Twelve Crucial Lessons From The Top Copywriters

What can some of the best copywriter's in history teach us about writing persuasive ads and creating successful campaigns?

Over the last three months, I've studied three copywriting books, reading each of them several times.

• Ogilvy on Advertising
• The Copywriter's Handbook
• Adweek Copywriting

There are some powerful concepts in all of them.

I wanted to share twelve of the most powerful lessons that I've learned, which I try to employ in my work every day.

The Incubation Period

This was my favourite so far.

In The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman, he explains at length the qualities of and processes used by great copywriters.

One of the biggest takeaways I got from the book was 'The Incubation Period.'

Here's what Sugarman has to say about the process:

The incubation process is the power of your subconscious mind to use all your knowledge and experiences to solve a specific problem, and its efficiency is dictated by time, creative orientation, environment, and ego.

I use it heavily, often allowing me to work on multiple blogging projects at a time with a high degree of focus.

After initially outlining the topic I want to speak about and my initial thoughts, I first let the article sit there for a week.

I then write the first draft of that article and go back to it several times over the next two weeks to make it better.

I know my subconscious is doing the work for me, assimilating all that information and quietly assorting it into a blog-format, ready for my fingers to hit the keyboard and type just the right amount of words to sell my idea or explore my thoughts more thoroughly.

Advertising Is Sales

It might be surprising to realise that after two years of studying marketing with accredited and reputable providers of education in the field, I've yet to hear this simple yet effective message.

Advertising is sales.

Everything else - how creative your project is, how many people see your message, how many inquiries you generate - they are irrelevant.

If you aren't making sales and a positive return on your investment, you're wasting money.

I know in today's economy we have content marketing and establishing authority.

But I'm starting to think this conventional wisdom in regards to branding is just not true.

A lot of the books in the field that are well-renown talk about the fact most conventional marketing doesn't work because people fight a war in reality, when in fact it is a battle of perception.

Business Executives are usually to blame. The financial people who run everything in quarterly reports.

They make the decisions.

The problem with that is, executives aren't marketing specialists. And they make the wrong decisions, based on bad assumptions and the advice of some 'creative' who wants to win a reward rather than provide a positive return on his client's money.

Big Ideas Get Results

Conventional wisdom is thrown out the window yet again.

I think this is going to be the true struggle, battling against the powers-that-be within organisations and upsetting the status quo.

The fact remains the small efforts that you think are 'adding up' to eventually convert your clients do not work.

Going all-in on big ideas, reinvesting profits and battling it out is the key to any marketing success.

The greats know it, and all the books tell us the same.

We should abide by the teachings of these great advertisers.

Divide Copy Into Subheaders

Even with ads, you should have subheaders to divide your copy into relevant sections.

This makes for more clear copy and leads your prospect down a 'slippery slope' that will allow your readers to be encouraged to read on, eventually reaching your call-to-action at the bottom.

And being so intrigued that they take action.

Even old, classic ad a carried this format.

Most were long-form copy, divided into separate sections that presented itself to the reader's interest, arousing curiosity and offering a reward for reading the entire ad copy - to be enthralled enough to buy the product...

Yep, that's the job.

Research, Research, Research

All of the greats know the one thing that separates the professionals from the amateurs.

It's research.

Research about the product or service you are advertising.

It could be that one little detail that you can spin.

It could quite easily end up being the 'world's first...' something... if you look hard enough.

I don't think there's a book that's understated the utility of research yet - all of the greats mention how neglected it is within the industry.

Copy Is King

Illustrations are great.

Being creative is great.

But Copy is King.

You know why? Because what you type will determine whether your readers - yes, readers - take action.

You can quite easily take away all the graphics, and the text will still sell on its own merit - if it's well written.

If you take away the text, the illustration will rarely sell alone.

Content is not king. Copy is king.

Does your marketing generate leads?

If the answer is no, your copy isn’t king. It’s the jester. And you need to sort that out. Not doing so means forever battling against meeting sales targets. Who wants that?

The You-Orientation

Writing with the reader in mind.

Speaking to the reader.

I need to practice this much more, which is why I have a quote directly from the book as an example, to further illustrate the power of the 'You-orientation' - take a look:

Bank Plan is state-of-the-art in user-friendly, sophisticated financial software for small-business accounts receivable, accounts payable, and general ledger applications.

Bank Plan can help you balance your books. Manage your cashflow. And keep track of customers who haven’t paid their bills. Best of all, the program is easy to use—no special training is required.

Headlines. They're Important

80% of your money is spent on your headline.

More than four times as many people browse your headline than read the copy of your ad.

If it doesn't promise a benefit, select an audience and appeal to the reader's self-interest, you're dead in the ocean before you've even begun.

They say a bad advert can still sell with a great headline, but the best of ads will not sell anything with a poor headline.

Think about what I said above for a moment:

80% of the money spent on an advertisement is spent on the headline.

Be Concise

It's not about your ad being short.

It's about it being just the right amount of words to sell the product.

No more and no less.

As a general rule, long-form copy sells better than shorter ads.

But being concise is a little more than just getting rid of words.

It’s delivering a precise message.

No excessive words or redundant phrases.

Let's face it: who wants to read three paragraphs, when they could get the same from reading one?

Be Curious

They say great copywriters are curious about life.

How can you be an interesting writer if you lack the curiosity to continue to discover more in your life?

What could you possibly write about that connects to any audience, if you have no interests of your own?

It gets you thinking, right? I tend to ask "how can I enrich my life, which as a result will allow me to enrich my writing?"

Be Colloquial

Who wants to read something someone would type?

You are not writing for academics. You are writing to sell products.

People read an ad as though they are being spoken to one-to-one.

It's okay to use colloquial language, the language that people speak.

A general rule of thumb?

If you have a choice between being grammatically correct or naturally in your writing, go with naturally.

Run Your Own Company

There is no better lesson than being responsible for every word you write.

I couldn't agree more.

If you are suffering the consequences of your mistakes, you'll be less likely to want to continue to make them - which means you've got to upskill... Or you could die.

Starvation does happen when you make money to eat, right?

If you are working on behalf a client and he suffers from your lack of expertise in advertising, you can always come up with an excuse for him to continue his ads, and try a little harder...

... but you won't have the drive as someone who has had zero return on his own investment.

Losing money is never fun.

And it will be a bigger motivator than being an employee somewhere, and receiving the paycheque regardless.