What kind of copywriting can make users eager to click the "Buy" button?

Compared with the "heart", "tone" and "golden sentences" that "brand copywriting " values, product copywriting pays more attention to promoting sales. In layman's terms, does the product copywriting have the ability to "sell goods"? After reading your copy, will users be tempted to click the “Buy” button?

The biggest difficulty in writing product copy is that it should not be as vague as brand copy, nor should it become a boring and obscure "instruction manual".

If you want to write copy that has the ability to "sell products", you need to properly handle four key points: product positioning, product functions, usage scenarios, and product prices. Focusing on these four key points, different strategies and techniques should be used to correctly “translate” product information and make the copy a “bait” that triggers users’ impulse to buy.

1. Product positioning: Using the “benchmarking formula” to escape the “knowledge curse”

A common mistake made by junior product copywriters is that they subconsciously assume that users’ understanding of the product is at the same level as their own . But in fact, the copywriters have accumulated a lot of information about the product, while users are completely unfamiliar with the product.

The author of "Stick" calls this situation the "Curse of Knowledge": if we are very familiar with an object, it will be difficult for us to imagine what the object looks like in the eyes of someone who doesn't know it. We are "cursed" by the knowledge we possess.

Under the curse of knowledge, product copywriting is either vague or obscure, making it difficult to answer a basic question: what exactly is this product? Therefore , when describing product positioning, we should try to avoid abstract and professional words, find "benchmarks" for the product, and use objects that everyone already knows and is familiar with to describe an unfamiliar product.

For example, when drones were not yet well known as consumer products, DJI launched the Plantom series of products and cleverly used the phrase "flying camera". It used "camera", an item that the public is already familiar with, as a benchmark, and added the adjective "flying". This would allow users to form an impression of its two important functions in their minds, and know that this product can take unusual bird's-eye views.

If you developed a smart picture frame whose main function is to provide timely access to popular exhibitions around the world, what slogan would you write for it? ArtTo uc h smart photo frame positions the product as a "museum in the living room", using the two well-known concepts of "living room" and "museum" to make users realize that this product allows them to see popular global exhibitions without leaving home, just like moving the museum into their own living room.

2. Product functions: reduce the cost of understanding and avoid the minefield of "abstraction"

What product copywriting needs is not golden sentences, but "precise sentences", that is, using the least number of words to convey information clearly. Laziness is the nature of users. Regardless of whether they are already interested in your product, it is always right to minimize the cost for them to understand the information. Generally speaking, the more specific and simple the wording of the copy is, the better the message will be conveyed.

When describing a facial tissue, NetEase Yanxuan used concrete copywriting such as "one paper, three layers" to express the paper's flexibility, and used "5 sheets of paper can absorb half a medium cup (100 ml) of clean water" to reflect the advantages of "strong water absorption and more economical use of paper". Without using complex and professional vocabulary, the characteristics of the product are clearly described.

Of course, if the product wants to capture the attention of the younger generation of consumers, or be actively spread on social media , it can also use exaggerated or even "magical" expressions to describe the product's benefits.

Recently, Japan's Nissin Ramen released a set of posters on Twitter, the theme of which was to complain about Party A. By "modifying" a mediocre promotional poster into an unbearable to watch weird poster, the many characteristics of the product are reflected.

The original poster looks like this, which is pretty standard:

Party A’s father’s opinion is this (does this sound familiar?):

The final modified image is like this:

No matter how weird the video is, after watching it, you can still remember the information that "Nissin Cup Noodles has launched a cheese flavor". After all, the SHI-like paste in the final draft is hard to ignore.

3. Usage scenarios: There are positive and negative scenarios, and “details” are the soul

When it comes to product usage scenarios, they can actually be divided into two categories. One is "how comfortable you will be if you have this product", and the other is "how upset you will be if you don't have this product". The job of the copywriter is to depict one of these two scenarios so that users can feel "immersive" and thus trigger purchasing behavior.

Many people know the importance of "scene", but how to write a scene with a sense of "immersion" is a difficult problem. Marquez, the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", has a writing trick: when you say there is a group of elephants flying in the sky, people will not believe you, but if you say there are 425 elephants flying in the sky, people may believe it.

