[The Art of Copywriting] Creating Something New Out of Something Old

Whether you're writing copy for your own company or are freelancing for a variety of clients, chances are you're going to be writing about topics that have been written about hundreds of times before. The best copywriters will have mastered the art of creating something new out of something old. But everyone struggles with this sometimes.

I have one possibly unique idea for the rookie copywriters who have come to this forum looking for guidance on how to best tackle a writing job. But I also invite all the pros to please add your advice into the comments below. We can all help each other. We can all learn from each other.

Okay, now for my somewhat peculiar idea...

Come up with a title for your topic that includes the words "3 Tips" or "4 Ideas" or something like that so you have a goal as to how many tips or ideas you're going to cover in your marketing piece. Now pull out your dictionary (must be a physical dictionary), close your eyes, open it up to a random page, put your finger on a random spot on that page, then open your eyes and find the random word that you will use for your first tip/idea. Do this for as many tips/ideas as you have decided to write about so you have the same amount of random words to work with.

Now write to those words. Figure out a way to make them fit into your topic matter in a new and creative way. You can do it. You may surprise yourself.

Anyone else? Any additional tips on how to turn something old into something new?

 

You know, I actually really like that random dictionary idea. Granted you might have to flip through the dictionary a few different times to find relevant words for your given topic (since good blogs have to have a focus, even if it is kind of broad) but I like the challenge of trying to relate things you find back to your topic.

I do a lot of product descriptions since I work in eCommerce, so a lot of my copywriting still has to relate to a specific product or business type, but I've gotten a lot of ideas from seeing how people interact with other similar products and trying to solve similar problems. Take a look at forums, browse social media, and see if your product can solve any specific problems people are having. You'd be surprised at how many ideas you can get from this.

 

The major effort for successful copywriting that Michael Masterson taught me is to find the benefit that's hidden deep beneath the apparent benefit.

For instance when writing copy about a sports car and targeting a middle aged male the apparent benefit to write about is that the car will help him live his second childhood. The deeper hidden benefits are that the car will get him younger ladies to keep him company, and the car will make him feel how youthful & virile he still is.

 

No. You're missing the point. The idea is to NOT flip through to try to find "relevant" words you're familiar with but to stick with that first random word, get creative with it, and figure out a new way to make it relevant to your topic.

That's called true creativity. And that's how you can truly spin something old into something new that no one else ever thought of before.

 

Thank you for this post. Most useful

royal1688

 

I mentioned in my earlier post reply to you that the idea is to NOT flip through to try to find "relevant" words you're familiar with but to stick with that first random word, get creative with it, and figure out a new way to make it relevant to your topic. Since there hasn't been much activity on this thread, I thought I'd better provide an example of what I'm talking about.

Let's say the topic I have to write about is "How to Improve Your Blog's SEO Using Social Media Marketing" but I want to try something new rather than just re-writing the standard type of article for this topic. So, I choose a random word to get my creative juices flowing. For the purpose of this forum, I used an online random word generator (https://www.slideshare.net/secret/BCkZEP1DQHPyuS) rather than a dictionary so I could prove to you my word choice was random. It wouldn't let me choose only one word. It had to be two or more. The words are "wizard" and "horses." And here is the article that resulted from those two words:

How to Improve Your Blog's SEO Using Social Media Marketing, Wizards, and Horses

Anyone with a blog knows the primary reason why blogging is so important is search engine optimization (SEO), which means to improve (optimize) one's standing in the organic search results on search engines like Google. You might have a fairly high search engine ranking for one or two of your primary keywords, such as your business and personal name. Blogging can help to improve your ranking for many more including some keywords you may not have considered before that will open you up to a whole new audience.

Who are you blogging for? What target market are you trying to reach? Adults or children? Male or female? What sorts of information are these individuals looking for online, other than your typical keywords, that you could intercept to bring them over to your blog?

For example, a blog that provides help, tips, and support regarding adoption can piggyback on a really prominent, instantly recognizable keyword anywhere in the world such as “Marilyn Monroe” to attract an even larger audience. Maybe the title of that particular blog entry could be: Why Marilyn Monroe Became One of the Most Successful Orphans in North America.

What about if you're writing a blog for children and their parents about Internet safety? Do these children love Disney? Perhaps The Wizard of Oz? Horses and ponies? Start blogging about these things to attract additional subscribers: There's No Place Like Home: Internet Safety Tips from The Wizard Oz and Not All Horses are Your Friend: Beware The Online Trojan Horse. Adding cartoon graphics of these images to your blog will make each post even more attractive.

Now your blog entries are written. Where do you share them? That's easy. Find out which social media sites your target market is using the most and share those blog entries there. Facebook and Twitter are safe bets for your adult readers. But what about the children? Why not try out these: Safe Chat Rooms and Social Sites for Kids.

The more creative your blog, the more readers it will appeal to. Step outside the norm. Think outside the box. That's how to improve your blog's SEO using social media marketing, wizards, and horses ... and maybe even movie stars! ​

How is that? Make sense? By choosing those two random words, I came up with a unique idea for this blog post that I may not have thought of before.

