Before becoming a freelance copywriter I learned some simple tricks to protect against writer’s block. If you’re interested in copywriting these simple tricks, this will help you out.

Say What You Want
Many fail as copywriters because they struggle to put something down on the page; their first words. They sit there eager to type something, knowing what they want to say but not knowing how to say it. They have a fantastic idea to improve their marketing, but can’t find the right words to express it. This is where they make their mistake, don’t do the same.

With copywriting, or indeed any writing, there’s no need to get it right first time. It’s ok to write it wrong, just write what you want to say. Get your idea down on paper. Don’t worry about grammar, style, punctuation or the words you use, there’s plenty of time for that later. Just start writing straight away; put your ideas down into words and instantly, the blank page is defeated. Your copywriting has begun.

Turning to Text into Copy
Then go back and ‘polish’ what you wrote; now you’ll turn your badly written text into copywriting. Improving clumsy copywriting is much simpler than trying to write it right, right from the start.

Perfection
Now that you have completed a re-write, you will have a reasonable piece, but don’t be satisfied, for it to be successful copywriting, it needs to be perfect. Remove all unnecessary words, replace with words that lift the meaning and enhance descriptions. Delete dull, overused words and add evocative and exciting ones. Keep reading through your work, try and do this through the eyes of someone else, it is selling to you? Hone it until your copywriting is perfect.

Less is More
Is it perfect now? I’m not so sure. It’s a cliché, but less really is more when you are copywriting. Try and limit the number of words in your piece. It will help you improve the impact of the copy, because you’ll have to choose and use only the best, most effective words.  If you are to become a successful copywriter, you must recognise the value of words, so use them sparingly.

A respected gentleman had a plan to hold a dinner party each month to celebrate the year 2000. In order that he could create a fine meal for each of his guests, he hired a chef to work in his kitchen, guaranteeing him employment for a whole year. The chef is considered to be a ‘good all rounder’ at international cooking, which is ideal because the meals are to reflect the different cultures of the world.

At the first meal all invitees attend, expectations are high. The meal meets expectations and the evening goes O.K., the guests leave.

At the second meal there are a few ‘understandable’ cancellations and expectations are still high. The meal meets expectations and the evening goes O.K., the guests leave.

At the third meal half of the invitees cancel. The meal meets expectations, but those that attend seem to leave earlier than at the previous meals.

And so it goes on, with more and more cancellations.

By the time of the sixth meal, there is just the respected gentleman (who clearly has less respect now than before) and a man named Nigel.

The respected gentleman says to Nigel, “I don’t know what went wrong. Every month has had a different theme, I hired a good chef, the food always meets expectations but no one attends my parties anymore.”

Nigel replies. “I have been to every party and you’re right, you have a good chef, his meals always meet the expectations of those that attend, and that is your problem.”

The respected gentleman looks confused. Nigel continued.

“Your chef is not a specialist in producing any of the meals, because they represent a variety of different cuisines from all over the world and, because he has guaranteed employment, is under no pressure to improve; he lacks the skills and motivation to raise expectations and exceed them each month.

“Expectations have lowered and with them the standard of food being prepared has lowered. Your chef simply met the expectations he himself had lowered.

“Had you challenged a different chef each month, a specialist in the cuisine he was preparing, he would be motivated to do better than the previous month’s chef and constantly seek to improve. Your parties would have exceeded expectations and your guests would have kept attending.”

The respected gentlemen realised his mistake, he paid the chef for the rest of the year as he was contracted to do, then asked him to leave. He hired a new chef for each of his final parties. Nigel was right, the parties improved dramatically, confidence in the parties quickly returned and the respected gentlemen was respected again.

The moral of the story is that outsourced resources have specialist skills that are not always available from employees and, because they face fierce competition, are commercially motivated to produce truly exceptional results every time.

Richard Jebb
www.wordsthat-work.co.uk

Outsource
Outsourcing services such as marketing and PR can work out a lot less expensive than keeping them inhouse. You can use them and pay for them only when you need them, so it’s pay as you go. Using an agency or freelancer will require an initial investment of time, because you need to make sure you find the right one, but once appointed, they will be keen to achieve results for you quickly. A guide to costs, London agencies are the most expensive, but obviously attract the brightest talent; out of London agencies charge lower fees and often still attract many bright and talented individuals, offering a one-stop-shop for all your promotional needs, freelancers’ rates will be lower still and they are often former agency employees who specialise in particular disciplines, such as copywriting, graphic design, web site building etc.  

Less is More (sometimes)
If you can get away with spending less on promoting your business or brand, then this is great, but don’t do it at the expense of losing awareness in your key markets. It is essential now, more than ever, to be winning the awareness battle. The trick is to ensure that those responsible for planning your promotional activity are using the most effective media, with the right message. Analyse results frequently, be flexible, identify where changes are needed and make them quickly.

More is More
If I was a marketing director, I don’t think I would be asking for an increase in my marketing budget right now, not unless I could justify it with proof that guarantees a return on the investment. More is more when you achieve more for your money or make your money achieve more by buying from lower cost suppliers.

Targeting
I’m not talking here about the importance of targeting per se, although that is still very important, but this is about being aware of which industries or sectors are not effected by the downturn or actually benefit from it.  The Government is planning to spend like crazy, so education, health care and civil engineering will not be short of money, yet! I’m thinking any company that has anything to do with insolvency will be busy for the next 24 months too. They’ll be others, if you know your industry, then you’ll know who they are. These guys will still have money to spend and no harm in focusing your efforts on them for a bit.

Opportunity
Just quickly, have you thought whether the recession actually offers your business any opportunities? For example, I think freelancers have a great opportunity to deliver the services of the more expensive marketing agencies at a fraction of the cost; is there anything your business can do?

