Report writing

At UK Copywriting it's not all about SEO Copywriting and Sales Copy. I’ve just completed some detailed report writing for the wonderful Jonas Vebner who runs the London office for Music Export Norway. Love it. Meetings, telephone interviews, focus groups, surveys, research and plenty of long, hard thinking. Extracting the sentiments, the evidence, the threads and pulling it all together is a clear, digestible format. A document to shine a light, help inform positive decision making and map a successful future as well as simply acting as a mirror.

And the way to get the most from report writing?

If you are looking for clear insight, to get under the skin of a challenge, an opportunity, to reveal wider, deeper perspectives, information that can make a material difference to your business… mail me.

At UK Copywriting we’ve been doing a lot of sales copywriting recently. Good old fashioned direct response kinds of sales copywriting. Immediate, high impact copywriting that inspires quick clicks and actions. Profitable copywriting. It doesn’t hang about. Or waste your time.

The sort of sales and marketing copywriting you see in Drayton Bird’s How To Write Sales Letters That Sell or The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, by Joe Sugarman.

Some people look down on sales copywriting. They think it’s passé. Aren’t we now immune to persuasion, to the pitch? Doesn’t marketing copywriting now revolve around content marketing and social media? People say sales copywriting is dead.

They’re wrong. If the writing is well researched, expertly crafted and clearly addresses the reader, sales copywriting delivers big time. For all your viral video, blogs, articles and content strategy, it’s your sales copywriting that closes.

Sales copywriting rules!

Thanks to Rustman for the image

Great sales copywriting has driven worldwide success for Groupon

You’re by now probably aware of Groupon. No? It’s a group-buying website out of Chicago since 2008. Now running in nearly 40 UK towns and cities the company advertises limited deals on behalf on various businesses. Different offers each day covering things such as meal deals, visit to local attractions such as zoos or theme parks, tennis coaching and other personal instruction, massages, spa breaks, hotel visits, cinema tickets, sunglasses etc.

The popularity of group buying and voucher based marketing has gone through the roof over the last year or so. 35 million users in more than 300 local markets (Manchester copywriters prepared to work for very little take note) says one thing and one thing only – ‘kerching’ . Groupon is storming it. With Businessweek reporting that the company is in line to make as much as $500 million this year there’s little surprise that Google in their pursuit of ‘local’ have recently put in a $6 billion bid for the company. An offer rejected by Groupon’s owners. It’s not just Google who are smitten by deep discounts and daily deals. Earlier this month Amazon invested $175 million in LivingSocial.com.

In short – Internet voucher sites are the hot ticket. Groupon the hottest.

How come?

What has turned Groupon from Charles Hawtrey into Georges St Pierre in the blink of a barmaid? Ninja business skills? Tendulkar like timing? An ancient Mesopotamian blessing? Pleeeease somebody stop me…

The art of the copywriter

The answer … as both of you reading this copywriting blog have probably guessed… is… copywriting (did my ‘art of the copywriter’ header give it away?). Whether you are HBO, 23, slightly ‘wacky’ and love their style guide, or not, you have to give Groupon credit for their efforts in delivering a consistent voice. For taking a step back and applying their own techniques and copy editing style guide . And much of what they have to say is refreshingly… fresh. Take this example from their Narrative Point of View section in the Voice Guide.

Minimize the use of the 2nd person. Sometimes using the 2nd person is easily avoidable, and sometimes it’s highly useful (ex: the deal sentence). If you write a sentence in the 2nd person, and then discover that you could just as easily remove the “you’s” and “your’s” without using the passive voice and it still reads naturally, do that. When you do use the 2nd person, make sure to spread it out. Consecutive sentences specifically addressing the reader generally feel grating.

The 2nd person is often very useful for clearly describing what the customer’s experience will be like, especially for complicated deals. (EX: After your studio portraits are developed, you’ll have the option to mix and match your different poses and choose between 6 different print options.). It’s when the 2nd person is used in a more creative context and with a voice that assumes too much familiarity with the reader that it can sound like traditional marketing copy.

Don’t assume familiarity with the reader. Example of Groupon Voice violation from a golf deal:
Go ahead. Be a Tiger. —  Even if this were funnier than it is, you haven’t earned that level of intimacy with the reader, and they’re likely to not respond to it. You are not the reader’s pal.

Boss!

The Traditional Marketing Clichés and Crutches To Avoid advice is oozing (oops…”Even saying “ooze” will set people off”) with plenty more advice. As a copywriter the whole of the Editorial Manual is well worth a right royal nose through.

