The North of England is a wonderful place…
I write to you today from a pleasant pub on the Heaton Moor Road just outside of Manchester.
The taxi from the station cost less than the minimum fare in a London cab…
The beer is brought to my table with plenty of change from a fiver…
And people have just as bad teeth as me. It’s refreshing.
Alas, I’m here on band-related work, finishing off an album I’ve been working on with two of my oldest friends.
Instead of writing copy this afternoon…
I’ve been writing lyrics!
It certainly makes a change. Though it’s just as hard as penning a sales letter: avoiding clichés, being mindful of rhythm, not using pretty words just for the sake of it.
Anyway, if you’d like to hear the record when it’s finished, drop me a line.
In the meantime, I wanted to quickly get in touch on something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently: a copywriter’s role in product development.
Reason being, this week I caught up with the celebrated copywriter (and incredibly successful businessman), Bill Bonner and product quality was one of the big issues we discussed.
As copywriters we can sometimes get too tangled up in the art of copywriting itself and forget that the reason we’re writing at all is to promote a product or service: an actual thing that will be used by a real person.
Remember, it’s not all just about sales figures and conversion rates.
Indeed, you shouldn’t think of your job as copywriter to be solely limited to promoting the product. As copywriter, you are in a unique position to see a product or service from a different angle… you can see the end game, the ultimate benefits a person will derive from a product.
And if those benefits aren’t there… or you think there’s something missing in the way the product is presented… you shouldn’t sit quietly.
You should look to help improve the product.
Why?
Because the better a product or service is, the easier it is to write copy for it.
You might think that it is not your responsibility… beyond your remit… or that it’s too much like hard work getting involved in product development and not worth your time. But this is bad thinking.
By helping to improve a product you’ll be able to write about it in a much more authentic way, which will ultimately result in a much stronger piece of copy.
And on top of that, being seen as a copywriter who can help beyond their traditional role of ‘the one who does the words’ will stand you ahead of other writers who only have a single string to their bow.
Best,
Glenn