From the desk of Razvan Rogoz
Dear friend,
In every field, there is a center principle that if applied, will bring you success.
In copywriting, this is “Know your market”. This is the most important thing you can do.
Knowing how to write good headlines is good. Knowing how to write in a correct manner is again a good thing to do. However, a person that knows the market in a accurate manner will achieve superior results to someone who knows how to write technically perfect copy.
There are three “schools” of advertising.
The first one is the creative one. These are artists. They are not so much interested in the copy being accurate or technically correct as they are concerned in it being clever. They tend to win awards but not sell that much. Usually the reaction to their advertising is “that’s nice”.
The second one are the geeks.ย These treat copywriting and advertising like it is chess. They use statistical models, their copy is paint by numbers and it is very accurate in a mathematical like model. Their copy can be used as case-study on what should be done but in a way, it is lifeless. It feels like all the parts are there but there is no emotion, no soul to it.
The third one are the sales people. They aren’t as creative as the first group nor as technically brilliant as the second. However, they do understand one major thing. They understand why people do what they do. They accept the fact that people are insecure creatures in need of validation most of the time, that their actions make no rational sense as it is lead mostly by emotions.
And while their copy may not win any awards nor feel like a well written computer code, they sell. Some don’t even write proper English yet they sell. They sell because they simply get it.
I suggest you become the third category. The only standard in copywriting is how well it sells. Some people may appreciate your creativity and others may appreciate your amazing English writing skills but clients will pay only in front of a effective copy.
Good copywriters are those who can seduce the opposite sex, who can get an upgrade at their hotel for free, who can get a discount when buying a new iPad and who can be caught up in a really tense situation and sell himself / herself out of there.
That’s a good copywriter. A persuader that knows how the human mind works and can leverage this.
Best regards,
Razvan