Copywriting 101

Attention Entrepreneurs! The following copywriting techniques will provide your company with the basic foundation for selling with words! How?? Creativity. Stressing Benefits. Knowing your audience.

Though the above paragraph may sound promotional, it is actually a rather simple example of a few common copywriting techniques mentioned under "Tricks of the Trade."

Copywriting is focused on promotion of a business through a variety of methods and materials – in essence, it is sales on paper! It can be a rather frustrating concept to grasp in that it sometimes goes against the concept of structured writing. In advertising copywriting, longer and/or more structured sentences don’t necessarily catch the attention of the reader.

The following is a list of some of the more common advertising and public relations materials:

• Blogging & ezines


• Brochures


• Flyers


• Other promotional materials


• Website content


• Commercials


• Ads


• Direct mail campaigns


• Media releases


• Feature articles


• Newsletters

Media releases and articles are considered Public Relations as they are focused on getting your company information into local media for publication or news coverage. Newsletters, whether online or direct mail, are another great way to update your clients or customers with the latest industry news and important events. However, newsletters should not be utilized strictly as a promotional tool; though they can be used to advise your clientele of new products or services, it should be done in a more informative manner.

Tricks of the Trade:

• Short sentences – Catches the reader’s attention and gets to the point!


• Use of bullets - Definitive list of important selling points or products/services


• Testimonials – Provide credence to your product/service through rave reviews from past clients or consumers.


• Call to Action – "Contact us today!"


• Catchy headlines – "Announcing a Reward for Referrals: Seeking anti-aging and skin rejuvenation candidates"


• Questions – "Have your patients asked you questions about all of the latest anti-aging treatments & products?"


• Alliteration – "Reward for Referrals", maintaining the same sound structure.

Critical Concept in Copywriting – (There is that Alliteration thing again). Features describe a product or service while benefits are the perks associated with the product or service.

In order to successfully promote a product or service, it is critical to communicate the benefits from purchasing a particular product. For example, a printer may have fax, scanning & copy capabilities; and while these are important features, this does not relay what the purchaser/consumer will get out of the product. Benefits would be saving money, convenience, ability to save documents to your PC, quality and speed (ok, I guess the last one depends on your printer).

When writing advertising copy, it is also important to understand your audience and their expectations in order to communicate benefits. For example, if you are selling to consumers interested in the latest anti-aging treatments and products, then focus on skin rejuvenation, quality of product, cost, treatment methods, positive aspects (radiant, younger looking skin or elimination of unsightly scars or veins).

There are numerous online resources available to assist the business owner in producing creative and quality material that sells. In addition, there are many great books including "The Copywriters Handbook – A Step by Step Guide to Writing that Sells" by Robert W. Bly and "The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Copywriter’s Words & Phrases" by Kathy Kleidermacher.

Write well and write to sell!

Lori Hines is the owner of Documentation Pathways - a company specializing in creation of promotional and advertising materials for small and medium sized companies.

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