The Word Wrangler

I love reading books by copywriters and marketing experts because it’s educational to see how people think and apply what they’ve learned to their particular crafts. One thing that’s taught over and over in most copywriting books is how to write copy that sells. One of the key points these authors make is that writing emotional, benefits-driven copy that targets a specific audience, is paramount to converting readers into buyers.

I believe that to be true as do most other copywriters I know. But maybe we’re all wrong.

My colleague Dina Giolitto, owner of Wordfeeder.com, posted some copywriting lessons she’s learned during her successful career. The most striking lesson on her list is #2.

2. Your client doesn’t care about “copy that sells.” So let it go.

I can’t stress this enough. When you create on behalf of others, it’s a battle of egos. You can choose to be oppositional, using the old “emotional copy converts” defense. But the truth is, your clients don’t care. They want to see themselves in the copy and they want to hear their own voice on the page.

The best thing you can do is recognize WHAT they need at THAT particular time, then give it to them. To cover yourself (because later they’re going to figure out that their copy does NOT convert sales like they thought), you can offer an alternate suggestion and deliver tips. Usually though, they just ignore you. Suck it up.

I’ve worked with a number of clients who approached me wanting copy that converted. After getting to know their product or service, its benefits and their target audience, I produced what I thought was the right piece of work.

However, a lot of these people insisted on tearing things apart and putting in their own words. Headlines written to appeal to the reader were changed to something that appealed to the client. Maybe I’m a bad writer, but I’ll never think that a headline like, “Because we’re the best” is anything but ass.

The reality of copywriting is that clients often say they want sales or results, but in actuality, want to hear their voice on the page. I thought I was the only one who experienced this until I read Dina’s post, so apparently, it’s more prevalent than I thought. It’s an interesting phenomenon when you think about it. Most people don’t go to a doctor, get their diagnosis and then proceed to tell him that he’s full of crap. Granted, we’re not doing anything as serious as saving lives, but if people come to us for our expertise, you’d think they’d at least let us do what we do best.

So what’s a copywriter to do?

Well, it depends. Do you want awards and notoriety or a successful business? If you truly want to write copy that brings in the money and wins awards, you can keep rejecting clients until you find ones that are willing to let you do your stuff and keep their egos in check. If you’re interested in running a successful business you can keep your mouth shut, write what your client wants and then collect your pay. Because the bottom line is that, if the copy fails to convert, it’s always the copywriters fault regardless of what the client did to it.

I guess it’s the rare copywriter who gets to be famous AND successful at the same time.