A quick copywriting Q & A 124 days ago
I’ve heard some great questions about copywriting over the years. Some keep coming up, so I thought I’d share them here (along with the answers, in case you were wondering) in a quick copywriting Q&A:
1. Isn’t copywriting just about having good spelling and putting sentences together?
It’s easy to have that view about copywriting from the outside. But copywriting is not simply about putting words on a screen. It’s a process that includes lots of different elements – liaising with people, project management, communication, empathy, commercial understanding etc. Yes, a high standard of spelling and grammar is very important for business credibility, but so is copy that is effective in telling a story to persuade people about the value of a product or service.
2. What kinds of projects do you do?
As anyone can tell from looking around the Green Light Copywriting website, I work on a really wide range of projects for many types of companies. I really enjoy the variety and I think it makes me a better copywriter, too. I feel that there has definitely been more of a shift towards web, SEO and blog content, but I find there is still a definite demand for offline content as well.
3. What’s your favourite type of copywriting project?
I know this is going to sound really cheesy, but they all are! Each project comes with its own demands and challenges, of course. But each one is about getting to know the client and what they want to achieve. I find it interesting whether it is ghost blogging, creating a white paper with industry tips or writing copy for a company rebrand. Sorry to be cheesy, but that’s the truth!
4. Do you think much has changed with content since you started out?
I have definitely seen some changes. There are the obvious ones around writing for the web, SEO content and blogging. I think businesses now really recognise the importance of having a strong message out there and they can see the value of investing in their content. I think this has filtered down from larger companies through to SMEs so that issues like tone of voice are now seen as important by companies of all sizes and scales. I also think that companies are starting to see that, when it’s used strategically, content can be very effective in generating business leads. There are some exciting things going on now, for example, with inbound marketing. But I think that, whatever the changes in technology and approaches, companies will always need to connect with their customers in a distinctive way. The core issues remain the same, but the modes of communication present new challenges and opportunities.
5. Is copywriting just about sitting in a room on your own, writing?
Whilst the solo writing thing is a major part of the copywriting process, there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s not about being a professional hermit! Being able to connect with people and what they want to say about their company is really important, too. If you can’t listen, you can’t really reflect what that particular person wants to achieve. Asking questions is a big part of the whole approach – as is getting feedback along the way.
6. What else do you enjoy about the copywriting process?
I really enjoy working with clients who are keen to develop effective content for their business and who recognise the value of content as part of a strategic approach. I also really love getting to work with business-owners and developing new content for something innovative and new. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with lots of new or developing businesses and learned about their plans for the future!
7. What, in your experience, are the biggest barriers to a successful copywriting project?
There are several things that can really get in the way of copywriting project working well! A key one, in my view, is a lack of communication between client and copywriter, for whatever reason. This can be very tricky. Another one is when the right background information isn’t provided at the right time, or when you have to keep going back to ask for more background info! Another barrier is linked to working outside a client organisation. I have to manage this issue well so that I can make contact with the people I need to!
8. So, based on the last comment, how does working outside an organisation shape your role as a copywriter?
There are some obvious potential practical challenges, but that all comes down to how the client and copywriter manage things together. Most of the time, the whole reason I get involved is to provide an external viewpoint and a fresh perspective on a product or service. It is this ‘outsider-seeing-in’ process that hopefully helps to convey what is most powerful and valuable about an organisation.
Camilla Zajac, Green Light Copywriting, January 2012
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7 copywriting signs of change for 2012 139 days ago
Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012. As the New Year dawns, it’s interesting to think about what it will mean for business copywriting. What changes should companies be aware of in the year ahead? Here are just a few possible signs:
1. Companies invest more in marketing?
Recent research has shown that businesses spent more money on their marketing in 2011. It’s interesting to see that this change accompanied a general decrease in market confidence. But, as the old adage goes, companies that continue to market in tougher economic times tend to do better than those that don’t. This is backed up by other recent research, proving that companies that are bold will do best in the long-term. It’s also telling that the research shows that companies are spending more on newer approaches rather than on the traditional marketing strategies. Are you reviewing your copywriting approach in the face of these changes to stay ahead in your market in 2012?
