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September 2003
Issue # 38

Advertisement:

 

CAN-SPAM Guidance: Q&A with the FTC + Official Recommendations Report for Emailers

 

Every emailer in the US today is affected by the CAN-SPAM Act (not just the "bad guys".) Even if you are an ultra-careful permission mailer, you will have to make operational, database, and creative changes fairly quickly to avoid fines.

In this issue:

>> Intro: Writers' Resources Now Online
>> Article: The Dangers of Being Professional
>> Readers Write Back: Final Feedback on Long Copy
>> Survey: What Software Do You Use?


------------------------------------------------------
Links to Nick's Stuff

 

***Participate in my new Weblog***
http://nickusborne.typepad.com

 

Read articles from previous issues of Excess Voice
http://www.excessvoice.com/archive.htm

 

+++Check out my latest e-books+++
http://www.excessvoice.com/ebooks.htm
------------------------------------------------------

 

Greetings,

 

Two things before we get to the results from the last issues' survey.

 

First, I have made a start at a 'Resources' page on the Excessvoice.com site.

 

If you have some other resources to share, please let me know. I'd love to end up with a page of the 'best of the best' - a truly useful place, particularly for new and young writers. If you have found any books, courses, sites or other newsletters to be really useful, please email me at nick@excessvoice.com. You can see what I have so far here:

http://www.excessvoice.com/resources.htm

 

Second, I've gone crazy again and started a weblog. There is one post I'd really like some feedback on, if you have a moment. I'm looking for examples of a particular style of online writing. You'll find the post here:

http://nickusborne.typepad.com/blog/2003/08/become_a_fool_m.html

 

OK, back to the survey. In the last issues's survey I asked where everyone lived. Here's the ranking by country.

 

- Not surprisingly, the US came in first with 35% of readers. It's a big country.

 

- Coming in second was Canada, at 15%. Which is pretty good, when you consider that the UK, with double the population, came in fourth at just 8.5%.

 

- Who came in third, at 11%? A country with just one twentieth of the population of the UK... New Zealand. Gotta love those wired Kiwis. : )

 

The other countries with Excess Voice readers were: Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, India, Portugal, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Hong Kong and Argentina.

 

And for this issue's question, I thought it might be interesting to find out what software we used for our work.

 

Until the next issue.

Nick

 

>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com

 

======================================================

 

ARTICLE: THE DANGERS OF BEING PROFESSIONAL

 

Professional copywriters coming to the Web is both a good thing and a bad thing.

 

It’s good, because we are seeing copy on sites, emails and newsletters being written to a much higher standard of professionalism. Sales pages are being written more carefully. Instructions are being written more clearly. And good writing is having a beneficial effect on a number of areas of usability and site architecture. Open rates for newsletters and conversion rates on sites are showing that strong copy makes a difference.

 

So what’s my beef? Where is the danger?

 

Well, most of us have told our clients, at one point or another, that writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print. And that’s true. No question.

 

But do we put our money where our mouth is?

 

For sure, we adjust our writing for the Web. We accommodate the medium – it’s advantages and its barriers.

 

But – and here’s my beef – I think we are still writing in the same WAY and style. I think we are still writing as if the medium were simply another form of print or broadcast. I think the language we use and the sales phrases we depend on are the same as the ones we use for print and direct mail.

 

Does it work? Sure, within the confines of the limitations you impose when treating one medium as if it were the same as another.

 

The thing about the Web, the HUGE thing about the Web, is that it is the only medium we use in which our readers are connected, networked and as much, if not more, in control of the medium than we are.

 

Our readers don’t write print ads, don’t mail out DM pieces, don’t create TV ads. But they do send emails, create their own sites and wax lyrical in their weblogs.

 

Our audience, online, are our peers, our colleagues. They are as much the ‘authors’ of the Web as we are. In fact, through emails, weblogs, instant messaging and forums etc, our audience is creating more online content than we are.

 

So here’s the question – are you writing to your readers online as if they were passive, isolated recipients of a direct mail letter? Or are you writing to them as your equals, as your peers, as co-authors of the Web?

 

My guess is that most of us, almost all of us, still write AT our readers as if they were ‘them’ – instead of communicating with them as one of ‘us’. It’s still adversarial. It’s still us against them...trying to overcome their inertia.

 

The danger I speak of is that as professional copywriters we tend to fall back on what we know. We depend on our ‘professionalism’. And that offline copywriting professionalism includes a particular attitude towards our audience.

 

It’s that attitude that needs to change. That adversarial component. That skill in persuading, manipulating, cajoling and tempting.

