to eliminate perceived risks.

This requires that when we initially collect materials for delivery, we must prepare information in this regard. This information can be relevant facts, evidence, or even stories, etc. All information that can help users resolve trust confusion and can be used as long as it complies with the rules of the delivery platform.

In practice, people often ask me: How much evidence/explanation do I need to provide for users to believe? The answer is that you cannot win by quantity, but by the quality of the proof and explanation. For example , the clearer and more sincere it is, the easier it is for people to believe it . On the contrary, the more empty it is, the more it looks like an advertisement, and the more it seems to be a lie and a fraud.

That is the stage of forcing a deal. It is usually performed in 5 steps:

Many projects like to put the price on the first screen at the beginning, and some even list all the gifts, etc. The most exaggerated one I have seen is: buy 1 and get 8 free! ——Let me ask you, if you were a user who saw this advertisement, how would you feel when you saw the offer of buy one and get 8 free?

Many people’s first reaction is that it’s not real, and a bit like: Your stuff can’t be sold, so you have to force it on me.

So, would you buy something that makes people feel it is worthless and needs to be disposed of urgently?

If you don’t want to create this feeling for your users, what can you do?

Let’s think about the mental journey we go through when we buy something:

When you feel that something meets your needs, you will naturally want to know the price. Then, at this time, if the salesperson caters to you, it will be very good. The user will not feel that the salesperson is annoying, tactless, or urging you to buy. They may even feel that the salesperson is sensible. I just need to ask, and you show up. This is very good .

The same goes for landing pages. When a user is just lured to the landing page by you, his status is just interested. Even if he has seen many similar or even identical products as yours, you cannot directly tell him how much it costs. You have to give the user time to understand the difference between your products/services and other companies. Then, when he is in that state, you can list your price. He will have expectations and will not find it abrupt.

So let’s look back at the step of introducing the price topic. We propose two judgment methods:

First, check whether your previous work has been done well and whether the content in your copy has made users want to know the price;

Secondly, the price should be expressed in a more clever way. For example, discriminatory pricing can be used, which does not damage the brand image while making users feel that they are getting a great bargain. For example, one pair is 299 yuan, and two pairs can be discounted by 118 yuan. You can also use anchor pricing , such as the original price is 199 yuan, but today it is only 88 yuan for a limited time. Or reference point pricing is also a commonly used way of communicating prices, and so on.

To put it bluntly, it means making users feel that their purchase is worth it . Here I give two copywriting directions: one is that advertisers need to give users a reasonable pricing explanation, and the other is that advertisers need to give users a reasonable reason to accept the price.

For example, we can say that there is a special offer to celebrate a certain event; we can also say that the cost reduction is given back to customers; we can also say that there is a special sale at a certain time, etc. These can all be used as pricing instructions and placed on the landing page.

It is important to note that the previous step, i.e. proposing a price, must be done at the right time . Otherwise, no matter how good your reasons are, people will think that you are selling at such a price because you cannot sell it.

At this point, the user may be hesitating about whether it is worth it or whether there are risks. At this time, if you give a promise, it is equivalent to giving him peace of mind. For example, the following figure:

Three-year warranty, authenticity guarantee, seven-day return and exchange, etc. are all ways to give users peace of mind.

Here are three specific suggestions :

1. Speaking of warranty, within the scope of conditions, make your warranty period longer:

For example, the normal warranty period for home improvement building materials is 2 years. If you offer 3 years, it will obviously be easier to attract users.

2. If you are also offering benefits, it is best to offer benefits without any conditions:

The best example is Taobao ’s 7-day no-reason return policy.

3. Clearly explain/demonstrate the content of the guarantee:

Avoid using words that are confusing to users, otherwise the goodwill and trust you have built up before may be lost in one fell swoop;

Try to place risk control content in a place where users can easily see it. Do not hide it in small fonts or other fonts that are difficult to see.

If you really don't have the sincerity to give a guarantee, it's better not to say anything. If you don’t say it, you won’t get any extra points at most, but if you say it wrong, you will definitely lose points.

Tell users clearly: If you want XXXX, you can make a decision now and consult/register/fill out the form immediately. The number of places is limited and the deadline is after XXX.

Note: If the copy involves a deadline, or a copy that explains the event time, you must pay attention to the techniques. For example, if your actual event date is still a long time away and you are currently just storing water, you can use a countdown of XX days to create a sense of urgency, rather than writing a specific date. First, the perception effect is too poor. Many people can’t figure out what day of the week it is or what date it is. Second, if the date is too far away from the current date, for example, if it is an event in March, but you have started advertising in January, users will see that it is still early and will not rush to place an order, so they will leave!

For example, giving gifts, free trials, etc. What needs to be reminded is: no matter what you give away, do not let users feel that it is worthless. You even need to spend some space, text, and pictures to explain that the gift is also valuable. Make consumers feel that this consumption is really super worthwhile, then you win .

To sum up, we always say that the impact of copywriting, design, and creativity on users should be a whole "emotional chain" rather than a breaking point.

And when you see this, you will find that by redefining WHY and deconstructing the information flow copy of T ( attractive title ) - I ( gentle influence ) - P ( effective persuasion ) - S ( timely pressure to buy ), your delivery work will become clear and easy to see.

The author of this article @婷婷 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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