As with most things in modern art, the first time it happened, it was down to Picasso… He painted a picture of a chair, but not satisfied with paint alone, he stuck an actual chair on the canvas. Surrealist Marcel Duchamp, took it a step further, and in 1917, he just signed a toilet, turned […]
Tag Archives: COPY
Dear Reader, It’s an objection that’s often raised… If handled badly, it can destroy a promotion. But get this right and it could be one of the most important things you do. AllGoodCopy.com reader, Jon Steel, asked an interesting question about this very subject on the website recently: “Is there a good technical reason why […]
Copywriters can be precious people… I should know… I am one. And sure, tell me my copy doesn’t work or that I could do something better and once upon a time I would have sulked for a week. Yup, I used to be like that. But these days, I’ve calmed down. I’m wiser. You see, […]
Aristotle’s idea was to start in the middle… And I have no doubt that in creative writing classes all around the world they’re preaching the same message as we speak. But hey, I was brought up under contrarian copywriter supreme, Bill Bonner, so why not throw a spanner into Aristotelian theory. Someone’s got to, right? […]
Copywriters aren’t often too kind to subheads… In fact, most of the time subheads are treated as nothing more than punctuation. Indeed, one of the uses of subheads in long copy sales promotions is to punctuate copy… but it is just ONE use. There are many more. The fact is, having strong subheads throughout your promotion […]
As a copywriter, you’ve got one major problem that no one really talks about: no one wants to buy anything. That would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that, as a copywriter, it’s your job to encourage people to buy things. Actually, I’m being dramatic. There’s hope… there’s something you can do to fix it… […]
Legend has it that direct marketing giants Bill Bonner and Mark Ford sat down to analyse all the direct mail promotions they’d written, all those that had worked and all those that had flopped. They considered what fundamental factors the successes shared. They identified what was missing from the failures. And then they put it all together. […]
Brainstorming is a bit crap. Or is it? It’s a difficult one. I say this: You should never disregard brainstorming as a tool for generating ideas. As a copywriter, when it comes to generating original and engaging headlines for a promotion, you’ve got to develop your own style. Me; I tend to pace up and […]
Poor old Boris… Who writes his copy? Because they need their wrist slapping! Seriously, when it comes to communicating with your customers (or rather in this case, constituents) you’ve got to make sure you avoid one thing above all else… You should NEVER patronise them. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Boris’ recent letter to Londoners does… […]
A sales promotion landed on my desk recently… Nothing new there; being a professional copywriter, hundreds land on my desk every week. But this one caught my eye. Unfortunately, it was for the wrong reason. You see, it wasn’t the headline that caught my attention. In fact, when I got round to reading it, I […]