Hands up if you know, without a doubt, what a copywriter does.

You do? Congratulations, you are one of the few.

When some people ask what I do and I tell  them I’m a copywriter, the normally say ‘Oh, really?’ nodding until  they have to give in to their curiosity and ask ‘what’s one of those then?’

The term copywriter often conjures and image of me sat at my desk surrounded in paper, copying text from one piece to another.

That’s not what I do.

Basically,  a copywriter is a person who writes marketing materials. It is sales writing – that which is mainly concerned with persuading someone (like you or me) to part with their hard earned cash and buy a particular product or service.

To make that happen your writing has to be invisible. No, that doesn’t mean using invisible ink. By invisible I mean it shouldn’t be showy. You writing has to be secondary – it is the sales message you want the reader to see, not your amazing prose.

To help you create something that sells rather than shows off, here are a few useful tips to follow:

1. You do not exist

Of course, you do really exist. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be able to write. But what shouldn’t exist is your hidden writer…that part of you that is longing to show off your literary skills. If your sales writing is to be successful you have to focus on your reader. Forget your own flare, you have to think about the readers because they are the ones that will be doing the buying. Think about what they like, their age, their likes and dislikes etc.

2. Simple

Small words and simple sentences are a copywriter’s best friend. Impressively high-brow writing won’t endear you to your reader. The best writing is simple and concise. Oh, and another thing, don’t use jargon, that’s a real turn off.

3. Who’s your customer?

Some people argue that writing to sell to a customer (B2C writing) is different to writing to sell to a business (B2B writing). In my book they are the same. At the end of the day, whether you are writing to a customer or a business, it will be a person reading your sales pitch. Companies can’t make buying decisions but people can.

4. The F word is banned

The primary aim of your sales writing is to convince someone to buy your product. To do that you have to show them how much better their life will be if they buy it. Which means telling them the benefits. Yes, the benefits not the features.

So as you can see, copywriting is all about simple, well written English that is designed to sell. No matter what format your writing is to take, keeping your language and structure simple is the best way to achieve sales.

By following this advice you will be able to get your readers’ attention (through a great headline), grab their interest (by using the benefits), make them want it and get them to buy (this is your strong call to action). Language can be a very powerful thing when handled correctly.

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Should a copywriter tell?

Let’s think about that for a second. A copywriter’s job is to sell products for their clients through the written word.

Instructions for a project will probably include phrases like ‘tell everyone about our product’, ‘tell them how amazing it is’. But telling is for journalists and teachers.

Copywriting is about giving so much more than that.

Sell, sell, sell

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing an advert, website copy, brochure or email, your writing should persuade your reader to do something. Generally that ‘something’ is to BUY.

Therefore your writing has to sell the product rather than just tell your reader all about it. To do this, your writing must cover three crucial elements:

1. Be benefits driven

‘What’s in it for me?’ – that’s the only thing your reader is going to want to know. It is the benefits that provide the motivation for your reader to buy.

2. Offer

The offer is important because if that isn’t attractive to your reader, they won’t buy. It could be anything from a ‘buy one get one free’ offer, to a limited price reduction, limited edition or bonus gift. Whatever it is, a well thought out offer will add weight to your sales message.

3. Be your customer

A mistake many companies make when writing their own copy is that they write what they think the customer wants to hear – invariably they are wrong. If you can identify the problem your customers are looking to solve, you can sell to them because you are offering them the perfect solution.

These three elements boil down the basics of sales writing. Understanding what your customer wants, identifying the benefits in your product that will give them what they are looking for and coming up with a killer offer will help you create copy that really sells.

So next time you sit down to write some sales copy, remember – benefits – offer – be your customer – make sure you sell to them rather than just tell them about your product.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

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Time is the most precious commodity in society. It’s the one thing we all wished we had more of.

So what if told you there was a way that I could provide you with more of it? How great would that be?

Well, if you read on, you’ll discover how that is possible.

Picture this scene:

It’s a typical British summer’s day – it’s raining; I’m standing in a bus queue and start to chat to  a guy in a pink shirt:

Pink shirt: ‘Miserable today isn’t it?’

Me: ‘Yes, beginning to wish I hadn’t left the office.’

Pink shirt: ‘What do you do?’

Me: ‘I’m a copywriter’ [Pink shirt nods but has no idea what I’m talking about] ‘I write web copy, press releases, newsletters…’

Pink shirt: ‘Oh.’

Me: ‘But most importantly I save my clients time.’

That’s the killer – I save my clients time. That (as far as my clients are concerned) is one of the top reasons they higher me – other than my creation of eye-catching, persuasive copy and vast range of copywriting services of course.

Whether you run your own business you know how important time is. There never seems to be enough to get everything done.

