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The test of a great copywriter part 2

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Martin is a freelance copywriter for Big Star Content

In the first part of ‘The test of a great copywriter‘ I introduced you to a number of copywriting kings. Each of them built their reputations pre internet, and all paid very close attention to the results of their work. Each continually and rigorously tested and honed their work. A constant pursuit of the most profitable SEO copywriting.

Caples and Hopkins

One of the most influential writers in marketing history and someone whose work still offers an amazing insight into effective web copywriting is John Caples.

His classic Tested Advertising Methods published in 1932 and now in its 5th revision, is a copywriting classic that offers proven evidence. Why some copy works and other copy doesn’t. TAM and Claude Hopkin’s Scientific Advertising both offered rigour and clarity to a part of the marketing industry that still far too often relies on subjective theory, opinion or preference.

So what is the essence of Caple’s message? What does he have to say about testing?

  1. Accept nothing as true about what works best in advertising until it has been objectively – what Caples called “scientifically”—tested.
  2. Build upon everything you learn from testing to create an ever-stronger system that you return to with each new project. (Even a slow learner should not have to invent the wheel more than twice.)
  3. Treat every ad as an ongoing test of what has been learned before. When something new works better—or something old stops working—be ready to admit you were wrong about what you thought you “knew.” But don’t just accept it. Find out why and apply it the next time.

Quoting John W Blake, Caples writes: “General advertising is frequently a structure of opinion and unproven theories. A structure without foundation…. big money should never be spent on advertising until it has been tested.”

17 ways to test your advertising

Caples offers seventeen ways to test your advertising. Ways in which you can properly evaluate whether you should wheel out the big money or not. We’ll look at these methods shortly.

The most useful book about advertising….

David Ogilvy contributes a forward to the 4th edition in which he say: “This is, without a doubt, the most useful book about advertising that I have ever read.” Could you ask for a  better testimonial than that?

He also goes on to credit the book with 7 vital discoveries. Lessons in copywriting that he applied throughout his career when writing advertisements. All proven copywriting techniques based on Caple’s research

As you can see. The questions are starting to mount up.

What are the 17 ways that you can test your advertising?

Ogilvy’s 7 lessons? What could they be?

How does all this 50 year old, 60, 70 year old copywriting advice even apply in a world increasingly dominated by internet marketing? And if it’s relevant, how can you use it to build your business?

All will be revealed…

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The Tae Kwon Do Guide to Learning to be a Copywriter

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Steve Kellas is the Content Director for Big Star Content

I used to take tae kwon do lessons. It was fun, and I was in the best shape of my life. I learned a lot from those sessions and part of what I learned helped me to be a better copywriter and gave me some great lessons of my own to teach to my own students in copywriting courses. Here they are in no particular order.

Practice until it hurts

This was probably the biggest lesson for me. I am not naturally athletic, so I had to practice at the gym, at home, and even in my mind, visualising each kick, punch and routine so that when I had to test for my belt, I knew what I was doing. It was really hard, and sometimes all that practice made me hurt physically, mentally, and yes, emotionally. But then I’d see my instructor practising on his own, by himself in the gym, rehearsing his moves. And it was then that I ‘got it’. I couldn’t just learn something once and move on. If I wanted to be an instructor, I needed to practice continually and constantly. Honing my craft. And that’s one secret to learning copywriting successfully – you have to practice it. You have to employ the various techniques over and over again with countless products and services. You need to rehearse and keep track of your killer headlines and calls-to-action. It’s not something that just happens over night for most people (although there are some gifted writers out there). Once you ‘get it’, keep practising – it only makes you better.

