On Copy­writ­ing That Doesn’t Suck

There’s more than meets the word

This issue is based on two fun­da­men­tal assump­tions: One, that you know how impor­tant copy­writ­ing is. That it can turn heads, inspire peo­ple, dri­ve sales, define your brand, make or break your busi­ness. And two, that mar­ket­ing is not an art form, and copy­writ­ing is not lit­er­a­ture in the same way that web design will nev­er match the beau­ty of an Impres­sion­ist masterpiece. 

And yet, care­ful­ly choos­ing the best words and using them to craft con­tent that con­veys con­cepts, feel­ings, con­vic­tion and pur­pose cer­tain­ly requires – and cre­ates – some sense of beau­ty. Copy­writ­ing is the art of assem­bling words cho­sen spe­cial­ly to speak on behalf of a brand, in a beau­ti­ful way that deliv­ers a mes­sage mem­o­rably, some­times even a mem­o­rable mes­sage, that does things to those who receive it.

In this new and fas­ci­nat­ing world of microchip golems barf­ing nov­els out of mouse clicks, we owe to our craft, and to us mak­ing it, a com­mit­ment to some essen­tial def­i­n­i­tions of what we believe good (tru­ly good) con­tent is about.

It’s about form, and its inher­ent beau­ty. No mat­ter how rel­e­vant your con­tent may be, writ­ing is always about writ­ing well. At least try­ing to. There’s cer­tain­ly not one unique way to achieve this but it will inevitably involve good choic­es and com­bi­na­tions. What’s ​“good” anyway?

Good copy­writ­ing

“Good” is that it works, so copy­writ­ing is also about effi­cien­cy. That’s the key ele­ment sep­a­rat­ing copy­writ­ing from art. As a mar­keter, you write for oth­ers, not because you need to tell a sto­ry. Your copy must deliv­er results. And that requires hon­ing your skills, under­stand­ing human behav­ior, and being consistent. 

It’s about writ­ing truth – and I will keep repeat­ing this at the dan­ger of sound­ing like a self-right­eous prick. Of course, you want to present con­tent in a per­sua­sive way that dri­ves sales, but although it can be done, it’s much hard­er to sell love­ly pack­aged crap. Even the worst brands can have out­stand­ing mar­ket­ing that’s hon­est. I’m a firm believ­er that truth-based mar­ket­ing lives longer.

Last­ly, although writ­ing copy is not about you, none of this would work with­out a pinch of, well, you. Your con­tent should be quirky, unique, emphat­ic, ball­sy, unex­pect­ed, chal­leng­ing, con­vinc­ing, good-weird. Like the peo­ple who write it, and the peo­ple who read it. True orig­i­nal­i­ty is wish­ful think­ing (every­thing is a remix), but we can rise to the chal­lenge, dare to put some heart into our writ­ing, and make some­thing special.

Per­haps it is a kind of art after all.

— San­ti
 

Time to pol­ish our writ­ing skills

Copy-Kai Vibes. caption

Like genius, good copy­writ­ing involves more per­spi­ra­tion than inspi­ra­tion, but you’ll need both. Prac­tice makes per­fect, and inspi­ra­tion makes bet­ter. Here are our favorite tips to up your writ­ing game.

1️⃣ The clas­sics still kick ass

It does­n’t mat­ter if you’re a new­bie or an expe­ri­enced writer, going back to the roots always works. Here’s good brain­food from some of the giants on whose shoul­ders we stand:

• Sug­ar­man​’s sol­id stash of savvy sweet­ness. As per­fect as can be.
• Learn and prac­tice good ​‘ol clas­sic tech­niques (like appeal­ing to emo­tion, using rhythm, and the rule of three).
• And of course, Ogilvy on Adver­tis­ing, (also in the Dig­i­tal Age).

2️⃣ Unleash science!

Humans are nei­ther entire­ly ratio­nal nor total­ly emo­tion­al. We’re a messy blend of both. Effec­tive copy com­bines emo­tion and log­ic; the first one makes you buy, the sec­ond one makes you feel good about it. It sounds like an over­sim­pli­fi­ca­tion and it is. But still, effec­tive copy­writ­ing is about under­stand­ing human behav­ior, and the men­tal pat­terns that influ­ence decisions. 

Behav­ioral mar­ket­ing is a huge, poten­tial­ly end­less sub­ject (humans are the test sub­jects, and we’re poten­tial­ly end­less, too). Here are a few of our cur­rent favs:

Heuris­tics.

