It depends on your products and the type of buyers you’re targeting.

One helpful guide I have used over the years is How to Write Powerful Catalog Copy by Herschell Gordon Lewis. In the book, Lewis defines the fourteen main catalogue copywriting styles, and when it’s best to use each one.

Although the book was published twenty years ago, the ideas presented are just as applicable today.

Lewis defines the fourteen copywriting styles as:

1. Jes Folk
2. Down Home Personality
3. You-You-You
4. Shout
5. Quietly Upscale
6. Image All The Way
7. Touchstone
8. Narrative
9. Minimalist
10. All The Facts
11. Informational Educational
12. Snob Appeal
13. I Am The Greatest
14. Plain Vanilla

Lewis uses a fictitious Tex-Mex salsa product to show the 14 catalogue copywriting styles.

Jes Folk Copy

Although the Jes Folk copywriting style is easy to read and entertaining, Lewis warns that readers can get tired of it after a few pages.

I went all the way down to Matamoros to sample this ‘Tex-Mex’ salsa, and danged if it isn’t  hotter than an El Paso afternoon. We don’t call it “Hell-Fire” Sauce for nothin’, and it if don’t give your tastebuds a pretty strong bite, you got us beat before we start.

Down Home Copy

Lewis notes that this style of copywriting makes readers feel that they are being addressed directly, but it might be difficult to come up with interesting stories for all products in a catalogue.

My aunt Maria vacationed in Mexico and was so excited she phoned me. “I’ve found the hottest ‘Tex-Mex’ salsa I’ve ever tasted,” she said. “It’s wonderful. I bought a case, and I think you ought to have it in the catalog.” Aunt Maria isn’t often wrong, so we made an exclusive arrangement with the small Mexican company that makes “Hell-Fire” Sauce. If you’re brave…or if you love real Mexican sauce…you have to get some.

You-You-You Copy

This style of copywriting, which addresses the reader by repeating the word ‘you’, is promoted in many copywriting books. Lewis believes it can work in catalogues but becomes repetitive if you have many items to sell.

You think you’ve tasted hot pepper salsa? Oh, no, you haven’t. That is, you haven’t tasted the real salsa until you’ve dipped a spoon into our “Hell-Fire” Sauce and sprinkled a little on your salad. Your tongue will tell you: You never knew a hot sauce could be this good.

Shout Copy

Shout copy is the easiest to write (and requires many exclamation marks).

A Hell-Fire Deal on “Hell-Fire” Salsa! 14-ounce bottle, $2.49!

Quietly Upscale Descriptive Copy

According to Lewis, this style of copywriting was popular during the early 1980s when baby boomer yuppies, its main targets, were past their status-seeking phase.

For your next party, this unusually hot sauce with the unusually hot name can be the evening’s hottest topic of conversation.

“Hell-Fire” isn’t for everybody. In fact, we don’t recommend its daily use, because it makes every other sauce seem so tame…

Image All the Way Copy

This style of copywriting ties a known person or place with your offering, and is less subtle than Quietly Upscale Descriptive copy.

If JP Morgan and John D Rockefeller came to your home, they’d know whether to stay for the authentic Mexican dinner you’ve prepared. “Hell-Fire” on the table means genuine “Tex-Mex” on the palate.

Touchstone Copy

When copywriting using the Touchstone style, you connect your product to a known base, called a touchstone.

In 1912 the Mexican bandit and folk hero Pancho Villa escaped to the United States. After his triumphant return in 1913 he formed the famous Division del Norte. One of the prizes he brought across the border was a recipe unlike any tasted before: “Hell-Fire.” When Villa became governor of the state of Chihuahua, he served this unique hot sauce to special guests at his dinner table. Now you can serve it to your special guests.

Minimalist Copy

This style of copywriting works well when you have limited space, such as a digest style catalogue.

Famous “Hell-Fire” Salsa–the very hottest. 14-oz. bottle, $2.49.