If you have already experienced Groupon you will likely know that over exposure will soon leave your wit a bit of a gooey mess. As sick as an Australian cricket fan. The law of diminishing marginal utility crushing Groupon’s ‘humour’ under the weight of its own ‘humour’. Like watching 9 episodes of Family Guy back to back. If you haven’t been through the wardrobe yet check it out – it’s well worth a quick visit – especially if you are keen on heavily discounted massages or turkish delight.

Image borrowed from Groupon.co.uk

The only copywriting rule here is that there aren’t any copywriting rules. Nonsense.

Rules give us context, they are glue, the common ground, the ways and the means that values… have value. They offer relationship and relativity. An axis, a framework. Whether we know them in detail or only share a vague familiarity, they join the dots, paint the backdrop. A ruleless world would be terrible. No pricks to kick against. No ‘man’ to stick it to. Tension’s essential. Essential tension. Think Prince post Warners. Cantona released from football’s prism.

Bend them, break them, ignore them, follow them to the letter. Rules do serve the purpose of preventing a listless, dull anarchy.

Smart players understand this. They study the rules, learn them. They work with them, weave in and out of them, they bend rules to their will and to their advantage. They ignore them. “I hate rules,” writes original Madman UK copywriter David Ogilvy on the cover of Ogilvy On Advertising. How about this from Bill Bernbach? “Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula.”

There’s a copywriter called Ben Settle – to other copywriters who have a strongly rule driven approach to their writing the guy is a monster. He’ll miss-spell, swear, riff and street talk his way to wherever he needs to go without the slightest regard for convention. ‘Rools are for fools’ he says. A ‘contrarian marketer’, he’s got my ear. Drayton Bird has name checked him recently too so he must be doing something right.

What about other norms? Other conventions, perceived wisdoms or intuitives?

Here’s one area constantly under debate – productivity. Spotify on? Spotify off?

Dave Johnson on Bnet wrote an article recently based around the idea of using counter intuitive approach to be more productive.

Stop scheduling your day he says: “ A little randomness and unpredictability can be invigorating… work without a wire.”

Open yourself to distractions. The old, ‘a work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, line. Be open to creativity.

Ignore the work-life balance. If you really enjoy what you do for a living then go for it. Time out for the sake of it can be stressful. The worst of both worlds. Take strength and inspiration from your passion.

What do you do that’s counter-intuitive yet successful for you? That goes against the grain.

What rules do you break?

Above is Don Draper’s open letter to the New York Times…

Death defying copywriting.  Classic “He didn’t dump me; I dumped him,” getting your retaliation in first copywriting. Agency copywriting at its most audacious, it’s boldest and brilliant best.

Don……. we have ignition.

Steffan Postaer and his contributors sum up the episode insightfully on his Gods of Advertising blog. Check out Jon Steinberg’s post too plus loads of comment and geeky analysis over at the Guardian season 4, episode 12 page.

How good?

From copywriting slogans to Google Adwords to SEO services, freelance copywriting takes on all shapes and sizes and locations.

Based in Manchester, copywriting services tend to be focused either in the North West, Cheltenham (where I’m originally from) or London (copywriting often offering a ‘remote option). It’s not just UK copywriting projects that I get involved in though. Here’s a link to www.nordicmusicexport.com/ – It’s just gone up on line. Time and/or inclination willing, take a look. It’s a beaut.  Over the last year it’s stood out as one of my favourite pieces of copywriting.

London digital music intelligence company Music Ally, commissioned me to write the report for the Nordic Music Export offices with the aim of identifying common export goals and ways in which a united effort could best help achieve them. The report is currently being reviewed by the Nordic Council.

As well as interviewing 22 of the top movers and shakers from across the region (if you need to record Skpye interviews check out G-recorder – it’s fab), I was fortunate enough to attend a two day meeting in Helsinki.  Discussing the project in detail with the export office directors in person was an absolute pleasure. Fabulous, fabulous people, one and all.

Here’s the conclusion of the conclusion

What is a great band or death-defying song writing if it isn’t alchemy? Isn’t art all about an indefinable chemistry that reveals unpredictable and inspirational emergent properties? Isn’t business on the other hand ALL about maximising the consequences of inspiration to the best financial effect, to your best advan­tage? It’s about turning creative capital into financial capital to perpetuate the artistic process – establishing a virtuous circle powered by inspiration and desire.

NOMEX has great potential to deliver on both creative and commercial counts. Taking the power of that disparate inspiration scattered throughout the boardrooms, bed­rooms, rehearsal rooms, studios, laptops and imaginations of music creatives all across Scandinavia and turning it into a powerful intra-national, international voice. A consolidat­ed banner that irresistibly proclaims – we are here, we are now, we are great – listen to us, love the music we make.

