As we’re working in an electronic format our best form of reward for the reader is information. This can take the form of:

• Advice: tips, tricks and expertise
• News: announcements, comment and analysis
• New media: entertaining video, music and animation
• Special offers: voucher codes, exclusives

We’re going to concentrate on advice because it’s free author-generated content that doesn’t incur any direct production cost or impact on sales margins.

Advice is a great way to add value to a blog post. Often appearing under the guise of “How to…” or “5 quick ways to…” it’s a chance to position yourself (the writer) as an expert authority in the mind of the reader. So in the long-term you spring to mind as the first port of call for help on the subject matter at hand.

How to keep a reader interested in three easy steps

At the risk of giving a lesson on copywriting (and doing myself out of a job), your written style can benefit from a few common rules.

Empathise with a reader’s problem, in their terms

People are trapped in their own bubble inflated with dilemmas, problems and challenges. So you can burst them out with solutions to their problems or stories about people in similar circumstances.

You must deliver on a promise

If you write a “How to…” style article, you must fulfill that with an explanation of a process or a step-by-step guide. The alternative is a bemused reader, lured in by a provocative headline only to be left none the wiser and cheated out of their time.

Introduce one main concept or idea

Your reader is busy. Get straight to the point and don’t save your ‘big guns’ until the end. Introduce your central theme then talk around it. Sometimes it’s useful to follow a journalistic structure and summarise the main facts at a high-level before you explore it in full detail.

It doesn’t need to be long either. A typical blog article is between 300-500 words. When you consider that an average bulletin-style email with a few paragraphs is roughly 100 words long, it’s not much more effort to string together a rough article to be polished up and padded out later (by a talented editor).

7 ideas for writing interesting articles

To stimulate your ideas, here are some techniques used in articles that have caught my eye.

1. News is much more interesting if there’s comment and analysis to go along with it. Add your (perhaps controversial) opinion to a recent industry announcement and incite a little debate. The facts are already written for you, just re-purpose the story and add your own personal twist.
2. A “Did you know that…” style piece is a chance to challenge convention and accepted beliefs. It’s also a great way to extend your reach because people love to flaunt exclusive or unique information amongst their peers.
3. People care about what’s going on around them, in their locality or specific industry. It may be tempting to keep an article broad in its subject matter or geographic context but don’t be afraid to target a specific group and make content more relevant to them – people will choose what they want to read.
4. Reflection upon “something someone said to me” is a fantastic way to show you really care about a subject. Even to the point where it’s preoccupied your thoughts beyond the remit of your day job.
5. An eye-catching article with an off-the-wall topic will leap out from a page draped with bland corporate announcements. The weirder the better, as long as the underlying message makes a relevant point. Plus it makes writing headlines much easier.
6. Keep an eye out for frequent issues or common problems that your audience encounter. Then solve them for a guaranteed readership.
7. Psychology pieces indulge curiosity in our own behaviour and that of others around us. They’re thought-provoking and stay with a reader after they’ve finished reading (which is your nefarious goal).

And now the most important tip

Don’t be scared to add individuality and reveal your personality in an article.

Writing in passive voice (“It has been decided that…”) or corporate third-person (“Widgets Ltd believe that…”) destroys connection between reader and writer. Writing is about talking to people, just in another medium. So it’s OK to use “I, me, my” or “we, us, our” if you’re talking collectively about your organisation.

My favourite foolproof acid test is to read your article out aloud and ask yourself “would I talk to someone like this in real life?” If the answer’s no; get the red pen out.

6. Plan structure

There’s a clever way to do this with post-it notes: each one is an idea or concept you want to add. You then shuffle these around until you’ve got an order you’re happy with. I don’t own enough post-it notes so I tend to scribble and erase as I go along.

The structure becomes the reader’s journey through your narrative so your plan must be designed to guide them through it.

7. Draft

Put pencil to paper and just write. Even if you’re not proud of what comes out at first – ignore mistakes, just put a line through them and carry on copywriting in line with your outline plan (but don’t be afraid to veer away from it). Keep momentum up and quality will follow. Sometimes, I might type straight into a computer if I feel confident enough to confront that blinking accusatory cursor. That saves a bit of time transcribing from your handwritten scrawl.

My head tends to get hot with all that thinking so now’s a good time for a break.

