Copywriting is so important because it basically boils down to this:
Words carry your message.
How can you be sure you’re doing it right? Today I’m guest blogging (and also venting a little) for Brass Knuckles Media about the six most common copywriting mistakes and how to avoid them.
Check it out and leave your thoughts in the comments.
Are there other copywriting mistakes that should be on the list? Are there any (uh-oh) that you might be guilty of?
I have a walk-in closet with a motion sensor light. When I first moved into my apartment, I thought this was the coolest thing ever. No more forgetting to turn the lights off and wasting energy. No more having to get up after I’m super comfy in bed just to flip the switch.
The way it’s supposed to work is simple. I walk in. Lights turn on.
I walk in. Lights stay off. I try finding my favorite pair of jeans in the dark hoping the lights will eventually detect my motion. Lights stay off. I wave my arms in the air like a crazy person and sometimes the lights turn on. Sometimes I give up on this entirely and just as I leave…voila! Lights turn on.
This was supposed to be a post about how we can’t afford to be like this in our business. We can’t have the light bulbs go off in our minds just as the client’s leaving.
But in the real world, the one that exists outside of my dark, shoe-and-purse-filled closet, working with clients for creative projects isn’t always as simple as flipping a switch (or hoping it lights up on its own).
True, it doesn’t help anyone if the lights turn on just when no one needs them anymore. But it’s also unrealistic to expect a great “A-ha!” moment if we don’t get enough direction. It’s not as if the second a client pops up on our radar we’re going to know exactly what they need. We are not mind readers (it’d be nice, though).
The realistic scenario is that more often than not, both the creative and the client start out a little bit in the dark. The client doesn’t always know exactly what he wants until he sees it, or he thinks he wants one thing but it turns out another approach might work better. Likewise, I, as a copywriter, won’t know exactly what my client needs until I’ve asked a lot of questions to pry it out of obscurity. Even then, ideas aren’t always solid, definable creatures. They’re vague and mischievous little things, and they need someone to help them shine.
This isn’t to say the process should be as frustrating as my closet situation. No one should feel as helpless as I do when I’m waving directly at the motion sensor and nothing happens.
But there’s a sweet spot* somewhere in that obscurity, where, given enough feedback, we can find a way to shed light on a problem in a way that the client might never have imagined. It takes a good amount of communication from both sides, and it means we can’t expect instant gratification, but lasting gratification. When that light does turn on, you’ll know that it’s on for good.
*Turns out the light in my closet has a sweet spot as well. My dog, Maggie, has figured it out, but she’s not telling.
What do you think? Do your ideas come to you in a flash? If so, how do you develop them from there?
photo credit: thomas mies
If you’re obsessed enough with something, you’ll find yourself learning about it in the most unexpected places. Ever since I met my husband seven years ago, this unexpected place has been DVD commentaries.
My husband’s quite the film enthusiast. Anytime we finish watching a movie on DVD, he’ll check the special features and see what he can find about how it was made. And, because of marital osmosis, I end up learning a thing or two about the craft of storytelling.
Take Disney’s Aladdin. Those Disney guys did some serious reworking to the script.
– Initially, Jasmine and Aladdin met in the palace, after Aladdin tries to hide from guards that are after him. There’s a whole scene where Abu hangs from a tree, and Aladdin talks to Jasmine
– Aladdin had a mother whom he wanted to make proud. This, in addition to his love for Jasmine, is an important motivator for him wanting to be a prince. There was actually a whole song dedicated to this, and many subsequent scenes
– In addition to Abu the monkey, Aladdin had three other friends who help him with his antics of stealing food to get by
– Jafar’s character was initially the loud, panicky one, while Iago the parrot was cool and collected
If you’ve seen the movie, you know that the end product hardly resembles the initial vision. This means characters were cut, songs were reworked or omitted, roles were switched and it probably felt like they were starting over from scratch every time the creators made these tough calls.
In any type of writing, whether it’s a novel or a company’s web copy, you don’t always get it right the first time. Actually, you’ll rarely get it right the first time.
For example, when I’m writing copy for a client, I don’t just write and send it to them. I’ll write something, step away from it, then write it again with an entirely new approach to see what works best. Sure, the client thinks they’re seeing my first draft when I turn something in, but what they’re really seeing is my first working draft. It’s the one that works because it’s been revised and polished and fine-tuned.
It’s the same with fiction. When I realized the major revisions I’d have to make to my novel’s rough draft, it felt like I might end up pulling the one piece from the Jenga puzzle that would make everything come falling down.
I rewrote it from a new perspective, then completely changed the setting, and then realized that it was actually another character’s story. These edits have only made the story stronger.
The commentary for Aladdin isn’t the first to demonstrate the fluidity of a story. Nearly every single one I’ve watched (and I’ve watched tons) prove this point: You rarely start out with the end result.
That doesn’t just go for writing. It goes for business plans, and marketing plans, and product launches that end up evolving into something no one ever imagined (um…Twitter, anyone?). It goes for brands that realize that they need to change their messaging, and businesses that notice untapped markets. The real progress lies in revision.