The iron is hot. Strike it.

Anna, Paulina, Inger, Anders, Thomas, Gunnar and Gunnar…. the best of British Nordic with it.

More power to NOMEX.

Copywriting for copywriting’s sake? Rarely. There’s usually some sort of motivation behind it. To inform perhaps, to entertain, to share, to kick up a stink and bait the audience into firing a few links in your direction perhaps.

What better way than by a ritual sacrifice? Last week SEO was dispatched in favour of SMO (social media optimisation) by Ben Elowitz whose SEO Is Dead, And The New King Is ‘SMO’ has gathered no less than 1848 Tweets and 809 Facebook shares at the time of writing.

“What is this Nimrod really after?” wrote Lyndon Antcliff on the Econsultancy article based on the Elowitz article and entitled SEO is dead – again, observing: “… if the intent of the article was to get a link from econsultancy.com accuracy in the argument is sometimes not the intent of the writer/publisher/blogger.”

Well he did get a link from Econsultancy. And Lyndon, simply for saying it like it is and especially for using the word ‘Nimrod‘ gets one from me. Who’s going to give me a link I wonder?

Manchester SEO folk were gathered in force last Friday for the first Manchester SEO mini-conference. Organised by Pete Young and sponsored by Manual Link Building and The E Word the event was held at the Hive on Lever Street. A top SEO gig with more than 150 Manchester SEO, copywriting, internet marketing and digital professionals showing up for a half day of juicy SEO insight and opinion.

Arriving fashionably late I managed to miss most of Nichola Stott's presentation. What I did see seemed to revolve around calculations relating to the Google UK search spend. Lot's of very big and very small numbers intercoursing - I think the answer was 42.

Press Releases and Google News

Next up was Barry Adams. Senior Internet Marketer for Search at Pierce Communications in Belfast. Barry gave a splendid heads up on the SEO benefits of Google's much overlooked Google News.

Two words of advice – 'Do It'. You've got 2 options....

One - Build your own hugely expensive and resource hungry news site. No thanks. As someone once almost said...'Life's too short to stuff a keyword.'

Two - Take the path of least resistance. Writing killer press releases and distribute them through the likes of PR Web and Business Wire. Don't mess about with the quality. Quality rules. If you need a hand I know just the Press Release ninja you should talk with.

As a star burst way of generating traffic Google News has got to be a given in any organisation's online marketing efforts. Sure you may only get a limited top end profile (3 days max was Barry's estimate) but what a blissful three days. Go for it.

See..... Press releases aren't just linkbait – they can rank in universal search too. Attacat Hannah covers the presentation in her Optimising for Google blog.

The Psychology of Link building

Kelvin Newman, Creative Director at SiteVisibility hit us with the brain stuff – A skip through the psychology of link building no less. As entertaining as it was thought provoking. That I'd used the Dan Pink TED talk and the candle problem in a recent piece of work made me feel very grown up indeed.

The take aways?

1. It's people who link, not websites

2. People do stuff cause they want to, not necessarily because you give them cash

3. Collaboration normally trumps competition

4. The words you use really, really matter. As a copywriter this one can't be emphasised enough.

5. Don't make inclusion contemptibly easy

6. We assume people will agree with us

7. People take different things from content

8. People naturally like to conform to the norm

Attacat Ben Rogers has posted his notes here.

As an aside. Kelvin referred to Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz for his SEO guruness. My question. Why does Rand always seem to take 7 minutes 35 seconds to say what would take most other people less than a minute? Am I missing something? I appreciate SEO is a canny old game but is the guy seriously thinking transcript? As someone in the SEO know perhaps you might be able to help me.

Onwards.

SEO Forecasting

Last on the bill was Neil Walker of SEO Mad and Just Search. Interesting stuff. He went through the leaked AOL data that showed the clickthrough ratios on top 10 search positioning and used this as the starting point to explain the timescale on ROI kerching machine that he's built.

About first page positioning...

• First place positioning wins over 40% of all search traffic.

• First place wins as many visitors as second to eighth place combined.

• You can multiply your opportunities to convert by a factor of 3.5 compared to second position and 14 compared to tenth.

• In the top 2 positions there is 23 times more traffic compared to positions 10-5

• Only one on ten searchers will look beyond the first ten search returns.

• Given the choice between a crap site at No 1 and a conversion optimised site at No 10 take the site at No 1 then hire in a great copywriter and UX/web design team to get it humming.

Cursed/blessed with an Excel fetish he'd crunched the client campaign numbers to work out conversion rates, traffic levels, when the cash will flow and how much.