All the Facts Copy

Lewis writes that this style of copywriting is based on two assumptions: 1) The more the reader knows, the more likely they are to buy your products. 2) The more you tell, the more the reader will believe you. All the Facts copy is well-suited to business-to-business catalogues and websites, because business buying decisions tend to be more logic based, and the buyer usually needs to justify the decision to another person in the organisation.

“Hell-Fire” Salsa–Bottled in limited quantities in Matamoros, this authentic “Tex-Mex” salsa combines red peppers, jalapenos, green chilli peppers, peeled and chopped beefsteak tomatoes, scallions, and a touch of cilantro. Our peppers are transplanted from their original site in French Guiana to a private orchard outside Matamoros, where parallel climate ripens them to produce the hot capsicum extract. Our master chef Pablo grinds the pepper to a fine powder. Soaks them in brine to “loosen” the flavour, then marries them to the tomatoes in our special sharp vinegar.

This copywriting style might be most suitable for this product if you are selling to chefs and food connoisseurs.

Informational/Educational Copy

Although this copywriting style might not lend itself well to the sample product of salsa, it can work well for products such as software, garden supplies, electronics, and chemicals.

Cilantro is the fresh leaf of the coriander plant. This delicate fragrant-pungent leaf is one of the oldest spices known to man. When the Romans used finely chopped cilantro to season their bread, the spices had been known for thousands of years. Each 14 oz. bottle of “Hell-Fire” salsa includes both cilantro and…

Snob Appeal Copy

According to Lewis, the style of copywriting works when snobbery is in vogue. The copy, layout and illustration need to match perfectly for Snob Appeal copy to work.

Only 1,200 bottles…ever, this entire year. Our exclusive “Hell-Fire” Salsa is made from such rare herbs, under such rigidly controlled conditions, that only 1,200 bottles will be available this year. We must limit any purchase to two bottles (subject to availability, of course). Each numbered bottle carries the Seal of Elegance. Handsomely gift boxed for your favorite gourmet who cannot obtain this elsewhere. 14 ounces, twenty-nine dollars.

I Am the Greatest Copy

This copywriting style speaks for itself. Those who believe it’s the best product will buy, and the rest probably won’t. The challenge is answering the question: Better than what? Discerning buyers want proof that it’s better.

The Best Salsa. In comparisons tests, our Kitchen Board rated this salsa superior in consistency, palatability, and flavor. Unlike other sauces tested, “Hell-Fire” contains genuine tomatoes and fresh spices, producing a greater degree of effectiveness, when applied to both tortillas and salads. $2.49, unconditionally guaranteed.

Plain Vanilla Copy

This copywriting style might be the right choice if you want to keep it simple and give your readers a break from too much text. Lewis recommends it for multi-product catalogues of household staples.

“Hell-Fire” Hot Salsa–14 oz. bottle. Ingredients: red peppers, jalapenos, green chilli peppers, beefsteak tomatoes, scallions, cilantro. $2.49.

Choosing the right copywriting style for your catalogue or website will depend a number of factors including your industry, products and market. Lewis notes that readers can get bored with one copywriting style if it’s overused. For catalogues, he recommends breaking the catalogue into themed sections and using one style in each section. Although How to Write Powerful Catalog Copy was written before the widespread use of the Internet, you can apply this advice to ecommerce websites as well.

Note: How to Write Powerful Catalog Copy is no longer in print but can be purchased from used book websites such as  Alibris and Abebooks.

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Advertising pioneer and innovator David Ogilvy believed that reverse type should not be used. In Ogilvy on Advertising he wrote, ‘Advertising agencies waste their clients’ money repeating the same mistakes. I recently counted 49 advertisements set in reverse type in one issue of a magazine, long years after research demonstrated that reverse type is difficult to read.’

Robert Bly, copywriting authority and author of The Copywriter’s Handbook, agreed with Ogilvy when he wrote, ‘Never do anything to make the copy difficult to read. Type should be set in black against a clear white background – not a tint, not white on black, not in color.’

Ogilvy’s and Bly’s opinions on reverse type are supported by research. Colin Wheildon, editor of an Australian motoring magazine, tested the assertion that reverse type is difficult to read and lowers comprehension. He published his findings in Type & Layout: how typography and design can get your message across – or get in the way.