Anyone else want to try this using the same topic "How to Improve Your Blog's SEO Using Social Media Marketing" but writing a completely different article for it?

 

That's a great example Best Seller. It hadn't dawned on me before I read it, but that actually looks like it's a fun exercise. Next time I write copy I'll give it a shot.
I can also see where the technique can be used outside of copywriting too - because while I read it I got a couple ideas for children's books that I'm adding to my writing ideas list for future attention.

 

I'd love to see some other people try it on here. Pick out a random word and then write a completely different version of the same article: How to Improve Your Blog's SEO Using Social Media Marketing and ?

 

This is the perfect strategy that revoke me to try something new.my mind was stucked and stopped thinking out side the box. Ur post gave me route that make sense. Thanks mate. Will try this things.

 

Hi guys! Thanks for these brilliant ideas!

As a copywriter, sometimes I have daunting tasks such as writing 20+ texts on the same topic. Or when your client asks you to write a large number of articles for some niche (e.g. travelling or fashion) without giving you some topics.

So I have some tricks for such situation. First of all, I research using tools like Buzzsumo and blog topic generators. Then I delve into social media, check Facebook, Twitter to have an idea of what is trending on my topic. Besides, I never neglect on using such awesome community as Quora https://www.quora.com - and sometimes, I even ask there questions to get ideas on what to write next. Power Thesaurus helps me to change some repetitive words to their most appropriate synonyms (it also increases the originality of the text). Before sending my copy to the client, I make a quick plagiarism check using Unplag https://unplag.com - just to be sure that the quality of my work is as good as possible, because clients often check it on their own.

Hope, my techniques will help someone improve their texts

 

I tried this exercise, and it was pretty fun.

How about this... rather than me just pasting what I already wrote, to this forum, perhaps someone here could make it a bit more challenging, and pick a word for me? (that way you can be sure I didn't just pick an easy one)

The only thing I ask is that it's an English word (sorry, I only write in English)

It might be a few days before I can get to it, but if someone gives me a word... I'll give it a shot.

 

The word is *possessiveness*, let's see what you can do with that.

 

Challenge accepted. Don't have any clue how to make it work, at the moment. But I'll give it some thought in my down time, over the next few days. And we'll see what I come up with?

 

OK. That didn't take as long as I thought it would.

Keep in mind, I wrote it quickly, (and it was just for fun) so try not to judge it to harshly please.

Also, I didn't go back to edit it. So any typos or grammar errors you find, are yours to keep (free of charge ). Unless you send me a helpful note pointing out all my errors, in which case I'll have to charge you double for them

So, here we go. Using the word "possessiveness"...


How to Improve Your Blog's SEO Using Social Media Marketing and "possessiveness"

There's no doubt about it; When it comes to improving your blogs SEO, social media can play a huge role. Search engines love to see social media signals, indicating that your blog is useful, and popular among the social media crowd.

But, behind the scenes of those social media signals is what search engines refer to as the "possessiveness" algorithm.

For us to truly understand this "possessiveness" algorithm, we first need to dissect the word possessiveness.

Broken into it's core meaning we have "possessive" (basically meaning the desire to own, or control) and "ness" (meaning the state of) in this case, the state of being possessive.

The "possessiveness" algorithm is based on sociology studies, showing that when someone visits your blog, and likes what they find, they begin to "own" the knowledge gained from your blog post.

These small traces of knowledge stay with that person, and it influences what they share on social media.
The search engines pick up on the social share, trace it back to the original source, and your blogs SEO skyrockets in the search engine listings.

When fully understood, you can use the "possessiveness" algorithm to your advantage. And bring your blog to the level of "world class."

In fact, this is quite possibly the greatest method for increasing your blogs SEO since the invention of the internet.

Many books will likely never be written on the "possessiveness" algorithm.
But one thing is certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt... 100% of everyone reading this post; is now aware of the "possessiveness" algorithm. Even though I just made it up 10 minutes ago. (can you see how fast this technology moves?)

I could go on for days, making up stories, and statistics, about how you can improve your blog's SEO, using social media marketing and the "possessiveness" algorithm. But the only way for you to truly understand how powerful this technology is for your blog, is for you to start using it yourself.

So, from now on; whenever you write a blog post, always think about how you can make your readers want to "own" the knowledge. And then you too can improve your blog's SEO, using social media marketing and the "possessiveness" algorithm.

 

It's o.k. but not great. I can only score you a 6 out of 10. It very much appears that you had a pre written piece in which you simply inserted the word. You began with an explanation of the word which you got from Google. Anyone could have done this in 10 minutes.

Nothing unique or inspiring here, better luck next time

 

Nope, no pre-written piece. Just made it up on the fly. And since I wasn't getting paid for it, I only went with about 2 minutes of research to find out what the word meant.

It was really just for fun, So I'll take the score of 6 and be OK with it.

 

Woah, that is really quite 'peculiar', but exciting!

As a copywriter, I create something new out of something old by using new and old experiences. These don't necessarily mean in words. It can be through videos, or any learning material I can get information from. Well, that's a broader (and much better) way to do it right?

Thanks for sharing!