Tie this in with some good looking graphics and you've got yourself a tidy deal closer. Check out Attacat Hannah's Forecasting for SEO blog post for more info.

Great session people. Thanks. Looking forward to SAScon 2011

Thanks for the photo Tathagata

I confess. Sometimes I can be a little slow off the mark. This time though I've surpassed myself. It's taken until the 4th series of Madmen for the penny to drop and for me to become hooked lined and sinkered by Don Draper and his super dapper fragile colleagues over at Sterling Cooper.

It's not just me who's addicted. It seems like half the known universe has fallen for the sharp suites, sharper tongues and Saharan dry humour of Madison Avenue's top copywriting aces.

“Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is OK. You are OK,“ purrs Draper. How could you not be seduced by this man?

Copywriting it's the new copywriting

I've had all kinds of Don groupies telling me recently how they'd like to 'get into advertising'. Friends mailing me from Finland, former colleagues dropping in, calls from those I'd presumed MIA. Me too!!! If 'getting into advertising' is a sassy and slick as portrayed on TV, make mine a double.... then we can discuss it over a long lunch.

Unfortunately though, the world of advertising as seen on screen doesn't really exist any more, if it ever truly did. Surely Madmen is just a window on an largely imaginary or wholly vanished world. It is a TV show remember?

Just like when people talk about the 'summer of love' or 'punk'. Brief moments, experienced by relatively few and exploded into legend. It's the retelling of a myth over time, the evolution of a narrative that creates the significance.

Classic copywriting

That's not to say that much of the knowledge and many of the skills used in the 60's and before don't apply any longer. If anything those core copywriting abilities are needed now more than ever.

Just take a look at Info Marketing Blog for hundreds of examples and case studies from the original copywriting greats.

With so many advertising opportunities and so many messages that need to be shared these days, the skills of written persuasion are in even greater demand - SEO copywriting, website copywriting, email copywriting, PPC adwriting, blog copywriting.... you name it.

How do you create a headline that grabs people's attention and draws them to read your body copy? How can you express your 'promise' persuasively. What about the call to action? How can you craft your copy into utterly irresistible words? These are serious questions. Copywriting matters.

Key copywriting skills, timeless copywriting skills.

Sterling Cooper seems to do it effortlessly - the script's not shabby either.

Don?.... I... I.....ummm...I.......ummm......ummmm.... I...no..it's...it's... ok.....

P.S. Talking of advertising copywriters, check out this 1984  'Write If You Want Work' ad from J. Walter Thompson. What a great challenge. The discussion's hot too.

Wot no reference to copywriter king David Ogilvy? No Joseph Sugarman quote or Andy Maslen reference? Not even any Copywriter Manchester SEO keyword inspiration? No, not this week. This is a PPC tale – pre professional copywriting.

Fundays

I used to be heavily involved in music promotion – anti-folk, alt country, experimental electronica, anything interesting and original. On the whole all a bit left field, a bit DIY, a bit Calmer* and proudly so. It was a great place to be and I got to hang out with and become good friends with some wonderfully original, innovative and hugely talented people. As well as good ears I had good judgement and despite being endlessly hassled by some artists for a show, if I didn't like them or didn't feel they were right I didn't put them on.

Except for one notable occasion

I shan't name names as the experience was doubtless as difficult for him as it was for me, but once and only once I disrespected my principles, my audience and my reputation by putting on someone I really, deep down, knew I shouldn't. For some strange reason, maybe because I'd known him for a while, I'd felt embarrassed to keep saying 'no'. I justified my 'yes' by convincing myself I was doing a good turn and anyway, he'd pull a good crowd.

The bleed

As it happened he didn't pull a good crown at all. Unless a guest list of a dozen in a micro venue is considered good. What's more his songs and his performance stank the place out. That's not the worst of it. I was already feeling pretty upset, sulking and skulking around at the door when I heard my guest introduce a new song as follows:

“Sometimes when you're feeling a bit down, a bit blue, when you feel the world's got it in for you...what can you do to cheer yourself up? Here's what I do..... I buy a new car!”

A part of me died. What had I done?

This is what I'd done. I'd put a smug, saturated muso who lived in a comfortable world of skiing holidays, 4x4s and old family money in front of an audience of dreamer experimentalists, students of raw emotion and commercial suicide; believers in belief. Black had met white. Oil had met water. George Osbourne had met Donnie Darko and I felt sick. I even feel sick writing this now. "I buy a new car!!"  Jesus.

Of course people were too polite to tell me to my face that I'd messed up. They normally are.

Is there a moral of this tale that can be translated into a copywriting context?

Sure.

Know your audience. Know your content. Align as appropriate or diminish.