8. Red pen

Read and dissect your copy with scientific precision, shuffle words and sentences around and refine it in line with your brief. Keep one eye on the bigger picture too, so there’s a logical journey and ideas flow coherently through your copy.

9. Re-draft

Edit your original draft with those red pen changes. New ones will occur to you while you’re writing so accomodate those too. Read it through a few times (aloud at least once) until you feel comfortable with it. Try to avoid striving for perfection because it doesn’t exist, strive for excellence instead. You’ll know instinctively when it’s ready to show to the client – for me it’s a little voice that says “that’s enough for now Chris.”

10. Client review

Knowing how to present copy to the client is tricky. Sent as an email, it reads in isolation without your careful justifications for the creative decisions you’ve made. Present it face to face and your client won’t have time to read it properly and lament on the copy. I prefer the former, because if your copywriting does its job properly, it shouldn’t need a great deal of justification. Plus it depends on what works best for your client.

11. Re-draft

Depending upon how close you are to the bullseye, you’ll either have minor corrections or a ‘go back to step 7′. This is a good indication of how effective your planning and research was. If you put extra effort into clarifying your assumptions earlier, you’ll avoid more work later.

What’s your workflow?

Despite its orderly linear nature, mine isn’t meant to be prescriptive, it’s in constant change and evolution as it should be. So pick which bits work best for you and adapt to each job.

Times have changed.

As digital creatives, we work in an industry with new rules. We grow and improve through openness, sharing and collaboration. And when rules don’t exist we make them up as we go along, then we break them again.

So in the spirit of community and evolution of the copywriting art, I’ve decided to share my workflow: how I plan, write and develop copy for my clients.

It goes something like this

(Note something because no two projects are the same and every client’s different. Plus there’s nothing worse for strangling your creativity than following rigid rules.)

1. Chat

This is when the client approaches you, so listen carefully, ask lots of questions and take notes. Whether it’s copy for a sales leaflet, an email campaign or digital copy for a web site – lurking beneath their idea is a fundamental problem that needs to be solved and this is the chance to understand it.

Ideas and solutions are already bouncing around, but it’s prudent to put them aside for a moment and consider what’s the best way to fix things. Sometimes that might be copywriting with photography or no copy at all. I think of this as due diligence. You owe it to the client to choose the best tools for the job, otherwise you end up with a project you’ll struggle to deliver.

Time for a break. Let all that information and inspiration soak in.

2. Project brief

Your chance to check you’ve understood everything. Here’s how I describe it to my clients:

Keep it light (mine are always one page with five sections) to make sure your busy client reads it. It should cover the origin of the problem, what outcomes they want to achieve and who you’re writing for. Any references to the ‘how’ bit might feel pre-emptive, but assumptions you’ve already made about the solution are so important that it feels foolish to leave them out on principle.

3. Read & research

Time to see what the client’s incumbents are up to. Who does it best (and worst)? How do they speak to their customers? What can you improve on?

I recall Paul McCartney talking about how kids who learn too much classical piano find it hard to invent new tunes – there’s a lesson in there for every copywriter or creative. Absorb too much of what’s already been done and you’ll end up regurgitating it.

Don’t forget research into your target audience too. Use it to build up a mental picture of who you’re writing for, their world view and what motivates them.

This part is all about feeding your imagination in preparation for the next step.

4. Ideas, facts and angles

Brainstorming/knowledge jacuzzi – call it what you like. This is where you throw all your notes down on a spider diagram or a mindmap. There’s no order or priority to the ideas yet and not all of them get used, what’s important is that you form a plan of attack. That’s your angle.

Your angle forms the foundation of your copywriting structure. The skeleton around which you add your fleshy copy.

5. Ask important questions

• What are you trying to say to the reader?
• How do you want them to feel after they’ve read your copy?
• What should they know?

These fundamental questions are often overlooked so it pays to remind yourself of them midway through your workflow.

This also feels like a logical place to end part one. Before I do, I’d like to remind and warn (mainly myself) about analysis paralysis. It’s possible to overdo your workflow and end up entrenched in the science of copywriting, at the expense of art. I believe it’s a delicate mixture of the two. So you must strike a careful balance between logical thought and preparation for what remains a subtle form of expression and communication. Otherwise you end up with a process that’s too prescriptive, cumbersome and inflexible.

