I’ve seen people mistake copywriting for prose.
They go on and on and on… without a single thought to how excruciating it is to read.
Others mistake copy for carnival barker hype.
They cram every sentence full of inappropriate adjectives that only distract from what’s being sold.
Others yet try to swipe elements from successful marketing… without adapting it.
They create the kind of ‘Frankenstein copy’ that looks like it should make sense… but never does.
Okay, so.
What copywriting REALLY is at heart… and it pains me to say this as I have all kinds of creative bones in my body that get in the way… 🙂
It is really engineering at heart.
Engineering? Huh?
I know this sounds weird and counterintuitive, so I’ll explain.
- It’s about collecting the construction elements; the product’s features and more.
- It’s about melting the elements; turning the features into benefits.
- It’s about thinking about the buyer’s real needs; and presenting the product as an answer to those.
- It’s about picking up the pieces, and applying the best power tools available to make the words sing and fly.
- It’s about engineering a PATH for the buyer’s mind to follow, to a logical end result (to buy, or at least express interest).
Are you starting to see that to write powerful copy, you don’t necessarily need to be a great writer to begin with, or even a good one!
It’s much more important to be able to relate to your prospect’s problem and to put together the pieces in the right order, in just the right way, to weld it all together so that it grinds the gears in the buyer’s mind.
Having a knack for writing CAN be a boon or it can be a detriment because you need to unlearn so much before you can become effective as a copywriter that actually gets results (instead of just filling up ad space or blog posts or what have you).
So don’t think you or your organization couldn’t possibly learn to write better copy that persuades more customers, more investors, more press… it’s all possible, when you know a few fundamentals.
THEN you can go and engineer the sale! Watch this space for more…
People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide commentsYes, copywriting is an Engineering itself. You have to develope a piece of paper with words in every aspect. Nice points are metioned here and very usefull.
Thanks n keep updating.
Regards,
Astha