2. Marketing still not close enough to sales?
When you plan your copywriting and marketing approach, do you align it with your sales plan? Not enough companies did in 2011, according to recent research – and it’s not great news for business for the year ahead. It seems that many companies continue to see sales and marketing as separate entities rather than interconnected assets. This is a risk to your future development in the New Year. It applies whether you’re trying to link your copywriting approach more closely to your customers’ interests – or aiming to create a more streamlined flow from copy to creating a sale.
3. Email loses its status?
Europe’s largest IT company recently banned its employees from using email. While it isn’t wise to read an entire trend into the decision of one business, it does suggest a shift. Is this the start of the decline of email alongside the rise and rise of social media in the year to come? If so, it has implications for the way that companies communicate both internally and externally. Will communications and copywriting approaches need to be adapted to meet this change in culture in 2012? Will business be conducted in 140 characters only? Either way, this change is a sign that companies recognise the impact of employee communications. Recent business disasters with Twitter also point to an increased emphasis on the way that companies communicate in the months to come.
4. Companies still aren’t communicating effectively with customers and prospects?
Communication equals relationships equals business. Yet a 2011 survey showed that many companies recognise that they do not communicate adequately or effectively with their prospects and customers. More than half of the companies surveyed said that they thought they needed to improve their overall communications in this area. The companies that I speak to about copywriting regularly tell me that their issue is time (or the lack of it). The other is strategy. Perhaps one benefit of a tougher economic climate in 2012 will be that companies have more time and more drive to create a long-term and commercially focused communications and copywriting strategy.
5. Content becomes more complex?
Content seemed to become a more complex issue in 2011. This looks set to grow in 2012 – how we distribute copy, how we manage it, how we share it and how we use it to help customers get to know us. The copywriting process has increasingly had to adapt to these shifts in the way that we communicate with prospects. From 140 characters to 1400 words, copywriting has to fit the form – not fight it. But how will businesses adapt to the barriers preventing them from reaching their customers in 2012? Ironically, while we can self-select our own online content and communities through social media, the email inbox is still a relatively open forum (as my own inbox shows). Copywriting has to evolve to stay ahead of the changes and challenges that 2012 is likely to bring.
6. Opportunities to share content are growing?
Linked to the point above, technical and digital leaps forward mean that opportunities to share copy and ideas for content are growing all the time – and are likely to grow even further in 2012. Here are just three outlined by Mashable. The implications for copywriting are for the need to keep on evolving. This means looking out for fresh ways to use content and copywriting to engage, whether they are purely online – or offline to online. These new options look likely to give companies more innovative ways to use content and to connect with people in the year ahead. But fresh copywriting approaches still need to fit the medium, not the other way around.
7. Words increase in value?
This point may sound rather obvious, coming from a copywriter. But with the growth of the internet and social media, it’s likely to matter even more in 2012. Get a snapshot by taking a look at this view of the words that can increase or decrease your Twitter following. It’s a small, but telling insight into the impact of individual words. It looks very likely that in 2012 there will be an even closer connection between the technical (the science of applying specific words and terms) – and the commercial-creative (the art of copywriting to connect powerfully with your target audience).
Happy New Year!
Camilla Zajac, Green Light Copywriting, January 2012
Copywriting: cost or kerching? 166 days ago
Thinking about what you’d like to achieve in 2012? Whether it’s more business, more profile or better productivity, it might surprise you to learn that your copywriting approach can actively help drive all these goals. Here are just ten reasons why copywriting means kerching rather than cost:
1. Showcase yourself as the expert
Who wouldn’t want to be seen as an expert or thought leader in their industry? But this isn’t about ego (unless you want it to be). This is about your copywriting approach adding value to your business by actively highlighting you as a credible figure in your chosen field. The growth of social media makes this even easier to achieve. Create more value from your copywriting by developing content that showcases your specialist knowledge – and how it can help people. Share insights and tips from your own experience to see a positive impact on your business and your profile.
