Divine Write Copywriting Forum

Saving Time and Targeting Choices.

Dometimes the most difficult part of copywriting is getting underway. There are a number of reasons for this. Here are five simple points to help you get underway.

1 It's Not Brain Surgery

Sure we want to improve on the blank page, but we don't want to get trapped by the Nobel Prize syndrome. Get something down as a basis to work on. Sketch your ideas out in words. Start with a headline and end with a call to action. It doesn't matter if the first attempt is pretty shabby, just get it down.

2 Visualize Your Audience

Even if your product/service is generic and can be used in every building or every household, picture a particular person that you are writing for and imagine how you can satisfy their needs. Write from the point of view that what you are offering will excite your audience and satisfy a need. Take your audience on an imaginary journey. Show them how you will change their lives!

3 Be Positive, Honest and Clear.

Make your statements in clear, open statements which clearly show the benefits of what is on offer.

4 The Devil is In the Detail

Re-write, edit and re-write again. Shrink it down. Use simple words and concepts amd make sure that what you are claiming is true, honest and achievable.

5 Under Promise and Over Achieve.

Make sure your call to action reflects a promise which is attractive and realisable. Stay within the realms of what is easily possible. Review your final effort with a view to a consistent, positive statement made in simple terms.

Now go -- write some powerful copy!

PS Thanks for corrections. JH

Your step 4 is so right, editing is the key! I find myself doing that when I read anything, I always come from an editor's point of view, just as I did reading your post:

"Make sure your call to action reflects a promise which is attractive and realisable. Stay withing the realms of what is easily possible."

I enjoyed reading your steps and learned something new! I will take them to heart and apply them to my next copywriting task. Thank you!

Thanks for this - I'm starting a new project and it always takes me forever to get going. I'm going to dive in and worry about the "details" in draft 2...or 3?

You guys are confirming something I learned in uni from a book called "Problem Solving Strategies for Writing" by Linda Flower.

She said rather than get stuck trying to find exactly the right word, "satisfice" and come back to it later. Just keep your momentum up. "Satisfice" is a combination of "sacrifice" and "satisfy". Maybe highlight the word in yellow so you remember to return?