Copywriter blog
Tuesday 16th February 2010
My copywriting is designed to get results - and, as a specialist direct marketing copywriter, I get a real buzz from checking response statistics.
The average UK direct mail response rate varies, of course, but experts say you can normally expect around 2.5 to 3 per cent on a good day. I've a series of direct marketing campaigns on the go at the moment that have been generating double figures, some as much as 13 and 14.5 per cent, so I'm over the moon - and so is my client!
Thursday 4th February 2010
There's a reason for the big gap in my blog entries- I've been SO BUSY! And I'm delighted to say that 90 per cent or more of this work is from regular clients. Proof that my copywriting works!
It's been yet another week when I've been sent some copywriting to re-write - in this case a six page brochure written by another "copywriter". Initially I thought I'd been sent the "before" copywriting... possibly something translated from a foreign language by someone whose first language most definitely wasn't English.
But, no. Apparently this was the completed "copywriting" written by the other "copywriter". The client was so shocked by its poor quality that she sent it through to me for a total rewrite. I hope she didn't pay him for it.
And I was shocked, too, at how someone can claim to be a professional copywriter and yet have no grasp whatsoever of the English language or English grammar.
PS. Changing the subject. Just thought I'd take a peek at where this website is on Google at the moment. I'm thrilled to see I'm TOP of page #1 of Google for COPYWRITING SERVICES and on page #1 for COPYWRITER and COPYWRITERS. Proof that my SEO copywriting works, too!
Thursday 20th August 2009
It's no secret that the TV channels are suffering from a drop in advertising revenue - and for some time now TV ads seem to have been getting worse. Gone are the heady days of Hamlet Cigars or Joan Collins' Cinzano ads; now we're faced with wall to wall price comparison websites and car ads.
But things seem to be getting worse...
We copywriters can spot a client-written ad a mile off - a concept and / or script written by the business thus side-stepping the need to pay for a copywriter. The TV ad equivalent of the chessboard ("Your next move...") or the judge's wig and hammer ("Judge for yourself"...).
I know times are tough, but memorable (for the right reasons), professionally produced advertising does achieve sales. And good copywriting is an indispensable part of the mix.
Enough said... I'm off to make a cup of tea...
Wednesday 19th August 2009
I've just seen a copywriter advertising search engine friendly copywriting services from £8 per page. Wow! Bargain! They must write - and think - at the speed of light! Has anyone taken them up on this? I'd love to see what you get for your £8.
Tuesday 18th August 2009
I've been reading the blog written by fellow copywriter Nigel Graber (one of the web's other very excellent copywriters). He talks about the growing trend for businesses to demand a 'free style test' i.e. "You write us a couple of web pages for free and we may pay you for further stuff if we like it".
It's a bit like asking the decorators to paint the box room for nothing on the assumption that you may pay them to paint the whole house afterwards. Or not. Who knows?
One of the 'free style tests' I was asked to do recently added up to AT LEAST 3 days' work. And I was competing with 10 other copywriters. Now I'm no maths wizard, but in my mind that adds up to 10 x 3 days' work = ONE MONTH'S WORK which the business was getting for free!
Potentially an entire website for zilch!
Then there's the other type of business who doesn't mess around with vague promises of paid work; they just ask for the whole lot for free... "because there's a recession on you know..."
Now I'm quite happy to supply examples of copywriting I've produced for other businesses - to prove that, even with 20 years of copywriting experience, I can write.
But I draw the line at spending 3 days working for nothing in the hope that I may beat the other 9 copywriters to the post.
And who's to say the business planned to hire any of us?
So I said no.
Thursday 18th June 2009
Proof that my copywriting boosts sales, even in one of the worst recessions we've had for decades. A client's just called to say an emailer I wrote for him last week has generated his "best sales in weeks, a clear increase on before"...
Must go - got to write another one for him!
Wednesday 17th June 2009
If there's ONE THING that gets my back up about bad English grammar it's.... it's...
Or, rather, it's with an apostrophe between the t and the s when there shouldn't be one. For example in the sentence "either on it’s own or..." which, worryingly, I came across on another copywriter's website today... in TWO places...
It's as in "it's either on its own..." is correct. "It's either on it's own" is not.
And here's another little gem on the same copywriter's website: "I’ve also wrote copy for..."
Enough said.
