June 2014

Books that formed my copywriting consciousness.

Reality In Advertising, Rosser Reeves

Up The Organization, Robert Townsend

Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy--"You cannot bore someone into buying your product."

The Copywriter's Handbook, Robert Bly

On Writing Well, William Zinsser

The Elements of Style, Strunk & White

Give newbies a chance.

Colin On Copywriting

why use a professional copywriter.

You know more about your company than anybody. Share the wealth.

     • Don't assume the reader will do the work you can't be bothered to do. Example phrase: "...limited only by your imagination."
     • It's logical that if you want to look like everybody else you should say what everybody else is saying. But that's not the way to get noticed.

• "We're prouder of ourselves than anybody else in Silicon Valley."

Everywhere I look I see bad sites—bad from the copywriter's point of view. They're bad because they present no information. they may have data buried somewhere on the site, but they flunk the basics of copywriting.

Something like that.

Present my case. Explain the precepts I'm using to castigate sites.

It's not that I know more about your sector, but that I can see you're neglecting to present your sector's information. You're assuming the visitor is already a customer, already knows everything about you.

March 2014

Clear, simple text
for your company's site.

Text filled with facts about you that your customers want to know.

Web sites work best when their text is full of facts—facts that are easy to read and easy to understand, even if your topic is complex or technical.

A copywriter assembles all the information about your company and refines it to bring the most important parts to the front. A copywriter's job is to make your text not only easy to read, but also worth reading.

I do it by using your brain, which knows more about your business than any other brain in the world. You talk, I listen, I research, I deliver text. You review it for technical accuracy, and I rewrite it until it pleases both you and me.

The purpose of copywriting is to make it easy for customers to understand what your company is offering. I do it by using facts presented with concrete nouns and active verbs to make your text interesting, instead of the usual passive abstractions that leave no paint marks on your customer's memory trail.

Too many companies assume that the reader is REQUIRED to read the text. Only one person at a time will ever read your business message. Why not make it readable?

Not About Us:
Here's the entire 211 words of a Silicon Valley company's "About Us" page. I've blanked out their name and five other words. See if you can figure out what they sell.

Click to read the full-size text block.