Hello

'tis me

I am wondering:
How patient clients are with cw's
How temperamental you are with your clients
and what exactly you can get away with in terms of being an 'artiste'.

I am doomed as I feel that compromise and re-draft are not going to be in my vocabulary.

Maybe I should stick to being an aspiring author?

How do you all manage your natural desire to express yourselves in print?

Do not reply with
'delete'

There is great satisfaction in earning big money for my clients. It's that simple.

Creativity does have a place in copy, but it must be tempered with reality. Testing is a reality of this business. And testing often means rewriting. If you're so in love with "your words" then this really may not be the gig for you.

It's early days we'll see how it goes.

How often do you have to re-write?

I've only had to completely rewrite a letter for one client. That said, I've had to rewrite portions of every single letter I've written. And I think this is pretty much how it goes, whether you write for yourself, or for others.

See... the best words might not sell the best. And our job is to sell. That's why testing is so important. When I write for a client I often end up doing a handful of headlines for testing... will rewrite offers... bullets... things like that. It's part of the gig.

All in all, we're talking about very little writing with these things... Change a phrasing... stress a different point, etc. Headlines though are a different story. The greats say you should spend as much time on your headlines as you do on all your other copy combined. So... a week to write a letter? Spend a week writing headlines too.

Effective copywriting isn't about being creative... it's about selling stuff, and most of the time being creative often causes one to "miss the mark" of what emotional state the perspective customer is in and how you're going to influence that person into taking the desired action.

Being creative for the sake of being creative as it applies to copywriting usually isn't necessary. Like Halbert said, "It's not how you say it but what you say" that matters. I've heard Dan Kennedy say that many of his sales letters were nothing more than a very good cobble job of various swipes. Is creative part of that process? You bet! But "creative" as it applies to copywriting is much different than the type of creative used in most other forms of writing.

Vin suggested in an earlier post that spending time (being creative) as it applies to the headline is probably as important (if not more so) than spending time (being creative) crafting the rest of the marketing piece. This falls in line with what Halbert suggested by spending most of your time trying to come up with the "big idea" behind the product or service being pushed.

For me, it's all about managing expectations. I tend to try to take complete responsibility. That's good from one standpoint, but, taken too far can lead to serious mission creep. Sometimes you just have to let the client know, in whatever way works for you, that they've gone off the preserve.

Here's a good post Marcia Yudkin made awhile back that I think all new copywriters should take to heart:

"What Does It Take To Succeed As An Independent Copywriter"

A.

Thanks, I'll take a look a that

EDIT:

I like this, in two of her posts she says this:

"
Sometimes the error here is in accepting projects where the client's expectations are at odds with the way you think things should be done. Sometimes there's not enough communication with the client and education of the client away from what you see as wrongheaded ideas.
...........
If you build a strong enough reputation, clients tend to listen to you - though not always.
...............
For your own sanity, you need to be able to set firm boundaries - ground rules, policies and things to say when clients become unreasonable in their demands. If they demand rewrite after rewrite, insist that their ignorant ideas are superior to what you know, expect you to chitchat endlessly whenever they feel like calling or otherwise drive you nuts, you must be able to head off these problems, negotiate solutions and disengage.

and this applies to me also



My best skill is my incredibly finely tuned antenna which picks up any and all inconsistencies in what people say or present. So I could probably have been a psychologist or counsellor as well.
."

You're opening the proverbial "can of worms" with this one...

There seem to be two schools of thought on headline length, Group #1 believes the length of the headline doesn't matter-- it's all about what the headline conveys to the reader. If it takes 43 words it takes 43 words.

Group #2 follows the guidelines set forth by some of the great off-line copywriters like Ted Nicholas who believe shorter headlines are more likely to be read. Ted believes in a maximum headline length of 17 words.

I'm a camp #2 sort.

Leah, your opinion as a consumer nothwithstanding, its been proven time and time again, that you can be successful with shorter headlines, as well as with longer headlines.

"It's not the length of the headline that ultimately makes the difference. It's how expertly the headline itself is crafted."

That's why testing is so important.

Generally speaking, however, in my opinion, pithy is usually better.

Dale King

That's the thing... your opinion means nothing. My opinion means nothing.

Heck, it doesn't even matter if every single one of your readers HATES the headline... It all comes down to sales.

In some cases a 20 word headline will not be enough, and in others... 2 words will be too much. Personal taste doesn't mean a thing.

Test test test.