Read Me

10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy

Gyles Lingwood, Roger Horberry

• Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780676807
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

If you've ever struggled to craft a powerful message that really hits the spot, you'll know it's harder than it looks. Wouldn't it be helpful to have an expert on hand to explain how the professionals really do it? Better still, how about a whole range of writers ready to pass on their trade secrets?Well that's exactly what you'll find in the pages of this book. Think of it as a rocket-assisted launch for your writing career, structured over ten distinct lessons and illustrated with classic and contemporary international examples of the best copywriting. Designed to help anyone who works with words improve their writing, this book is packed with practical techniques and features effective exercises to pump up your persuasive powers.Includes inspiring contributions from professional writers, an in-depth look at the challenges involved in writing copy for brands and worked examples that cover writing for digital, brand storytelling, and packaging copy.

Lesson Ten:

What You Need to Succeed

The seven habits of highly successful copywriters

Applied to your career as much as the door.

The previous nine lessons are about how to write copy. As we enter the home straight let’s look at how to be a copywriter—in particular, the magnificent seven qualities we think every copywriter needs to give their career a supercharged start.

No one will make your career happen but you. If you want to get on (and the fact you’re reading this sentence right now strongly suggests you do), then it’s your responsibility to learn all you can, demonstrate your commitment every chance you get, create opportunities where none exist, and generally give Lady Luck a helping hand. As Ogilvy wrote:

If you prefer to spend all your spare time growing roses or playing with your children I like you better, but do not complain that you are not being promoted fast enough.

So that’s what this lesson is about—the noble art of Getting On. Over the years we’ve noticed many of our more successful colleagues share certain well-defined characteristics and work in certain well-defined ways. This similarity suggests they’ve stumbled onto something important. What follows is a whistle-stop tour through a series of insights it might otherwise take you years to acquire through trial and error.

Habit no. 1—cultivate curiosity

The best copywriters—indeed the best creatives in any field—have an insatiable interest in the world. Many years ago US advertising executive James Webb Young described how the brightest writers he knew were “curious about everything—from Ancient Egyptian burial customs to modern art.” We suggest you cultivate the same universal inquisitiveness.

Top of the list of things every writer should be curious about is how good writing works. Luckily that’s easy to research—just read more. You’ll unconsciously absorb pointers on style, pacing, vocabulary, imagery, storytelling, and the rest, many of which you can make your own. Good prose often employs the “me to you” perspective that we’ve said is a hallmark of good copy. By reading the right stuff you’ll see how a range of authors make and sustain this connection, which is the first step to doing the same yourself.

What should you be reading? Anything from Dostoyevsky to DC Comics—the only real measure is that it works. So-called trash is as valuable as Shakespeare, provided it’s good, effective trash. If something speaks to you as you read it and its message stays with you once you’ve finished then it’s worth your attention.

Your authors’ top ten favorite books (well, for today). Roger left, Gyles right.

This pastiche, long-copy ad shows a real curiosity for period detail.

Ben Hughes

I’ve never liked the term “copywriting,” both because it implies that the act of writing copy is somehow different from regular writing (it’s not), and because it suggests that the writing itself is what’s most important (it’s not).

Copywriters, like all writers, have two parts to their job. Part one is figuring out what to say and part two is deciding how best to say it. Early in my career, I was much better at the second part than the first. I wrote beautiful, meaningless sentences that were universally praised for their poetry and universally criticized for lacking any real content. I think this is common among those of us who get into the industry because we love to write. In fact, that’s the problem right there—we love to write—and while knocking words against each other in an attempt to create sparks is certainly a big chunk of the job, it’s not all of it, or even the most crucial part.

First and foremost, copywriting is about ideas, whether it’s a brilliantly clear way of explaining a complex subject, a fresh angle on a well-trodden story, an act of synthesis that weaves together seemingly unconnected strands into a sturdy argument, or, quite simply, the truth. It may be a shock to see that last word in there, especially since the general impression of our kind is that we exist to spin bad news or just make things sound pretty, but at its best copywriting uncovers truths that were hidden there all along, in plain sight, and hoists them up for everyone to see.

Some of the best copywriters aren’t even very skilled as wordsmiths. They simply come up with astounding ideas and then present them as plainly as possible. A line like Nike’s immortal Olympic reminder that, “You don’t win silver, you lose gold,” doesn’t impress because of its mastery of the subtleties of the English language. It impresses because it gleefully pisses in the face of those sainted athletes who have trained their entire lives only to be second best. Those seven words communicate more about Nike than most brands could get across in a year’s worth of work. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but it’s a truth nonetheless.

You have to build a house before you can decorate it. You may have the perfect painting ready to brighten up the dining room, but without four walls and a roof, there’s nowhere to hang it. It’s the same with copywriting. Without a strong idea to hang your words on they’ll collapse under their own weight, shapeless. Build the house first. You may even find, in the process, that the house is interesting enough on its own without a lot of embellishment cluttering things up.

Don’t write copy. Write the truth, write it clearly, and then get out of the way.

Ben Hughes is a writer, creative director, photographer, and filmmaker. His advertising career has included stops at Ogilvy & Mather, R/GA, Mother, and, most recently, Wieden+Kennedy, where he was one of the youngest creative directors in the agency’s history. In addition, he has written about music, books, and technology for Esquire; directed and edited music videos; created Web content for Le Grand Magistery, Esquire, and Little, Brown & Company; and written screenplays for Tribeca Film and Maker Studios. His work has been recognized by the One Show and AICP and nominated for an Emmy. We’d hate him if he wasn’t such a thoroughly nice guy.

Of course it’s not just books that have something to say —you can learn from anything and anywhere. If it’s got words on it, it’s your job to understand how those words work. Having done so, file away what you have learned for the future. It’s amazing how often some tiny feature of a long-forgotten text can suddenly present itself as the perfect solution to a seemingly intractable problem.

What we’re saying is, get into the habit of automatically analyzing the words you meet in the world. Immerse yourself in text at every opportunity—how many other professio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Lesson One: The Big Picture
• Lesson Two: The Right Way to Write
• Lesson Three: Making the Magic Happen
• Lesson Four: A Catalogue of Swindles and Perversions
• Lesson Five: It’s All About the Audience
• Lesson Six: Not Telling Stories, Selling Stories
• Lesson Seven: The Brand’s in Your Hands
• Lesson Eight: A Question of Style
• Lesson Nine: Bringing It All Together
• Lesson Ten: What You Need to Succeed