When you’re launching something new, it can be hard to decide your positioning. You want to try several different tests as you launch so you can learn what resonates with your potential audience, but how do you write copy that shows your offer in several very different ways?

It can feel tempting to read about the newest tactics and learn from cutting-edge gurus, but there’s value in the occasional throwback to marketing tactics that have been battle-tried and tested for 70 years. Here’s a look at some tactics that David Ogilvy would have considered cutting edge back when launching Ogilvy and Mathers and using them to guide some copywriting decisions for positioning tests.

“Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”– David Ogilvy

Let’s workshop some ads from our recent launch of CrowdTamers AI through the lens of 5 different classic copywriting tactics:

1. The 5 Ps of Marketing
2. Convention vs. Novelty
3. Steal from the competition
4. Make ’em laugh
5. Tell a story

What we’re working with

Here’s one set of ads we’re running right now for CrowdTamers AI’s launch:

The ads are okay, but their copy is generated via AI, and either the ads or the targeting itself is not great: we’ve got almost 13,000 unique impressions with only 100 clicks. Time to test some offer variants and see if that changes our CTRs! We’ll be changing only copy as much as possible for these tests since I don’t want to introduce too many variables into this test just yet.

1. The 5 Ps of Marketing

From: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/5-ps-marketing/

If you went to business school, you probably had to grapple with complicated slides like the above describing the “5 Ps” of Marketing. This looks pretty scary, doesn’t it?

Think of it in a simpler way. You can be different because of:

• Product – Your product is inherently different. How? And for whom?
• Price – You’re cheaper. Or more expensive! How do you create cost pressure?