Skills You Will Need
There are a lot of myths about what it takes to be a copywriter. Some say it requires a way with words that rivals Hemingway. Others insist that you need the marketing savvy of a Madison Avenue superstar. Still others claim that it takes a creative genus who can dream up catchy slogans and tantalizing headlines at the drop of a hat — the writing equivalent of Picasso.
Becoming an effective copywriter isn't that much of a rarity. Of course, you do need some talent for using words and how to convey a message effectively to a target audience.
But much of what you need to know — the techniques, formats, skills, best practices — can be learned. Even a rocket scientist, at some point in his or her career, couldn't tell the difference between propulsion fuel and a cooling tank.
Copywriters are not journalists. Nor are they creative writers. Although they possess many of the same skills required of those professionals, copywriters are primarily business people who work closely with clients and other members of a project team to produce a promotional piece that fulfills a strategic objective.
Consequently, copywriters need many of the same capabilities that any businessperson needs: interpersonal, organizational, presentation, and strategic thinking skills.
Although copywriters are part of a team — designers, illustrators, strategists, production coordinators — they often work in solitude, even when working within an agency or company. This makes it challenging to coordinate efforts with others. Consequently, copywriters need to be self-motivated and work well independently with little direction.
Passion for Information
Like a tireless journalist, a good copywriter will be relentless in her pursuit of the facts. She won't quit until she understands the product or service she is writing about completely and the target audience she is trying to persuade.
The most successful salespeople know their products, customers, and competitors inside and out. They can identify and articulate how their product solves an important problem or satisfies a chief need or desire of the customer in a way that is distinctive from or superior to the competition. That is also the key to writing persuasive copy: knowing the target market's hot buttons and how to push them with words.
A copywriter will dig through all the background information, read all the boring stuff — the technical documentation, the memos, the product development presentations — and do additional research. She will also study the competition and look for opportunities to say things that they aren't saying to gain an advantage.
In the late 1960s, a talented copywriter at BBDO — the ad agency at the time for Wisk detergent — noticed that no other detergent was saying anything about that nasty grime that builds up on shirt collars. The subsequent “ring around the collar” ad campaign became one of the most successful in history. This is a great example of saying what the competition isn't saying.
Also like a journalist, copywriters must be great interviewers. They need to be able to ask the right questions, in the right way, to pull out all the salient facts. That's because the background information provided on a product or target audience doesn't always tell the full story.
Ability to Write Well
This skill may seem like a no-brainer. But it's amazing how many people think that mastery of the written word is not all that important in copywriting. That, of course, is nonsense.
In the absence of language know-how, imitators are rarely able to adapt and expand their skills to suit different products, markets, and media. Consequently, their copy tends to be not only stale and unoriginal, but also irrelevant and unclear. Copy that doesn't relate and doesn't make sense to prospects falls flat.
People who don't know the first thing about composition, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, literary devices, and other mechanics of language can sometimes mimic certain copywriting techniques. But the end result is usually formulaic.
In fact, one of the challenges of writing copy is to convey the key messages in a clear, concise manner. The biggest mistake that copywriters make — and it's astonishing how often they make it — is to focus on being clever to the detriment of clarity.
Think about it. How many brochures or Web sites have you read where there is no clear idea of what's in it for you? As advertising legend David Ogilvy once said, “If it doesn't sell, it's not creative.”
As a copywriter, words are your bricks and mortar. How skillfully you put them together in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs will determine the strength of the persuasive case you are building. If your writing is weak, your promotional piece will fall down like a house of cards, regardless of how compelling the messages are. But if your writing is strong, your promotion has a much greater chance of standing up to the scrutiny of even the most skeptical prospect.
Creative Intelligence
Ask 100 people what creativity is and you'll probably get 100 different definitions. Ask 100 copywriting pros whether creativity is essential to great copy, and you'll probably get an even mix of “yes,” “no,” “usually,” and “sometimes” answers. Yet if those same people were asked to point out the most creative copy in a lineup of several comparable examples, the majority would likely pick the same piece.
Though hard to define, creativity is easy to recognize. When you see it, or read it, you immediately know it. And deep in their hearts, everyone with something to promote or sell wants creative copy. What they don't always recognize, though, is the difference between creative copy that titillates and creative copy that motivates. And if copy doesn't trigger the right response, it doesn't matter how exciting it is.
Writing copy that is both unique and useful requires creative intelligence — the ability to come up with innovative solutions to practical problems.
People who possess a high degree of creative intelligence typically:
Think both creatively and strategically
Easily draw analogies, associations, and connections between ideas and things
Recognize the differences and similarities between related and unrelated ideas and things
Have broad attention spans and can process multiple thoughts simultaneously
Mentally collate, organize, and assimilate vast amounts of information
Adeptly process divergent thoughts and converge them into a single unique concept
Focus on the process and on solving problems rather than just trying to impress
Are curious, investigative, reflective, and examine things from several angles
Have self-confidence, pride in their work, and a desire to excel
Are self-motivated, self-directed, and dedicated, willing, and able to put concentrated effort and considerable energy into their work
Are flexible — open to ambiguity, experimentation, new ideas, risk, and external evaluation
Are independent spirits and freethinkers — unrestrained by convention
With copywriters, creative intelligence manifests itself linguistically — in using words creatively for a practical purpose.
Savvy Salesmanship
Copywriting is selling. When you think about selling skills, forget everything you've learned from those pesky telemarketing calls you receive at dinnertime or those hard-driving used-car salespeople. Hype and pressure have nothing to do with genuine selling.
Selling is all about empathizing with the prospect, clearly understanding his problems, needs, and desires, and positioning your product or service to address those issues. It's also about encouraging people to try the product or service, and giving them sound reasons to do so.
The most important selling skill you can cultivate as a copywriter is the ability to walk a mile in the prospect's shoes. Indeed, empathy is the master skill of successful selling. You need to develop a real sense of the prospect's problems, needs, and desires.
One of the biggest blunders that beginners make is coming on too strong in their copy. They mistakenly think they have to twist the prospect's arm and get him to sign on the dotted line.
But remember, you're not in a room alone with the prospect. He's not sitting across your desk squirming for an opportunity to get up and walk away. Instead, he's reading your ad, listening to your radio commercial, or viewing your Web site. He can walk away anytime.
That's why the key to selling on paper (and on screen) is authenticity. You have to be truthful, genuine, trustworthy, and have information that is truly meaningful and impactful to the prospect.
Computer Skills
Computer skills are among the most practical skills that every copywriter must master. You won't get very far — even if you're writing copy for yourself or your own business — if you don't know how to use a computer.
Today, all working copywriters need to be computer literate and Internet savvy. At a minimum, you must know how to use word processing software (such as Microsoft Word), how to send and receive e-mail, and how to search the Web for research purposes.
Most copywriters will also need to have at least some familiarity with the following applications software:
Page layout programs, such as Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign
Presentation packages, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Persuasion, and Corel Presentations
Electronic portfolios for storing, organizing, and displaying your work samples
Web authoring and editing tools for creating and converting text to HTML, XML, JavaScript
Document sharing programs, such as Adobe Acrobat (Adobe PDF — Portable Document Format — is the standard for sharing and reviewing design concepts)
If you plan to make copywriting your career, then typing skills are also very important. Hunting and pecking letters on the keyboard with just one or two fingers will severely reduce your productivity, no matter how proficient you get at it. Fortunately, there are many software programs that can teach you to type well in just a few weeks.
