In the digital world, advertorials are also called native advertising or long-form copy ads. A bad advertorial is too sales-oriented, and you lose your chance to attract your target audience.
However, if you write a good advertorial, you get a high conversion rate for your product as readers act on their emotions after reading the content. Not sure how to do so? Check out the article below to learn how to write an advertorial that works.
1. Focus on Providing Value
Readers wouldn’t want to read an advertisement. They want something informative and interesting. So, develop the right mindset when writing an advertorial — focus on giving value. Instead of blatantly selling your product or service, think about how your advertorial can help your target audience.
Find a logical connection to your product or service. For instance, if you’re selling a specific tool, write blog-type content that shares some DIYs or listicles that your potential customers can easily follow. Then, weave in your product naturally.
2. Ensure Your Title and Content Match
Your title should represent what your advertorial is all about. It sets your readers’ expectations about what they will learn from your content.
For instance, your title is “Best Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses.” However, you focus more on showing how good your digital marketing company is instead of how the tips will help them. It appears as hard selling instead of just smoothly tying your product or service to the tips. So, ensure the content matches your title to build credibility and avoid false advertising.
3. Adopt the Publisher’s Tone
To know how to write an advertorial that sells, you need to familiarize the style and tone of the publication where your advertorial will be placed. Using a similar tone, you allow the readers to have a smooth transition from the publisher’s content to your advertorial.
A good example is Tylenol’s advertorial on BuzzFeed, which adopts a funny, engaging, and relatable tone.
4. Share a Compelling Story
The goal of an advertorial is to tap into your readers’ emotions and make them act on those emotions. To achieve this, share a compelling story. Remember that the story is not about the product — it’s about people’s lives and how the product was able to help them.
An effective advertorial invites your readers to try the product without explicitly telling them to buy it. Therefore, share a story that goes beyond the goal to sell — building meaningful connections with your readers.
5. Present Solutions
Identify your potential customers’ pain points. Then, focus on what your product or service can do to them. Do not just enumerate the features. Connect with your readers and spark emotions by expounding the benefits of your product. How does it make their life happier and easier? Highlight these solutions while sharing stories from other people’s experiences with the product.
6. Support Your Claims
To build credibility, support your claims with statistics and facts. If your advertorial is about anxiety, it’s not enough to share your own experience.
Present some figures based on studies or surveys. How many people are dealing with anxiety? What are the common triggers? What are proven ways to manage anxiety attacks? By adding statistics, you earn your readers’ trust, making it easier for you to subtly introduce the benefit of your product.
7. Inspire Action Toward the End
Although your advertorial shouldn’t appear like an ad, it should successfully inspire action at the end. Instead of using straightforward calls to actions (CTAs), use internal links that point your readers to your offer or where they can learn more about the offer.
Make your advertorial more engaging by adding a quiz that gauges your readers’ knowledge about the topic. Then, add a resource where they can find out more about the subject by accessing your offer.
8. Offer Something New
An effective advertorial also offers something new to the readers. Use animations instead of regular photos. Insert emojis instead of text, or use a different writing style from your usual brand voice.
Give your audience a fun and remarkable experience. Apply some optimization methods, like producing a content offer specially designed for a campaign. The key is to be creative enough to surprise your target audience.
Examples of Good Advertorials
To help you visualize how to write an advertorial that works, here are some examples of a good advertorial:
1. Love Beauty Planet on The New York Times
Love Beauty Planet’s advertorial in The New York Times focuses on the idea of going green. To achieve that goal, Love Beauty Planet made their content more engaging by adding a short quiz instead of providing a typical blog-type post.
Through this quiz, they encourage readers to test their knowledge about recycling and reducing waste. After the quiz, the advertorial includes small steps readers can take to help lessen their carbon footprint.
2. Google Play on Refinery29
Google Play’s advertorial presented its study on gender breakdowns in mobile gaming. What makes this advertorial effective is that it knows its target audience — young female gamers who want to listen to different points of view.
Also, instead of using a full-text advertorial, Google Play utilizes a video to make the product more relatable and entertaining.
3. Wix on CSS-Tricks
This advertorial is effective as it focuses on one subject — why a web developer should use a website builder. By focusing on one thing only, Wix’s advertorial presents a clear structure that readers can easily follow.
It also offers something new by telling developers or designers how to use the Wix Code database and the things they can do with it. This strategy makes the advertorial a helpful resource to the developers instead of a mere sales pitch.
Write Successful Advertorials That Sell!
To effectively promote your product without sounding too blatant, you must know how to write an advertorial that works. These include focusing on giving value, sticking to your title, sharing a story, and inspiring action. Check out Panda Copy, where we can help you write effective advertorials and other compelling words :-D.
