copywriting

Dick Powell of Powell Consulting Group sent me a newsletter article called Do Nuances in Copy Matter? by Carol Worthington-Levy. He asked me for my feedback about the article. This was my responding email…

I was organizing my emails into categories and came across this email from you that I failed to respond to. I’ve been a little busy.

Anyway, I read the article on ‘nuance’ in copywriting. I was a little shocked when I read it. I thought that’s what a copywriter’s job was.

Writing copy for any marketing materials requires one thing over all others - if you want people to read, you have to lead.

There are two types of copywriting out there. There’s the typical “laundry list” style of copy writing where you tell people what you have and what is special about it. Great way to guarantee no one ever contacts you about your product or service.

Then there’s the other style of copywriting. This style of copywriting is written the way all great sales people speak to potential customers. Great sales people never start out telling people what they are selling. They start out by trying to identify what the customer is buying.

Headlines are the key to everything. Try an experiment. The next time you’re in the checkout line at your grocery store, notice if you scan the magazines conveniently placed right there by the checkout line.

You probably scan all of them. In fact, you probably read the headlines and mini-headlines before you bother to look at the name of the magazine.

Some of the headlines make you laugh, some get you curious, and some might even make you pick up the magazine and thumb through it or toss it onto the moving belt along with the veges and ice cream.