Do you remember that person in college who was the great writer? The one who could help you get your term papers cranked out really, really fast because you left them until the day before and you had no other choice.
They used catchy words and made you and your paper sound stunningly interesting. They took your words and gave them a shine. Your words in their hands sounded like “Wake Up! Pay Attention! Don’t Miss A Detail of This A+ Paper!”
I’m not that person.
Yet somehow…I don’t know how…I’ve become a marketing copy machine. And in the process I’ve learned an amazing amount about what it takes to write great marketing copy. Including the more you do it, the better you get.
So my inspirational marketing tip for this week is about…you guessed it…the rules to writing great copy. And you can probably see through my motive. If you write it, I don’t have to! Brilliant!!
Killer copy gets your emails, websites and letters opened, gets people nodding their head in agreement, and draws them into action.
Good copy kills. The wrong copy also kills.
Words are the real currency in our business. Words. The right words.
Which is weird because no one reads any more, they tell us (that’s not quite true). Here’s what they do instead, along with the key, critical, mandatory, important and just downright imperative stuff for you to know about the next thing you write…or the next time you review the work one of our dynamo writers creates for you.
- Understand your customer’s thought process about a new opportunity. Hint: It doesn’t begin with your product, your company or even you.
- Most of us are searching for relief from some sort of pain. Stop selling us pleasurable endings.
- Lots of people scan copy to determine if they want to read the whole thing. Make the key points stand out.
- Counter-intuitive and controversial statements draws our attention through all the noise in the market.
While there’s certainly more to writing killer copy than just those bullets, these will get you headed in a better direction.
Even if you’re not ever going to be a great marketing writer, even if you hope to never tap those keys to create genius copy, you’re the leader of your business. So it’s up to you to know what motivating copy looks like when your team hands you their stuff.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha and Chris
P.S. And if you want the shortest cut to finding great marketing writers, we’ve got ‘em. Just call or email. That’s what we’re here for…to generate measurably increased response for you.