In other words, the amount of "details" actually determines whether your copy has a sense of "immersion" . The richer the details, the clearer the picture consumers can draw in their minds, and the easier it is for them to feel immersed.

If you sell a steak frying pan, it is more important to describe the wonderful feeling of eating steak than to describe the material of the pan. NetEase Yanxuan used a set of copywriting full of "details" to arouse users' appetite for steak:

Cast iron provides constant heat

The wonderful Maillard reaction

More than 100 kinds of meaty aromas are created for steak

Coarse sea salt differentiates the layers

When it comes out of the pan, the oil has been drained

It's Friday, treat yourself to dinner

The Maillard reaction, more than 100 kinds of meat aroma, coarse sea salt, Friday... these details create a beautiful dinner scene guarded by steak, which is by no means comparable to an empty phrase "the steak is delicious and juicy".

In addition to describing positive and happy scenes, copywriting often focuses on describing negative and painful scenes. After all, the wonderful enjoyment brought by the product still needs to be imagined, but the pain is something they have experienced personally.

"Forgetting keys" can be said to be a "little annoyance" that almost everyone has experienced. In the product poster of its security door lock, 360 Smart Home depicts the embarrassing scene caused by "forgetting keys" to make users feel involved and realize the convenience of opening the door with fingerprints.

The poster uses a set of detailed character settings (young illustrators, CEOs, retired elderly people, etc.) to resonate with user groups of different ages and professions, highlighting the advantage of 360 security door locks "the key is yourself" compared to traditional door locks.

Speaking of negative scenarios, copywriting master Neil French once wrote a long copy for Air Canada:

This is an aviation seat.

No matter what others say

After sitting on it for twelve hours

You'll start to hate it.

No matter how much free liquor they pour down your throat

No matter how much imagination is put into the delicious food prepared in advance

Relaxing and engaging in-flight magazine

and movies that nail you to your seat like a nail

Anyway, this is a place you have to stay for twelve hours.

Like a nail

Nailed to that seat

Nothing is as long and painful as flying

But on Air Canada, we have ways to make this tolerable

On our huge plane

In first and business class

We have more cabin crew per passenger than any other airline

By depicting the discomforts that long-distance flights bring to people, twelve hours, free liquor, airline magazines, like a nail... through various details, users are allowed to enter the scene constructed by this copy, recalling their own painful experiences in this scene, and then introducing Air Canada's product advantage of "more flight attendants than any other flight."

4. Product price: stealing consumers’ “ psychological accounts ” and easily opening their wallets

What should I do if my product has no price advantage or is more expensive than similar products? How to convince consumers that this money is worth spending? This is also a difficult problem faced by many product copywriters.

If you are a copywriter for a training institution and have recently launched an online course worth 159 yuan, how would you convince users to pay this money? 159 is not expensive, but it has not reached the threshold that people would pay for without blinking an eye, not to mention that most users do not have a strong awareness of paying for knowledge.

At this time, the copywriter needs to secretly change the user's "psychological account". "Mental Accounting" is a theory proposed by Richard H. Thaler, the 2017 Nobel Prize winner in Economics. It means that consumers will put money from different sources and purposes into virtual accounts in their own cognition.

For example, people put their hard-earned wages and unexpected windfalls into different accounts. Few people would take their hard-earned $100,000 to a casino, but if it is $100,000 won from horse racing, the possibility of going to a casino is much higher.

Therefore, if users feel that a 159-yuan course is not cheap, then we can change it to the price of “5 cups of Starbucks coffee” so that users can withdraw 159 yuan from their psychological account for drinking coffee to buy the course, which will then make them feel that it is not that expensive.

The great copywriter Ogilvy used this technique last century. He once wrote the following headline for the British Austin car:

I saved money driving an Austin sedan

Send my son to Groton School

This title essentially replaces the user's "psychological account" by associating the money for buying a car with the money for children's education, making the user feel that they have "made a profit", thereby inducing purchasing behavior.

Conclusion

Product copywriting is essentially a "translation" job. It requires you to use the skills and power of copywriting to translate professional and difficult-to-understand product features into benefits that users love and appreciate. It not only requires solid writing skills, but also a thorough understanding of the product and insight into consumer psychology and behavior.