Learning to Write Marketing Copy PDF

Preview

Summary

Learning to Write Marketing Copy...

Description

Learning to Write Marketing Copy Overview of Marketing Copywriting In the video, Ian Lurie starts off by giving an overview of marketing copywriting. Ian states the three types of copywriting classifications: by collateral, by medium and by style. The first category, collateral, includes brochures, posters, scripts, one-liner, and product descriptions. The second big category is medium which includes all media (online, print, radio). The final category is the style which involves teaching, straight shot, laughter, the scare tactic, and hard sell. Ian also gives us some helpful pointers on preparing on how to write a marketing copy. He first states some potential distractions you may encounter such as any technical problems, burnout or simply any lack of inspiration. After stating some potential distractions, he then gives us some ways to help stay focused on the writing task: such as finding a private space with no distractions.

Writing Copy Before watching this video, I thought to have your heart broken multiple times was the worst thing an individual will encounter once or twice or thrice in their lifetime. However, after watching this video, Ian describes how much of a true heartbreak it is when a writer loses all of their documents due to a failure of backing up their data. It is extremely important to have a “fully automated every few seconds back up tool” (Lurie, 2014). Some backup options are Google Drive (Docs), Dropbox, and Packrat. It is also important to find the right writing tool option that is best suitable for you. Some examples of writing tool options are Microsoft Word, Google Docs and OpenOffice. Personally, I find that Google Docs is the most beneficial for me as I often forget to save my work and Google Docs automatically saves your work every few seconds. Ian explains how free writing will help get all of your ideas out. Instead of worrying about spelling or grammar, you should write all of your ideas down on paper rather than over-thinking everything through. Even though Ian is giving useful tips on writing a marketing copy, free writing will be useful to me as I find that most of the times when I have to write a paper for assignments, I am frantically trying to figure out a way to start the paper. Writing a good marketing copy requires a few steps: writing the first draft, polishing the draft, writing a headline and testing your headlines. Some tips to help write the first draft down is: do not write the introduction first, don’t worry about grammar and spelling or word choice and write one thing per sprint (Lurie, 2014). After you have written your marketing copy draft, it is time to polish it. When polishing the draft, make sure to have someone else review your copy, then edit and finally proofread your copy (check spelling, grammar, and punctuation). After polishing the copy, you move on to writing

a headline which is an important part of the copy as it can “grab attention, inform and tie together the entire copy” (Lurie, 2014).

Rewriting Existing Copy Ian states that the “key to rewriting existing copy is, whenever possible, improve without restructuring” (Lurie, 2014). Rather than starting from scratch, you should consider rewriting existing copy. It is really important to write short and efficient prose; especially in marketing copy. Whenever you edit other people’s work you will need to follow these necessary steps: read for unnecessary words, edit to active voice and proofread. When you are rewriting product descriptions you should do the following: change passive to active voice, do not use 3 words where 1 word will do, make the copy scannable, and have a clear call to action. Social media copy has a few challenges because everything spreads super-fast online, it is easy to offend people, there are multiple formats of social media and people get instant feedback (comment section, likes, etc.) and potential to go viral. I find that the main key to social media copywriting is also stated by Ian which is to not be offensive. It is extremely easy to offend anyone these days especially online. You don’t want to be like Donald Trump and tweet everything that comes into your “brain”.

Conclusion A fundamental part of copywriting is to form and develop a copywriting team. According to Ian, having 2 or more writers on your copywriting team will make copywriting seem easy. Managing a proper copywriting team is essential to achieving your optimum goals. Ian states 14 different ways to manage a copywriting team. However, out of the 14 ways, I found that 2 ways really stood out to me. I believe that being in a team requires efforts from everybody in the team. Like the old saying goes “there is no I in team” which is very true. Throwing people under the bus will look incredibly bad on not only your part but the team in whole. Just like Ian says in the video, when you throw one of your teammates under the bus it will look you have more of a mob rather than a team. Setting aside one day a month for favorite projects is another important way to let the creative juices flow. All writers are creative and to give them that space of setting aside to do favorite projects is a key to let their creativity run wild and not just be stuck on writing copywrites. An editorial calendar is a great tool if you manage to keep everything flexible. Ian states that an editorial calendar is “a calendar that lists specific titles to write, who should write them, the content type, and the status” (Lurie, 2014). Ian suggests following the “70/20/10 rule” which states that

70% of the content should be standard, 20% of your content should take some chances, and 10% of your content should be completely innovative. Creating a content schedule is important because it sets out a general set of goals that tells the team what to include in the editorial calendar. Elements of an editorial calendar include the following: date, title, target audience, designated writer, designated reviewer, 70/20/10 category, “in” and “out” column, and the status (what’s done and what is in the process). Managing a brand voice is important because a brand will impact your audiences’ emotional and economic response to you which is crucial.

My Conclusion I learned a lot about copywriting such as the main purpose of copywriting which is basically for advertising or marketing. The three different types of copywriting are by collateral, by medium, and by style. Copywriting style is unique to each writer and product, but certain styles are best suited for different tactics. The worst tactic a writer can use is the scare tactic and the best is probably the laughter tactic because who doesn’t love a good laugh. I learned the many benefits of drafting on paper and the benefits of free writing. I will definitely be incorporating free writing whenever I write. I actually used the method of free writing when writing this paper and it helped me a lot because I feel like the creative juices were flowing easier when writing whatever was on my mind on paper. Managing a group of competent and an all-around proper copywriting team is also another important aspect of marketing copywriting. All in all, I found this video to be extremely resourceful and will be using the pointers and tips that Ian Lurie instructed.

References Ian Lurie, Lynda, May 30, 2014 https://www.lynda.com/Business-Online-Marketingtutorials/Welcome/149250/175041-4.html...