Hi everyone today I will be sharing to you my first blog and how Ian Lurie provides both wholistic, overarching directions and specific checklist suggestions regarding strategies to get your marketing campaign off to a good start and bring it to a successful fruition. This summary will include highlights from four chapters of Lurie’s video, Learning to Write Market Copy including overview of Market Copywriting, Writing Copy, Rewriting Existing Copy, and Lurie’s own concluding insights.
Overview of Marketing Copywriting
Lurie defines market copywriting as “. . . writing copy for the purpose of marketing or advertising.” He asserts that this copy is “. . . the heart and soul of any campaign strategy.” Whatever the end product evolves into, it ALWAYS began with writing on the paper.
There are three purposes inherent in marketing copywriting including:
- The content delivers value to people when they need it. Lurie would say that it ‘preaches to the choir’ in that it is persuasive mostly to those who want to respond.
- Market copywriting is more than writing, it is strategy = plan of what content to include and the tone of the presentation, and finally,
- Copywriting has a specific outcome to achieve and the writing is geared to attain that goal; this is a call to action which may be to buy, vote or prepare for an event.
Lurie continues to highlight the diverse elements of marketing copy that result in the nature of the call to action being successful or not. The most basic element is the writing, the words on the page. Later in his video, Lurie outlines a most scientific approach to the presentation of this basic and foundational element. The market copy writing serves as the first contact for the call to action attention, an attention getter where the author piques the interest of those interested compelling them to continue to read and view the information. The writing is often a balance including content and visual creativity.
Lurie cautions though, that marketing copywriting is one of the most challenging disciplines because there needs to be a balance between creativity with a call to action and this balance is critical contributing factor for a successful campaign. The call to action does three things:
1. delivers significance: communicates the content is worthy of attention for those who will not buy but will spread the word; often referred to as USP (unique selling position),
2. appeals to a niche audience: value to the person who will buy
3. provides value: return on time invested by readers – first investment in your product.
Lurie challenges the video viewers to consider all the ways the marketer would interact with his/her customer/audience. The plethora of possibilities are categorized into three types: collateral, which I would connect with the format of presentation; the medium, which I would associate with the platform of the presentation of the market copywrite; and third, the style, which I would refer to as a strategy. The collateral each have their advantages. They range from the most common format, the brochure, an all-encompassing presentation; the direct marketing, which is all about the pitch; the poster, which often doubles as a graphic; the script, whose nature and use depends on the audience; the one-liner, that is often used without context; and the product discretion, which is often used in combination with another type of collateral.
The medium is defined as, “. . . the pipe over which the message passes. . .”. Our contemporary times have introduced the Internet and online communication including mobile, website, or social media networks as a new channel of marketing in addition to the print, media, audio, video and in person contact with our audiences.
And finally, the style of the market copy employed as Lurie states is unique to each writer and product. Style can range from teaching, throwing a pitch, delivering a straight shot, humor by making your audience laugh, using a scare tactic, or taking a hard sell approach. All of these have distinct characteristics and pivotal to their effectiveness is knowing the audience and context for delivery for best results and response; the marketer has to be ready to flex and modify accordingly.
This picture resembles that there are many more then one path to take when dealing with different audiences.
Writing Copy
In this chapter of the video, Lurie describes in specific detail a recommended process of several most personalized best practices of the trade to follow as a marketing copywriter. The ultimate benefit he reveals if these strategies are followed include effective time management, maximum productivity as a result of focused writing and personal well-being; not to mention a good product which will ultimately lead to audience responding positively to the call to action.
His recommendations to engage in the writing process begin with preparing self. Self-discipline is important is setting yourself to your task and establishing a distraction-free workspace including communicating work intentions to others, setting time limits and planning breaks. Next is assembling your tools. Attending to even the smallest details is imperative such as a glass of water or a charger plugged into the wall to pausing email correspondence and sequestering yourself in your workspace with sound cancelling headphones! Timeline and pacing also contributes to effective motivation to be able to engage the task at hand: building in time limits and breaks. Then to the writing at hand, begin to create the plan. Lurie recommends spending some time to brainstorm options for your writing: including medium, style and collateral always in consideration of your audience – what will work and eliminated what will not work. Lurie believes ‘free writing’ is a critical first step in getting the thoughts onto the paper; it serves to steer your thinking in the right direction; letting ideas onto the paper, thinking of the audience, thinking of the outcome and thinking of the call to action. This leads to the first draft.
Despite writing being unique to each author Lurie brings the science of writing into play recommending some general rules of thumb that contribute to the success of marketing copy. The reader should be addressed personally (you/your), focus on quality not quantity, avoid sarcasm in writing and use clarity and directness in your presentation. There are specific formulas for headlines including scenarios to test them, (albeit easier online than in print). And there are mathematical measurements and ratios for text and typography different for different media.
As the final draft comes closer to fruition, Lurie encourages a collaborative process as a positive approach; another set of eyes is welcomed provided time allows. Contrast editing and proof-reading saves time; editing coming first. Use an active voice in writing and avoid the vernacular. Concise writing and logical sequence support the success of the draft and the impact the marketing copy has on the call to action and to do well. Ideally you want to entice the readers to continue reading your copy. This is a hurdle when overcome, leans more towards a successful call to action.
Rewriting Existing Copy
Lurie emphasis on the importance of collaboration is reiterated in the process he outlines for rewriting existing copy. He describes this process as high level editorial work as opposed to rewriting from scratch. This team approach has as its goal, improving without restructuring. This demands that the reader has some context for the piece keeping in mind, less is more; working to meet the challenge to balance brevity with the entertainment side. That is concise, articulate and clear focus keeping the outcome, the call to action as the goal.
Conclusion (Video)
In this final chapter, Lurie provides a checklist of criteria for effective team management. He is commended for prioritizing the well-being and mental health of his team members and himself. He maintains that if this remains the priority, the natural consequence will be the success of his company as his audiences respond positively to the call to actions with which they are presented.
Conclusion (Student)
As an upcoming marketing student there were many components that Lurie went over that I found myself familiar with through this course. As simple as some of the components were, at times I still found myself taking a step back and reflecting on what he was saying. One example as small as it was, is when he mentions the term “sell”. A lot of people hearing that think of dollar value, but he goes to mention it can be for selling a vote or an idea. This is common knowledge to most people but it is one of those points that can be easily forgotten. Marketing copywriting can be used for much more than just promoting a single product to an audience. Another point that stood out to me was that copywriting is the heart and soul of any marketing strategy, in other words it’s the first line of attack to your audience. It can be out front like a brochure, business card or poster or can be more behind the scenes like a script for a video. In the end though a marketing strategy starts with copywriting. From this video I reinforced my common knowledge and took away some points that will make me think on some decisions while dealing with marketing. An example I can relate at this point of time in my life from this course is the business cards. I am marketing myself with my card and as stated above it is my first line of attack. Following the steps Lurie has mentioned in the video I can implement a direct and creative way to showcase information about me on a small space.
Refrences
Lurie, I. (2014, May 30). Learning to Write Marketing Copy. Retrieved from LinkedIn Learning:
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-to-write-marketing-copy/welcome?u=2109516
Rory Frost 