They are the short­cuts your mind takes when faced with a deci­sion, some­times with fan­cy names, like the wide­ly known FOMO, more for­mal­ly described as Loss Aver­sion, or Band­wag­on Effect, Cost­ly Sig­nalling, Scarci­ty Tac­tics and even day-to-day social pres­sure. Here are some use­ful tips, par­tic­u­lar­ly, but not exclu­sive­ly about heuris­tics for UX writ­ing.

Under­stand­ing these hard-wires allows you to write pig­gy­back­ing on human brain’s defaults and auto­mat­ic assumptions.

The Prat­fall Effect.

We make mis­takes. It used to be what made us human, until Chat you-know-what came by. Being hon­est about your flaws can be a good thing. The Prat­fall effect is a cog­ni­tive bias that makes it eas­i­er for you to like some­one when you know their flaws. It’s super use­ful for can­did writ­ing, though it can be overused/​misused too.

It’s not mag­ic, it’s science!

A quick tour of some psy­cho­log­i­cal prin­ci­ples behind copy that dri­ves con­ver­sions by Hub­spot. Lots of good stuff there.

Oh wait, it’s both!

Cre­ative genius and adver­tis­ing leg­end Rory Suther­land makes a case for stand­ing up against the tyran­ny of log­ic and being a bit more mag­i­cal. Mar­ry creativity.

3️⃣ Head­lines are peo­ple, too

Well, not real­ly, but if you only take away one quick and action­able tip from this list, it should be to mind your head­lines. Make sure you devote some time and care to them. They’re cliffhang­ers that you put at the begin­ning. It’s the fastest track to engage an audi­ence, improve read­ing speed, and con­vey your brand’s voice and tone. You can start with these guidelines:

• Scan­ning is a reac­tion, read­ing is a choice. Play with words and give hints to trig­ger interest.
• Copy is user expe­ri­ence. Read (or re-read) Krug’s Don’t make me think if you want to learn how to make things easy and enjoyable.
• Remem­ber these have to work. Google is smart enough to under­stand con­text and author­i­ty now, but head­lines still play a role in SEO. Here’s a good round-up of tips. Make sure you bal­ance the tech­ni­cal part with human and func­tion­al con­tent though.
• Every­thing is a head­line. Many times neglect­ed, micro-copy­writ­ing is a fine thread that helps you con­vey style and enjoy­ment across your entire dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence. Give your small texts some love. They’re nice lit­tle sur­pris­es that tru­ly make a difference.

4️⃣ Be kind, rewind

Eti­quette and style mat­ter. Back to what we said about form and func­tion. But it goes beyond that. The only sim­i­lar­i­ties between being a copy­writer and a con artist are that both require obser­va­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty, tal­ent, and exper­tise. Here are some assort­ed tips and ideas about style, and also about hon­esty, respect, and truth.

It’s easy to write good things about good things. But if you don’t have them, you can be hon­est about that too. 

We try hard to make things look easy. We think there’s val­ue in uncom­pli­cat­ing things, show­cas­ing sim­plic­i­ty. Easy is sim­ple. It doesn’t mean we must write every­thing for dum­mies. That doesn’t mean you have to sound arro­gant either:

“It is a mis­take to use high­fa­lutin lan­guage when you adver­tise (…) I once used the word OBSO­LETE in a head­line, only to dis­cov­er that 43% of house­wives had no idea what it meant. In anoth­er head­line, I used the word INEF­FA­BLE, only to dis­cov­er that I did­n’t know what it meant myself”.

David Ogilvy.

Just write like your­self. Unless, of course, you are an arro­gant prick, in which case per­haps it’s a good idea to tone down your tone. (Some peo­ple do the exact oppo­site though and it can work). 

Pick­ing up from where David Ogilvy left off, she may not be your wife, but the con­sumer is deff not a moron so Respect (❤️ Spell it, Aretha!) goes a long way.

Also, hum­ble pie. We should all have a slice. Peo­ple aren’t real­ly des­per­ate to read our copy, which should remind us of the duty (and oppor­tu­ni­ty) to make read­ing it worth their while. 

Long sto­ry short, make sure you can walk the talk, and (unless it real­ly, real­ly, real­ly fits your brand) try not to be an asshole.

5️⃣ Speak­ing of long and short, go Bothism

Yes, size mat­ters. We know because we had to cut down this newslet­ter in half. How do you define what’s adequate?

