TOP 10 TIPS FOR WRITING BETTER COPY:

As I have told you before. I am no copy writer, I am a creative, which focus on both sides, but my focus is art direction.

So now you are probably thinking, why should I listen to a student that’s foreign and not a copywriter?

Well I’ll tell you why.
I do like to write copy, a lot, it’s just not my main focus.

And this is not me teaching you how to write, I am just passing on what I learned and read throughout time.

Which includes advice from the great Steve Harrison. Interested now? Maybe this is common sense for some, maybe it’s new knowledge.

anyhow, if you are still reading, here are what I consider the 10 best tips that I learned so far.

1. First things first. Don’t expect to write a brilliant headline or a body copy that makes everyone spend 5 minutes looking at your poster in the first try. First drafts are bad, mostly, that’s just the way it is.

Re-write it, then re-write it again. Try to cut your 200 word copy down to 100 words. Maybe it won’t make sense, but at least you know what amount of words you can get rid of.

2. Do your research — Get to know the customer you are writing too. If you don’t know how they think and feel, what problems they are going through.
Then how are you going to write something that interests them.

3. Be simple minded. Stick to one benefit, putting in 3 benefits of your product only confuses the reader.

4. Tell the reader what your are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.

5. Win your reader over with empathy, then give them the facts. Have them stuck in the line, so that they don’t want to stop reading when you are serving them the cold facts.

6. Talk to reader, they are the hero of your copy. An example is Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address, he didn’t use ‘I’ once, instead he said, you, we, our.

7. Studies show that the ideal sentence is 14-16 words. It may sound short, and sometimes you need more, but try to get it as close to that as possible. 20-25 are okay, but over 40 words loses the reader.

8. Think about what the one thing you want people to know about the brand is. And then write it in a paragraph or a few sentences.

9. Deconstruct what you just written.
There may be a gold nugget in there somewhere.

10. Think about these things when you are writing. – Is it interesting?
– Will people care about what you just written?
– Is it relevant?

So you reached the end. Excellent. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe even learned a thing or two along the way.

Until next time.