Entries from November 2007 ↓

Journalists summarise the whole story in the first paragraph, and expand on the detail as they go along. So the most important and interesting stuff is at the top, and the fluff that is less useful or intriguing goes towards the end.

“The second paragraph? Who reads the second paragraph?”

There, I’ve gone and done it myself and now you don’t need to read the rest of this post. But wait… don’t go. There’s more you need to know first.

Until I decided to demonstrate this technique, with the first paragraph of this post, I was intending to start with a little reminiscence about a great movie from 1974 called The Front Page. It stars Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon as the editor and reporter in a 1920s Chicago newspaper.

At one point, Lemmon, the intrepid reporter, is filing copy about a notoriously dangerous criminal who has broken out of jail and stolen a gun. He’s on the loose, on the prison roof.

“Where’s the bit about the gun?”

Reading the copy, Matthau asks something along the lines of: “Where’s the bit about the gun?”

(I’m doing this from memory, as I don’t have a copy of the film to hand).

Lemmon replies: “It’s in the second paragraph.”

To which Matthau, the editor, says: “The second paragraph? Who reads the second paragraph?”

And it’s all there, in that one-liner - just about everything you need to know about writing in the newspaper style. It’s an education in journalism, all by itself.

Continue reading →

If you publish on the web, it pays to analyse who’s visiting your site and how they get there. It can produce some startling results - and can really help improve your marketing and your interaction with customers. Continue reading →

Glad you asked. SEO is short for search engine optimisation. What follows is a brief introduction to SEO, especially as it relates to keywords and copywriting. Continue reading →

I’m sure there are hundreds of different ways of defining the ‘golden rules of copywriting’ - but here’s one ways, for starters:

1. What’s your proposition? You need to know the key messages.

2. Who are you talking to? You need to understand your audience, what they’re interested in, and what motivates them.

3. How are you communicating? You need to know the media. Is it print, the web, TV etc. The messages and execution will need to be adapted to suit the media.

4. Marshall your thoughts, make notes, have a plan. Structure your story or argument.

5. Create a hook. This is a theme or concept that brings the message alive.

6. Write clearly, so people understand and want to read on. Get to the point, and stick to the point. Use short sentences with active language and a conversational tone.

7. Don’t forget to sell.

OK, that last one is a bit of a tease. It’s a subject of its own. Hey, it’s probably a lifetime’s study. But it’s something some copywriters seem to forget. Everyone’s selling something, even if you just want people to subscribe to your RSS feed (mine’s up the top there, by the way), or come back to your website for another look sometime.

A great headline needs to do four keys things:

• Attract attention – you clearly need to get noticed – but you also to need to…
• Select the right audience – by telling the reader who should be interested. This way you get the right people reading – potential customers. Otherwise, you could just try shock tactics to get everyone reading - but you are unlikely to win their trust having attempted a “bait and switch”.
• Deliver a compelling sales message – and ideally encapsulate the whole story
• Drag the reader, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the body copy.

There’s a plague of these kinds of headlines on website articles.

These are some techniques that have been shown to work. There are many other around, but this may help you when you get stuck:

1) Tell it like is. Just say what needs to be said, simply and clearly:
• Half price booze
• 30% off print supplies
• Save money on accountancy fees

2) Make it newsy. Find a news angle for your headline
• Revealed: the truth behind poor dentures
• 70% of business pay too much for legal insurance, says survey
• Breakthrough in paper feed design, say researchers

3) Use the ‘How to’ promise. Using the ‘How to…’ headline should instantly highlight the main benefit:
• How to save money on your car insurance
• How to cut operation waiting times
• How to earn a living from home

4) Ask questions which go to the heart of the matter, such as:
• Are you ashamed of your English?
• Can’t get into your jeans?
• Do you want to be more confident?

5) Urge action. Be immediate and direct, by urging the reader to achieve their goal:
• Write for a living
• Be an astronaut
• Get the lifestyle you’ve dreamed of

6) Offer information. There’s a plague of these kinds of headlines on website articles. Nonetheless, the technique is still valuable:
• The ten secrets to killer copywriting
• Seven sure fire ways to get a pay rise
• The six instinctive techniques used by successful people
• Make yourself more effective in a week

7) Use testimonials, if you have them:
“I lost weight with the tapeworm diet”
“This is the best software I’ve ever used.”
“I saved £200 on my car insurance.”

Photo by Paul.

If you are working as a copywriter, or in any creative field, you need to be able to have ideas to order, to meet deadlines.

The good news is that having ideas is something that can be learnt. There are proven techniques that can be followed. The most famous, certainly in the copywriting world, was outlined in a book(let) called A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, first published in the 1940s.

It’s well worth getting a copy and reading in full. The essence of the book, however,is to break the technique for having ideas down into five steps.

Step 1 - Gather raw materials
The mind gathers its raw material. The material needs to be of two kinds: specific and general. For advertising the specific information is about the product and the target audience. General information includes anything and everything and is a lifelong exercise.

Step 2 - Working over
Step 2 is to chew over the facts, bring them together and see how they fit. Sometimes the facts reveal their meaning more quickly if you don’t look at them too directly. You almost need to “listen for meaning instead of looking for it.” As small, partial ideas come to you, write them down, now matter how crazy or incomplete.

Step 3 - Incubation
Walk away. Put the whole problem out of your mind for a while. Let your unconscious mind work on it for a while. Do something else, something which stimulates your imagination and emotions. It could be reading a novel, going to a concert, listening to some music. You are giving yourself time to digest the facts.

Step 4 - Eureka!
If you’ve done the first three steps successfully, then an idea should appear ‘from nowhere.’ It could come at any time and probably when you least expect it. The answer to your problem may appear to leap into your mind for no apparent reason.

Step 5 - Shaping and development
The idea has to be turned into reality, into something that can be used in the real world. You need to show your ideas to others and see what they think. They may be able to add to it and make it better. It may spark whole new ideas.