2. Sell before you sell
Where’s the company that wouldn’t like to sell a little or a lot more? Yet many companies are still missing out on the value they can gain from a strategic copywriting approach. Content is often pushed out reactively rather than being linked with what a company wants to achieve and how it works its sales cycle. But it’s not only with the bigger picture that companies overlook the potential value of the copywriting process. They also forget the value in the finer detail – the actual messages they’re sending out to potential customers.
3. Inform and inspire your employees
Copywriting can help inspire your employees as well as your potential customers. When it’s done right, you can apply a copywriting approach that connects with your entire team, whether you have a workforce of 7 or 17,000. This means using content within your communications to reach out more effectively to your employees. While for larger companies this could be an employee intranet, for smaller businesses, it might be about involving your team with the development of a new brochure or the creation of a community site. The secret is to find ways to strategically involve your employees.
4. Cash in on the content revolution
You may have noticed that there are some very interesting things going on right now around content marketing. Within just a few years, Twitter, Facebook and blogging etc have become part of everyday life. They, along with the internet, have helped to create a world where content is packed with potential value for businesses. Match your copywriting approach with a strategy that can help to draw in more business and cut down the time you have to spend on chasing new leads.
5. Define yourself as the best choice
It’s tough getting heard amongst the herd. Use the copywriting process to clarify what it is that makes you the best choice for your customers. This will add value to your whole approach and how you connect with people. By asking yourself what differentiates you from the rest and why this matters to customers, you can create a stronger approach, both in and outside of your communications. The copywriting process can provide valuable thinking time to identify what makes you the best choice.
6. Connect better with customers
Copywriting is often overlooked as a value creator. But what’s more valuable than connecting with your customers? Done right, your copy can help you create more meaningful relationships with your customers and keep them coming back to you. Instead of simply creating content around selling yourself, add value by providing content that answers your potential customer’s questions. Plan your copywriting process around the kinds of issues that affect your existing and potential customers. Provide answers and feedback to their business problems. You’ll have connected better with them and gained even more value from your copywriting approach.
7. Thrive in times of change
Change is a fact of (business) life. Used right, your approach to your copy can strengthen your business in times of transition. It can achieve this in several ways. One is that you can use your copywriting approach to finetune the detail of a change – whether it’s a shift in what you offer or the creation of something entirely new. Another way is to use your content to keep your employees and your customers in touch with what’s happening and nurture them through that tricky period of development.
8. Show off your achievements
Another important way you can add value through copywriting is to use it to show off the achievements of your business. Maintain this consistently and you will actively build a credible profile both on and offline. This doesn’t just have to be through blog content. It could be through email updates or guest blog posts or something else altogether. The trick is to make it current, interesting and relevant to the people you publicise it to. Doing this will add value by strengthening your business profile.
9. Create a powerful business portfolio
The value of copywriting lies in both the short-term, immediate response to new opportunities as above, but also in the long-term view. Combine your copywriting approach with your long-term business strategy and you can develop copy that supports you as a company. Create added value by developing a powerful business portfolio of content. This is something that can be live and online – or offline and ready for important occasions. The secret is to match your copywriting plan with your overall business plan. What resources will support you in the next few months? Is it targeted case studies to show a potential new client – or a pre-prepared presentation for a new group of clients?
10. Show the way forward
What’s your plan for the future? Do your customers understand where you’re going next and how you can help them? For both new innovations and existing companies, the copywriting process adds value in another way by highlighting what you stand for and where you want to be in the future. Your content can help to clarify exactly what you want to achieve, by combining your key messages and inspiring your customers about what you have planned.
