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There are several ways to ensure that your adverts are responsive let me outline my top ten response boosting techniques:

1. An attention grabbing headline is crucial. Yes, headlines are one of the most important elements within your web pages. The majority of professional copywriters have been known to spend as much time on headlines as they do on all other elements of an advert or web page combined. The purpose of a headline is to grab your targeted prospect's attention and pull them into your advert or web page copy.

2. Get inside the mind of your target audience. Don't write for everyone, write for a real person. When you are writing your advert address it to one specific individual who is representative of your target audience.

3. Get your prospect to think in the here and now, build some urgency into your copy. Where appropriate you can improve responses by making special limited-time offers that encourage them to act right now. However, you should always impose a real deadline; you can really undermine your credibility with false deadlines.

4. Again, keep your prospect in the here and now and encourage your them to take action immediately. Yes, make it unmistakably clear exactly what they should do with language like "click here right now".

5. It goes without saying that for maximum response you should constantly test and refine your copy to determine which alternatives are most successful. Once you have a proven "control" advert or web page, you should continue testing in order to increase your responses even more.

6. Collect examples of successful copy. I have a folder on my computer where I save copies of adverts, headlines and even complete web pages. When I am writing a new advert or web page I skim through my file and it helps to get me thinking about writing my own copy.

7. Include testimonials in your copy, they can be very effective in overcome your prospects natural resistance. Always ask permission before using a testimonial and include as much concrete detail as possible to add weight to the testimonial

8. Informative, editorial style copy can be significantly more effective than copy that looks like an advertisement. Be creative and find ways of formatting your copy in a more editorial style.

9. KISS - Keep It Short & Simple. Don't use long paragraphs and sentences; break your copy into smaller paragraphs and sentences and include only one main thought per sentence. Don't ramble and don't try to pad out your copy with unnecessary words.

10. This may seem like a contradiction to number nine. Always describe your product or service completely. People are prepared to read long sales letters, as long as they find them relevant and interesting. But nobody will want to read boring copy!

Copyright 2004 John Taylor