After learning from and working under dozens of professors and creative directors, I now have the joy of leading my own team of writers. I absolutely love it. Some are newbies to the business, while others have years of experience — all challenge and push me to be better.
When working with new writers, I often feel like a broken record from repeating these five tips. Which I don’t mind, since that’s how I learned — from my school’s advertising chair, Luke Sullivan, and my most influential copywriting professor, Arlene Distel, burning these points into my brain until I started saying them in my sleep 😉
They’re simple, but powerful — just like great copywriting!
1. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS). Benjamin Franklin once said, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Because being precise and simple is hard, but in the world of advertising/marketing/branding it’s absolutely necessary. Your audience must understand your point extremely quickly — if they have to work to figure it out, chances are they’ll stop paying attention.
Cut out the “fluff.” One way to do this is by trying to take out a sentence or word and seeing if the passage still makes sense and gets the point across without it. If it does — let it goooo.
2. Don’t do an ad. Do something interesting. Engage with your customers and create content that they want and can’t wait to share. Do something interesting that makes people want to be a part of your brand. This is the opposite of interruption marketing. You know when you meet someone who can’t stop talking about themselves, their fancy job, their recent travels, or even just what they ate for breakfast? They’re the kind that would rather talk at people than in conversation with people. This is interruption marketing in human form. It’s the difference between a cold call vs. a good conversation, email spam vs. interesting content, a TV spot vs. a story you want to share. And it’s a lot of garbage that people tune out. So when in doubt, don’t write like an ad.
3. Do your research. Learn as much as you possibly can about what you’re trying to sell. Figure out what’s great and not-so-great about it. Experience the product as a customer would and get a deep understanding of the customer. Research the competition and how they’re doing things. Once you know how to talk to the customer and to the client — you will build more trust with both.
4. Talk like a human. This one is huge. The brand voice should be relatable to your target audience. Don’t try to use the smartest word in the thesaurus — use the one that your target would use. And, by the way, a sleazy salesman isn’t relatable to anyone. Instead of talking at the consumer, talk with them. Start a conversation. Be sincere, trustworthy and likeable and you’ll build more loyal customer relationships.
5. Say it straight, then say it great. Don’t go for gold right at the beginning. Your words need to be massaged into masterpieces — they don’t just wake up like that. So before you try to write anything witty and brilliant, just spit out what you’re trying to say on the paper. What’s the purpose of what you’re writing? Figure that out first, then go back and massage.
Writing isn’t easy — nothing subject to creative criticism is. But these five tips should help simplify your process. Think of it like a self-check list that you can use to critique your own work before anyone else does. So instead of being your own worst critic, you can be your best.