Camilla Zajac, Green Light Copywriting, December 2011
20 danger points to avoid in copywriting for innovation 174 days ago
Writing or planning on copywriting about something new? Watch out for these classic danger points along the way:
1. Information overload
This is a danger point I often see at the start of the copywriting process for a new product or service. Companies give information about themselves – instead of engaging people in what they have to offer. Of course you want to tell people about your service, but don’t forget to sell it as well.
2. Drowning in detail
Linked to the danger point above, I am often asked to help at the stage where a business-owner has put copy together, but they know that there is something not quite right about it. This odd element in copywriting often turns out to be the amount of detail within the content. While it is important to share the value of the product or service, the bigger picture is more likely to interest people in the first instance.
3. The me me me show
This is another classic danger point in which the copywriting process becomes too focused on the business and what it’s about – instead of starting with what the potential users of this new service will want to know.
4. Style stagnation
It’s amazing how frequently I see new businesses start out with content that sounds exactly like that of an existing business. This is the danger point where business-owners communicate about their company in their copywriting as if it’s been around forever. There’s no sense of the exciting to show that something innovative has arrived.
5. Novelty neverneverland
The converse of the danger point outlined above is where the copywriting process creates content that is too focused on communicating just how new and exciting the product is. When this is overdone for effect, it can draw away from other important messages about the business.
6. No exit
Why communicate about your innovation – and then fail to tell people how they can find out more? This is the mystery of the missing call to action. There’s the big lead up, the successful story and then…nothing. Or there’s just a confusing call to action – or one that takes the potential customer, for example, to a general web page, rather than a targeted landing page.
7. Best for worst
This is the one where the copywriting simply blasts out the importance of the new business. Just like a person with similar qualities, this is likely to get a potential customer moving quickly away from the content. Not only does the over-inflated hard sell put people off, it can also undermine the credibility of a business.
8. Technical domination
Many new innovations have an important technical focus. This is great, but the copywriting process needs to achieve a clever balance between the technical and the non-technical, depending on the market you’re aiming for, rather than talking in robot language.
9 Unfinished sympathy
The copywriting process can be tricky one for a new product or service, so it can be tempting to leave it as an unfinished job to come back to at a later stage. This follow up stage often gets overlooked, leaving the innovation with content that is out of date or just incomplete.
10. Piggy in the middle
Copywriting for a new project is often a major milestone in a period of transition for a company. The content for a new website or brochure, for example, is what stands between their previous approach and their new one. Yet their content can often end up representing this middle place, instead of speaking for their future strategy.
11. Shying away from selling
All too often, I am asked to edit content that is too shy to do its job. This is where the business-owner has tried to communicate what they do in their copywriting process, but has held back from sharing the really good stuff, because they view it as inappropriate or ‘too much’.
12. Camouflage chameleon
The process of copywriting for something new is sometimes done in disguise. Under the cover of strangely familiar terminology, it makes its way unnoticed into the world. Too many new companies start out by communicating with a style or tone of voice that is already used by their competitors.
13. One outfit for every occasion
So many new businesses start out with copywriting that they expect with fit with every single format, audience and occasion. This may work for some of their audiences some of the time, it doesn’t work all of the time and can undermine their message.
14. Context failure
I often see this danger point when I’m editing a company’s copy. This is context failure where the copywriting is expected to launch something new and unfamiliar, without a sense of context and how the product or service relates to what’s been done before.
15. Old problems need new answers
Writing about a new business demands a mix of the old and the new. Creating real value in copywriting comes from linking your new product or service with the ‘old’ or long-standing problem that your reader has.
16. Buy now!
I have seen business-owners who, in their enthusiasm in the copywriting process, push their reader towards their new product or service, exhorting them of its value, without providing the space and gentler persuasion to encourage potential customers to make up their own minds.
17. The forgotten story
So many innovations start with a powerful story – and so many come without that story connected with their copywriting. The tale behind the new can be a big part of creating interest, but it’s still often an afterthought.
18. Message spaghetti
Have you ever seen copy with message spaghetti? You have if you’ve read content that communicate many different messages about a new product or service, leaving you confused. This is copywriting that tries to cover every base and every point of interest for every single potential customer.
