What do you think?

Does using uppercase letters, bold words, underlining, coloring or any other visual details can improve results in copywriting?

I trust the power of good words alone but I've seen much copy using these "tricks", do they work?

Ogilvy said something about this. Roughly, he said it's easy to get attention -- just show a picture of a guy standing on his head. However, you had better immediately follow up. Explain how the pants the guy is wearing keep keys, wallets, etc from falling out. Otherwise the reader feels you're trying to trick them.

Another company ran an ad "A Submarine That Can Fly?" Good trick -- it grabbed attention. But then the body read "Well, we don't actually have such a submarine, but..." Nobody hung around long enough to find out what the company really offered.

Attention isn't the problem in the AIDA formula -- it's Interest, Desire, Action.

If you're looking around for attention getters, give your offer another look. My guess is the offer isn't attention getting, interesting, or desirable enough. Like the movie which can't live up to the hype, any working attention grabber has to follow up in the body. And that's where most letters fail, not the outrageous headlines, blinking text, or other obnoxious gimmickry.

The Amazing Formula letter has most of the techniques mentioned. Copywriters believe these techniques work, but here's the catch. You can't make bolding and highlighting work unless you have important ideas to draw attention to. The saying goes the fastest way to fail is to have good advertising for a poor product or service. Highlighting and bolding is too often going to allow the reader to figure out how poor the offer is that much quicker.

Thanks John.

Right, keep the audience reading, first the headline, then the first paragraph and so on.

I asked because I see many using the "attention grabbers", of course I don't know if they are working or not, maybe not.

I'll use AIDA for my copy.

Thanks!

The headline's only job is to get you to read the first sentence... nothing more.

Joe Sugarman made a fortune with a headline that read, "Magic Baloney." It surely did its job and got you to read the first line. Then it's the first line's job to get you to read the second line, etc.

Just my personal opinion, but I think one thing that using bolding, underlining, etc. does in your copy is help make it look less intimidating as your visitors scan through it. Compare a letter that has no bolding, etc. in the main text with one that does. The one without looks a lot longer and less inviting in my opinion. It's kind of the same principle as using sub-heads to break up the copy and grab the readers attention as they're scanning your letter.

All theory aside though, tests have shown formatting your copy using those kinds of things does increase sales. But like John stated, they're only the icing on the cake. And should be used to draw attention to powerful words and ideas, not just plain draw attention.

Ryan

JayKay--master of the one cartoon doing the job of a thousand words.

(I put that Rocket Science cartoon on my wallpaper.)

John

PS. Anybody seen JayKay and Gary Larsen in the same room at the same time?

Crayon.

I've tested it. It's science.