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Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas

Posted on October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Copywriting, Online Marketing 

Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas
By Michel Fortin

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

Mnemonics are tools or devices that aid retention. My best form of mnemonic are acronyms.

Do you remember the little ditty to remember all the planets 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 (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto).

Similarly, I 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 (they are also linked to their respective articles covering the formula in detail):

1. UPWORDS Formula

“Universal picture words or relatable, descriptive sentences.”

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

2. QUEST Formula

Qualify, Understand, Educate, Stimulate, and Transition.

This is the process prospects go through when they are reading your sales copy. In addition to the AIDA formula (attention, interest, desire, then action), it guides people, as if going “on a quest,” so to speak, as they progress through your copy until they take the prescribed action.

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.”

4. OATH Formula

Oblivious, Apathetic, Thinking, or Hurting.

“Are your prospects ready to take an oath?” These are the four stages of your market’s awareness.

From not knowing they have a problem 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 is warranted.

5. FORCEPS Formula

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

Finally, these represent the various proof elements you can include in your copy. This is particularly helpful when your product is new or unheard of. Proof is the single greatest requirement in all sales copy, especially online — and the lack thereof is the biggest killer of sales, too.

Do you have any formulas or 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 —
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing strategy consultant, and instrumental in
some of the most lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing campaigns to ever
hit the web. For more articles like this one, please visit his blog at http://www.michelfortin.com/ and subscribe to his RSS feed.

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One Response to “Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas”

  1. Direct Marketing » Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas on October 25th, 2007 12:23 pm

    [...] Lyons International wrote an interesting post today on Remember These 5 Copywriting FormulasHere’s a quick excerptRemember These 5 Copywriting Formulas Posted on October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Online Marketing, Copywriting Remember These 5 Copywriting Formulas By Michel Fortin I used to teach marketing and selling at a local college here in Ottawa. And one of the things I used to teach with (I also use [...]

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