Bright Ideas # 36– The Key to Effective Marketing
 

What is one of the most important—yet most overlooked and misunderstood—parts of marketing and advertising in most small businesses?

It’s not your logo or branding, though these are certainly important.

Ditto for photography and graphic design.

Great design can get people’s attention. And it can help you build a solid brand. But it can’t do the sales job for you all by itself.

Still guessing? I’ll give you another hint…

Getting this one thing right can spell the difference between the success and failure of your marketing, your advertising—and your business.

And it’s something that takes years of study and practice to perfect. Yet most small businesses do it themselves—and do it poorly—because they just don’t know any better.

Still wondering what the heck I’m talking about?

I guess I’ll let the cat out of the bag.

The answer is…
(Drum roll please)

Effective copywriting.

“What?” you say.

Yep, you read right. Effective copywriting.

Now if you don’t know what copywriting is, let alone how to tell good from bad, don’t worry. Because unless you’ve studied or worked in advertising or marketing, you probably wouldn’t.

But if you write your own sales and marketing materials and you don’t know what good copywriting is, you need to learn.

Let me explain…

Copywriting is all the words in your advertisements, marketing materials, sales letters and anything else that promotes your business.

It is different from copyrighting—which deals with establishing legal rights for owning, selling or distributing literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

It is also almost completly different from any other kind of writing.

Because rather than being designed strictly to inform or educate, good copywriting is always designed to sell as well.

Which means the best copywriting is much more than just a written description of your business or what you do.

It gets the attention of your target audience.

It turns features into benefits the customer can’t live without.

It makes complicated information easy to understand.

And it makes people want to pick up the phone, fill out a form, or hand you their credit card right now—and again and again for years to come.

In fact, the right words all by themselves, can sell millions of dollars worth of products or services with virtually no graphic design at all (think sales letters).

The bottom line is, effective copywriting is a driving force for successfully growing your business.

Because copywriting is how you communicate with your customers when you can’t be there in person. And it’s in everything you use to promote your business.

So when people read your materials and don’t understand who you are or what you are selling—let alone the benefits or why they should buy.

Or worse, when they don’t read your marketing or advertising at all?

You are destined to struggle with growing your business.

Successful entrepreneurs know this, and generally do one of two things to get great copy: They either put in the time to learn how to write quality copy themselves, or they hire a professional to write it for them.

Because they understand that knowing how to write, and knowing how write to sell, are two completely different skills.

It’s a bit like the difference between knowing how to ride a bike, and racing in the Tour de France. A good copywriter, much like a professional cyclist, has put in years of practice. They’re experienced and fast, and they’ve learned what it takes to win.

Most great copywriters have been in sales, and they’ve spent time studying marketing, advertising and even psychology. And they’ve worked hard to perfect the art and science of persuading on paper, because that’s what drives sales and success.

Of course, you could be a natural. I wrote some halfway decent copy back when I first started twelve years ago.

But I’ve also gotten a heck of a lot better since then. And I continue to study marketing, advertising and copywriting literally every day. So don’t get discouraged if you have a lot to learn. We all do…
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Six signs your copywriting desperately needs work
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1. People rarely—if ever—take action (call, buy, click here or register) after reading your marketing materials.

2. People often read your brochure or Website, then ask you to explain what you do?

3. You get very little—if any—traffic on your Website.

4. You have trouble explaining what you do in 30 seconds or less.

5. When you start talking about what you do, people’s eyes glaze over. Or they say “that’s interesting…”, without asking any further questions.

6. You write your own copy, but had no idea what copywriting was before you read this article.

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Want to learn more about writing effective copy? Read back issues of Bright Ideas at www.writeideas.net/UsefulInfo.htm.

And be on the lookout for announcements about my upcoming classes and new copy critique and coaching services coming this fall.
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©2002-2006 Success Stream. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com

Do you have a marketing, advertising or writing question you’d like to have answered? Email me and you might see the answer in a future edition of Bright Ideas.
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