 Here are Wheildon’s results that show how much reverse type can lower comprehension.

 Colour combination           Comprehension  (percentage of readers)

                                                                                   Good              Fair                 Poor

Text printed black on white                                      70                    19                    11

Text printed white on black                                      0                      12                    88

Text printed white on purple                                    2                      16                    82

Text printed white on royal blue                              0                      4                      96

From these results you can see that reverse type lowers comprehension levels of  text – so if you want readers to understand your message, don’t use reverse type for large amounts of text.

 Another test conducted by Williams Sonoma, a major US gourmet food and cookware catalogue, found that its sales increased by 33 per cent after simply switching the type in one catalogue from reverse to black text on a white background.

After listening to the experts and reviewing the research, it is clear that it’s best to not use reverse type in your printed publications and websites. Although it might look stylish, it decreases the effectiveness of your copywriting.

How to Work with a Freelance Copywriter – Part I

We get many enquiries about our copywriting services. One of the most frequent questions is “How can you write about my business or industry when you have no experience in it?”

It’s understandable that business people have some doubts about a freelance copywriter’s ability to understand their business and industry. An experienced freelance copywriter, however, can write about a range of businesses and industries without having worked in them.

A freelance copywriter doesn’t sit down and start spontaneously writing copy for a business. Before a freelance copywriter can start writing about a business they need to conduct extensive research. This research will cover the business, the products or services it offers, the industry the company operates in, and its target market.

Misconceptions about freelance copywriters

I think part of the misconception of freelance copywriters (and writers in general) comes from films and television shows where writers are portrayed rapidly typing at a typewriters or computers. This is especially true when showing newsrooms full of writers quickly tapping away.

There are two things wrong with this picture. The first is that newspaper reporters aren’t necessarily good copywriters. It’s actually more helpful to have sales or marketing background to become a good copywriter. News reporting is simply reporting the facts of a story, or what news organisations want us to believe are the facts. Newspaper reporters also have sub-editors who check their work and improve before it goes to press. Freelance copywriters, in most cases, draft and redraft their work without the help of editors.

A freelance copywriter needs to understand persuasion

A freelance copywriter needs to persuade the readers to accept a point of view about a product, service or idea. This requires a deeper understanding of writing and persuasion techniques that are not required for news reporting. A freelance copywriter has to be part sales person and part psychologist to understand what motivates customers to buy products and services.

The second thing wrong with the picture of fast typing writers is that writing is one of the final stages of the process. A good freelance copywriter will conduct a significant amount of research to understand the products or services, the company, the industry and the market. The freelance copywriter must complete this research before the writing begins. Some freelance copywriters brag about being able to work fast. Good copywriting takes time. There’s no way you can be a fast copywriter and produce good copy. Would you go to an accountant, surgeon, dentist or solicitor who told you they do their work quickly?

A freelance copywriter brings a fresh perspective

It’s true that a person working in the industry or business will already have the background knowledge to write copy, but an outsider will usually see things that the insider won’t.

You see yourself in the mirror every day, but you wouldn’t try giving yourself a haircut. An experienced hair stylist will do a better job at cutting your hair than you can do by yourself. The same is true about copywriting – a freelance copywriter is often better copywriter for the business, once they have done their research, than a person directly involved with the organisation.

As I mentioned, a freelance copywriter gains an understanding of the organisation, its products or services, industry sector, and potential customers through research.

A good starting point for the freelance copywriter is to read as much as possible about the business. A freelance copywriter can read websites, brochures, media releases, articles, case studies and other documents. Internal documents, such as business plans and employees newsletters, can also be very helpful in learning about the organisation. To learn about the industry, a freelance copywriter can read competitors’ websites and industry publications.

Once the freelance copywriter has the basic background knowledge, they are then ready to interview key personnel to get their perspective on the company and its products or services. The freelance copywriter should ask a range of questions to determine how to present the organisation and its products or services. Most importantly, the freelance copywriter needs to understand how the company helps its customers overcome their problems by purchasing its products or services.