Shall I tell you why?

Because you are trying to do too much.

If you own your own business you know the more successful you are, the less time you have which is why you hire people to help you out. Your time is precious so you need to ensure it is being used wisely.

A lot of business people are capable of writing their own copy (but many aren’t and the smart ones know they aren’t). But it is time consuming. To help your business flourish you need to let go of some of the work. A copywriter will help you with that.

By building a relationship with a good copywriter they will get to know your business and use their creativity to help devise new and innovative ideas.

Even if you are a large company with a number of staff, what would be best? Getting an untrained staff member to knock our mediocre marketing that doesn’t work, or invest in a copywriter who know their onions and will produce great copy that sells?

Try the latter and you’ll see the difference it will make.

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After months of R & D you’re ready to launch a new product. You know your target market and you think you know what they want so you’re ready to start creating your marketing materials.

You are now sat in front of your PC. The screen is blank and your mind is blanker – HELP!

Does that sound familiar?

How do you start?

The best place to start is with your readers. So ask yourself what is it that they’re interest in. If you said your product, you’d be wrong. The answer is simple – they are only interested in themselves.

Get to know your reader

If you are going to sell something to someone, you have to get to know them. As a copywriter I spend a lot of time ‘inside the heads’ of the audience I am writing for.

Take a look back at some of the sales copy you’ve produced. If any on it spends time telling people what you are selling to them (in the first instance), you’re wasting your time. All your readers want to know is what it does for them. Basically tell them how your product will make their life easier, more rewarding and more complete – whichever is applicable to your product (and make sure it is genuine and can be proven).

So, how can you tap into your readers’ emotions? Well, you will need various keys to unlock their emotional desires:

Pride – Flattery will get you anywhere. Suggest that someone with as much talent for making the right decision as they have ought to be signing up for or buying your product.

Envy – If they think people are already benefiting from your product they’ll think they are missing out, and they’ll hate that.

Gluttony – We always want more, so if you can convince them they will feel contented when they ‘consume’ it you will be on to a winner.

Lust – Tricky, but if you convince them your product will satisfy their craving, they’ll snap your hand off.

Anger – The last time I was angry was over my mobile phone’s pathetic battery life. Give your readers a way out of their present frustrations and they’ll thank you.

Greed – A major motivator. Say no more.

Sloth – We’re all lazy so tell your reader how your product will save them time and effort and they’ll buy.

Being human, you reader will try and rationalise their buying decision. But all you have to do is give them enough reasons why your buying your product is the sensible option and they’ll hand over the cash.

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Remember this guy?

Our old English teachers may have taught us a lot at school, but for many the ghost of English lessons past has curbed their ability to write compelling and powerful copy.

Why?

Usually it’s because as soon as their writing starts to flow, a little voice mutters in their heads. It’s the voice of their old English teacher – “No slang! No sentence fragments! No Contractions! No colloquialisms!”

Well I’ve got news for you Mr English Teacher, these are all perfectly acceptable in the copywriting world.

Here are a few examples to illustrate:

Sentence fragments

Apparently all proper sentences should have a subject-verb-object construction. But in my opinion,  if they communicate complete thoughts, they are a perfectly acceptable tool for a writer.

“Get your copy of About the Home today. Full of tips and secrets. Why miss out? Buy yours today.”

Contractions and slang

Why can’t I use contractions? It’s perfectly acceptable in my book. As for slang – why not? If it helps communicate a particular message to your audience, go for it. Obviously, over doing it isn’t a great idea, but if you are writing to a particular market that readily uses slang, incorporating it within your copy will help you build rapport.

And…But

If you thought you couldn’t start a sentence with the conjunctions “and” or “but” – hogwash!!

I was interested to read in Fowler’s Modern English Usage that this particular prohibition had been ‘cheerfully ignored by standard authors from Anglo Saxon times onwards’ (Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Third Edition, p.52). Even Shakespeare used it in King John.

If it’s good enough for Shakespeare, it’s good enough for me.

Talking of Shakespeare, he also paved the way for splitting the infinitive:

Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows

Thu pity may deserve to pitied be

(Sonnet 142)

And of course, another famous example will be known by all the Trekkies out there:

To boldly go where no man has gone before

(Sounds a lot better than “To go boldly where no man has gone before”)

Ending a sentence with a preposition

If you still believe this, you don’t have a leg to stand on. If you did, you’d have to write “I you still believe this, you don’t have a leg on which to stand” – I prefer my version!

It is perfectly OK to end on a preposition provided it’s not redundant – so you can ask “Where are you going?” but not “Where are you going to?”

At the end of the day, if your aim is to write great copy that will get your readers’ attention and sells products – write conversationally. This will immediately build rapport with your audience, gain their trust and their cash.