Learn to take your punches

In our gym, I got hit. A lot. And that meant that I had to get okay with getting hit. In fact, it was one of the things that I appreciated about my instructor. He was very frank with us about being in a real-life self-defence scenario. The one thing that makes most people do the wrong thing is their fear of being hit. If you can get over this fear (it hurts, but isn’t that bad) then you’ll have a clear head to defend yourself appropriately. Likewise with being a copywriter. You get feedback. Constantly. And a lot of it isn’t complimentary – especially at first. But that’s okay. It isn’t meant to hurt you, it’s meant to get the best out of you. When you get over your ego as a writer (it hurts, but isn’t that bad) then you’ll have a clear head to write better copy next time. You can do amazing things when you don’t think about it. One session that sticks in my mind was when our instructor saw that as a group we were not achieving all that we could. He made us line up on one side of the mats. Then, standing on the opposite side of the mats, he asked us to jump across the room and kick him. One at a time, we attempted and failed. He then stood in the middle of the mats and asked us to do it again. This time, we all were able to jump the distance and kick him. Once again, he stood on the opposite side of the room and commanded us to forget the distance. Forget the space. Not to think, just to do! And sure enough, one by one, each of us jumped and kicked much much farther than we ever thought possible. And that’s another secret of being a good web copywriter – not over-thinking the job. When you get a block, it’s because you’re thinking too much. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you switch your mind off and remove the blockages of thought. Simply starting and doing is enough to bridge the gap and make it across to the other side. There is one big difference, though, in learning to be an SEO copywriter. In martial arts, you can’t make a losing match better; but in writing, you can always edit later.

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How to super charge your web content and copywriting – Part 1

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Martin is a freelance copywriter for Big Star Content

We all know how important your web copy and content are. That as your window on the world your need your website to work as hard as possible in getting you where you want to be – building your lists, making sales, taking subscriptions, wining votes, inspiring downloads. Whatever your intended destination it’s your copy content that will get you there.

Despite the importance of content it’s not unusual for sites to come across as flat and uninspiring. Many sites lack either the visual attraction or the kind of copy content to either catch your eye let alone draw you in and start visitors off on what U.S copywriting ace Joseph Sugarman calls ‘the slippery slope’. That almost weightless state of engagement where you slide imperceptibly, effortlessly and comfortably, towards the action. Where your objections are met, trust is complete, integrity assured, value underscored. The place and where you would be crazy to not take advantage of the deal laid out expertly before you.

So what can you do to attract? What elements can you use to power up your pages and break your readers out of internet inertia, to snap them from the dream like state that many of us enter when faced with yet another page of simple text, back lit, and all a bit dull if the truth be told. Another article, another chunk of text  making more demands on our time and energy than it threatens to deliver in benefits. When one page pretty much looks like another, what can you do to energise your prospects and breath life into your sales proposition?

Here’s the single most important thing you can do to win the hearts, minds and commitment of your online audience.

Write a better headline

Whilst you headline doesn’t necessarily have to be as rip roaring as ‘The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches’, or ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, remember that it serves one and one purpose only – to get people reading the sub heading or the first line of your body copy. It they bail out at your headline, you’ve lost. If they are intrigued enough to want to read beyond the headline, then your message is still alive and you still stand a chance.

Remember to write headlines for people, not for search engines. Human readers are discerning. Spiders aren’t. The Google bot will read your lovely keyword rich headline, it will also continue down the page and read the rest of your copy too – that’s its job – to ‘read’ and index your page. You don’t have that luxury with people. They’ll read if they’re interested. If they’re not then your message is wasted. Insist that your headlines give your copy every opportunity of being read.

Spare no effort in improving your headlines.

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3 Ways Digital Copywriting Training is Like Training for a Marathon

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Steve Kellas is the Content Director for Big Star Content

Disclosure: I don’t run, unless I’m late for the train. But I write and I run courses for copywriters.

I have never liked running. The thought of running a marathon is not that appealing to me. So why would I choose it as a metaphor for my post today? Because I respect those marathon runners for their dedication to their craft. And knowing a few people who have run marathons, I asked them about their training and what it takes and that’s when it hit me – digital copywriting training is like training for a marathon that you run every 6 months.

Here’s why:

1. You have to be disciplined

My friends and colleagues who have run marathons cite this as the number one element of their training. You don’t just go out and run a marathon – you have to ‘earn it’. They made a plan to improve their fitness and performance to get them into shape and keep them there in the weeks leading up to the marathon itself.

