A Marketer's Sharpest Tool: The Copywriting Outline

Each time you want to create an advertising or promotional campaign you can refer to your copywriting outline to cull the best attributes and benefits related to your product for that particular program. Then, simply organize the points from your copywriting outline, add in some action words and the first draft of the copy for your ad is done. It truly can be that simple. If you take the time upfront to create a detailed copywriting outline, you'll reap the rewards in the long term.

Remember, the copywriting outline is a working document. It's never complete and it's always changing. If you don't update it, the outline will lose its usefulness.

The Elements of Copy
Before you begin completing your copywriting outline, it's important to understand the elements of copy. Copywriting is more than just writing words. There are different pieces that go into creating the copy for each advertisement or marketing piece. While every element is not always used in every ad or marketing piece, the following is an overview of some of the most important elements of copywriting:

• Headline: The headline is intended to grab your audience's attention and convince them to look at your ad further. The key to writing an effective headline is to get to the point.
  
• Subhead: The subhead expounds on the headline. While the headline is meant to catch your audience's attention, the subhead gives them a bit more information and works with the headline to tease your audience to read more or listen further.
  
• Key selling points: The key selling points are the elements of your copy that communicate the primary benefits or differentiators of your product or service. This is where you provide details that persuade customers to believe they need your product or service.
  
• Special offer: A special offer is included if your ad or marketing piece is intended to communicate a sale, discount or other promotion.
  
• Call to action with contact information: The call to action is used to invoke a sense of urgency to the ad and give the audience clear directions on how to respond to the ad. This is where you tell the audience what you want them to do.
  
• Tracking mechanism: You might want to include a method to track the results of your ad through a special code, website address or phone number to determine if the ad meets your return on investment objectives.
  
• Additional information: Sometimes you'll need to provide additional information about your product or service to further clarify your message. This is common with highly complex product advertisements such as technical or medical equipment. Depending on the product or service being advertised, you'll need to determine the importance of the additional information to decide what priority to give it in your copy.
  
• Disclaimers: You need to include disclaimers to protect yourself and your business against potential lawsuits or negative publicity.

Regardless of the type of marketing piece you're writing, your copy should focus on these elements. Whether you're creating a radio ad or an in-depth brochure, your marketing copy should be structured similarly in terms of catching the attention of your audience, teasing them to look or listen further, providing your key selling points, describing your offers and telling them how to respond.

Take some time to analyze ads in magazines or brochures that were most likely written by professional copywriters and try to find the copywriting elements used in each piece. You'll undoubtedly find a pattern showing that the same elements are typically used to communicate marketing messages through effective copywriting.

Susan Gunelius has more than 15 years of marketing and copywriting experience working for some of the largest companies in the world. Gunelius is the president and CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc., a marketing communications company offering writing and copywriting services, and marketing and branding consulting. She is also a published author, and her latest book, Kick-Ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, is now available from Entrepreneur Press.

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