Archive for April, 2008
Wordpower Tips For Copywriters
Posted by: | CommentsIn a previous post I included a video clip from copywriting giant John Carlton. Although this wasn’t the main point from the video, something he mentioned is highly relevant to copywriters.
That is, the need to have a large vocabulary at your disposal. And it has to be made up of the right kind of words.
Allow me to expand a little on this point.
When you’re writing copy, you will often have to say the same thing (usually the key benefit of your product) many times. But of course, using exactly the same words again and again will get boring for the reader very quickly.
So, it’s important to have different ways to say the same thing! Problem is that you have to avoid certain types of words like jargon and “fancy” words.So what’s a copywriter to do? Well, fortunately there are some resources at hand. First stop will be the dictionary and the thesaurus. There are free online versions available (for example at “Thesaurus.com”).
There are also a number of specialist books ideal for the copywriter such as “Words That Sell”, “More Words That Sell” and “Phrases That Sell”.Each of these books contains variations on words or phrases that you’re likely to use in copywriting. For example, in “Words That Sell” there’s an entire page of alternative ways to say “honest”.
It’s well worth having one or more of these books in your library. They are a great stimulus to your thinking even if you’re already a pretty good wordsmith. We all need a little inspiration now and again!
Sphere: Related ContentCopywriting, Celebrities And…Curiosity
Posted by: | Comments“Celebrity Beauty Secrets”
They can take their pick but what do celebrities really have in their make-up bags?
The above was the headline and the “teaser” for an article in today’s UK “Daily Telegraph”.
Now, dear reader, you might wonder why I am so interested in celebrity beauty secrets! While I might have some “Metrosexual” tendencies, I assure you this is all in the cause of the pursuit of excellence in copywriting.
In copy, the headline is of critical importance. Ideally, it should not only grab attention, but it should summarise the “Big Idea” and why people should keep reading.
We live in a celebrity obsessed culture. No point in bemoaning the fact. As marketers, we have to deal with the world as it is.
So, anything linked to celebrity is likely to attract attention. Add the magic word “Secrets” and you’ve just stimulated a frenzy of curiosity (one of the most powerful triggers you can use to attract someone’s interest).
So this short headline manages to do a lot of work very efficiently. Nice example of the “craft” of copywriting.
Note the post head as well. Does a good job of expanding on the curiosity theme and drawing the reader in.
So, keep that in mind when writing or creating a campaign. If you can introduce a celebrity angle that makes sense, you’ll most likely find it adds greatly to the power of the copy.
Sphere: Related ContentCopywriting Video From John Carlton – “Basics Of A Sales Message”
Posted by: | CommentsOK, bit of an experiment today. Having been looking into exactly what the WordPress blogging platform can do, I am pretty impressed. Even for a non-technical person like me, it’s easy to add video from places like YouTube.
Here’s something from John Carlton on the basics of a sales message. It includes a very good example of how a single word can make a big difference in a sales letter…
In this case, a single word is enough to cause a problem and potentially lose the reader. At the highest levels in copywriting, it’s this sort of thing that makes the difference and it’s what sets masters like John Carlton apart from the rest.
Sphere: Related ContentA Marketing Lesson From Master Yoda
Posted by: | CommentsHave I mentioned I’m a big movie fan? Very excited about a couple of upcoming new movies. The new “Indiana Jones” episode and the “Iron Man” movie (yup, I’m a big comic book fan too!).
Interesting, of course, to observe the build up to a big movie release. Marketing lessons there for product launches and building up anticipation. Video trailers are an obvious way to promote new movies. Checking out the “Iron Man” trailer on YouTube I was amazed (or maybe not) to see that almost 4 million people had viewed the video. An example of the incredible “reach” that the internet provides marketers.
Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. As you might have deduced from the title this is about “Star Wars”, more precisely something from “The Empire Strikes Back”. There’s a scene in the middle of the movie where Yoda is training Luke in the ways of the Force and he instructs Luke to raise his crashed space fighter out of the swamp.
Luke looks dubious about the whole thing but says “OK, I’ll try”. At this point Yoda turns on him and says…
“Try not – do or do not – there is no try”.
What a great line! When you think about it, the word “Try” is so weak. It kind of contains an expectation of failure.
So, I have banned the word from my vocabulary as far as possible and substituted instead the word “Test”. You might like to consider doing that yourself.
For marketers in particular, this might be worth thinking about. Instead of “trying” something, how about “testing” a new approach? Testing should be an integral approach of your marketing in any case. It’s amazing the difference in response you get from different approaches.
Talking of testing, I recently purchased “The Secrets Of A 10% Conversion Rate” by Paul Hancox. Despite being in a self-imposed period of not buying any new copywriting or marketing products, Michel Fortin wrote such a great review I felt compelled to check out the report for myself!
(As an aside, I guess that’s a good marketing example of the power of an endorsement from a “trusted source”!)
Now, a great deal of the report is about testing and that is one of the secrets of getting a high response rate. But there’s more and when I’ve finished the report I’ll let you know what I think about it.
In the meantime…”Do or do not”!
Sphere: Related ContentMore Marketing Idiocy From A Big Corporation
Posted by: | CommentsCame across a great blog post today from Mark Widawer. The kind of post that made me think “Gee, I wish I’d written that!”
Anyway, it’s titled “Bad Advertising – Ford Needs To ‘Learn One’” and it’s all about the latest strategic marketing campaign just announced by the Ford Motor Company in North America (I hope for Ford’s sake they don’t use it elsewhere).
Now, I’ll make a confession here. I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Ford. Near where I grew up in the UK there was a big Ford assembly plant and the company was a big employer in the area (Ford Europe HQ was nearby as well). The classic Ford Cortina and then the Escort XR3 (not to mention the Capri Ghia 3.0) were all objects of desire for me at one time or another.
And although I might be opening myself to some ridicule, I think the current Ford Focus is just an excellent car.
However, what is it with big car companies today that makes them so utterly clueless when it comes to marketing? In his article, Mark Widawer reports on Ford’s latest “Big Idea” that is supposed to get dealers and customers excited and the sales rolling in.
It’s (drum roll)…”Ford: Drive One”!
Er…quite. A classic example of image advertising at it’s worst! Anyway, read the whole thing. Mark makes some excellent points and has some interesting suggestions as to what Ford could do as an alternative.
Big car companies are a seemingly endless source of marketing case studies. Ford, of course, will never live down the fiasco of the Edsel. General Motors wrote the book on market segmentation (niche marketing before people even know what niche marketing was!) before forgetting everything they knew and becoming an abject example in how not to run a car company (or any kind of company, for that matter).
As an aside, Mark Widawer is quite an expert on traffic and conversion. He has a number of excellent products out including “Landing Page Cash Machine”. If you need to get up to speed on landing pages, I can recommend that particular program.
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