• Our Pat says length does not deter­mine qual­i­ty, but it mat­ters. It’s part of the form, and of the effect.
• Short copy takes time and skill to craft. And it works. Inspi­ra­tion: Short­est sto­ries ever writ­ten.
• But, plot twist, here’s a case for long copy too. Just keep an eye on pace, rhythm and eupho­ny.
• Is writ­ing a form of design? Absoblood­y­lute­ly
   

A‑lone way to the top

Nope. This moun­tain has no top and copy­writ­ing is not a soli­tary pur­suit. You write on behalf of your clients (which means ​“for the good of, or rep­re­sent­ing some­one”, but orig­i­nal­ly meant by someone’s side), and you write to their clients, or to those who will be their clients, if your work works. 

Ide­al­ly, it’s not an entire­ly soli­tary activ­i­ty either. Get­ting feed­back and/​or col­lab­o­ra­tion can make your work more effi­cient, thanks to the extra set of every­thing that a trust­ed col­league can bring to the table, to the process, or to the page. Run impor­tant things by some­one who can make it bet­ter, or help you make it better.

Even if you are writ­ing on your own, show what you con­sid­er to be your final draft to the per­son you will be tomor­row. Read what you wrote aloud, then edit. Like Hem­ing­way said, before becom­ing an app we use to help us check our writ­ing: The first draft of any­thing is shit.

Coda: Mag­ic Contradictions

Words sell ideas, not the oth­er way around. But it doesn’t mean you can do with­out them. You need ideas, at least one, and to a cer­tain extent, any one will do, spe­cial­ly if it’s a good one. And even if it doesn’t work, because that means you are clos­er to find­ing out what might. That’s the fer­tile sci­ence bit, the exper­i­ment, which is con­stant and cre­ative and uncer­tain, and some­times even sil­ly, or risky, or coun­ter­in­tu­itive. Or con­tra­dic­to­ry. Rory taught us that the oppo­site of a good idea can be anoth­er good idea.

If we can resist the urge to pick a side like a hill and die on it, we might see that the best approach to our work is per­haps to com­bine the best of all seem­ing­ly con­tra­dic­to­ry approach­es. Sci­ence, art, pas­sion, and tech­nique, together.

Good taste, good art, and good writ­ing can be good selling

DDB’s William Bern­bach, in his 1947 let­ter to Grey.

— Pat

Things that make you go ❤️ Copy­writ­ing Edition

• What she did. We love it. Mouthy mar­keter. We love that too. Can we be friends?
• “Write like you talk” is time­less, price­less copy­writ­ing advice, spe­cial­ly now, when mak­ing sure your copy reads like it was writ­ten by a human is actu­al­ly a thing. Irrev­er­ent, cheeky, opin­ion­at­ed, it’s fine, your copy should be as authen­tic as possible.
• Speak­ing of Mr. Fer­reira, sub­scribe to his fan­tas­tic Cre­ative Sam­ba newslet­ter and become a bet­ter writer.
• Superb piece on how Unortho­dox copy­writ­ing skills prac­tice works too.

Cat-egor­i­cal­ly YES!

Wait, what? Of course we can help you shape your brand’s sto­ry! Our mar­ket­ing sprints can get your nar­ra­tive up and run­ning in 90 days. Con­tact us and let’s chat. It’s free.

Num­bers. Most are not fake.

• Most B2B buy­ers engage with any­thing between three and sev­en pieces of con­tent to make a pur­chase deci­sion. Some even more.
• 1926 The year this hap­pened. And some­one made a song about it.
• Five times as many peo­ple read the head­line as read the body copy.
• 42 is the Answer to the Ulti­mate Ques­tion of Life, the Uni­verse, and Every­thing. Just sayin’.

Quick agency stuff before we go 🎺

Time for some shame­less auto­bom­bo, agency, and part­ner news.

• Our CTO spent last week at BigDev. (We threw a bit of a Prat­fall there too).
• In the wise words of Dora the Explor­er, we did it. For the 5^th year in a row, we made it to Agency Spotter’s top 100 dig­i­tal agen­cies report.
• We’re so proud of how we solved the impos­si­ble copy­writ­ing chal­lenge of sell­ing a prod­uct with­out being able to say any­thing about it that we’re shar­ing this again. What we did for Tree­house.

Thank you, next

Sto­ries are bet­ter if they’re well-writ­ten. We’ll be back in a month to talk all things #copy­writ­ing. Using words, tools, tricks, and frame­works to cre­ate con­tent that stands out and does­n’t look like the AI sub­par crap every­one’s spam­ming us with.

*We like our TL;DRs in forty two words.