Digital Vs Print
I can’t tell you which is more effective for you, although I have noticed a much increased interest in digital since the credit crunch began to bite. This makes sense as digital is cheaper and offers opportunities to be far more targeted than print. But if more businesses are choosing digital media, does this mean there are some great print deals to be found? Let’s not forget print media just yet, give it a chance to prove its worth; I believe print still has more impact that digital because it is tactile and people like to touch and feel. Print may be just what your business needs; consider all options.

76% of Kent’s organisations failing on spelling and grammar

Our profession often goes hand in hand with graphic design and website design. But those guys don’t need to explain what they do to everyone they meet; people know what a graphic designer does. I estimate that nine out of ten people that I meet and who ask what I do, don’t know what copywriting is. Copywriting is an important business service, isn’t it time copywriters worked together to raise the profile of our profession?

The copywriting profession deserves better than this and I believe us copywriters should be working together to raise the profile of our profession. Any other copywriters interested in taking this idea further please contact me through my website, www.wordsthat-work.co.uk or this blog.

Richard Jebb
Freelance Copywriting Services
www.wordsthat-work.co.uk

In a marketing campaign, good copywriting is as important as the design, the timing and the media used; sometimes more important. Often though, copywriting is overlooked, the approach taken is that everyone can write, so why pay someone to do copywriting.

In reality though, copywriting goes hand in hand with graphic and web design; you wouldn’t leave that to an amateur and neither should the copywriting be left to anyone without proven skills.

A Copywriter’s Value
A copywriter with experience will think of new approaches, use gripping and inspiring phrases, use subtlety and avoid tackiness. A copywriter will find a balance between predictability and surprise; and will vastly improve your company’s written communication, ensuring it doesn’t read unprofessionally, irritate or bore. And even better, a good copywriter will ensure it stands out in a competitive market place.  

Anyone Can Claim to be a Copywriter
The trouble is, unlike graphic design and web design, there are no technical barriers preventing someone from becoming a copywriter. Copywriting can be done on any PC. So you must choose your copywriter with care, there are many freelance copywriters out there and all are charging different rates for their vastly differing copywriting skills and experience.

Choosing a Copywriter
When choosing a copywriter, always ask to see work samples, this is a great guide of how good they are, make sure you ask to see their copywriting in at least three different formats. For example, a sales letter, an advert and a brochure. There are no guarantees that they actually wrote it though, so you can also ask for references, professional people who have worked with your copywriter before; make sure you follow them up.

Copywriting Ideas
Have a chat with the copywriter, ask them to suggest some copy ideas and explain how they will approach your project. Don’t necessarily expect them to have hundreds of ideas off the top of their heads and they will only be as good as the brief you give them, but the copywriting ideas they do give you will help you judge their suitability as the copywriter for the task they have in mind.

Copywriting Rates
The rates a copywriter will charge for his or her time can be as varied as their skills, be sure to ask for quotes from a selection. Please be aware though, you get what you pay for and getting a price for copywriting is more complicated than just asking for an hourly rate. Ask for a price to complete the copywriting project, you have no control over how long the copywriter will take to do the job, so an hourly rate is meaningless. One may charge 50 an hour and take two hours, another 25 an hour and take six hours to complete the copywriting project.

Richard Jebb
Freelance Copywriting Services
www.wordsthat-work.co.uk

We’ve seen it so many times before, as soon as the money gets tight, the accountants that run the business decide to let the investment in branding and awareness tumble to a position close to the bottom of the business priorities list and the money spent on them is slashed.

Strong Brands Increase Sales
Now, if you are a person who is in control of or have influence over a corporate budget and are considering budget cuts, please take time first to understand the importance of branding to your business. The company’s brand is what sets it apart from others in the market, it has been proven so many times that it is almost common knowledge, if you have a strong brand consumers will choose your products or services over others in the market. A strong brand is also an excellent negotiating tool when dealing with wholesalers and resellers. If at this time your company already has a strong brand, it would be suicide to slash budgets now, as without the right treatment, the brand will weaken very quickly. This will have an effect on sales and margins. If anything, this is the time to increase branding activity. And if your brand is currently weak, get to work on building it fast.

Challenge the Marketing Team
That’s not to say you should meet all the demands of your marketing and branding teams. This is the time to challenge them. You understand the importance of the brand, so you don’t want branding activity to suffer. Before you cut their budgets dramatically, get marketing and branding teams to find ways to deliver even more value. Make them work hard by demonstrating how they can help secure orders in a more cost-effective way.

Large Agencies Vs Small or Freelance
There are cheaper ways to deliver marketing communications campaigns than using the expensive top-rated agencies and many of the smaller less known agencies and freelancers are former employees of the above, so they understand the branding process just as well. Get your marketing teams to shop around; you’ll be surprised at the savings to be made.

Communications Formats
Media space should be cheaper to buy in a downturn too, but is an online campaign more cost effective that traditional media? If your marketing team is not using a wide portfolio of communication formats, such as online, blogs, viral, PR, advertising, DM, print and broadcast, get them to explain why. Remember, the internet offers a more diverse choice of exposure to more target audiences than any other media, so if your marketing teams are not using it to its full potential, find out why. Online is proven to be very effective and can deliver results at a fraction of the cost.

So there’s my pitch to you. Instead of slashing marketing and branding expenditure, challenge the teams responsible to show how they can be more effective and add more value. Because when things start getting really difficult out there, effective marketing and branding is going to be what protects your sales revenue.

Richard Jebb
Freelance Copywriter
www.wordsthat-work.co.uk