Module 1 Copywriting: An Introduction

Transcription

1 Module 1 Copywriting: An Introduction In this module, we ll cover: What copywriters do What art directors/graphic designers do The difference between products & services The different types of copywriting What great advertising is and how to identify it

2 What do copywriters do? Let s be clear from the beginning. Copywriters write the words for advertisements. Art directors (or graphic designers) design the pictures and the layout of the ad. If you work regularly with an art director or graphic designer, you ll find that the lines can become blurred and that no-one has a monopoly on good ideas. But in general, it s the copywriters who come up with the text. Products and Services what s the difference? Copywriters write for both products and services. The difference between them is simple products are tangible objects that you can touch, like chairs, televisions, computers, books etc. Services are intangible and are invisible, like accountancy services, membership to a gym, financial products. There are some differences when writing for services, and we ll cover that in detail later on. But for convenience, we will refer to them all as products. Copywriters are associated with glossy press advertisements, corporate slogans, or TV commercials. But the range of material we produce is wide. It includes the following: Direct mail letters Newspaper and magazine advertisements Brochure and leaflet copy Newsletters TV and radio commercials Websites Media releases Signage / Point of Sale (POS) 7

3 Advertising encompasses all these communication mediums but for ease of use in this manual, we will refer to them all (unless specifically stated otherwise) as ads or advertising. Let s look at each in turn. Direct Mail We ve all received letters from the bank, the council, the health insurance company - these letters, often personalized, are direct mail. The hallmarks of direct mail are obvious: They are personalized They contain an offer that inspires people to take action now They are highly targeted to an individual Junk mail is not technically direct mail as it is not personalized, but many people consider anything that ends up in the letterbox a direct mail piece. Our advice is to always try to find the name of the recipient rather than use the ubiquitous Dear Homeowner. The likelihood of your direct mail (or DM) piece being read is significantly reduced when you don t address it specifically to the right person. Newspaper and magazine advertisements The full-color ads you see in glossy magazines for large companies like Coke, Sony, IBM and other multinational companies are generally prepared by large advertising agencies, but they are just the tip of the iceberg for copywriters. If you re looking for solid work creating newspaper and magazine advertisements, and you don t want to work for an advertising agency, you should target small/ medium enterprises (SMEs). They too need ads for newspapers and magazines and they often have to rely on the publication to write those ads for them. Brochure and leaflet copy Leaflets vary enormously, from photocopied letterbox stuffers to glossy 12-page brochures. Try not to get hung up on the semantics of whether it s a brochure or a flyer or a leaflet. For the purposes of this course, we will call them all brochures. 8

4 Most copywriters don t tackle the design and printing of the brochure. That is the domain of graphic designers. But if you have the skills to use software packages like In Design, Quark, Publisher etc, you can provide your clients with a design service and make more money. Your local quick printer, like Snap or Kinko s, can translate your pencil sketch into a design, and will do the typesetting and printing too. Newsletters Companies need newsletters to tell their staff what is going on. They also need newsletters to communicate with customers. You can earn a lot from newsletters because they require a lot of copy. Some companies hand the copy to a designer and printer who will produce the newsletter. Others may need you to undertake the whole job. A local printer can quickly design a layout, and print it for you. TV and radio commercials You won t get asked to produce too many TV commercials in the early stages of your career, but as cable/pay TV grows, TV may become a real opportunity for more advertisers. Late night TV and daytime TV are much cheaper to advertise on than prime-time and may be a good opportunity to present to a client who has a limited budget but wants to advertise on television. Some radio commercials are produced by big advertising agencies, but many are done by the local radio station, usually at low cost. Contact the radio stations and sound studios to see if you can get on their list of writers. Web Sites Writing for websites will become a huge source of income for copywriters. There will be unprecedented demand for good web writers and this will enable new copywriters to earn an excellent income from home. Your client could be anywhere in the world and it won t make an iota of a difference because everything will be done online. 9

5 You might recall a few years ago during the dot com explosion, everybody had to have a website. It didn t matter what was on the website, so long as you had a website. We are now at the next stage where it matters very much what is on the website. The words that we choose, the spelling, the grammar these all impact on how Google rank sites which means that the copy on a site will become as important, if not more important, than the site design. Media releases A media release is a news story that you send to the media. Newspapers and magazines will then print the story free of charge in their news pages. A typical media release tells the press about a new product that the client is launching. They are useful because the story takes on the credibility of the magazine in which it is published. Signage / Point of Sale (POS) Copywriting is everywhere on the sides of trucks, on walls, on boxes, on napkins, on tins of soup, on pens. Someone somewhere had to write these words. It s all copywriting. When you next go to the supermarket, look at all the paraphernalia near the checkout. This is where you are most likely to find Point of Sale. It often comes in the form of competition entry forms or what s on sale this week literature. It s called Point of Sale because it s located near the point of the sale and is designed to capture people s attention whilst they are purchasing products. Great Advertising: What Is It? All great advertisements have certain things in common. They: Have stopping power Capture attention Are relevant to the target market Contain insights into human behavior to which a reader can relate Connect people Are provocative Can be deceptively simple 10

6 In the next module, you ll find The Ad Pack. This is a compilation of some of the world s best advertisements. We ll refer to these ads throughout the course to help you identify the key principles of great advertising. You ll notice that many are recent ads, as well as some that are classics, perhaps 30 or 40 years old. Don t be put off by the age of these ads. Some of the best ads ever written came out many years ago. Many modern-day copywriters refer to the past as inspiration for their current work. They believe that great advertising never dies, it just gets recycled, rehashed and reinvented. You can learn as much from past advertising as you can from the current crop of advertising. In fact, some industry stalwarts would say that the best advertising was created decades ago, when clients were bolder, braver and market research was a minor element in the advertising process. Only you can decide. Now that you re a student of copywriting, you must fine tune your antenna to the advertising that surrounds you. You need to start reading advertisements critically and analytically because this is your industry now and you need to know what is out there and what impact it s having on you and society. You are no longer one of the masses. You are a copywriter and your industry is advertising. Fortunately, advertising is all around you so you don t have to sit in a library to study it. As you flick through these ads, become aware of your thoughts and reactions to each of them. Jot down your thoughts in the space provided so that you start to become aware of the ads that work for you, and the ads that don t. Start noticing everything around you billboards, brochures, TV commercials, radio ads, shop signs, sky writing, restaurant menus, and newspaper ads start noticing everything. To be a good copywriter, you need to be a good student of advertising. 11