One last thing, ditch your Thesaurus – over use could mean leaving behind good, clear English in favour of gratuitously overblown hyperbole.

Simple is the copywriter’s friend.

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Welcome to the copywriter’s laboratory.

This is where perfectly chosen words are put together in a magical formula that will have your readers spellbound and ready to buy.

In just a few moments I will show you a few of the words that I as a copywriter use to persuade my readers to buy my clients’ products.

It might seem hard to believe that such innocent looking words could be so powerful, but they do work – time and again.

But before I show you those, I want to share with you a few little tricks you might like to try within your copy that will add extra oomph to your sales writing.

1. Broken lists – When you see a list of 3 promises, it’s human nature to read all 3. So, to encourage your reader to read on, split your list over 2 paragraphs. They’ll just have to read the second paragraph to satisfy their curiosity.

1. Teasers – End your paragraph with a teaser such as ‘But that’s not all…’ or ‘And here’s why…’ or even ‘So why subscribe?’ Your reader will want to know what comes next.

1. End pages mid-sentence – If your sales letter goes beyond one page, finishing the first page mid-sentence will again make your reader carry on reading.

1. The promise more – This is especially useful when writing long copy. Adding a sentence such as ‘In a moment, I will reveal to you the five most important conversion techniques to increase your sales. But first…’ It is like dangling a carrot in front of them.

If you’re going to use that last one, make sure you do deliver what you promise.

OK, I’ve made you wait long enough. Here are the 6 magic words I promised. Weaving these into your sales copy will help you cast your spell over your reader:

1. Easy – Everyone wants the easy option.
2. Quick – Aren’t we all impatient?
3. Free – Whatever you do, don’t kill this one by adding ‘absolutely!’
4. Now – This one is multipurpose. It can be used to show something is new when used in a headline, it’s very effective in the CTA, and it can turn a problem into a solution within the body of your text.
5. Please – The magic word that always works.
6. Guarantee – This will allay fears and uncertainty.

It really can be as simple as that. Next time you write some copy why not try these out for size and see how you get on with them.

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Everyone is feeling the pinch right now, but there are some things that really shouldn’t be cut back on – especially if you are running a business.

You are in business to sell, right? And the most powerful tool in your sales armoury is marketing. Marketing needs words; words that sell. So unless you happen to be a freelance copywriter as well as a business owner, why are you trying to do it yourself?

If you car breaks down you take it to a mechanic, if you are unwell you go to the doctors, if your pet needs some TLC you take it to the vets. You wouldn’t try to do any of those things yourself, so don’t try and write your own sales copy.

No one knows your business like you do

I’m not going to argue about that because it’s true – no one knows your business like you. You know your product inside out and back to front. But that doesn’t mean you know how to sell it in writing.

It’s quite easy to spot a piece of copywriting that’s been written by the company. It’s all about the company, it lists the product’s features and it crammed with ‘we’ with very little ‘you’ – basically it doesn’t talk to the reader; it doesn’t engage with them.

Because you know your product so well, your writing becomes descriptive rather than powerful sales writing. For example if you were selling shoes, as a business owner you’d mention their quality and range of colours – but that won’t make someone sit up, pay attention and buy.

But a copywriter would look at your product and produce compelling copy that would tell your reader your shoes are the latest must-have item for the savvy woman about town – they’ll make heads turn. This kind of copy reaches the emotional side of buying – the side that will make them want your product.

At the end of the day your readers are only interested in what your product is going to do for them:

• Is it going to save me money?
• Will it save me time?
• Is it going to make me look successful?
• Will it make me feel like a million dollars?
• Is it going to make me the envy of my friends?

So invest in the services of a good copywriter and make your sales copy work harder for you.

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What do the Spice Girls and copywriting have on common? Not an awful lot other than the girls know how to:

“Tell ‘em what they want, what they really, really want.”

Where as most of the sales writing produced doesn’t.

If you’ve tried to save money and produce your own marketing copy I can guess what it looks like. Let’s go through the process you probably followed. You’ve been involved with your product or service since day one. You therefore think it is the best thing since that fantastic Space Dust stuff that crackled on your tongue (I loved that as a kid, didn’t you?). It was you that smoothed out the wrinkles and tweaked until it emerged as a finished article. You are so close to it, your writing was all about its amazing features and what it does.

Am I right, or am I right?

Thought so. In a way you are right, your readers will (at some point) want to know about its features. But their primary concern is what it will do for them. And that’s where a freelance copywriter comes in.

A copywriter understands that to create great copy that sells, you have to understand what your reader wants to know. To give you a clue, it’s not about your company, your car, your staff or a list of features. They want to know what benefit they’ll get – what’s it going to do for them? Why should they spend their hard earned cash on your product?

