Whenever I’m looking to take on a trainee copywriter, one of the tasks I always set is the same. It’s designed to see if the writer is able to turn features into benefits. On the face of it seems a very simple exercise… And frankly, it is. But it reveals something about a writer that […]
I wrote a new article for a fellow copywriter, Alastair Allday, that is currently featured on his website, Allday Creative. You can read the piece here. In it I reveal five things that could help you improve your writing. But these aren’t regular copy tips and it isn’t a list of typical ‘how to’ textbooks. […]
I want to talk about the end… The moment you know the inevitable is upon you. The moment you see everything flash before your eyes and wonder if you’ve done enough. The moment you quietly whisper into the vast, empty abyss and ask… Dear reader, do you actually want to buy this? Yes – I’m […]
Ideas are irritating. Sometimes they’re right there in your face, shouting at you like an arrogant teenage kid who thinks they know best… Other times they’re nowhere to be seen, like your broke mate Steve who’s always in the toilet when it’s his round at the bar. I’ll tell you what… From now on, let’s […]
There’s nothing worse in direct-response copywriting than assuming too much knowledge… Sure you need to target your copy. I mean, you can’t sell everything to everyone. But to assume that your potential customers know what you do and why they need you to do it for them… Well, that’s just copywriting suicide. I shed a tear for […]
I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said it… “If you can’t explain your story to a fourteen-year-old in one sentence then you’ve got a problem with your story.” Something like that. Possibly. And hell, if he didn’t say it, he should have. It sounds like something he’d say. Anyway, the point is, it’s a […]
So look… You might disagree with me here. You might sneer. You might even think I’m an idiot for saying what I’m about to say. But I’m going to say it anyway. I’d be a liar if I didn’t. Spit it out? OK… With direct-response copywriting I think it’s often better to be cliché than […]
As you write more and more copy, you tend to develop your own list of ‘go to’ words. You know that if you’re in a scrape and your brain isn’t functioning properly after a heavy night, you can dip into this universal sack of trigger words and the result will be half decent. But I […]
Too many copywriting gurus go on and on about what they DO know… So to freshen things up a little, here are five things about copywriting that I definitely DO NOT know. 1. I don’t ever know what the best headline is for any particular product or service that I am selling. Even when I […]
One of the most fundamental things you can do in a headline is to make a promise to the reader. In fact, it’s probably one of the most often used techniques when it comes to writing headlines for direct response copy. With financial copy I’m sure you’ve come across many headlines promising that if you […]