Amateur copywriters often make the mistake of focusing the attention of their writing on the business, and how great it is, when it’s most important to focus on the benefits to customers (see What Many Advertising Agencies Don’t Know About Copywriting at http://www.wordnerds.com.au/category/copywriting/.

In some formats, such as company profiles and ‘About Us’ pages on websites, it’s appropriate to brag a little and focus more on the company and its achievements.

Once the freelance copywriter has conducted research and interviews they are ready begin writing. At this point, the freelance copywriter should have a good understanding of the organisation, its market and what it sells.

In the next post, we’ll continue with tips for working with a freelance copywriter. In the meantime, we welcome your comments.

Blog post classification: copywriter-freelance

We wrote the article to highlight the fact that some copywriters don’t focus on the customer in their copy. We looked at some copywriting samples from advertising agencies to show that they use the words ‘our clients’ when the word ‘you’ would be more effective.

We didn’t pull this idea out of thin air. All the copywriting books that we’ve read recommend using second person (’you’) in your copywriting.

For instance, a seminal work on copywriting is The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly. This book was first published in 1985 and has been reprinted several times.

In The Copywriter’s Handbook, Bly writes about what he calls ‘customer-oriented copy’.

One technique to help you write for the reader is to address the reader directly as ‘you’ in the copy ─ just as I am writing to you in this book. Copywriters call this the ‘you orientation.’ Flip through a magazine and you’ll see that 90 percent of the ads contain the word ‘you’ in the body copy.

Bly shows the difference between customer-oriented copywriting and advertiser-oriented copywriting in the following examples.

1. BankPlan is the state-of-the-art in user-friendly, sophisticated financial software for small business accounts receivable, accounts payable, and general ledger applications.

2. BankPlan helps you balance your books and manage your cash flow. It also keeps track of customers who haven’t paid their bills. Best of all, the program is easy to use — you don’t need special training.

Which  do you think is more effective?

In the previous copywriting blog post we showed that many advertising agencies fail to apply ‘you orientation’ in their copywriting. Their copy is more like the first example above.

Robert Bly isn’t the only one to write about customer-oriented (second person) copy. If you do international Google searches for the phrases “second person” copywriting and customer-oriented copywriting you’ll finds hundreds of copywriting blog posts and articles about the benefits of writing directly to your readers.

So when advertising agencies write ‘our clients’ instead of ‘you’ in their own promotional copy, they aren’t ‘wrong’ ─ they’re just not being effective as they can be.

We welcome your comments.

The consensus among copywriters is that using second person when copywriting is one of the best ways to connect with your readers.

I did some research and found that many advertising and marketing agencies don’t know this simple rule in their own copywriting. Some of these firms are internationally recognised as the top marketing and advertising agencies. You’d think they would know better, but I guess a big name doesn’t always guarantee quality copywriting.

Let’s look at a few of the examples of how some marketing and advertising agencies fail to use second person in their copywriting (I’m not mentioning any names here because I don’t want to offend anyone).

Examples of copywriting that aren’t customer focused

1.We offer our clients a full spectrum of advertising related services.

2. We offer our clients common sense advice that helps them grow their businesses.

3. Our attention to detail and timelines and our solid production base enables us to offer our clients the best results.

4. This level of integration allows us to offer our clients coordinated campaigns.

5. We offer our clients a full suite of communications solutions including brand strategy, market strategy, marketing support, public relations, website analysis, web design, web marketing, and advertising services.

6. We offer our clients a comprehensive range of programs and services.

7. We offer our clients an insightful and personal approach, full of creative energy, and dedication to your individual business needs.

8. We offer our clients strategic and creative leadership across a full array of marketing communications.

Do you see what these companies have missed with their copywriting?

They use the phrase ‘our clients’ when they should write ‘you’ in their copywriting.

Why is this important?

Copywriting is selling with words

Copywriting is the art of selling with words. One of the basic rules of any sales interaction is ‘assume the sale’. If you use second person in your copywriting, you are assuming that the reader is already a customer. If you are timid and afraid to assume the sale, your copywriting won’t be as effective.

