What’s the big deal about copywriting? There’s so much writing out there in every shape and form on every topic and field, and everyone is writing and publishing copy all the time these days. Why don’t we just let people get on with it? Well, the enormous volume of self-published, unedited writing is the very reason why the skills and techniques of copywriting are more essential than ever before. A friend of mine recently described the situation as “we’ve all got high-school Math but we wouldn’t do the company accounts, so just because we’ve got high-school English why do we think we can write great copy?”
Since publishing the first edition of this textbook I have spent a few years presenting the key points, lecturing to students, and running seminars for businesses. I’ve had feedback from around the world, and this is typical of the fantastically random feedback I receive:
A few weeks ago I found Your book “Copywriting. Successful writing for design, advertising and marketing” in Lithuanian book store. I think it’s very interesting and really practical to use in different cases. Would like to thank You for this treasure and ensure it will accompany me in the way I am struggling with the words.
I am a student of Vilnius University, Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Lithuania. Studying marketing and commerce management for master degree. Your book is a good guide for preparing various tasks and helpful source of original ideas. I believe it would be a perfect tool for students of design, advertising, marketing, public relations and even philology. In my opinion it would be worth to translate it to my native language and let Lithuanians improve their skills in writing, editing, and creating presentations. (sic)
We’ve not translated into Lithuanian just yet, but we launched the Chinese edition earlier this year, and it’s very exciting to feel that the skills and techniques I’ve developed over the course of my career are valued internationally. This is not because of vanity but because the world of branding and messaging is becoming unified, and is increasingly seen as a mature and essential element in normal business practice.
I run a brand and design agency called Liquid Agency Europe and we spend most of our time responding to challenges related to brand management and messaging. Graphic design will always be at the core of branding, but it is increasingly about staying within the brand guidelines. Where in the recent past impact and differentiation could be achieved through pure design thinking, these days it is the way an organization creates and manages its content that is the real unique proposition in the marketplace.
At the heart of everything in this book, and also in the way Liquid Agency practices brand management for global clients, are the values that are behind the brand. A brand is described in various ways as “anyone’s experience of you,” “someone’s gut instinct about your organization,” or “what people say about you when you leave the room.” One thing is for sure, your brand is not simply your logo. Your brand is the promise that your business makes to its target audiences, and that promise has to be delivered accurately if you are to build long-term relationships with your customers, suppliers, and employees. Increasingly, businesses are being designed from the point of view of the customer experience, with every point of contact being shaped to suit their requirements.
Understanding your own brand takes a bit of thought, and as a copywriter you will do well to follow these processes to identify the qualities within your business that make you who you are, and which you will be promising to your audiences. These qualities are formed from the values within the business. Values are the bedrock of any organization, and are made up of attitudes and beliefs. When you take a copy brief, you will be picking up all sorts of insights into the attitudes and beliefs within an organization. Keep a clear note of these, and build a picture of the values that you are drawing out. Present these back to your client to double-check them, as these will form the foundation of your messaging.
Messaging is the phrase that is being used increasingly to describe the way a business writes. The tools within messaging are typically a slogan or tagline, a word bank of commonly used phrases, a list of core messages that you wish to reinforce consistently, and a tone-of-voice guide, which gives examples of the style of writing that reflects the values in the organization. If you’re writing for business, you should start to familiarize yourself with these tools, as they are where the future of branding lies.
Branding is part of every business, no matter how big or how small, and you can play a crucial role in the success of an enterprise by helping it to use effective communication to build bridges and develop profitable relationships with its audiences. Digital messaging is all about creating bite-sized pieces of information that engage and direct the reader. Formats are increasingly diverse, with many new digital channels now in the mix. Customers pick up marketing messages on TV, in the press, and from billboards as much as they ever did, and these are supplemented by websites, social media sites, Twitter accounts, cell-phone messaging, media screens in public places, and just about every place we go. These messages need to be managed well to ensure that the same benefits and calls to action are communicated clearly and consistently throughout all of these touchpoints.
We need copywriters to do the best job of this communication. Too often these projects are left to managers who may know the product inside out but rarely know how to prioritize a message, shape it for a target audience, and instill the values of the organization into the text. Copywriting is content design, and requires all of the design thinking that goes into any other creative aspect of a business. I am hoping that readers of this new edition will feed back their thoughts and experiences to me, and that we can build a network of new writers who can take on this challenge and show the world that great writing is the route to great business!
Mark Shaw
