The things they criticise you for now are the things they will give you a lifetime achievement award for. This is all well and good for aspiring poets and musicians. But copywriting is a very different kettle of metaphor.
Dipping into the collective pool of inspiring memes is all well and good. Referring to the great marketers and novelists can give you a much needed boost to your copy. But you should not gulp it down uncritically.
I have used quotes from Hemingway and folk wisdom to illustrate certain points. They are a useful shortcut to illuminate a point. In my previous blog post I quoted Simon Sinek. And, in previous posts I have scattered quotes from Hemingway.
My current inspiration is the following quote:
The attribution is questionable but the content is potent.
This is great advice to a playwright hammering out a 1st draft. Copywriting is different. It is writing with a specific job - to sell.
Personality in writing sells.
The human touch, a personable voice. Social Media Marketing now demands a friendly, affable tone. Take the example of TV voice overs. Actors with familiar regional accents have overtaken BBC received pronunciation.
This is a refreshing change that helps connect with an audience. Why do regional voices resonate with an audience more? Because they are authentic.
So you can write how ever you want to in your copy?
A copywriter’s voice must be authentic. But what is authentic to one audience may not be to the next.
Language varies across demographics.
Oglivy stated that you must talk to your audience in their own voice. You can only do that by having a firm understanding of your own voice - your own copywriting and stylistic sins.
Your own voice is more than a collection of your bad habits. You find your authentic voice once you cut away your bad writing habits.
Once you have done this you discover your authentic voice. Your voice will be so clear that it will shine through any brief. It will reach any demographic confident in its ability to sell.
Readers have mentioned how useful they have found the idea of a Ghost FAQ . So I have included my three literary and copywriting sins.
Hopefully, these will provide the starting point for you to review your copywriting sins.
The rule of three
Bloggers love tripling (I have broken this blog into three sections).
We are all taught about tripling in school. Those of us who can’t remember this are still aware of how prevalent it is. You can find the rule of three (or tripling) in every song, every comedy, and every advert.
Many forms of marketing rely on repetition to ensure a memorable product. Tripling makes it easier for products to stick in an audiences’ memory.
The rule of three takes two forms in copywriting:
Usually a chain of three describing words
Three short sentences in quick succession
Coming from an educational and comedic background I use and abuse the rule of three. I don’t even notice I am doing it. It is only while redrafting that I notice the presence of paragraphs made of tripling.
Tripling is a very effective technique. Like any copywriting technique you reduce its effectiveness when you abuse it. When overused it is hackneyed and disrupts the message of copy.
And hackneyed copy doesn't sell.
And writing that doesn’t sell isn’t copywriting.
Academese
Academese is the language you find in dusty books and the work emails you never read.
A few weeks ago I nearly included the word ‘parabatic’ in a blog post about breaking rules in copywriting. This is a wonderful word. It sounds great and has a wonderful meaning. But there was no place in a blog about clarity in copywriting.
Sometimes you can’t avoid using a technical term. I have been researching the concept of keyword cannibalisation. It is an important factor in any businesses’ keyword strategy. But you can’t avoid the fact it is an ugly mouthful.
To include or not to include this term?
When faced with an ugly or academic term I ask myself two questions:
Can I reduce this concept to a simpler, easier to digest phrase? Technical terms such as Search Engine Optimisation are a mouthful. When dealing with smaller less sophisticated operations it is best to avoid academese. So, we use simpler terms in our sales literature and communications.
Would patting this concept out with simpler language patronise my audience? If I were to reduce SEO to a long phrase of short words would my audience trust me? Would they leave an interaction in person or via copy feeling that I was an authority? To continue the metaphor - you want to reduce your copy into digestible chunks not into pulp fit for infants.
But just one more thing
This sin has been so great that I now check each piece of content I create for the words ‘just’ and ‘but’. If you can have copywriting tics then the words ‘just’ and ‘but’ are my tics. I am unsure where this tic has come from. That doesn’t matter.
What matters is that I take responsibility to remove it from my copy. I need to make sure it does not intrude on my clients' brief or interrupt my ability to communicate with our partners.
These words weaken copy. They soften assertive statements, watering down the impact of content. They are crutches for sloppy thinking and lacklustre ideas.
As mentioned with the rule of three these words have a use. When left to dominate the copy the effect is lazy and unprofessional.
What next?
Hopefully my self-examination has given you insight into your own copywriting sins.
Your habits can be anything from being too sparse, too wordy or spamming hyphens.
Once you have removed the worst excesses of your personal voice you can address the brief with your authentic voice .
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