Great copy can be a lot like air: it’s everywhere, but not everyone notices it unless it’s missing. Think of all the billboard ads you see on your daily commute, the brochure you take with you as you leave the bank, or the product descriptions you read as you browse through your favorite online store. These are all examples of a copywriter’s work, and if they did their job right, you’d never even know it.

Similar to the mark of a great editor, a good copywriter is often invisible. She’s more concerned with her writing doing its job than she is with getting recognition for it. When the copy’s written effectively, the first thing that pops into a reader’s mind shouldn’t be “Wow, what great writing.”

The first thing that pops into the reader’s head should be the message.

Whatever point the writing is supposed to make should take center stage. Writing that’s effectively communicating the benefits of a product will make a person think of all the ways the product will make their life easier. Writing that’s aligned with a company’s brand will leave the reader feeling like they understand what that company’s about and what makes them unique. Writing that’s witty and clever will make someone laugh and remember you. And writing that succinctly explains complex topics—whether in an instruction manual or on a website’s FAQ page—will inform readers by simplifying.

So why hire a copywriter, if people might not notice you hired one in the first place?

read more…

Feeling rebellious? It’s okay to break the rules when you know what you’re doing (or writing). Here are three writing rules that you don’t always have to follow. Breaking them might even make for better writing, as long as you know how and when to do it.

1. Starting sentences with a conjunction. Whenever I start a sentence with and, but, or or, I think of my seventh grade writing teacher who taught me never, ever, to do this. But when you’re writing a blog post, or email, or anything else that’s rather informal, it’s best to mimic the way we talk. And we talk a lot like this.

2. Ending a sentence with a preposition. Winston Churchill said it best when an editor rearranged his words so they wouldn’t break this rule. Churchill responded with a note that said “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” His point was that the rules don’t always work, like in this case, where following them actually made the sentence clumsy, difficult to read and just plain ugly to look at.

3. Don’t use fragments. I’m actually a fan of fragments when they’re short, punchy and used for emphasis. They have to be intentional, because long fragments tend to sound like the author just forgot his way around a sentence. Think of a fragment as a puppy in a squirrel-filled park. You gotta keep it on a short leash or else you don’t know where it’ll end up. Maybe on another thought completely. Or at another park. Or something like that, anyways.

See? Breaking those rules wasn’t so bad after all. But I should add one rule to make this list of breakable rules work:

Know your audience. All three of these rules can be broken when the tone of the writing is meant to be informal and conversational. But that cover letter for the job you’ve been eyeing? Best to stick with formalities. You never know when the person in charge of hiring really took those seventh-grade English lessons to heart.

What about you? Can you think of any other writing rules you occasionally throw out the window?

When I moved my copywriting business from Miami to Austin, I decided it was time to rebrand. I didn’t think my current brand showed enough personality. I thought, if I’m not clear about my business identity, how am I going to attract clients who are a good fit?

Less than a month after I arrived in Austin I relaunched as Inky Clean. I didn’t worry about the fact that my brand was kinda quirky, nerdy and even a bit cute. I enjoy writing for businesses that can appreciate these qualities, in their copywriting or in general. Shouldn’t my brand speak to this audience instead of trying to reach out to a faceless mass?

Turns out, I’d landed in just the kind of town that could appreciate quirky. In case you haven’t heard it before, “Keep Austin Weird” is the slogan adapted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance to promote small businesses. It was coined as the result of an offhand remark by a librarian calling a local radio station, then caused some controversy once it was trademarked by a company that printed shirts with the phrase.

The slogan is all over the Austin area: t-shirts, bumper stickers…and probably tattooed on a die-hard Austinite or two.

But in the short few months I’ve lived here, it’s become apparent that “Keep Austin Weird” is much more than a slogan. It’s a way of life around here, and a great way to do business and approach copywriting.

Austinites protect their mom and pop shops and their trailer eateries and independent bookstores because they know that this “weirdness” is what gives the city its character and charm. (Not to mention that keeping it weird stimulates the local economy). They don’t want Austin to turn into just another city, where all the coffeeshops are Starbucks and all the bookstores are a Barnes & Noble.

You could say they’re trying to preserve who they are. What they stand for. Their uniqueness. Their brand.

Shouldn’t all businesses, large or small, be doing the same?

That’s why copywriting is so important. The words on a business’s marketing materials make up their voice; they determine how readers will hear them in their minds. What you say and how you say it is just as important as how you look. If you’re going to make an impression, shouldn’t you make one that’s a real reflection of you, what you stand for, and what makes you different?

Shouldn’t you build your true brand?

