{"id":70168,"date":"2016-08-15T11:09:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T10:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/big-bad-world-copywriting-made-good\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:27:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:27:18","slug":"big-bad-world-copywriting-made-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/big-bad-world-copywriting-made-good\/","title":{"rendered":"The big bad world of copywriting, made good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When meeting people for the first time \u2013 be it at a networking event, a neighbour\u2019s barbecue or down the local pub for post-work drinks \u2013 one of the first questions anyone asks is \u2018What do you do?\u2019.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a question we\u2019ve fielded so often that we have the answer down rote. Answering \u201cI\u2019m a copywriter\u201d isn\u2019t as simple as, for instance, explaining that you\u2019re a teacher or nurse. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/\">Copywriting<\/a> is a mystery to most people.<br \/>\nThe first thing we explain, when greeted with blank faces, is that we don\u2019t work in copyrighting, or anything else to do with intellectual property. \u201cI write copy\u201d provokes only more deadpan looks. \u201cI write slogans, websites and blogs\u201d, we say, and you can see the lightbulb turn on.<br \/>\nPeople outside the world of sales and marketing have rarely heard the word \u2018copy\u2019 used as a noun. Yet everyone sees countless examples of the work copywriters produce every day. Some of it is even memorable. And it doesn\u2019t take a trained eye to tell the good from the bad.<br \/>\nThat\u2019s because bad copy is everywhere.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-19620\" src=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/hello-beautiful-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"hello beautiful\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><br \/>\nAt best it\u2019s invisible \u2013 humdrum, lifeless, but inoffensive. It offers nothing to differentiate your business from the next, for better or worse. Your eyes flick away to the next ad, entirely unmoved.<br \/>\nAt worst it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--g_IcRb6V--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/17nc9ua5rd6b6jpg.jpg\">blessed with an embarrassing error<\/a> that paints your organisation as careless (and costs you heavily in reprinting), or is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/shortcuts\/2012\/nov\/22\/twitter-susan-boyle-susanalbumparty\">na\u00efve to the point of ridicule<\/a>.<br \/>\nWords are omnipresent and will always be the best way of getting your messages across, so getting them right is fundamental. We\u2019re always told that a picture tells a thousand words, but you rarely see an advert that relies on strong art direction alone.<br \/>\nMarketers are almost expected to be copywriters these days, but having access to a keyboard and an adequate grasp of the English language doesn\u2019t cut the mustard. It\u2019s a skill that takes years to hone, and is as much about insight as it is about a broad vocabulary. \u2018Just Do It\u2019 is just three simple words, but represents an entire brand in one thought.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/164812\">Gail Goodman\u2019s 10 Commandments<\/a> is a great place to start if you\u2019re coming at this as a total novice, but we haven\u2019t just pulled this together as Writing 101 for would-be writers. Even the most experienced copy experts will find a useful new insight somewhere. We did, after all.<br \/>\nWondering why your e-mailshot advertising \u2018risk-free investment solutions\u2019 hasn\u2019t landed any punches? Dean Rieck\u2019s list of 100 spam-filter trigger words is utterly eye-opening and will transform your approach to DM.<br \/>\nWe know the best copy works hand-in-hand with the best design, too, so plenty of the links we\u2019ve collated incorporate graphic design tips as well. One such example is Joanna Wiebe\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.copyblogger.com\/call-to-action-buttons\/\">guide to improving call-to-action (CTA) buttons<\/a>, which can transform your click-through rate.<br \/>\nBrowse and re-browse to find helpful nuggets, then Bookmark the page \u2013 you\u2019ll find yourself turning to it time and again as you optimise your copy.<br \/>\nIf you\u2019ve spotted something useful you think we should add, let us know in the comments or share it with us on Twitter @strattoncraig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When meeting people for the first time \u2013 be it at a networking event, a neighbour\u2019s barbecue or down the local pub for post-work drinks \u2013 one of the first questions anyone asks is \u2018What do you do?\u2019. It\u2019s a question we\u2019ve fielded so often that we have the answer down rote. Answering \u201cI\u2019m a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,314,448,310],"tags":[460],"class_list":["post-70168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-writing-us","category-copywriting-us","category-digital-copywriting-us","category-seo-copywriting-us","tag-copywriting-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The big bad world of copywriting, made good - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Marketing Agency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When meeting people for the first time \u2013 be it at a networking event, a neighbour\u2019s barbecue or down the local pub for post-work drinks \u2013 one of the first questions anyone asks is \u2018What do you do?\u2019.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/big-bad-world-copywriting-made-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The big bad world of copywriting, made good - Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; 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