My client suggested this test after reading some of my more ambitious copy – a biographic description of their premises in Leeds. They’re based in a restored Victorian chapel, now converted into office space peppered with original period features. During my research for the copywriting, I’d perhaps absorbed a little too much inspiration which resulted in some flowery language and extended ecclesiastical metaphors.

Here’s an excerpt:

It really is difficult to imagine a coal-mining straight-talking Yorkshireman’s voice enunciating a fancy description like this and keeping a straight face. There’s a time and a place for eloquence, just not strewn in the midst of other plain English copywriting that’s crafted to cut straight to the point.

Here’s the second draft of the copy:

Mea culpa.

Froth & Fodder's sign

It’s simple, instructive without being obtrusive and has a clear outcome that conjures up a pleasant future union between the reader and the service on sale.

Here are two lazy errors that I often see when someone asks me to review and improve their copy:

• What is it you’re trying to say?
• How do you want the reader to feel after they’ve read your copy?
• What problem does this product solve?

That isn’t an exhaustive list of course, but they’re powerful cues for planning any convincing piece of copywriting.

When a copywriter should ask questions

If you’re a copywriter too, no doubt you’re ready to argue in favour of questions in your copy. And you’re right, there is a place for questions. But not open-ended generic ones that leave your copy open to a million obvious and sensible responses that the reader already has prepared.

Readers have good reasons why they shouldn’t part with their hard-earned cash or expose their personal details. That’s their default position when they begin reading your copy. So it’s our job as copywriters to respond to their objections with fair and honest pre-emptive counterstrikes. You do that with sincere empathy and stories of a brighter future that fulfil their existing desires.

Good questions to ask are ones which don’t interrupt the flow of your copy. Questions that are non-intrusive, rhetorical and enhance the conversational tone of your narrative. Take this example from some copy I wrote for my wedding photography page:

In the example, notice how the question is threaded into the goal of the copy. It’s a closed-question truism that’s based on a researched understanding of the reader’s problem. And it’s integral to showing empathy. It certainly isn’t a pointless catch-all that says “oh well, I couldn’t be bothered taking time to understand your situation so I’ll let you fill in the blanks instead.”

If you find yourself straying into “what better way to…” or “why not…” territory then stop. Because you probably haven’t put enough effort into the crucial analysis phase before you write your copy.

The most likely conceivable replies to any questions that you pose to readers should already be taken care of in your copywriting plan. Because these are the concerns, objections and characteristics of the people you should know intimately before you start writing your copy.

Topshop

I watched for a while as bemused shoppers walked warily towards the sign, read it and then tried to work out where “40-49 The Headrow” is in Leeds. Most people who live in Leeds know where the Headrow is – it’s a long shopping street that intersects the city. But who knows where number 40-49 is? I don’t and I’ve lived in Leeds for over twelve years now.

If I was their copywriter I’d have written something like “Where Burton used to be” or perhaps “Right of this sign, go straight up the hill”. Maybe we’d include a map or a photo instead of those superfluous plugs for their online store and social networks. Or how about no copy at all, just a human being stood outside with sweeties ready to show people the way.

As a result, I, like most of the other shoppers, just turned around and walked directly into H&M opposite to spend my money instead.

That’s what customers of Surf Circle really want. It’s not just family-friendly surfing holidays in Morocco, but the dream that every surfer clings onto as they wade through freezing-cold British coastal waters in search of perfect waves.

Empathy like that proves you understand a reader’s situation that’s why there’s plenty of it in the copy over at www.surfcircle.co.uk.

The copywriting is based on honest research into what it’s really like being a surfer with responsibilities. And I gained that with relentless and immersive questioning of Surf Circle’s founders David and Imad – both passionate surfers with families.

Surf Circle Morocco's home page

Together we devised a simple user journey through friendly web pages populated with copy that’s clear and easy to understand.

Features and benefits are deftly intertwined with outcome-driven copywriting throughout:

Inspiring desire for the surf dream drives every carefully-constructed sentence, like in the activity descriptions on the Surf Circle relax page:

The page I’m proudest of as freelance copywriter is the account described in a day with Surf Circle Morocco. It transplants the reader from their present into an appealing future holiday using extended metaphors that parallel their present. And the best thing is that it’s true – real experiences threaded into an embellished narrative.

