Copywriter secrets from Articulate Training

Editor's Notes

• #2: Who am I?I run a marketing company called Articulate.You may have heard of some of our clients
• #5: InboxMagazine coverWeb pageTwitter stream
• #13: “Users will read about 20% of the text on the average [web] page.” – Jakob NielsenApproximately 4.4 seconds for every 100 words
• #14: NN GROUPMeasured:Task timeMemoryTime to recall structureSubjective satisfaction, quality, ease of use, likeability, user effectAll things you want to influence
• #15: 50% word count reduction
• #16: Made easier to read with landing points for the eyes and shorter paragraphs
• #17: Remove hype words and focus on facts
• #18: DISCUSS: What do you think these patterns mean for how you write on the page?Eye tracking studies – how 232 readers ‘read’ a web page“Users will read about 20% of the text on the average [web] page.” – Jakob NielsenApproximately 4.4 seconds for every 100 wordsPut your most important content on the left and at the top!Concise (-50%)Scannable – bulletsObjective – no hype words+ 200% readability= Credibility, impact
• #19: Long words make you sound stupid or make your reader feel stupidUse short, down-to-earth words (do, get, make rather than develop, obtain, construct etc.) “Short words are the best and old words when short are best of all.” ChurchillThe Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words NeedlesslyThe author, Daniel Oppenheimer, got 71 Stanford undergraduates to evaluate different writing samples. He created a ‘highly complex’ version of each original text by replacing each noun, verb and adjective in it with the longest synonym. This is the kind of writing by thesaurus that many business people and techies employ when they want to sound knowledgeable and important, or because they think writing like they speak will make them sound lightweight.Thanks to Oppenheimer, we know that the opposite is, in fact, true. He says “One thing is certain, write as simply and plainly as possible and it’s more likely you’ll be thought of as intelligent.”
• #21: Say one thing at a timeFamous ad-man David Ogilvy once created an iconic advertisement for a leading car maker.The headline read ‘At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.’When the chief engineer at the car factory read this, he shook his head sadly and said: “It’s time we did something about that damned clock!”- See more at: http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/what-makes-your-customers-tick/#sthash.ys2WH85e.dpuf
• #24: Inverted pyramid. Key point then levels of detail
• #26: Robert Cialdini
• #27: Scarcity
• #28: Social proofThis principle relies on people's sense of "safety in numbers."For example, we're more likely to work late if others in our team are doing the same, put a tip in a jar if it already contains money, or eat in a restaurant if it's busy. Here, we're assuming that if lots of other people are doing something, then it must be OK.We're particularly susceptible to this principle when we're feeling uncertain, and we're even more likely to be influenced if the people we see seem to be similar to us. That's why commercials often use moms, not celebrities, to advertise household products.
• #29: AuthorityWe feel a sense of duty or obligation to people in positions of authority. This is why advertisers of pharmaceutical products employ doctors to front their campaigns, and why most of us will do most things that our manager requests.
• #30: Commitment and consistency – Apple makes you feel like your part of a clubThings like the Genius bar gives that club status. You’re a genius too.
• #31: People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them
• #32: EMPATHY EXERCISESI may know how you feelI can see how you’d feel that way
• #34: Overcoming objections
• #36: http://splasho.com/upgoer5/
• #37: Write with information
• #40: … by zombies
• #43: Defensive language
• #44: Readingspeedbumps
• #45: We have a style guide. We also adapt to client style guides.You should have one too; even if it’s only one page; even if it’s just for emails and facebookIf you don’t consciously develop a style, you’ll get one anyone. Just not the one you wanted.Audience – ‘our target audience is owner managers in SMBs’Viewpoint – ‘write from the viewpoint of a trusted advisor’Language – ‘use good business English, like a quality newspaper business section’Structure – ‘create a conversation with the reader’
• #46: At the very least, read one or both of these books and get a sense of what a style guide looks like.
• #48: You have to understand what is important to the reader. Why should they read your copy?Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a reasonable starting point.
• #50: Serious, pipe-smoking magazines too.Sex, gossip, relationships, status, happinessWe can learn a lot from short headlines.If you can’t point to an important idea in a few words, your thinking isn’t clear enough(Feynman nobel prize)
• #52: Examples?
• #53: Examples?
• #57: Examples?
