Blue Spur
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Say What You Mean
At the heart of good copy is clarity - saying what you mean. The anonymous mass copywriters never rise above the mean because they only parrot what they think others want to hear or they try to be clever until all meaning is lost.
Years ago, in college, I remember these long-winded dissertations by students trying to sound like Milton. In peer revues, I was occasionally criticized for choosing simple words over scholarly sounding French and Latin derivatives. The truth was, I didn't really enjoy reading Milton (too much work) and wanted to sound more like Mark Twain or Louis L'Amour. Milton may have sold more books, but Louis L'Amour sold more in his own lifetime when he could still enjoy the royalties.
Ad copy is no different. If you gob it full of meaningless crap, people walk away with meaningless crap. Here's five simple ways to start getting at the heart of what needs to be said:
Motivate: It's What Sells
Marketing copy that motivates, be it advertising, sales collateral, packaging, or even business proposals, has to be passionate enough to create desire and rational enough to support the decision. It should, at once, spark within the customer the motivation to buy and provide the necessary rationale to explain the purchase to his wife. It's a left brain/right brain kind of thing.
