The ONE skill copywriters must develop
So, last April 10th we held our one-day virtual event.
I won’t recap what you missed if you weren’t there, but instead, give you…
My one big takeaway from the day.
This “one big thing” is what prevailed in my mind the most after four days of cooldown.
Like when you watch a great movie and that one scene still pops into your head days later.
It sounds simple, but it goes pretty deep, so hear me out.
Ready?
One word: Connection.
“Oh God! He’s going to go all FOMO now and bring this back to connecting with him and the people who were there.”
No.
This was something of an epiphany for me.
Think about the kind of copy we write.
It has ONE job.
To connect with the reader (viewer, shopper, clicker).
I mean, realistically, if we can’t do that, then we’re pretty much disqualified from the job.
Wouldn’t you agree?
John Carlton always says:
“Our job as copywriters is to be the one thing that knocks your reader out of their zombie state and gets them to sit up and lean in.”
No easy task.
Yet, it’s the one thing that every successful copywriter has learned to do.
So, how do we do it?
Step #1 of Connecting with Copy is to know your intention for the message.
If connecting is the most important thing we do, then how do we do it?
While some copywriters have a natural ability to connect, it can also be learned.
But only if we embrace the essential elements, of which there are three…
1) Intent
2) Idea
3) Communication
Let’s take each of them out for a walk…
1) Intent: Deciding the message you want to get across, and why.
Without clear intent on the part of the writer, the writing always falls short.
The copy will ramble while we make our way to the point.
This is a good way to judge a first draft, by the way.
When you read it back (or, better yet, have someone read it to you)…
It will become obvious whether our intent is clear, or if there are extra words in the way of the connection.
Cut those extra words.
Mercifully.
You might be a “stream of consciousness” first draft writer… or, like me, an “edit as you go” writer.
Neither is right or wrong, but I do envy the streamers. Much easier, I imagine, to cut the fluff later than to plow along in slow motion.
But, write how you write.
Then edit away anything in the way of your Intent.
Intent is more of a feeling than a tactic.
When you’re clear on your intention, it guides the copy.
Like a jazz drummer; at times guiding the listener by holding a steady rhythm. Yet, able to, at any moment, change the tempo (mood) or snare snap a startling accent. Pop!
A musician’s intent is always on display.
If they’re checked out, you know it.
If they’re locked in, you feel it.
Copywriters are like jazz musicians; locked in, and in total control of the reader’s experience.
But, only if we know our intent behind the message.
The reader feels it when it’s there.
And ignores it when it’s not.
So..
Step #1 of Connecting with Copy is to know your intention for the message.
We’ll dive into Step #2: Idea.
Step #2: Idea
Let’s talk about the Idea that drives your Intent for the reader.
The one you will use to take your reader on a journey of discovery that leads them to believe, or, at least consider, your take on the subject.
Let’s pause to acknowledge that Ideas are the single most complicated element of copywriting.
Hard to teach, hard to grok.
I think that’s because we overthink how we approach the process.
At the same time, Ideas are every copywriter’s greatest weapon.
That’s because your Ideas can only come from you.
In his seminal book, A Technique For Producing Ideas, James Webb Young showed us how ideas are formed.
Essentially, there are two lists…
One detailing all the features and benefits of the product, market awareness, etc (the stuff that any copywriter can come up with)…
Next, a list of all the “general” knowledge that we, as individuals, carry around in our brains at any given time.
It is the connections we draw between those two lists that spark the Big Ideas.
Which means…
All the things that you are reading, listening to, consuming, believing, exploring… at that moment – are unique to you.
So, not only is there no other person that could come up with the exact same ideas as you…
YOU would not come up with the same ideas at a different time.
You with me?
This ability to come up with totally unique Ideas can feel intimidating, but must be embraced.
To be clear, when we’re talking Ideas, 100% unique does not mean 100% different.
Mark Ford once told me in an interview that the concept behind “The End of America” (the best-selling VSL in copywriting) had been tried countless times before Mike Palmer struck the right chord, at the right time, with it.
That means…
For reasons we may never fully understand…
Mike Palmer connected his research, and knowledge of the market, with an Idea that gave new life to a “hackneyed” concept (the collapse of the U.S. Dollar) and Connected with a record-breaking number of people who heard, and felt, his Intent.
The rest is marketing history.
Was this a “one-hit wonder” moment for Mike Palmer?
Is he the third act on a five-act bill at your local town festival these days?
No way.
He is still very actively writing and chiefing campaigns at the highest levels.
And he is still talked about in hushed tones amongst his peers.
Why?
Because he developed the ability to embrace, assess, and execute Big Ideas.
A true Big Idea scares the writer when they come up with it.
They feel it in their bones.
Their survival mechanisms on alert.
“This is a stretch,” they think.
Yet, the idea won’t let them be.
Never run from your biggest ideas, befriend them and ride them like dragons.
Next, the copy is an exercise in Communication to get your Idea across with your Intent intact.
Now we’ll explore how to communicate a radical Idea in your copy… in a way that gets your reader to agree.
Step #3: Communication
A book I’m loving right now is Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg.
I nicked this from Ch. 2 of the book.
In that chapter, Duhigg summarizes the “conversations are negotiations” concept this way:
What does everyone want? And how will we make choices together?