Likewise, the world of the web copywriter is always changing, and if you want to keep up, you have to discipline yourself to keep pace with the changes and constantly evolve and improve your performance. You need to practice and learn new things.

Take classes, attend webinars, read blog copywriting, keep pace, keep up.

2. Reaching beyond your comfort zone leads to better results

I was told you can’t improve your running if you just run the same distance in the same amount of time, week after week. You must reach beyond your current comfort zone and set a goal of improvement and work hard to achieve it – even experiencing discomfort in the process.

The same goes for copywriting. If you want to stay in this career, be prepared to step out of your comfort zone regularly. That’s good. Stay there. Keep pushing yourself to learn something new, to write for a format you never have before. Try using social media to expand your network and discover new techniques.

3. Learn from someone who has done it before

If you are wanting to run a marathon, you could try to figure out how to get from the sofa to the 26 miles on your own, but why would you?

You would join a running club, partner with an experienced runner, get a coach, read books, and take training sessions.

The best way to learn something is to do it under the guidance of someone who’s done it – someone who can fast-track your learning curve and get you started faster than you could on your own. And that’s precisely what copywriting training can do for you. If you want to learn to write better web copy, or how to use SEO techniques in your copy, you should learn from someone who’s done it.

Support and Motivation

Of course, all this training takes its toll. A good coach or trainer is also there to give us boost when we’re feeling burnt out. That’s why when I run a copywriting course, I always tell everyone attending that I’m available after the session – months after – to answer their questions and concerns. I know this helps them because the ones that do make contact always say how great it is to feel understood.

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4 and a half reasons not to take a copywriting course

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Steve Kellas is the Content Director for Big Star Content

Last week, I wrote about copywriting training and courses being for everyone, not just for those who want to be a copywriter. This week, I’d like to give you some reasons NOT to take a copywriting course.

1. The person giving the course or seminar is not a copywriter

This might surprise you, but some of the people giving courses on web copywriting are not, and have never been, a professional copywriter employed by other copywriters for their skills. Nope. They might be good marketers and sales people. Heck, they might be decent people. But, you’re paying good money for your search copywriting course, so get to know something about the person who is going to teach the ways of the SEO copywriter.

Copywriters offering to teach you and have been in their industry (be it advertising, digital, direct) bring not just the material itself (which, frankly, you can find in a book) but a wealth of experience, lots of client experience, and a plethora of tried-and-true copywriting techniques that actually work for different and varied businesses.

2. It’s too good to be true

You found a great looking copywriting course that you can take at home and it’s almost totally free! Sorta. I think…Well, maybe.

Good luck with your money, sport.

Even in copywriting, the old adage I used in this reason not to go to a copywriting course holds true. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t believe their masterful hype. Check out the details, phone them up, get a solid outline of what you’re going to learn, and please, make sure you read reason 1 above.

3. There is no support – email, live or otherwise

When you are paying good money for a copywriting course, whether it is distance learning by books, DVD, online video tutorials, a legitimate course program will offer some kind of support for you. A live course obviously has some form of support built in.

Copywriting isn’t like maths. There isn’t always a right answer to your conundrum, so having a way of getting specific help to whatever your question is will make your experience much better.

4. You can’t see any examples of their work

Who are their clients? Can you see any work they have done? If all you can find are the examples you see on their advertising for the course, that’s not enough. Have the confidence that the person who is going to teach you can actually write well enough to get and keep happy clients. If they can’t produce any samples or actual people you can talk to, don’t bother signing up.

And now for the half…

The cost is too high for your budget

I almost didn’t include this reason simply because I think there’s no price too high for a good education and training. However, I’m not blind to the reality of life. I’ve been there myself, and I would not feel comfortable suggesting you break the bank to get take a course. There are plenty of options out there that fit many budgets: day courses, half-days, weekends, online training and so on. For businesses on a budget, find out if your trainer will travel to you and train your content providers at your location and for a fixed rate, rather than per head.

