Article for Copywriters: What Are You Trying to Say?

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July 2002
Issue # 11

In this issue:

>> Intro: Thank You Scott Knowles!
>> Article: What Are You Trying to Say?
>> Resources: Finding Work Online - Part III
>> Survey: Who Holds The Future of Writing Online?

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Greetings,

First, here are the results of last issues's survey, in which I asked everyone to rank the 14 definitions of copy and content from the issue before.

1st Place: "Content informs, copy sells."

2nd Place: "Copy is the sizzle, content is the steak."

3rd Place: "Content is what we visit a website for, and copy is what stirs us to
interact with the site."

Meanwhile...I should declare my own view on this. While each of these definitions is excellent, I have a feeling that we're all looking in the wrong direction. I think that for the future of writing online, we'd do better to concentrate not just on the differences between copy and content, but also on the similarities.

So I was delighted by the note that Scott Knowles emailed me in response to that last survey:

"I disagree with a lot of these differences between content and copy. Many
of the responses concentrated on copy "sizzling" and "selling" while content
provides "the steak" and "information." Is there really a difference?

Shouldn't copy both sell and inform -- especially online -- and doesn't one
help sell by informing? I'd say all words on a commercial web site are
copy, unless they're the customers' words."

I know. It was unfair of me to ask for the differences between copy and content, if I was all the while hoping that someone would start looking at the similarities.

But I think it is a useful exercise to look at both sides of the coin - both the differences and the similarities.

To get a broader feel for how I see the roles of copy and content online, take a peek at a couple of articles I co-wrote with Ann Handley.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/Perspect/usborne19.asp

http://www.marketingprofs.com/Perspect/uh2.asp

And don't forget to complete this issue's survey...

Until next time,

Nick

>> Feedback: nick@nickusborne.com

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ARTICLE: WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?

Find a passage of poorly written copy, and chances are you will have found a copywriter who never figured out what it was that he or she was trying to say.

Whenever I have trouble with some copy, I stop, sit back and then write at the very top of the page...

"What is it that I am really trying to say?"

With that question, I force myself to take a much more disciplined approach to my work.

I force myself to go back to the brief and take a closer look at the product or service in question, and the needs of the audience to which I am writing.

I force myself to think a lot harder about what really needs to be said in order to attract, engage, inform and inspire the reader.

I force myself to find the one line, the one thought that truly describes what it is I am trying to say.

With that line in hand, I can then start over, knowing that I am heading in the right direction with a clear, simple message.

All too often, copywriters use the process of copywriting to help them 'think'.

That's how bad copy happens. You need to get the thinking done before you start writing.

>> Feedback: nick@nickusborne.com

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RESOURCES: FINDING WORK ONLINE - Part III

For writers and journalists living in Canada (the site includes a new media
section):

www.jeffgaulin.com

>> Do you have or know of some useful online resources for copywriters? Let me know at nick@nickusborne.com

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SURVEY: WHO HOLDS THE FUTURE OF WRITING ONLINE: COPYWRITERS OR CONTENT WRITERS?

Copywriters and content writers online, right now, possess very different skill sets. As commerce online evolves, which skill set will be most valued and most richly rewarded? (To put it another way, will copy take on more of the attributes of content, or vice versa?)

[ ] Copywriters will rule
[ ] Content writers will rule

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