Maybe your brand isn’t weird, like Austin’s is. That’s okay. “Weird” isn’t so much about being weird as it is about embracing what makes us all different. And when a business does that, they stand a much better chance of attracting the right people.

That must be how I ended up in Austin. The weirdness was calling to me.

What about you? In what ways are you keeping your business “weird” and embracing its unique qualities?

Ah, word play. For many copywriters it’s one of the funnest parts of the job. Combining words, making puns or innuendos, misspelling words on purpose–it takes creativity to do it right. But there’s also something really dangerous about word play:

It’s easy to fall into the trap of “it’s so creative, it must be good writing.”

Now, I’m not trying to say that it doesn’t take creativity to be a good writer. Quite the contrary. It takes creativity to take very technical instructions and rewrite them in a way that a specific audience will understand them. It takes creativity to capture a company’s purpose, persona, and/or benefits into a six-word slogan. It takes creativity to simplify a long, drawn-out product description into a few sentences that are not only informative but will spark interest.

But to write these things well it doesn’t always take word play. Not every bit of copy needs to have poetry in it, or a joke, or a double meaning. It can, and it’s always fun when it does. But a good copywriter knows that the message comes first, and that sometimes, the best way to say something is also the simplest way to say it. (Notice I said simplest, not easiest. Two very different things.)

Wordplay works when it’s helping clarify a message, not when it’s hiding it.

Wordplay works when it’s helping show a company’s voice and personality, not when it’s being cute just for the sake of it.

Wordplay works when it’s catchy at the same time that it’s informative, not when it’s only trying to draw someone in.

The writing needs to deliver a message first; wordplay should serve as a mode of delivering it.

There’s a point when every business goes from DIAY (Do It ALL Yourself) to Do What You Do Best and Get Help for the Rest of It (let’s not bother with the acronym for that one). This is actually a great thing. It means your business is growing and it’s working. But it can also be a scary thing for many business owners because it means you’ll have to trust others to help you keep the momentum going.

Oftentimes clients who’ve done their own writing for their website and marketing materials don’t know what to expect when they hand the job over to someone new. But I find they’re always pleasantly surprised not just by the finished product, but the entire process of working with a copywriter. Here are a few reasons why.

1. It all starts with you and your needs–A writer, like any other artist, has a vision for their work. But as a copywriter, I’m not writing for me. I’m writing for my clients. I’m bringing out their voice and speaking to their audience. Before I write anything for a project I take the time to talk to the client and get to know their company, their audience, and what message they’re trying to get across. The writing should never lose focus of these factors.

2. The client is still in control–Maybe you’ve gotten used to being the one in the driver’s seat, but wouldn’t it be nice to just tell someone where you want to go while relaxing in the passenger’s seat? When I work with a client, the direction I take is always determined by their needs. What’s the end goal for the copy? That’s where I’m headed. But the beauty of hiring someone else to get you there is that I might know some different routes. I might take a whole new approach to selling your product that’s fresh, invigorating, and more importantly, speaks to your audience.

3. Nothing is set in stone–If the first draft I send you just completely misses the mark, (which, to be honest, has never happened) that’s what revisions are for. I always include revisions in my fee because the most important part of the writing process is the shaping, and the molding, and the tweaking to get it just right. The client should have input because they’re the ones who need to be happy with the end result. Of course as the writer, I’ll have input as well (because isn’t that what you hired a writer for?). The key is to keep that line of communication open so that the work evolves in the best way possible.

Having majored in Creative Writing in college, one of the things that always stuck with me was the way my professors talked about voice–probably because most admitted it’s the one thing you can’t teach. It’s something a writer develops on her own, and you may not know how you get it, where you get it from, or even when you finally have it. You just write a whole lot and then one day you realize you have a style, a voice, that’s truly your own.

Funny thing is, with copywriting, that voice is still so important. Only it’s not about me anymore. It doesn’t matter what my voice is (the voice I use when I write this blog, or poetry, or fiction) because great copywriters listen to their client’s voice and bring it out in their writing. Each company has a unique personality, a unique set of values and a mission that’s going to align them with their audience. Even if they’re not writers, the voice is still there because their brand is. It’s my job to use that brand to shape the tone and style I use in my writing.

Now the other funny thing is this: Not all companies realize they have this voice, and writers often need to search for it and pull it out. Or sometimes a company might be fairly new, so the challenge is to find the voice in the first place. In both cases they’re a lot like that young creative writer. Both need to look at themselves and find a way to stand out in a crowded world full of product launches and authors. Voice is so important because when it seems like everyone else is trying to say or sell the same thing, a distinct voice reminds us that this product, this company, this service, is different. This is one that gets us and that we can trust. This is one people remember.