There you have them. Got any to add yourself? Or have you been on a copywriting course that you wish you hadn’t?

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Should a copywriter give the public what the public wants?

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

There’s been a trend over recent years, a sales and marketing research trend that has worked hard at trying to identify exactly what it is that your customers really want. What are their true desires and unfulfilled needs? What is is that you aren’t offering that they truly crave? Where are the commercial holes in your product range and how can you fix them? Focus groups, quizzes, questionnaires, crowd sourcing, interviews, you name it. No expense has been spared in the pursuit of identifying and then meeting, as yet, unfulfilled customer needs.

A bridge over troubled spaghetti

Malcolm Gladwell,  the famous author, futurologist and Simon & Garfunkel mashup offers a famous analysis of the ‘giving the public what the public wants’ take on things in his famous  TED Talk In the name of research, if you get the time, do try to check it out, it’s brilliant. It might also help inspire your copywriting.

In his lecture Gladwell makes the compelling argument that the food industry undermines itself by asking people to share their preferences through focus groups and questionnaires. That the industry is asking an unanswerable question. That people don’t really know or simply don’t have the ability to define an optimum product. In other words – People don’t know what they want.

According to Gladwell,  if you ask people what kind of coffee they like the consensus is – Dark, rich, hearty roast! And that’s true for somewhere between 25 and 27 percent. However… in reality, most people like milky, weak coffee. Who puts their hand up and admits that when asked though? As Gladwell says: “The mind knows not what the tongue wants.” The mind doesn’t know what the mind wants either.

Tell me something I don’t know

So what’s this got to do with SEO copywriting? Simple. Of course you need to understand your audience – to do your research, to get inside the head of your reader, to be able to relate to and empathise with the pain they feel, their hopes and their motivations. Knowing your reader goes without saying. But knowing what moves them isn’t the same as letting them dictate what you write for them. Why not?

Because they don’t know what they want to read.

Don’t try and second guess perfection. Use your experience and your abilities to deliver the sort of copy content that delights and surprises people. You might even delight and surprise yourself in the process.

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SEO Copywriting and The Power of Persona – Part 2

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Martin Williams is a freelance Copywriter for Big Star Content

In the first part of our four part SEO Copywriting and Personas post we looked at the necessity of having a careful and clear understanding of the target audience. That in order to be able to communicate effectively, we need a crystal clear picture of who we are attempting to communicate with. We need to define personas.

What is a persona?

According to Wikipedia – ‘Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behaviour set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way.’

Karen Goldfarb says: “Basically, a buyer persona is to your marketing, sales and communications strategy what a mannequin is to clothing.”

It’s the job of the SEO copywriter to apply what ever techniques they have at their disposal to get inside the heads of prospective customers and really find out what makes them tick. To make the clothing (copy content) not only fit perfectly, but look great as well. Online marketers often go to great lengths to profile prospective clients so that copy can be tailored to suit.

Ideally you will use demographics such as geography, gender, income, ethnicity, education and family. You’ll use psychographics to look at likes, dislikes, type of personality and ambitions. You’ll speak with your sales people, customer support, and conduct customer surveys as well as lots of competitor research and keyword analysis.

This is personal – Fantasises, obsessions, first kiss, last FM playlist, next move. Detail matters. The more insight you can develop, the more charismatic, the more vivid you can make your reader, the more material you will have to craft persuasive copy.

Motivations – Only once you can answer the question of who your reader is can you begin to ask yourself how you can go about addressing that golden ‘What’s in it for me’ (WIIFM) question that lies at the heart of  your relationship marketing. Whilst many things may motivate readers it’s important that you peel back the layers to reveal their one clear passion. Their ultimate motivation.

Relate – Now you have a clear understanding of who your reader is, what pains them or pleases them, of what truly inspires them or grieves them, it’s time for a UK copywriter to put that empathy to work. The more empathy a writer has the more interesting the writing can be. The more interesting,  the longer and the deeper the engagement and the greater the chance of conversion. That’s the reason that long form copy is so much more powerful than short copy. Readers become so involved with the copy they are naturally drawn to the close without ever even realising it. Great SEO copy is deeply empathetic. So deep that the writing itself becomes almost invisible.

