BEFORE & AFTER A Copywriting in Action Online Course One of the most valuable methods for learning and advancing your skills (in any endeavour) is through active observation. In my Copywriting in Action® courses, active observation is enabled by the Before & After (B&A) component of the sessions. And participants find it fascinating. We all […]
While most of us like bullet points, scanners just love them. The more scannable the text, the faster it is to whoosh through. Bullet points are the bullet trains of copywriting…
COPYWRITING IN ACTION COURSE INSIGHT #24 Eleven Ways to Smoooooooth Your Copy Writing First, make the soundtrack to this post Rob Thomas’ & Carlos Santana’s Smooth . Secondly, listen to the interplay between Carlos’ guitar licks and Rob’s vocals. Then visualise the music as a page of text with Carlos making the links between Rob’s […]
Why … allows you to present a reasoned argument. Why … allows you to list all the benefits the subject has to offer. Most importantly, Why … allows you to speak your vision. To state what you believe in. To go straight to the limbic centre of our brain (white matter), where those emotional, behavioral, […]
If you’re browsing eyes scanned toute de suite down to this sentence to the heartbeat of “Oh-Yeah!”, then the first stage of the Anatomy of Body Copy – Arrest Attention – has been successfully accomplished. The concept’s headline and visual is quite literally the be all and end all of a communication piece (which […]
COPYWRITING IN ACTION COURSE INSIGHT #24 The Only Way to Learn Writing is on the Job You are reading this because you want some tips on how to improve your writing. The topper-most tip (and most unglamorous) of all is The 3 Rs – “rewrite, rewrite and rewrite” until you reach the deadline. There’s no […]
… this is known as the periodic/suspensive sentence. I’ll stick with the word “suspensive” from now on because it describes the effect more clearly. Also, it goes with the visual.
In his landmark study into human thought processes, developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, found that 80% of the population were concrete thinkers and the other 20% were abstract thinkers. Since the 1980′s, scientists suggest that the abstract figure is closer to 15%. This is a significant statistic … and this here empty sentence is written to give you some pause for thought before we look at the implications of this for us as writers.
So you are about to write. Change from inside out POV (self regarding) to outside in (other regarding) and your imagination suddenly opens to new, more refreshing ways to connect and engage him or her with your story.
No matter the target audience; no matter the subject; no matter the medium; the craft of copywriting employs all four purposes in the one sitting. Unlike all other forms of writing, copywriting is conversing with a reluctant, impatient and, quite likely, skeptical target audience. You can easily lose them any sentence along the way. That’s where all four purposes of writing combined keep them interested.
