Creative Advertising Copywriter UK Blog Archive
For latest entries, see the Copywriting Services London Blog
If you need any freelance copywriting, or have a comment, please contact me
When to use a freelance copywriter - Part 1
If you need some copy written, you've essentially got three choices. Do it yourself, go to an agency of some kind, or use a freelance copywriter.
The first option is to have a go yourself. Most people wouldn't know how to begin to design a leaflet, advert or website, but most know the basics of writing English. So the temptation is to farm out the design, but, as money is usually tight, to tackle the copy in-house. Plenty of self-employed people or small business owners do this. And almost all get it wrong.
To start with, you need to be absolutely sure that your grammar, spelling and punctuation are up to scratch. If prospective customers see copy with typos or obvious mistakes, they're going to wonder if your goods are equally shoddy or your services similarly slapdash.
You also need to be certain you're talking in the right tone of voice, communicating clearly, saying the right things, not trying to say too much, structuring your copy correctly, being interesting and informative, standing out from your competitors and...well, generally writing good copy that's going to attract and convince people to buy from you.
The problems increase for certain media. If you're writing a poster, most people will try and stick in too much copy. With sales letters, they often put in too little. A brochure needs to be written very differently from a website. And if you're looking to rank highly with the search engines, you need to know how to write website copy that's attractive to the search engine spiders.
Ouch. That's a lot of things you need to be sure of. Perhaps it's best to stick with the professionals. In my next post, I'll look at the option of going to a specialist agency.
When to use a freelance copywriter - Part 2
For a large company, going to an advertising, marketing or new media agency for their copywriting usually makes most sense. For one thing, they're unlikely just to want copywriting. Strategy, planning, brand development, research, art direction, design, production, media buying, delivery, response measurement - many of these are likely to enter into the marketing mix.
They're likely to want the full service - and they'll have the budget to match. Their annual marketing spend is in the millions, or in the hundreds of thousands at the very least. Using the agency copywriters at £70 - £140 an hour will not be a problem, and will account for only a fraction of their overall budget. Using a freelance copywriter, except possibly for certain very specialist jobs, will make no sense to them. (Of course, their agency may themselves be using freelancers, such as myself, while not over-advertising the fact, but that's another story.)
But what if you're not one of the blue chips and your yearly marketing budget is only in the low thousands - or even hundreds?
That's when it makes sense to use a freelance copywriter. Pick the right one, and you'll get all the expertise of an agency copywriter (for one thing, most freelance copywriters have extensive agency experience). You'll also be paying a lot less.
In Part 3, I'll look at some of the other advantages of using a freelance copywriter.
When to use a freelance copywriter - Part 3
So your budget and campaign doesn't warrant using an advertising, digital or other marketing agency. And you've decided your own skills are better used elsewhere in your business. What can a freelance copywriter bring to the equation?
First and foremost, he or she can guarantee professional writing. As mentioned in Part 1, this includes general English skills as well marketing and communications know-how.
Another important asset is a sense of perspective. A freelance copywriter can see your business with an outsider's eye, appreciating just what potential clients are looking for. If you're writing your own material, there's always the danger that you're communicating what you want to say, not what a customer wants to hear.
In addition, a freelance copywriter can be more up to date with what's happening in the world and the latest in consumer thinking. This is also true in a technical sense - vital in areas such as search engine optimisation copywriting
Radio Advertising Copywriting - part 1
Do you ever wonder why so many radio ads are boring, confusing or just plain annoying? There's a simple reason. Most radio ads aren't written by professional copywriters, but by people at the radio station. Often the business execs, sometimes the production people.
The business execs are usually the same people who sell the airtime. And frankly they'd much rather be selling airtime than writing. For one thing, there's more profit for them that way. For another, they're better at selling than writing.
Likewise, the production people prefer, and are much better at, producing than writing.
So if you want a radio ad or campaign, the first thing to do, therefore, is to get a professional copywriter with experience at copywriting radio commercials on board. But that's just the first step. More on this subject next time.
Radio Advertising Copywriting - Part 2
As with all kinds of freelance copywriting, it's important to do your homework. Check out a few freelance copywriting websites. Make sure the copywriter has experience of writing for radio and that they have sample commercials on their site which you can listen to.
You may want to ask for quotes from two or three writers. Be prepared for some variation here. But remember, you generally get what you pay for. It's also usually worth allowing for the copywriter's time in the studio. For most radio ads, this will only involve an hour or two of their time, but it's money well spent.
A good copywriter will also know which production houses to recommend and can help with choosing voiceover artists if required.
Once you've got the right copywriter, it's on to the next stage: the brief. More on that next time.