We can tell from the examples above that many copywriters don’t have sales experience. They might have strong credentials in public relations, marketing or journalism, but they don’t understand sales and the art of persuasion.

Simple copywriting changes can make a big difference

Let’s quickly fix the sample sentences to see how simple changes greatly improve the copywriting.

1. We offer you a full spectrum of advertising related services.

2. We offer you common sense advice that helps you grow your business.

3. Our attention to detail and timelines and our solid production base enables us to offer you the best results.

4. This level of integration allows us to offer you coordinated campaigns.

5. We offer you a full suite of communications solutions including brand strategy, market strategy, marketing support, public relations, website analysis, web design, web marketing, and advertising services.

6. We offer you a comprehensive range of services and programs.

7. We offer you a personal and insightful approach, full of creative energy, and dedication to your individual business needs.

8. We offer you strategic and creative leadership across a full array of marketing communications.

There are other changes that I would make to improve these examples, but I only want to deal with one issue in this copywriting blog post.

How to measure customer focus in your copywriting

At Word Nerds we use a free online tool that measures how well we focus on the customer in our copywriting. It’s called the WeWe Customer Focus Calculator and you can find it at http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm.

Simply enter a web address, or paste your copywriting in, and it tells you how much you are focusing on your company in your copywriting versus how much you are focusing on your customer.

These are sample results of  some copywriting we checked on the site.

For the copy you submitted:

Your Customer Focus Rate: 85.71%

You have 6 instances of customer-focused words.

Your Self Focus Rate: 14.29%

You have 0 instances of self-focused words.

You have 1 instance of the Company Name.

You speak about your customers approximately 6 times as often as you speak about yourself.

Excellent!

If we find our copywriting has a low Customer Focus Rate, we go back and improve it.

You don’t have to look very far to see examples of poor copywriting. Large and respected advertising agencies don’t necessarily know what good copywriting is. They fail to speak to their customers when copywriting.

Remember that copywriting is about customers, so speak to them directly by writing ‘you’.  

One was a presentation I delivered at a breakfast briefing for the American Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne. I covered the basic elements of speech writing including how to structure a speech and how to use rhetorical language.

If you’re interested in speech writing, we have a pdf summary of the presentation that covers how to open and conclude a speech. It also shows how speechwriters use language effectively for business and political speeches. Contact us and we will email you the summary of the speech writing presentation.

Now, getting back to the copywriting blog.

In the last two posts you might remember that I wrote about using simple words and simple phrases in your copywriting while keeping a short average sentence length.

Applying these ideas to your copywriting will result in high readability, which I explain  in the post. Since the concept of readability applies to all types of writing (not only copywriting), I decided to post it in my business writing blog.

Read it at  http://www.wordnerds.com.au/category/business-writing .

It’s important to measure the readability of your copywriting for reasons that I explain in the post.

Go to the link above to learn about readability. Apply it to your copywriting.  Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Good luck with your copywriting.

Michael Gladkoff

Word Nerds

One of the first rules of copywriting is to keep it simple. When copywriting for any format you need to keep in mind that people don’t like reading long or complicated copy.

Have you ever looked at a brochure, website or letter with too much text? Most likely, you put it down without reading it. Poor copywriting is to blame. You’ve probably received eight-page sales letters in the mail. Typically, these have yellow highlighting and several postscripts at the end. I never read these when I receive them. I have never bought anything from one of these sales letters ─ they are too long.  

Simple and Effective Copywriting Requires Time and Effort

When copywriting, it takes time and effort to put more effort to produce simple and effective copy. Mark Twain summarised this well when he wrote, “I am sorry this is such a long letter, but I did not have the time to write a short one.” He wasn’t referring to copywriting per se, but his statement can be applied to copywriting.

Unfortunately, some copywriters promote the idea of lengthy sales letters (also called sales sheets) as an effective form of copywriting. A few of these copywriters deliver expensive copywriting seminars on how to write these sales letters.