 

We need to take our eyes off the monitor and look our audience in the eye.

 

And when you do that, you’ll see that the online audience is very, very different from its offline equivalent. They’re right there, behind their own monitors. They’re one of us.

 

And my guess is that they’d respond a whole lot better if we treated them with a little more respect.

If you enjoyed this article, check out 'The Best From Over 200 Articles by Nick Usborne' - an edited compilation of the best of Nick's articles for Clickz.com, between 1998 and 2003.

======================================================

 

READERS WRITE BACK: FINAL FEEDBACK ON LONG COPY

 

"Nick - if you want to see some long copy that really works and has run for
months look at http://www.pponline.co.uk.

 

The copy is not long because it is selling a boring product. It's long
because one of the major rules of copy writing is that you cannot leave out
any of the benefits. Or not handle any objections a reader may have. This
can result in really long copy -- this is 16 pages of A4. .

 

I appreciate your writing on this subject. But it's only worth reviewing
copy that works, like this. I appreciate it flies in the face of
conventional and intuitive reason."

 

==

 

"Do you think every new product will always be a surefire seller? Of course not. Do you think every product will be a "blow-your-pants-off," "sells-by-itself" product that will take the market by storm, with or without copy? Absolutely not. And do you think every product that may have marginal differences, or may be a slight improvement over the competition, to be "boring?" Not at all.

 

Wendy's sells burgers. McDonald's, Burger King, A&W and most other fast-food joints sell burgers. But Wendy simply packaged their burgers slightly differently -- a square patty.

 

A slightly different, "me-too" product, like you mentioned.

 

They didn't use long copy. True.

 

But they DID have to spend an enormous advertising budget on trying to get the word out and positioning themselves as "different." Even though the difference is slight. Arguably, they have other differences. (Or added some over time.)

 

But a burger is a burger is a burger.

 

To me, long copy is an alternative to huge, overblown, brand-driven, identity- or ego-boosting marketing budgets. But I only speak for direct response copy, not brand-oriented copy, or product-focused copy, or retail-based copy, or mass-marketing copy. Direct response, be it a long copy salesletter or a 30-minute infomercial, is an avenue, not a last-ditch option to sell the "mediocre."

 

There's also the issue of desensitization.

 

So many people are desensitized by ads and freebies and commercials these days, they NEVER believe anything at face value anymore. (They really never did, but now they do so much less if they ever did.)

 

Case in point.

 

when the web began, people were signing up for freebies left and right. Free ezines, free software, free trials, etc. Now, these days, you practically need long copy (or to at least sell harder) the freebie as you do the $2,000+ (or in your words, the "poor") product. Why? Because people are desensitized to anything that's "free."

 

Blame it on spam. Or whatever.

 

But you're right in one thing.

 

Undeniably, a poor product does need long copy. I'm not denying that. In fact, because of this "me-too" mentality you mentioned that pervades the marketplace, people are, like in the case of the freebie mentioned earlier, desensitized to any new claim or product.

 

Thus placing any "really good" product at a disadvantage from the onset, marketing-wise.

 

But blanketing every long copy process as an attempt to compensate for a "poor product" would be lessening the fact that many a good product, which have created fortunes and enjoyed very high satisfaction rates, chose long copy instead of a million-dollar branding or institutional advertising budget.

 

Long copy was an alternative, not a last-ditch effort.

 

Take the Juicer, Ginsu Knife set, or any information product -- even if it's unique, which in itself is hard to sell because the value resides not in paper and ink but in its application.

 

The bottom line is this ...

 

People are skeptical. Doubtful. Distrusting.

 

And that's a barrier long copy tries to overcome in many cases.

 

And people who are targeted and genuinely interested in an offer are going to want more information about a product before purchasing it, not less. And if they are NOT targeted, they won't read 50 words much less 5,000 words.

 

They won't buy, period. No matter how good or bad the pitch is. No matter how long or short the copy is. No matter how innovative or similar the product is.

 

And if they are NOT targeted but do end up buying, likely because of the aggressiveness or length of the copy, they will never buy again. Or cancel. Or speak negatively about their experiences.

 

As Brian Tracy once said --

"A man convinced against his will
Is of the same opinion still."

 

>> Feedback: mailto:nick@nickusborne.com

 

======================================================

 

SURVEY: WHAT SOFTWARE DO YOU USE?

 

Let's this keep this to the tools we use in order to do our jobs. I'm not really interested in whether you use IE or Netscape or Opera. But I am interested in which word processing program you use, whether you use a design program, whether you use a site development program etc -- and what they are.

 

Your list:

 

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