Surf Circle is a shining example of content is king. I set up the website quickly using WordPress and skinned it with a theme from Elegant Themes then got on with the most important part. That’s populating it with engaging content through detailed planning and thoughtful copywriting. That reduced costs for Surf Circle and sped up the whole process of delivering a website.

Surf Circle Morocco's relax page

The humble pencil.

Always use protection when copywriting (photo by Pink Sherbet Photography)

I haven’t been into space yet, but writing’s a daily occurrence in my line of work as a freelance copywriter. And recently I’ve rediscovered just how natural and satisfying copywriting is when accompanied by an honourable cylinder of lead encased in a wooden jacket.

A relative thought it was a joke when I asked for some nice pencils for my birthday. I had to reassure her that I don’t have want of much these days. Just a few good books, spare hours for growing veggies and some space to indulge my copywriting whims.

To my elation she duly gifted a pack of pencils to acquaint myself with. And what a glorious reunion it’s been!

I’d forgotten just how effortless and fluid it is to write copy with a pencil. Even now as I draft this blog post its tip skates deftly across each contour of the page. Undulating gently over soft depressions and ascending nimbly out the other side.

There’s an unspoken joy shared between my hand the top of the pencil as its flattened edge accelerates pleasingly over smooth sections of paper. Letters liberate themselves gracefully and sentences stride confidently towards the spine of my moleskine.

My father, an English teacher and author, swears there’s an organic connection between the natural fluidity of writing with pencil and the velocity of thoughts as they cascade from your mind.

I believe him.

That’s because three hundred words just spilled fluently onto the page in a little under three mintes. And that sort of productivity makes me a very content copywriter.

So you type furiously in a frantic attempt to distract yourself. But even your keyboard’s in collusion. It’s rhythmic tapping marches you ever further from what your copy could’ve been.

You’re trying to write copy that appeals to everyone, instead of copy that’s appealing to a specific group of people. Because you’re frightened of scaring away all those other potential customers that you feel like you’re excluding.

It’s a losing battle between what’s right and what you think will pay the bills. And in evitable defeat you languish in lifeless, diluted copy that treats everyone like they’re the same.

As every successful business person (and pious copywriter) will preach: know your customer. Find out exactly who they are and what they want. Then give it to them.

Don’t be scared of specificity in copywriting

When you’re marketing your new service or product, it’s only natural to feel a bit nervous. Especially when it means restricting the number of people you’ll reach before you’ve even got any.

Cutting that number down feels like you’re reducing the amount of sales you’ll potentially win.

Well here’s a suggestion. Don’t think of it as restricting. Think of it as concentrating. You’re making a bold statement when you focus on a specific group of people. The subtext to your message becomes:

This isn’t a radical idea. Think about it. When you buy a premium product, you expect bespoke service. You don’t truly desire something when you know everyone else gets exactly the same treatment. People want to know they’re special. Part of a unique small group of people with exacting requirements.

Perhaps you’re anxious because don’t know enough about your customers yet. So going after everyone feels like a more successful strategy. Well think about it this way. It’s easier to know a few things about a few people than everything about everyone. The latter is impossible and doomed to failure.

If you’re still not convinced, a compelling side-effect of specificity is that you make your market research (and the copywriter’s) a lot quicker and more effective too.

But … what about everyone else?!

Don’t worry about all the other potential customers you might miss out on if you write for a specific group of people.

Your copywriting paints such a beautiful picture of life with your product that they’ll want a piece of the action too. This other potential customer has different needs, but if you’ve written really blistering copy, they’ll talk themselves into wanting it. All because your copywriting benefits from being so focused and efficient.

Plus, people still share common human traits. So there are bound to be overlaps between your specific group and everyone else. And there’s always the catch-all contact form where can they ask for something exceptional.

Let them decide

Just get your copy out there in front of people. Test it first before you decide if it works or not. Your customers are the best people to decide that.

Note how I refer to customers as people. As soon as you shift to that way of thinking, your readers become real people with emotions to appeal to, problems to solve and dreams to believe in.

And if your copy’s not working? Change it. That’s the beauty of tools like WordPress, things can always be updated easily in just a few clicks.

Find out how best to serve a specific group of people. Commit yourself to them. Then prove it in your copywriting.