• #58: Note Forbes headlinesGive me an example of a conversational headline you might writeSubvert a well-known saying, e.g. London’s Crawling
• #59: How long should a headline be?Examples of weasel words?May, should, could, helps, points to, suggests, promises
• #60: What sort of information do you have that your readers would like to know
• #61: Irony – The OnionDonald Murray – Writing to DeadlineExplain a ledeHelps you understand your storyLook at what they do in the newspapers, magazines, websites and books that you readWhat is a ledeNo secret to success with writing headlines. Just work.Write it last or write it firstWrite 50 of them, pick the best oneMan bites dogBill Gates runs like a girl – Darren StrangeOpen with a quote. As in this article in the Economist: “‘The world’s attention is back on your cause.’ That was Bill Gates talking to agricultural scientists…”Write 50 draft ledes and pick the best one. This is great advice fromWriting to Deadline by Donald Murray. (See my earlier summary of this essential book.)Establish a sense of person. For example, in this Wired article: “Adrienne Kish, an astrobiologist at the Université Paris-Sud, is an old hand at hunting life forms in inhospitable environments.” You can also give a sense of place or time if they are more germane to the story.Start by stating a problem. As in this tiny Wired review: “The pictures you get from some waterproof cameras look like they were taken underwater even when they weren’t.”Be witty. This is the great trick of humourists like P.J.O’Rourke or Clive James (both excellent writers). Wit doesn’t mean you can’t cover serious topics. Here’s a great example from P.J. “I looked death in the face. All right, I didn’t. I glimpsed him in a crowd. I’ve been diagnosed with cancer, of a very treatable kind. I’m told I have a 95% chance of survival. Come to think of it — as a drinking, smoking, saturated-fat hound — my chance of survival has been improved by cancer.”Four tips for a great kicker:Encapsulate the emotional message of the piece. For example, in a recent New Yorker article: “But, then, Fitzgerald was not one to give up on dreams; if he had, he could not have written so beautifully, so penetratingly, about their loss.”Turn the story around. If you’ve been formal, go relaxed. If you’re relaxed, become formal. For example (from Wired), “It takes a clean digital signal from your USB port and converts it to a warm analog music. And it looks as badass as it sounds.”Use a snappy metaphor. “Mr.Grubel may be counting on a return to the casino but if regulators have their way, it’s door will soon be shut.” (From the Economist)Deploy a quotation. A snappy quote can encapsulate the theme of an article and give it extra life, as in this example from the New Yorker: “’Last year, in Abu Dhabi, a man spent fourteen million dollars at a public auction for a license plate that had only one digit: ‘1.’ ‘I bought it because it’s the best number,”’ he said.”
• #63: Water is soft and rocks are hard but a river can defeat a rock with patience and constant effort over time. I think it’s the same with writing. A little every day beats a lot once a year. If you keep this in mind, concentrating for a short period every day becomes easierWrite every dayAim for about 1,000 words of real work10,000 hours. Pah. Just 1000 words a day and you’re a real writer.Steven King aims for 2000
• #64: We type fast and accurately. Learning to type is the single best investment you can make if you want to write well. Straight from brain to page without hesitation
• #65: Meetings are toxic for productivitySmart people left to their own devices don’t call meetings. Managers call meetings.They break your work day into small, incoherent pieces that disrupt your natural workflowThey're usually about words and abstract concepts, not real things (like a piece of code or some interface design)They usually convey an abysmally small amount of information per minuteThey often contain at least one moron that inevitably gets his turn to waste everyone's time with nonsenseThey drift off-subject easier than a Chicago cab in heavy snowThey frequently have agendas so vague nobody is really sure what they are aboutThey require thorough preparation that people rarely do anyway
• #66: 5 seconds 5 times a day = 12 hours over five years
• #68: The Autumn of the multitaskersUCLA experiment – sort index cards, one in silence, the other with randomly presented sounds. Performed equally well but the noise people had a much harder time remembering what they had been sortingMultitasking boosts stress related hormones such as cortisone and adrenaline
• #69: Silence is not the absence of noise, it’s the presence of mind.Quiet … listen for five seconds … tune into the different sounds you can hear, the air on your face, the thoughts bubbling up in your brain … and then listen for the gaps in thatHeadphones(ideally not music as this shuts down part of your creativity)
• #70: Buzz terms for this or similar mental states include: to be in the moment, present, in the zone, on a roll, wired in, in the groove, on fire, in tune, centered, or singularly focused.MihályCsíkszentmihályimee-hy cheek-sent-mə-hy-ee
• #71: PeoplewareReimmersion – 5 minutesSwitch off your phone, switch off your email, shut the doorE-Factor measured between 0.10 and 0.38Low 0.1 means for every ten hours in the office, you’re getting one hour of productive work doneI’ve always thought that meetings were the opposite of work but actually they are a rational response to a work environment that doesn’t let people get on with their job
• #72: Always have a notebookNeatMileskine hacks here – dates on the side, band with pen and little sticky indexes
• #73: We know how to incentivise ourselvesGreed is a strong motivator
• #74: Fear is a strong motivator tooWe learn to love deadlinesDouglas Adams
• #75: We’re obsessed about becoming more efficientThe unexamined life isn’t worth living
• #76: Top of the hour
• #77: Pomodoro
• #80: Our secret weapon for researchWe look stuff up.Source criticism; good sources and bad sources
• #83: First draft of anything is shit – Earnest Hemingway
• #88: You’re already a brilliant writer.Now you have my permission to write.
• #89: You have my permission to be yourself. You don’t need to write ‘proper’ or ‘professional’Something special, interesting or unique.Something that makes you stand out from the herdA ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ if you like.Clue: it’s not talent, looks or enthusiasmMost actors have thatIt’s not a giant purple cow but I saw one the other day and I had to include it in the talk
• #90: You have my permission to experiment and have fun with writing. Rules and models are the enemies of genius and art
• #91: You have my permission to get creative, explore new ways of writing, develop your skills and be remarkable