19. Newbie do
For some businesses, the copywriting process becomes focused on the fact that the product or service is new and that there is some intrinsic value in this point alone. There is a great deal to be unpacked from the novelty of the innovation, but repeating in different ways that it’s new is not it.
20. Keeping it unreal
I’ve worked with companies that have started the copywriting process themselves only to find that, somehow, their content does not convince. On a closer look, this is often because they have communicated the various points and features, but have failed to make the innovation real and relatable.
Camilla Zajac, Green Light Copywriting, November 2011
Six reasons your copywriting process is a catalyst 180 days ago
We’re all busy now. So copywriting for your organisation can take a second or third place to focusing on your core activities. But the conversations I’ve had over the years with managers and owners of many companies have only strengthened my view of copywriting as a crucial catalyst for every type of organisation. Just last week, I had meetings with the owners of two very different companies, both of whom were, without perhaps realising it, within the ‘copywriting as catalyst’ process.
Here are just six reasons why your copywriting process is a catalyst:
1. The detail demands the bigger picture
The copywriting conversation frequently starts small and ends big. This is because the detail required for the copywriting process demands clarity on strategy. Copywriting proves to be a catalyst in many cases because it pushes people into looking more closely at their priorities for the future. How can you verbalise your approach if you aren’t clear on where you want to be heading in the next few years? What questions do you need to be asking? In this way, copywriting frequently becomes an important starting point for organisations, instead of simply an end in itself.
2. The one-off project needs to connect
A copywriting project can often turn out to be just what it seems – a clear cut, one-off project. But at other times it demands an interconnected approach to link it with the rest of an organisation’s marketing strategy. Seems obvious, yet it’s a thing that can often be overlooked. This is why you see companies with a clear message in their website copy that seems to fight against what’s being said in their brand new customer brochure. It can confuse the choices that customers make. Done right, the copywriting process helps to encourage a clear and consistent connection with a company’s overall marketing message – or to adapt and evolve from it, if growth and innovation is part of that company’s game plan.
3. Looking ahead involves looking back
In basic terms, the copywriting process can appear straightforward. But with some information missing, it gets more complicated. Either way, copywriting to represent and sell an organisation also involves looking back. However, far forward you want to move, you need to be clear on the messages you communicate about your past and what this says to your ideal audience. This is why it is so valuable to have this insight close by at the start of the copywriting process. It prevents the questions (and the soul searching) within an organisation about what they so want to say about their past – and how this will help them get to where they want to be in the future.
4. Moving forward means stopping to take stock
In my experience, companies often require copywriting projects to be completed at high speed. Understandably they want copy that meets their strategy as quickly as possible. Put there’s often a brief, but clear pause along the way – the one that comes when we discuss where it is exactly they want to be going. What will this copy actually be reaching towards? Sometimes this is clear cut. At other times, a complex conversation ensues. The copywriting process proves to be a catalyst for questions about exactly who these messages are for and how they should fit with the company’s marketing style.
5. Saying it starts with knowing it
Companies usually know what they stand for and what is important to them. But the copywriting process often proves to be the catalyst that brings it out into the light. Even a website rewrite or the CEO’s introduction to the new company newsletter can prove to be part of a transition in which attitudes and aspirations that are clear within the organisation are externalised for the first time. This has an impact on your choice of tone of voice and the messages you want to share. In this way, the copywriting process can actively help to turn attitudes held within an organisation into a clear message to the world.
6. Questions can clarify priorities
The copywriting process often turns out to be an important catalyst for clarifying a company’s priorities. Is the main website copy the most important thing to update first if the customer email updates aren’t getting the response you need? It’s surprising how often a copywriting project can inspire a whole range of questions. What are the priorities for what a particular company wants to say? What needs addressing first? What will have the biggest impact?
Camilla Zajac, Green Light Copywriting, November 2011
