THE TAO OF COPY

Good copy seduces. It educates, sells, lures and convinces. Though typically associated with advertising, copywriting permeates every corner of business. Even beyond the web sites and presentations endemic to the workplace today, your company must communicate with staff, customers or the media every day. Perhaps you need a grant to fund your next phase of research and development. Or an especially sensitive letter to your employees announcing an increase in health care premiums. Perhaps you’ve been tasked with creating a blog to initiate a dialogue with your customers. These are not inconsequential afterthoughts, though many companies treat them as such. Your marketing initiatives matter. Words matter. A bland press release goes ignored by the media. A badly-written instruction manual drives up calls to tech support. A lackluster newsletter gets tossed aside. Your copy can position you as a first-class contender in your field, or it can convey failure and incompetence. A word on marketing. Some businesses recoil from what they view as spurious promotion. Others embrace it, injecting their marketing with all the flash and dazzle of a Mardi Gras parade. But in the end, it’s simply about the art of attraction. There are few sure-fire tricks in the marketing arsenal. The hip and effective new method of today can be tomorrow’s dead as a doornail cliché. What succeeds is a thoughtful exploration of marketing principles, a chameleonic ability to tap the shifting zeitgeist of our times, and a demand for excellence. The “sell” in copy is hard to quantify. Call it marketing mojo, call it the tao of copy, but effective copy must employ a kind of synergy to sell your message. Smooth and clever wordplay is not enough. The language, from tone to diction to style, must align with underlying marketing objectives to work. To achieve these objectives, the copywriter must understand: 1) who your targets are 2) what they want and fear 3) why they should want what you're selling 4) how to speak their language For instance, the literature package I created for a funeral home was written in a very simple, basic style that anyone could understand. This was because grieving people have difficulty absorbing new information and because death comes to people of all educational levels. Fundraising packages I’ve done, on the other hand, are slanted in a warmer, personal style to inspire identification and trigger sympathy. Collateral for technology companies can need to be straightforward and clear, if explaining complex concepts, or inviting and informal if seeking customer loyalty. Each project should possess its own flavor, from a tagline that stings and lingers to a lush and sumptuous brochure. A good copywriter is essentially an actor in print, wearing multiple masks to create a variety of effects. In the end, potent copy is what lifts your company above the competition. It doesn't matter how coveted the advertising spot, how dazzling the design - every ad, speech and web site that relies on mediocre writing is a marketing opportunity squandered. Stuart Henderson Britt said, “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you’re doing but nobody else does.” Without the bright lights of exceptional copy, even a strong product is winking in the dark. Give your business the spotlight it deserves.

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