As an example let’s take a pair of rugby boots, mainly because I seem to be buying them regularly for my rugby mad son. When we’re looking at boots, if there’s a pair that states:

• These boost are made from leather
• Their studs are tipped with titanium
• They are available in a range of colours

I can guarantee my son will wander off. But if the sales copy announced that by buying these rugby boots their game would improve dramatically and they would help him kick like Jonny Wilkinson, he’d be at that till faster that Usain Bolt.

Why? Because in his mind the those points are all benefits. He wants to improve his game and he wants to play like his hero, Jonny Wilkinson.

So remember, when producing sales copy forget about what you want to write about and concentrate on what your reader’s will want to hear. Just one word of warning – whatever claims you make, please ensure they are genuine and you can follow through with  them.

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Wouldn’t your life be much simpler if you knew exactly who you were writing for?

You’d know their likes and dislikes and could tailor your sales message to be directly relevant to them.

But life’s not meant to be that simple.

Do you remember the Tom Hanks film Forest Gump? There was a great scene in it where Forest is sat on a park bench. He begins to tell anyone who is willing to listen that “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.”

Well, copywriting is just like that.

Are you a soft centre or a peanut brittle?

Your readers are a bit like Forest’s box of chocolates. They’re all different – they have different needs and different aspirations. But the one thing they have in common is that they’re all covered in chocolate – figuratively speaking. In this case, the chocolate represents the solution they are searching for.

Everyone of your readers has a problem – if they didn’t they wouldn’t be reading your sales copy trying to find a solution to it.

The copywriter has the cure

When I write copy for my clients – whether it’s a newsletter, website copy, direct mail etc., – my main focus is that, no matter who my readers are, they all have a problem they want to solve. Therefore it is my job to create copy that will convince them that my client’s product or service is the solution they’ve been searching for.

It all boils down to knowing how to make the reader buy. How do you do that? You focus on the benefits of what you are selling. Ask yourself “what is this going to do for them?” – will it:

• save them money
• save them time
• make them more successful
• give them the lifestyle they’ve always wanted
• make them high achievers

Don’t fall into the trap of listing the features of the product. If you were selling a pair of football boots and your sales copy told your reader:

• They are made from a unique leather
• Their studs are tipped with titanium
• They come in a vast array of colours
• They are designed to mould to your foot

Your reader will probably say “So what?”, turn the page and start reading about the latest news in the world of celebrity.

But, if your copy told your reader that these amazing, cutting-edge, scientifically designed football boots would guarantee to make them a better football player – that is a benefit that would make them sit up and listen, and grab for their wallet.

Of course, as a copywriter, you must only write about actual benefits. Make sure what you are selling ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’.

So, if you want your copy to be persuasive, get to know your reader and what they are looking for. Make sure your copy focuses on the benefits of the product and that it talks directly to the reader.

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Everyone’s using Twitter these days, aren’t they?

Whether you love it or hate it, if you’re not already using it to help your business, you really should think about it.

As a copywriter I have been using Twitter for a while now. It helps to promote my blogs and articles, I can talk about my views and opinions, it helps me to reach clients and pass on hints and tips.

It is also an incredibly useful research tool – not only for customer feedback (and a great way to monitor what people are saying about you), but also for finding out information.

Twitter and marketing

Twitter will kill blogging – apparently – but I don’t see it myself. Twitter is a great micro-blogging tool. It compliments my own blog because it helps grow my readership. The RSS feed from my blogs are fed into my Twitter account so whenever I post something a Tweet goes out to inform my followers.

But Twitter isn’t just about marketing (spammers beware – Tweeters don’t like being bombarded with your constant messages). It is a goldmine of information. If you read something you like, Tweet about it and include the link. If you found it interesting you can bet someone else will.

Follow people in your industry to keep up to date with the current thinking, news and views. Start discussions about topics; it might even generate ideas for future blog posts.

Share, engage, interact

Those three words are the only thing you need to remember when Tweeting. Twitter isn’t about the hard sell – it is about building relationships.

Yes there are numerous sites out there that will tell you how to gain thousands of followers quickly – buy it’s about quality not quantity. What’s the point in having thousands of people follow you if they’re not interested in what you have to say? Hand pick who you want to follow so you can control your audience. If someone follows you and their bio looks interesting, follow them back; engage with them, build a relationship – who knows where it will lead.

Is it possible to gain new clients over Twitter? – yes (I’ve done it, several times). Is it possible to find service providers over Twitter? (yes, done that too).

Twitter is the perfect opportunity to project a human face to your business. Let your followers get to know you – remember share, engage and interact.

Sally Ormond is a freelance copywriter – follower her on Twitter @sallyormond

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