This perfectly couches the three parts of this series on Connecting with Copy: Intent, ideas, and Communication.
We have to be clear first on what the reader wants… meet them there… and then propose our agenda.
However, if it comes across as “our agenda,” we’ve already lost.
So, now we’ve got choices to make.
Do we come out bold?
Establish authority first?
Start with a story?… An analogy?… A metaphor?
Because there is not one right answer to this puzzle, copywriting will never stop gratifying your curiosity and challenging your creativity.
Taking an observation from my time in comedy, I noticed another parallel to copywriting (there are many)…
A joke structure that is very effective in sales copy…
I call it, “Punch, Counterpunch.”
That’s where you identify the tendencies of your conversation partner (audience/reader), then establish an alternative view.
The key here is to credentialize yourself early on.
If you’re offering a different way of seeing things, then the reader needs to know: who are you to propose such a thing?
Here’s an example from the comedy world…
My friend, Danny Bevins, has a great piece called, “Florida Man.”
To start the bit, he meets the audience where they are on the topic: “Florida Man” is a comically twisted screw up – unique to the special weirdness that is the Sunshine State.
The piece opens:
“The mugshot… they always look like they just got released from an alien abduction. There’s a crazy, defeated look in their eyes. But, a glint… a glint that says… ‘If I get a chance, I’m gonna do that again’.”
The audience laughs in agreement. “We’re on the same page here.”
That’s the first “Punch.”
Next, Danny delivers the “Counterpunch”…
“And that’s how we get the Florida man stories that people love to recount to me. ‘I read about the guy that was arrested for touching himself on a Ferris wheel in a chicken suit.’”
“Okay?”
“First of all, it was a chicken mask. Second of all, it was a drawbridge. And third, and most importantly, that guy’s from Buffalo!”
The crowd laughs in acknowledgment, accepting the challenge.
People who are labeled as “Florida Man,” are actually from other states.
Now, Danny establishes his authority on the topic:
Yeah, he’s “Buffalo Man,” not “Florida Man.”
I’m Florida man. I’m a third-generation native of this state. I have chewed tobacco while surfing, okay? I smoke my own mullet, boil my own peanuts, and I consider anything under a category 4 perfect parasailing weather.
Now, in just two short jokes, Bevins has…
- Met the crowd where they were,
- Gave them their biased laugh,
- Established his credentials on the topic, and now…
- He is in charge of the conversation.
Sounds a lot like sales copy, hey?
Once Punch, Counterpunch has been achieved, we are free to rant from our position while providing more and more evidence to back up what we are saying.
Here’s how Bevins does this in “Florida Man:”
What about George Zimmerman? He’s from Virginia! What about Casey Anthony, Danny? She’s from Ohio! What about the bath salt zombie guy that ate the homeless guy’s face? He’s from Haiti!
They’re all from somewhere else for Christ’s sake. Our Native Americans, the Seminole Indians, they’re from Georgia. They’re snowbirds.
At this point the audience is fully onboard with Danny’s position because they are being rewarded with laughter.
That whole, “lead with logic and sell with emotion” concept we talk so much about in copywriting.
Go start watching just about any Video Sales Letter and you’ll see Punch, Counterpunch play out.
The sequence may be ordered differently, but the elements must be there to gain trust with your audience and have your ideas not only heard, but embraced.
Once our Intent is established, and our Idea is embraced, through Conversation…
We are winning the negotiation.
We’ll wrap up this series with tactics for Connecting with great clients.
Connect with Clients
To wrap up, let’s talk about how to use our same copywriting skills to Connect with Clients…
Cuz, what’s the point of having genius-level copy skills if we’re getting paid like mere mortals?
Does not compute.
It does make sense that us creatives struggle with this, though.
We know all the reasons…
- Art + Money are complex bedfellows…
- Nobody trains us for this part of it…
- The work is gratifying, which complicates things…
- Etc.
So, here’s what I suggest…
Just like you do when writing copy, take yourself out of the mix.
Wait, What?
Isn’t it ME they’re hiring?
Are you telling me to pretend to be someone I’m not?
Kind of.
At least in regards to how you communicate with prospective clients, if that’s a part you struggle with.
Which it likely is.
Maybe I’m being biased here…
Because, I was THE WORST at this when I started as a freelancer.
I’ve screwed up client deals in all the ways possible, and, no doubt, invented a few more along the way.
Hey, I teach from scars, not fresh wounds.
Nowadays, as a coach, I consult freelancers of every level on how to show up for prospect calls.
That’s not so difficult.
Yes, it’s the most anxiety-inducing moment of the process…
… but following a few simple rules, and with practice, even the most socially awkward copywriter can show up with confidence and land the deal.
Do you know where they struggle even more?
During the in-betweens.
All the small things that raise flags for the decision-makers.
Red flags, green flags, and caution flags.
As freelancers, we can use our copy skills to overcome these foul-ups and turn all the flags to green.
It’s fascinating how really good copywriters fall apart when selling themselves.
Again, I get it.
But, there’s a simple solution…
Take yourself out of it.
Meaning, you’re still you, but with a specific voice.
Bottom line? Connecting with clients comes down to the same three principles we’ve covered for connecting with our copy:
Intent
Ideas
Communication