Pick something up. Anything you like: hand lotion, a book, a magazine, even washing up liquid and look at it. It has writing on its cover or outer packaging. We read this product description to figure out whether we are going to buy it. This writing, in the world of marketing, is called copy.
The person who writes it is a Copywriter. So, a Copywriter writes all the text you see on stuff and about that stuff. For example, promotions in magazines, scripts for television adverts, or the emails you get from your favourite shops. End of the article? Not quite…
They’re just words, right?
In your local supermarket, you can see how many different washing-up liquids there are. They compete with each other. But, we’ll tend to buy the one we grew up with, one a friend recommends or even the one on special offer. Buying a product like this is often an impulse. It doesn’t need too many words to sell it as we don’t think too much about our choice, because it’s not too expensive. But somewhere, someone is writing something for a brand that they hope will compete with Fairy. Why? Because sometimes three words can change everything. Like…
Just do it
Before their remarketing campaign, Nike was making a healthy $877 million. Great. But they had seen a huge decline in women buying shoes and Reebok was nipping at their heels with their inclusive campaign. So, someone — a Copywriter — came up with THOSE three words, ‘Just Do It’, and propelled them into their future.
The brand’s net worth increased 43% to a much more appealing $9.2 billion and they still use the same tag line more than 30 years later. Nike has grown into it, even and is worth a cool $30 billion today. These three words didn’t even have anything to do with sportswear at the time. The inspiration was taken from a news story and voila, a tagline creation that appealed to everyone regardless of class, ethnicity or age.
It’s a bit cheeky. It inspires action. Not only the action of what you might do wearing the said item, but it also spurs on the action of buying the product in the first place.
Of course, it’s also aspirational as it allows you to dream of all the things you may achieve in sport, not only that it inspires achievement in everything else! It is failing an exam, dusting yourself off and trying again. It is standing up with a mic at a rap battle. It is having a Growth mindset, before it even became a fashionable thing to have.
I’ve said this before in my newsletter, a customer needs five to fifteen positive interactions with a brand before it buys from them. Sports clothing may be closer to five as we all need to wear clothes. Other things, like services that care for our personal development, can be a harder sell because we see spending money on ourselves as a luxury. Something harder to justify and hat is when longer copy outlying the benefits of a service should be used.
It also helps to take the reader on a journey with a success story, too, along with the features, benefits, testimonials, facts and figures. People need to trust these brands and 20% of people reading will want to see some frequently asked questions. So, If you provide children’s educational packages, prove their worth with nurturing and educational posts. Words that show you understand the needs of the person reading it: your potential customer.
- Copywriting isn’t just words. It’s intriguing headlines that make you want to buy that magazine, because you’re compelled to from curiosity.
- Copywriting isn’t just emails filling your inbox; it’s ensuring your emails actually get opened.
- Copywriting isn’t just the sharing of knowledge.
There are 1,180,000,000 ‘Life Coach near me’ results on Google. You need to let them know that YOU are the only one who will ensure they become the most confident person in any room.
Copywriting is research
To re-brand anything — in fact, to write anything — the first thing you need to do is research. So, to know what a Copywriter really does is to know that copywriting is:
- 50% research
- 20% editing
- 5% luck and intuition
and only 15% writing.
To research is to know the history of a client, the products they’ve sold and the way they have done it before. But it is also knowing a client’s competition and how they differ from each other. Sometimes they don’t.
In that case, what feature of their product are they not talking about that they could be? For example, M+M’s ‘melt in your mouth not in your hand’ campaign. Lots of other sweets could say the same thing. But they don’t. They can hardly be the ‘we also melt in your mouth but not in your hand’ sweet. No-one would be interested. M and M got there first.
Just like the one Copywriter who walked around the brewery of Coors, a well-known craft beer. He was surprised to see it was made with spring water. ‘It all is,’ came the owner’s nonchalant response. But was anyone talking about it? No! I don’t like beer, but I remember that advertising campaign.
Coors: Brewed with Pure Rocky Mountain Spring Water
The research doesn’t end there. A Copywriter also has to know who they are talking to. It is no good making jokes about death when selling life insurance. For that you have to be serious; instil a little fear before coming up with the reassuring solution. Unless your writing to nurses and doctors, now they have a dark sense of humour and I should know — I worked in the health industry for 15 years.
It’s important to note something here. It’s proven that ad agencies and product makers often believe an inaccuracy. They pick the wrong feature as being the most important to a customer. For example, a product designer may believe that an umbrella going up faster than any other is the top-selling benefit. While a customer may prefer the diameter and shape as it’s perfect for busy London streets.
So, to be a Copywriter, you need to interview potential customers as well as your client. And you need to know the right questions to ask. At least that’s what I do because market research is key.
The copy is in the world. What next?
The work ends there, right? Wrong! After researching, imagining, inventing and playing with words; after editing, proofreading, revising and getting everything signed off by the client. It is time for reviewing.
How is the work going down in the real world? If it’s website copy or social media content, it needs to be seen. This means testing different headlines and publishing times. And all for a client’s own target audience. Is the brand’s target audience even listening? Have they had enough nurturing, informative, entertaining and brand identifying information first before the soft, or hard sell?
Is the technical side up to speed? Is the design in keeping with the brand’s identity? How is the company ranking with the chosen keywords; are then even being found on searches? Yes, there is a crossover between website builders and marketing strategists. But some customers don’t have designated people in these roles. Can you call yourself a Copywriter if you don’t analyse the results of your copy? You can’t charge a client for words that no-one will see.
In summary
Ray Edwards summarises well what it is to be a Copywriter in this infographic. So, I’ll let him show you… I’ll just say, Stay Authentic. Stay You. In all that you do. Especially if that’s Copywriting.