A basic copywriting tip – use simple words

One of the most basic tips to reduce the length of your copywriting is to use simple words. Copywriting that includes simple words takes up less space and is easier to read.

Here are some ideas of how you can use simple words to improve your copywriting.

                        Instead of:                            Use:

                        accomplish                            do

                        ascertain                                find out

                        disseminate                           send out, distribute

                        endeavour                              try

                        expedite                                 hasten, speed up

                        facilitate                                  make easier, help

                        locality                                    place

                        optimum                                 best, greatest, most

                        utilise                                      use

You can see that simple words convey the same idea with fewer letters. If you apply this idea to your copywriting project, your copy will be much easier to read and take up less space on the page. It’s more inviting to readers, so there’s a better chance your copy will be read.

You can apply this concept to wordy phrases by replacing them with single words when copywriting.

Instead of:                            Use:

                        with regard to                        about

                        by means of                           by

                        in the event that                      if

                        until such time                        until

                        during such time                    during

                        subsequent to                        after

                        it would appear that               apparently

                        adequate number of              enough

You can improve your copywriting if you follow the suggestions to use simple words and replace phrases with single words.

After you have completed a first draft of your copywriting project, go back and edit what you have written. Replace complicated words with simple ones (a thesaurus is a helpful tool for this) and replace phrases with single words when possible.

This blog post is about copywriting, but the concept of simplicity will improve any type of writing.

In the next copywriting blog post, we’ll look at using simple sentences for more effective copywriting.

In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there; a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender’s hold by upsetting his balance.

This is not to say that your prospect is your enemy, but most people view unfamiliar companies with some scepticism. Everybody has had a bad experience with a company, so if they don’t know your organisation, you need to win the customer over to your side with good copywriting.

How Can The Indirect Approach Be Applied To Writing?

Let’s look at one way the indirect approach is applied to copywriting. Case studies are a great example. These are used mostly in a business to business context. When you use a case study to promote your product or service it’s not what you call a ‘hard sell’. Instead you show your prospect how you solved a problem or met the needs of a company or person.

Writing Tips for Better Case Studies

I’ve seen many bad examples of case studies. These might have been written in house, but they could be from a freelance copywriter who doesn’t understand how they work. The most common problem with many case studies I’ve analysed is that copywriters use a selling approach that is best for writing in other persuasive formats (such as brochures or websites).

You don’t want to keep saying that your company is the best when writing a case study. In a case study, you want to show how your product or service met a customer’s needs or solved their problem.

The basic outline for writing a case study is:

• Background and introduction of the problem
• Solution – how it was chosen and implemented
• Results – how the situation has improved

Writing the Case Study Introduction

In the background to the case study you explain the customer’s problem. It is best to show how the issue was hurting their organisation. Emphasise the pain the problem created for them, but don’t exaggerate.

I wrote a case for an automation equipment provider that helped a dairy products manufacturer reduce waste when packaging yogurt. At the beginning of the case study I wrote that they were wasting 3,000 kilos of yogurt each day because their automation equipment couldn’t accurately fill the yogurt containers.

When writing your case study, you might show how your client tried another product or service that didn’t help them. It’s all right to mention this but it’s best not to give the name of the competitor. Criticising your competitors by name in your copywriting can be counterproductive – it only draws attention to them. Also, you could end up in court if the competitor feels you haven’t covered the case accurately.

When writing your case study, don’t forget to quote staff from the company that was helped . Direct quotes from clients show that your case study is real. It also helps the readers, who may be facing similar problems, relate to the situation.

Writing Your Case Study Solution Section

When writing a case study solution section you want to show how your product or service solved the problem – you explain the rationale for choosing a particular solution, and then how the solution was implemented. This can start at the very beginning when your company first got involved. You can show how you took the time fully understand the client’s challenge. You might write about heroic efforts made to complete the project.

I wrote a case study about an IT company that develops software for the telecommunications industry. When developing and testing the software in Australia, they had to communicate with partners in Europe to test the software. This meant they had to spend many late nights working to get the job done. I mentioned these extraordinary efforts in the case study to show the dedication of the IT company’s personnel.

