Is it the words? Is it the ability to churn out Copy in a matter of hours? Actually, it's neither of those... There are several things that make a Copywriter more than just a Copywriter. 1) Persuasion - You need to do more than sell, you need to persuade people. Why on Earth do the people visiting that site NEED what's being sold. It's not optional, this product is a life changer and they NEED IT! 2) Psychology - You have to find out what emotional triggers cause people to cave and to buy something. Sure, sheer curiosity might get some sales, but tapping into emotional triggers and finding out what causes people to purchase a particular product will go much further than replying on dumb luck to get people to buy things. 3) Value - What value is the product or service adding to the lives of the people who are purchasing it? A lot of people think that a Copywriter is just someone who tries to sell you crap and writes random gibberish in the process. What a Copywriter actually does is far more in-depth than that. Copy doesn't just sell, great copy persuades and hooks. Your words have to flow like a river without a damn in the middle of it. Is Copy always 100% honest? Hell no... Despite what the 'geniuses' and I use that term very loosely at the Warrior Forum will tell you, great Copy is never 100% honest. Results are often exaggerated because that's what people want to hear. People don't want to hear what 'typical' results are like, they want to think that they'll achieve the most possible out of a product or a service. Does that mean a great Copywriter lies? No, absolutely not... a great Copywriter raises the expectations of the customers before they buy the product. It's not a lie to say you could make 50 Billion dollars in a month with a particular make money online product, but it's definitely not typical or something you should expect to happen. So a great Copywriter doesn't just write, they move, persuade and exaggerate the truth. Just remember: Companies don't care how much money YOU are making out of a Copywriting deal. They want to know what value you can bring to their customers and how much they're going to make.
Good thread but have a care with going too far with #2. The average consumer today is quite sophisticated and shop savvy compared to even 10 short years ago. If they feel you're trying to get them to buy snake oil it could backfire on you.
I question your comment that all copy is dishonest. I strongly urge my clients to be extremely careful with exaggerations. If customers discover the lie, they are going to take their business elsewhere. With most things, it's simply too easy to uncover the truth. Every business or product has something that makes it unique from the competition. It could be price. It could be color choices. Or, it could be any of a number of things. It's part of our job as copywriters to find it without having to resort to exaggerations or outright fraud.
that's a good one. First time i've ever heard that one. But I'm working on becoming a great copywriter. This gave me some insight... I see I still have a ways to go but I'm sure it will be worth the journey
Like that. Good post. never really got into copywriting but its something that im going to spend a lot of hours on soon enough
Good thread there: Accomplishing a ‘sales-bringing copy’ no doubt makes a copywriter successful. But honesty in writing makes him/her GREAT COPYWRITER. And great one seldom indulges in trickery and exaggeration IMHO.... How brilliantly you've put? If the product is worthless, a copy with falsehoods and hype cant help sell it!
I agree with YMC and Live2Write, A Good Copy-writing can help sell a medium level product to buyers but any poor product can never be sold with even excellent copy-writing. It is the product that people will be using and their reviews will help sell that product in long run than anything else.
Tapping into psychology isn't necessarily stretching the truth, though. Psychology can be something simple like, "I like chocolate cake and that piece looks delicious, so therefore I will at least consider buying this cookbook."
What makes a copywriter great? I honestly think this is easy to answer. My copywriting teacher/mentor, who in 40 years won any number of top advertising awards used to be relatively scathing about such things. The reason is that advertising gongs tend to be handed out for cleverness of wording and all manner of aesthetic considerations. He'd point out that little or more likely no thought at all was given to how much product the advertisement shifted. It seems to me that a great copywriter would be one who could practically name his own price due to his or her success in doing what I mentioned in the previous paragraph: shifting product.