Marketing tip - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 5:29 - 1 Comment

MASTERING COPYWRITING BY CHRIS CATCHPOLE

Article written by Chris Catchpole, award winning direct marketing copywriter based in the United Kingdom

For what you are about to hear today, may the readers of your future communications be truly grateful.

Thank you for letting me talk to you about something I love. I write passionately because I am passionate about writing.

Can you write?

Wonderful. The rest is just practice.

It is not a special gift.

Do you read newspapers?

Have you got a favourite book?

Do you read often?

Do you read ads?

Do you read direct mail packs?

Surely not.

There is so much bad direct mail. Most of it is written by people who ‘learn’ how to write direct marketing. They learn DM-speak. They follow all the rules from all the books but they end up with a dog’s dinner. They come on courses such as this one and get told by copywriters and Creative Directors how to write in a direct marketing way. Is this right? Isn’t writing just a simple conversation – person to person not robot to robot? And, via data, the more you know about them, the more personal it can be. You can write a multitude of different letters to a multitude of different people – that’s the beauty of targeting and lasering. Continue…