As I sit on the terrace of the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank and watch the sun set on a very pleasant evening in the City… My thoughts turn to you. Yes, you, dear reader, my fellow copywriter in arms. I know, I know. I should be thinking about the cold beer on the […]
Category Archives: EMOTIONALS
You can’t prove that your exciting new product works before you’ve proved that it’s exciting in the first place. Think about that. Because it’s a flaw with long direct response copy that I see over and over. Too soon a copywriter will start trying to prove a product works before they’ve proved to the reader that they should be […]
16
Oct
Oct
Hurrah! I’ve finally got a chance to relax and take the time to say hello. More than that, I want to share some thoughts that I’ve been having since I attended a writing retreat in France last month. But before I do anything… I should apologise: I’ve been out of action for a little while. […]
“And the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.” These days it’s almost cliché to say so… But, as a copywriter, I find the writing of Ernest Hemingway such a useful resource. If you’re not regularly reading his work, you […]
16
Apr
Apr
For some strange reason, a lot of people seem to think the business world should be a grey, lifeless place that exists between 8.30am and 5pm (if you’re lucky). People assume that you’re not allowed to be interesting, that you have to talk in facts, figures and graphs; the boring stuff, basically. You only need to scroll […]
I’ve been in the cash machine queue half an hour already… But I’m not getting anywhere. Plus, I’m losing the will to live. The drinks queue is equally stupid, and I figure by the time the main act is on, even if I swap queues now, I’ll only have time for one pint anyway. That […]
In Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, JFK, Joe Pesci plays Dave Ferrie, an American pilot alleged to have been involved in Kennedy’s unfortunate assassination. Dave Ferrie: Was his crime plotting to kill JFK or simply those ridiculous eyebrows?” The first thing you notice about Ferrie are his eyebrows. They’re ridiculous. A quick search on Google images and you […]
16
Jan
Jan
Reassurance isn’t a term that’s widely used in copywriting. Have a quick scan through the index pages of Cialdini’s Influence, Daniel H. Pink’s To Sell is Human or even Ogilvy’s On Advertising and you won’t find any special preference given to the word. Even a stop sign needs a little reassurance sometimes. Does that make it redundant? Does the fact […]
After spending an evening with social media expert and general ‘smart guy’, Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee), I decided to check out SlideShare. “Green light your ideas” Have you come across this yet? It’s basically a social network based around sharing slideshows. Sounds weird, I know. But I kind of like it and spent some time designing my own […]
With the help of the always excellent @rhinett, I’ve updated and expanded my popular copywriting infographic… It now covers an entire direct response sales letter. As you can see below, I’ve included the main sections you’ll find on a typical letter and offered some advice on how to handle each. Of course, this is by no means the structure every long […]