What sells more: loud copywriting or subtle copywriting

Jun 13, 2008

Brian of Copyblogger has sharply reacted to this blog post(?) terming the thoughts expressed in the blog post as a manifestation of narcissism. I’ll be frank here, even I loath the kind of example used in the Editorial Emergency blog post, but I do agree with Brian that using numbers and using action words, and different prompts (buy now and get so much for free etc.) does work, and you can see it working even at the general store. At the grocery store my wife gladly buys a bit extra to qualify for that free bag of wheat flour.

There’s another extremely silly-sounding headline I often come across: “Who else wants to earn $nnn in two weeks?!” or something like that. Amazingly, this headline does work.

The fault is not with the style, but the way you use it. I agree that calling your customers “opportunists” does show where your values lie and the copies that sell million-dollar secrets are anyway mostly crappy, but the concept of laddering does work well in marketing. For incentive, there is no harm in offering incentives for early birds. There is nothing wrong telling your customers that they are getting a product cheaper because they are doing something desirable, for instance, buying the first 400 copies of an e-book. There is also nothing wrong in prompting your readers to buy something more valuable once they have shown interest in the less valuable option.

When you are writing copy you are always catering to the deepest desires of your readers. Forget about writing for your client; when you are writing a copy, you are actually writing for the readers, you are talking to them. To write for your readers, you need to know what they are really looking for. You need to know whether a reader looking for a mattress for his bed wants it for brand value or a peaceful sleep. If a person wants to earn money, try to know whether he or she wants the money to spend on luxuries or on some social causes, and then write your copy accordingly.

As a copywriter, when you are writing copy, you are trying to achieve three things:

Improve your customer’s bottom line.
Communicate to the readers.
Make sure your copy performs well so that it can establish your credibility as a copywriter and hence get you more lucrative projects.

It’s up to you as a copywriter where to draw your boundaries, but as long as your copy is benefiting your clients and their customers and clients, you shouldn’t let your own prejudices come in the way. Doesn’t matter if the copy style sounds trite and cliched, if it works, if it benefits your client and his or her customers or clients, you should use it.