copywriting

What do the Spice Girls and copywriting have on common? Not an awful lot other than the girls know how to:

“Tell ‘em what they want, what they really, really want.”

Where as most of the sales writing produced doesn’t.

If you’ve tried to save money and produce your own marketing copy I can guess what it looks like. Let’s go through the process you probably followed. You’ve been involved with your product or service since day one. You therefore think it is the best thing since that fantastic Space Dust stuff that crackled on your tongue (I loved that as a kid, didn’t you?). It was you that smoothed out the wrinkles and tweaked until it emerged as a finished article. You are so close to it, your writing was all about its amazing features and what it does.

Am I right, or am I right?

Thought so. In a way you are right, your readers will (at some point) want to know about its features. But their primary concern is what it will do for them. And that’s where a freelance copywriter comes in.

A copywriter understands that to create great copy that sells, you have to understand what your reader wants to know. To give you a clue, it’s not about your company, your car, your staff or a list of features. They want to know what benefit they’ll get – what’s it going to do for them? Why should they spend their hard earned cash on your product?

As an example let’s take a pair of rugby boots, mainly because I seem to be buying them regularly for my rugby mad son. When we’re looking at boots, if there’s a pair that states:

  • These boost are made from leather
  • Their studs are tipped with titanium
  • They are available in a range of colours

I can guarantee my son will wander off. But if the sales copy announced that by buying these rugby boots their game would improve dramatically and they would help him kick like Jonny Wilkinson, he’d be at that till faster that Usain Bolt.

Why? Because in his mind the those points are all benefits. He wants to improve his game and he wants to play like his hero, Jonny Wilkinson.

So remember, when producing sales copy forget about what you want to write about and concentrate on what your reader’s will want to hear. Just one word of warning – whatever claims you make, please ensure they are genuine and you can follow through with  them.