How to write a good advertorial (a story that sells)

An advertorial is a combination of advertisement and editorial. It's a news or human-interest story that sells your product or service.
 
The art of writing a good advertorial is to get the right balance between story and sale. Here's how:

Define exactly what you're selling

Define what you're selling before you start writing — being specific will help you find the story that fits.
Imagine you're writing an advertorial about your new sports therapy clinic. What are you selling? Is it the clinic as a whole, a particular service in the clinic, or the clinic's highly-qualified staff?

Find the story that fits the sale

You need a story that you can easily blend with your sales message. For example:

• If you're promoting your clinic as a whole, your story might be about the growing popularity of holistic therapy clinics, where athletes receive integrated care and assessment.
• If you're promoting a particular service, such as reflexology, your story might be a quirky facts and figures story about that service.
• If you're promoting the clinic's staff, your story might be a personal profile.

 
Have some fun! Get creative with your story ideas. Brainstorm as many as you can. Remember, if one idea doesn't work, you can always use another one.

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Wrap the story around the sales message

Your advertorial must start and finish with the story. The sales message is the 'meat in the sandwich'. Never put the sales message lower than the third paragraph.

Use quotes, especially for benefits

Interview people for your story. Don't just fill it with facts. It's especially useful to use quotes to describe the benefits of a product or service.
 
If your story is about reflexology, quote a reflexologist about the benefits. You could even get the quotes from a book, but remember to always acknowledge your sources. If your story's about a staff member, quote the staff member.
 
Here's an example from an advertorial that's promoting sports massage at the clinic. The benefits are in italics.
 
A trained nurse, Sara says she's now working for people's health at the preventative end. 'As a nurse, you see people after they get sick', she says. 'With sports massage, I'm helping people to stay well — making sure they get the most from their body, and stay supple and healthy. It's great to see more and more people treating sports massage as an essential tool in their overall fitness.'

Stay away from advertising slogans and cliches

You've tried the rest, now try the best ... lowest price, best service ... leave all the hard work to us ... a whole new experience ... No, no, no!
 
Advertorial is 'softly softly' advertising. Use a simple, everyday writing style, and stay away from slogans.

Include contact details, not price

Put your contact telephone numbers and street address at the end of the advertorial. Don't include price — this tips the story too much towards the 'advertisement' end of the scale.

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