When writing a case study it’s good to include these human elements, especially if you’re selling a service. This will take time. You’ll need to research and interview the people who worked on the project you want to write about. A copywriter who can uncover interesting stories and information will be more effective at writing a case study than a copywriter who skirts around the edges and doesn’t cover the important details.

Writing Your Case Study Results Section

The results section of your case study is where you tell the readers what the company achieved. Try to be as specific as possible. When writing the yogurt manufacturing case study mentioned earlier, I included details on what the new automation equipment achieved. It reduced spillage by 97 per cent – from 3000 kilos per day to 90 kilos per day.

It’s not always easy to get this amount of detail when writing your case study. Some companies won’t have that type of information to give. Others are reluctant to give away their trade secrets. In these situations you might want to write a case study without specifying the company. You could write about “a major Australian manufacturer of dairy products” without giving out their name. But this won’t be as credible as specifying the company and quoting key personnel.

Other Ways to Use the Indirect Approach When Copywriting

In future copywriting blog posts, I’ll cover other ways to use the indirect approach when copywriting. These include white papers, articles and advertorials.

Copywriting is the process of writing the words that promote a person, business, opinion, or idea. It can be used as written text, as a radio or television ad, or in a variety of other media.

The main purpose of writing marketing copy or promotional text is to persuade the listener or reader to act — to buy a product or subscribe to a certain viewpoint. Alternatively, copy can be used to dissuade a reader from a particular belief or action.

This is a fairly broad definition of copywriting. It goes beyond the obvious forms of copywriting you might think of. In the last post, I wrote about high-profile direct response copywriters who claim to hold the secrets of copywriting (if you pay them substantial sums for their seminars). But direct response copywriting (such as sales letters) is only one facet of copywriting.

According to the above definition of copywriting, speech writing can be a form of copywriting. Many speeches are aimed at persuading audiences to take a particular action, or not do something that is thought to be undesirable.

Copywriting and sales

Copywriting is closely associated with sales. A definitive book on copywriting – The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly – opens with a quote from an advertising executive who said, ‘A copywriter is a salesperson behind a typewriter’. The book was first published in the mid 1980s and is still completely relevant. But today we would say, ‘A copywriter is a salesperson in front of a computer’. 

Yes, copywriting is about sales. But you may not be selling a product or service – you may be selling an image, idea, brand, or something else that is intangible. If you look at the website of a large company such as IBM, they aren’t selling their products on their home page. They offer a big picture about their company and what they do. They’re selling the idea that they are a reliable and innovative company. When you drill down to the Solutions and Products pages the copy is more sales oriented, but it isn’t the type of copy you’d use to sell a consumer product through a mail order campaign.

So the style of copy needs to be tailored to the types of products or services you sell, your goal and your audience.

In the next post, I’ll look at the indirect approach to copywriting and how it can be used effectively in many situations.

See you next time.

Welcome to our new blog.

In the coming months and years we’ll be covering a diverse range of topics on all forms of written communication for business. We’ll divide these into four main categories: copywriting, speech writing, business writing, editing and proofreading. During the next five weeks ─ through the end of January 2009 ─ we’ll be looking at copywriting.

There is a lot of confusion about copywriting. Many business people don’t have a clear understanding about copywriting and its importance. I’ve met small and medium business owners and managers who are surprised that an outside company or individual would offer to write copy for their business. Some are even surprised that such a service exists. One of their first questions is, ‘How can you write about our business if you’re not in our business?’ Others confuse the term copywriting with copyright, a legal concept for protecting intellectual property.

On the other hand, there are professional copywriters who have a very narrow definition of copywriting. They think that the only good copywriting is direct response copywriting. These are the copywriting gurus who offer to teach you copywriting in a weekend ─ for the special price of $6,000 for a three-day course. You’ll learn all the copywriting secrets and become tremendously successful in a very short time.  

In the coming months I’ll cover copywriting from the ground up. The first step will be to give you a solid definition of copywriting. Then we’ll look at the different types of copy to determine which style is best for your product, your service and your organisation.

 See you soon!