Tuesday 9th June 2009
I've been so busy work-wise and also with the not-for-profit things I write like the school PTA website (which I also design and manage, as the PTA Deputy Chairperson) and a nostalgia blog I write for the Weston Mercury Newspaper website (Weston Super Mare).
Repeat business is still coming in thick and fast as my base of regular clients gets bigger and bigger. In fact I've been so busy I've had to turn down work which is something I never like to do if I can help it! And I never say 'no' to regular clients.
Also, I am STILL being contacted by would-be copywriters to see if I can help them or give them surplus work to do.
As I've said over and over again on this website, many of these are people who simply aren't real copywriters; people with NO experience in real-life advertising or marketing. It's frightening to think that these people are advertising themselves on the Internet as 'copywriters' and charging unsuspecting clients for their work.
I am also still being contacted by businesses who need me to put right copywriting disasters written by these 'fake' copywriters. I will say it again... If you want copywriting that pulls in response and positions your product / service and business at its best, you MUST go for a genuine copywriter with proper copywriting experience. Anything else and you're wasting your money!
Thursday 30th April 2009 - I love chatting to my clients!
I'd say that a good 70% of my work is repeat business - businesses that use me over and over again.
It's great for them because I can really get to know their products or services and their customers - for sales results that get just better and better as time goes on.
But it's great for me too because I can build up a relationship with the client. And when you work home alone, it can be really nice to have a natter with a friendly familiar voice.
Actually, as I was writing the above, a fairly new regular client called for a chat to say he's thrilled with the results he's been getting from the email marketing campaign I've been writing for him every week for the past two months. "It's a significant improvement on what we'd been doing before..." he said, delighted! Fantastic!
Monday 9th March 2009 - My sales letter has been pulling loads of business!
I heard from an old client today for the first time in four years. He apologised for not getting in touch sooner but the sales letter I wrote for him back then has been so successful he hasn't needed to!
Interestingly, this sales letter was a complete re-write of a sales letter written by another copywriter which failed to pull any business at all. Also, interestingly, I see the other copywriter is featuring the failed letter on his website as an example of a good sales letter. Interesting, that... (And, no, it's not the same sales letter I talk about in the following entry.)
Wednesday 11th February 2009 - Not all copywriters are the same, so beware...
Yet again I'm having to rewrite something produced by another 'copywriter' - a sales letter which is truly appalling and I'm not surprised that it failed to achieve a single sale. So the poor client is having to pay twice: for the first copywriter and now for me.
The trouble is that literally anyone can set themselves up as a copywriter on the Net. It is a completely unregulated industry. Even copywriters that claim to have years of experience may never have worked in a heavyweight advertising or direct marketing agency - or had any kind of on-the-job training. Unlike me.
And few will have had to get their copywriting through the kind of rigorous, almost brutal approval processes that exist in top advertising and direct marketing agencies. In the real world, if you're a bad copywriter, you don't get hired - or you get fired very quickly. That is if you can get as far as an interview...
So it figures that a copywriter with a proper advertising and / or direct marketing background is ALWAYS going to write better, stronger, more effective copy than a copywriter that's simply set themselves up on the Net. Get my point?
PS - you can read more on this subject (and have a giggle at a photo of me sitting at my ad agency desk in 1991) below>>
Thursday 5th February 2009 - Grammar and gobbledy gook
The trouble with being a copywriter is that you're always 're-writing' things you read! Like the leaflet I've just received from our local Neighbourhood Police Team which, when talking about child road safety, says: "Nobody wants anything like that on their conscious...". (Conscience?) And on local burglaries: "A major investigation by the team has resulted in thousands of pounds worth of property stolen in burglaries been recovered". (Being?)
Which is worse though? Grammatical mistakes or gobbledy gook / jargon? Like the diagram I saw in a leaflet the other day with the caption: "The schematic below provides a basic overview of the method of enforcement." (In other words: "This simple illustration shows how it works.")
There's only one way to find out.....
Tuesday 16th December 2008 - I'm in the Top Fifteen... TWICE!
I've supplied a couple of articles for The Email Marketing Manual - a regular 'advice clinic' newsletter produced by Pure Promoter Ltd, one of the UK's leading email marketing companies (clients include Innocent Drinks, Truprint, Field & Trek and RS Components).
