Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas

I used to teach mar­ket­ing and sell­ing at a local col­lege here in Ottawa. And one of the things I used to help teach with — I also use them all the time when I want to learn and remem­ber new things, too — was mnemonics.

Mnemon­ics are tools or devices that aid retention.

Do you remem­ber the lit­tle ditty to remem­ber all the plan­ets’ names, taught mostly in kinder­garten? It goes, “My very eager mother just served us nine piz­zas,” where the first let­ter of each word rep­re­sents the name of each planet in our solar sys­tem (i.e., Mer­cury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Sat­urn, Uranus, Nep­tune, and Pluto).

Songs, rhymes, for­mu­las, pic­tures, allit­er­a­tion, etc are often used as mnemonic devices. But my favorite form of mnemonic are acronyms. You’ve prob­a­bly seen a few of them on this blog. That’s because I often use acronyms to teach about copywriting.

I do this to help you remem­ber, appre­ci­ate, and under­stand the process I go through when I write copy. Here they are, with their mean­ing (plus, each mnemonic is linked to its respec­tive arti­cle on this blog, cov­er­ing the for­mula in more detail):

1. UPWORDS Formula

“Uni­ver­sal pic­ture words or relat­able, descrip­tive sentences.”

“Up words” are pic­ture words, men­tal imagery, metaphors, analo­gies, exam­ples, alle­gories, etc so that all peo­ple in a given tar­get mar­ket can quickly, eas­ily, and inti­mately relate to and grasp, in their minds, your mes­sage and its mean­ing. More »

2. QUEST Formula

Qual­ify, Under­stand, Edu­cate, Stim­u­late, and Transition.

As if your read­ers are going “on a quest” so to speak, it’s the process your prospects go through when read­ing your sales copy. In addi­tion to the famous AIDA for­mula used in adver­tis­ing (i.e., atten­tion, inter­est, desire, then action), it guides peo­ple as they progress through your copy until they take the pre­scribed action. More »

3. FAB Formula

Fea­tures, Advan­tages, and Benefits.

Sim­ply, this one is to not only help remem­ber but also under­stand what true ben­e­fits are. Fea­tures are what prod­ucts have. Advan­tages (what peo­ple often mis­tak­enly think are ben­e­fits) are what those fea­tures do. But ben­e­fits are what they mean — at a per­sonal, inti­mate level. They are real ben­e­fits. You can also call them “end-​​results.” More »

4. OATH Formula

Obliv­i­ous, Apa­thetic, Think­ing, or Hurting.

It’s like ask­ing, “Is your prospect ready to take an oath?” They are the four stages of your market’s aware­ness. From not know­ing they have a prob­lem at all, to des­per­ately seek­ing a solu­tion, your mar­ket falls in either one of these. Know­ing this helps to deter­mine not only how to write your copy but also how much copy is war­ranted. More »

5. FORCEPS Formula

Fac­tual, Opti­cal, Rever­sal, Cre­den­tial, Evi­den­tial, Per­cep­tual, and Social proof.

Finally, these are the var­i­ous proof ele­ments you can include in your copy. While proof is always impor­tant in build­ing trust, cred­i­bil­ity, and believ­abil­ity, this is par­tic­u­larly help­ful when your prod­uct is new or unheard of. Proof is the sin­gle great­est require­ment in all sales copy, espe­cially online — the lack thereof is the biggest killer of sales, too. More »

Of course, these are not the only mnemonic devices I’ve used on this blog. I’m sure you’ve seen a few more from time to time. But take some time to read them, per­haps even print them out and have them handy as you’re writ­ing your copy.

How about you? Do you have any for­mu­las, mnemonic, or even acronyms you refer to to help you write your copy? I’d love to hear about them, and why you use them.

About the Author

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