11 Secrets To Becoming A Successful Copywriter

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by Israel Anderson in Marketing

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If you took English in school you know that your teachers taught all the rules of proper grammar, punctuation, and style. But how many of your teachers actually told you that what they where teaching you could crush your chances of making a living at writing marketing material, ads, and any other commercial copy. That’s what I thought. You see, Copywriting is not about good writing, it is all about helping business sell things. All businesses have to connect with real people to sell their products and services. The likelyhood that you or anybody you know speakes proper English is slim, and that is why commercial copy must speak the way “REAL” people talk and converse.

In other words, the success of any copywriter relies on writing affectively rather than correctly. As a copywriter you must be willing to bend and break the rules if you want to accomplish the business objective of your writing project.

Here are eleven examples of how you can bend and break the rules to become a successful copywriter.

If and when you can write in the second person. Standard rules dictate that you should write in the third person in most cases. Although for commercial copy , you are no longer a writer, you are a sales person. Like any good sales person you must speak directly to your prospects to make the sale. This often resorts to writing in the second person and using words like such as you, your, and yourself. Unless you are telling a story about someone else, third person (he, she, they) is rarely appropriate.
The use of command language is a very powerful sales skill and should be used. You can’t be shy in copywriting. There is no such thing as implying or subtly suggesting an action. You need to bark orders firmly and clearly to get people to take action and do what you want them to do. If you are creating a teaser for an email campiagn you would want a call to action “Order your widget now!”, “Complete details inside”, ” Open Immediately!”. No matter how obvious you think your call to action is you can’t leave it for people to figure out on their own. You Must Tell Them Directly!
Avoid rambling sentences at all costs. Experienced writers love to weave long, complex sentences. But your majority of the readers out there state that an average sentence should be about 16 words and not to exceed 32 words. Once a sentence exceeds 32 words it becomes much harder to understand and follow. So despite your creative urges and when they tell you have a long sentence and have tow or more ideas, break it up and have two or three sentences. Remember to give sentence variety, some short, some long.
Keep your paragraphs short and sweet. Long paragraphs with idea laden content are fine if you are writing a two to three hundred page novel but not if you are writing an ad for Google, Facebook, magazine… Your ideal commercial copy should effectively be no longer than seven lines especially in sales letters. Long paragraphs need to be broken into smaller chunks. Your GOAL is to keep people interested and continue reading your copy. Short paragraphs are easier on the eyes and easier to digest which makes for a much more pleasant read. Look at most newspapers and see how short the paragraphs are.
To add a little punch and some variety drop in some one line paragraphs.
Begin your sentences with conjunctions. This may include and , also, besides, futhermore, likewise, so, then, and therefore. These types of words help to break up lengthy sentences into shorter ones and allows the copy to still flow smoothly. This is very helpful when you a handful of items that you want to include which are difficult to fit together. For example ” The Lambhorgini is almost twice as fast as a Porsche Boxter. Plus it handles better at top speed.”
End sentences with prepositions. That’s gotta hurt! Ouch! Remember Winston Churchill said “the preposition commandment is a rule that you should not put up with.” When people converse in normal conversation do they say, “With whom are you going?” or “Who are you going with?” Strive to be natural not text book correct. Allow yourself the freedom of putting of, for,with, and other prepositions at the end of sentences.
Add occasional fragments. this will help with excitement and urgency. Picks up the pace and creates a firm tone. Don’t overuse this technique or else it will annoy your readers to no end.
Write like you talk. Use conversational writing like your dialog. “People especially like to read anything in quotation marks” Use pronouns such as i, we, you, and they. Use contractions such as they’re, you’re, it’s, here’s. Use familiar expressions, including a sure thing, rip- off, O.K
The use intelligent redundancy work quite well. Free gift, call any time 24 hours a day, actual fact , and other such contractions may get poor marks in a classroom setting, but in the real world they help emphasize your point and clarify your meaning. You can try to argue this point all day if you like, but “free gift” sounds much better than a “just a free gift.” Embrace what works.
Punctuate headlines lightly, Periods signal a stop, so you should avoid using them. To draw the reader into the body of the copy, you can use (…) at the end, but no punctuation at all is prefered. Avoid colons and semicolons,because they aslo signal a stop and are too formal for most copy. To separate thoughts in long headlines, use a dash- like I’m doing now- or use ellipses.. both signal a pause, but don’t stop the reader.

Remember when everything is all said and done, copywriting is not about writing. It’s all about communicating and selling. It’s about getting people to act – to call, order,visit a website, or go to a retail store. For the successful copywriter, words are tools. If you are willing to wield them in a way that is proven to get results, you will be on your way to becoming a successful copywriter.

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Tags: ad copy, copywriting, internet marketing