What part of your life, your business, or your writing could use some revision?
photo credit: Loren Javier
Lately, I’ve been noticing how small the online world can be despite its vastness. We all have our favorite bloggers, websites, and Tweeters that we interact with. We even have a select few that we look up to and draw inspiration from. And even though this list is unique for everyone, we all have one thing in common:
We’re here to learn something.
Which also means that we feel we have a lot to learn. Which means we feel like someone out there is better than us at what we’re trying to do. Which means if we’re not careful, we can do some serious internal damage to our own confidence and aspirations if we spend too much time comparing ourselves to them.
Because that’s what I did this week. I’ve been thinking of offering new products and services through Inky Clean, so naturally I started doing some research. What’s already out there? What are other writers doing? How are they making it work and how can I approach it differently?
The deeper I got into my research the louder this little voice inside of me started saying, “What makes you think you can do this? What makes you so special?”
I got into quite the slump, and I realize it’s risky to share this online. Online, we’re supposed to showcase ourselves. We’re supposed to sell our expertise and know-how in a neatly-bundled package. Perhaps this is how we end up with online idols who, in our minds, never experience self-doubt, never question whether or not they’re getting everything right, never wonder how they’ll pull things off.
I’ve been having a lot of great conversations with writers lately, and they are all in different stages of their career. One of them actually told me that they looked up to me, that they considered me an example of a successful writer. And I really had to step back, shift my perspective away from the impossible standards I’d set up for myself, and realize that they were right. Not in an arrogant, “You’re right, I’m wonderful” kind of way, but in a healthy, “You’re right, I should be proud with what I’ve accomplished” kind of way.
I should mention that the person who said this to me is a fantastic writer, and I also know for a fact that she experiences moments of self-doubt just like I do. And if that’s the case, then that’s probably the case for the people I look up to, and the people those people look up to, until it all becomes this crazy cycle of accomplished, but occasionally insecure, awesome people.
Only, we don’t often see that. We see beautifully-designed websites, prolific blogs and swarms of comments and we forget that the people we admire are more than their traffic numbers or client lists. And then we compare ourselves to them based on this incomplete ideal that we’ve created in our minds.
Maybe it’s time we broke that cycle. Maybe it’s time we stopped comparing ourselves—our real, living, breathing, thinking, selves—to the online brands and personalities we become attached to. If we stop idolizing them, an interesting thing could happen: we could learn a lot from them, without putting ourselves down like I did. We could get to know the real people behind the personas and realize that we’re not all that different.
What do you think? Have you ever been in a similar slump? Or is it just me?
photo credit: Mike Kanert
It’s been a while since I’ve done Fun With Words. Today’s FWW was inspired by a recent Twitter conversation I had with PS Jones about Trapper Keepers and Lisa Frank stickers that got me all nostalgic about the early 90s.
You know what I really miss? My favorite television show as a kid. It was SO fun with words. Anyone here remember Ghostwriter?
I’m not talking about the recent Ewan McGregor movie.
I’m not talking about its homophone, Ghost Rider (although when I first met my husband and told him how much I loved Ghostwriter growing up, he thought he’d hit the jackpot with a fellow comic book geek).
I’m talking about the early 90s PBS show about a ghost that helps a group of kid detectives by writing to them. Anybody remember this?
Ah, the side ponytails and scrunchies. The dancing with thumbs up and finger snapping. Don’t you just love how it oozes the 90s?
If you don’t feel like watching the whole opening, at least stick around for the first two seconds when the theme song kicks in: Ghostwriter--WORD!
You can’t take the journalist out of the copywriter—at least not this one, anyways. You could say my journalism background extends as far back as that time I was eight and checked out a “So You Want to Be a Journalist?” book. But for the purposes of this blog, I guess I’ll stick mainly to college and beyond.
In Journalism 101, we all learn the importance of the 5 Ws and one H: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. These are the key components of a story, the main elements that will give us the overall picture. Recently, I was writing web copy for a client when I realized that these factors apply equally well in copywriting.
As I was looking through their original drafts of copy, the one thing that kept tipping me off was that there was no H. There was lots of talk about what the product did, but not how it would do it. There was a good emphasis on benefits rather than features, but not a whole lot of context as to how those benefits would come about. Without the “How”, the copy lacked a complete picture. It wasn’t doing a good job of conveying the user experience. And if it wasn’t selling an experience, how would people be sold?
I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that the “How” gets left out so often. When you’ve got 5 Ws that fit so nicely together, the lonely H might wander off occasionally. So maybe the 5 Ws and One H should be rewritten and adapted to copywriting. Rather than applying them to a particular incident, as in journalism, these would apply to a product or service:
Who is this product helping?
What problem is it solving for them?
Where will they be using it?
When will they need or want it?
Why should they choose this one over another one?
and of course, don’t forget:
How will it do this?
What about you? In what ways do parts of your background inform what you’re doing now?
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?
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.
