What I love about copywriting

Friends ask me all the time, what’s copywriting?

I tell them, oh that’s simple! It’s the art of writing words that suck money out of a person’s wallet like a vacuum cleaner on drugs! That usually explains it well. Bottom line is, it’s having a certain level of creativity to entice people to take action of some sort. That action could be “give me your email address” or it could be “buy this product”. If you don’t have a passion for writing, or a passion for sales – you probably shouldn’t write your copy. It’s not that you can’t do a descent job, you can… But it’s just like working on your own car versus taking it to the mechanics. It’s always comforting to have skilled hands on a job and have the job take less time and finish up right.

What’s really cool about copywriting…

Last night, I went for my jog around the block and was listening to David Garfunkel’s Copywriting Templates on Mp3. He was explaining the art of storytelling and he mentioned some things he learned about objection handling from a book written in 1932. That’s what’s totally cool about copywriting! The fact is, there’s gems to be had in a thrift store or auction lot… You can learn new tricks and new techniques EVERYWHERE. Books on psychology, books on writing and persuasion… Magazines, newspapers, everything is a potential copywriting resource.

Professional copywriters build up what’s called a swipe file. It’s a personal library of persuasion techniques… These can be impactful headlines, captivating stories, mind sucking descriptions or wordings, powerful pictures etc. These things all combine to make the best place to look when they’re going to write the copy for a product. Hiring a professional copywriter is so insanely important to the success of any marketing campaign.

What does a professional copywriter do for you?

1. First, they set out finding out everything about your target audience that you feel would benefit most from the product. Everything they can dig up. What type of car they drive, where they live, how much money they make, what they like, what they hate etc. Try and get a picture perfect clear idea of this person in the flesh. Writing to someone you know is easier, so a writer *must* meet your prospect.
2. They begin to dive into learning about your product, your industry, the history of the product, the reasons behind it’s creation, a bit more about the creators themselves and why someone took the time to create it. How much money it cost, how much time it cost to make or develop etc. The entire story from one end to the other. What it’s benefits are, what it’s drawbacks are and who would benefit most from it.
3. They build up a swipe file of competitor ads that have run in the last year online, offline etc. They sign up to competitor newsletters, they read competitor press releases and study the market and get to know the key players in the industry. What type of wording are they using to sell their own clients?? What can be borrowed, what can be renovated and what can be re-invented?
   Warning: NEVER believe you have ZERO competition! The competitor to the typewriter was the pencil. People are solving the problem somehow without your invention, and THAT is your competition.
4. A copywriter will then turn to their own swipe file and start finding critical examples of copy that match the purpose and plan and look thru those that have converted well in the past in different markets and similar markets and compare those to what’s currently available.
5. At this stage, it’s time to make a list of objections any prospect might have. These can be gathered from the study info found in #1 (learn about target audience) or from #3 (competitor ads) or from interviewing the folks that sell the product or any friend or family member of the copywriter. Always a good thing to get as large of a list of objections (too expensive, too small, too big, not fast enough, too fast etc..) to a product before writing so they can be answered/handled within the copy if possible.
6. At last, the copywriter writes your headline, the welcome/intro statements, the body and story, the features & benefits, the guarantee, the close, the call to action and other elements.

You can probably see now why there are no overnight copywriting houses? You can also probably see why copywriter’s aren’t cheap. I’ll tell you another secret about picking the perfect copywriter for your project that will inject the exact same amount of excitement you have about your product, book, service, solution as you have… Make sure that the copywriter has also bought the product.

Wait a minute!!

What if it’s not even on the market yet? I don’t mean literally, I simply mean make sure they’ve bought into it. They love it, they see a reason for it and they aren’t faking their passion for it. They genuinely think the product has a chance and should succeed and will sell and everyone should have one. If they don’t truly feel that way, there’s almost no way they can write compelling, exciting, mouth watering, earth shattering copy!

Need a copywriter?
Call 604-626-4820
E: dano@answerswanted.com
Leave a message with the details of your project, product or item you’d like to promote. Lets see if myself or one of my staff can get excited about YOUR project.