Copywriting tips for Friday Teatime

Winding down? Putting the kettle on? Getting stuck into a Friday afternoon wedge of cake? Here are half a dozen random copywriting tips to chew over as you chew your Victoria sponge. Watch out for crumbs, now…

1. Be plain and upfront in your headline. One of the highest-pulling pieces of sales copy I know was written for a printing firm. It’s a single headline that says ‘Flyers - from £37′. Why does it work so well? Because it ‘does what it says on the tin’. Readers know exactly what’s being pitched at them and what it’s going to cost.

2. Don’t get it right - get it written! If you’re struggling to be creative on your first draft, just dive in head first and scribble down any old rubbish. Chances are there’ll be the makings of some decent copy in there, and at least you won’t have to stare at a blank screen, which just drains the creative juice right out of you. Writing is all about rewriting. Once you’ve got something - anything - to chip away at you’re halfway to a great piece of copywriting.

3. Short is hard. Thinking of crisp headlines, company names, domains and all the rest is tough, and demands that inspiration strike. Sometimes you need to set aside as much time to write three words as 3,000.

4. What’s your key benefit? You know you have to focus on benefits rather than features, right? Well, when you’re writing about a really cool product it can be easy to spread yourself too thin by trying to give equal weight to all the benefits it offers. Mention them all if you must (and if there’s room) but build your copy around one, or at most two, major benefits.

5. Know your eyeballs, web copy ninja! You’ll write better online copy if you understand how visitors read websites - it’s very different from the way they read print copy. Tons of useful information is available from the Poynter Eyetrack studies  and useit.com.

Confused? Angry? Wondering why, since this is a site about ‘copywriting’, I don’t spend my days sat in a basement stamping books with © symbols? Leave a comment or get in touch!