They've just drawn up a list of their Top 15 Articles Voted for by Readers in 2008 and I feature... TWICE! See the round-up here... and while you're there, why not click through to read the articles themselves?
Thursday 20th November 2008 - Bye bye 1980s filofax...
About to replace my knackered old black leather filofax, it suddenly occurred to me that it's my 20th anniversary of being a copywriter! 20 years ago I joined BRAHM Advertising in Leeds as a junior copywriter. Part of the new copywriting kit they presented me with on my first day was the black filofax which I've used ever since.
Interestingly, one piece of copywriting kit I didn't receive was a computer. In those days you wrote copy by hand to be typed up by the secretaries. Editing was a nightmare! It wasn't until my second job as a copywriter that I persuaded the powers-that-be to let me have a computer. I was the only copywriter in the creative department with one. Even in my next copywriting job, my passion for using a keyboard rather than pen and paper was thought a bit odd. How things have changed in 20 years, hey... (Even my name: Bev Mattocks, back then.)
Saturday 15th November 2008
Just 'Googled' my name to see what's out there and came across a very nice critique of my copywriting for Portakabin (this time via one of their external ad agencies: Toucan, though I usually worked with Portakbin direct) - found it on the MARKETING DIRECT magazine website, critique by Jonathan Spooner, Creative Director of top specialist financial services marketing agency, CHM : Ping. Here's what he says:
PORTAKABIN, Mailed to cash-strapped hospitals, this box contains scissors, a red ribbon and an invitation to the opening of your new ward in 16 weeks time. Makes perfect sense! Great stuff! Brilliant! Client: Portakabin WardSpace, Agency: Toucan Art director: Gary Rapps Copywriter: Bev Osborne Medium: Direct mail
Wednesday 15th October 2008
As a freelance copywriter, I love it when clients come back for more. This week alone I've taken copywriting bookings for FOUR clients I've worked with before. Why do they come back? Because my copywriting 'does what it says on the tin'. It works!
As a guide to the sheer diversity of copywriting projects and market sectors I cover as a copywriter... this week I'm writing a sales letter for a get-out-of-debt product, website copy for a furniture manufacturer, a set of outdoor posters for a college, some articles about weddings and an information pack for a business coach. And it's only Wednesday! Who'd be a copywriter, hey...
Last week I had TWO separate phone calls from people asking for advice on how to become freelance copywriters. Both were setting up in business as copywriters but NEITHER had any previous experience.
This is something that really bugs me - the fact that the UK copywriting industry is completely unregulated and literally anyone can set themselves up as a copywriter regardless of whether they have any 'real world' copywriting experience or not.
I strongly believe that the ONLY way you can become a 'proper' freelance copywriter is by spending a number of years working as a copywriter in an advertising and / or direct marketing agency... in a real creative department on real brands. Or working as a dedicated copywriter in an in-house marketing department.
Take me, for example. Back in the early 1980s when I decided I wanted to become a copywriter, I slogged away for a couple of years in a small Yorkshire advertising agency, building up a portfolio of copywriting work. I was a Director's PA at the time, not a copywriter, but I persuaded him to let me write a few bits and pieces (brochures, sales letters, etc) and he was happy to oblige (for which I am eternally grateful, Richard!)
In 1988, armed with my copywriting portfolio, I landed a job as a junior copywriter in one of Yorkshire's top advertising agencies (BRAHM, Leeds). I went on to to work as a senior copywriter in a number of leading advertising and direct marketing agencies (including Poulter plc which was then the largest independent advertising agency outside London).
I worked on a host of top brands (see a typical list here) before going freelance and launching Creative Copy Copywriting Services. Even as a freelance copywriter I continued to work with top direct marketing agencies (the famous Judith Donovans - now called JDA - being a prime example) - so I've always been at the hub of things.
Being able to write powerful sales-led copywriting is something that demands literally YEARS of experience and training. Sorry to sound brutal, but just because you've got an A level or degree in English or because you fancy a change and copywriting seems like an easy option, it doesn't mean that - hey presto! - you're a copywriter.
And if you're a business looking for a copywriter, please be sure to always check the copywriter's experience and credentials. Okay you might get your copywriting a few pounds cheaper (but not necessarily as many of these new kids on the block charge the same hourly rates as the 'old timers') but at the end of the day is it worth it?
More copywriter blog entries coming soon..