In part three of the series we will concentrate on the four basic personality types mentioned in part one and see how these can be applied to web copywriting.

Read the other three parts: SEO Copywriting and the Power of persona part one, three and four

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How to write a killer blog post in 15 minutes – ten pro copywriter secrets for INSTANT content generation (PART TWO)

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Derryck Strachan is the Managing Director of Big Star Content

If you haven’t got your own pet copywriter chained to a desk producing hot content all day or you don’t enjoy the masochistic pleasure of constantly trying to find new ideas for blogs then this post is for you. You could, of course, always outsource to someone else. It’s easier and probably cheaper than doing it yourself.

01.  Throw in something controversial

Having a strong opinion is good – stimulating debate is also good. You want people to be talking about you, arguing about what you’ve said, linking to your blog posts.

While being controversial is good, being outrageous is probably not so good, although, if you know who you’re writing for then you know the people you DON’T want to offend (and those you can get away with offending).

It’s my belief, for example, that written content is the single most important factor in any Internet marketing campaign – way more important than web design. I don’t go around shouting about that because web designers NEED words for the sites they design and generally they’re really, really nice people who look kindly on copywriters – it’s an age-old partnership, and that shouldn’t be forgotten in these times of outsourcing and remote working.

I don’t have any such qualms about TV advertising – it’s a total waste of time and money.

02.  Use metaphor

Metaphor is a magic potion to a copywriter, turning him or her into an invincible warrior. Analogy is to a copywriter as Obelix is to Asterix. And simile is like a friendly druid, infusing every post with wit and wisdom. These are powerful weapons in any writer’s arsenal. Don’t get me started on neologism, the copycrats won’t like it.

03.  Respond to other people’s posts

How often have we been told that the Internet is a conversation? Blogs aren’t just a forum for spouting off about your own stuff, they’re about engaging in a dialogue. Responding to other posts in your sector not only allows you to express an opinion on a pertinent issue, thereby demonstrating your expertise (and the fact that you’re paying attention) but can also stimulate further debate. Don’t be afraid to share your opinions – if you have something interesting to say then post comments on other blogs and publicise your responses through social media.

04.  Keep something back for the next blog

When I really get into writing a blog post or article I often go off at a tangent. Rather than pursue too many points in one go, I chop off the tangent and there’s the starter for my next blog. It’s like making sour dough bread and will keep you in freshly baked blogs in perpetuity.

Maybe it’s better to think of your list article like a hydra – cut one head off and two more grow in its place. Each point on your list can generate individual blog posts, or other lists. I’ve already got at least 10 potential blog titles out of this list. For example:

  • Six ways to create an unmissable article title
  • Why lists ALWAYS pull in readers
  • How to use your keywords to build your blog posts
  • Why genuine insight always wins over opinion in article writing
  • The Asterix and Obelix guide to copywriting

05.  Don’t be afraid to recycle

As I said in my last post, blogs have a cumulative effect on both readers and search engines. Success is about the consistent delivery of relevant content over time PLUS dogged promotion of that content through social media, commenting, guest blogs, email marketing and other channels.

Recycling is OK as long as what you’re recycling has value – rework ideas, repackage content – there are new readers out there who never saw your original post, there are old readers that want to be reminded of your insights. Feel free to rewrite old articles with a new spin, use new stats to rekindle old debates. It’s all grist to the mill.

06.  Don’t be afraid to over-deliver

If you have something interesting to say, get it out there. Share your knowledge but remember to deliver real value. There are too many blogs out there holding back on real insight and expertise because they are trying to protect their knowledge. As a copywriter with over 15 years experience, I’m confident that I can share any of my expertise without jeopardising my chances of winning a new customer or losing an existing one.

Those who genuinely value that expertise will recognise its worth and will employ me to improve their content. Those who wish to do it themselves are welcome to what I have to offer – experience and insight don’t come overnight and we still have training courses and products to sell.

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