Think of a crowded room where everyone’s yelling at you. Even if you’re able to hear a message amidst the chaos, will you know where it’s coming from? What if, in the middle of all of that, one person came up and leaned in to tell you something in a calm, collected manner, completely differently from everyone else? Would you remember them then?

You know the Wingdings font, the one that turns your letters into tiny symbols like diamonds, squares, ampersands and mailboxes? Can you imagine if websites, government forms, and instruction manuals were written in Wingdings? No one would ever understand them. The text would simply take up space but tell us nothing in return.

The good news is that no one really uses Wingdings. The bad news is that there’s writing all around us that might as well be written in Zodiac signs instead of letters. A couple of examples that come to mind include a web page written in “corporatese” and a bank letter written in “legalese.” We’ve all seen the kind of writing I’m talking about. It’s packed full of jargon and loses us with needlessly long, confusing sentence structure. Instead of getting to the point, it tries to impress readers with buzz words. At its worst, it obscures the truth.

I like to call this kind of writing text. Sure, there are letters there, and most times complete sentences, but as a whole the words fail to say something for one of two reasons. 1)No one will actually read it. They may start to, but upon realizing the message is hidden somewhere under all those letters they’ll put their attention and efforts elsewhere. 2) The few people who do read it won’t absorb the message (this is not in any way an insult to the reader’s intelligence, by the way).

If you’re worried that your writing is turning into text, it may be time to hire a copywriter. Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing,” and he was right.

Our world is full of complexities–a doctor’s world and realm of knowledge is completely different from that of a botanist or an engineer. The biggest challenge we face when trying to communicate is that everyone is coming from a different place.

There needs to be a common language, a point of reference that everyone can understand. With the right words and a good amount of research, a writer can build a bridge between a complex message and the audience it needs to reach.

The things my dog trainer says sometimes is just genius in its simplicity. A couple of months ago (yeah, it’s just hitting me now) he told me that I shouldn’t repeat a cue word to my dog if it’s not resulting in the desired behavior. So basically, if I’m telling my Boston terrier, Maggie, “down” because I want her to lie down, and all she’s doing is licking my hand because she smells treats, I shouldn’t keep saying “down.” Why? Well, that’s where the genius comes in.

The more you say a word without the desired result, the more it loses its meaning. What’s worse, the repetition can cause it to take on new meaning.

Like maybe Maggie will associate “down” with licking my hand. Or maybe a poorly written slogan will turn off customers instead of impressing them. Maybe a call to action that doesn’t compel someone to sign up for a newsletter will just get glazed over.

Why, then, for the love of paws, should we keep repeating these words if they’re not getting us results we want? Saying that they sound nice, or that they’re clever and funny, is never an excuse. Neither is the fact that they’re already on every pen, notepad, t-shirt and baseball cap in your company.

The beauty of language is that there are a million ways to say one thing, and each way you say it can yield different results. So don’t fear a rewrite of your website or sales copy, especially if the current copy isn’t working. Words are useless if they’re not doing what you need them to do. But if they’re the right words, they can be extremely powerful.

One of the most common mistakes I see on website copy is when the main headline says, “Welcome to our site!” I can definitely see the logic behind why someone would write this. After all, when someone visits your home in cyberspace it’s common to want to make them feel welcome there.

But here’s the thing. Welcome doesn’t cut it. Welcome is a lot like those mats that everyone has on their front door. Sure, visitors will read it, but then they’ll step right over it and wipe their feet on the word. So how do you really show someone they’re “welcome” when the word has lost its meaning?

Look beyond the word. Are you really trying to make someone feel welcome, or are you trying to make them feel like they’d want to stick around a bit? These are two very different things. You can tell guests staying at your home that they’re welcome to stay as long as they want and that you’re happy to have them any time. But if there’s no hot water, the beds are uncomfortable and they don’t have pillows, they probably won’t want to stay very long anyways.

So really, in your web copy, just as in a hotel or guesthouse, the best way to make visitors stick around is to show them what you have to offer. Switch that welcome mat out for a headline that tells them, right away, how your product or service can make their lives better. Show them the benefits of taking a look around. If visitors can’t quickly see the value of staying on your website, then that “welcome” might as well say “go away.”

For example, what would be more effective?

A veterinary website that says: Welcome to Our Clinic! or one that says: The city’s only 24-hour emergency clinic for small animal companions.

A restaurant site that says: Welcome to Tom’s! or one that says: Local organic food with an international flavor.

Of course, there’s always room for some creativity, too, but the message of what you’re offering should always come first. Show someone that you can make their lives a bit easier and the “welcome” will be implicit.