“I wonder what goes in the blank… Think about it… Think about it…”
Have you heard this lie about what it takes to be successful as a copywriter today?
“You have to write well to be a top copywriter.”
Maybe it’s because “writer” is in the name of what we do.
We look to great writers to be our inspiration. Our role models. And frankly, I know it’s probably the majority of copywriters got into this in the first place with the idea we can make a buck off writing (when we’ve tried and failed with fiction, poetry, or other “creative” writing).
I know I did.
My definition of commercial success when I was a self-published poet was when my Grandma bought 9 copies of my book — one for each of my aunts and uncles!
And there are plenty of Grammar Police (and Grammar Nazis!) who’d make you think that that any diction friction or misplaced prepositions will totally kill the response to your sales letters…
But that’s totally NOT the case!
Unless you’re selling to grammarians, you won’t lose too many sales with a typo or two, or even loose use of proper (or improper) English!
Because your language is NOT what matters in copywriting, when selling to 99% of audiences out there…
Sure, being thoughtful and even clever with your language can capture attention (or lose it, if you get too creative)…
Knowing which words pack an emotional wallop can help you drive response…
Speaking in your prospect’s language and dialect can build liking and trust…
But by and large, HOW you say what you say will NOT make sales.
It’s WHAT you’re saying in the first place!
If you get the WHAT right… And simply don’t screw up the HOW too bad to make it unintelligible…
You’re going to make a bunch of sales!
(This is why famous copywriters like Gary Halbert were known for saying something along the lines of, “It’s far easier to take a great salesperson who can’t spell and turn them into a copywriter than to take a great writer who can’t sell and do the same.” Why? Because it’s about the SELLING, not the writing. Writing only allows you to multiply your impact!)
All of this was summed up this past weekend in a thought that crossed my mind…
And this is one of those things you can write on a 3X5 card and stick on your bulletin board, or post on your wall, or tweet it, or share with the world however…
“You already write well enough to be a top copywriter. But do you THINK well enough?”
Here’s the thing…
Most top copywriters are good writers, sure. But they’re even better thinkers.
They know exactly what to say to resonate with their prospects…
They know the steps of the sales process — and what to say to walk prospects through them…
They know their market, what’s hot, what’s not, what’s today’s news, what’s yesterday’s…
And ALL of this informs WHAT to say.
Then… Sure… They may work on saying it in the most interesting way.
But this is just seasoning — the WHAT is the meat.
I’d already made a note to myself to make this the topic of today’s email.
But then yesterday…
A freak accident underscored how right this is!
I got a link to an article on Steven King’s writing advice from “On Writing.”
Love him or hate him, Steven King knows how to write in a way that “sells” — if only selling the next page, and the next book.
But his estimated $17-million annual income is enough to call him a commercial success as a writer, I think.
Anyways, I was reading this article, and a four-word quote totally jumped out at me, and I wrote myself another note:
“Writing is refined thinking.” – Steven King
You see, having officially opened up registrations for my November Advanced Direct Response Copywriting workshop, I’d been looking for a way to frame what exactly we’d be covering for three days. A “big picture” statement that encapsulated what made the content different.
And I wrote down Steven King’s quote with an idea… I’d use it to open the workshop — and talk about how becoming a top copywriter is mostly about getting the thinking right… NOT the writing right.
And the right thinking is what we’re going to dig into over those three days in November.
Anyways…
I was hashing through my notes from this past the weekend…
I put my own quote about writing well and thinking well into this document as the subject of this email…
And I put the Steven King quote into my outline for the workshop…
And I realized…
I AM STEVEN KING!
Okay, not really.
But that sounded a lot more fun and interesting than my real revelation.
What I realized (or recognized, or remembered, or had as a moment of clarity) was that ALL great writers are simply great thinkers first.
Having my own quote match Steven King’s — at an auspicious time — was simply proof that I was resonating with a deep truth about writing.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a copywriter, or a novelist, or really ANY kind of communicator — particularly one who has to stir your audience to action…
You have to get clear about WHAT you’re going to say first. Get that right, and HOW you say it can help, but won’t make the message.
This actually changes everything.
Because getting a better style for your writing can take a lifetime of practice and improvement.
But changing the way you think, your mental tools and software, your models for thinking…
Well, that can happen in a day.
(The first time it happened for me, it actually happened in a MOMENT — as I was handed an outline for effective direct response copy.)
Or it can happen for you in three days, this November, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here’s your invitation.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
I had a reader write to me by email on this one… Challenging something I said. And I'm not going to "out" the reader, as they would have posted here if they wanted to make their comments publicly. But I think it's a good addition, bringing nuance to the discussion, so I'm going to post their comments and my response here.
Would love to get YOUR thoughts here as well!
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READER:
"Unless you're selling to grammarians, you won't lose too many sales with a typo or two, or even loose use of proper (or improper) English!"
Everything else you've said in this email is good advice, of course, but NOT the above. Sure, you might only alienate one reader out of a thousand with sloppy language, but you won't alienate ANYONE with correct language. So why not just invest that tiny bit of extra effort? I'm not talking about employing idioms, which is a different thing altogether.
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MY RESPONSE:
Maybe you won't alienate anyone with correct language.
But sometimes (not always) a little sloppiness to the language does something on a very deep level. It helps the reader think, "This is a real person, like me. They're not over-polishing everything to hide flaws. They let their flaws live in the open. Which makes them more trustworthy." And so you actually attract people with your sloppy language, that wouldn't be attracted through polished language.
The proof of this is in the fact that from time to time, a company will run an ad with a couple typos in it. Then they'll catch the typos, and fix them for the next time around. Only to find that fixing typos suppresses response.
Obviously this isn't an excuse for not trying. And it doesn't apply equally across all markets. There are some markets (selling to grammarians being the most dramatic example) where any typos or poor sentence structure could hurt response.
But it does completely support the sentence you highlighted as being true and good advice. This is very much a case of "we are not our market." We need to recognize when our hang-ups (and I have plenty) are a match for the market, and when they are not. And adjust our work accordingly.
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What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Comment here and let me know what you think!