 The beauty and challenge of working in any creative field is that there is no right answer. Almost any idea can be a great idea or a horrible idea, depending how it works out. So your success as a creative often comes down to how much your team can help you execute your ideas successfully.
My first two jobs in advertising, I found myself working for great mentors. They taught me so much about writing and about advertising in general, and made sure my ideas turned into something successful. Each mentor was extremely smart, and they would never settle for anything that wasn’t as great as it could be. They were also incredibly patient and were willing to work with me to improve my skills. At my third job in advertising, that completely changed.
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 When you get paid to write, you lose a lot of the control you have writing for yourself. Personally, I never thought I had a preferred “writing environment” before I started writing professionally. During school, I’d almost always written at a desk in my dorm room, maybe with some music on. When I would write for personal fulfillment after graduation, same thing, except in my apartment.
I didn’t realize at the time that, though I may have chosen these environments out of convenience, they fit my writing personality. They were comfortable, generally quiet, and I could shield myself from outside interruptions. That all changed when I got my first “real” writing job and was given the little kid desk at the back of the office, against the wall. It was - no joke - a piece of wood supported by two file cabinets. I learned then that a professional writer doesn’t often have the luxury of choosing their work environment.  Dealing with feedback, especially bad feedback, is the hardest part of being a writer. I’m seething right now.
We just got comments back from our client about a brochure we’d been working on. Actually a brochure that we’d been busting our butts on. We hadn’t had a lot of time to come up with something great, but we rallied around each other and made sure that we provided them with everything they’d asked be included - while delivering something we were very proud of. A member of the client’s team had come in at the last minute with comments. That’s not so odd or unforgivable. It was the type of comments her gave us that were so unforgivable. It was just bad feedback. That’s why I’m seething.  What kind of writer are you? This quiz will help you answer that question. Want to start writing professionally, but not sure which field to pursue? Take this short (5 question) quiz will tell you what kind of writing career fits your personality and skills.
 You need to understand your audience before you can write effectively for them. It is typical when you get started writing marketing copy to think, “Who wouldn’t want this? Our target market is everyone in the whole wide world!”
If you are currently thinking this, you’re being overzealous. In the excitement of a new product or service, it’s not uncommon to think of reasons why people from all walks of life would want what you have to offer. But in reality, your target market is small. More importantly, from a practical standpoint, you can’t reach everyone. You need to focus. You want your copy to speak to the people who are most likely to become paying customers. If you try to be too broad, you’ll end up connecting with nobody. So how do you figure out how to connect with that smaller portion of the population that is more likely to buy what you're selling? You have to start by asking big, broad questions, and then narrow it down until you know exactly who you're talking to, and how they think.  Professional writers need to find a writing environment that can consistently work for them. The first article I wrote for my home town’s weekly magazine was a travel piece about Las Vegas. I’d recently gone on a trip there with a group of friends and had offered to write about it in order to get my first article published. In order to get my first byline, I was willing to throw out the old rule about what happens in Vegas staying there, obviously.
I had trouble sitting down and writing, though. Perhaps it was a way to recapture the feeling of my trip, but I ended up writing it all through the night. I was literally typing in my bed at 3 am, getting it ready for a deadline the following morning. By the time I handed it in, my eyes were red, my brain was mush and I swore to myself that I’d never wait until the last minute to write an article again. Of course, I did the exact same thing when I wrote my next article.  Knowing these 5 types of headlines will make it easier than ever to write the most important copy. The only copy everyone reads
One of the hardest things copywriters do is write headlines. Even for veterans of the ad industry, it remains the greatest challenge, especially in print. In a print ad, the headline has to grab someone’s attention and interest them enough to want to find out more. It if can get across the purpose of the product, all the better.  Writing in the voice of a brand is a special skill that can take years to master. When doing any kind of marketing writing, voice is one of the hardest things to get right. Without voice, your writing will be less memorable and less likely to hold someone’s attention. In creating a voice, however, you have to be certain that it makes a connection with your audience, and sends the right message about your brand.
When learning writing in high school, you’re told to write in your own voice. When it comes writing online, that becomes even more true . Emails, status updates, tweets, blog posts - most online writing is written in the voice of the writer. But your voice as a writer is not the voice of your company’s brand.  Simple rules can make writing easier and your copy better. Elmore Leonard was a famous novelist and one of the unique writing voices of the last 50 years in America. He rose from pulp magazines to best seller lists, and one aspect of his that was often cited for this was his authentic voice.
My favorite quote on writing from him is this: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” That should be your mantra as you write anything: web copy for your startup, a script for a TV spot, an article, your memoir.  Think before you write. For many years, I was a copywriter in ad agencies that specialized in pharmaceutical advertising, writing copy about prescription medicines. Outside of any feelings anyone may have about that industry, it was a great challenge for any writer to wed hardcore medical science with the soft fuzziness of marketing.
One aspect of this industry that can be hard is that every piece of marketing that goes out to consumers is heavily scrutinized by a cadre of internal experts. This is done to make sure that all the information that they put out about any medication is completely accurate and balanced, making sure that any possible side effects are clearly indicated. So my copy was always heavily edited. |
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