5 tips for more creative copywriting

Have you ever noticed that some copywriters are forever coming up with new ideas while others write the same thing in the same way over and over? It’s true of any group in any industry. You’ll have a few innovators and a lot of followers.

As I write this, I’m creating a postcard for one of my clients. I’ve written and designed many postcards for this client, but on this one I wanted the front to look more like a print ad with a lot of copy.

It struck me that the standard horizontal orientation wouldn’t work well, so I decided to turn it 90 degrees and have the front oriented vertically. There won’t be any problems in the mail since the address side will still be horizontal.

Okay, it’s not a world-shaking idea. It’s just an upended postcard. But it’s a nice little twist that could help the card stand out for this promotion. And that’s copywriting creativity in a nutshell. Doing one thing different that gives you an edge for boosting response.

How do you become more creative? There are lots of ways, but here are 5 quick ideas to get you started.

Learn your craft. You can’t be truly creative in any field until you have mastered all the tools of the trade. Read the books. Attend the seminars. Talk shop with your clients and coworkers. Surf the Internet. Become familiar with how the whole marketing process works, from product development to marketing strategy to ad creation to fulfillment. You have to learn the rules before you can break them intelligently.

Get off autopilot. Set aside those pet techniques now and then and try something new. Put the P.S. at the beginning of your letter. Print teaser copy sideways. Test 3 order forms in one envelope. Some of the biggest direct marketing successes have been those that broke the rules. Can you imagine how crazy the 800 number seemed at first? “Let people call for free? Are you nuts?”

Stop avoiding failure. If your projects are built around the idea of not making mistakes, you will never realize your full potential. Instead of avoiding failure, strive for success and accept the occasional bomb as part of the learning process. Every test buys you invaluable knowledge. Accept it with a smile.

Focus on what’s most important. Recently, the president of a direct mail company showed me test after test involving minor copy and design changes. “We just can’t seem to change our response,” he whined. I could see why immediately: There was no offer! Focus on trivia and you’ll get trivial results.

Find new uses for old ideas. I suggested enclosing a buck slip with a detailed guarantee for a fundraising client. “It’s never been done,” they said. Maybe. But this old idea used in a new way helped lift response by a full percent.

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April 21, 2008 | Filed in Copywriting

3 Comments

Comments

3 Responses to “5 tips for more creative copywriting”

Ted Grigg on April 21st, 2008 12:38 pm

You wrote a great section in the bullet “Focus on what’s most important”.

Many seasoned direct marketers fail on this one point more than any other.

Breakthroughs will not happen with tweaks. Yet, many DMers waste their time testing the minors.

Thanks for another good one.
Dean Rieck on April 21st, 2008 12:51 pm

Those tweaky little changes often result in small improvements. But sometimes people are afraid to try totally new things because they can’t stand the idea of failure.

I try to explain to clients that if you have a control, great. But testing means trying something else. If it fails, you’ve learned something. If it succeeds, you have a new control.

But there’s no point in testing if you just want to keep repeating the same ideas. That’s activity without progress.

But there’s a lesson here too: One of the great motivators of business people is fear of failure.
Mike Sieber on May 19th, 2008 1:54 pm

I couldn’t agree more with #3. The fear of failure is the greatest barrier to success.