Radio Advertising Copywriting - Part 3
A good radio ad should do several things. First, it should make the listener want to listen to it. Even more important, it should bear repetition. Most listeners are customarily a captive audience. They're in their kitchen or behind the wheel of their car. So chances are, that listener will be listening to that ad many times over. Make sure the ad will stand up to repetition.
In addition, it should inform the listener. He or she should be able to quickly divine the single point you're making. And I mean single point.
It's important in all advertising to choose the single most important thing you want to say about your product and to say it clearly and well. If you're being creative, which is generally advisable if you want to stand out from the crowd, you say it in a different way. But make sure it's still single-minded and clear.
There's an old adage that advertising that works is like throwing a tennis ball. Lob someone a single tennis ball and chances are that they'll catch it. Throw several at once and they'll probably drop the lot.
This applies in spades with radio ads. If you try and shoehorn several different points into one radio ad, it just sounds rushed and confused. Make one point well, add a clear call to action and leave it that.
That way, the listener will be motivated to act. To buy your product next time they're in the shop or supermarket. To phone the number at the next convenient time. Or to enter your URL in their web browser.
In my final part, I'll look at ways in which you can help your radio copywriter write a great ad.
Radio Advertising Copywriting - Part 4
To give yourself the best possible chance of ending up with a terrific radio ad or campaign, you should help your radio copywriter as much as you can.
That means producing a clear brief detailing who you're aiming at and what you've got to say. Remember, you need to make one single point. If you've got several important points to make about your product and service, then it's much better to do separate commercials for them.
Your input is invaluable at all stages. Try and be objective, not subjective. Put yourself in the listener's shoes every time.
Timing is essential. The average thirty second radio commercial has room for roughly 70 - 100 words. That's not a lot. Remember, you have to factor in pauses. Don't cheat by reading it through to yourself as quickly as you can. Read it allowed at the speed you want it to be heard.
Don't forget to allow a second or so of dead time at either end of the commercial as well. Otherwise one radio ad is going to crash straight into the next, with disastrous consequences for both. Very often you have to allow for a URL to be said. Or a phone number repeated.
With some ads, particularly financial ones, you have to allow for terms and conditions as well. (I once had the interesting experience of a client insisting that certain terms and conditions went not just into a 30 second ad, but into the 10 second cut-down as well. They only relented when I pointed out that these actually took up over 10 seconds to say.)
Incidentally, with terms and conditions, it's worth it, if you possibly can, getting someone else to read them out other than the main voiceover, especially if the ad is at all creative. Otherwise, you've got someone playing one role one second, before switching into 'serious' mode the next (and usually speeding up at the same time). It just doesn't sound quite right, so try and get someone else to do it if you can.
That's it for now on radio copywriting. Happy recording!
Internet spend beating TV spend
In February 2008, the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research published their fourth biennial TV & Technology study.
The findings included:
•62% of marketers say that TV advertising has become less effective in the past two years.
•87% of respondents say they intend to spend more on their web advertising this year.
In my opinion, it was always going to happen, it's simply happened quicker than many people thought. And it certainly reflects my experience. The proportion of my online work to offline has steadily risen, not that freelance copywriters often get asked to work on TV ads, of course.
That said, I did get asked to work on some sponsorship bumpers just last month. (Sponsorship bumpers are those little ten second mini commercials you get just before a programme starts and at the end of the commercial break, for whichever company is sponsoring the programme.)
But the trend is definitely towards digital - and those percentages are likely to rise still further.
Freelance copywriting - the importance of good proofreading.
I don't like doing it. I have to make myself do it. But there's no getting away from it. Proofreading is very necessary for a freelance copywriter.
When I'm writing for clients, I do my utmost not to let the typos slip in. That said, even with my own website, the very occasional typo has slipped through.
With this blog, I'm less worried. I do have a quick scan of what I've read. But I simply don't have time to go through every post with a fine toothcomb. To me, a blog is like a conversation (even if it's a one-way process much of the time). As with talking, you're going to make the odd lapse.
Writing articles for republishing should be taken a bit more seriously in my book. The copy should be checked as carefully as any client project.
So I had to smile when I read the following sentence by another copywriter, which seems to have been written in all seriousness (and a certain amount of haste). I'll spare his blushes and won't name him. The article is all about the importance of writing well, and this is one of the author's tips:
'Review the article thoroughly before submitting it. Even best writers hire editors.'
In this author's case, that editor had better be good at adding in words as well as cutting them out.
Anyway, enough from me. I'd better re-read this entry extra carefully before posting it, or I'll be hoist with my own petard.